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Charles Perrot (1541-1608): His Opinion on a Writing of Georg Cassander
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
Extract
Charles Perrot, a contemporary and colleague of Theodore Beza, came from a well-known French family belonging to the noblesse de robe. He was born in Paris in 1541, and seems to have spent a number of years as a monk, before joining the Reformation movement. In 1564, at twenty-three years old, he enrolled in the Academy of Geneva. That same year saw him called to the ministry in Moens and Genthoz, not far from Geneva. Having acquired the citizenship of Geneva in 1567, he was appointed minister in this city a year later, a position he was to hold for forty years, until his death in 1608, his delicate health notwithstanding. In addition, he occasionally deputized for Beza as professor at the Academy, where during two periods (1570-2 and 1588–92) he acted as rector.
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- Part I. The Church in Europe
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References
1 For the bibliography of Perrot, see the list in Stelling-Michaud, Suzanne, Le Livre du Recteur de l’Académie de Genève (1559–1878), 5, ns (Geneva, 1976)Google Scholar, 132; Vries, H[erman] de [Heekelingen, van], Genève, pépinière du Calvinisme Hollandais, 2 vols (Fribourg, 1918; La Haye, 1924)Google Scholar; Vivanti, Corrado, Lotta politico epacereligiosa in Franciafra Cinque e Seicento (Turin, 1963; repr. 1964)Google Scholar. For the Perrot family, see the fine contribution by Zuber, R., ‘Humanistes parisiens en Champagne (1560-1610). Les origines familiales de Perrot d’Ablancourt’, Mémoires de la société d’agriculture, commerce, sciences el arts du département de la Mame, 89 (1974), pp. 125–48Google Scholar, esp. pp. 135–8 on Charles Perrot.
2 On Cellérier, see Courvoisier, J. in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenart, set. 3, 1 (Tübingen, 1956), 1630Google Scholar.
3 Cellérier, J.-E., ‘Trois hommes de paix au 16e siècle’, La seule chose nècessaire. Receuil mensuel d’édification Chrétienne (Harlem, 1856–7Google Scholar), ‘Charles Perrot, pasteur genevois au seizieme siecle. Notice biographique’, Memoires et documents publ. par la sociéty d’histoire et d’archéologie de Geneve, 11 (1859), pp. 1–68 [; Notice biogr], and ‘Charles Perrot, son histoire et ses lettres’, [Extrait des] Entrennes Religieuses pour 1861 (Genèva, 1861) [= Perrot].
4 This opinion can be found, among other places, in the work of Maronier mentioned in n. 6 below.
5 Borgeaud, Charles, Histoire de l’Université de Genève. L’Académic de Calvin, 1559–1798, 1 (Geneva, 1900), p. 140Google Scholar. For the same reason the University of Leiden took a similar decision on 11 March 1578. Molhuysen, Cf. P. C., Bronnen tot de geschiedenis der Leidsche Universiteit (Gravenhage, 1913), pp. 55–7Google Scholar.
6 Cf.Maronier, J. H., Jacobus Arminius (Amsterdam, 1905), pp. 39ffGoogle Scholar; Bangs, Carl, Arminius. A Study in the Dutch Reformation (Nashville and New York, 1971), pp. 76ffGoogle Scholar.
7 The discussion between Uytenbogaart, and Casaubon, from 1610 in Praestantium ac eruditorum virorum epistolae ecclesiasticae (Amsterdam, 1660), p. 324 [= ed. 1704, p. 250Google Scholar]: quoted by Brandt, G., Historic der Reformatie, 11 (Amsterdam, 1674), pp. 121ffGoogle Scholar. See also Pattison, Mark, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614 (Oxford, 1892; repr. Geneva, 1970), pp. 222–5Google Scholar.
8 Cellérier, Perrot, p. 6.
9 Ibid., p. 8.
10 Cellérier, , Notice, pp. 44–68Google Scholar; see also Borgeaud, Histoire, pp. 306, 337.
11 Cf.Dorez, L., Catalogue de la collection Dupuy, Table alphabérique (Paris, 1928)Google Scholar.
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17 Syllabus I was added to the reissue by Hotman of Cassander’s anonymously edited De officio pii ac publicae tranquillitatis vere amanti viri, in hoc Religionis dissidio (Paris, 1607), pp. 38–48. (For Perrot, p. 42.)
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19 Hotmanniana, 2, no. S2, fols 121r-3v. The ‘Advis surlelivrede Cassandre intitulé De officio pii ac publicae tranquillitatis vere amantis viri’ in MS BN Dupuy 477, fol. 144, is a late copy erroneously ascribed to Pithou, N.; Vivanti, cf., Lotta politica, p. 240, n. 4.Google Scholar
20 See, e.g., Kantzenbach, F. W., Das Ringen um die Einheit der Kirche im Jahrhundert der Reformalion. Vertreter, Quellen und Motive des ‘ökumenischen’ Gedankens von Erasmus von Rotterdam bis Georg Calixt (Stuttgart, 1957), pp. 207ff.Google Scholar and the literature mentioned there.
21 Stauffer, Richard, ‘Autour de Colloque de Poissy: Calvin et le “De officio pii viri ac publicae tranquillitatis vere amantis viri”’, Actes du Colloque I’Amiral de Colignyetson temps (Paris 24–20 oct. 1972) (Paris, 1974), pp. 135–54Google Scholar; Stegmann, A., ‘G. Cassander, victime des orthodoxies’, Aspects du Libertinisme au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1974), pp. 199–214Google Scholar.
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23 Hotmanniana, 1, no. 7, entitled ‘Le Debvoir de l’homme de bien et d’sireux du repos public en ce différent de religion’, fols 41–50.
24 The present author is preparing an article on the relationship between Hotman and Cassander.
25 Posthumus Meyjes, G. H. M., ‘L’Examen Pacifique de la doctrine des Huguenots et son auteur (1589). Henry Constable et la Critique’, LIAS 14 (1987), pp. 1–14Google Scholar.
26 This was a frequently recurring issue at that time, the implications of which are not fully clear to me. It is my impression that the argument was used mainly by advocates of a strong government authority in sacris, arguing that the Church was a public institution in which only the public body had the right of decision-making. For this reason, only those officially appointed were competent to reform the Church.
27 Cassander, De officiopii viri, in Opera omnia (Paris, 1616), p. 783: ‘Cum haec traditio nihil aliud sit, quam scripturae ipsius explicatio et interpretation ita ut non inepta did posset, scripturam esse implicatam quandam et obsignatam traditionem, traditionem vero esse scripturam explicatam et resignatam.’
28 What is particularly remarkable is that Perrot did not mention Calvin’s refutation of Cas- sander’s writing at all, and probably did not even know it.
29 In spite of Cellérier’s article (Perrot) mentioned above (n. 2), Perrot’s 45 letters in the Dupuy collection (MSS BN Dupuy 103, fol. 127; 699, fols 104–7; 700 fols 161–200; 806, fol. 107, 108) and one in MS BN fr. nouv. acq. 22740 ( Dorez, cf. M. L. in Bulletin d’histoire du comitedes travaux historiques (1916), pp. 276ff.Google Scholar) are too little known and insufficiently examined. They date back to the years 1590–1606 and, with a very few exceptions (e.g. MS BN Dupuy 806, fols 107 and 108, to J. A. de Thou) are addressed to his friend Nicolas Pithou de Changobert in Basle. They are interesting witnesses, providing evidence of his concerns and poignantly revealing his anguish over the age he lived in. Apart from the fathers of the Early Church, and Bernard, Luther, Erasmus, Melanchthon, Claude d’Espence, Jean du Tillet, Ponet (Dialecti- con), Lambert Daneau fmon singulier ami’), Stapleton, and Bellarmine are mentioned.
30 Biographically interesting is Perrot’s letter to N. Pithou, 10 June (1601) (MS BN Dupuy 700, fol. 185). Speaking about certain brotherhood, and parish, festivals, participation in what he strongly advised against because of their superstitious character, he then continued: ‘Nostre Seigneur me pardone de ne l’avoir autrefois aprehende en l’occasion au banquet de feu monsieur DuDrac en la confrairie des jeunes advocatz au palais l’an [15)63.’ Presumably he was referring to Adrien II du Drac. Cf. Éidouard Maugis, Histoire du Parlement de Paris de I’avènement des wis Valois è U mort djienri W (Paris, 1916), p. 175. The wording confirms Perrot’s close connection with the Parliament and magistracy in Paris in his youth.
31 The admiration for ‘the light’ that God had granted to the world in the sixteenth century, expressed in his Advis (i. 141ff.), is confirmed by statements in the letters to Pithou. For instance, 15 May 1593 (MS BN Dupuy 700, fol. 198 bis): ‘Je suis apres a passer le troisieme tome de Bellarminus… auquel il me donne tant plus a admirer t’ceuvre que nostre Seigneur a monstreen ce demier siecle [my italics]…’; 30 Oct. 1597 (fol. 162): ‘Je desirois que nostre siecle eust peu profiter selon les ceuvres qui s’en sontpresentees du commencement [my ital.]’; ‘Ce qui n’a succede en la plus part, et s’en retire plus que ci devant, partie pour ne nous estre asssez humiliez envers celui qui estait voulu entrer au jugement par sa propre maison pour le grand bien d’icelle, partie pour avoir estime, avoir tout fait quand on a bien dit, mais tant moinsfait [my ital.]’; ‘et avoir trop fonde sur l’importunite et de l’appui et support du monde …’; 23 Aug. 1601 (fol. 179): ‘Mais il [sett. Stapleton] m’a fait penser combien il y a a adviser de bien orthotomiser la verite (II Tim. 2.15), comme en parle St. Paul, y ayant a requerir en cet esgard en ceux qui au demeurant ont enseigne la verite par le singulier don et support de nostre Seigneur en ce siecle demier [my ital.].’
32 To N. Pithou, 23 Aug. 1601 (MS BN Dupuy 700, fol. 179): ‘Les medecins sont les plus malades et ne le pensent nullement. On tomba la apres le premier calme exterieur a la chrestiente sous Constantin. On a recherche l’orthodoxie, et a bon droit, t’orthovie est demeuree en arriere [my ital.].’ See also n. 31 above.
33 To N. Pithou, 6 Aug. 1593 (MS BN Dupuy 700, fol. 198): ‘Nostre siecle m’a semble quelque fois nous promettre quelqu’enfantement mais ce qu’Erasme en escrivoit… n’est que trop vray: Mundus jampridem abortit et nescio an umquam vivum erit pariturus. C’est le temps de la retraite, en tant qu’un chascun y pense pour soy, puisqu’en gros et en commun on se pert par les montagnes’; 22 April 1569 (fol. 197): ‘C’est le terns de la revue et de la recherche du Seigneur, lequel est cache de devant nos yeux, afin que son jugement nous surprenne et nous soyons sans excuse …’: 23 Feb. 1598 (fol. 182): ‘Nostre siecle est plus charnel que jamais, pourtant faut-il qu’il seme comme le Seigneur abrege son terme pour le bien des siens’; 28 Apr. 1597 (fol. 200): ‘Nostre siecle a besoin de patience et de gemissement. Tempos orandi, non inquirendi’; 30 Oct. 1597 (fol. 162): ‘Nostre siecle est sujet a des paroxysmes dont il ne fait son profit come il serait a desirer. L’Eglise apostolique a eu de telz assaultz, mais Pesprit du Seigneur a toujours tire sa lumiere des tenebres’; 5 Dec. 1597 (fol. 180): ‘Je ne voy en nostre siecle qu’un accroissement et continuation de banquerotte de bien …’; 30 Jan. 1595