Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 5 - Section IV
IV. De Villiers.
Pierre de l’Oiseleur, chevalier, Seigneur de Villiers, was a native of Lille. He was educated for the law, and practised as an advocate in the parliament of Paris; but, meeting with disabilities and severe handling as a Protestant, he retired to Geneva, probably in the year 1564. He was befriended by Beza, and by his advice he became a student of divinity and a minister of the gospel. At Geneva he was a visitor in the family of Charles de Brichanteau, chevalier, Seigneur de St. Martin and Nigerets, a French refugee like himself. The result was his marriage to the seigneur’s daughter, Jeanne de Brichanteau.
He returned to France as pasteur of Rouen. His birth and manners commanded esteem in high places. While holding the pastorate of Rouen, he was permitted to act as chaplain to Admiral Coligny and the Queen of Navarre, and thus came under the favourable notice of the Prince of Condé. The assassins of St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572, sought for him at Rouen. “Then (says Brandt) he retired with his wife and seven children to a certain castle [the chateau La Riviere-bourdet] two leagues from the town, but was suddenly surprised, yet wonderfully escaped ; for his perse- cutor, a hatter of Rouen, was himself so amazed and confounded, that he suffered the minister to escape, though he talked with him. Then all was plundered, and his seven children forced away with nothing but one loaf among them, which was like- wise taken from them at last.”
He came to England “in a threadbare cloak,” says Camden, and read a Divinity lecture. Money was subscribed for him, and he assisted in conducting the ministrations of the French Church in Threadneedle Street. No doubt he often made use of the Latin tongue to state his case and wants to the benevolent, and signed himself Petrus Villerius. We find the following entries in The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell:—
“To mr vellyrious a larned preacher the 16th of februarye Anno 1573 20/.”
“To mr vellerious a french preacher the 13th of Januarye A° 1574 20/.”
“To mr villirius a larned ffrenchman the 13th of maye A° 1575 30/.”
“Too mr vellirius, the 8th of Januarye A° 1575 (1576 n.s.) 20/.”
“Too to mr Vellerious a larned straunger his towe children the 7th of december 1577 20/.”
“Too one mr velerious daughter the 8th of maye 1578, 10/.”
Being resident in London, he acted as a political agent for the Prince of Conde, and as a correspondent he exercised considerable influence over the Prince of Orange, William the Silent. His position as a French gentleman, and his varied talents, explain his influence, and not Camden’s idea (unsupported by fact) that he had “grown rich” by English charity.
The French Church of London asked the French National Synod of the Protestant Church to allow him to be settled as their pastor. The Synod resolved to hold him to be pasteur of Rouen, but consented to lend him to London; this was in 1578. His eloquence has been celebrated by Baudius (Dominique Baudier) thus:—
Villerium-ne oblivione transeam
Primo mini summoque dicendum loco,
Coeleste pectus, cujus ex reconditae
Mentis scatebra, flos medullaque eloqui
Sermone dia vena limpido fluit?
In 1579 we find him settled in Holland as chaplain of the Prince of Orange, to whom he became a Privy Councillor, and at whose death in 1584 he was continued in all his employments by Prince Maurice. He seems to have been ennobled as Lord of Westhoven;[1] he died at Westhoven in the island of Walcheren in 1593. He was the author of “An Apology for the Prince of Orange” (against the King of Spain’s condemnation of that great and chivalrous prince). He published, in 1579, under the initials, C.Q.D.A., a book, entitled, Ratio ineundae Concordiae inter Ecclesias Reformatas [a method of promoting concord (and accord) among the Reformed churches]. In the same year he wrote, in the name of the Protestant ministers of the Netherlands, a letter to the authors of the Lutheran Book of Concord, in which he said, “You would act very prudently and Christianly if you would be pleased to use more cautiously that unhappy expression, we condemn. You make use of an argument which appears to you of the greatest strength, namely, that you agree in the Confession of Augsburg and with Luther. Although we concurred with you in this, we would not declare that Confession to be a gospel, nor Luther to have dominion over our faith. Let things contend with things, differences with differences, arguments with arguments. None of us have ever brandished before you the great names of Zuinglius or OEcolampadius, of Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon or Martyr, who nevertheless, do far exceed Luther in learning. Neither are those names mentioned in our own churches and schools; for we content ourselves with quoting the Word of God, on which alone we depend, yet without rejecting the consent of the Primitive Church.”
De Villiers also wrote a book on the Rights of Princes. He incurred Camden’s displeasure by opposing an English alliance, and preferring an alliance between the Netherlands and France — in this he followed the views of his great master, the lamented Coligny. He can hardly be condemned for disliking the Earl of Leicester’s administration. Some of the Earl’s soldiers captured him on the road between Westhoven and Flushing. “Allow me,” said De Villiers, “a short time in Midelburg for necessary business before you take me to Flushing.” “Oh, certainly,” said Colonel Russell. The gates of Midelburg opened to the prisoner — a prisoner no longer, for the magistrates of the town took him under their protection. The King of Navarre had invited him to his household and council, but as Prince Maurice, on becoming Governor of the States, asked him to remain at his posts, he would not remove. In 1588 Du Plessis Mornay wrote to the French ambassador, “You do well in keeping a strict correspondence with Monsieur de Villiers; you know how I have always lauded (and that not sparingly) the talents God has given him; and I find it easy to love a man whom I honour.” (See Gerdesii Scrinium, tom iv. pars i.)
- ↑ Gerdesius (Scrinium, tom iv. pars 1), styles him Seigneur de Villiers et Westhoven.