MORI N. 
S0@ 
him inftru&ion in reading and writing, but were not able 
to obtain afituation for him in which he might earn his 
maintenance. He, therefore, went to try his fortune at 
Paris, where his good penmanthip recommended him to 
the place of clerk in the office of M. Charron, extraor¬ 
dinary treafurerat war. Here he foon betrayed fymptoms 
of a deranged imagination; and indulged fo much in 
vifionary contemplations, that his bhfinefs was neglected, 
and he was difmiffed from his employment. He had now 
nothing to depend upon for a livelihood but his talent as 
acopyift; and, having much leifure time, he fpent it in 
a manner that increafed the diforder of his mind, by liften- 
ing to the reveries of the Illumines, who were then nu¬ 
merous at Paris. In company with perl'ons of this de- 
fcription he was one day arrefted, and committed to the 
prifon belonging to the biffiop’s court; where his beha¬ 
viour was in general fo decent and inoffenlive, that he was 
Icon fet at liberty. Having taken an apartment at the 
lioufeof a woman who fold fruit and other refreffiments 
to the frequenters of an adjoining tennis-court, he formed 
an acquaintance with feveral of the players, who were 
weak enough to attend tp his rambling harangues, and to 
be perfuaded that he faw vifions, and had fupernatural di¬ 
vine communications. His apartment was foon found to 
be too fmall for the numbers who came to hear him; 
upon which he hired a much larger room in a neighbour¬ 
ing houfe. The police, however, being informed of thefe 
meetings, thought proper to arreft him a fecond time in 
the year 1664, and to immure him within the walls of the 
Baftile, where he was confined twenty-one months. At 
the expiration of that term he was again liberated, when 
his fanaticifm appeared to have acquired freffi vigour 
during his hours of folitude, and he immediately fet about 
compoiing his book of “ Thoughts,” defigned to explain 
and to propagate more widely his opinions. Manuscript 
copies of this piece were received with eagernel's by his 
deluded followers ; but the demand for it became fo great, 
that in 1647 he caufed it to be privately printed with this 
title : “ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Spirit. The Thoughts of Morin, dedicated 
to the King.” This work is a tiffue of arrogance, wild 
fanaticifm, and ignorance; and maintains fome of the no¬ 
tions afterwards condemned in the Quietifts, only that 
Morin carries them to a greater length of abfurdity mixed 
with mad prefumption. For he affirms, “ That there 
would quickly be a general reformation of the church, 
and that all nations fliould be converted to the true faith.” 
He pretends that this renovation was to be accomplilhed 
by the fecond coming of Jefus Chrift, in his Hate of glory, 
incorporated in Morin himfelf; and that, for the execu¬ 
tion of the events to which he was deftined, he was to be 
attended by a great number of perfeft fouls, and fuch 
as participated in the glorious ftate of Jefus Chrift, whom 
he therefore called the champions of glory. 
For this publication Morin was a fecond time impri- 
foned in the Baftile, where he continued till the begin¬ 
ning of the year 1649. He then purchafed his deliverance 
by afolemn abjuration of his errors, which hepublilhed in 
the fame year ; and followed it by a printed “ Declaration,” 
fome months afterwards, to the fame purport, and profeff- 
Ing his unreferved fubmiffion to the dogmas of the church. 
It was not long after this that he retraced his abjuration, 
and again attempted to make converts to his opinions by 
private perluafion, and the writings of one of his difciples, 
publifhed in 1650 and 1651, which were attributed to his 
own pen. Upon this the parliament of Paris gave direc¬ 
tions for his arreft, and fentenced him by an arret to fpend 
the remainder of his days in a houfe of confinement for 
lunatics. This fentence was revoked in 1656, upon his 
making a fecond abjuration ; and he was again fet at li¬ 
berty. Still the frenzy of his mind was unl'ubdued, and 
he continued in fecret to propagate his former opinions. 
He alfo compofed, in 1661, with the defign of its being cir¬ 
culated among his adherents, a piece intitled, “ A Proof 
of the Second Advent of the Son of Man.” At this junc¬ 
ture a fcheme was laid for his ruin by another fanatic, the 
fieur John Des Marets de Saint Sorlin, who confidered him 
as his rival, and conceived a violent averfion to him. The 
means that he made ufe of was, by pretending to be a zea¬ 
lous difciple of Morin, and by carrying his diffimulation 
fo far as to acknowledge him to be “ the Son of Man, and 
the Son of God in him.” This acknowledgment was fo 
fatisfaftory to our vifionary, that he placed his entire 
confidence in Des Marets, and communicated to him all 
his lecret opinions ; conferring upon him at the fame time, 
as a mark of fpecial favour, the office of his forerunner, 
calling him “ a true John the Baptift, rifen again.” Hav¬ 
ing thus obtained the evidence which he wanted, Des 
Marets bafely impeached Morin of dangerous herely ; in 
confequence of which he was taken into cuftody, juft as 
he had put the finilhing hand to a difcourfe which he was 
defirous of prefenting to the king, beginning with thefe 
words : “ The Son of Man to the King of France.” He 
was now again committed prilbner to the Baftile, whence 
he was afterwards brought to the Chatelet for trial $ and 
there, on the depoiition of Des Marets, was pronounced 
guilty of the charge preferred againll him,and condemned 
to be burnt alive. Againll this cruel fentence he appealed 
to the parliament, but without fuccefs ; and it was car¬ 
ried into execution in 1663, when he was about forty 
years of age. At his execution his accomplices were con¬ 
demned to be prefent, and then to be fent to the galleys 
for life, having been firft whipped by the hangman, and 
branded with fleurs-de-lis on the right and left lhoulders. 
In this number there were two prielts, and others of edu¬ 
cation fuperior to that of the vulgar. Thofe who have 
any curiofity to meet with further particulars concern¬ 
ing this fanatic, may be gratified by reading in Moreri an 
extract from a curious paper on the fubjedl, inferted in 
the twenty-feventh volume of father Niceron’s Memoires. 
Gen. Hi os;. 
MO'RIN (Stephen), a proteftant divine, was born at 
Caen in Normandy, in the year 1623. He ftudied theo¬ 
logy under the celebrated Du Moulin, and afterwards 
became minifter of a congregation at_his native place 5 
but on the revocation of the edidl of Nantes he retired to 
Holland, and was appointed profelfor of the oriental lan¬ 
guages, in which he was deeply learned, at Amfterdam. 
He died in the year 1700, at the age of feventy-feven. 
He was author of “ Differtationes Odlo, in quibus multa 
facrae et profanae Antiquitatis Monumenta explicantur,” 
and feveral other very learned pieces, the titles of which 
may be found in Moreri’s Dictionary. He wrote the life 
of Bochart, which was prefixed to the third edition of 
his very learned labours, publilhed by Morin in 1692. 
Alfo the life of Le Paulmier, prefixed to the work of that 
learned man, entitled Grecise Antiquae Defcriptio, edited 
by Morin after the author’s death. He wrote likewife 
“ A Letter on the Origin of the Hebrew Language,” in¬ 
ferted, together with the Anfwer of M. Huet, in-the firft 
volume of Differtations on various topics in Religion and 
Philology, collected by the abbe de Tilladet, and publilhed 
at Paris in 1712, 121110. In this letter our author endea¬ 
vours to prove that the Hebrew language is as old as the 
creation, and confequently was the language of Paradile 
infpired into Adam by God himfelf. Moreri. 
MO'RIN (Louis), a phyfician and botanift of much 
fingularity of character, was born at Mans, in July 1635. 
His father, having a numerous family, and only the {len¬ 
der income afforded by a place in the lalt-office, was ena¬ 
bled to give this, his eldeft fon, the mere rudiments of 
fcholaftic education. During this early period of his life, 
lie acquired a partiality for botanical purfuits ; and, when 
he left fchool, he fet off for Paris on foot, lierborifing by 
the way, for the purpole of ftudying philofophy in the 
metropolis. His attachment to botany naturally led him. 
to the choice of medicine as a profeffion; and, during his 
application to this fcience, perhaps from the neceffity of 
rigid economy in which his circumftances placed him, he 
led the life of an anchorite, reftriCting his diet to bread 
and water, with the occaiional indulgence of a little 
fruit. This mode of life greatly diminilhed the number 
a of 
