Background
He was born at Toulouse about 1508.
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Arnaud Du Ferrier
Edit ProfileEducation
He received his primary education in Toulouse, then he went to Italy, where he studied law in the largest universities of the country. At the age of 22 he received a doctorate from the University of Padua.
Career
In Bourges he began his practice as a lawyer, but after he was offered the place of a law professor at the university, he returned to his native Toulouse. Subsequently, he was elected to the city council and soon got the high reputation. On the recommendation of Cardinal François Tournon he became an adviser to the Parliament in Toulouse, and several years later, on the orders of King Henry II, was transferred to Paris, where he became chairman of the Paris Chambre des enquêtes and a recruiter; in 1550 he headed the Parliament of Paris. He was a councillor to the parlement of the latter town, and then to that of Rennes, he later became president of the parlement of Paris. He represented Charles IX, king of France, at the council of Trent in 1562, but had to retire in consequence of the attitude he had adopted, and was sent as ambassador to Venice, where he remained till 1567, returning again in 1570. He died in the end of October 1585.
Religion
He was a Protestant and a supporter of Gallicism. As the envoy to the King at the Council of Triente (1562), He opposed with sharp accusations against the ultramontane claims of the Roman Curia and, at the request of the clergy, was recalled with the appointment to the post of envoy in the Venetian Republic (from 1564 to 1567 and 1570 to 1582). Upon his return to France, as a result of his conversion to Protestantism, he fell into disgrace. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the King of Navarre, also a Protestant, invited Ferrier to his place, promising him the post of Chancellor. Since moving to Béarn and taking up the post of curator of the press, he openly confessed Calvinism.
