DUPRAT, GUILLAUME

Bishop, Catholic reformer; b. Issoire, France, 1507;d. Beauregard, Oct. 22, 1560. His father, Antoine (1463–1535), was at first chancellor for the king of France, Francis I; ten years after his wife died, he became archbishop of Sens and abbot of St. Benoît-sur-Loire, and in 1527 cardinal. When his uncle, Thomas Duprat, Bishop of Clermont, died in 1528, Guillaume, at the age of 23, was elected his successor by the cathedral chapter. In 1545 he was sent by Francis I to the Council of Trent and there took part in the debates about Holy Scripture and tradition, and the nature and number of the Sacraments. He also fought strenuously against the plurality of benefices and for the duty of residence for bishops. Though he had heard of the Society of Jesus through the Minim S. Guiscard, his admiration of it grew when, at Trent, he met le jay, salmerÓn and lainez. In 1547, he founded the first Jesuit seminary in France by giving the Society his Hôtel de Clermont (later in Paris, the Collège Louis le Grand). Unfortunately, since the property did not belong to him personally but to the bishops of Clermont, this gift met with litigation for ten years, involving both Rome and the French parliament. In order to train preachers, he worked to reestablish the college of Billom and opened another at Mauriac.

Bibliography: p. broutin, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 3:609. p. tournier, "Monseigneur Guillaume du Prat au concile de Trente," Études 98 (1904) 289–307, 465–484, 622–644. h. jedin, History of the Council of Trent, tr. e. graf, v.1-2 (St. Louis 1957–60) 16, 65, 331, 341, 381, 387, 429, 464.

[p. broutin]