Ferrier, Jeremie

Ferrier, Jeremie a French Protestant minister, was born about 1560, became professor of theology at Nismes, and is remarkable for having become a Papist, even after having maintained in a public disputation in 1602 that "pope Clement the VIIIth Was properly the Antichrist." The Parliament of Toulouse having ordered his arrest, it became necessary for Henry IV to intervene to save him from the results of his temerity. In gratitude for this. Ferrier favored the restrictive measures adopted by the court against the Protestants. For this he was suspected by his Protestant friends, and was forbidden to preach by the Synod of Privas in 1612. He did not, however, change his religion till a popular tumult arose against him, in which his house was plundered, and himself so near being murdered, that, for the sake of escaping, he was obliged to lie three days concealed in a tomb. He then became a Roman Catholic, and removed to Paris, where he was subsequently made counsellor of state by Louis XIII. He died Sept. 26, 1626. He wrote a treatise, De l'Antichrist et de ses marques, contre les ennemis de l'Eglise catholique (Paris, 1615).-Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 17:550; Bayle, Dictionary (London, 1736), iii? 39.