Noël was born in Lorraine. He taught at La Flèche, where he later spent his last days, and was later rector of the Jesuit Collège de Clermont in Paris, when, in 1646, he sent to Descartes copies of his Aphorismi physici, and his Flamma, seu tractatus de sole ut flamma est, ejusque pabulo, along with assurances of friendship and esteem. He was an Aristotelian but of the novantique sort that tried to find common ground between the new philosophy and the old. In particular, he agreed with Descartes’ views on barometric phenomena; he debated with Pascal the possibility of a vacuum, defending the view of both Descartes and the Aristotelians that there is none.

See also Jesuit; Pascal, Blaise; Vacuum