THOU
707
THREE
to his "Historisc" written in Latin. His father,
Christophe de Thou (150S-S2), having left numerous
materials for a national history, De Thou set to work
writing it in 1591. His correspondence with foreign
scholars procured for him valuable documents. In
1G04 he published the first part, 1546-60; in 1606, the
second, to 1572; in 1607, the third, 1572-74; and
in 1608, the fourth part, 1574-84. He intended
carrying it down to the end of the reign of Henry
IV (1610), but his narrative had reached only the
year 1607, when he died. The last and unfinished
portion of his work was published in 1620 by
his friends Dupuy and Rigault. The best edition
of the Latin text was prepared in the eighteenth
century by the Englishman Thomas Cfirte, pub-
lished at London in seven volumes by Samuel
Buchley (1733); there are French translations and
summaries. At first the influence of Cardinal d'Ossat
and of Du Perron put off the condemnation of his
work at Rome, but in 1609 to De Thou's great sorrow
the Congregation of the Index pronounced against it.
The Parkment of Paris replied by condemning Car-
dinal Bellarmine's book on the power of the pope. In
his work De Thou commits errors of fact and of ap-
preciation. In his judgment of Mary Stuart, for ex-
ample, he is too often influenced by Buchanan, an im-
passioned enemy of the queen's memory. But such
as it is his work has a certain value; Bossuet often
made use of it in his "Histoire des variations", and lie
speaks of De Thou as a "great author, a faithful hi.s-
torian".
In 1620 were published his "Memoirs" in Latin: they cover the period between 1553 and 1601 and are an important source for tlie rehgious and literary his- tory of the period. Some writers have claimed that his friend, Nicolas Rigault, was their chief author. The eldest son of Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Fran^ois- Auguste de Thou (1607-42), was beheaded at the command of Riclielieu for having kept secret the con- spiracy between Cinq-Mars and the Spaniards. The library coUected by Jacques-Auguste was famous; it was open to scholars and foreigners. In his will De Thou appointed Pierre Dupuy his children's librarian. The Ubrary remained in the family until 1680 when it was bo'ught almost entirely by President de Menars and in the eighteenth century passed fo tlie Rolian Soubise family. It then contained 12,729 works. Successive catologues published during the seven- teenth century are very important bibliographical documents.
Patix, Eloge de De Thou (Paris, 1S24) ; Duntzer. De Thou's Le- ben, Schri/ten u. fiislorische Kunut (Darmstadt, 1837); HARRlsaE, Le president de Thou el se.t descendants, leur cellbre hiblioth^que, leurs armoiries (Paris, 1905).
Georges Goyau.
Thou, Nicolas de. Bishop of Chartres, uncle of the historian Jacques-Auguste de Thou, b. at Paris, 1528; d. at Villebon, 5 Nov., 159S. He beeame a canon of the cathedral of Paris in l.')47, and Bishop of Chartres by a Bull of 8 April, 1573. His antii)ii)hy for the League, shared by his brother, Presii lent Christophe de Thou (1.508-S2), made the bishop's position diffi- cult when the people of Chartres, who were devoted to the League, shut their gates (17 Jan., 1.589) to the troops of Henry III, subsequently welcomed the Due de Mayenne, and recognized the aged Cardinal de Bourbon a.s king. Nicolas de Thou temporized, and on 20 April, 1591, received in his palace Henry of Navarre, the future Henry IV. On 21 Sept., 1591, he attended the assembly of bishops which declared "null, unjust and suggested by the malice of the ene- mies of France" Gregory XlV's Bull of excommuni- cation against Henry of Navarre, and on25 Julj-, 1,593, he a-ssisted at Henry IV's abjuration in St.-Denis. As Reims was still in the power of the Due de May- enne, Chartres was the rity chosen for the coronation. To end the dispute with Renaud de Beaune, Arch-
bishop of Bourges, who had just been appointed Arch-
bishop of Sens and ttho claimed the honour of anoint-
ing the king, de Thou by a skilful move had himself
appointed by the Archbishop of Reims as his repre-
sentative and was thus conunissioned to proceed with
the coronation. Instead of the Sainte Ampoule there
was brought from Tours a miraculous oil preserved in
the Abbey of Marmoutier. The anointing took place
27 Feb., 1594, and the next day Nicolas de Thou
bestowed on the king the Collar of the Order of the
Holy Ghost. He left various pastoral writings and a
book entitled "Ceremonies observ^es au sacre et
couronnement d'Henri IV, roi de France".
Cayet, Chronologie novennaire, bk. VI ; FiSQUET, La France pontificale: Chartres (Paris, 1873).
Georges Goyau.
Three Chapters.— The Three Chapters {rpla K€0dXaia) were jiropositions anathematizing: (1) the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia; (2) certain writings of Theodoret of Cyrus; (3) the letter of Ibas to Maris. At a very early stage of the controversy the incriminated writings themselves came to be spoken of as the "Three Chapters". In consequence those who refused to anathematize these writings were said to defend the Three Chapters; and, vice versa, those who anathematized them, to con- demn the Three Chapters. Thus, that most impor- tant work, the "Defensio trium capitulorum" by Facundus, Bishop of Hermiane, was an attack on the anathematization of the writings of Theodore, etc. The history of the controversy may be divided into three i^eriods: the first ending with the arrival of Vigilius at Con.stantinople; the second with his ratifi- cation of the Second Council of Constantinople in which the Three Chapters were condemned; the third with the final healing of the schisms in the West caused by the papal ratification of the aforesaid coun- cil. We shall treat very cursorily of the second and third periods, referring the reader for fuller details to the articles on the council, Pelagius I, Pelagius II, and Vigilius.
At the end of 543 or the beginning of 544 an edict was issued in the name of the Emperor Justinian in which the Three Chapters were anathematized. Jus- tinian's purpose was to facilitate the return of the Monophysites to the Church. These heretics ac- cused the Church of Nestorianism, and, when assured that Nestorius was regarded as a heretic, pointed to the writings of his teacher Theodore of Mopsuestia, which were quite as incorrect, and yet had never been condemned. They added that Theodoret, the friend and defender of Nestorius, had been restored to his see by the Council of Chalcedon, and that the epistle of Ibas had even been treated as harmless by the council. It was sincerely hoped by Justinian that when grounds of complaint against the covmcil had been removed, the Monophysites might be induced to accept the decisions of the council and the letters of St. Leo, which they now insisted on misinterpreting in a Nestorian sense. As a temporal ruler he wished to heal religious divisions which threatened the se- curity of the empire, and as a good amateur theologian he was probably rather plc;isi>d with himself at being able to lay his finger upon what seemed to liim an important omission on the i)art of the Council of Chal- cetlon. But upright as he was, he was really being engineered by Origeni.sts who were desirous of escap- ing his attention. (For Justinian's campaign against theOrigenistsseeXI, 311.) Evagrius(Hist. eccl., IV, xxviii) tells us that Theodorus Ascidas, the leader of theOrigenists, came to Justinian who was consulting about further measures against the Origenists, and raised the question of the Three Chapters to divert the attention of the emperor, .\ccording to Liberatua (Breviarium, c. 24) .Ascidas wished to take his revenge on the memory of Theodore of Mopsuestia, who had written much against Origen; and finding the em-
