Noel, Francois

Noel, Francois a Belgian Jesuit missionary, was born in 1651 at Helstrud, in Hainault. In 1670 he entered the order, and in 1684 was sent to China, where he spent the greater part of his life. He went twice to Rome to confer on the subject of Chinese ceremonies. The last years of his life were spent at Lille, where he died in 1729. He wrote Observationes mathematicae et physicae in India et Chinac factceab anno 1684 usque ad annum 1708 (Prague, 1710, 4to): — Sinensis imperii classici vi, nimirum adultorum schola inmmutabile medium, Liber sententiarum, Mencius, Filialis observantia et parvulorum schola e Sinico in Latinuns traducti (ibid. 1711, 4to; transl. into French by Pluquet, Paris, 1784-86, 7 vols. 18mo); a rather diffuse translation of the Chinese: — Philosophia Sinica, etc. (Prague, 1711, 4to); the author represents Chinese doctrines as closely resembling Christianity: — ita Jessu Christi; Epistole Marianae (often reprinted), and Vita S. Ignatii de Loyola, together, under the title of Opuscula poetica: — Theologice P. Francisci Suarez summa, to which is joined an abridgment of Lessius's De justitia et jure, and of Sanchey's De Matrimonio: — Memoriale circa veritatem. facti, cui innititur decretum Alexandri VIT, editum die 23 Martii. 1656 (it is translated' into French in the Lettres edifiantes), etc. See Goethals, Lectures, 3:231 Baker, Bibliotheque des ecrivoins de la Conrpagnie de Jesus.