The career of the Bishop of Lavaur, the ambassador de robe longue, forms an interesting contrast to that of the homme d’épée, or de robe courte, whose acquaintance has been made in Dinteville. In many respects each completes the other. Together they form a typical picture of the diplomacy of the day, in which churchmen and laymen played an almost equal part.

The political missions of George de Selve, taken alone, would give, however, a very inadequate idea of the man. In the case of the Bailly of Troyes the secular note is naturally dominant. With the Bishop of Lavaur outward events seem dwarfed by the depth and fervour of the inner life. His spiritual vocation was all in all to him. The services he rendered to diplomacy rather hinder than assist a just estimate of his character and attainments. They constitute, indeed, the chief outward landmarks of his existence. But in so far as they emphasize the mundane rather than the religious aspect of his life they disturb its true proportions.

George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, was the third son of Jean de Selve, Premier Président of the Parliament of Paris, and of Cécille de Buxi. He was born in the winter or early spring of 1508-9, probably about January or February.⁠[307]

The family of Selve was said to be of Milanese extraction,⁠[308] and had settled in France near Limoges. The first of its members to rise to eminence was Jean, the father of the future bishop. Hardly a name in French history is more celebrated in the early decades of the sixteenth century than that of this great lawyer and statesman; none stands higher for probity, political sagacity, and faithful service rendered to the Crown.

The young George must have had a varied childhood if the family accompanied Jean de Selve to his several spheres of duty. Having successively presided over the Parliaments of Rouen and of Bordeaux, Jean was sent to Italy, after the battle of Marignan, as Vice-Governour of the Duchy of Milan. The earliest associations of which George could have had much recollection thus centred in Italy. The sojourn in the south terminated in 1521, when the Imperial troops drove the French from the Milanese. Jean de Selve now returned to France and received the appointment of Premier Président of the Parliament of Paris. Henceforth the influences which moulded the youth of the future bishop were, so far as is known, derived from his native country.

The boy was now about twelve years old. The early age at which he subsequently obtained distinction favours the belief that he must have displayed extraordinary precocity in his studies. He himself tells us, as will presently be seen, that he received instruction in Greek and Latin from the famous scholar, Pierre Danès; indeed, if we may judge from a letter written at a later period by Bunel,⁠[309] Danès appears to have superintended the whole training of the young student. He could not have been in better hands, nor would it be easy to imagine two spirits more likely to be congenial than those of master and pupil. The relationship developed into a lifelong friendship.

Whether George de Selve subsequently attended the University of Paris is unknown. It appears improbable that he came under the influence of the Sorbonne. He was reared no doubt in a strict school of Roman Catholic theology; for in later years he always showed himself an orthodox son of his Church. But the extreme type among the theologians of Paris, whose headquarters were at the Sorbonne, had at this time a holy horror of those classical languages in which Selve learned to excel under the guidance of Danès. The latter, indeed, was among the first professors appointed a few years later to the famous Collège Royal, founded to impart the very knowledge which the doctors of the Sorbonne would have withheld.

At the University of Paris only one of the two great branches of law essential to a public career was at this time taught. Instruction in civil law was forbidden, and had to be obtained elsewhere. Orleans, Poitiers, Bourges, possessed great schools for the secular arm. The universities of the provinces equalled that of Paris in efficiency, if not in size. Many young Frenchmen also went abroad to complete their studies, especially to Italy. It is highly probable that Selve was counted among their number, although there exists no positive evidence to that effect.

It is certain that he owed some part of his education to the liberality of Francis I. While still a youth, he translated eight of Plutarch’s “Lives” into French by order of the king; and in the prologue which he affixed to this work and addressed to his royal patron, he speaks of the obligations under which he is placed to the king, “eslevé ou je suis, et moy et les miens, par vos bienfaitz....”⁠[310]

The king’s kindness seems, by these words, to have extended also to the brothers of George de Selve. The family of the Premier Président was numerous, consisting of six sons,⁠[311] and no less than eight daughters. Jean de Selve can hardly have been a rich man, and the assistance afforded by Francis I. was doubtless welcome.

The translation from Plutarch’s “Lives” at once brought the name of George de Selve into prominence. He states indeed in his preface, with laudable modesty, that he could not have completed his work “without the aid of Maistre Pierre Danès.” Nevertheless, the achievement was considered a remarkable one for so young a scholar; and later writers mention Selve as the worthy precursor of Amyot.⁠[312]

The year 1525 saw the long negotiations between France and Spain which succeeded the defeat of Pavia, and led up to the release of Francis I. The Archbishop of Embrun, better known at a later date as Cardinal Tournon, Philippe de Chabot, Admiral de Brion, and Jean de Selve, Premier Président of the Parliament of Paris, were the three principal emissaries deputed by the Regent, Louise of Savoy, to represent France at the conferences held at Toledo. Montmorency joined them occasionally from Madrid, where he was in attendance on the captive king; while Gabriel de Grammont, Bishop of Tarbes, another future cardinal, was later on added to the list of negotiators.

Their efforts were crowned in January, 1526, by the signature of the Treaty of Madrid. The settlement was humiliating enough for the King of France, but it was due to the skill of the ambassadors that even such measure of success was obtained. At least, it restored him to his subjects, and enabled him, in the following March, to cross the Bidassoa on his way back to France.

The capacity displayed on this occasion by Jean de Selve, and the profound knowledge of constitutional law which lent force to his diplomatic skill, made a deep impression on the French Court. It was desired that the recognition of his great services should assume some practical form. Francis therefore determined to reward the father, who had already attained every honour that could be bestowed, in the person of his son. In the month of May following the king’s release, the Papal licence was penned with which we are already acquainted. At the end of October in the same year (1526), the see of Lavaur fell vacant by the death of Bishop Pierre de Buxi,⁠[313] and George de Selve, now in his eighteenth year, was nominated by the king to succeed him.⁠[314]

For the present Selve could only undertake the administration of the diocese and enjoy its revenues and title. The Church forbade the consecration of a bishop before the completion of his twenty-fifth year.

The appointment of the new prelate was not however allowed to pass unchallenged. In 1616 the Concordat had been signed between Francis I. and Leo X., by which, in return for the payment of annates, the Pope conceded to the King of France the right to nominate to vacant benefices. The Gallican Church, which had previously enjoyed the privilege of electing its own dignitaries, protested vehemently against this innovation. Francis I., whose rule tended more and more towards absolute despotism, clung with tenacity to his usurped authority in clerical matters. But the local bodies from whom the ancient rights had been wrested equally illegally by king and pope, often set up a rival claimant, and disputed every inch of the way to the royal nominees. They had the more excuse for so doing, because, from the time the Concordat was arranged, the king overlooked all canonical rules as to age or fitness in the persons proposed,⁠[315] filling the vacant benefices merely according to his personal convenience and pleasure. It was due to good fortune rather than to any appropriate principle of selection, when the royal choice fell upon so eminently suitable a candidate as George de Selve. It seems by no means clear, however, in what way the relations of the king with the Gallican Church concerned the Legate of Avignon, Cardinal Clermont, or why this prelate should now have intervened and endeavoured to quash the new appointment. The metropolitan see of Avignon, which was subject to papal authority, was governed by a Legate, who appointed to bishoprics within its area. But as Lavaur was not included in its jurisdiction, the interference of the Cardinal-Legate on this occasion seems difficult to account for. Possibly he had been promised the right to nominate to this particular vacancy. The fact, however, remains that Clermont laid claim to the see of Lavaur, and, to judge by the excitement his action aroused at the French Court, with some show of right on his side.

In a series of letters still extant,⁠[316] the various members of the French royal family urged the Legate to withdraw his claim. Francis I. begged him in a letter dated from St. Germain, on the 1st April,

“pour l’amour de moy et de ma priere, vous desister de la poursuite dudict evesché, vous demettant au proffict du filz dudict premier president de tout le droit que pouvez avoir et pretendre audict evesché.”⁠[317]

The king’s mother, Louise of Savoy, whose right hand Jean de Selve had been during the period of her regency, writes with even more insistence:

“Mon cousin, vous avez par cy devant entendu le désir que le Roy et moy avons que le filz de Monsʳ. le premier president soict pourveu de l’evesché de Lavaur, et pour ce que ledit seigʳ. et moy n’avons encore eu responce de vous qui en ce satisface a nostre intencion, j’ay esté meue, mon cousin, de rechief vous en rescrire, vous prient tres affectueusement, et autant que je sauroys jamais pour nulle autre chose, faire que vous veulhez à la requeste dudit sgʳ. et miene vous desister de la poursuite et aussi de metre au proffit et en faveur du filz dudit premier president de tout le droict que vous pouves pretendre audit benefice; estant asseuré que le dit sʳ. et moy aurons memoire de ce plaisir en melheure chose, de sorte que vous en serez content, vous advisent au demourant et pour conclusion que ledit sʳ. et moy porterons tout outre le filz dudit premier president en cest affaire jusques en faire le nostre propre; pour ce je vous prie encores ung bon cop, mon cousin, que vous veulhez bien y pencer et en cest endroict obtemperer a la tres affectionnée requeste dudit sgʳ. et de moy. Et adieu, mon cousin, lequeilh je prie vous avoir en sa saincte garde. Escript a St. Germain en Laye le premier jour d’avril.”

A postscript follows in her own writing:

“Je vous prie, mon cousin, que vous complezes au Roy et a moy du contenu cy dessus et vous vous en trouverez bien.

“Vostre bonne cousine,

“Loyse.”

“A mon cousin le Cardinal de Clermont, legat d’Avignon.”⁠[318]

Montmorency, too, is pressed into the service by the royal family. His intervention had special point, because M. de Clermont, brother of the legate, was his deputy in the government of Languedoc, which the king had bestowed upon him in the previous year. Writing to the Cardinal on behalf of George de Selve, on the 3rd April, Montmorency says that the king and his mother “ont la chose si très à cueur que ne le vous pouroys assez escripre.”⁠[319]

Remonstrance from such high quarters could not remain unheeded. The Cardinal withdrew his claim. Indeed, he had the wit not merely to accede to the wishes of the Court, but to do so with grace. On the 22nd June he writes to George de Selve in reply, it would seem, to an expression of gratitude on the part of the latter:

“Monsʳ. de Lavaur, mon amy, j’ay receue la lettre que m’avez escripte, et n’est besoing user de remerciement en mon endroit car je suis trop et de tout temps amy de vostre pere, et luy vouldrois faire et a toute la rasse plaisir. Vous adviserez de vostre cousté si en autre chose me voulez emploier et ne me trouverez jamais autre que bon frere plus par effect que de parolle; et ainsi vous prie le croyre; qui sera la fin de la presente apres avoir prié le Createur vous tenir en sa saincte garde. D’Avignon ce XXIJᵉ de jung.

“Vostre meilleur frere et amy

“F. Cardˡ de Clermont.”

“A Monsʳ de Lavaur.”⁠[320]

So the matter was settled, and the promotion of 1526 confirmed. But the cumbersome technicalities were so long in adjusting themselves, that nearly ten more months elapsed before George de Selve was able to take the oath of fidelity for the temporalities of the see of Lavaur.⁠[321]

The year 1529 saw the earliest employment of the Bishop of Lavaur in a diplomatic capacity. The first edition of the “Gallia Christiana”⁠[322] states that George de Selve was sent as ambassador in this year to both Charles V. and the republic of Venice; while a manuscript biographical notice of the bishop, preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, confirms this information as regards the embassy to the Emperor.⁠[323] The mission to Venice appears also to derive confirmation from the wording of the Treasury grant of 1533.⁠[324]

The embassy of George de Selve to the Court of Charles V. in 1529 is of special interest to the student of Holbein’s “Ambassadors.” It makes it seem highly probable that the young Bishop attended the Diet of Spires as one of the representatives of France—a mission which assorts well with the presence of the Lutheran hymn-book placed near to him in Holbein’s picture. At the very outset of his career he is thus seen occupied with those ideas of religious reunion which absorbed so large a share of his attention throughout his life.

His youth is indeed a striking circumstance in connection with so important an occasion. But such were the Bishop’s precocity of mind and gravity of temperament that he seems usually to have produced the impression of a man considerably older than was actually the case.⁠[325]

Amongst the works of George de Selve, which were collected and published after his death, are two orations, or “Remonstrances,” as he terms them, addressed to the Germans, with the object of recalling them to the obedience of the Church. Both these discourses were drawn up to be delivered at public Diets held in Germany for the promotion of religious unity. The second, as will presently be seen, was indited in response to a special invitation from Charles V. in the year 1540. The first in date, erroneously placed last in order by the editor of the collected “Œuvres,” is obviously the work of a very young man. A glance at its contents appears to confirm the surmise that it was composed for delivery before the Diet held at Spires in 1529.

After so many and exalted personages, says the youthful orator, who have here come forward in the hope of appeasing the dissensions of the Church, it would be great presumption on the part of anyone to attempt to intervene of his own accord. But it would be equally cowardly to hold back if called upon to take part in the deliberations. Therefore, finding himself summoned, at an hour when no such thing had entered his thoughts, by his king, whom it is the will of God that he should obey, to come hither and try to assist in the pacification of these great divisions; seeing also that his vocation is of those to whom are entrusted the salvation of souls; having, furthermore, long felt within himself exceeding pain at the calamity of the times and an extreme desire to see it remedied, even were it with the loss of all his possessions in this world, or even of something more besides; seeing all these things, he felt that, notwithstanding he is forbidden by ignorance and insufficiency, it was his duty to accept the office imposed upon him. He begs that nothing very high or speculative may be expected of him. Besides that his mind is incapable of such flights, as one who is a simple beginner in the profession of letters, the truth of things has not been so hidden that it is necessary to go beyond the judgment of the simplest.⁠[326]

It would seem that this discourse was divided into two parts, of which only the first has been preserved. The teaching contained in that portion requires no minute analysis here. But while keeping well within the lines of Roman Catholic doctrine, it is remarkable that Selve already strikes the note which predominates in his later writings, basing all his arguments on the teaching of the New Testament. His references are always made direct to the Scriptures, and, in this instance, to the Epistles of St. Paul—a fact which is not without interest in the practice of a young Roman Catholic prelate at this period of history.⁠[327]

At the end of the year 1529 George de Selve lost his father. The Premier Président was buried in the church of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet at Paris, where a rhymed epitaph was placed to his memory,⁠[328] much in the style of that of Gaucher de Dinteville.

The death of Jean de Selve caused a real and profound sorrow in the royal circles of France. The reflection of this feeling is still apparent in a letter written in the following April (1530) by the Queen of Navarre to the Archbishop of Bourges. Marguerite recommends to his kindly notice the Bishop of Lavaur, who is the bearer of the letter. She begs him to continue the affection he bore to “feu monsieur le premier president,” towards “ses pauvres enffans.” The occupant of the archiepiscopal see at this time was no other than François de Tournon, who as Archbishop of Embrun had co-operated with Jean de Selve in the negotiations preceding the Treaty of Madrid. He was now on the eve of promotion to the rank of cardinal.

In a second letter, written a week later to Anne de Montmorency who was busy in the south with his duties as Governour of Languedoc, Marguerite performs a like kind office. She had been unwilling, she says, to allow the Bishop of Lavaur to leave for the south without asking him to bear to Montmorency some news of the Court and of herself.⁠[329] But these words are merely a pretext for the warm expressions with which the queen recommends to her correspondent the bearer of her letter. “You know, as well as I do,” she continues, “the services of the father and the greatness of his merits; and what gratitude they deserve towards the members of his family.” It would seem from this that Montmorency was at this time not acquainted, or but slightly acquainted, with the young bishop.

Both these letters are dated from Blois, where Selve had doubtless paused to visit the Court on his way to Lavaur.

Beyond such scattered hints there are no means of judging of his movements in the years which now elapsed.

In the month of November, 1532, another sorrow fell upon him in the death of his mother.⁠[330] The following spring saw him in England, the guest of his friend, the Bailly of Troyes.

The visit of the Bishop of Lavaur to this country began at some period before Easter, 1533,⁠[331] and terminated before the end of May. It is not necessary to repeat here the few facts concerning that event which have already been narrated in previous chapters.⁠[332]

In December of the same year he was appointed French ambassador at Venice. To judge by the wording of the Treasury grant which records the first payment made to him, he had already been sent on a short mission to that city at a previous time.⁠[333]

The grant is dated from Lyons, where the Court was now sojourning on its way back from the interview with Pope Clement VII. Here the Bishop probably received his final instructions before setting out to take up his new task. Here, also, he must have met again his friend, the Bailly of Troyes, who just at this time arrived at Lyons after his long absence in England. It is to be presumed, however, that Selve made no long stay, as his salary was reckoned from the 12th December.