CLAUDE DE SAINCTES. — Theologian and bishop, born in 1525 in Le Perche, died in the castle of Crèvecoeur near Lisieux in 1591.
He studied philosophy and theology at the Collège de Navarre in Paris; he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1555, and accompanied Cardinal de Lorraine to the Colloquy of Poissy (q.v.) and the Council of Trent (q.v.). Appointed bishop of Évreux on 30 March 1575, he promoted the convocation of the Council of Rouen (1581) for the implementation of the Council of Trent. Involved in the politics of the League, in 1591 he was condemned to death on the charge of having approved the assassination of Henry III; the sentence was commuted, at the instance of the Cardinal of Bourbon, to imprisonment in the castle, where he died. His numerous works reveal him as a fiery polemicist against the Huguenots; noteworthy are: Examen de la doctrine de Calvin et de Bèze touchant la Cène du Seigneur, d'après les écrits des docteurs de cette doctrine (Paris 1566); De rebus Eucharistiae controversis repetitiones seu libri 10 (ibid. 1575).