Mets, Laurent Re

Mets, Laurent Re a Flemish prelate, was born at Grammont about 1520. He studied theology at Louvain, became a curate at Deinse, almoner and canon of Saint- Gudula's church at Brussels, and shortly after the opening of the year 1562 he was appointed vicar to cardinal de Granvelle, archbishop of Malines, and installed ecclesiastical judge, or official, for the district of Brussels. In 1569, the University of Louvain constituted him the conservator of its privileges and vested rights, which were then hotly contested. Laurent de Mets did not long discharge the intricate functions of this last office, for in November 1569, he was preferred to the bishopric of Bois-le-Duc. Mets founded a seminary, and published a Ritual for the' use of his clergy. In November 1577, he was constrained to yield to the insurrection of the Calvinists. At first he took refuge in Cologne, and then in Namur, where, in 1578, Gregory XIII invested him with the episcopal see rendered vacant by the death of Anthony Havet. He died at Namur, 1580. He is the author of Statuta Synodi Diocesanae Buscoducensis anno Domini MDLXXI (Bois- le-Duc, 1571, 8vo): — Manuale Pastorum diaecesis Sylvaeducensis, (ibid. 1572, 4to). See Paquot, Memoires pour servire l'histoire litteraire des Pays-Bas, 12:319-27; Valere Andre, Bibliotheca Belgica; Guillaume Gazet, Histoire ecclesiastique des Pays-Bas; Foppens, Bibliotheca Belgica, page 810.