HÔTEL LE MARLORAT

Birthplace of Augustin Marlorat, a great figure of the Reformation, in 1506 and, in 1509, of Martin, his brother, who was to be part of the Counter-Reformation camp. Orphaned at a very young age, Augustine was entrusted by his guardian to the community of the Augustinians of Bar, whereas, born in 1506 in the Hotel currently located at 54 rue des Ducs-de-Bar, in a line of jurists from the Court of Auditors of Bar, he should have, as the eldest, inherited his father's property, law books and office. It is his youngest, Martin Le Marlorat, who will do so. Augustine would later say at his trial that he had not defrocked, since "entering him as a monk" had been a manoeuvre to seize his property. Having studied the Scriptures, the languages of the humanities, Augustine took his vows in 1524. An Augustinian monk, a scholar, a fine preacher, a priest, then converted to the Reformed cause for having come too close to the theses he intended to fight, he had to flee to Geneva after renouncing his status and office. Initially a proofreader, especially for Hebrew, he became a collaborator of Calvin, a commentator, a humanist, a friend of Theodore de Bèze, a pastor in Vevey and Crissey. When the Protestants of Rouen called him in 1561, because they lacked pastors and preachers, he took the risk of returning to the kingdom of France. He then addressed to the Regent Catherine de Medici his Remontrance to the King's mother, Catherine de Medici, by those who are persecuted for the Word of God in which they justify the main articles of Religion, and which are today in dispute. "The latter brought together at Poissy and then at Saint-Germain, colloquia, between reformed and non-reformed, where Augustin Marlorat was present, including, in January 1562, to answer the objections of the Sorbonne. This work of searching for the conditions of a "living together", will well lead to the recognition, by Catherine de Medici, of the "new religion", the edict of January 1562. But from March 1st, barely two months later, the massacre of Wassy took place. The Catholics, encouraged by the Guise, to regain lost ground, take up arms to take control of the towns acquired from the Protestants. At the end of October 1562, Augustin Marlorat, during the capture of Rouen, will be captured, tortured, hanged and beheaded. His work consists of commentaries, indexes for the editions of the New Testament, Genesis, the Holy Bible, the Prophecies of Isaiah, the book of Job. He collaborated with Calvin, through quotations from the Scriptures and their commentary, in the Institution of the Christian religion. He composed a Thesaurus of the Holy Scriptures as well as one hundred and fifty French prose prayers at the end of each of the one hundred and fifty psalms of David translated into rhyme by Clément Marot and Theodore de Bèze. Martin Le Marlorat was able to study law, probably in Paris. He was first a notary at the Bar tabellion, then a prosecutor and receiver at the Little Convent of the Grey Nuns. Ennobled in 1556 after his marriage to Jeanne de Bar, herself of noble lineage, he is authorized to bear a coat of arms, azure with a cross cross crossed in gold, and motto (Cruce cresco: "the cross increases me". After serving as an auditor in the Chambre des Comptes, he was called, in 1566, to the very important post of public prosecutor at the bailiwick of Bar. Bishop Aimond, in his History of Bar-le-Duc, points out that the brother of the Reform theologian Augustine Marlorat, Martin the Marlorat, "distinguished himself by his zeal in pursuing the Reformed in and around Bar" in 1572, by an edict forbidding any Huguenot to sell all his possessions and emigrate within a year, edict followed for example by Jean Erard the engineer who had to leave for France and by Ligier Richier the sculptor who left the duchy to go to Geneva. The fourth son of Martin, who died in this house in 1638, Gabriel Le Marlorat, an auditor, like his father, in the Chambre des Comptes from 1601, wrote his legal diary which sheds light on the history of Bar from 1605 to 1632.