Chapter IV.
MAXIMILIAN MISSON.
A wish has been expressed, that there could be found or compiled some record of the impressions and sensations of the French Protestant Refugees[1] among the strange scenes and society of England. It is because one of Misson’s books, entitled, “Observations of a Traveller,” contains materials for such a record that I devote a chapter to him.
His father was the Pasteur Jacques Misson, who at the time of the Revocation was in charge of the Reformed Church of Niort. He and his family were naturalized in England on the 15th April 1687; in the Patent Rolls their names are enumerated thus:— “James Misson (clerk); Judith, his wife; Maximilian, James-Francis, and Henry-Peter, their sons; and Anne-Margaret, their daughter.” That they may have endured hardships on their way may perhaps seem probable from Quick’s description of a manuscript book of the Acts of the National Synods which was lent to him by “that reverend and ancient minister of Christ, Monsieur Misson, who had been pastor of the Church of Niort,” which manuscript was “fairly written, but much impaired by rain and salt water.” Maximilian Misson says of those refugee ministers who had no fixed charges (either because of the impossibility of finding a congregation for every one, or because they were forestalled by “the first that came over”):—
“With pious resignation they submitted to the decree of providence, which so disposed of them; until age and infirmity laid their arrest upon them, although not in charge of a congregation, they preached frequently, visited the sick and the afflicted, and wrote books of devotion; and their whole conduct had a sweet savour of charity and edification.”
This panegyric (I may say) partly applies to old Misson, the pastor, who was alive in the year 1695, aged seventy-six.
I have found no account of any of the family, except of the eldest son, Maximilian, who (according to Haag) was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, and was one of the Protestant Judges in “The Chamber of the Edict, in the parliament of Paris.” Soon after becoming a refugee, he was selected by James, 1st Duke of Ormond, to be tutor to his younger grandson, Lord Charles Butler. This youth was created Earl of Arran in 1693, and became a lieutenant-general in the army, and Chancellor of Oxford University. Misson travelled with him through Holland, Germany, and Italy, and out of this arose his celebrated work, “Nouveau Voyage d’ltalie.” To this young lord he dedicated this book on 1st January 1691. From an enlarged edition, I make this note, namely, that he was never ashamed to be recognised as a Frenchman except twice, — once in 1695, when he was shown how the French army had gutted one of the Duke of Savoy’s charming palaces; and again, “when I saw myself reduced to the necessity of falling into the hands of a Dunkirk privateer.”
Misson’s writings prove him to have been a man of taste, and a connoisseur as to the fine arts. Benoist, speaking of the desolations committed upon lovely mansions and pleasure grounds by the dragoons and the Popish mobs, adds, that the beautiful mansion in the environs of the city belonging to Misson, one of the councillors of the Parliament of Paris, and its garden with its tasteful decorations, were no exceptions to the rule, but were totally laid waste. I give the full titles, both of the originals and of the translations, of Misson’s celebrated works, best editions:—
- ↑ The sensations of a worshipping congregation of refugees, some just arrived along with others who had already found a home in an adopted country, were alluded to by the eloquent Pasteur Claude in a Sermon preached at the Hague in the French Church, 21 Nov. 1685:—
“Si je porte mes yeux sur les personnes qui composent cette assemblée j’y trouve des biens et des maux, des prosperités et des calamités . . . . je les y trouve confondues et melées ensemble, par un effet admirable de notre mutuelle charité. La charité de Jesus Christ nous étreint, dit S. Paul — c’est-à-dire, qu’elle nous lie, nous serre, et nous unit les uns avec les autres — sage discours, dont vous et nous sommes le commentaire. Vous people heureux et benit de Dieu qui jouissez de la sureté du port — vous compatissez au malheur de vos frères qui sont encore tout moites de leur naufrage; vous leur tendez les bras, et pour les essuyer vous leur ouvrez voire sein. Nous tristes rechappés du naufrage — nous nous rejouissons avec nos frères de la paix et de la tranquilité dont ils jouissent, et nous en benissons Dieu de tout notre coeur. La difference des mouvemens s’y fait reconnoitre; la douleur y est, la joye y est; mais la charité leur a fait changer de situation et de place; la joye a pris celle de la douleur et la douleur a pris celle de la joye. C’est un échange, ou (pour mieux dire) c’est un melange que la grace a fait — et qu’elle a si bien fait, qu’ à peine peut on distinguer les heureux d’ avec les malheureux, les tranquiles d’ avec les affligés.”
