Antoine de Chandieu

The first study in any language dedicated to the influential theological publications of Antoine de Chandieu begins by introducing us to the memory of Chandieu as it was at Theodore Beza’s death. Poets in Geneva mourned the end of an era of star theologians by reminiscing about Geneva’s Reformed triumvirate of gold, silver, and bronze: gold represented Calvin (d. 1564); silver Chandieu (d. 1591); and bronze Beza (d. 1605). The present work sets Chandieu within the context of Reformed theology in Geneva, the wider history of scholastic method in the Swiss cantons, and the gripping social and political milieus. The book shows why Chandieu developed a very elaborate form of the medieval quaestio disputata and made liberal use of hypothetical syllogisms. Chandieu was far from a mere ivory-tower theologian: as a member of French nobility in possession of many estates in France, he and his family acutely experienced the misery and triumph of the French Huguenots during the Wars of Religion. Connected to royalty from at least the beginning of his career, Chandieu later served the future Henry IV as personal military chaplain and cryptographer. His writings range from religious poetry (put to music by others in his own lifetime) to carefully crafted disputations that saw publication in his posthumous Opera Theologica in five editions between 1592 and 1620. The book argues that Chandieu utilized scholastic method in theology for the sake of clarity of argument, rootedness in Scripture, and certainty of faith.