Philippe Duplessis-Mornay

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Duplessis-Mornay

Philippe Duplessis-Mornay , actually Philippe de Mornay, Seigneur du Plessis-Marly , also called Philippe Mornay Du Plessis (born November 5, 1549 in Buhy , † November 11, 1623 in La Forêt-sur-Sèvre ) was a Reformed theologian and statesman from France .

Philippe Duplessis-Mornay is alleged to be the namesake of the Mornay sauce .

Life

Destined for the clergy by his strictly Catholic father and taught at the Collège de Lisieux in Paris , after his death in 1560 he converted to the Protestant creed, which his mother had secretly taught him, and traveled to various countries. In 1565 he was enrolled as a law student at Heidelberg University , the following year he studied in Padua . For a short time in 1567 he took part in the Second Huguenot War. His career as a political writer and diplomat began in 1571 with the dissertation sur l'église visible . The following year he worked on a secret mission for Admiral de Coligny ; he negotiated with William of Orange . After Bartholomew's Night , which he narrowly escaped with the help of a Catholic friend, he sought refuge in England . There he tried in vain to get Queen Elisabeth to support his co-religionists. In 1576 he married Charlotte Arbaleste , to whom he had given a special bride gift with the work Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort (London, 1577) and whose own memoirs are the essential source for his biography .

In 1575 he was in the service of Henry III as administrator of the finances of Navarre . entered by Navarre , who also used him as a diplomatic negotiator in England and later in the Netherlands during the war with the League . His influence on the Huguenot leader was so great that he was referred to as the "Pope of the Huguenots". It is believed that he (possibly with Hubert Languet ) hides behind the pseudonym Stephanus Junius Brutus , under which one of the most important writings of the monarchomachs , the Vindiciae contra tyrannos , appeared in 1579 .

In the spring of 1589 he was the mediator responsible for the reconciliation of King Henry III. and Henry of Navarre. When he was raised to the throne of France as Henry IV in 1589, Duplessis-Mornay was appointed State Councilor and later Governor of Saumur . Duplessis-Mornay established a Protestant academy there , which was of great influence until it was repealed by Louis XIV in 1685. Because of his opposition to Henry's conversion to Catholicism in 1593, his relationship with the king deteriorated. But he was able to work towards the adoption of the Edict of Nantes , with which his idea of ​​a peaceful coexistence of Catholics and Protestants seemed to come true.

In 1598 he left the court and published a long prepared pamphlet on the Eucharist from a Calvinist point of view ( De l'institution, usage et doctrine du saint sacrement de l'eucharistie en l'église ancienne ). The death of his only son in 1605 and his wife in 1606 hit him deeply. In the following years he took care of the organization of the Huguenots. In 1618 he should have been a representative of the French Calvinists at the Synod of Dordrecht , but Louis XIII prevented . his journey. Nevertheless, Duplessis-Mornay contributed significantly to their progress through his letters. After the Huguenot uprising in 1621, he lost his post as governor of Saumur and retired to his country estate in La Fort-sur-Sévre. He was held in high regard by his fellow believers because of his deep religiosity and his erudition.

Works

  • Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort (London, 1577)
  • Traité de l'Église (1578)
  • De la vérité de la religion chrestienne. Contre les athées, épicuriens, payens, juifs, mahumédistes & autres infidèles (1583)
  • Fidelle exposition sur la Declaration du Duc de Mayenne contenant les Exploicts de guerre qu'il a fait en Guyenne (1587)
  • De l'Institution sage et Doctrine du Saint sacrement de l'Eucharistie en l'Église ancienne (1598)
  • Pour le Concile (1600)
  • Advertissement aux Juifs sur la venue du Messie (1607)
  • Le Mystère d'Iniquité (1611)
  • Mémoires et correspondance (1624).

literature

  • Theodor Schott :  You Plessis-Mornay . In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church (RE). 3. Edition. Volume 5, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1898, pp. 80-92.
  • Hugues Daussy: Les huguenots et le roi: le combat politique de Philippe Duplessis-Mornay (1572-1600). Droz, Genève 2002.
  • Natacha Salliot: Duplessis-Mornay, la rhetorique dans la théologie. Garnier, Paris 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Saage: Theories of Democracy. Historical process, theoretical development, socio-technical conditions. An introduction. Wiesbaden 2005, p. 77, ISBN 3-531-14722-6 ; Christoph Strohm : “Calvinist” lawyers. Cultural Effects of Reformed Protestantism? In: Irene Dingel, Herman Selderhuis (ed.): Calvin and Calvinism: European perspectives . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, p. 299.
personal data
SURNAME Duplessis-Mornay, Philippe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mornay, Philippe de; Mornay Du Plessis, Philippe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reformed theologian and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1549
PLACE OF BIRTH Buhy
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1623
Place of death La Forêt-sur-Sêvre