Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 3 - Section III
III. Ralph Le Chevalier.
Raoul (or Rodolphe) Le Chevalier has somewhat perplexed genealogists, by having, unlike the refugees in general, assumed another surname during his wanderings. In the lists of 1568, he appears in London, as Anthonie Rodulphs, Professor of the Gospel in the house of Mr. Sherrington; and further on, he is again noticed as “Mr. Anthonie.” Some authors, ambitious of great accuracy, have therefore styled him carefully “Antoine Rodolphe Le Chevalier;” but, in fact, Antoine was not his name at all. He is usually spoken of as Rodolphus Cevallerius.
From King Edward VI. he had received a patent, dated at Waltham, August 7, 1552, granting to him naturalisation, and also committing in trust to Sir Anthony Cook, knight, and George Medle, Esq., that he should have the next prebend that should fall vacant in Christ Church, Canterbury. This was the result of a Latin letter to the King from Archbishop Cranmer, a translation of which I copy:—
“Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, to King Edward VI., Grace and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Most Illustrious Prince — Although Horace wisely admonishes:
‘Qualem commendes etiam atque etiam adspice, ne mox
Incutiant aliena tibi peccata pudorem,’
yet since Mr Ralph Chevalier, a Frenchman,[1] has entreated that I would open for him a means of access to your favour through my recommendation, I could not deny the excellent young man this obligation, both inasmuch as he was formerly recommended by Master Bucer, a man of pious memory, and that his remarkable modesty and learning, which have been known and tried through my private intimacy with him, also deserve it. For he lived in my house a whole year or more, where he exhibited very many proofs of his eminent piety and his surpassing ability. Having afterwards proceeded to Cambridge, he gave gratuitous lectures on Hebrew, to the great satisfaction and advantage of his hearers. He has no other means of livelihood than from myself and the Lord Chancellor (Bishop of Ely), who pay him a yearly salary according to our means. But since from the severity of the times everything at present is sold for twice as much as formerly, necessity compels him to have recourse to your Majesty, the refuge of all pious and learned men, and to beg assistance from your bounty. It is unnecessary that I should write at greater length, since I am well aware that the disposition of your Majesty is most gracious towards learned and pious men. I merely wish to intimate that Master Ralph is to be counted in the list of such, while I entreat that in addition to that goodwill which your Majesty would spontaneously feel towards Ralph because of his brilliant endowments, something further may be added on the ground of his being a stranger, for concerning such persons Moses expressly saith, God loveth the stranger, giving him food and raiment; love ye therefore the stranger. Those who are in the Scriptures called gods ought above other men to imitate God in this kind of piety, and to approach to His likeness as nearly as they possibly can. Which if your Majesty shall regard, our Lord Jesus Christ (who declares that which is done to strangers to be received by Himself) will not only guide you in this life and take up His dwelling with you, but when you shall depart this life will bring you into His eternal mansions, and instead of a temporal kingdom will give you one that is everlasting. — The servant of your serene Majesty,
T. Cant.”
During the brief remainder of Edward’s reign, Le Chevalier continued to read Hebrew with his pupils in Cambridge. But the accession of Queen Mary drove him out of England. He had hopes from the nobles of Lady Jane Grey’s party, but his hopes perished on their scaffolds. When the Duke of Suffolk’s brother, Lord John Grey, obtained a pardon and was set at liberty, the great Calvin wrote to him from Geneva, where Tremellius, and his son-in-law, Le Chevalier, alias Mr. Anthony, were then residing. In his letter, dated 13th November 1544, Calvin said:
“Though I congratulate the most illustrious Duke, your brother, and your excellent niece, a lady whose example is worthy of everlasting remembrance — to both of whom it was given, even in death itself, to commit their triumphant souls into the hands and faithful keeping of God — yet in the midst of so many most distressing tidings it afforded me no common comfort to hear that you have been snatched from the very jaws of death, and are still preserved to us in safety. The anxiety I had felt owing to the false report of your death was first relieved, a short time since, by Immanuel Tremellius and his son-in-law, Anthony, who, while speaking in commendation of your own liberality and offices of kindness towards them, added, that in the ruin of your most noble family they had great reason to deplore their own loss as individuals. They complained, among other things, that on the first bursting forth of this storm they were deprived of those means whereby they had hoped to derive some alleviation of their poverty in their exile. Now that you are restored, they implore that kindness from you which they have in so many ways experienced, if there be any hope and any possibility of recovering that means of support which they so greatly stand in need of.”
There was no possibility. In the Academy at Geneva Le Chevalier found exercise for his talents as a Hebrew reader or professor for a time. Next, he appears as Professor of Hebrew at Strasburg. I have no dates during Mary’s reign. After the accession of Elizabeth, there is Bishop Grindal’s letter to Calvin, 19th June 1563, containing this message, “Salute in my name Master Beza and your other colleagues — as also Master Anthony, the Professor of Hebrew.”
After this, Le Chevalier accepted the pastorate of the French Church of Caen, in Normandy (which included a Hebrew lectureship for the Protestant students), and settled there with his wife and family. The year 1567 is the date of the printing (by Henry Stephanus) of Rodolphi Cevallerii Rudimenta Hebraicae Linguae, in quarto. The troubles of French Protestants being always on the increase, he at length found that, though he had a home, little or no salary was forthcoming. Accordingly in 1568 he followed the example of the refugees from Flanders, and betook himself to London, travelling alone. We are much indebted to Dr. Grosart for printing and annotating an old English account-book of this period, entitled The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell, Esq. This gentleman and his executors were liberal in gifts of money and clothing to poor scholars. Le Chevalier now received help from Mr Nowell, whose account-book proves that his first employment at this date was Hebrew Lecturer at St. Paul’s. The entry (rendered into modern English) is as follows:—
“1569, the 17th of February. Given to Rodolphus Chevalier, minister of Caen in Normandy, and now in exile, and Reader of the Hebrew Lecture in Paul’s, as by his acquittances appeareth, over and above his gown before entered, in money, 20s.”
In May 1569, Sir Anthony Cooke and Secretary Sir William Cecil (Chancellor of the University) had secured for him the appointment of Professor of the Hebrew Language and Learning in the University of Cambridge, and he went down with good letters of introduction. Secretary Cecil undertook to obtain a safe conduct into England for his wife and children. The following was a joint letter from Archbishop Parker and Bishop Grindal:—
“To our loving friends, Mr Vicechancellor of Cambridge, and to the heads of the same”:— “Understanding of the good and godly affection that divers of your University bear to the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue wherein originally, for the more part, was wrytten the word of God. — To the gratifying of the same, as we have in our former letters commended our Trustie and Welbeloved Rodolphus Cevallerius, otherwise called Mr. Anthony, so we now send him unto you — a man, whom we have aforetime not only known in the same university, but also have seen good testimony of his learning in the said tongue, and having more experience of his good zeal to exercise his said talent towards all such as be desirous to be partakers of the same. Whereupon this is to pray and require you to accept him as his worthiness for his learning and diligence (as we trust) shall deserve. Whereby you shall not onely your selves receive the fruit to your own commendations, but also give us occasion to devise for your further commoditie as Almighty God shal move us, and our hability upon any occasion shal hereafter serve. And thus wishing to you the grace of God to direct your studies to His glory, and to the profit of the Commonwealth, we bid you al heartily wel to fare : from Lambith this 20th of May. —
Your loving friends,Matthue Cantuar.
Your loving friends,Edm. London.”
We have one allusion to his career in this chair. Rodolph Zuinglius, a grandson of the Swiss Reformer, wrote from Cambridge, 26th January 1572:—
“I rejoice, not so much on my own account, as for the sake of my studies, that I have the means and opportunity afforded me of hearing that most famous and learned man, Master Anthony Chevalier, to whom our Germany can scarce produce an equal in the knowledge of Hebrew, or one who can bear a comparison with him, except Immanuel Tremellius.”
Le Chevalier had a distinguished pupil named Jan Van der Driesche, a native of Oudenard (son of Clement, a Walloon refugee in London, and an ancien). He earned the following certificate:—
" Johannis Drieschii studia, tarn Hebrsea in quibus i 11 i fidelem et assiduam operam navavb quam Graeca quorum varia experimenta dedit, vehementer probo et laudo; morum integritatem, quam privatim quam in contubernio, integrum annum perspexi, et singularem pietatem et amo et colo. Quae non homininibus testata esse modb velim, sed Deo imprimis votis et precibus omnibus commendata, ut opus quod in ipso non vulgare dignatus est inchoare, ad fastigium usque perducat ad Suam Gloriam et ipsius salutem.
“Cantabrigiae, 15 Septembr. 1570.R. Cevallerius, Hebr. Professor.”
[This worthy pupil became famous as Joannes [or, Janus] Drusius, Professor at Leyden.]
On 27th January 1569-70, Le Chevalier had been presented to his long-expected Prebend of Canterbury — “the seventh prebend in that church,” says Strype. Through the diplomacy of Catherine de Medicis, the Huguenots were enjoying such tranquillity at home, that he was summoned back to Caen to resume his joint charge of pasteur and professor. He does not appear to have resigned his English preferments. If the Parker Society has correctly copied the date of young“Zuingli’s letter (quoted above), he was expected at Cambridge during the University terms 1571-2. Probably he duly resided and officiated during those terms, and dedicated the long vocation to his countrymen and students at Caen. Certainly he was in Caen in August 1572, and had to fly from the St. Bartholomew Massacre. He hastened to his adopted home, where his family were; but illness arrested him in Guernsey, in which island he made his will, dated 8th October 1572. Strype (in his life of Parker) gives an abstract of the will. He calls himself Rauf Le Chevalier (according to Strype) — probably Raoul, or Rodolphe. He speaks of the fidelity and constancy which he always found in his wife in all his persecutions for the gospel. He gives thanks to the “Right Worshipful and Most Dear Fathers,” the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, for all the gentleness and favour which he had received at their hands. He appeals for their kind offices to his widow and children, on the acknowledged ground that “he had taken pains according to his small talent in sundry churches and schools, and had always been content with his food and raiment.” He names his only son, Samuel, his daughters, Jael and Mary, and his nephews beyond sea, Robert, Anthony, and Oliver, He requests that Mr. Emanuel (Tremellius), Professor at Heidelberg, might be informed of his decease — he “who gave me my wife.” He had no debts; but the Church of Caen owed him two hundred and fifty livres[2] for travelling expenses. He trusted that our Queen will continue without deduction the grant made to himself, and that she would deal with his family as King Edward VI. had done in the case of the widow of Martin Bucer, whom his Majesty of blessed memory had invited to remain in England, promising to see to the marrying of her daughters. He addressed his requests to the two Archbishops, “for God’s sake, and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the love of the Holy Ghost,” and his concluding sentence was, “Lord Jesus, come for the defence of the poor churches.” He died at Guernsey, at the age of sixty-five.
His son, Samuel Le Chevalier, was Pasteur of the Canterbury French Church in 1591. The register informs us that his wife’s maiden name was Lea Cappel, probably a daughter of Pasteur Aaron Cappel of the London French Church. I observe the births of seven children — Aaron (1591), Lea (1592), Rebecca (1595), Jahel (1597), Esther (1599), Pierre (1609), Anne (1616). Although the Baptismal register begins July 1581, there is a blank between June 1584 and 24th July 1590. During that interval older children than Aaron may have been born. The learned Professor Le Chevalier may be regarded as the founder of an English refugee family, of which I may have something to say hereafter. (See chapter xii.).