Arnauld de, a learned French ecclesiastic, was born in the diocese of Auch in 1536, of mean parentage, and was taken notice of by a gentleman in the diocese, who made him study with his ward the Lord of Cafflenan de Magnoac. He studied the law at Dijon under Cujace, and applied himself to the bar at Paris. He was secretary at Rome to M. de Foix, archbishop of Toulouse; to Cardinal Elite; and afterwards to cardinal de Joyeuse, by the French king's express command. After rising to the highest dignities both in church and state, in 1599 he was created a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII. He died in 1604. An eminent French writer gives him the following character: "He was a man of prodigious penetration: applied himself so closely to affairs, and especially was judicious in forming his resolutions, that it is almost impossible to find out one false step in the many negotiations in which he was concerned." His works, and especially his letters, have been much esteemed in the learned world.