PINET

PINET, ANTONY DU, lord of Noroy, an ecclesiastical writer, lived in the 16th century, and was a native of Befançon. He was strongly attached to the Protestant religion, and a bitter enemy to the church of Rome. His book, entitled La Conformité des Eglises Reformées de France, and de l'Eglise primitive, printed at Lyons, 1564, in 8vo; and the notes which he added to the French translation of the Fees of the Pope's Chancery, which was printed at Lyons, in 8vo, 1564, and reprinted at Amsterdam in 1700, in 12mo, plainly discover his sentiments. He published the last-mentioned performance under this title: Tome des parties cauelles de la boutique du Pape, in Latin and French, with some notes taken from decrees, councils, and canons, in order to ascertain the discipline anciently observed in the church. In the epistle dedicatory, he assumes the tone of a declared enemy to the court of Rome. He apologizes for having presented this book “to a society so holy as yours (the Protestants), in which are heard only hymns, prayers, and praises, to the Lord our God: but it is proper to show to the villain his villany, and the fool his folly, lest one should be thought to resemble them.” We see by this specimen, that Pinet had no more politeness in his style than in his manners. His translation of Pliny's Natural History, printed at Lyons in 2 vol. folio, 1566, and at Paris, 1608, was formerly much read. Though there are a good many errors in it, it is yet very useful at present, especially for those who understand Pliny's Latin, on account of the translator's researches, and a great number of marginal notes. Pinet also published Plans of the principal fortresses in the world at Lyons, 1564, in folio.