17
November 1681 A.D. Pierre
Francois le Courayer Born; Romanist
Theologian Defends Church of England Orders
No
author. “Pierre Le Courayer.” Westminster
Abbey. N.d. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/pierre-le-courayer. Accessed 11 Jun 2014.
Pierre Le Courayer
The Roman Catholic divine Dr Pierre Le Courayer is buried
in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey. On the wall nearby is a black and
white marble tablet with his monogram PFC at the top. The Latin inscripiton can
be translated:
"Here
is buried Fr.Pierre Francois Le Courayer, D.D., sometime Canon of the
brotherhood of St Genevieve, a man who, if anyone does, deserves well of the
Church and realm of England, both by reason of his courage, and of his writings;
inasmuch as he declared and claimed with forceful and irrefutable arguments the
validity of episcopal ministry for this our Church, long since called into
question by the Pontiffs (although himself a Frenchman, and a Pontiff) who
moreover, because of this claim, being then expelled from his country, a
fugitive, and finally stripped of all his goods, sought and found a refuge in
this City; and there, for nearly fifty years, this distinguished exile enjoyed
leisure for virtuous contemplation, in life the delight of all good men, his
death a universal grief. His friends placed this marble here to such and so
great a man, in his memory, though truth defended, and error refuted, provide
for him a more lasting fame than marble. He died the 17th day of October, in
the year after Christ's birth 1776 aged 95"
The
gravestone reads:
"Pierre
Francois Le Courayer Born at Rouen in Normandy November 17 1681 Canon of the
Abbey of S.Genevieve. Author of a dissertation on the validity of English
ordinations. Died October 17 1776 aged 95".
He
was educated in Vernon and arrived in England in 1728 and became something
of a celebrity after writing his dissertation on the succession of
bishops in the Anglican Church. He died in Downing Street, Westminster. He left
legacies to only one relation his brother James Le Courayer.
A
photo of the tablet can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.
Further
reading:
Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography 2004.
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