RARE DOCUMENT ON PARCHMENT IN THE NAME OF JOSEPH-FRANCISCUS DE MALIDE BISHOP OF MONTPELLIER with wax seal in zing box

Joseph François de Malide (born July 12, 1730 in Paris and died in London on June 18, 1812), is a clergyman who was commendatory prior, bishop of Avranches then of Montpellier from 1774 to 1790/1801.

Joseph François de Malide was born in the parish of the Saint-Roch church in Paris. His father Louis de Malide, a brigadier with the French Guards, was accidentally killed during a royal hunt on August 6, 1748 and his mother Elisabeth François Pondre died on October 15, 1771.

Intended for the Church, he entered the seminary in Paris. He received the tonsure on August 30, 1739 from the minor orders on December 21, 1749, became sub-deacon on December 18, 1751, then deacon on June 16, 1753. He was finally ordained a priest on December 21, 1754. On June 12, 1747 he had received in Commende the priory of Saint-Jean l'Evangéliste de Trizay depending on the abbey of Chaise-Dieu. He was chosen as chaplain of Saint-Nicolas and vicar general by the cardinal of Jean-François-Joseph de Rochechouart, bishop of Laon and as such participated in the Clergy Assembly of 1765 as delegate of the ecclesiastical province of Reims.

On July 6, 1766 he was appointed bishop of Avranches, confirmed on August 6 and consecrated on August 31, 1766 by Christophe de Beaumont the archbishop of Paris. He was appointed for the diocese of Montpellier on January 16, 1774 to replace Raymond de Durfort who had also been his predecessor as bishop of Avranches. He then resigned this seat on February 25 and was confirmed for that of Montpellier on May 9, 1774. When the representatives to the Estates General of 1789 were appointed, he was elected as representative of the clergy of the seneschal of Montpellier. After the promulgation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy on April 2, 1790, he refused to become constitutional bishop of Hérault and went into exile in 1791 in London, England. When Pope Pius VII asked him to resign from his seat of Montpellier in September 1801 he refused and was one of the bishops who addressed a protest to the pontiff in December 1801. Unable to return to France, he died in exile in London in 1812 and was buried in St Pancrace's Cemetery in London.

Size: 22" x 17" (56 cm x 43 cm), Signed on June 30 1790 in Montpellier