‎COQUILLE, G.‎
‎Oeuvres postumes, excellens et curieux de M. Guy Coquille, Sieur de Romenay, Nouvellement recouvrez & mis en lumière. Ensemble trois autres petits ouvrages de divers Autheurs.‎

‎A Paris, Chez la veufue I. Guillemot, 1650. (8), 68; 184; 88 (misnumbered 76); 26, (2) pp. 4to. Contemporary limp vellum, a bit wrinkled and spotted, handwritten title to spine. Not in Camus; Gouron & Terrin 25; Hauser, 2934, 3043, 3108; not in BMSTC, French Books 1601-1700. The works by Coquille collected here in this volume are: Dialogue sur les causes des miseres de la France, entre un Catholique Ancien, un Catholique Zelé, et un Palatin, fait en l'annee 1590 - Memoires pour la reformation de l'Estat Ecclesiastique, faits en l'annee 1592 - Traicté des libertez de l'Eglise de France, et des droicts et authorité que la Couronne de France a es affaires de l'Eglise dudit Royaume par bonne et saincte union avec ladite Eglise, fait en l'annee 1594. Includes furthermore: A. Loisel. Consultation de M.A.L.A.E.P. sur la réception du Concile de Trente en France faite en l'annee 1596, which is followed by: Extraict d'aucuns Articles du Concile de Trente, qui semblent estre contre et au prejudice de la Justice Royale, et Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, fait par Messieurs de l'Assemblee tenue a Paris en Avril 1593, and followed by: M. Cureau de la Chambre. Observations de Philalethe sur un libelle intitulé Optatus Gallus, et publié en l'an 1640 en ce qui regarde le livre des libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, Imprimee en l'annee 1639. See: Quérard, vol. i, col. 229, f, and Quérard, vol. iii, col 101, d. Guy Coquille (1523-1603), French jurist, "was one of the stars, and not the least brilliant, in that remarkable pléaide of jurisconsults which France produced in the sixteenth century. (.....) In the Estates General he participated in the political and religious struggles of his time. His opinions were moderate and in favor of the Gallican doctrine as against the ultramontanists and of a limited monarchy as against the League. His views are expressed in his singularly penetrating and almost prophetic Traité des libertéz de l'Eglise de France (1594, one of the texts in this volume). In contending that it is the people who make the law he expressed a theory very close to that of national sovereignty" (ESS, vol. 4, p. 405). The Dialogue sur les causes des misères de la France (the first work in this Oeuvres) is a dialogue between a moderate Catholic (Catholique Ancien), a fanatical Catholic (Catholique Zelé) and a "homme de cour", rather detached from religious questions. It is again a defence of the rights of the Gallican church, discusses the question "who has the right to call a meeting of the estats general", and stresses the mutual obligation that exists between the sovereign and the people: the people must obey the legitimate king, but the king has the duty to protect the people and to keep them free from oppression. This Dialogue is a rather violent text, pamphletaire so to speak, not least because Coquille here exposes without any mercy the real motives of the various parties in the religious conflicts, accusing them of using religion as a pretext to persue personal and worldy ambitions. Coquille was a moderate, a Politique, who detested absolute and despotic power and defended a moderate monarchy insisting that only a limited monarchy could save France from her two greatest enemies: Spain and Rome. - Wormtrack in lower inner blank margin in a part of the book, handwritten ownership entries in blank portions of title-page, some scribbling on front free end-paper. ‎

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