Philippe de Mornay
Philippe de Mornay (5 November 1549 – 11 November 1623), seigneur du Plessis Marly, usually known as Du-Plessis-Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis, was a French
Biography
He was born in
He escaped the
Mornay was gradually recognized as Henry's right-hand man, representing him in England from 1577 to 1578 and again in 1580, and in the Low Countries 1581-1582. During his time in England, both he and his wife befriended English Protestants like
He was bitterly disappointed by Henry IV's abjuration of Protestantism in 1593 and gradually withdrew from the court, devoting himself to the
His last years were saddened by the loss of his only son in 1605 and that of his devoted wife in 1606, but he spent them in perfecting the Huguenot organization. He was chosen a deputy in 1618 to represent the French Protestants at the
Works
In 1598 he published a work on which he had long been engaged, entitled De L'institution, usage et doctrine du saint sacrement de l'eucharistie en l'église ancienne, containing about 5,000 citations from the scriptures, fathers and schoolmen.
His principal works, in addition to those mentioned above, are Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort (London, 1577), a bridal present to Charlotte Arbaleste; Traité de l'Église où l'on traite des principales questions qui ont été mues sur ce point en nostre temps (London, 1578); Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne contre les athées, épicuriens, payens, juifs, mahométans et autres infidèles (Antwerp, 1581); Le mystère d'iniquité, c'est à dire, l'histoire de la papauté (Geneva, 1611). Two volumes of Mémoires, from 1572 to 1589, appeared at La Forêt (1624–1625), and a continuation in 2 vols. at Amsterdam (1652); a more complete but very inaccurate edition (Mémoires, correspondances, et vie) in 12 vols. was published at Paris in 1624-1625. He is also one—many consider the most likely—candidate for being author of the Vindiciae contra tyrannos (1579), a pamphlet advocating resistance to the French crown.
Notes
- ^ Quoted and translated by Pitts 2009, p. 273.
Bibliography
- Life of Mornay written by his wife for the instruction of their son, Mémoires de Mme Duplessis-Mornay, vol.1 in the ed. of Mémoires et correspondences de Duplessis-Mornay (Paris, 1824–1825);
- E. and E. Haag, La France protestante, article "Mornay";
- J. Ambert, Du Plessis-Mornay (Paris, 1847);
- Philippe Bobichon, "La polémique contre les juifs dans les travaux des hébraïsants chrétiens de France", in G. Dahan and Annie Noblesse-Rocher (dir.), Les hébraïsants chrétiens en France, au XVIe siècle, Genève, Droz, 2018, pp. 187–215 online
- Pitts, Vincent J. (2009). Henri IV of France: His Reign and Age. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press. ISBN 9780801890277.
- E. Stahelin, Der Übertritt K. Heinrichs IV. von Frankreich zur katholischen Kirche (Basel, 1856);
- Weiss, Du Plessis Mornay comme théologien (Strassburg, 1867).
- Article "Du Plessis-Mornay" by T. Schott in Hauck's Realencyklopädie
- Article by Grube in Kirchenlexikon.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mornay, Philippe de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 848–849.
