MÉZIÈRES, PHILIPPE DE
(1327–1405). Born in Mézières in Picardy, Philippe was a soldier of fortune, then an
advocate on the diplomatic and political levels of a crusade to regain Jerusalem for
Christendom. He founded the chivalric Order of the Passion of Jesus Christ, was
chancellor of Cyprus under Peter I, was a citizen of Venice, knew popes Urban V and
Gregory XI and was a friend of Petrarch, and served as counselor to Charles V of France
from 1373 until 1380, when he withdrew to the convent of the Celestines in Paris. Here,
he wrote the major part of his work, in both French and Latin prose, remaining at the
convent until his death. His first known work is the Latin vita (1366) of his spiritual
adviser, Peter Thomas. He wrote on the feast of Mary’s Presentation at the Temple,
achieving celebration in the West of this originally eastern feast. Three of his treatises
depict the order he had founded: Nova religio milicie Passionis jhesu Christi pro
acquisicione sancte civitatis Jherusalem et Terre Sancte, extant in two versions written in
1368 and 1384, respectively, but copied together in the only surviving manuscript; the
Sustance de la chevalerie de la Passion de Jhesu Crist en françois (ca. 1389–94); and the
Chevalerie de la Passion de Jhesu Crist, written in 1396 shortly before the Battle of
Nicopolis. The Livre sur la vertu du sacrement de mariage (1384–89) contemplates the
mystical union of Christ with the church and the human soul and includes the famous
exemplum of “patient Griselda,” translated by Philippe from the Latin of his friend
Petrarch. The Songe du vieil pèlerin, an allegorical pilgrimage finished in 1389, points
out the evils of the world and suggests remedies. His 1395 letter to Richard II of England
urges the king to wed Isabella of France as a means to European peace. All of Philippe de
Mézières’ major works urge the social and political stability of Europe necessary for his
long-sought but never to be realized crusade.
Joan B.Williamson
Mézières, Philippe de. Campaign for the Feast of Mary’s Presentation, ed. William E.Coleman.
Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1981.
——. Letter to King Richard II, ed. and trans. G.W.Coopland. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.
——. Le songe du vieil pèlerin, ed. G.W.Coopland. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1969.
——. La sustance de la chevalerie de la Passion de Jhesu Crist en françois: Philippe de Mézières
and the New Order of the Passion, ed. Abdel Hamid Hamdy. 3 vols. Alexandria: Alexandria
University Press, 1964–65. [Transcription of Ashmole 813.]
——. Vita sancti Petri Thomae, ed. Joachim Smet. Rome: Institutum Carmelitanum, 1954.
Iorga, Nicolae. Philippe de Mézières (1327–1405) et la croisade au XIVe siècle. Paris: Bouillon,
1896.
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