Jean Bonaventure Des Périers

Jean Bonaventure Des Periers, French poet and sceptic, b. Arnay le Duc, about 1510. He was brought up in a convent, only to detest the vices of the monks. In 1535 he lived in Lyons and assisted Dolet. He probably knew Rabelais, whom he mentions as “Francoys Insigne.” Attached to the court of Marguerite of Valois, he defended Clement Marot when persecuted for making a French version of the Psalms. He wrote the Cymbalum Mundi, a satire upon religion, published under the name of Thomas de Clenier à Pierre Tryocan, i.e., Thomas Incrédule à Pierre Croyant, 1537. It was suppressed and the printer, Jehan Morin, imprisoned. Des Periers fled and died (probably by suicide, to escape persecution) 1544. An English version of Cymbalum Mundi was published in 1712. P. G. Brunet, the bibliographer, conjectures that Des Periers was the author of the famous Atheistic treatise, The Three Impostors.