Richard Simon (priest)

Richard Simon CO (13 May 1638 – 11 April 1712), was a French priest and longtime Oratorian, who was an influential biblical critic, orientalist and controversialist.

Simon was born at Dieppe. His early education took place at the Oratorian college there, and a benefice enabled him to study theology at Paris, where he showed an interest in Hebrew and other Oriental languages. He entered the Oratorians as novice in 1662. At the end of his novitiate he was sent to teach philosophy at the College of Juilly. But he was soon recalled to Paris, and employed in the preparing a catalogue of the Oriental books in the library of the Oratory.

Simon was ordained a priest in 1670. He then taught rhetoric at Juilly until 1673, having among his students the noted philosopher, Count Henri de Boulainvilliers.

Simon was influenced by the ideas of Isaac La Peyrère who came to live with the Oratorians (though taking little of the specifics), and by Benedict Spinoza. Simon's approach earned him the later recognition as a "Father of the higher criticism", though this title is also given to German writers of the following century, as well as to Spinoza himself.

Simon aroused ill will when he strayed into a legal battle. François Verjus was a fellow Oratorian and friend who was acting against the Benedictines of Fécamp Abbey on behalf of their commendatory abbot, the Prince de Neubourg. Simon composed a strongly worded memorandum, and the monks complained to the Abbé Abel-Louis de Sainte-Marthe, Provost General of the Oratory from 1672. The charge of Jesuitism was also brought against Simon, on the grounds that his friend's brother, Father Antoine Verjus, was a prominent member of the Society of Jesus.

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