THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
doctrines of the Church. Too late Du Plessis discovered that his project of a public disputation was not to be realized and that Henry had used him for his own ends. The old friendship between the two was thereby destroyed, and though Du Plessis remained in Henry's service and was concerned in many important affairs of state, he was no longer the spokesman of the king. The loss of royal favor, however, brought no end to the active
5. Activ- career of Du Plessis. As governor of
ities as Saumur he devoted himself to the
Governor of strengthening of the fortress and the
Saumur. improvement of the surrounding district. With his own means he founded in 1593 the Protestant university of Saumur, which, till its suppression by Louis XIV. in 1685, was the most important and influential of Protestant theological schools in France. As arbitrator between the Huguenots and the king, he was an especially important figure during the years preceding the promulgation of the edict of Nantes, when the favor shown by Henry IV. to the great Roman Catholic nobles roused among the Huguenots fear of the resumption of persecution. At the assembly of Nantes in 1593 the first steps toward the Edict of Nantes were taken in the formulation of the Huguenot demands. Of greater importance was the Synod of Sainte Foy in the following year, where the organization of the Huguenot party was carried out in accordance with the plans formulated by Du Plessis. Although he took no share in the negotiations leading up to the Edict of Nantes or in the drafting of that document, its provisions must be regarded as largely the result of his long activity in the councils of the king. As the most prominent among Protestant statesmen and theologians Du Plessis received at this time the nickname of the Huguenot Pope.
In July, 1598, Du Plessis published at La Rochelle De V institution, usage et doctrine du saint sacrement de I'eucharistie enl'eglise ancienne (Eng. transl., The Institution, Usage, and Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament, London, 1600), a work representing many years of labor and comprising in addition to the main attack on the mass, a polemic against other Roman Catholic doctrines. Over 5,000 quotations from the Scriptures, the Church Fathers, and the medieval theologians constituted a formidable array of evidence and bore testimony to the learning of its author. It was regarded not only as 6. His a monumental apology for the Re- Great formed faith, but as the reply of the
Polemic. Protestants to the king's conversion. The Roman Curia and the Sorbonne expressed their condemnation of the work and many rejoinders were published. In 1600 Davy Duperron, bishop of Evreux, formulated the charge against Du Plessis that a large proportion of the citations adduced by him were either entirely false or incorrectly quoted. Du Plessis thereupon challenged his critic to a public disputation which occurred in the presence of the king and his court at Fontainebleau on May 4, 1600. Du Plessis, as a matter of fact, had not made use of the best editions in compiling his references and was, moreover, unequal in theological learning and dialectic to his opponent;
but what principally led to the latter's triumph was the disingenuous action of the authorities in allowing Du Plessis a single night for the preparation of his side of the case. Deeply humiliated by the result of the disputation, Du Plessis retired to Saumur, where he busied himself with the recasting of his work, which, sanctioned by a general synod, appeared in a second edition at Saumur in 1604.
The death of his only son in 1605 and that of his wife in the following year were severe blows, although they did not draw him away from the sphere of active church politics. After the assassination of Henry IV. (1610), he persevered in his attitude of loyalty to the royal house 7. His In- notwithstanding the machinations of fluence the regent Mary de' Medici against the and Im- Huguenots. His influence was still portance. exerted for peace, and when Conde took up arms in 1615, he was successful in restraining the majority of the Protestants from resorting to violence. The court showed little gratitude. On the outbreak of the religious war of 1621 Du Plessis, in spite of his well-known pacific attitude, was deprived of his governorship of Saumur. Wounded in spirit and half-blind, he retired to his castle of La Foret-sur-Sevre where he died two years later. His principal works, in addition to those mentioned above, were as follows: Lacrimw (Paris, 1606; Eng. transl. by J. Healey, London, 1609), a threnody on the death of his son; Le mystere d'iniquite, c' est a dire, I'histoire de lapapaute (Saumur, 1611; Eng. transl., The Mysterie of Iniquitie that is Historie of the Papacie, by S. Lennard, London, 1612); a.nd Discours et meditations chretiennes (3 vols., Saumur and La Foret, 1609-24). His religious writings show no original contributions in the field of theology; he was too much the polemist to be the pioneer. His importance rests rather in the multifarious activities of his eventful life and in the high example he set of unselfish and steadfast devotion to a cause of the merits of which he was thoroughly convinced. (Thbodor ScHorrf.)
Bibliography: The Sources are: D. Licques, Histoire de la vie de Philippe de Mornay, Leyden, 1647;
Memoires et correspondence . de la Fontenelle, vols, i.-xii., Paris, 1824-25; earlier collections of Memoires appeared at La Foret, 1624-52, and Amsterdam, 1652- 1653; a complete collection of the letters is a desideratum. The best account of the life is in E. Stahelin, Der Uebertrilt . . . Heinrich's IV . zur katholischen Kirche, Basel, 1856; for English readers, H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre, New York, 1886, is very valuable and is detailed. Consult also: G. de Felice, Hist, de protestants de France, Paris, 1850; E. and E. Haag, La France Protestante, vol. vii. ib. 1857; P. de Felice, Les Protestants d'autrefois, 4 vols., Paris, 1897- 1902. His literary activity is well characterized in A. Savous, Ittudes litteraires sur les ecrivains de la Reformation, vol. ii., Paris, 1841.
DURAND, du-rand', OF SAINT POURGAIN, pursan.
His Life (§ 1). His Doctrine of the Sacra- Independence as a Thinker ments (§ 5).
(§2). His SigniBcance as a Teacher Philosophical Position (§ 3). (§ 6).
His Theology (§ 4).
Durand of Saint Pourgain {Durandus de Sancto Porciano), scholastic theologian, bishop of Meaux, was born at Saint Pourgain (85 m. n.w. of Lyons) in