TENCIN, PIERRE GURIN DE

born Aug. 22, 1679/80, Grenoble, Fr. died March 2, 1758, Lyon French statesman, cardinal, and anti-Jansenist of the 18th century. Tencin owed his quick advance to power to his sister, Claudine-Alexandrine Gurin de Tencin, influential mistress of a famed salon. He was successively abb of Vezelay (1702), vicar general of Sens (1703), ambassador to the Holy See (172124, 173942), archbishop of Embrun (172440), cardinal (from 1739), archbishop of Lyon (from 1740), and a minister of state for Louis XV (174250). He joined in bitter pamphlet debates against the supporters of Jansenism.