Gabriel Bouvery

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Gabriel Bouvery (died 1572) was a French bishop of Angers who followed Jean V Olivier, who died on 12 April 1540.

King François I forced the Angers Cathedral chapter to appoint Bouvery. The king, unhappy with his own stance toward Protestants after the 1534 Placards affair, used Bouvery to keep control of the Catholic Church. Bouvery was the nephew of Guillaume Poyet, a close royal courtier, and his father Pierre Poyet had been mayor of Angers. This was mainly a political appointment to secure royal influence.

In 1553 Bouvery consecrated the new church of Notre-Dame-des-Ardilliers in Saumur, founded by Olivier. He worked to apply the reforms of the Council of Trent, which he attended. Through his uncle, Bouvery became patron of Guillaume Postel and also of Jean Bodin.

When Charles IX became king in 1560, France entered a period of religious war. In 1567 Bouvery organized the Angevin Catholic League, bringing together about 59 nobles, including Arthur de Cossé-Brissac, the bishop of Coutances. The diocese avoided the worst violence. Fighting continued until the Peace of Longjumeau (1568) and the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1570).

Bouvery died on 10 February 1572. He was succeeded by Guillaume Ruzé, bishop of Saint-Malo. Later that year, the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre shook the country. The governor of Anjou, Puygaillard, was in Paris and asked Jean de Chambes, baron of Montsoreau, to plan attacks on Protestants in Saumur and Angers. The king rebuked Chambes on 14 September.