COURAYER, Pierre Francoisle (1681-1776), a Roman Catholic theological writer, was born at Vernon, in Normandy, in 1681. While canon regular and librarian of the abbey of St Geneviève at Paris, he conducted a correspondence with Archbishop Wake on the subject of Episcopal succession in England, which supplied him with material for his work On the Validity of English Ordinations, published in Holland in 1727, in wshich he tries to prove that there has been no break in the line of ordination from the apostles to the English clergy. His opinions, however, having exposed him to a prosecution in his native country, he took refuge in England, where he was presented by the university of Oxford with a doctor’s degree. In 1736 he published a French translation of Father Paul Sarρi ’ s History of the Council of Trent, and dedicated it to Queen Caroline, from whom he received a pension of £200 a year. Besides this he translated Sleidan’s History of the Reformation, and wrote several theological works. Courayer died in 1776, after two days’ illness, and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, In his will, dated two years before his death, he declared himself still a member of the Cathυlic Church, although dissenting from many of its opinions.