Augustin Calmet

Antoine Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) was a French Benedictine monk from Lorraine, one of the most learned biblical scholars of his age. He became abbot of Senones and wrote a vast literal commentary on the whole Bible, a dictionary of the Bible translated into several languages, and a history of Lorraine. His treatise on apparitions, angels, demons, ghosts and the vampires reported from Central Europe, published in the 1740s, examined these accounts with a mixture of credulity and critical caution, and it was widely read and mocked by Voltaire, who nevertheless respected his erudition.