Philippe de Mornay Philippe de Mornay ( 5 November 1549 – 11 November 1623 ) , seigneur du Plessis Marly , usually known as Du - Plessis - Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis , was a French Protestant writer and member of the anti - monarchist " Monarchomaques " . Biography . He was born in France , now situated in Val - d ' Oise . His mother had leanings toward Protestantism , but his father tried to counteract her influence by sending him to the Collège de Lisieux at Paris . On his father ' s death in 1559 , however , the family formally adopted the reformed faith . Mornay studied law and jurisprudence at the University of Heidelberg in 1565 and the following year Hebrew and German at the University of Padua . During the French Wars of Religion in 1567 , he joined the army of Louis I de Bourbon , prince de Condé , but a fall from his horse prevented him from taking an active part in the campaign . His career as Huguenot apologist began in 1571 with the work " Dissertation sur l ' Église visible " , and , as a diplomat in 1572 , he undertook a confidential mission for Admiral de Coligny to William the Silent , Prince of Orange . He escaped the St . Bartholomew ' s Day Massacre by the aid of a Catholic friend , taking refuge in England . Returning to France towards the end of 1573 , he participated during the next two years with various success in the campaigns of the future Henry IV of France , then only King of Navarre . He was taken prisoner by the Duke of Guise on 10 October 1575 was but ransomed for a small sum , which was paid by Charlotte Arbaleste , whom he married shortly afterwards at Sedan . Mornay was gradually recognized as Henry ' s right - hand man , representing him in England from 1577 to 1578 and again in 1580 , and in the Low Countries 1581 - 1582 . With the death of the Duke of Alençon - Anjou in 1584 , by which Henry was brought within sight of the throne of France , the period of Mornay ' s greatest political activity began , and after the death of the Prince of Condé in 1588 , his influence became so great that he was popularly styled the " Huguenot pope " . He was present at the siege of Dieppe , fought at Ivry , and was at the siege of Rouen in 1591 - 92 until he sent on a mission to the court of Queen Elizabeth . Both he and his wife befriended English Protestants like Francis Walsingham , Mary Sidney , and her brother Philip Sydney . He was bitterly disappointed by Henry IV ' s abjuration of Protestantism in 1593 and gradually withdrew from the court , devoting himself to the Academy of Saumur , which had a distinguished history until its suppression by Louis XIV in 1683 . His last years were saddened by the loss of his only son in 1605 and that of his devoted wife in 1606 , but he spent them in perfecting the Huguenot organization . He was chosen a deputy in 1618 to represent the French Protestants at the Synod of Dort . He was prohibited from attending by Louis XIII but contributed materially to its deliberations by written communications . He lost the governorship of Saumur at the time of the Huguenot insurrection in 1621 as Saumur was captured by French royal forces , and died in retirement on his estate of La Forêt - sur - Sèvre , Deux - Sèvres . Works . In 1598 he published a work on which he had long been engaged , entitled " De L ' institution , usage et doctrine du saint sacrement de l ' eucharistie en l ' église ancienne " , containing about 5000 citations from the scriptures , fathers and schoolmen . Jacques Davy Du Perron , bishop of Évreux , afterwards cardinal and archbishop of Sens , accused him of misquoting at least 500 , and a public disputation was held at Fontainebleau on 4 May 1600 . Decision was awarded to Du Perron on nine points presented , when the disputation was interrupted by the illness of Mornay . Mornay was also instrumental in the drafting of the Edict of Nantes ( 1598 ) which established political rights and some religious freedom for the Huguenots . His principal works , in addition to those mentioned above , are " Excellent discours de la vie et de la mort " ( London , 1577 ) , a bridal present to Charlotte Arbaleste ; " Traité de l ' Église où l ' on traite des principales questions qui ont été mues sur ce point en nostre temps " ( London , 1578 ) ; " Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne contre les athées , épicuriens , payens , juifs , mahométans et autres infidèles " ( Antwerp , 1581 ) ; " Le mystère d ' iniquité , c ' est à dire , l ' histoire de la papauté " ( Geneva , 1611 ) . Two volumes of " Mémoires " , from 1572 to 1589 , appeared at La Forêt ( 1624 – 1625 ) , and a continuation in 2 vols . at Amsterdam ( 1652 ) ; a more complete but very inaccurate edition ( " " ) in 12 vols . was published at Paris in 1624 - 1625 . He is also one — many consider the most likely — candidate for being author of the Vindiciae contra tyrannos ( 1579 ) , a pamphlet advocating resistance to the French crown .