Coeffetau, Nicholas

, a learned Dominican, and bishop of Dardania in partibus, was born at St. Calais on the Maine, in 1574. He rose by his merits to the first charges of his order, and died in 1623, after having been named to the bishopric of Marseilles, by Lewis XIII. He was eloquent in his sermons, and wrote ^Hh purity, considering the age. His principal pieces are a Roman history from Augustus to Constantine, folio, which was read with pleasure in the seventeenth century. It was published in 1647, fol. He translated Florus, and was chosen by Henry IV. of Francej at the recommendation of cardinal du Perron, to answer the book which James I. of England had published; and at the instance of Gregory XV. he wrote against Duplessis Mornay, and Marc. Anton, de Dominis, archbishop of Spalatro his answer to the latter was entitled “Pro sacra monarchia ecclesiae catholic^, &c. libri quatuor Apologetici, adversus Rempublicam M. A. de Dominis, &c.” Paris, 1623, 2 vols. fol. ²