Jean Vendeville (24 June 1527 – 15 October 1592) was a

law professor A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...

and a

bishop of Tournai The Diocese of Tournai () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. The diocese was formed in 1146, upon the dissolution of the Diocese of Noyon and Tournai, which had existed since the 7th century ...

Life

Vendeville was possibly born in

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, the son of Guillaume Vendeville and Marie Des Barbieux.Alexis Possoz, ''Mgr Jean Vendeville, évêque de Tournai 1587-1592'' (Lille: Lefort, 1862)
Available
on

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. He went to school in Menin, and from the age of fifteen in Paris, where he studied law, beginning a legal practice in

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

. In 1551 he married Anne Roelofs, of

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

, and in 1553 he obtained a doctorate in laws from the University of Leuven. In 1562 he was appointed professor of law at the newly founded

University of Douai The University of Douai (; ) was a historic university in Douai, France. With a medieval tradition of scholarly activity in the city, the university was established in 1559, and lectures began in 1562. It ceased operations from 1795 to 1808. In ...

. He was influential in rallying secular support for the first establishment of diocesan seminaries in the Low Countries, and for the establishment of a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

college at

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

. He travelled to Rome to promote the establishment of missionary seminaries, and journeyed back to the Low Countries in company with William Allen, whom he encouraged to found an English College at Douai. Vendeville was widowed in the early stages of the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, exc ...

, and briefly went into exile as a public supporter of the royal cause. He conducted negotiations on behalf of the royalist interest in the Low Countries, and was named a privy councillor by

Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...

, but in 1580 he resigned from public life to enter

holy orders In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...

. He was ordained priest in 1581. He was particularly noted for his charity during the dearth of 1586. The king proposed him as bishop of

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

in 1586, the appointment was confirmed in 1587, and he was consecrated as bishop on 29 May 1588. In 1589 he called a synod for the implementation of the Tridentine reforms in his diocese. He died on 15 October 1592 and was buried the next day in the choir of

Tournai Cathedral The Cathedral of Our Lady (; ), or Tournai Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral, see of the Diocese of Tournai in Tournai, Belgium. It has been classified both as a Wallonia major heritage site since 1936 and as a World Heritage Site since ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vendeville, Jean 1527 births 1592 deaths Bishops of Tournai People of the Eighty Years' War People from Lille Clergy from Nord (French department) Old University of Leuven alumni University of Paris alumni