Esprit, bishop of Nismes, one of the most celebrated preachers of his age, and author of a number of works, was born at Pernes, a small town in the diocese of Carpentras, on the 10th of June 1632, and educated under the eye of his uncle, Father Audifret, general of the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, a learned and estimable man. According to the constitution of the congregation, Flechier, having completed his own education, was immediately employed in teaching. In 1659, when only twenty-seven, he professed rhetoric at Narbonne, and there pronounced the funeral oration of M. de Rebé, archbishop of that city. A few months afterwards, on the death of Audifret, Flechier laid aside the habit of the Doctrinaire, and proceeded to Paris, where he was at first employed in the humble occupation of a parochial catechist; but he soon made himself known by his Latin and French poetry, and particularly by a description in Latin verse of the brilliant carousal, Circus Regius, given by Louis XIV. in 1602. This was the commencement of Flechier's reputation. He Flechier was now entrusted with the education of Louis Urbain Lefevre de Caumartin, afterwards intendant of finances and counsellor of state; and as the house of his pupil's father was then frequented by the most considerable personages both of the court and the city, Flechier was introduced into the first society, and soon made many friends for himself by his virtues and talents. The Duke of Montausier declared himself his patron, and procured him the place of reader to the Dauphin. The sermons of Flechier increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest pitch by his funeral orations. Having been chosen to pronounce that of Madame de Montausier, he displayed so great talent on the occasion, that his discourse opened to him the doors of the French Academy, into which he was received in 1673, in the room of M. Godem, bishop of Venice.

The favours of the court now flowed upon Flechier. The king gave him successively the abbey of St Leverin, in the diocese of Poitiers, the office of almoner to the dauphiness, and, in 1685, the bishopric of Lavau, accompanying his kindness with the most flattering expressions of favour and regard. "I have made you wait a little for a place which you have long merited," said the monarch; "but I did not wish to deprive myself sooner of the pleasure of hearing you." From the see of Lavau Flechier was, in 1687, translated to that of Nismes, which was more valuable, and also accounted more honourable. His own wish was to remain at Lavau; but the king overcame his repugnance to the proposed translation by making him sensible that he would be more useful to the church at Nismes than at Lavau, and that in the former place there was more labour to be performed and more good to be done. In fact the Calvinists were very numerous at Nismes; and although several had made abjuration, their conversion was at best but equivocal. But Flechier, by his prudent conduct, in which zeal was tempered by charity, brought back the greater number of these sectaries to the bosom of the church, and made himself esteemed and beloved even by those who declined to abjure their faith. During the troubles in the Cévennes he softened, as much as in him lay, the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so sensible of the evils of persecution, and so indulgent even to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. In the famine which succeeded the winter of 1709, he did much to alleviate the prevalent distress, by assisting the poor in his diocese without regard to their religious tenets; alleging that all alike were his children. He also published an eloquent pastoral letter on the subject of a cross of St Gervais, which, it was pretended, worked miracles, and warned his flock against those lying wonders by which the credulity of the people has frequently been abused. This appears to have been amongst his last efforts in the cause of truth and religion. He died at Montpellier on the 16th February 1710, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. "He died," says D'Alembert, "lamented by the Catholics, regretted by the Protestants, and having always exhibited to his brethren an admirable model of zeal and charity, simplicity, and eloquence."

Flechier's works are, 1. Antonii Maria Gratiani de Vita Joannis Francisci Commendoni Cardinalis, libri iv., Paris, 1699, in 12mo; 2. La Vie du Cardinal Commendon, Paris, 1671, in 4to; 3. De Cassibus Viroorum Illustrium autore Antonio Maria Gratiano, opera et studio Sp. Flecherii, Paris, 1680, in 4to; 4. Histoire de Théodore-le-Grand, Paris, 1679, in 4to, composed for the education of the dauphin; 5. Histoire du Cardinal Ximenes, Paris, 1693, in 4to; 6. Oraisons Funèbres, 1681, in 4to and in 12mo; 7. Panthéropes des Saints, Paris, 1690, in 4to; 8. Sermons de Morale prêchés devant le Roi, avec des Discours synodaux et les Sermons prêchés par Flechier aux États de Languedoc et dans sa Cathédrale, in 3 vols, 12mo; 9. Œuvres Posthumes contenant ses Harangues, Compléments, Discours, Poésies Latines, Poésies Françaises, Paris, 1712, in 12mo; 10. Mandements et Lettres pastorales, avec son Oraison Funèbre par l'Abbé du Jarry, Paris, 1712, in 12mo; 11. Lettres Choisies sur divers sujets, Paris, 1715, in 2 vols, 12mo; 12. Relation d'un Voyage en Amérique. The only collection yet published of the works of Flechier is that of the Abbé Ducreux, canon of Auxerre, which appeared under the title of Œuvres Complètes de M. Flechier, Nismes, 1782, in 10 vols 8vo. If we except History of Theodore, pulpit eloquence is the only branch of the belles-lettres cultivated by Flechier, which he excelled. His Funeral Orations have been compared with those of Bossuet, without attending to this distinction, that comparisons become useless between two kinds of genius which are totally different. That of Bossuet was sublime throughout. Flechier, on the other hand, was only remarkable for the boldness of his thoughts and the harmony of his diction. It is true that he possessed in an eminent degree these two qualities of an orator, and that nobody has carried the latter further than he; but even in that department where he has been most successful Flechier is not without faults, and may be reproached with an ambition of giving point to his thoughts, an affectation of symmetry in the style, and a love of antitheses, all at variance with the principles of good taste. But if his funeral orations and sermons lose much of their merit by too measured elegance, his pastoral instructions and synodal discourses are wholly free from such affectation, indeed as remarkable for simplicity of style as for generosity of sentiment, and that indulgent spirit which laments whilst it combats error, and which, repudiating all attempts at persecution, seeks to win men over to the right way, not by the instrumentality of fear, but through the medium of their understanding and affections. "C'est dans les élogeurs," says a distinguished French critic, "que la philosophie elle-même apprend à l'usage qu'elle doit faire des lumières et du sentiment, et se convainc que l'humanité n'a pas de consolation plus solide que la religion comme la politique n'a pas de meilleur appui."