# Nicolas Coeffeteau

**Nicolas Coeffeteau** (1574 – 21 April 1623) was a French Dominican theologian, preacher, and controversialist who wrote against the Reformed churches in French rather than Latin and whose historical and moral prose made him, in the judgment of nineteenth-century scholarship, one of the founders of classical French prose style. He was born at Château-du-Loir and died in Paris.<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Life | Château-du-Loir 1574 – Paris, 21 April 1623; Dominican from 1588, doctor of theology 4 March 1599<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup> |
| Court career | Preacher and confessor to Henri IV; delivered the king's funeral oration; ordinary preacher in 1608<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Coeffeteau/Histoire_romaine/Hist_Rom_000.htm)</sup> |
| Church offices | Vicar general of the Gallican Congregation 1606–1609; titular bishop of Dardania and administrator of Metz 1617; named bishop of Marseille 22 August 1621, died before receiving his bulls<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup> |
| Polemics | Five Eucharist treatises against Pierre du Moulin; writings against James I of England and Duplessis-Mornay; *Pro sacra monarchia ecclesiae catholicae* against Marc'Antonio de Dominis (1623)<sup>[3](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC_djvu.txt)</sup> |
| Prose landmark | *Histoire romaine* (1615, from Florus) ran through more than fifty editions in sixty years; *Tableau des passions humaines* (1620) had 23 reprintings between 1621 and 1683<sup>[5](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Nicolas_Co%C3%ABffeteau/179121)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=279)</sup> |
| Output | 39 titles in 47 volumes cataloged in the Post-Reformation Digital Library<sup>[7](http://www.prdldev.juniusinstitute.org/author_view.php?a_id=704)</sup> |
| Theology | Thomist; a modified Gallicanism restricting infallibility to matters of faith; the Sorbonne prohibited him from completing his *Premier Essai des questions théologiques*<sup>[3](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/mse/c/coeffeteau-nicolas.html)</sup> |

## Life and career

Coeffeteau entered the Dominican order at [Le Mans](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-mans) in 1588 and was sent to Paris for his studies in 1590; he became doctor of theology on 4 March 1599, while still in his mid-twenties.<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup> A 1938 study of a question raised by [Vincent de Paul](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincent-de-paul) dates Queen Marguerite's call to 1602.<sup>[9](https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhef_0300-9505_1938_num_24_104_2861)</sup>

**Court favor.** He became preacher and confessor to Henri IV and pronounced the king's funeral oration at the sovereign's burial, and in 1608 he was ordinary preacher to the king.<sup>[2](https://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Coeffeteau/Histoire_romaine/Hist_Rom_000.htm)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup> Introduced into fashionable literary circles as a friend of the poet Malherbe, he combined a court career with order administration, serving as vicar general of the Gallican Congregation from 1606 to 1609.<sup>[5](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Nicolas_Co%C3%ABffeteau/179121)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup>

**Episcopal appointments.** In 1617 Paul V named him titular bishop of Dardania and administrator of the diocese of Metz, where, as suffragan of the bishop, he governed a diocese in which Calvinism was rapidly gaining ground.<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/mse/c/coeffeteau-nicolas.html)</sup> On 22 August 1621 royal letters named him bishop of [Marseille](https://www.edgepedia.org/marseille), but he died on 21 April 1623 before receiving his bulls of investiture; the title page of his last great polemic, printed that year, styles him only "Massiliensique episcopo designato", designated bishop of Marseille.<sup>[1](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC_djvu.txt)</sup> The BNF authority record dates his doctorate to 1600 rather than 1599, a small discrepancy between official records.<sup>[10](https://www.idref.fr/030817390)</sup>

## Controversialist against the Reformed

Coeffeteau polemicized with James I of England, the Calvinist minister Pierre du Moulin of Charenton, Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, and Marc'Antonio de Dominis, the former archbishop of Spalato, defending the doctrines they attacked: the [Eucharist](https://www.edgepedia.org/eucharist), the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the authority of the Pope.<sup>[11](https://azioneromana.com/article/coeffeteau-nicolas)</sup> Five treatises on the Eucharist arose from his controversy with du Moulin, beginning with *La Défence de la Saincte Eucharistie et présence réelle du corps de Jésus-Christ* against du Moulin's *Apologie de la Cène* (Paris, F. Huby, 1607); an earlier work, the *Examen d'une confession de foy* (1604), expanded in French a Latin response by the Scots bishop William Chisholm to the confession published in France under the name of the King of England.<sup>[3](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](http://www.prdldev.juniusinstitute.org/author_view.php?a_id=704)</sup>

His last polemic was written in Latin. *Pro sacra monarchia ecclesiae catholicae adversus rempublicam Marci Antonii de Dominis, libri quatuor apologetici*, four apologetic books against de Dominis, was printed in Paris by Sébastien Cramoisy in 1623 with royal and doctoral approbation.<sup>[4](https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC_djvu.txt)</sup> Chalmers's biographical dictionary describes it as two folio volumes, a format detail the title page itself does not settle.<sup>[12](https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Chalmers-Biography/c/coeffetau-nicholas.html)</sup> He also answered political-religious pamphlets in the service of the crown: a 1617 *Response au manifeste publié par les perturbateurs du repos de l'Estat* belongs to this series of responses to Protestant positions.<sup>[13](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/103007611)</sup>

**Method.** The Catholic Encyclopedia's assessment is that at a time when partisanship was wont to be violent, Coeffeteau maintained an equable temper and a praiseworthy spirit of moderation, handling his subjects objectively and dispassionately.<sup>[3](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)</sup>

## Theology and censure

As a Dominican he wrote within the Thomist system. The Dominican–Jesuit grace controversy, one of the most intense and lasting doctrinal confrontations of the classical-age Roman Church, had begun with the publication at Lisbon in 1588 of Luis de Molina's *Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiæ donis*, and French Dominican Thomists took an essential part in it.<sup>[14](https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_2015_num_159_4_95830)</sup> On papal authority Coeffeteau held a modified Gallicanism, restricting papal or conciliar infallibility to matters of faith and excluding questions of fact or persons, a position that differed from that of the Sorbonne.<sup>[3](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)</sup>

The Sorbonne prohibited him from completing his *Premier Essai des Questions Theologiques*.<sup>[8](https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/mse/c/coeffeteau-nicolas.html)</sup>

## Prose style and literary influence

All his works except the Latin books against de Dominis are in the vernacular.<sup>[3](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://azioneromana.com/article/coeffeteau-nicolas)</sup> His *Histoire romaine*, a translation of Lucius Annaeus Florus made at the king's command and first published in 1615, passed for a model of French prose and was taken as a model of linguistic purity by Vaugelas; it was admired by contemporaries including Malherbe, Vaugelas, and Balzac, and ran through more than fifty editions in sixty years, making Coeffeteau one of the most-read authors of the seventeenth century.<sup>[5](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Nicolas_Co%C3%ABffeteau/179121)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Coeffeteau/Histoire_romaine/Hist_Rom_000.htm)</sup> Sources describe the work's publication differently: Larousse dates the 1615 translation and calls the 1621 work its completion and his masterpiece, while the editorial notice to the text presents the 1621 *Histoire romaine* itself as the chef-d'œuvre.<sup>[5](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Nicolas_Co%C3%ABffeteau/179121)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Coeffeteau/Histoire_romaine/Hist_Rom_000.htm)</sup>

**The Tableau.** His *Tableau des passions humaines, de leurs causes et de leurs effets* (Paris, Cramoisy, 1620) was received as one of the first moral-philosophy treatises to offer a general, systematic, and near-complete synthesis of the passions, with the Thomist system as its framework buttressed by the ancient authors [Plato](https://www.edgepedia.org/plato), Aristotle, and Seneca.<sup>[6](https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=279)</sup> In the dedicatory epistle to the king Coeffeteau described his own style: a tableau of the passions "depeinte des pures couleurs de la Philosophie", painted in the pure colors of philosophy, without many foreign ornaments.<sup>[15](https://earlymodernfrance.org/filemanager/active?fid=173)</sup>

## By the numbers

The Post-Reformation Digital Library catalogs 39 titles in 47 volumes for Coeffeteau.<sup>[7](http://www.prdldev.juniusinstitute.org/author_view.php?a_id=704)</sup> Charles Urbain counted 23 reprintings of the *Tableau* between 1621 and 1683, five from the same publisher, within more than twenty seventeenth-century editions overall; one specialist Catholic article gives a lower figure, 16 editions in 40 years.<sup>[6](https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=279)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://azioneromana.com/article/coeffeteau-nicolas)</sup> The work crossed the Channel quickly: in 1621, one year after its French appearance, the English historian Edward Grimeston translated it as *A Table of Humane Passions. With their Causes and Effects*.<sup>[16](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/eol/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Coeffeteau_M/complete/index.html%3Fview=print.html)</sup> Its success bred imitation and confusion: an anonymous 1626 volume, *Tableau des affections humaines*, edited by Antoine Estoc, played on the confusion, even the usurpation, of titles and author names as a sales argument.<sup>[6](https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=279)</sup>

## Works and editions

A dated list of the principal works, from the catalogs:

- *L'Hydre defaite par l'Hercule chretien* (1603), an allegorical treatise denouncing sins<sup>[6](https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=279)</sup>
- *Examen d'une confession de foy* (Jean Gesselin, 1604)<sup>[7](http://www.prdldev.juniusinstitute.org/author_view.php?a_id=704)</sup>
- *Merveilles de la saincte eucharistie* (Paris, 1606)<sup>[17](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/coeffeteau-nicolas)</sup>
- *Premier Essai des questions théologiques* (F. Huby, 1608), prohibited by the Sorbonne from completion<sup>[7](http://www.prdldev.juniusinstitute.org/author_view.php?a_id=704)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/mse/c/coeffeteau-nicolas.html)</sup>
- *Histoire romaine de Lucius Annaeus Florus, mise en nostre langue par le commandement du Roy* (1615)<sup>[5](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Nicolas_Co%C3%ABffeteau/179121)</sup>
- *Tableau des passions humaines, de leurs causes et de leurs effets* (Sébastien Cramoisy, 1620; [57] + 651 pages, 18 cm)<sup>[18](http://bibindex.dominicains.com/index.php?id=107036&lvl=notice_display)</sup>
- *Tableau de l'innocence et des grâces de la bienheureuse Vierge Marie* (1621)<sup>[19](https://bibale.irht.cnrs.fr/59649)</sup>
- *Pro sacra monarchia ecclesiae catholicae adversus rempublicam Marci Antonii de Dominis* (Cramoisy, 1623)<sup>[4](https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC_djvu.txt)</sup>

## References

1. [Coeffeteau, Nicolas, L'Ordre des Prêcheurs (Estampes dominicaines)](https://estampesdominicaines.com/non-saints/coeffeteau-nicolas/)
2. [Histoire romaine, editorial notice, Méditerranée antique](https://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Coeffeteau/Histoire_romaine/Hist_Rom_000.htm)
3. [Nicolas Coeffeteau, Catholic Encyclopedia](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04091a.htm)
4. [Pro sacra monarchia Ecclesiae Catholicae... adversus rempublicam Marci Antonij de Dominis (Paris, 1623), Internet Archive](https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC/bub_gb_-PilEjy-3mwC_djvu.txt)
5. [Nicolas Coëffeteau, Larousse](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Nicolas_Co%C3%ABffeteau/179121)
6. [Le Tableau des passions humaines: un renouveau du discours passionnel au XVIIe siècle, Carnets du LARHRA](https://publications-prairial.fr/larhra/index.php?id=279)
7. [Nicolas Coeffeteau (1574–1623), 39 titles, 47 vols., Post-Reformation Digital Library](http://www.prdldev.juniusinstitute.org/author_view.php?a_id=704)
8. [Coeffeteau, Nicolas, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature](https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/mse/c/coeffeteau-nicolas.html)
9. [Nicolas Coeffeteau est-il le docteur tenté contre la foi dont a parlé saint Vincent de Paul?, Revue d'histoire de l'Église de France (1938)](https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhef_0300-9505_1938_num_24_104_2861)
10. [Coeffeteau, Nicolas (1574–1623), IdRef/BNF authority record](https://www.idref.fr/030817390)
11. [Coeffeteau, Nicolas, Azione Romana](https://azioneromana.com/article/coeffeteau-nicolas)
12. [Coeffetau, Nicholas, Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary](https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Chalmers-Biography/c/coeffetau-nicholas.html)
13. [Response au manifeste publié par les perturbateurs du repos de l'Estat (1617), HathiTrust catalog record](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/103007611)
14. [Théologies et théologiens thomistes dans la querelle catholique de la grâce, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (2015)](https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_2015_num_159_4_95830)
15. [Once More with Feeling: Rhetorics of the Passions, Early Modern France](https://earlymodernfrance.org/filemanager/active?fid=173)
16. [A Table of Human Passions (Modern), Internet Shakespeare Editions](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/eol/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Coeffeteau_M/complete/index.html%3Fview=print.html)
17. [Coeffeteau, Nicolas, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/coeffeteau-nicolas)
18. [Tableau des Passions humaines (1620), Dominican library catalogue](http://bibindex.dominicains.com/index.php?id=107036&lvl=notice_display)
19. [Coeffeteau, Nicolas (évêque de Marseille; 1574–1623), Bibale/IRHT](https://bibale.irht.cnrs.fr/59649)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Christian theologians and religious scholars › Reformation and early-modern theologians › Counter-Reformation and early-modern Catholic theologians › Dominican theologians*

*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026*

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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license