François Béroalde de Verville

Who was François Béroalde de Verville?

François Béroalde de Verville was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was the son of Matthieu Brouard, called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre de l'Estoile and a Huguenot; his mother, Marie Bletz, was the niece of the humanist and Hebrew scholar François Vatable. At the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, his family fled to Geneva, but Béroalde returned to Paris in 1581. During the civil wars, Béroalde abjured Calvinism and joined the factions around Henri III of France. In 1589 he moved to Tours, and became chanoine of the cathedral chapter of Saint Gatien, where he remained until his death.