Jean Dauvin or D'Auvin (1578–1651) was the sixth

bishop of Namur The Diocese of Namur is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province in the metropolit ...

(1615–1629). As bishop he faced the tasks of carrying through the reforms of the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

in his diocese in the wake of the destruction caused by the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...

Life

Dauvin was born in

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

in 1559, the son of Jean d'Auvin and Marie de Monbeek. He studied civil and canon law, graduating

Licentiate of Laws Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL, or B.C.L.; la, Baccalaureus Civilis Legis) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Camb ...

, and was appointed a canon graduate in

St Aubin's Cathedral St Aubin's Cathedral, Namur, Wallonia, the only cathedral in Belgium in academic Late Baroque style. It was the only church built in the Low Countries as a cathedral after 1559, when most of the dioceses of the Netherlands were reorganized. It is ...

. In 1597, he became

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

and

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

of the diocese. He was named bishop on 15 October 1614, in succession to

François Buisseret François Buisseret (1549–1615) was a clergyman from the Habsburg Netherlands who became bishop of Namur and archbishop of Cambrai. Life Buisseret was born in Mons in September 1549. His father died when he was young and his mother sent him to s ...

who had been elected

archbishop of Cambrai The Archdiocese of Cambrai ( la, Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Cambrai'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Help ...

, and was consecrated on 22 November 1615. The church of Boneffe Abbey, destroyed by rebel forces during the Revolt, was rebuilt and reconsecrated under his aegis. In 1619 he had offices printed for the saints of his diocese in line with the

Roman Breviary The Roman Breviary (Ecclesiastical Latin, Latin: ''Breviarium Romanum'') is a breviary of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. A liturgical book, it contains public or canonical Catholic prayer, prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notati ...

, either authoring the propers himself or authorizing them from the Jesuit Gilles du Monin (who went on to write ''Sacrarium perantiqui comitatus Namurcensis'' and dedicate it to Dauvin).Ch. Wilmet, "Fragment d'une histoire ecclésiastique de Namur: Épiscopat des évêques Dauvin et Des Bois", ''Annales de la Société archéologique de Namur''
vol. 8 (1863-1864)
383-424. In 1620, he reformed the chapter of the cathedral in line with the decrees of the

, and in 1625 he held a diocesan synod to push through Tridentine reform in the rural deaneries of his diocese. Dauvin died on 15 September 1629 and was buried in his cathedral.

References

1559 births 1629 deaths Bishops of Namur {{Belgium-RC-bishop-stub

Life

See also

References