Duchatel, Pierre

Duchatel, Pierre (CASTELLANUS), a French prelate, was born at Arc, in Burgundy (date unknown), and was educated at Dijon, where he distinguished himself by his successful study of Greek. "He assisted Erasmus in his translations from the Greek, and became corrector of the press in Frobenius's office at Basle. He next studied the law at Bourges, after which he went to Rome, where he found little enjoyment except in contemplating the remains of antiquity. The corruption of morals in the Church of Rome filled him with indignation, and he appears to have conceived as bad an opinion of it as any of the Reformers, and expressed himself respecting it with as much severity as they did. From thence he traveled to Venice, and next visited Cyprus, where he read lectures for two years with great success. He afterwards went to Egypt, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, and on his return home was appointed reader to Francis I, who made him bishop of Tulle, and afterwards of Mason. Henry II translated him to Orleans, where he died in 1552. He was a strenuous defender of the liberties of the Gallican Church, and exceedingly liberal to the Protestants. He wrote an oration on Francis, and a Latin letter for that king to Charles V. In his funeral oration on Francis, he hinted that the soul of the king had gone to heaven, which excited the ire of the doctors of the Sorbonne, who thought that by so doing he opposed the doctrine of purgatory" (Hook, Ecclesiastes Biography, s.v.); see also Jortin, Life of Erasmus; Bayle, Dictionary, s.v. Castellanus.