MORNAY, Philippe de (1549-1623), Seigneur du Plessis-Marly, very generally known as Mornay Du Plessis or Du Plessis-Mornay, one of the most distinguished members of the Protestant party in France, was born at Buhy in Normandy on 5th November 1549. As a younger son he was destined for the church, and with this view was sent to the Collège de Lisieux in Paris, but in his eleventh year, along with the rest of his family, he abandoned Roman Catholicism, continuing, however, with zeal and success his studies not only in classical and general literature but also in theology. In the autumn of 1567, on the outbreak of the second religious war, he joined the army of Condé, but was prevented from taking an active part in the campaign by a fall from his horse, which broke his leg. In the following year he went abroad, and, after spending the winter at Heidelberg, travelled extensively in Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and England, learning the languages and acquiring the friendship of many of the distinguished men of all these countries. In June 1572 he returned to France, and had begun to enter upon a diplomatic career (his earliest extant “mémoire,” laid by Coligny before Charles IX., had reference to the duty of France to support the Low Countries in their struggle for independence) when the St Bartholomew massacre, from which he escaped with difficulty, compelled him to take refuge across the Channel, There he rendered valuable services to William of Orange, and also to the duke of Alençon-Anjou, as a semi-official political agent. Returning to France at the instance of La Noue towards the end of 1573, he took part with various success in numerous military enterprises, and was made prisoner at Dormans in 1575 (10th October), but not having been recognized he got ...