Joseph de Bergaigne (1588–1647) was a prelate and diplomat from the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last House of Valois-Burgundy, Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary of Burgu ...

who was appointed bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch and

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-Helpe ...

. He was the last bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch until the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in the Netherlands in 1853.

Life

Bergaigne was born in

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

, in the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...

, on 1 May 1588, to a family of Italian descent that later moved to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

Jules de Saint-Genois Jules, Baron de Saint-Genois (22 March 1813 – 10 September 1867) was a Belgian liberal politician, historian, librarian and professor at the University of Ghent. He was the first President of the Willemsfonds and a prolific contributor to the ea ...

, "Bergaigne (Joseph de)", ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

''
vol. 2
(Brussels, 1868), 175-176. He entered the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachi ...

at an early age and was sent to study in Spain, where he obtained doctorates in both philosophy and theology, which he went on to teach in Cologne and Mainz. He became

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

of the Rhine province in 1616, and in 1618

definitor {{Catholic Church hierarchy sidebar, Administrative and pastoral titles In the Catholic Church, a definitor (Latin for 'one who defines') is a title with different specific uses. There are secular definitors, who have a limited amount of oversight ...

and commissioner general for Germany and the Low Countries.

Emperor Ferdinand II Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Maria of Bavaria. His parents were dev ...

entrusted him with a number of sensitive missions, including negotiations concerning the election of the future

Emperor Ferdinand III Ferdinand III (Ferdinand Ernest; 13 July 1608, in Graz – 2 April 1657, in Vienna) was from 1621 Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary from 1625, King of Croatia and Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 until his death in 1657. Fe ...

King of the Romans King of the Romans ( la, Rex Romanorum; german: König der Römer) was the title used by the king of Germany following his election by the princes from the reign of Henry II (1002–1024) onward. The title originally referred to any German k ...

in 1636. In January 1638 he was appointed bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch. As the city had fallen to the Dutch in 1629, he was not able to enter his see. On 27 October 1641, he was consecrated bishop by

Jacobus Boonen Jacobus Boonen (1573–1655) was the sixth Bishop of Ghent (1617–1620) and the fourth Archbishop of Mechelen (1621–1655). Life Born at Antwerp on 11 October 1573, Boonen studied at the University of Leuven from 1587 to 1595 and began a leg ...

, and he exercised his authority as bishop as best he could from

Geldrop Geldrop is a town in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is in the municipality of Geldrop-Mierlo, around 5 km east of Eindhoven city centre. Geldrop was a separate municipality until 2004, when it merged with Mierlo. Geldrop is noted ...

. On 24 February 1645 he was elected

, taking possession of the see by procuration on 27 July 1646.

Honoré Fisquet Honoré Jean Pierre Fisquet (1818–1883) was a French historian, biographer and writer of guide books, including a ''Nouveau guide général du voyageur en Angleterre, en Écosse et en Irlande'' (1864), which he wrote together with Henri-Marie Mart ...

, ''La France pontificale (Gallia Christiana): Cambrai'' (Paris,

Étienne Repos Jean-Baptiste Étienne Repos (1803–1872) was a French publisher who specialised in works on liturgy, religion and history. The son of a bookbinder from Avignon, Repos was licensed as a printer in Digne on 27 December 1837. He published a number ...

, 1864), pp. 228-230
On Google Books
As

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...

had appointed him his representative at the Congress of Münster, he was unable to visit the see in person. He died in Münster on 24 October 1647, before the conclusion of peace, but after having signed a commercial treaty with the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

. He was buried in the Augustinian church there. Over a decade later, his family had his remains transferred to the Franciscan convent in Antwerp where they were reburied on 18 September 1663 in a service led by

Ambrosius Capello Ambrosius Capello (1597–1676) was the seventh bishop of Antwerp (1654–1676). Life Capello was born in Antwerp on 22 June 1597, the son of an Italian military contractor, Jean-François Capello, and a Netherlandish lady, Marie de Boxhorn. He e ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergaigne, Joseph de 1588 births 1647 deaths Dutch Friars Minor Franciscan bishops 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Holy Roman Empire Archbishops of Cambrai 17th-century diplomats 17th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in France