PIERRE FRANÇOIS, a Roman Catholic clergyman, distinguished for his charity, moderation, and learning, was born at Vernon, in Normandy, in 1681. While canon regular and librarian of the abbey of St Geneviève at Paris, he conducted a correspondence with Archbishop Wake on the subject of episcopal succession in England, which supplied him with valuable material for his Defence of English Ordinations, published in Holland in 1727. His opinions, however, having exposed him to a prosecution in his native country, he took refuge in England, where he was presented by the university of Oxford with a doctor's degree. In 1736 he published a French translation of Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, in 2 vols. folio, and dedicated it to Queen Caroline, from whom he received a pension of L200 a-year. Besides this he translated Sleidan's History of the Reformation, and wrote several theological works. Courayer died in 1776, after two days' illness, and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey. In his will, dated two years before his death, he declared himself still a member of the Catholic Church, although dissenting from many of the opinions and superstitions which prevailed in the Church of Rome.