CAYET, PIERRE-VICTOR-PALMA. — French theologian, born into a modest Catholic family in Montrichard (Touraine) in 1525, died in Paris on 16 March 1610. As a student he converted to Calvinism and, after training at German universities, returned to France as a Calvinist pastor in Montreuil-Bonnin. He became tutor to Henry of Navarre (1562) and preacher to Catherine of Bourbon at Pau (1584), then followed Henry IV to Paris, where at court he met Cardinal Du Perron, whose influence was decisive in his conversion on 9 November 1595. Though he received the congratulations of Clement VIII, he suffered harassment from his former coreligionists, who accused him of moral turpitude and even of magic. In 1596 he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the Royal College of Navarre and in 1600 was ordained a priest.
Among his many publications, the following deserve special mention: Copie d'une lettre de maître P. V. C., contenant les causes et les raisons de sa conversion à l'église catholique (Paris 1595, 1596); Le vray orthodoxe de la foy catholique du sacrement de l'autel (ibid. 1596); Vraye intelligence salutaire du sacrifice de la Messe (ibid. 1597). His work Chronologie septennaire (ibid. 1598–1604) was placed on the Index and censured by the Sorbonne for, among other errors, asserting that papal authority is not superior to that of bishops (decree of 18 November 1605).