Pierre Lizet (1482 – 17 June 1554) was a French

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

. He received his education in civil law and

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

. From 1529 to 1549, he was the president of the

Parlement of Paris The ''Parlement'' of Paris () was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. Parlements were judicial, rather than legislative, bodies and were composed of magistrates. Though not representative bodies in the p ...

. During the spread of

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

in France, the French Parliament started to evaluate appeals against sentences written by the Roman Catholic diocesan courts. In selected cases, bishops were censored by the civil legislative assembly when their decisions were declared to be heretical. In 1525, Guillaume Poyet, future lawyer of the king of France, asked the Parliament to suspend bishop of Angers Francis de Rohan (1480–1536) from its functions. It was the first case discussed in France. The bishop was guilty of

simony Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to imp ...

because he had allowed his priests to be paid by Christian believers in order to administer sacraments to them. Lizet compared simoniac bishops to the heretics and asked the royal court to replace the

ecclesiastical jurisdiction Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is jurisdiction by Clergy, church leaders over other church leaders and over the laity. Overview Jurisdiction is a word borrowed from the legal system which has acquired a wide extension in theology, wherein, for examp ...

upon similar cases. Jean Guibert was the first French citizen to be locked up in a monastery by order of the king and then to be liberated in 1527. Two years before, his judicial case was instrumental to attribute to the king the power of interdicting Roman Catholic bishops from their local jurisdiction upon the cases of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

. At the time of his death, Theodore Beza wrote the following French

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

for him:

References

External links

Johnfoxe.org
French magistrates 1482 births 1554 deaths 16th-century French judges {{France-mayor-stub