Dom Polycarpe de la Rivière was Carthusian prior of the 17th century, historian and scholar with a fertile imagination.
Polycarpe de la Rivière, according to his own testimony,[1] was born in the village of Velay in the Languedoc, not far from Le Puy.
[3] At the age of 20, he was in the service of a "great princess", probably Marguerite de Valois, who resided at the Château d'Usson until 1605.
During that time, he published three works, Adieu du Monde, Angelique, and Le Mistère sacré de nostre rédemption.
[10] In 1638, Prior Polycarpe petitioned the General Chapter of the Carthusian Order, not for the first time, for release from some of his duties, so that he could devote his energies to his Annales Christianissimae Ecclesiae Gallicanae.
He resided there for ten months, when, again for health reasons, he requested permission from the prior of Moulins to visit the baths at Mount Dore.