Jean Plantavit de La Pause

Jean Plantavit de La Pause

Mgr de Plantavits tomb in Lodève Cathedral

Jean Plantavit de La Pause (* 1579 in Saint-Jean-du-Gard ; † May 21, 1651 in Margon ) was court chaplain to the queens of France and Spain, bishop of Lodève, count of Montbrun and a learned Hebrew .

Life

The Plantavits originally came from Florence and were related to the Strozzi and Medici . A Decio Strozzi had taken his mother's name Porcia Plantaviti and had emigrated to France at the end of the 13th century. One branch of the family had settled in the Cevennes ( Plantavit de La Pause ), another in what is now the Hérault department ( Plantavit de Margon ).

Jean Plantavit's father Christophe Plantavit de La Pause was a Protestant clergyman; the Catholic mother, Ysabeau d'Assas, came from the Château de Marcassargues in Gévaudan , where Jean Plantavit was born in 1579 as the middle of the three sons. He studied in Nîmes and Geneva and, after receiving his doctorate in theology from the Nîmes faculty, was also a Reformed clergyman in Béziers . After converting to the Catholic faith in 1604, probably under the influence of the Jesuits , and having published a Déclaration catholique (Paris, 1604), he studied Catholic theology at the Collège Henri-IV de La Flèche , was ordained a Catholic priest and went to Rome , where he studied oriental languages, especially Hebrew , with the well-known Maronite Bible scholar Gabriel Sionita . There the French Cardinal François de Joyeuse became aware of him, who recommended him to Queen Maria de 'Medici as court chaplain. In the same capacity, Plantavit later accompanied her daughter Élisabeth , wife of Philip IV of Spain, to Madrid . Returned to France, Plantavit became vicar general of the Grand Almosenier Cardinal François de La Rochefoucauld . He had already received from the king the Abbey of Saint-Martin-de-Ruricourt (today Saint-Martin-aux-Bois ) in the diocese of Beauvais in Kommende and was appointed Apostolic Protonotary by the Pope .

On May 7, 1625, King Ludwig XIII. Plantavit, probably at the intercession of the Queen of Spain, as bishop of the diocese of Lodève in the province of Languedoc , southern France, which has been vacant since the death of his predecessor Rolin . Preconceived by Pope Urban VIII on August 16, 1625 , he received episcopal ordination from Archbishop François de Harlay on October 18, 1625 in the Jesuit Church of St-Louis in Paris . He had to hand over the Abbey of Saint-Martin to the heirs of Count Charles de Lévis-Vauvert-Ventadour. After taking the oath of allegiance to the king (in the chapel of St-Germain), Plantavit traveled to Lodève, where he moved in on December 24, 1625.

The diocese and city of Lodéve were badly affected in the Huguenot Wars . The bishop's palace was destroyed, as were many other buildings. Bishop Plantavit immediately set about restoring his fallen diocese. He had the archdeacon's house expanded and expanded as a residence for himself and his successors (today Mairie) and a new monastery built for the recollects and consecrated their chapel. He had the destroyed Gothic cathedral of St-Fulcran de Lodève faithfully restored. In addition to these visible modifications, he also put the structures of the diocese in order, regained rights that had been lost during the war, and brought back episcopal domains and benefits that had fallen into stranger's hands. He also visited all parishes and rearranged the taxes and services. What role he played in the armed uprising of Languedoc against Cardinal Richelieu and the king under the leadership of Governor Henri de Montmorency is not entirely clear, but he was acquitted or pardoned and was able to return to Lodève. In any case, his chronology of his predecessors ( Chronologia praesulum Lodouensium , Aramon 1634), published in 1634, is dedicated to Richelieu.

Seriously ill with gout , Bishop Plantavit de La Pause resigned from office in 1648 and retired to the castle of his relatives in Margon near Béziers, where he died on Pentecost 1651. He was buried in the Cathedral of Lodève.

Works

• Déclaration catholique du Sieur de La Pause , Paris: F. Bourriquant, 1604.
• Chronologia praesulum Lodouensium , Aramontii, 1634.
• Planta Vitis seu Thesaurus synonymicus Hebraeo-Chaldaico-Rabbinicus , Lodovae: Typis A. Colomerii, 1644–1645 (3 volumes).
• Florilegium rabbinicum, complectens praecipuas veterum rabbinorum sententias, versione latina et scholiis . Lodovae: Typis Arnaldi Colomerii, 1644.

literature

• Hague, Eugène; Haag, Émile: La France protestante . Paris: Bureau de la Publication, 1846-1859.
• Hoefer: Nouvelle biography générale. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1852–1866.
• Fisquet H [onoré Jean Pierre]: La France pontificale (Gallia Christiana) . Paris: Repos, 1864–1871.
• Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalem, 1971-1972, Volume 13.
• Delcor, Mathias: Etudes bibliques et orientales de religions comparées. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1979, p. 393ff.