Guillaume Briçonnet (c. 1472 – 24 January 1534) was the

Bishop of Meaux The Roman Catholic Diocese of Meaux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Meldensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Meaux'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the entire department of Seine-et-Marne. It was suff ...

from 1516 until his death in 1534.

Biography

Briçonnet was born into a wealthy aristocratic family about the year 1472. His father was Guillaume Briçonnet (1445–1514) who had already enjoyed a successful career in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

.He was Bishop of Saint-Malo,

Archbishop of Reims The Archdiocese of Reims (traditionally spelt "Rheims" in English) ( la, Archidiœcesis Remensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese ...

Archbishop of Narbonne The former Catholic diocese of Narbonne existed from early Christian times until the French Revolution. It was an archdiocese, with its see at Narbonne, from the year 445, and its influence ran over much of south-western France and into Cataloni ...

, and also a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

. He also served as a counselor to King

Charles VIII of France Charles VIII, called the Affable (french: l'Affable; 30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13.Paul Murray Kendall, ''Louis XI: The Universal Spider'' (Ne ...

. The influence that the elder Guillaume Briçonnet exercised certainly did not hinder his son and namesake from advancing up through the Church hierarchy. The younger Briçonnet was made

Bishop of Lodève A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

in 1489 and was later installed as the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

of the

Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

in 1507. Briçonnet also had political connections to the royal court. In 1516 he was commissioned by King

Francis I of France Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once ...

to negotiate with

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...

on the terms of the

Concordat of Bologna The Concordat of Bologna (1516) was an agreement between King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X that Francis negotiated in the wake of his victory at Marignano in September 1515. The groundwork was laid in a series of personal meetings of king an ...

. In the same year Briçonnet was chosen as the new

where he would begin the most significant part of his career. As Bishop, Briçonnet began to implement a program of reform in his

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

. He worked to improve the training of his clergy as well as improving monastic discipline. In the course of these efforts however he made some enemies, particularly among the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friars within his diocese. Additionally, Briçonnet invited a number of evangelical

humanists Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanis ...

to work in the bishopric to help implement his reform program. This group of humanists became known as the Circle of Meaux and included

Josse van Clichtove Josse van Clichtove or Judocus Clichtoveus Neoportuensis ( Nieuwpoort, 1472/73 – Chartres 22 September 1543), was a Flemish theologian, priest and humanist. Life He received his education at Leuven and at Paris under Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples ...

, Guillaume Farel, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Martial Mazurier,

Gérard Roussel Gérard Roussel (1500–50) was a French cleric, a student of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and later a member, with his former teacher, of the Circle of Meaux around Guillaume Briçonnet, bishop of Meaux. This group was characterized by evangelica ...

, and François Vatable. The members of the Meaux circle were of different talents but they generally emphasized the study of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

and a return to the theology of the

early Church Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

. Although Briçonnet supported a renewal of his diocese along humanist lines with the support of

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

reformers, the bishop never supported and later condemned the growing

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

movement centered on

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

. Certain members of the group disagreed with the bishop in their attitude towards

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

however. The support of Lutheranism by some of his subordinates cast suspicion on Briçonnet's entire project. Some of the Franciscan friars in his diocese, already unhappy with the Bishop's austere method, took the opportunity offered by this suspicion and accused him of Lutheranism. Briçonnet had to appear before the

Parlement of Paris The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...

to face charges of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

. Briçonnet was found innocent by the

Parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...

, possible because of his connections at the royal court in Paris. Permanent damage had been done to Briçonnet's reform efforts however, and he found it impossible to continue his attempt to regenerate the spiritual life of his diocese. The Circle of Meaux disbanded about 1525 and its members went various ways, some of them later playing important roles in the Reformation. After the breakup of the Circle of Meaux Briçonnet served for another nine years as bishop before his death, dismayed at the growing reaction in the Catholic Church against all attempts at internal reform that smacked of possible heresy. In retrospect Briçonnet can be grouped with contemporary Bishops of the Catholic Church such as

Christoph von Utenheim Christoph von Utenheim (c. 1450-1527) was Bishop of Basel from 1502 until his resignation from that office in 1527. Christoph von Utenheim was born about the year 1450. He studied theology and canon law at the University of Basel and the Universit ...

and Hugo von Hohenlandenberg who attempted, unsuccessfully, to reform the Church along evangelical lines without breaking up ecclesiastical unity. Guillaume Briçonnet died at

Esmans Esmans is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Demographics Inhabitants of Esmans are called ''Esmanais''. History the history of esmans begins in the Gallo-Roman era. In the Middle Ag ...

castle on 24 January 1534; he is buried in the church of this town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briconnet, Guillaume 1470s births 1534 deaths French Benedictines Breton bishops Saint-Malo Bishops of Lodève Bishops of Meaux 16th-century French Roman Catholic bishops