De l'Hôpital

Summary

[Michel de l'Hôpital, chancellor from 1560 to 1568, was, in Bayle's judgement, a statesman comparable to Cicero. For he had sympathised with the ideas of reform and he had taught future generations that even in corrupt times an honourable law maker could pursue peace through persistent negotiation. Bayle draws on letters and memoirs from both sides to explain de l'Hôpital's reluctant severity towards the parlements of his day. Zealots among the Catholic majority, contemptuous of the royal edicts of toleration, had voted for violence against the Reformers. In such conditions only heroic measures could have prevented the majority from fighting illegally, or the minority from arming in self-defence.]

Hôpital (Michel de l'), chancellor of France in the sixteenth century, was one of the greatest men of his time. He was from the Auvergne of an ordinary family, and rose to prominence only gradually [(A)]. He was counsellor in the parlement of Paris when princess Marguerite, sister of king Henry II, having been assigned the duchy of Berri, chose him for her chancellor. He continued with her in the same post in Italy after she had married the duke of Savoy and he was in Nice when he was raised to the office of chancellor of France in 1560 during the reign of Francis II. It was believed that the House of Guise procured that office for him, and that it did so because they supposed that if he were under an obligation [(B)] to them he would do all that they wished.