a French Carmelite theologian and physician, who became a Protestant and controversialist. A sermon which he preached at Paris aroused misgivings in Catholic circles regarding the soundness of his ideas, and Bolsec left Paris. Having separated from the Catholic Church about 1545, he took refuge at the Court of Renée, duchess of Ferrara, who was favourably disposed towards persons holding Protestant views. He published biographies of the two Genevan reformers, Calvin and Theodore Beza (1519–1605). These works are violent in tone, and their historical statements cannot always be relied on.
