Diocese of Haarlem

 Habacuc (Habakkuk)

 William Habington

 Habit

 Habor

 Haceldama

 Bl. Hadewych

 Publius Ælius Hadrian

 Hadrian

 Hadrumetum

 Benedict van Haeften

 Gottfried Hagen

 Haggith

 Hagiography

 The Hague

 Ida Hahn-Hahn

 Herenaus Haid

 Hail Mary

 Karl von Haimhausen

 Hair (in Christian Antiquity)

 Hairshirt

 Haiti

 Haito

 Diocese of Hakodate

 Hakon the Good

 Halicarnassus

 Archdiocese of Halifax

 Margaret Hallahan

 Karl Ludwig von Haller

 Jean-Baptiste-Julien D'Omalius Halloy

 Nicholas Halma

 Hamatha

 Ven. John Hambley

 Hamburg

 Diocese of Hamilton

 John Hamilton

 Joseph, Baron von Hammer-Purgstall

 Hammurabi

 Adrian Hamsted

 Daniel Bonifacius von Haneberg

 Hanover

 Bl. Everald Hanse

 Markus Hansiz

 Chrysostomus Hanthaler

 Johann Ernst Hanxleden

 Happiness

 Diocese of Harbor Grace

 William J. Hardee

 Mary Aloysia Hardey

 Thomas Harding

 Mary Juliana Hardman

 Jean Hardouin

 John Hardyng

 Hare Indians

 Family of Harlay

 Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin

 Harmony

 Harney

 Francis Harold

 Harold Bluetooth

 Harpasa

 Thomas Morton Harper

 Ven. William Harrington

 Joel Chandler Harris

 Diocese of Harrisburg

 James Harrison

 William Harrison

 Harrowing of Hell

 Diocese of Hartford

 Ven. William Hartley

 Georg Hartmann

 Hartmann von Aue

 Vincenz Hasak

 Lorenz Leopold Haschka

 Johann Simon (Joachim) Haspinger

 John Rose Greene Hassard

 Peter Hasslacher

 Hatred

 Hatto

 Edward Anthony Hatton

 Hauara

 Haudriettes

 Jean-Barthélemy Hauréau

 Hautecombe

 Jean de Hautefeuille

 Hauteserre

 Haüy

 Mathias Hauzeur

 Diocese of Havana (San Cristóbal de la Habana)

 Bernhard Havestadt

 Edward Hawarden

 Stephen Hawes

 Robert Stephen Hawker

 Sir Henry Hawkins

 Hay

 George Hay

 Johann Michael Haydn

 Franz Joseph Haydn

 Ven. George Haydock

 George Leo Haydock

 Haymo

 Haymo of Faversham

 Lajos Haynald

 Cornelius Hazart

 George Peter Alexander Healy

 Tenebrae Hearse

 Devotion to the Heart of Jesus

 Congregations of the Heart of Mary

 Devotion to the Heart of Mary

 Ven. Henry Heath

 Nicholas Heath

 Heaven

 Hebrew Bible

 Hebrew Language and Literature

 Epistle to the Hebrews

 Hebron

 Isaac Thomas Hecker

 Hedonism

 St. Hedwig

 Cornelius Heeney

 Freiherr von Heereman von Zuydwyk

 Heeswijk

 Karl Joseph von Hefele

 Hegelianism

 St. Hegesippus

 Pseudo-Hegesippus

 Alexander Hegius

 University of Heidelberg

 Heiligenkreuz

 Heilsbronn

 Monk of Heilsbronn

 François Joseph Heim

 Heinrich der Glïchezäre

 Heinrich von Ahaus

 Heinrich von Laufenberg

 Heinrich von Meissen

 Heinrich von Melk

 Heinrich von Veldeke

 Joseph Heinz

 Eduard Heis

 Heisterbach

 St. Helena

 Diocese of Helena

 St. Helen of Sköfde

 Helenopolis

 Heli

 Paul Heliae

 Heliand

 Hélinand

 Heliogabalus

 Hell

 Maximilian Hell

 Helmold

 Jan Baptista van Helmont

 Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls

 Flavius Rusticius Helpidius

 Pierre Hélyot

 Felix Hemmerlin

 Isaac Austin Henderson

 Lawrence Hengler

 Louis Hennepin

 Henoch

 Henoticon

 Henri de Saint-Ignace

 Mathieu-Richard-Auguste Henrion

 Crisóstomo Henríquez

 Enrique Henríquez

 Henry II

 Henry VIII

 Henry IV (1)

 St. Henry II

 Henry III

 Henry IV (2)

 Henry V

 Henry VI

 Henry of Friemar

 Henry of Ghent

 Henry of Herford

 Henry of Huntingdon

 Henry of Kalkar

 Henry of Langenstein

 Henry of Nördlingen

 Henry of Rebdorf

 Bl. Henry of Segusio

 Robert Henryson

 Bl. Henry Suso

 Henry the Navigator

 Godfrey Henschen

 Luise Hensel

 John Henten

 Heortology

 Hephæstus

 Heptarchy

 Heraclas

 Heraclea

 Ecclesiastical Heraldry

 Herbart and Herbartianism

 John Rogers Herbert

 Herbert of Bosham

 St. Herbert of Derwentwater

 Johann Georg Herbst

 Alejandro Herculano de Carvalho e Araujo

 Herder

 Christian Wolfgang Herdtrich

 Heredity

 Ancient Diocese of Hereford

 St. Hereswitha

 Heresy

 Joseph Hergenröther

 St. Heribert

 Heribert

 Heriger of Lobbes

 William Herincx

 Hermann I

 Hermann Contractus

 Bl. Hermann Joseph

 Hermann of Altach

 Hermann of Fritzlar

 Hermann of Minden

 Hermann of Salza

 St. Hermas

 Hermas

 Hermeneutics

 St. Hermengild

 St. Hermes

 George Hermes

 Charles Hermite

 Hermits

 Hermits of St. Augustine

 Hermon

 Hermopolis Magna

 Hermopolis Parva

 Herod

 Herodias

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 Henry Herp

 Herrad of Landsberg

 Herregouts

 Fernando de Herrera

 Francisco Herrera

 Sebastiano de Herrera Barnuevo

 Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas

 Marquard Herrgott

 Hersfeld

 Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro

 Gentian Hervetus

 Hesebon

 Hesse

 Jean Hessels

 Hesychasm

 Hesychius of Alexandria

 Hesychius of Jerusalem

 Hesychius of Sinai

 Hethites

 Franz Hettinger

 Pierre Heude

 John Hewett

 Augustine Francis Hewit

 Hexaemeron

 Hexapla

 Hexateuch

 Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle

 Johann Heynlin of Stein

 Jasper and John Heywood

 Ancient Order of Hibernians

 Antony Hickey

 Hierapolis (2)

 Hierapolis (1)

 Hierarchy

 Hierarchy of the Early Church

 Hierocæsarea

 Hieronymites

 Hierotheus

 Ranulf Higden

 High Altar

 St. Hilarion

 Hilarius of Sexten

 Pope St. Hilarus

 St. Hilary of Arles

 St. Hilary of Poitiers

 St. Hilda

 Hildebert of Lavardin

 St. Hildegard

 Diocese of Hildesheim

 Hilduin

 Ven. Richard Hill

 Hillel

 Walter Hilton

 Himeria

 Himerius

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 Hincmar (2)

 Roman Hinderer

 Hinduism

 Sir William Hales Hingston

 Hippo Diarrhytus

 Hippo Regius

 Sts. Hippolytus

 Hippos

 Hirena

 Abbey of Hirschau

 Johann Baptist von Hirscher

 Ecclesiastical History

 Melchior Hittorp

 Franz von Paula Hladnik

 Archdiocese of Hobart

 Sydney Hodgson

 Andreas Hofer

 Konstantin von Höfler

 John Baptist Hogan

 Moritz Hohenbaum van der Meer

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 Alexander Leopold Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst

 Hans Holbein

 Henry Holden

 Holiness

 Holland

 Ven. Thomas Holland

 Hollanders in the United States

 John Holmes

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 Lucas Holstenius

 Karl von Holtei

 Archconfraternity of Holy Agony

 Holy Alliance

 Association of the Holy Childhood

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 Holy Cross Abbey

 Sisters of the Holy Faith

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 Institute of Sisters of the Holy Humility of Mary

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 Fathers of the Holy Sepulchre

 Knights of the Holy Sepulchre

 Holy Synod

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 Holy Week

 Holywell

 Christopher Holywood

 Bartholomew Holzhauser

 Homes

 Homicide

 Homiletics

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 Homoousion

 Vicariate Apostolic of British Honduras

 Vicariate Apostolic of Hong-Kong

 St. Honoratus

 Honoratus a Sancta Maria

 St. Honorius

 Pope Honorius I

 Pope Honorius II

 Pope Honorius III

 Pope Honorius IV

 Flavius Honorius

 Honorius of Autun

 Honour

 Johannes Nicolaus von Hontheim

 Hood

 Jacob van Hoogstraten

 Luke Joseph Hooke

 Hope

 James Robert Hope-Scott

 Hopi Indians

 Guillaume-François-Antoine de L'Hôpital

 Pope St. Hormisdas

 Nicholas Horner

 John Joseph Hornyold

 Hortulus Animæ

 Hosanna

 Stanislaus Hosius

 Hosius of Cordova

 Hospice

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 Hospitallers

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 Hospitals

 Hospital Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus

 St. Hospitius

 Sidron de Hossche

 Johann Host

 Host (Archaeological and Historical)

 Host (Canonical and Liturgical)

 Hottentots

 Charles François Houbigant

 Jean-Antoine Houdon

 Vincent Houdry

 William Houghton

 Canonical Hours

 Peter van Hove

 Mary Howard, of the Holy Cross

 Philip Thomas Howard

 Ven. Philip Howard

 Ven. William Howard

 Hroswitha

 Diocese of Huajuápam de León

 Diocese of Huánuco

 Diocese of Huaraz

 Alphons Huber

 St. Hubert

 Jean-François Hubert

 Military Orders of St. Hubert

 Hubert Walter

 Alexander Hübner

 Evariste Régis Huc

 Hucbald of St-Amand

 John Huddleston

 Fortunatus Hueber

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 Diocese of Huesca

 Pierre-Daniel Huet

 Hermann Hüffer

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 Hugh Capet

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 Charles-Hyacinthe Hugo

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 Maurice Le Sage d'Hauteroche d'Hulst

 Humanism

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 Humiliati

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 Bl. Humphrey Middlemore

 Laurence Humphreys

 Hungarian Catholics in America

 Hungary

 Hungarian Literature

 Franz Hunolt

 Ven. Thurstan Hunt

 Sylvester Joseph Hunter

 Canons on Hunting

 Jedediah Vincent Huntington

 János Hunyady

 Huron Indians

 Richard Hurst

 Caspar Hurtado

 Hurter

 Hus

 Hus and Hussites

 Frederick Charles Husenbeth

 Thomas Hussey

 Peter Hutton

 Joris Karl Huysmans

 St. Hyacinth

 St. Hyacintha Mariscotti

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 Diocese of Hyderabad-Deccan

 Pope St. Hyginus

 Hylozoism

 Hymn

 Hymnody and Hymnology

 Hypæpa

 Hypnotism

 Hypocrisy

 Hypostatic Union

 Hypsistarians

 Joseph Hyrtl

 Hyssop

Charles François Houbigant


Born in Paris, 1686; died there 31 October, 1783. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1704 and, after his studies, taught successively the classics at Juilly, rhetoric at Marseilles, and philosophy at Soissons. Returning to Paris, he was in 1722 at the head of the Conference of Church Antiquities and Discipline of St-Magloire. Overwork brought upon him a severe sickness, from which he lost in a very peculiar way the sense of hearing: while unable to hear the noise of the cannon of the Bastille, he could hear the scratching of his pen on the paper. In consequence of this infirmity he availed himself of the scholarship founded by L. de Carrières to promote Biblical studies in the Oratory and thenceforth devoted his talents to mastering Oriental languages.

His first work, issued in 1732 (Paris), was a vocabulary of Hebrew roots, "Racines hebraïques sans points-voyelles", compiled after the manner of Lancelot's long famous "Jardin des racines grecques". In 1746 he published his "Prolegomena in Scripturam Sacram" (2 vols., 4to) and a Latin translation of the Psalms, "Psalmorum versio vulgata et versio nova ad hebraicam veritatem facta" (16mo), followed two years later (1748) by a critical edition of the Hebrew Psalter, "Psalmi hebraici mendis quam plurim is expurgati" (Leyden, l6mo). These volumes were but the forerunners of his great work, "Biblia hebraica cum notis criticis et versione latinâ ad notas criticas factâ; accedunt libri græci qui deutero-canonici vocantur in tres classes distributi" (4 vols., folio, Paris, 1753-54). This important publication, to the preparation of which he had devoted twenty years of labour, in itself a masterpiece of typography, was based on the text of Van der Hooght (edit. of 1705), which it reproduced without vocal signs and with many corrections suggested either in the margin or in tables at the end of each volume. The Latin translation was also published separately in eight octavo volumes under the title, "Veteris Testamenti versio nova ad hebraicam veritatem facta" (Paris, 1753). From Houbigant's versatile pen later on proceeded French translations of some English books, as Forbes's "Thoughts", Sherlock's "Sermons" (1768), and Lesley's "Method against Deists and Jews" (1770). Other works published during the same period, as the "Examen du Psautier français des RR. PP. Capucins" (The Hague, 1764), the "Conférence entre un Juif, un protestant et un docteur de Sorbonne" (Leyden, 1770), the "Notæ criticæ in universos Veteris Testamenti libros tum hebraice tum græce scriptos, cum integris Prolegomenis ad exemplar Parisiense denuo recensæ" (2 vols., 4to, Frankfort, 1777), are evidence that Houbigant had not at this period abandoned his favourite studies. Some time before his death, however, he had lost his eyesight and fallen into dotage. Among the papers found after his death were a life of Cardinal de Bérulle, a treatise on the coming of Elias, a Hebrew grammar, and notes on the theory of Astruc touching the composition of Genesis.

Houbigant's piety was on a par with his learning; his conversation was most amiable, without the slightest trace of the sarcasm pervading some pages of his writings, and his patience and tireless energy are highly commended by all those who knew him. He had founded at Avilly a school for girls, in which he set up a complete outfit for the printing of his books, himself acting as typesetter. His works on Hebrew philology have fallen into oblivion; the deliberate discarding of vocal signs and the unlikely and unwarranted pronunciation adopted foredoomed them to failure. On the other hand, his Latin translation of the Bible is, for the clearness, energy, and polish of the language, deservedly praised; not so, however, all the rules of textual criticism laid down in the "Prolegomena", and the application of these rules in the "Biblia hebraica" marred by too many unnecessary and conjectural corrections of the Massoretic text. The work nevertheless contains abundant valuable suggestions which modern critics have ratified, and on this score full justice is not always rendered to the learned Oratorian, who was doubtless one of the ablest Biblical scholars of his time.

RAVIUS, Spec. Observat. ad Hubigantii Proleg. in Scripturam (Trier, 1776); CADRY, Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages du P. Houbigant in Magasin Encyclopédique (Paris, May 1806); FELLER, Dictionnaire historique, VII (Paris, 1822); INGOLD, Essai de Bibliothèque Oratorienne (Paris, 1880).

CHARLES L. SOUVAY