Dominique Varlet

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Dominique Varlet.

Dominique Marie Varlet , Latin Dominicus Maria Varlet (born March 15, 1678 in Paris , † May 14, 1742 in The Hague ) was the Roman Catholic titular bishop of Askalon . He was one of the founders of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands .

Life

Early years

Varlet was born on March 15, 1678, the son of actors in Paris. His father was Achille Varlet, known as Sieur de Verneuil; his uncle Charles Varlet (stage name La Grange ) was one of the most famous actors in the company of Molière . Like Molière and his friends, including the natural scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal , Varlet's parents were probably close to the Jansenist circles of the Port-Royal monastery .

priest

He studied in the main seminar of the Oratorians in Paris, who were also influenced by Port-Royal, and received his doctorate in 1706 at the Sorbonne . In the same year he was ordained a priest and initially exercised his office in various parishes in the Paris area. In 1711 he was accepted into the Societé des Missions Etrangères , which sent him to Canada in 1712. There he worked from 1713 to 1718 in the Québec region as well as in Louisiana and Illinois .

bishop

Varlet was called back to Paris to be sent to Persia. Pope Clement XI. appointed him in 1718 titular bishop of Ascalon and coadjutor of the Bishop of Babylon . On February 19, 1719 Jacques de Goyon de Matignon , Bishop of Condom , donated his episcopal ordination ; Co -consecrators were Louis-François Du Plessis de Mornay , coadjutor-bishop of Québec , and Jean-Baptiste Massillon , bishop of Clermont . The next day, the news arrived in Paris that the previous Bishop of Babylon had died at the end of 1717 and that Varlet was therefore his successor.

Varlet immediately went to his diocese. He traveled to the Netherlands with a French consul, where he stayed with Cornelius Steenoven , who later became the Archbishop of Utrecht. The episcopal see in Utrecht was vacant at the time, so Varlet made some confirmations there, which caused general consternation in Rome. The nunciatures in Poland and Germany were ordered to arrest Varlet immediately.

Unsuspecting, Varlet took a ship to St. Petersburg . After seven and a half months he arrived in Shamake (today Azerbaijan ), but was unable to travel to his episcopal city of Hamadan due to a civil war . On March 26, 1720, a representative of the Curia handed him the suspension that the Pope had pronounced a year earlier because he had confirmed in Holland and had not signed the bull Unigenitus Dei filius .

Varlet in the Netherlands

Varlet returned to Paris and resisted his condemnation, which was badly received in Rome. His stay in Paris became too unsafe for him and he went into exile in Holland. The pressure from Rome increased when the cathedral chapter of Utrecht stepped up to elect an archbishop without the consent of Rome. On April 27, 1723, it was chosen by Cornelius Steenoven, who was ordained bishop by Varlet on October 15, 1724. This earned all those involved excommunication .

After Steenoven's early death, the cathedral chapter elected Barchman Wuytiers archbishop, who was in turn consecrated by Varlet in 1725. Wuytiers died in 1733, not yet forty years old. The cathedral chapter elected Theodorus van der Croon as his successor. Varlet initially refused to undertake the consecration. In the questions of usury (“Is it permissible to take interest?” Refused by Varlet) and miracles (miraculous healings in the Netherlands, defended by Varlet) Varlet took an outsider position, in which the cathedral chapter had to follow him, however, in order for to receive the newly elected archbishop episcopal ordination. This took place in 1734, after a year and a half. This archbishop also died four years later. The cathedral chapter elected Petrus Johannes Meindaerts as his successor, who was consecrated by Varlet on October 17, 1739.

Varlet, already a seriously ill man at that time, died in 1742.

Web links

literature

  • John Mason Neale : A History of the So-Called Jansenist Church of Holland. John Henry and James Parker, Oxford 1858.
  • Bastiaan Abraham van Kleef : Dominicus Maria Varlet (1678-1742): a contribution to the history of the Utrecht Church . In: IKZ . No. 71 , 1963, pp. 78-104, 149-177, 193-225 (89 pages, also as a separate print).
  • Serge A. Thériault: Dominique-Marie Varlet. Lettres Du Canada Et De La Louisiane 1713-1724. Québec 1985, ISBN 2-7605-0378-X .
  • Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, Utrecht Archives (Ed.): Gallicanism And Ultramontanism In Catholic Europe In The 18th Century. Foreign Correspondence And Other Documents From The Archive Of The Jansenist Archbishops Of Utrecht, 1723-1808 on microfiche. Utrecht / Amsterdam 2003.
  • Serge A. Thériault: Msgr. Dominique M. Varlet. Originator of the Old Catholic Apostolic Succession 1678-1742 . Berkeley 2008, ISBN 978-1-933993-96-6 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ so after van Kleef, Thériault mentions in Msgr. Dominique M. Varlet , 2008, p. 19 (probably in error) however March 5th as the date of birth
personal data
SURNAME Varlet, Dominique
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Varlet, Dominicus Maria; Varlet, Dominique Marie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mission Bishop in North America and co-founder of the Old Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1678
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1742
Place of death The hague