Simon Vigor

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Simon Vigor (b. at

, 1 November 1575) was a French Catholic bishop and controversialist.

Life

Son of Raynaud Vigor, a court physician, he went to Paris about 1520, where his studies included Greek, Hebrew, and Latin; later he devoted himself to theology. Admitted to the College of Navarre in 1540, in the same year he became rector of the University of Paris. In 1545 he became a doctor of theology and was appointed penitentiary of Evreux. Thenceforth he devoted himself to pastoral and controversial preaching, with great success.

He was called upon to speak at Rouen, Paris, Metz, and elsewhere. When conferences took place at

.

On his return to France, Vigor became pastor of the Church of St. Paul-de-Paris, the royal parish, theologian of the chapter of Notre-Dame de Paris, and court preacher. He preached against the Protestants with an ardour which drew on him for some of his propositions (March, 1564) if not the censure, at least the displeasure, of the Sorbonne. He converted several of them, among others Pierre Pithou.

After preaching at

the defeat of the ministers was so overwhelming that the subsequent Calvinist synod forbade conferences to be held thenceforth with Catholics.

These successes had made Vigor famous when in 1572

. After his consecration he went to his diocese, long without a resident bishop. He never returned to Paris or to his home, being wholly engaged in converting the Protestants of his own and the neighbouring dioceses, in which work death overtook him.

After his death the

in a letter to Gregory XIII called him the Athanasius or Hilary of his time, and Duval praised him as a model of learning and piety, a pillar of the Roman Church.

Works

There were edited after his death five volumes of his Sermons ou prédications chrétiennes et catholiques (Paris, 1577–88); several times reprinted.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Simon Vigor". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

• Launoy, Regii Navarrae gymnasii parisiensis historia in Opera omnia, IV (Paris, 1732), pt. i;
• Louis Ellies du Pin, Hist. des auteurs eccl. du XVII siecle, II (Paris, 1703), pt. ii;
• Pierre Féret [fr], La faculte de theologie de Paris: epoque moderne, II (Paris, 1901), 181.