Matthieu Petit-Didier (18 December 1659, Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, Lorraine, – 17 June 1728, Senones) was a French Benedictine theologian and ecclesiastical historian.
The work was forbidden in France and Lorraine by the Parliaments of Paris and Metz; it was translated into Italian (Rome, 1746); and into Latin by Gallus Cartier, O.S.B.
"Remarques sur la Bibliothèque ecclésiastique de M. Dupin" (Paris, 1691–93), in which he points out many errors; "Dissertation historique et théologique dana laquelle on examine quel a été le sentiment du Concile de Constance et des principaux Théologiens qui y ont assisté, sur l'autorité du pape et sur son infaillibilité" (Luxemburg, 1724), in which the author defends the opinion that the decree of the Council of Constance concerning the superiority of a general council over the pope was intended only for the time of a schism; "Dissertationes historicæ, criticæ, chronologicæ in Sacram Scripturam Veteris Testamenti" (Toul, 1699); "Justification de la morale et de la discipline de Rome et de toute l'Italie" (1727), a reply to an anonymous treatise entitled: "La morale des Jésuites et la constitution Unigenitus comparée à la morale des payens".
His brother Jean-Joseph Petit-Didier, a Jesuit theologian and canonist, was born at Saint-Nicolas-du-Port in Lorraine, on 23 October 1664; and died at Pont-à-Mousson, on 10 August 1756.
Entering the Society of Jesus, 16 May 1683, he was professed 2 February 1698, and taught belles-lettres, philosophy, and canon law at Strasburg from 1694 to 1701, and theology at Pont-à-Mousson from 1704 to 1708.