1911 Reviews

Charles de Sainte-Marthe (1512 - 1555)

Hawkins, R. L.

Charles, son of Gaucher and uncle of Scévole de Sainte-Marthe,was born in
1512 at the abbey of Fontevrault, to which his father was physician-in-ordinary.
He studied law and theology at Poitiers, and in 1533 began teaching in the
Collège de Guyenne, at Bordeaux, where he remained only a brief time. After
a year's wandering in the province of Guyenne, he returned to Fontevrault, and
shortly after received his doctorate at Poitiers. Appointed Regius Professor of
theology in the University of Poitiers (1537), his leanings toward the Reformation
brought about his exile from Poitiers. For a year or two he wandered in
Dauphiné, Provence, and Languedoc. In 1540 he was imprisonedat Grenoble on
account of his religious opinions, but was soon released and accepted a
chair of languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French) in the Collège de la Trinité, at Lyons. Early in 1541 he went to Geneva for a short stay. He returned to
Grenoble, and was imprisoned for over two years as "a suspected Lutheran and
fomenter of sédition." In 1544 he entered the service of Françoise, Duchess of
Beaumont, to whom he owed "the beginning of happier fortunes." He also
became an officer in the household of Marguerite of Navarre and lieutenant
criminel of Alençon. He died at Alençon in 1555.