L'HOPITAL (or L'HOSPITAL), MICHEL DE (c. i5o5— 1573), French statesman, was born near Aigueperse in Auvergne (now Puy-de-Dome). His father, who was physician to the con stable Charles of Bourbon, sent him to study at Toulouse, whence at the age of eighteen he was driven, a consequence of the evil fortunes of the family patron, to Padua, where he studied law and letters for about six years. On the completion of his studies he joined his father at Bologna, and afterwards, the constable having died, went to Rome in the suite of Charles V. For some time he held a position in the papal court at Rome, but about 1534 he returned to France, and becoming an advocate, his marriage, in 1537, procured for him the post of counsellor to the parlement of Paris. This office he held until 1547, when he was sent by Henry II. on a mission to Bologna, where the council of Trent was at that time sitting; after sixteen months of inactivity there, he was by his own desire recalled. L'Hopital was now chancellor to the king's sister, Margaret, duchess of Berry. In 1553, on the recom mendation of the Cardinal of Lorraine, he was named master of the requests, and afterwards president of the chambre des comptes. In 1559 he accompanied the princess Margaret, now duchess of Savoy, to Nice. In 156o he was chosen to succeed Francois Olivier (1487-156o) as chancellor of France.
One of his first acts was to cause the parlement of Paris to register the edict of Romorantin, of which he is sometimes, but erroneously, said to have been the author. Designed to protect heretics from the secret and summary methods of the Inquisition, it certainly had his sympathy and approval. In accordance with his consistent policy of inclusion and toleration he induced the council to call the assembly of notables, which met at Fontaine bleau in August 156o and agreed that the States General should be summoned, all proceedings against heretics being meanwhile suppressed, pending the reformation of the church by a general or national council. The States General met in December ; the edict of Orleans (January 1561) followed and finally, after the col loquy of Poissy, the edict of January 1562, the most liberal, except that of Nantes, ever obtained by the Protestants of France. Its terms, however, were not carried out, and during the war which was the inevitable result of the massacre of Vassy in March, L'HOpital, whose dismissal had been for some time urged by the papal legate Hippolytus of Este, retired to his estate at Vignay, near Etampes, whence he did not return until after the pacifica tion of Amboise (March 19, 1563).
It was by his advice that Charles IX. was declared of age at Rouen in August 1563, a measure which really increased the power of Catherine de' Medici ; and it was under his influence also that the royal council in 1564 refused to authorize the publication of the acts of the council of Trent, on account of their inconsistency with the Gallican liberties. In 1564-1566 he accompanied the young king on an extended tour through France; and in 1566 he promulgated an important edict for the reform of abuses in the ad ministration of justice. The renewal of the religious war in Sep tember 1567, however, diminished the influence of L'HOpital, and in February 1568 he obtained his letters of discharge. Hencefor ward he lived in seclusion at Vignay, his only subsequent public appearance being by means of a memoire which he addressed to the king in 157o under the title Le but de la guerre et de la paix, ou discours du chancelier l'Hospital pour exhorter Charles IX. a donner la paix a ses sujets. He died either at Vignay or at Bellebat on March 13, '1573.
After his death Pibrac, assisted by De Thou and Scevole de Sainte Marthe, collected a volume of the Poemata of L'Hopital, and in 1585 his grandson published Epistolarum scu Sermonum libri sex. The com plete Oeuvres de l'Hopital were published for the first time by P. J. S. Dufey (5 vols., Paris, 1824-25). They include his "Harangues" and "Remonstrances," the Epistles, the Memoire to Charles IX., a Traite de la reformation de la justice, and his will. See also A. F. Villemain, Vie du Chancelier de l'Hopital (Paris, 1874) ; R. G. E. T. St-Rene Taillandier, Le Chancelier de l'Hospital (Paris, 1860 ; Dupre-Lasalle, Michel de l'Hospital avant son elevation au poste de chancelier de France (Paris, 1875-99) ; Amphoux, Michel de l'Hospital et la liberte de conscience au XVle siecle (Paris, 1900) ; C. T. Atkinson, Michel de l'Hospital (London, 1900), containing an appendix on bibliography and sources; A. E. Shaw, Michel de l'Hospital and his Policy (London, 1905) ; and Eugene and Emile Haag, La France protestante (2nd ed., i877 seq.).