HOPITA'L, or HOSPITA'L, MICHEL DE L', born in 1505, near Aigueperse in Auvergne, was the son of Jean do 1116pital, physician to the Conndtable do Bourbon, of whom he held a small estate. While L'HOpital was studying law at Toulouse, his father was involved in the proscription of the Conatable, whom he accompanied to Italy ; he was condemned to perpetual banishment, and his property was confiscated. His son, although only eighteen years of age, was arrested, examined, and kept for a short time in confinement. On being released, be went to Milan to join his father, who sent him to Padua to finish his studies. L'HOpital remained in that celebrated university six years, during which the Coun6table de Bourbon lost his life under the walls of Rome, and Jean de L'IlOpital found himself without a protector in a foreign land. lie however took his son to Rome to see the coronation of Charles V., and it was in that city that the Cardinal de Orammont, the French ambassador, became interested in favour of the young man, and induced him to return to France, where he began to practise at the bar of the parliament of Paris.
His merit, added to his having married the daughter of the lieutenarit criminel Morin, procured for him a seat on the bench of the coun sellors of the parliament, where, by his assiduity, his learning, and his probity, he won the favour of the chancellor Olivier, and of Duchltel, bishop of Tulle and librarian to Francis I. L'HOpital was named ambassador to the Council of Trent, which had been just removed by the pope to Bologna; but the dissensions among the members of that assembly rendered his mission useless, and he was recalled to France by Henri II. The Duchess of Berry, daughter of Francis I., a princess fond of learning, invited L'HOpital to her court, and recommended him to her brother the king, who appointed him superintendent of the finances. L'HOpital endeavoured to check prodigality, mismanage ment, and corruption, by which course be made himself many enemies. There was another subject upon which he differed from the court party, and that was the persecution to which the Protestants were subject. L'HOpital, with several of his friends in the parliament, such as Du Ferrier, Paul de Foix, Christophe de Thou, and others, petitioned Henri II. to suspend the proscriptions and executions until the newly-assembled council should decide on the religions contro versy ; but the king considered their remonstrances as rebellions, and he ordered Montgomery, the captain of his guards, to arrest Paul de Foix, Louis du Faur, Anne du Bourg, and other members of the parliament. Du Bourg, who had spoken the most boldly, was soon after hanged, and his body burnt. During the minority of Francis II., a special court, appropriately called the burning-chamber,' was insti tuted to punish heretics. The Guises were now all-powerful in the state, and the chancellor Olivier himself signed the ordonnance by which the Duke de Guise was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Tho old chancellor died soon after, and Catherine de' Medici, alarmed at the power of the Guises, chose L'HOpital, of whose integrity she was assured, to replace him in 15G0. His office was not an enviable one in those times. He strenuously opposed the Cardinal de Lorraine, who wanted to establish the Inquisition in France, and lie proposed instead of it to give to the bishops cognisance of matters of heresy within their respective dioceses. This resolution was pro claimed in the edict called 'De Romorantin,' which the chancellor laid before the parliament to be registered, observing at the same time that opinions can only be subdued by exhortations and reasoning, and not by violence and persecution.
L'Hapital's next thought was that of assembling the states-general, which had not met for eighty years, but the Guises opposed the pro posal, which they feared would prove fatal to their power. L'HOpital accordingly contented himself with assembling the nobility and high clergy at Fontainebleau. Francis II., with his wife Mary Stuart, pre aided in the assembly, and the chancellor made a report upon the state of the kingdom, and the religious and civil discontents which prevailed. Coligny next presented to the king two petitions from the Protestants of Normandy ; and Montluc, bishop of Valence, and the archbishop of Vienne, strongly censured the system of persecution adopted against the Protestants; they spoke of the indulgence of primitive church on similar occasions; they complained of the perpetual obstacles presented by the court of Rome to the convocation of a general council, which might restore peace to Christendom ; and at last they proposed, as the only remedy to existing evils, the convo cation of the states-general, and also of a national synod. The Guises I consented to the first, but violently opposed the national eyood as dangerous to the faith and the unity of the church. L'HOpital hastened to obtain an edict from the king, convoking the states general for the 10th of December 1560, at Orleans, and meantime suspending all prosecutions on charges of heresy. But in the interval, Francis II. died, and Catherine de' Medici, regent for her second son Charles IX., hesitated about opening the assembly of the states. But the chancellor overcame her doubts and fears, and he opened the assembly with a speech in which he explained the numerous and I important subjects which demanded the attention of the states, and above all, he insisted on the claims of the Protestants, censuring the spirit of persecution as unchristian and impolitic : "Let us do away,"1 said he, "with those diabolical words of Lutherans, Huguenots, and Papists, names of party and sedition ; do not let us change the fair appellation of Christians."
Each of the three orders composing tho states now chose its own orator, and It soon became apparent that no harmony could prevail in the assembly. The orator of the third estate, or commons, without being favourable to tho Protestants, loudly censured the scandalous and negligent condnct of the Roman Catholic clergy. The orator of the nobility, reflecting on the wealth and luxury of the church, demanded freedom of worship for the Protestants. The orator of the clergy maintained that heresy was a capital crime, and ought to be punished by the law, and at the same time be claimed exemption for his order from all taxes and other publio burdens. The only useful result of the assembly was the passing of an ordonnance pre pared by L'HOpital, which abolished arbitrary taxes, regulated the feudal authority of the nobles, and corrected many abuses in the judicial system. Soon after, July 1561, L'HOpital obtained from the regent Catherine an edict, in the name of the king, ordering tho release of all prisoners suspected of heresy. By another edict Roman Catholics were forbidden, under pain of death, from forcing an entrance Into the houses of Protestants under pretence of dispersing their meetings. The parliament of Paris opposed these measures; but the chancellor prevailed, and the edicts were enforced. L'HOpital was present at the conference of Poisay, where Beza and other Protestant theologians argued on matters of doctrine against the Cardinal de Lorraine and other Roman Catholic divines, but which ended, as such meetings generally end, in mutual recriminations. In January 1562 L'HOpital obtained from another assembly, consisting of deputations from all the parliaments 'of the kingdom, an edict of tolerance granting liberty of worship to the Protestants, except within the walleetowns, and under the condition "that they should not teach anything contrary to the council of Nicna, or to the books of the Old and New Testaments." But soon after, the massacre of Vassy by the attendants of the Duke of Guise became the signal of fresh persecutions, followed by civil war. [Gum.] After the death of the Duke of Guise, 1563, L'Hopital prevailed upon Catherine to grant the edict "of peace," by which, among other conditions, all prisoners on both sides were released, and the Protestants were allowed the exercise of their religion within the towns which they had occupied during the war. He also prevailed upon Catherine to declare the majority of her son Charles IX., whom he afterwards induced to make a tour through the various provinces of the kingdom. The chancellor took this opportunity of reading some sharp lectures to the various parliaments, especially that of Bordeaux, which had encouraged persecution and civil war. In 1566 L'HOpital again assembled the deputies from the various parliaments and the chief nobles at Moulins, where an ordonnance was issued for the reform of justice, which is one of the beat judicial regulations adopted in France previous to the reign of Louis XIV. Soon after the civil war broke out again, to the great sorrow of L'HOpital, who endeavoured, during every cessation from actual fighting, to restore peace betweeu the two parties. He thus became obnoxious to the Guises, who desired nothing lees than the extermination of the Protestant. At last a bull came from Rome authorising the king to levy 100,000 etas yearly on the revenues of the clergy, for the purpose and ou the condition of rooting heresy out of his kingdom. The chancellor opposed the hull; he besought the king and his mother not to inundate France again with blood; he seemed to have prevailed, but soon afterwards the seals were taken from him, aucl- he retired to his country-house at Vignay, in 1568, deploring the calamities of his country which he could no longer prevent. After some years of retirement the news of the St. Barthelemi massacre came to give the finishing blow to his exhausted frame. He was himself in danger of his life, but was spared through the ;influence of the Duchess of Savoy, the former duchess de Berry, his early benefactress.. His only daughter, who had embraced the Reformed religion, was saved by the widow duchess of Guise, who concealed her in her hotel at Paris. L'Hopital sur vived that horrible tragedy only six months ; he died at Vignayon the 15th of March 1573. An upright and enlightened magistrate in an age of the worst corruption and ignorance, a benevolent Christian amidst the most furious fanaticism, his memory is deservedly conse crated in the annals of his country. His epistles in Latin verse, reflecting on public; and domestic occurrences, were published, and are not without poetical merit. Several of his harangues and dis courses have also been published, as well as his testament. His life has been written by Bernardi ; and Villemain, in his 'Nouveaux Melanges Litteraires, has also written his biography.