Odet De Coligny (Or Coligne)
Odet De Coligny (Or Coligne) [1]
Coligny (or Coligne), Odet De
a French prelate, son of marshal de Chatillon and Louise de Montmorenci, was born July 10, 1517. When hardly sixteen years of age he was appointed one of the cardinals who were to elect the pope. He went to Rome to take his place in the consistory, and assisted in the election of Paul III, who made him archbishop of Toulouse in 1534, and relieved him from the obligation of residigg at Rome. He was raised to the episcopal see of Beauvais in 1535, and took a great interest, not only in the affairs of, his country, but also promoted aarts and sciences. In 1550 he was called to Rome to assist in the election of pope Julius II. In 1554 he gave to his diocese the Constitutions Synodales, which were intended to suppress certain abuses. The firm attitude of the Parisian parliament against the house of Guise, in 1558, which sought to bring France under the yoke of the inquisition, delivered Coligny from a snare, since he was designed to be one of the three inquisitor-generals. Without pronouncing himself openly for the new faith, to which his brothers already adhered, he put himself politically on their side and against the Guises, assisted at the assembly held in Fontainebleau in 1560, and finally broke with the Church of Rome in 1561 by celebrating at Beauvais the Lord's Supper in accordance with the Protestant rite. A tumult which soon broke out endangered his life. He gave up his ecclesiastical dignities, and assumed the title of count of Beauvais.
During the first religious war he accompanied his brothers and Conde to Orleans, and after the peace of Amboise he returned to the court of France. In the meantime he had been reported to the inquisition at Rome as a heretic; and on his refusal to appear before the tribunal, the pope hurled at him a bull of excommunication, March 31, 1563. He was henceforth called by his family name, Chatillon, although he himself retained his title of cardinal Coligny. In 1568 he negotiated the peace which followed the siege of Chartres. The violation of the peace by Catharine de' Medici necessitated the retreat of Conde and Coligny te La Rochelle. Chatillon's life, as well as that of Conde being endangered, he succeeded in sailing to England, where he hoped to serve the cause of his brothers and of liberty. He publicly married Elizabeth de Hauteville. Queen Elizabeth treated him with due respect, and his influence often neutralized the measures of the French ambassador, Lamothe-Fenelon. After the peace of 1570, the latter changed his attitude towards the cardinal, and even entered into direct relations with him in the hope of securing his cooperation. Chatillon, upon an invitation of Gaspard de Coligy to return to France, made his preparations for the journey, but died February 14, 1571, under suspicion of being poisoned, which a postmortem examination justified. He was buried at Canterbury. In Odet de Coligny the French Protestants lost one of their firmest supporters. See De Bouchet, Pr. de Christ. de la Maison de Coligny, pages 347-1442; Brantome, Homines Illust. s.v., "Le Cardinal de Chatillon;" Dupont-White, La Ligme a Beauvais; Corresp. Diplom. de Lamothe-Fenelon, 1, page 16 sq.; 2, page 49 sq.; 3, page 17 sq.; 4, page 12 sq.; Delaborde, in Lichtenberger's Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v.: (B.P.)
