DUBOURG, dü"būr’, ANNE: French Reformer; b. at Riom (17 m. n.e. of Puy-de-Dome) c. 1520; d. at Paris Dec. 23, 1559. After pursuing the practise of law, he became, about 1547, professor of civil law in the University of Orleans. In 1557 he was appointed conseiller-clerc to the Parliament of Paris. In his father's house he became acquainted with the doctrines of the Reformatiop, and at Orleans he had been in close sympathy with the Reformers, and had made a deep study of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and early church history before he embraced the new ideas. In 1558 he began to frequent the meetings of the Reformed congregation in Paris. In the Parliament most of the younger members inclined toward the Reformation; and of the older members some of the most prominent, as the president, Harley, and Séguier, were in favor of a mild policy against heretics. There was, however, in the Parliament a party of extreme Roman Catholics led by Minard, Le Maistre, and St. André, and a conflict was not slow in arising. In order to arrive at some common policy, the procurator-general, Bourdin, convoked a plenary assembly of all the divisions of the Parliament, in Apr., 1559. When it became evident that the friends of the Reformation were in the majority, Minard, Le Maistre, and Bourdin addressed themselves directly to Henry II. The king appeared personally in the Parliament at the head of an imposing escort, and reproached it for lukewarmness in respect to the extirpation of heresy. Dubourg replied in a spirit of fearlessness, arguing that, while the heaviest transgressions against the divine law were allowed to go unpunished, the Parliament did wrong to devote its energies to the persecution of believers, who in the midst of the flames called upon the name of Christ. Personally incensed at this speech, which he construed as an allusion to his relations with Diane of Poitiers, Henry ordered the arrest of Dubourg. Legally, a member of the Parliament could be judged only by the Parliament itself. Nevertheless, the king appointed a commission of Dubourg's bitterest opponents to try the case. Dubourg appealed successively to the archbishops of Paris, Sens, and Lyons, but the appeals were not accepted. An appeal to the pope was still possible, but Dubourg refused to avail himself of it. The death of Henry II., July 10, 1559, made his situation still more desperate, as, by the accession of Francis II., the Guises came into power. All exertions of his friends, including Coligny, Condé, and the Elector-Palatine Frederick, who wished him to be released to take a professorship at Heidelberg, were in vain. Dubourg presented to his judges a confession of faith which was a masterly defense of the Reformation. Then for a moment he wavered, and under the influence of certain friends presented a second confession which was ambiguous, and was considered a surrender by his opponents; but he soon retracted, and, declaring his first confession to be the one which he actually believed, brought his fate upon himself. The verdict was given Dec. 21, and two days afterward he was strangled and burned.

(THEODOR SCHOTT †.)

 

Bibliography: La Vraye Histoire contenant l’inique jugement et fausse procédure contre Anne Dubourg, Antwerp, 1561, reprinted in vol. i. of Mémoires de Condé, London, 1743; A. de la Roche-Chandieu, Histoire des persécutions et martyrs de 1'église de Paris, 1657-60, Lyons, 1563; Bulletin de l’histoire du protestantisme français, vols. xxxvi.- xxxvii.; Lichtenberger, ESR, iv. 121-123, Paris, 1878.