This content was extracted fromWikipedia and is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Antoine de Mouchy (Antonius Monchiacenus Demochares) (1494 – 8 May 1574) was a French theologian and canonist, at Paris. A traditional explanation of the French term mouchard, meaning police spy or informer, is that it derived from his use of intelligence-gathering networks, when working as an inquisitor. This folk-etymology was adopted by Voltaire, following François-Eudes de Mézeray. It has been plausibly contested, on the grounds that the word is found used in the fifteenth century.