Background
His father was Armand de Belsunce, Marquis de Castelmoron, and his mother Anne de Caumont de Lausun.
His father was Armand de Belsunce, Marquis de Castelmoron, and his mother Anne de Caumont de Lausun.
In 1699 he left the Society to become Vicar-General of Agen. That same year he was made Bishop of Marseille. When the plague broke out a large fleet was taking the Princess of Orléans to Italy where she was to marry the Duke of Modena.
The suite of the princess took to flight, and with them all the notables of the city, but Bishop Belsunce remained with a few friends, and together they battled against the plague, till they conquered lieutenant
In his address to the Assembly of the Clergy in 1725, Belsunce stated that more than 250 priests and religious perished at that time. But he was the soul of the rescuers and the praises bestowed on him by Alexander Pope and Charles Hubert Millevoye (Essay on Manitoba and Belsunce ou la peste de Marseille) were deserved.
The King of France offered him, by way of recognition, the See of Laon to which was attached the first ecclesiastical peerage of the realm and afterwards the metropolitan See of Bordeaux. Belsunce refused both and contented himself with accepting the pallium sent him by Pope Clement XII.
During his incumbency Belsunce fought against He attended, 1727, the Synod of Embrun where Jean Soanen was condemned.
He opposed with all his power Colbert of Pamiers.
In spite of the protest of the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence, he instructed his priests to refuse absolution to the appellants against the Bulletin Unigenitus. Nearly all his pastoral instructions are against.