Philippe de Mornay
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Protestant writer and member of the Monarchomaques ("killer of kings").
Biography
He was born in France, now situated in Val-d'OiseVal-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as "quatre-vingt quinze" or "neuf cinq"...
. His mother had leanings toward Protestantism, but his father tried to counteract her influence by sending him to the Collège de Lisieux at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. On his father's death in 1559, however, the family formally adopted the reformed faith. Mornay studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
at the University of Heidelberg in 1565 and the following year Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and German at the University of Padua
University of Padua
The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...
. On the outbreak of the second religious war in 1567, he joined the army of Condé
Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé
Louis de Bourbon was a prominent Huguenot leader and general, the founder of the House of Condé, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon.-Life:...
, but a fall from his horse prevented him from taking an active part in the campaign. His career as Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
apologist began in 1571 with the work Dissertation sur l'Église visible, and as a diplomat in 1572 when he undertook a confidential mission for Admiral de Coligny to William the Silent
William the Silent
William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...
, Prince of Orange.
He escaped the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots , during the French Wars of Religion...
by the aid of a Catholic friend, and took refuge in England. Returning to France towards the end of 1573, he participated during the next two years with various success in the campaigns of Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, then King of Navarre only. He was taken prisoner by the Duke of Guise on 10 October 1575, but ransomed for a small sum, which was paid by Charlotte Arbaleste
Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay
Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay was a French writer of the reformation. She was born as Charlotte Arbaleste.-Life and work:Charlotte became a Huguenot and wrote a first person account of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Two years later, in 1574, she met Philippe de Mornay...
, whom he married shortly afterwards at Sedan. Mornay was gradually recognized as Henry's right-hand man, representing him in England from 1577 to 1578 and again in 1580, and in the Low Countries 1581-1582. With the death of the Duke of Alençon-Anjou in 1584, by which Henry was brought within sight of the throne of France, the period of Mornay's greatest political activity began, and after the death of the Prince of Condé
Prince of Condé
The Most Serene House of Condé is a historical French house, a noble lineage of descent from a single ancestor...
in 1588 his influence became so great that he was popularly styled the "Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
pope". He was present at the siege of Dieppe, fought at Ivry
Battle of Ivry
The Battle of Ivry was fought on 14 March 1590, during the French Wars of Religion. The battle was a decisive victory for Henry of Navarre, the future Henry IV of France, leading Huguenot forces against the Catholic League forces led by the Duc de Mayenne...
, and was at the siege of Rouen
Siege of Rouen
At the time of the Siege of Rouen , the city had a population of 70,000, making it one of the leading cities in France, and its capture crucial to the Normandy campaign during the Hundred Years' War....
in 1591-92, until sent on a mission to the court of Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. Both he and his wife befriended English protestants like Francis Walsingham
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...
, Mary Sidney
Mary Sidney
Mary Herbert , Countess of Pembroke , was one of the first English women to achieve a major reputation for her literary works, poetry, poetic translations and literary patronage.-Family:...
and her brother Philip Sydney.
He was bitterly disappointed by Henry IV's abjuration of Protestantism in 1593, and gradually withdrew from the court, devoting himself to the Academy of Saumur
Academy of Saumur
The Academy of Saumur was a Huguenot university at Saumur in western France. It existed from 1593, when it was founded by Philippe de Mornay, until shortly after 1683, when Louis XIV decided on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, ending the limited toleration of Protestantism in...
, which had a distinguished history until its suppression by Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
in 1683.
His last years were saddened by the loss of his only son in 1605 and of his devoted wife in 1606, but he spent them in perfecting the Huguenot organization. He was chosen a deputy in 1618 to represent the French Protestants at the Synod of Dort
Synod of Dort
The Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618-1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy initiated by the rise of Arminianism. The first meeting was on November 13, 1618, and the final meeting, the 154th, was on May 9, 1619...
, and though prohibited from attending by Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
, he contributed materially to its deliberations by written communications. He lost the governorship of Saumur at the time of the Huguenot insurrection in 1621 in the Capture of Saumur
Capture of Saumur
The Capture of Saumur was the military investment of the Huguenot city of Saumur accomplished by the young French king Louis XIII in May 1621, following the outburst of the Huguenot rebellions. Although the Huguenot city was faithful to the king, Louis XIII nevertheless wished to affirm control...
, and died in retirement on his estate of La Forêt-sur-Sèvre
La Forêt-sur-Sèvre
La Forêt-sur-Sèvre is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France.-References:*...
(Deux-Sèvres
Deux-Sèvres
Deux-Sèvres is a French département. Deux-Sèvres literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department.-History:...
).
Works
In 1598 he published a work on which he had long been engaged, entitled De L'institution, usage et doctrine du saint sacrement de l'eucharistie en l'église ancienne, containing about 5000 citations from the scriptures, fathers and schoolmen. Jacques Davy Du Perron, bishop of Évreux, afterwards cardinal and archbishop of Sens, accused him of misquoting at least 500, and a public disputation was held at Fontainebleau on 4 May 1600. Decision was awarded to Du Perron on nine points presented, when the disputation was interrupted by the illness of Mornay. Mornay was also instrumental in the drafting of the Edict of NantesEdict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
(1598) which established political rights and some religious freedom for the Huguenots.
His principal works, in addition to those mentioned above, are Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort (London, 1577), a bridal present to Charlotte Arbaleste; Traité de l'Église où l'on traite des principales questions qui ont été mues sur ce point en nostre temps (London, 1578); Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne contre les athées, épicuriens, payens, juifs, mahométans et autres infidèles (Antwerp, 1581); Le mystère d'iniquité, c'est à dire, l'histoire de la papauté (Geneva, 1611). Two volumes of Mémoires, from 1572 to 1589, appeared at La Forêt (1624–1625), and a continuation in 2 vols. at Amsterdam (1652); a more complete but very inaccurate edition () in 12 vols. was published at Paris in 1624-1625. He is also one -- many consider the most likely -- candidate for being author of the Vindiciae contra tyrannos
Vindiciae contra tyrannos
Vindiciae contra tyrannos was an influential Huguenot tract published in Basel in 1579. The work proceeds through four questions concerning the response of the people to their king...
(1579), a pamphlet advocating resistance to the French crown.