Claude D'Espence was a French theologian and diplomat, born in 1511 at Châlons-sur-Marne; died 5 October 1571, at Paris. He entered the Collège de Navarre in 1536, and later became the rector of the Sorbonne before he got his doctorate.^[1] He was involved with the Council of Trent and argued against the Protestant apologist Theodore Beza about the value of tradition.