OSSAT, Arnaud d , , a celebrated cardinal, and one of the most remarkable men of his time, was born at Laroque-en-Magnoac, a village in the diocese of Auch, in the year 1536. In the strictest sense of the Spanish expression, he was “the son of his own works.” There is reason to believe that his father, who died in distress in Spain, exercised the profession of farrier; and this opinion is in accordance with the common tradition, according to which D’Ossat was ushered into the world by an army-farrier. At the age of nine, he found himself without any known parents, and having no other resource than public charity. But a gentleman of the neighbourhood, named De Marca, received the orphan into his house, and caused him to be educated along with one of his nephews, who had been committed to his care. In this situation the progress of D’Ossat was so striking, that in a very few years he was thought capable of acting as preceptor to the companion of his studies. In 1559 he received orders to attend his pupil, and two other nephews of Μ. de Marca, to Paris; and he was likewise intrusted with the charge of a son of a merchant in Lectoure, who accompanied them. To these youths he devoted the utmost care and attention till the year 1562, when, having completed their course of study, they returned to their relations; thus relieving him from those extrinsic duties, the performance of which had impeded his own progress, and prevented him from increasing at pleasure the amount of his own acquirements. During this period, however, he had studied rhetoric and philosophy, and, in particular, had profited by the lessons of Ramus, whose bold and penetrating mind had enabled him to strike into new paths of inquiry. Hence, when Charpentier, the fierce champion of Aristotle, attacked Ramus, D’Ossat defended the doctrine of his master in a judicious production, entitled Expositio in Disputationem Jacobi Car-penterii de Methodo, Paris, 1564, in 8vo, the elegant and close dialectics of which so disconcerted Charpentier, that the only answer he could make to his adversary consisted in scurrility and abuse. D’Ossat quitted Ramus to study the civil law under Cujas in the university of Bourges. His intention was to qualify himself for the profession of advocate; and accordingly, having taken his diploma, he returned to Paris in the year 1568, and was admitted to the bar. But being as yet almost unknown, and without the means necessary to enable him to wait for employment in the ordinary course of the profession, he had not long attended the sittings of the parliament of Paris ere he became convinced that he would never find his place amidst so much that was arbitrary on the bench, and the barbarism that reigned at the bar. Fortunately for him, however, the celebrated Paul de Foix then filled the office of counsellor to the parliament. The merit of D’Ossat could not escape the notice of a magistrate who cherished so strong a passion for letters. De Foix, notwithstanding his enthusiasm for Aristotle, and his favour for Charpentier, sought out the modest advocate, admitted him to the learned society which met at his house, and having seen cause to esteem him more and more in proportion as he became acquainted with him, procured for D’Ossat the situation of counsellor to the présidial, or local court, of Melun; an office which appears to have imposed on him little or no duty, since he continued to hold it as late as the year 1588. D’Ossat having in this way become necessary to his patron, accompanied him into Italy in the year 1574. A political mission of pure etiquette had been confided to De Foix, and he accordingly considered his journey merely as an opportunity thrown in his way of adding to his literary enjoyments. Whilst he travelled on horseback, D’Ossat explained to him Plato, whilst De Thou read the Paratitla of Cujas; and all the three, like worthy friends of Montaigne, sometimes discoursed together on the peripatetic philosophy. The orthodoxy of De Foix having been called in question by the pope, and his holiness having ordered “an information” on the conduct which he had pursued in the parliament, D’Ossat composed an apologetical memoir in behalf of his friend. But this defence produced no other result than making its author advantageously known.

De Foix withdrew from Rome, in order to allow the proceeding which had been commenced against him to fall asleep. D’Ossat, however, remained; and it was probably during this interval that he took holy orders. In 1581, De Foix returned to Rome as ambassador of Henry III., and chose D’Ossat as his secretary. This choice was, in every respect, fortunate; and so completely did the secretary enter into the views of his principal as to the manner of conducting business, that the resemblance observable in the style of their despatches has induced an erroneous belief that these were all prepared by D’Ossat. After the death of De Foix, D’Ossat was employed in the same capacity by Cardinal Hippolyte d’Este, official protector of the church of France, whose entire confidence he had gained; and he acquired a still greater ascendency over Cardinal de Joyeuse, who succeeded Cardinal d’Este. After the disgrace of Villeroi, Henry III. offered the place of that minister to D’Ossat; but he refused to succeed a man who had strong claims on his gratitude. Besides, he foresaw that, in this elevated post, it would be impossible for him to make head against the intrigues of the Guises; and he loved his country too well to render himself subservient to their ambition. His experience prevented him from being seduced, like so many others, by the pretexts of the League; he maintained a courageous fidelity to his sovereign; and he wrote, in the name of Cardinal de Joyeuse, a letter approving of the murder of the Guises. Joyeuse afterwards allowed himself to be drawn into the ranks of the Leaguers; but he repaired his error by a noble devotion, which no subsequent act belied, to Henry IV. D’Ossat being charged by the queen-dowager, the widow of Henry III., to solicit the celebration of the obsequies of that unfortunate prince, vainly endeavoured, during several years, to overcome the resistance of the pope, who refused his assent to a ceremony which had been consecrated' by usage. Whilst he was thus interceding for the memory of Henry HL, De Thou dedicated to him a poem he had written on the death of that royal victim. D’Ossat, though without any public character, and without orders from the French ministry, zealously interposed to effect the reconciliation of Henry IV. with the holy see; and this prince being informed of his spontaneous exertions, as well as of his capacity, wrote to request him to put himself in communication, and act in concert, with the Duke of Nevers, who was then on his way to Rome, provided with full powers. The duke, however, despising an auxiliary calculated to prove the more useful as he was less conspicuous, undertook to conduct the negotiation alone, and completely failed. Nevertheless, Clement VIII. was exceedingly desirous that Henry should be solemnly admitted into the communion of the Catholic Church; but he wished, at the same time, to keep terms with Spain, and to obtain condi tions advantageous to the holy see.

Accordingly, he acted with an “innocent duplicity," which completely deceived the Spaniards. One of them, who held the office of chamberlain to the pope, having published a pamphlet in order to prove that a relapsed heretic could neither be absolved nor recognised as king, D’Ossat wrote a triumphant reply. Clement, however, although he approved of the substance of this production, required that it should only be circulated privately. D’Ossat entertained no doubt whatever as to the real intentions of the pope; but in the negotiation, with which he was [7:16:657]at length exclusively intrusted, he had constantly to guard against the captious and formalist character of the court of Rome. When he had smoothed all obstacles, Duperron was sent to Rome to join him in receiving the stipulated absolution in name of the king. The first condition which the pope wished to impose on the royal commissioners, was to deposit the crown of France at the feet of the pontifical throne. But the representatives of Henry declared firmly that they would never consent to any proposition inconsistent with the independence of the royal authority; nor did they show themselves less decidedly opposed to every clause which had a tendency to compromise anew the tranquillity of the state, or excite alarm amongst the Huguenots. The Spanish faction murmured at not being able to prevent an absolution, which conciliated to Henry the opinion of a great number of his subjects. But their discontent was unavailing. Everything had been satisfactorily arranged, and Duperron was appointed to the bishopric of Evreux; whilst D’Ossat, who had brought about this happy result, received as his recompense the title of councillor of state, and the bishopric of-Rennes.

During the remainder of his life he actively co-operated in all the diplomatic affairs which were conducted in Italy. By his means the connection which had subsisted nearly thirty years between Margaret of Valois and Henry IV. was dissolved. The dispensation granted by the pope, to validate the union of Catherine of Bourbon and the Duke de Bar, was also his work. He took part in the negotiation concerning the restitution of the marquisate of Saluées; observed the astute conduct of the Duke of Savoy; induced the Grand Duke of Tuscany to evacuate the forts which he occupied in the isles of If and Pomègue near Marseilles; proved, in a memoir which he distributed to the sacred college, that the peace recently concluded at Vervins was more necessary to Spain than to France; and was chosen to announce that peace to the senate of Venice. In satisfying Clement VIII. respecting the delay of publication experienced by the Council of Trent, the guarantees which the edict of Nantes granted to the Protestants, and the rigorous measures ordained against the Jesuits, DOssat displayed all the resources of an insinuating mind, and dissipated the clouds formed by the Spanish influence at the court of Rome. His experience appears to have been only once at fault, in a case where he took counsel of his affections rather than of his judgment. We allude to the assent which he gave to a project of the pope for placing upon the throne of England the Duke or Cardinal of Parma, to the prejudice of the son of Mary Stuart.

DOssat, by his simple and modest character, no less than by his prudence, his private virtues, and his talents, had procured for himself many friends, and reached the highest consideration he could attain in the face of the double obstacle of poverty and obscurity of birth, when, in the year 1599, he received a cardinal’s hat, which was conferred on him at the earnest solicitation of the king. The following year he was appointed to the bishopric of Baïeux, which, however, he almost immediately found means to resign with advantage. Nevertheless, his last years were embittered by vexation, and saddened by disappointment. To support his dignity, he had only two benefices, the revenues of which were in part seized on by the neighbouring gentlemen. The king had granted him a pension sufficient for a man accustomed to limit his personal wants; but it was not regularly paid. Sully, who hated, in the person of DOssat, the protégé of Villeroi, hesitated not, first to suspend, and then altogether to discontinue, the annual prestation to which the bounty of his sovereign had given him a title; and the cardinal would have been exposed to all the pangs of shame and misery, if the heirs of Hippolyte d’Este had not paid to him a legacy of L.500, which had been exigible for more than ten years. Besides, DOssat, who only saw the internal situation of France with the eyes of Villeroi, formed an exaggerated notion of some disorders produced by the rigorous administration of Sully; and, under this impression, wrote to the king a letter, in which he drew a dark picture of the dangers with which he believed the state to be threatened. Sully, more irritated than ever, was loud in his complaints against the cardinal; and in his Mémoires may be found the imputations which he laid to the charge of a man who, like himself, had devoted all his thoughts to the service of his sovereign. DOssat, however, had the consolation of learning that he retained the esteem of Henry IV., if he had lost the favour of his great minister. He died on the 13th of March 1604, in the sixty-eighth year of his age; and as he had no known relations, he divided his little property between his two secretaries and the poor.

Madame d ’ Arconville published a prolix Life of Cardinal d’Ossat, Paris, 1771, in two vols. 8vo, in which she inserted a translation of a remarkable memoir on the effects of the League, composed in Italian by D’Ossat, and containing an able exposition of the character of the policy pursued by the Guises, with the consequences which might be expected to result from it. The Letters published under the name of Cardinal Joyeuse may also be regarded as the productions of D’Ossat; but it is to the collection of his own Letters addressed to Villeroi that he is chiefly indebted for his classical reputation in diplomacy. Chesterfield recommended them to his son as the work best calculated to give him an insight into the conduct of affairs; and Wicquefort appears to have had them continually in view in his treatise entitled E Ambassadeur. The language of D’Ossat is natural and full of sincerity; his statements are marked by a grave and concise simplicity; he is almost never betrayed into any false step or unguarded expression; and he interests us equally by his modesty and his loyalty. Now, when the court of Rome is no longer the centre of negotiations, and the ideas of men have taken another course, his diplomatic correspondence has necessarily lost much of its importance; but with reference to the history of the time to which it refers, it must ever be consulted with advantage. As the collection of his Letters does not commence until the month of April 1593, it thus leaves a gap in his political life from the year 1589 until the period in question. The first edition was published at Paris in 1624, folio, by the brothers Dupuy; but it has been much surpassed by that of Amelot de la Houssaye, which appeared at the same place in 1697, in two vols. with notes, and which was reprinted with additional notes at Amsterdam, 1707, 1714, and 1732, in five vols. 12mo. This work was translated into Italian by Jerome Canini, and published at Venice, 1629, in 4to. (a.)

OiSSERO, a town of the island of Cherso, in the Adriatic, within the Austrian province of Trieste. It stands on the western side of the island, on a promontory, and is the see of a bishop, but with only 360 houses and 1540 inhabitants. It is also the name of an island separated from Cherso by a narrow channel which is not passable by vessels. It is well cultivated, and very productive of wine. It contains two townships or communes, with 1600 houses and 7200 inhabitants.