Nicolas Coeffeteau

Nicolas Coeffeteau
Nicolas Coeffeteau. Engraving by Gerard Edelinck.
Born	1574 Saint-Calais
Died	1623 (aged 48–49)

Nicolas Coeffeteau (1574 – 21 April 1623) was a French theologian, poet and historian born at Saint-Calais.

He entered the Dominican order and lectured on philosophy at Paris, being also ordinary preacher to Henry IV, and afterwards ambassador at Rome.

In 1606 he was vicar-general of the congregation of France, and received from Marie de' Medici the revenues of the sees of Lombez and Saintes. He also administered the diocese of Metz, and was nominated to the diocese of Marseille in 1621, but ill health obliged him here to take a coadjutor.

Coeffeteau won considerable distinction in the controversy against the Protestant reformers and also wrote a History of Rome from Augustus to Constantine. Many of his theological writings were collected in one volume (Paris, 1622), and at the time of his death he was engaged on a translation of the New Testament which he left in manuscript. He was buried in the now demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris.

He was acclaimed for his command of the French language. Claude Favre de Vaugelas cited him as one of the two masters of the language at the time -"Nicolas Coeffeteau, dominicain, évêque de Marseille, un des fondateurs de la prose française, 1574-1623".

Works

• Premier Essay des questions théologiques traitées en nostre langue selon le stile de S. Thomas et des autres scolastiques (1607)
• Harangue funebre prononcee à Paris en l'eglise de sainct Benoist, au service faict pour le repos de l'ame de Henry IIII (1610). Texte en ligne:
• Response au livre intitulé Le Mystère d'iniquité, du sieur Du Plessis (1614)
• Response au manifeste publié par les Perturbateurs du repos de l'Estat (1617). Online text:
• Tableau des passions humaines, de leurs causes et de leurs effets (1620). Online text:
• Examen du livre du sieur Du Plessis contre la messe, composé il y a environ dix-huit ans par messire Jacques Davy, maintenant cardinal Du Perron et publié par messire Nicolas Coeffeteau (1620)
• Œuvres du R. P. en Dieu F. Nic. Coëffeteau, contenant un nouveau Traicté des noms de l'Eucharistie, auquel est refuté tout ce que les Srs Du Plessis, Casaubon et M. Pierre Dumoulin, ministre de Charenton, ont escrit sur ce sujet contre la doctrine de l'Église, avec divers autres traictez ci-devant publiez par le mesme autheur (1622)
• Histoire romaine, contenant tout ce qui s'est passé de plus mémorable depuis le commencement de l'empire d'Augustus, jusqu'à celui de Constantin le Grand. Avec l'Épitome de Florus (1623). Online text:. Mode texte: ^[]
• Les Merveilles de la Sainte Eucharistie discourues et défendues contre les infidelles (1631)

Translations

• Histoire romaine de Lucius Annaeus Florus mise en nostre langue par F. Nicolas Coeffeteau (1615)
• La Montaigne Saincte de la tribulation, qui est un traicté des afflictions et de leurs remèdes, composé premièrement en italien par le Révérend Père Jacques Affinati, et puis mis en françois par F.-N. Coeffeteau (translated from Giacomo Affinati d'Acuto, 1620)
• Histoire de Poliarque et d'Argénis, par F. N. Coeffeteau évêque de Marseille (abridged translation from John Barclay's book the Argenis, 1624)
• Tableau de la pénitence de la Magdeleine, par F. Nicolas Coëffeteau. Nouvelle édition enrichie de plusieurs discours (translated from De Maria Magdalena by Origen, 1625)

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Nicolas Coeffeteau — Preacher and controversialist, born 1574, at Château-du-Loir, province of Maine, France; died Paris, 21 April, 1623. Ha entered the Dominican convent of Sens, 1588, and after his profession, 1590, was sent to St-Jacques, the house of studies at Paris. There in 1595 he began to teach philosophy. On 4 May, 1600, he received the doctorate and was appointed regent of studies, which position he filled until 1606 and again from 1609 to the spring of 1612. He also served two terms as prior and was vicar-general of the French congregation from 1606 to 1609. At this time Coeffeteau had already acquired distinction by his preaching at Blois, Chartres, Angers, and in Paris. Queen Margaret of Valois had made him her almoner in 1602, and in 1608 he received the appointment of preacher in ordinary to King Henry IV. In June, 1617, he was proposed by Louis XIII and confirmed by Pope Paul V as titular Bishop of Dardania and Administrator of the Diocese of Mets. By his vigilance and zealous preaching he checked the spread of Calvinistic errors, renewed and re-established Divine services, and restored ecclesiastical discipline, especially in the great abbeys of Mets and in the monasteries of the diocese. After four years he was transferred, 22 Aug., 1621, to the Diocese of Marseilles; but ill-health kept him from his see. He secured François de Loménie as his coadjutor, but he himself remained at Paris until his death. He was buried in St. Thomas's chapel of the convent of St-Jacques. Coeffeteau's writings are chiefly polemical. Five treatises on the Eucharist were occasioned by a controversy with Pierre du Moulin, Calvinist minister of Charenton. Another series on ecclesiastical and pontifical authority was prompted by the action of the Fremich Protestants in relation to political and religious disturbances in England. At the request of Gregory XV, Coeffeteau wrote a refutation of the "De Republicâ Christianâ" by the apostate Archbishop of Spalato, Marc' Antonio de Dominis. In all these writings, at a time in which partisanship was wont to be violent, Coeffeteau maintained an equable temper and a praiseworthy spirit of moderation, always handling his subjects objectively and dispassionately. His erudition was extraordinary and he was possessed of a rare and penetrating critical judgment. On the question of papal power and authority, Coeffeteau's position is described as that of a modified Gallicanism. He held that the infallibility of the pope or of an œcumenical council was restricted to matters of faith and did not bear upon questions of fact or of persons. A council, he held, was not superior to a pope except in the case of schism, when it could depose the doubtful incumbent to elect one whose right and authority would be beyond question. In this Coeffeteau differed from the Sorbonne, which asserted the council's superiority in all cases. Besides being called the father of French eloquence, Coeffeteau was a recognized master of the French language. He was the first to use it as a means of theological expression, and the purity of his diction, especially in his historical writings and translations, is admitted and commended by many excellent authorities.

QUÉTIF-ECHARD, Scriptores Ord. Prœd., II, 434; COULON in VACANT, Dict. de théol. cath. (Paris, 1906), fase. XVIII, col. 267; URBAIN, Nicolas Coeffeteau (Paris, 1894).