BRIÇONNET, Guillaume. — Known by the name of the Cardinal of St-Malo, b. at Mours on an unspecified date and d. at Narbonne on 14 Dec. 1514. He was general intendant of finances in Languedoc under Louis XI, who, on his deathbed, recommended him to his son Charles VIII, who appointed him superintendent of finances and chose him as his private counsellor. After becoming a widower, he entered the ecclesiastical order and soon afterwards obtained the bishopric of St-Malo. It is attributed to his influence the decision of Charles VIII to wage war against the kingdom of Naples in 1494. On that occasion the king desired for him the cardinal’s hat (Jan. 1495). Under Louis XII he lent himself to the schismatic intrigues of that king against Julius II on the occasion of the Holy League of 1510, and was among the rebel cardinals who attempted to organize the schismatic council of Pisa in 1511. He was absolved by Leo X and ended his career as archbishop of Narbonne.
A son of the above was the like-named B. Guillaume b. in 1472 (?), d. on 24 Jan. 1534. Though he did not accept heresy or schism, he was favourable to the anti-scholasticism of his time and a friend of the French pre-reformers: from 1505, already bishop of Lodève, he was in contact with Lefèvre d’Étaples; from 1516 he was bishop of Meaux. Notable was his work aimed at securing that parish priests reside in their sees. He sought to oppose the penetration of Lutheran ideas, but despite this the parliament accused him of having favoured heresy, and he had to clear himself. He was never condemned though he had to leave his bishopric.