Eric of Lorraine

Eric of Lorraine (14 March 1576 – 27 April 1623), count of Vaudémont, was a Bishop of Verdun and half brother of Louise of Lorraine, Queen consort of France. Biography Eric of Lorraine was born in Nancy on 14 March 1576 as a son of Nicolas, Duke of Mercœur and his third wife Catherine of Lorraine (1550–1606), daughter of Claude, Duke of Aumale. Some sources attribute a turbulent youth to him, which did not prevent him from being destined for a career in the Church; he was provided with the Abbey of St. Hydulphe at Moyenmoutier on 31 March 1588. He was also the commendatory abbot of the Monastery of St Vanne near Verdun. He was appointed bishop of Verdun in 1593 when he was only seventeen years old. By the end of the 16th century, with the religious world across western Europe undergoing the confrontation between the Protestant winds from Germany and the Counter-Reformation forces confronting them, there was a feeling that monasticism in Moyenmoutier had fallen into a sorry state. Eric undertook to restore a more orderly existence to the monks under his authority. He entrusted this task to Dom Didier de La Cour. In 1604 the resulting new constitution of the Congregation of St. Vanne and St. Hydulphe received Pope Clement VII's approval. The reforms became an important element in Catholic reform, being copied by other Catholic religious houses and congregations, most famously, in 1621, the Congregation of St. Maur. In the following year he considered becoming a Jesuit. He went to Rome, but the Pope dissuaded him from this idea. He returned to Verdun in 1597 and, encouraged by Cardinal Bellarmine, showed himself a model bishop: he organized synods and played an important part in the reform of the Benedictine orders in Lorraine.