Jean du Tillet (died 2 October 1570) was a French nobleman, archivist and historian.

Life

The was of the Gallican persuasion and held the lordship of La Bussière. Jean du Tillet was born in the early 16th century and inherited the lordship and the title '' sieur'' from his father, Séraphin du Tillet. He also took over the hereditary the office of ''greffier civil'' (civil clerk) of 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 ...

after his father retired in 1521. One of his brothers, Séraphin, disputed his right to the office of ''greffier'' in 1526.Donald R. Kelley (1966), "Jean Du Tillet, Archivist and Antiquary", ''The Journal of Modern History'' 38(4): 337–354. His younger brother sheltered John Calvin in 1534 and was for a time Calvin's companion abroad until Jean persuaded him to come home in 1538. Elizabeth A. R. Brown (ed.)
''Jean Du Tillet and the French Wars of Religion: Five Tracts, 1562–1569''
(Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1994), p. 2. He had another younger brother, also named Jean du Tillet, who later became

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 ...

. The two Jeans du Tillet were

Renaissance humanist Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...

s and frequent collaborators. The elder Jean was primarily an archivist interested in documents, while the younger Jean was more interested in manuscript collecting. Jean du Tillet was an ardent Gallican. During the Gallican crisis of 1551, he was one of those who advised King Henry II to follow the example of

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and establish an independent French church. It was at his instigation, according to Jacques-Auguste de Thou, that Henry II forbade the export of gold to Rome. Jean du Tillet also began compiling a dossier meant to justify a break with Rome if such occurred, but Henry II reconciled with the papacy in 1552. Following Henry's death in 1559, and in spite of the support of Anne de Montmorency, du Tillet was forbidden to publish his findings by

Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine Charles de Lorraine (c. 1525 – 26 December 1574), Duke of Chevreuse, was a French Cardinal, a member of the powerful House of Guise. He was known at first as the Cardinal of Guise, and then as the second Cardinal of Lorraine, after the death o ...

. Instead, he was paid to write against the Amboise conspirators, led by his personal enemy, . Charles Ier le Grand ou Charlemagne

Although Francis II ordered du Tillet to bring organization to the royal archives, he seems to have been too busy using them to have advanced far in that task. He died just six weeks before his brother the bishop.

Works

In 1560, du Tillet wrote two tracts defending the claim that Francis II had attained his majority, which were published over his objections. In these short works—''Pour la majorité du roi treschrestien contre les escrits des rebelles'' and ''Pour l'entiere majorité du roi treschrestien contre le legitime conseil malicieusement inventé par les rebelles''—he argued that

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

did not control the French monarchy, which was based on customary law. Citing sources as far back as

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

' '' Germania'', he showed that fifteen was the age of majority for monarchs. Between 1562 and 1569, du Tillet wrote at least eight tracts on religious subjects against the backdrop of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mi ...

. He staunchly defended

Catholicism 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 ...

against

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. Two of these tracts were published in his lifetime, one dedicated to Queen Catherine de' Medici appeared in print two decades after his death and the remaining five (including two dedicated to King Charles IX) went unpublished until 1994. Jean du Tillet's most famous work is ', which was first published posthumously by his nephew in 1577, having first been suppressed by the cardinal of Lorraine. It went through many editions, the most complete being that of 1607. It also survives in many manuscripts. Jean du Tillet was one of the first scholars to reject the theory of Trojan origin of the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

in favour of a purely Germanic origin. He argued that "

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...

belongs more to France than to Germany", and tried to show that the king of France was as much an emperor in fact as the Holy Roman Emperor. He traced the

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

back to the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...

and showed that it was not hereditary before the Capetians. On the whole, he sought to divorce French history from

classical history Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

and show France totally independent of

and the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. He was familiar with the writings of Pierre Dubois.

References

{{reflist 16th-century births 1570 deaths