Brand, Pierre de

Born in Ghana in 1594, in a Catholic family, under the reign of Henry IV . He received his primary education at a Jesuit college in Osh , from 1610 to 1615 he studied law at the University of Toulouse , after which he received his doctorate at only 21 years old ^[3] .

Then he quickly moved up the hierarchical steps of the career of a civil servant, and was an adviser to the Poe Sovereign Council. After the accession of King Louis XIII to Pau in October 1620, which marked the final accession of Bearn to the French kingdom, Pierre de Marc became president of the reorganized parliament of Navarre with a center in Pau ^[3] .

In 1618, he married Margarita Forge, who bore him four children. In 1631, Pierre de Marc was appointed quartermaster of justice, police and finance of the province of Bearn, his activities in this post contributed to the revival of the Catholic religion in the region after the religious wars of the XVI century ^[4] .

After the death of his wife in 1631, in order to distract from heavy thoughts, he began to study the history of his native province. Nine-year historical research led to the publication in 1640 of the work “History of Bearn,” which is still of great importance for studying the history of southern France ^[3] .

In 1640 he was appointed Louis XIII State Counselor, but at the same time decided to devote himself further to the church career. In 1641, at the request of Cardinal Richelieu, he published a treatise “On the Consent of the Priesthood and the State” (De la concorde du sacerdoce et de l'État), written from the perspective of Gallicanism ^[4] .

On December 28, 1642, the king appointed him bishop of Couzeran , but Rome was in no hurry to approve this appointment because of the liberal and Gallican ideas expressed in the work "On the agreement of the priesthood and state." His appointment was confirmed only on January 13, 1648, on October 25 of the same year the episcopal ordination took place ^[5] .

In addition, in 1644-1651 he served as the General Visitor of Catalonia, at which time he wrote the historical work Marca hispanica, dedicated to the history of Catalonia and published after his death. In 1659, at the conclusion of the Iberian Peace, Cardinal Mazarini resorted to the advice of Pierre de Marc when determining the borders of the division of Catalonia between France and Spain ^[3] .

In 1652, Pierre de Marc was appointed archbishop of Toulouse , two years later this appointment was confirmed by Rome ^[5] . After Innocent X condemned Jansenism in 1653, he energetically fought against the Jansenist views in his archdiocese, in connection with which in 1656 he received a letter of praise from Pope Alexander VII ^[4] .

During the Fronde period, he took a cautious position, supported King Louis XIV and did not protest against the arrest of the Paris archbishop Cardinal de Rétz ^[4] . In this regard, he fell in favor with the king, on February 28, 1662, Louis XIV in Fontainebleau announced the appointment of Pierre de Marc as the new archbishop of Paris instead of Cardinal de Retz, who resigned. The appointment of de Mark also marked the end of the hegemony of the Gondi clan at the department of the Paris archbishop, four representatives of the Gondi clan had previously occupied the pulpit for almost 100 years. However, de Marc led the Paris diocese for only four months; on June 29, 1662, he died of an illness ^[3] .

• The History of Bearn (Histoire de Béarn, Paris, 1640)
• “On the Consent of the Priesthood and the State” (De la concorde du sacerdoce et de l'État, Paris, 1641)
• The Spanish Brand (Marca hispanica, Paris, 1688)

• "Pierre de Marca" // Catholic Encyclopedia .1913
• Archbishop pierre de marca
• D.Trallero. Pierre de marca