Jean Baptiste Massillon, a French prelate, born at Hyeres, Provence, June 24, 1663, died Sept. 18, 1742. He studied with brilliant success under the Oratorians in his native city, and entered their congregation in 1681. In the monastery of Sept-Fonts he was appointed to reply to the charge of the cardinal de Noailles, which office he fulfilled with remarkable brilliancy and unction; and from that-time his talents and culture were directed toward the pulpit. He had been a professor successively at Pezenas, Montbrison, and Vi-enne, and had gained distinction by several funeral orations, especially by that on Henri de Villars, when in 1696 he was called to Paris to take charge of the seminary of St. Magloire. His sermons soon made him the rival of Bour-daloue, whom in 1698 he succeeded in a mission to Montpellier. In 1699 he preached during Lent in the church of the Oratory at Paris, where Bourdaloue was one of his listeners; and he delivered before the court at Versailles an Advent sermon which caused Louis XIV. to say to him: "I have heard many great orators, and been satisfied with them; but when you spoke, I was very dissatisfied with myself!" His sermon on the small number of the elect was delivered for the first time at St. Eustache, and with so great effect that the entire audience rose during the peroration, "as if looking for the archangel to sound." In 1704 he preached a second time at court.

He preached the funeral sermon of the prince of Conti in 1709, of the dauphin in 1711, and of the king in 1715. In 1717 he was appointed bishop of Clermont, and was invited to preach during Lent before the young king. The ten sermons, entitled Petit careme, which he composed for this occasion, are among his master-pieces, and are esteemed models of French prose and eloquence. From this time the ora-tor gave place to the bishop, and he rarely left his diocese. In 1719 he was received into the French academy, and in 1723 he preached at St. L)enis the funeral sermon of the duchess of Orleans, He was noted for zeal, charity, and liberality. As the tendencies of the 18th cen-tury began to manifest themselves, his eloquence, without ceasing to be that of a divine, became more and more that of a moralist and philosopher. His complete works were published by his nephew (14 vols., 1745-'6). Subsequent editions were substantially reprints of this, and differed in many respects from the original manuscripts. A better edition, conformable to the manuscripts and containing many unpublished writings and new biographical researches, was published by the abbe E. A. Blampignon, with a portrait (3 vols. 4to, Bar-le-Duc, 1865-'7). His eloge before the academy was written by DAlembert.