, a French nobleman, and officer of bravery and honour, was a native of Auvergne, and a relative of the marquis La Fayette.
, a French nobleman, and
officer of bravery and honour, was a native of Auvergne,
and a relative of the marquis La Fayette. After having
served in the dragoons, he became colonel of the regiment
of Vexin infantry. Having attained the rank of majorgeneral, the king appointed him governor-general of the
Windward islands. In 1778 he took possession of Dominica, St. Eustatk, and soon after St. Christopher’s, Nevis,
and Montserrat. His conduct while in that command was
allowed by the English commanders to be honourable and
disinterested. On his return, he was made lieutenantgeneral. On the breaking out of the revolution in 1789,
finding that he commanded in the three bishoprics, he
brought back to its duty the revolted garrison of Metz, and
on that occasion saved the life of M. de Pont, intendant of
the province. He afterwards caused Francois de Neufchateau, and two other electors, arrested by order of the
king’s attorney, to be set at liberty. On the 5th of September the same year, the national assembly was informed
by one of its members, Gregoire, that M. de Bouille had
not administered the civic oath individually, and a decree
was passed obliging him to do so. In 1790, he was commissioned to bring under subjection the garrison of Nancy,
which had risen against its chiefs; accordingly he advanced
upon the town with four thousand men, and succeeded in
this enterprize, in which he shewed much bravery, and
which at first gained him great praises from the national
assembly, and afterwards as many reproaches. Being
chosen by the unfortunate Louis XVI. to facilitate his
escape from Paris in June 1791, he marched at the head
of a body of troops to protect the passage of the royal
family; but this design failed from reasons now well known,
and which he has faithfully detailed in his memoirs: and
the marquis himself had some difficulty in making his escape. From Luxembourg he wrote his memorable letter
to the assembly, threatening, that if a hair of the king’s
head were touched, he would not leave one stone upon
another in Paris. This served only to irritate the revolutionists, who decreed that he should be tried for contumacy;
but he was fortunately out of their reach. From Vienna
whither he had at first gone, he passed to the court of
Sweden, where he was favourably received by Gustavus III.
but after his death, M. de BoniHe“found it necessary to
retire to England, where he passed the remainder of his
days in security, and much esteemed for his fidelity to his
sovereign. He died in London Nov. 14, 1800. In 1797
he published in English,
” Memoirs relating to the French
Revolution," 8vo; one of those works of which future historians may avail themselves in appreciating the characters
and events connected with that important period of French
history.
one of the martyrs to the cause of the protestant religion in France, in the sixteenth century, was a native of Auvergne, sou to Stephen du Bourg, comptroller general
, one of the martyrs to
the cause of the protestant religion in France, in the sixteenth century, was a native of Auvergne, sou to Stephen
du Bourg, comptroller general of the customs in Languedoc, and brother to Anthony du Bourg, president of the
parliament of Paris, and afterwards chancellor of France.
He was born in 1521, designed for the church, and ordained priest; but embracing the protestant religion, was
honoured with the crown of martyrdom. He was a man of
great learning, especially in the law, which he taught at
Orleans with much reputation, and was appointed counsellor-clerk to the parliament of Paris in October 1557.
In this high station, he declared himself the protector of
the protestants, and endeavoured either to prevent or
soften the punishments inflicted upon them. This alarmed
some of Henry II.'s counsellors, who advised that monarch
to get rid of the protestants, and told him that he should
begin by punishing those judges who secretly favoured
them, or others who employed their credit and recommendations to screen them from punishment. They likewise suggested that the king should make his appearance
unexpectedly in the parliament which was to be assembled
on the subject of the Mercurials, or Checks, a kind of board
of censure against the magistrates instituted by Charles
VIII. and called Mercurials from the day on which they
were to be held (Wednesday). The king accordingly came
to parliament in June 1559, when Du Bourg spoke with
great freedom in his defence, and went so far as to attack
the licentious manners of the court; on which the king
ordered him to be arrested. On the 19th he was tried,
and declared a heretic by the bishop of Paris, ordered to
be degraded from the character of priest, and to be delivered into the hand of the secular power; but the king’s
death, in July, delayed the execution until December,
*vhen he was again condemned by the bishop of Paris, and
the archbishop of Lyons, his appeals being rejected by the
parliament. Frederick, elector Palatine, and other protestant princes of Germany, solicited his pardon, and probably might have succeeded, had it not been for the assassination, at this time, of the president M in art, whom
Du Bourg had challenged on his trial; and it was not
therefore difficult, however unjust, to persuade his persecutors that he had a hand in this assassination. He was
accordingly hanged, and his body burnt Dec. 2O, 1559;
leaving behind him the character of a pious and learned
man, an upright magistrate, and a steady friend. At his
execution he avowed his principles with great spirit; and
the popish biographers are forced to allow that the firmness and constancy shown by him and others, about the
same time, tended only to “make new heretics, instead of
intimidating the old.
”
, or Peter the Venerable, a native of Auvergne, descended from the family of the counts
, or Peter the Venerable,
a native of Auvergne, descended from the family of the
counts Maurice, or de Montbois.vier, took the monk’s habit
at Clugny, was made prior of Vezelay, afterwards abbot,
and general of his order in 1121, at the age of twentyeight. He revived monastic discipline in the abbey of
Clugny, and received pope Innocent II. there in 1130.
He opposed the errors of Peter de firuys and Henry, and
died in his abbey, December 24, 1156. We have six
books of his letters, with several other works of very little
consequence, in the “Library of Clugny,
” and some homilies in Martenne’s “Thes. Anecd.
” That so ignorant
and trifling a writer shoaid have been honoured with the
title of Venerable, is a strong mark of the low state of religious knowledge at that time. In these his works he takes
great pains to vindicate the manners and customs of his
monastery, and appears to place the essence of Christianity
in frivolous punctilios and insignificant ceremonies. It
was he, however, who received the celebrated Abelard in
his afflictions with great humanity, and who consoled Eloisa
after his death, by sending to her, at her request, the form,
of Abelard’s absolution, which she inscribed on his sepulchre.