Section 1279

lies on both sides. His parents, having been educated in the principles of Calvin, retired to Geneva ; and settled afterwards in the canton of Berne, where he was born, Nov. 25, 1556. His father, who was a man of learning, instructed him till he was ten years of age, and taught him mathematics and Latin. Young Per- ron seems afterwards to have built upon tiiis founda- tion bv himself; for, while his parents were tossed about from place to place bj' civil wars and persecu- tions, he applied himself entire!}- to study. He learned Greek and philosophy, beginning the latter study with the logic of Aristotle, thence passing to the orators and poets ; and afterwards :pplied himself to the study of the Hebrew language, wiiicii he attained so perfect- ly that he read without points, and lectured on it to the ministers. In the reign of Henrj' III, after the Pacification with tiie Huguenots, his parents returned to France, and shortly after young Du Perron was (in 1576) introduced to the king, as a prodigj' of pails and learning. His controversial talents were vcrj^ great, so that none dared dispute with him, although he made many challenges to those who would have been glad to attack him. At the breaking up of the states he came to Paris, and mounted the chair in the habit of a cavalier, in the grand hall of tiie Augustines, where he held public conferences upon the sciences. He set himself afterwards to read tlie " Sum" of St. Tliom;is Aquinas, and cultivated a strict friendship with Philip Desportes, abbot of Tiron, who put him into his own place of reader to Henry III. Perron is said to have lost the favor of this prince in the following manner : One day, while the king was at dinner, he made an ad- mirable discourse against atheists ; with which the king was well pleased, and commended him much for hav- ing proved the being of a God by arguments so solid. But Perron, whose spirit of policy had not yet got the better of his passion for shining or showing his parts, replied, that "if his majestj' would vouchsafe him audience, he would prove the contrary b}' arguments as solid;" which so offended the king tliat lie forbade him to come into his presence. Perron recovered himself, however, from this fall. The reading of St. Thomas had engaged him in the studv of the fathers, and made him particularly acquainted with Augus- tine's writings, so that he devoted himself wholly to divinity, and resolved to abjure Protestantism. Having discovered, or rather pretended to discover, manj' false quotations and weak reasonings in Uu Plessis-Mor- nay's Treatise upon ihe Church, he instructed himself thoroughly in controverted points, and made his ab- juration. He now labored for the conversion of oth- ers, even before embracing any ecclesiastical function, which occurred in 1577. By these arts and his un- common abilities he acquired great influence, and was selected to pronounce the funeral oration of Mary queen of Scots in 1587. Some time after he wrote, by order of the king, A Comparison of Mora> and Theo- lo(jical Virtues ; and two Discourses, one upon the soul, the other upon self -knowledge, which he pronounced before that prince. After the murder of Henry III he i-etired to the house of cardinal de Bourbon, and la- bored more vigorous!}' tlian ever in the conversion of th? Reformed. He brought a great number of them back to the Church, among whom was Henry Sponda- nus, afterwards bishop of Pamiez ; as this prelate ac- knowledges, in his dedication to cardinal Du Perron of his "Abridgment of Baronius's Annals." This con- version was followed by several others ; and among them he claimed the agency in the conversion of Henry IV^, before whom he had held at Nantes a famous dis- pute with four ministers, which resulted in his appoint- ment to the bishopric of Evreux, that he might be ca- pable of sitting in a conference wliich the king con- vened for religious matters. Perron attended with the other prelates at St. Denis, and is supposed to have con- tributed more than any otiier person to the conversion of that great prince, -\fter this, Perron was sent w ith