Cayet, Pierre-Victor-Palma

CAYET, PIERRE-VICTOR-PALMA - French theologian, b. of a modest Catholic family at Montrichard (Touraine) in 1525, d. at Paris on 16 March 1610. As a student he went over to Calvinism and, after being trained at the German universities, returned to France as a Calvinist pastor at Montreuil-Bonnin. Tutor of Henry of Navarre (1562) and preacher at Pau to Catherine of Bourbon

(1584), he followed Henry IV to Paris and at his court met Cardinal Du Perron, who had great influence on his conversion, which took place on 9 Nov. 1595. For this, though he received the congratulations of Clement VIII, he also had to suffer much harassment from his former coreligionists, who accused him of immorality and of magic. Professor of Oriental languages at the royal college of Navarre (1596), he was ordained priest in 1600.

Of his many publications, particular mention should be made of: 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). The work Chronologie septennaire (ibid. 1598-1604) is on the Index, and was also censured by the Sorbonne because, among other errors, it maintained that the authority of the pope is not superior to that of the bishops (decree of 18 Nov. 1605).

Vito Zollini