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PIERRE DE MARCA (1594-1662)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 682 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PIERRE DE See also:MARCA (1594-1662)  , See also:French See also:prelate and historian, was See also:born at Gan, near See also:Pau, on the 24th of See also:January 1594 . His See also:family was known among judicial circles in the 16th See also:century, and maintained the See also:Roman See also:Catholic faith after the See also:official introduction of the Reformed See also:religion into See also:Navarre . After having studied See also:law at the university of See also:Toulouse he practised successfully at Pau . But he was ambitious, and turned to a larger See also:sphere . He ardently called for the armed intervention of See also:King See also:Louis XIII. in See also:Beam, and on this occasion published his first See also:writing, Discours d'un Bearnais, tres fidele sujet du roi, sur l'edit du retablissement de l'exercice de la religion catholique dons tout le Beam (1618) . After the easy See also:campaign of 162o, the possessions which had been taken by the Protestants were given back to the Roman Catholic See also:church; this task was performed, under his supervision, with See also:judgment and moderation . During the See also:siege of La Rochelle he performed a See also:mission which brought him in See also:touch with See also:Richelieu, who shortly after-wards nominated him See also:intendant de See also:justice in Bearn (1631), and in 1639 summoned him to See also:Paris with the See also:title of counsellor of See also:state . The following See also:year, the question of the intervention of See also:kings in the See also:election of bishops having been raised in a pamphlet by See also:Charles See also:Hersent (Optatus See also:Gallus de cavendo schismate, 1640), See also:Marca defended what were then called the liberties of the Gallican Church, in his celebrated See also:treatise De See also:concordia sacerdotii et imperii, seu de libertatibus ecclesiae gallicanae (1641) . He was soon rewarded for this service . Although he had not yet taken even the See also:minor See also:holy orders, he was nominated See also:bishop of Couserans by the king on the 28th of See also:December 1641, but the See also:pope refused to give his See also:sanction . It was only after Marca had formally denied those propositions contained in De concordia which were displeasing to See also:Rome that he was proclaimed in the See also:consistory (See also:Jan . 13, 1648) .

During this See also:

time, and until 165x, he was See also:governor of the See also:province of See also:Catalonia, then occupied by the French . After the Treaty of the See also:Pyrenees, he was sent to See also:direct the See also:conference which had been formed to See also:fix the limits of See also:Roussillon, which had just been ceded to See also:France (r66o) . Marca now interested himself in the fortunes of See also:Mazarin, and remained faithful to him even during the See also:Fronde . As a recompense, he was nominated See also:archbishop of Toulouse (May 28, 1652), but had to wait for the bulls of See also:investiture till the 23rd of See also:March 1654 . It was difficult for him to please both pope and king . In the struggle against the Jansenists he used all the See also:influence he had with the See also:clergy to secure the passage of the apostolic constitution of the 31st of March 1653 (Relation de ce qui s'est fail depuis 1653 Bans See also:les assemblees See also:des eveeques au sujet des cinq propositions, 1657); but in the See also:rebellion raised by See also:Retz, archbishop of Paris, against the king, he took the See also:part of the king against the pope . See also:Michel Le Tellier having ordered him to refute a thesis of the See also:college of Clermont on the See also:infallibility of the pope, Marca wrote a treatise which was most Gallican in its ideas, but refused to publish it for fear of See also:drawing down " the indignation of Rome." These See also:tactics were successful, and when Retz, weary of a struggle without definite results, resigned the archbishopric, Marca became his successor (Feb . 26, 1662) . He did not derive much profit from this new favour, as he died on the 29th of See also:June following, without his nomination having been sanctioned by the pope . Marca, See also:clever and covetous, was also an historian of See also:note . When very See also:young he showed his See also:interest in the past See also:history of his native See also:land, and in 1617, at the See also:age of twenty-three, he had set to See also:work looking through archives, copying charters, and corresponding with the See also:principal men of learning of his time, the See also:brothers See also:Dupuy, See also:Andre See also:Duchesne and See also:Jean Besly, whom he visited in See also:Poitou . His Histoire de Bearn was published at Paris in 164o .

It was not so well received as his De concordia, but is more appreciated by posterity . If Marca's See also:

criticism is too often undecided, both in the See also:ancient epochs, where he supports the See also:text by a certain amount of guesswork and in certain points where he touches on religion, yet he always gives the text correctly . A number of chapters end with an irlteresting collection of charters . It is to be regretted that this incomplete work does not go beyond 1300 . During his See also:long stay in Catalonia he made preparations for a See also:geographical and See also:historical description of this province, which was See also:bound to France by so many See also:political and See also:literary associations . See also:Baluze, who became his secretary in 1656, helped him with the work and finished it, adding clever appendices and See also:publishing the whole in 1688 under the title Marca hispanica . Marca married See also:Marguerite de Forgues on the 4th of June 1618, and had one son and three daughters . His son, Galactoire, who was See also:president of the See also:parlement of Navarre, died on the loth of See also:February 1689 . Marca's See also:biography was written in Latin by two of his intimate See also:friends, See also:Etienne Baluze, his secretary (Epistola ad Samuelem Sorbierium, de vita, gestis et scriptis Petri de Marca, Paris, 1663), and his See also:cousin, See also:Paul de Faget (at the beginning of a collection of Marca's theological See also:pamphlets, first published by Paul de Faget in 1668) . This contained four See also:treatises on the See also:Eucharist, the See also:sacrifice of the See also:Mass, the erection of the patriarchate of See also:Constantinople (in Latin), and the See also:sacrament of the Eucharist (in French) . It was supposed to contain heretical propositions and caused a See also:good See also:deal of See also:scandal, inciting Baluze against Faget, both of whom abused the other, to defend the memory of the prelate . See See also:Bayle's See also:article in the Dictionnaire historiqua et critique (s.v .

Marca "), and the See also:

Vie de Marca In the Histoire de Bearn (vol. i., 1894) of V . Dubarat .

End of Article: PIERRE DE MARCA (1594-1662)
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