The Colloquy at Poissy was a religious conference which took place in Poissy, France, in 1561. Its object was to effect a reconciliation between the Roman Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots) of France. [1]
The conference was opened on 9 September in the refectory of the convent of Poissy , [1] King Charles IX (aged 11) himself being present. It broke up inconclusively a month later, on 9 October, by which point the divide between the doctrines appeared irreconcilable.
The Calvinist faction in France was strong and vocal, under the guidance of several princes of the royal blood and members of the higher nobility. The spread of Protestantism, and the application of its fundamental principle of private judgement, produced far-reaching differences in belief. To heal those, and so bring about unity, a conference on free will was held at Weimar in 1560, involving Lutherans Viktor Striegel (1524–69) and Matthias Flacius. [2]
The Poissy conference was arranged by Catherine de' Medici, the Florentine Catholic queen-mother and regent during the minority of her son, Charles IX of France, [2] with the support of the Chancellor Michel de l'Hôpital and the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, Anthony of Navarre. The heads of the Catholic party had attempted to frustrate any form of negotiation. [1]
Disaffection towards the Holy See had paralysed French Catholic activity. The Council of Trent, a general council, was in session under the presidency of Pope Pius IV, but voices were heard, even among the French bishops, advocating the convocation of a separate national synod. Instead, Catherine and her advisers chose a religious conference under the direction of the civil power. The Pope tried to prevent what, under the circumstances, had to be construed by Catholics as the defiance of his ecclesiastical authority. [2]
The Pope sent as papal legate Ippolito d'Este, known as the Cardinal of Ferrara, with Diego Laynez, the second General superior of the Jesuits, as his adviser, to dissuade the regent and the bishops. But the affair had gone too far. At the conference, six French Cardinals and thirty-eight archbishops and bishops, with a host of minor prelates and doctors, spent a month in discussions with the Calvinists. [2] Theodore Beza from Geneva and Peter Martyr Vermigli from Zürich appeared at the colloquy; the German theologians to whom invitations had been despatched only arrived in Paris after the discussion was broken off. [1] Beza was assisted by Nicolas des Gallars, who wrote a report of the conference, for Edmund Grindal, then bishop of London where de Gallars currently had a church. [3] [4]
On 9 September the representatives of the rival denominations began their pleadings. The proceedings were opened by a speech of Chancellor L'Hôpital, who emphasized the right and duty of the monarch to provide for the needs of the Church. Even should a general council be in session, a colloquy between Frenchmen convened by the king was the better way of settling religious disputes; for a general council, being mostly composed of foreigners, was deemed incapable of understanding the wishes and the needs of France. [2]
The spokesman of the Reformed Church was Beza, who, in the first session, gave a lengthy exposition of its tenets. [1] Beza's speech explained the principles of the Reformed understanding of the Eucharist; it was later revised, amended, and published in France. He excited such repugnance by his pronouncements on the Communion that he was interrupted by Cardinal François de Tournon. [1]
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine replied in the second session (16 September). On the motion, however, of Ippolito d'Este, the legate, exception was taken to the further conduct of the negotiations in full conclave; and a committee of twenty-four representatives, twelve from each party, was appointed ostensibly to facilitate a satisfactory decision. [1] On the Catholic side there existed little wish for conciliation.
The Jesuit Laynez then claimed that the divinely appointed judge of the religious controversies was the Pope, not the Court of France. [2] The acrimony with which he opposed the Protestants at least clarified the situation. [1]
Catherine appointed a smaller committee of five Calvinists and five Roman Catholics. Representing the Calvinists were Beza, Vermigli, Gallars, Marlorat and Delespine. [5] Representing the Catholics were the Protestant Bishop of Valence and Archbishop of Sens alongside the Abbot of Salignac, Boutellier, and Claude D'Espence. [5] Their task was to devise a formula on which the two churches might unite with regard to the question of the Eucharist. The Cardinal of Lorraine had asked whether the Calvinists were prepared to sign the Confession of Augsburg, a matter of dissension between them and the Lutheran Protestants. The committee drafted a vague formula which could be interpreted in a Catholic or a Calvinistic sense, and was consequently condemned by both parties. [2] The assemblage of prelates refused assent, [1] and the Calvinists would not commit themselves to the Lutheran Confession. [6]
Subsequently there were meetings at Altenburg (20 October 1568 – 9 March 1569) between the Jena theologians and those from Wittenberg, on free will and justification; [7] and at Montbéliard (1586) between Beza and the Tübingen theologians, on predestination. [2] The Roman Catholic Church continued the Council of Trent until 1563, and issued its own statements on the Eucharist and many other points of contention raised by various Protestant churches.
Theodore Beza was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation. He was a disciple of John Calvin and lived most of his life in Geneva. Beza succeeded Calvin as the spiritual leader of the Republic of Geneva.
Peter Martyr Vermigli was an Italian-born Reformed theologian. His early work as a reformer in Catholic Italy and his decision to flee for Protestant northern Europe influenced many other Italians to convert and flee as well. In England, he influenced the Edwardian Reformation, including the Eucharistic service of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. He was considered an authority on the Eucharist among the Reformed churches, and engaged in controversies on the subject by writing treatises. Vermigli's Loci Communes, a compilation of excerpts from his biblical commentaries organised by the topics of systematic theology, became a standard Reformed theological textbook.
The French Wars of Religion refers to the period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. One of its most notorious episodes was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. The fighting ended with a compromise in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, who had converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed King Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, Catholics continued to disapprove of Protestants and of Henry, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.
Michel de l'Hôpital was a French lawyer, diplomat and chancellor during the latter Italian Wars and the early French Wars of Religion. The son of a doctor in the service of Constable Bourbon he spent his early life exiled from France at Bourbon's and then the emperors court. When his father entered the service of the House of Lorraine, he entered the patronage network of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. Through his marriage to Marie Morin, he acquired a seat in the Paris Parlement. In this capacity he drew up the charges for the king, concerning the defenders of Boulogne who surrendered the city in 1544, before taking a role as a diplomat to the Council of Trent in 1547. The following year he assisted Anne d'Este in the details of her inheritance to ensure she could marry Francis, Duke of Guise.
Francis I of Lorraine, 2nd Duke of Guise, 1st Prince of Joinville, and 1st Duke of Aumale, was a French general and statesman. A prominent leader during the Italian War of 1551–1559 and French Wars of Religion, he was assassinated during the siege of Orleans in 1563.
Crypto-Calvinism is a pejorative term describing a segment of those members of the Lutheran Church in Germany who were accused of secretly subscribing to Calvinist doctrine of the Eucharist in the decades immediately after the death of Martin Luther in 1546. It denotes what was seen as a hidden Calvinist belief, i.e., the doctrines of John Calvin, by members of the Lutheran Church. The term crypto-Calvinist in Lutheranism was preceded by terms Zwinglian and Sacramentarian. Also, Jansenism has been accused of crypto-Calvinism by Roman Catholics.
The Edict of Saint-Germain, also known as the Edict of January, was a landmark decree of tolerance promulgated by the regent of France, Catherine de' Medici, in January 1562. The edict provided limited tolerance to the Protestant Huguenots in the Catholic realm, though with counterweighing restrictions on their behaviour. The act represented the culmination of several years of slowly liberalising edicts which had begun with the 1560 Edict of Amboise. After two months the Paris Parlement would be compelled to register it by the rapidly deteriorating situation in the capital. The practical impact of the edict would be highly limited by the subsequent outbreak of the first French Wars of Religion but it would form the foundation for subsequent toleration edicts as the Edict of Nantes of 1598.
Louis de Lorraine, cardinal de Guise et prince-évêque de Metz was a French Roman Catholic cardinal and Bishop during the Italian Wars and French Wars of Religion. The third son of Claude, Duke of Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon he was destined from a young age for a church career. At the age of 18 he was appointed Bishop of Troyes, a position he could only serve in an administrative capacity as he would not reach the Canonical Age for another 9 years. Having served in this position for 5 years, he transferred to become Bishop of Albi, staying in this role until 1561, when he was replaced due to his lethargic suppression of 'heresy'. From here he moved to become Archbishop of Sens, a see he would hold from 1561 to 1562, during which time a massacre of Protestants would occur in the city. By 1562 he decided to retire from active episcopal involvement. Nevertheless, he would become Prince-Bishop of Metz in 1568, an office he would hold until his death a decade later. While he lacked much interest in spiritual matters and was renowned for his drinking, he built up a considerable empire of abbeys during his life, which he passed on to his nephew Claude, chevalier d'Aumale.
Nicolas des Gallars [in Lat. Gallasius], was a Calvinist pastor and theologian.
The Reformed Church of France was the main Protestant denomination in France with a Calvinist orientation that could be traced back directly to John Calvin. In 2013, the Church merged with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in France to form the United Protestant Church of France.
Odet de Coligny was a French aristocrat, cardinal, Bishop-elect of Beauvais, Peer of France, and member of the French Royal Council. From 1534 he was usually referred to as the Cardinal of Châtillon.
Calvinism originated with the Reformation in Switzerland when Huldrych Zwingli began preaching what would become the first form of the Reformed doctrine in Zürich in 1519.
Claude de Sainctes was a French Catholic controversialist.
François de Tournon was a French Augustinian friar, an archbishop, diplomat, courtier, and cardinal. From 1536 he was also a military supply officer of French forces operating in Provence, Savoy and Piedmont. In the same year he founded the Collège de Tournon. For a period he was effectively France's foreign minister. He was a prominent leader in the fight against Lutheranism and Calvinism, especially at the French Royal Court, and what he perceived as the growing Huguenot menace to both doctrinal orthodoxy and the social order. He took a prominent role in the Estates General of 1560, the Colloquy of Poissy and the Colloquy of Saint-Germain in 1562. He participated in the papal conclaves of 1534, 1549, and 1559.
Jean de Monluc, c. 1508 to 12 April 1579, was a French nobleman, clergyman, diplomat and courtier. He was the second son of François de Lasseran de Massencome, a member of the Monluc family; and Françoise d' Estillac. His birthplace is unknown, but it has been observed that his parents spent a great deal of time at their favorite residence at Saint-Gemme in the commune of Saint-Puy near Condom. His elder brother Blaise de Montluc became a soldier and eventually Marshal of France (1574).
Protestantism in France has existed in its various forms, starting with Calvinism and Lutheranism since the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin was a Frenchman, as were numerous other Protestant Reformers including William Farel, Pierre Viret and Theodore Beza, who was Calvin's successor in Geneva. Peter Waldo was a merchant from Lyons, who founded a pre-Protestant group, the Waldensians. Martin Bucer was born a German in Alsace, which historically belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, but now belongs to France.
Jakob Beurlin was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer.
Events from the year 1561 in France
The Estates General of 1560-1 was a national meeting of the three estates of France, the clergy, nobility and commoners convoked by François II, though he would die before it could begin. It represented the first meeting of the estates general in 76 years, the last one having been convened by Charles VIII at Tours. Meeting at Orléans the estates would be tasked with providing solutions to the crowns dire fiscal problems, a legacy of the Habsburg–Valois Wars, and the growing religious problem caused by the Reformation. The estates would however be unable to finish their deliberations, with Catherine de' Medici proroguing the session, and reconvening the estates general at a later date in 1561 at Pontoise, where she sought a more agreeable selection of delegates. Ultimately the work of the estates would solve neither the crowns fiscal insolvency or the religious conflict, which exploded in the Wars of Religion.
The Edict of Saint-Maur was a prohibitive religious edict, promulgated by Charles IX of France at the outbreak of the third war of religion. The edict revoked the tolerance that had been granted to Protestantism, in the edicts of Saint-Germain, Amboise and the peace of Longjumeau. The edict forbade the exercise of any religion other than Catholicism in the kingdom of France, and gave Protestants 15 days to vacate the kingdom. Ultimately the edict would be overturned in the landmark peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye at the end of the third religious war in 1570 which restored recognition to Protestantism, alongside many other concessions.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Loughlin, James Francis (1909). "Religious Discussions". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company.