Antoine Arnauld

Antoine Arnauld was a lawyer in the Parlement de Paris, and a Counsellor of State under Henry IV. A skilled orator, his most famous speech was in 1594 in favor of the University of Paris and against the Jesuits, decrying their lack of support for Henry IV, newly converted from Protestantism to Catholicism. He wrote a number of political pamphlets which were widely distributed. The best known of his writings is entitled Le franc et véritable discours du Roi sur le rétablissement qui lui est demandé des Jésuites (1602). He was married to Catherine Marion de Druy and had twenty children by her, ten of whom survived him.