 Houbigant entered the Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus 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