RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Du Pin
Bu Plessis-Mornay
ligny, too, discerned the splendid promise of his talents, and a memorial composed by Du Plessis, urging the expediency of rendering aid to the Dutch provinces, was laid by the great admiral before Charles IX. He narrowly escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and with great difficulty made his
way to England, where he remained
2. First till the end of 1573, acting for a time
Public as the agent of William the Silent
Services, and the Duke of Alengon and Anjou.
1569-77. Summoned by La Noue to France, he
took part in the unsuccessful Huguenot attempt at Saint Germain in Mar., 1574, was defeated at Nantes, went on a diplomatic mission to Louis of Nassau, and was taken prisoner in the battle of Dormans in Oct., 1575, but escaped recognition and, ransomed for a small sum, took up his residence at Sedan. There he made the acquaintance of Charlotte Arbaleste, a young widow of deeply pious character and an ardent Huguenot, whom he married in Jan., 1576. It was characteristic of her that she requested a literary dissertation as a marriage gift, and Du Plessis accordingly composed his Discours de la vie et de la mart (Lausanne, 1576; Eng. transl. Discourse of Life and Death, by Edward Aggas, London, 1577, six later editions).
In the sixth civil war, which broke out in 1577, Du Plessis took little share. La Noue had presented him to Henry of Navarre, who sent him on a mission to England, where he remained for more than a year, composing his Traite de I'eglise London, 1578; Eng. transl. A Treatise of the Church, by I. Feilde, 1579, 2d ed., 1581). From
1578 to 1582, with the exception of 3. Enters a brief sojourn in England, he rep- Service resented the interests of Henry of of Henry of Navarre in the Netherlands, residing Navarre, at Antwerp, and, after 1580 at Ghent.
In the latter city he completed an ambitious theological work, the Traite de la verite de la religion chretienne contre les Athees, Epicuriens, Payens, Juifs, M ahumedistes , et autres Infideles (Antwerp, 1581; Eng. transl. A Worke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, by Sir Philip Sidney and A. Golding, London, 1587,4th ed., 1617). In 1582 he was recalled to France by the king of Navarre, and from that time dates the friendship between the two that was to last until Henry's conversion to Roman Catholicism. With consummate energy and fine literary talents he became Henry's mouthpiece and public defender. He was his most trusted counselor and a fearless, though respectful, critic where he believed the prince untrue to himself. His presence at court was felt in a general chastening of manners, and a monument of his peculiar part in this friendship was the remarkable essay, Reglement de la fagon de vivre, composed for the king in Jan., 1583. In the differences existing between the heads of the Huguenot party and Henry of Navarre, Du Plessis acted as a mediator. At the Synod of Vitre in May, 1583, suspicion of Henry's ambitions was rife among the delegates, whose views were largely tinged with the spirit of Calvinistic democracy; Du Plessis was instrumental in bringing about the IV.— 3
agreement that a number of deputies of the synod should be assigned to the presence of the prince to be consulted on all ecclesiastical affairs. The project of a union of the Protestant churches of Europe which received some discussion at the same synod was very close to his heart, and at the synods of Gap in 1603, La Rochelle in 1607, and Tonneins in 1614 he was an ardent advocate of the scheme, although he achieved not the slightest success.
The death of the Duke of Anjou in June, 1584, brought Henry of Navarre next in succession to the throne, and the health of the childless Henry III. was such as to make his death at any moment a probable event. By the mass of the French nation the accession of a Protestant king was regarded as out of the question, and the League, in alliance with Spain, entered on a period of 4. Defense renewed activity. In the war of of Henry's pamphlets that ensued, Du Plessis Claim to naturally appeared as the most promithe Sue- nent defender of the legitimate claims cession, of Henry of Navarre. With untiring energy he poured forth a succession of state documents, letters, instructions, and formal argumentations, all expressive of devoted' faith in a prince to whom he looked as the coming disseminator of Evangelistic teaching throughout the world. In the war of the Three Henrys which followed the Edict of Nemours in 1585, Du Plessis acted as governor of the important fortress of Montauban and took part in the battle of Coutras (Oct. 20, 1587), Henry's first great victory, and in the unsuccessful siege of Saint-Nazaire. At the political assembly of the Huguenots at La Rochelle in 1588, he exercised his accustomed function of mediator between Henry and the Protestant leaders, and was elected president of the council entrusted with the management of the affairs of the party and its representation at court. The assassination of the Guises at Blois in December of the same year led to a temporary alliance between Henry III. and the king of Navarre against the League, negotiated by Du Plessis, who received the command of the important city of Saumur, which had been assigned as a stronghold to the Huguenots. He fought by the side of Henry of Navarre at Ivry (March 14, 1590) and was present at the siege of Rouen, in the course of which he made a journey to England to solicit the aid of Elizabeth.
The resistance of the League had convinced Henry of Navarre that the crown of France was not to be gained so long as he remained a Protestant, and the problem became one merely of rendering his change of religion as little odious as possible. In the negotiations that preceded the king's abjuration of the Huguenot faith Du Plessis appears as the victim of Henry's double dealing. Fond as he was of theological disputation, he felt convinced that an open debate on the rival merits of the warring confessions, could not but serve to strengthen the king in his hereditary faith, and in this spirit of confidence he negotiated with the representative of the League a treaty by which Henry agreed to place himself under Roman Catholic instruction in order to test the truth of the
Du Plessis-Mornay
Durand