Jacques-Auguste de Thou a So-called Negroe president of the Parliament f Paris and royal librarian to Henry IV of France, wrote a congratulatory letter to King James VI of Scotland who had recently ascended the English throne. De Thous purpose, apart from celebrating the lose joining of the French, Scottish, and English royal houses in Jamess lineage, was to present the monarch with a copy of his recently published book. This was the first volume of the Historia sui temporis, a work which was soon to be regarded as one of the authoritative histories o the tumultuous events in France and Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century. Henry IV, said de Thou, had urged him to send the British king a copy, and he had generously said that it should be inscribed to James. De Thous letter specifically asked James, who was now cultivating new friendships and taking on new duties, to promote the concord of the Church with common consent, rather than limiting himself to establishing peace within his won borders. Religious reconciliation, particularly in France, had long been one of de Thous major concerns. Brought up and educated during the French religious wars, he had intended at one time to enter the priesthood of the Romans Catholic Church, but he had become instead, a lawyer active in public life and had served as counsellor to both Henry III and Henry IV. While President of the Parliament of Paris, the central law court of France, he had helped to negotiate the Edict of Nantes which guaranteed French Protestants a large measure of religious freedom and brought more than three decades of civil war to an end. His history of this period, written in Latin so as not to inflame popular feeling, traced the efforts of moderate political and religious leaders to find a solution to the conflicts rending the social fabric of the nation. In his dedication of the history to Henry IV, written in 1601, de Thou paid tribute to the efforts of the French king in bringing about a judicious religious settlement. Differences over religion, he noted in the dedication, had provoked continuous warfare in the Christian world for the better part of century . Flames, exile, and proscriptions had done more to irritate than to heal afflictions of the spirit. Persecution had only strengthened resistance and inspired dissidents greater efforts. What was needed was to draw together by moderate conversations and by pacific conferences those who otherwise seemed bent on confrontation, even and violence. Using specific examples, de Thou endeavored to show that princes who preferred sweetness to the force of arms for terminating wars of religion, even on disadvantageous terms, have acted prudently and in conformity with the maxims for ancient Church. It was for this challenging task of religious reconciliation that de Thous letter and book sought to recruit James, a monarch who now reigned over three nations in the British Isles and could significantly influence European religious and political affairs. 1 Corinthians 1:[10] Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. If de Thous audacious request that James commit himself to the cause of Christian unity is surprising the Kings reply is equally so. In his letter from Westminster on March, 1605, James thanked de Thou for his letter and book, and declared that he took in good part de Thous exhortation that he participate in the union of the Church by helping to compose the differences which prevail in Religion. He assured de Thou that he was not only well disposed to this enterprise but wholeheartedly committed to it. James declared that he had never been of a sectarian spirit nor resistant to the well-being of Christendom. He wished, moreover, that all Princes and Potentates were toughed by the same inclination and desire as he Jamess hope was to achieve and manage a work so worthy and important to that god conclusion, namely to the solace and universal peace o Christendom. The king thereby pledged to be an active participant in a movement aimed at bringing about a new era of religious peace and concord in Europe. This exchange of letters between a Catholic historian and jurist, closely associated with the king of France, and a Protestant king, brought up as a Calvinist in Scotland and now the Supreme Governor of the Church of England is striking the concern both men showed for a religious peace beyond their won national borders. Neither de Thou nor James was content to see religious issues dealt with only on one side of the English Channel. Both felt that religious differences posed a serious threat to the Europe of which their countries were a part; both believed that a broader, more permanent settlement was urgently needed. Their letters speak of the concord of the Church, not the churches, and they stress the well-being of Christendom. De Thou made Paris a center of irenic activity by his scholarship and by his correspondence with statesmen, scholar, and religious leaders. James devoted a great deal of his time for more than two decades on the English throne to the task he had agreed to help carry out indeed, he had already begun this work through diplomatic channels, as de Thou was probably aware. Jacques Auguste de Thou (Thuanus) (October 8, 1553, Paris – May 7, 1617, Paris) was a French historian, book collector and president of the Parlement de Paris. He was the grandson of Augustin de Thou, president of the parlement of Paris (d. 1544), and the third son of Christophe de Thou (d. 1582), premier président of the same parlement, who had had ambitions to produce a history of France. His uncle was Nicolas de Thou, Bishop of Chartres (1573–1598). With this family background, he developed a love of literature, a firm but tolerant piety, and a loyalty to the Crown. At seventeen, he began his studies in law, first at Orléans, later at Bourges, where he made the acquaintance of François Hotman, and finally at Valence, where he had Jacques Cujas for his teacher and Joseph Justus Scaliger as a friend. He was at first intended for the Church; he received the minor orders, and on the appointment of his uncle Nicolas to the episcopate succeeded him as a canon of Notre-Dame de Paris. During the next ten years he seized every opportunity for profitable travel. In 1573 he accompanied Paul de Foix on an embassy, which enabled him to visit most of the Italian courts; he formed a friendship with Arnaud dOssat (afterwards Bishop of Rennes, bishop of Bayeux and a cardinal), who was secretary to the ambassador. In the following year he formed part of the brilliant cortege which brought King Henry III back to France, after his flight from his Polish kingdom. He also visited several parts of France, and at Bordeaux met Michel de Montaigne. On the death of his elder brother Jean (April 5, 1579), who was maître des requêtes to the parlement, his relations prevailed on him to leave the Church, and he entered the parlement and got married (1588). In the same year he was appointed conseiller détat. He served faithfully both Henry III and Henry IV, because they both represented legitimate authority. He succeeded his uncle Augustin as président à mortier (1595), and used his authority in the interests of religious peace. He negotiated the Edict of Nantes with the Protestants, while in the name of the principals of the Gallican Church he opposed the recognition of the Council of Trent. After the death of Henry IV, de Thou had a disappointment; the queen regent, Marie de Medici, refused him the position of premier président of the parlement, appointing him instead as a member of the Conseil des finances intended to take the place of Sully. This was to him a demotion; he continued, however, to serve under her, and took part in the negotiations of the treaties concluded at Ste Menehould (1614) and Loudun (1616). He died in Paris. His attitude exposed him to the animosity of the League party and of the Holy See, and to their persecution when the first edition of his history appeared. This history was his lifes work. In a letter of March 31, 1611, addressed to the president Pierre Jeannin, he described his labours. His materials were drawn from his rich library, which he established in the Rue des Poitevins in the year 1587, with the two brothers, Pierre and Jacques Dupuy, as librarians. His object was to produce a scientific and unbiased work, and for this reason he wrote it in Latin, giving it as title Historia sui temporis. The first 18 books, embracing the period from 1545–1560, appeared in 1604 (1 vol. folio), and the work was at once attacked by those whom the author himself calls les envieux et les factieux. The second part, dealing with the first wars of religion (1560–1572) including the St. Bartholomews Day massacre, was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (November 9, 1609). The third part (up to 1574), and the fourth (up to 1584), which appeared in 1607 and 1608, caused a similar outcry, in spite of de Thous efforts to remain just and impartial. He carried his scruples to the point of forbidding any translation of his book into French, because in the process there might, to use his own words, be committed great faults and errors against the intention of the author; this, however, did not prevent the Jesuit Father Machault from accusing him of being a false Catholic, and worse than an open heretic (1614); de Thou, we may say, was a member of the third order of St Francis. As an answer to his detractors, he wrote his Mémoires, which are a useful complement to the History of his own Times. To de Thou we also owe certain other works: a treatise De re accipitraria (1784), a Life, in Latin, of Papyre Masson, some Poemata sacra, etc.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 18:05:28 +0000
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