FERRIER, fār''ryê', JÉRÉMIE: French Protestant; b. at Nimes c. 1560; d. in Paris Sept. 26, 1626. He was pastor of the Protestant congregation at Alais, afterward at Nimes, and in 1601 was appointed professor of theology at the academy at Nimes. On the occasion of his inauguration he defended publicly the thesis that Pope Clement VIII. was the Antichrist, and later he won a great reputation by his sermons against the Jesuits. Nevertheless, some doubt of his sincerity arose in 1611; and in 1612, suspected of having sold out to the Romanists, he was suspended for six years by the Synod of Privas. So strong was the feeling against him that in the rioting which followed, Ferrier barely escaped with his life. In 1614 he went to Paris, abjured Protestantism, and subsequently became a counselor of state under Louis XIII. He published De l'Antechrist et de ses marques, contre les calomnies des ennemis de l'église catholique (Paris, 1615), in which he retracted his former anti-Romanist utterances; and Le Catholique d'état (1625), a defense of Richelieu's policy.