René, a famous doctor of the Sorbonne, and curate of St Eustace at Paris, was born at Saverneières, near Angers, in 1521. He was a secret favourer of the Protestant religion; and that his countrymen might be able to read the Bible in their own tongue, he published at Paris the French translation which had been made by the reformed ministers at Geneva. This translation was approved of by several doctors of the Sorbonne before it went to the press, and Charles IX. had granted a privilege for the printing of it; yet when it was published it was immediately condemned. He had previously been confessor to Mary queen of Scotland during her stay in France, and attended her when she returned to Scotland. Sometime before the death of Henry III., Benoît, or some of his friends, with his assistance, published a book, entitled Apologie Catholique; in which it was shewn that the profession of the Protestant faith was not a sufficient reason to deprive Henry king of Navarre of his right of succeeding to the crown of France. When Henry IV. had resolved to embrace the Catholic religion, Benoît assisted at the assembly in which the king abjured the reformed religion. In 1597 Henry promoted him to the bishopric of Troyes in Champagne, but he could never obtain the pope's bulls to be installed. He enjoyed however the temporalities of that bishopric for eleven years, when he resigned it. He died in 1608.