Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 5 - Section V
V. De la Fontaine.
The Pasteur Robert Le Macon, Sieur de la Fontaine, was born in 1535. He was a Protestant minister of Orleans on 25th April 1562, when the National Synod of the Reformed Church met in that city. The Synod chose Antoine de Chandieu (known as Sadeel) to be their president, and Robert Le Maçon, Sieur de la Fontaine, to be one of the scribes, or Clerks of Synod. In Orleans he had the Pasteur Beaumont as his colleague, and at the end of 1562 he obtained as a friend and neighbour the Hebrew professor, Matthieu Beroald. He was a sponsor at the baptism of a daughter of the latter on 12th March 1569. What was known among the Huguenots as the third civil war broke out in 1568, and the fury of the Romanists was specially felt at Orleans, so that about that time the Protestant congregation was scattered and the pasteurs fled. Monsieur de la Fontaine eventually came to London, and officiated in the French Church in Threadneedle Street. The year on which his services are first recorded is (according to Burn) 1574. The Church in France still considered Orleans to be under their care, and his pastoral tie to be enduring. A National Synod assembled at St. Foy in February 1578. To this Synod a petition was presented from “the brethren of the French Church of London, in the kingdom of England,” praying that Messieurs de Villiers, minister of the church of Rouen, and De la Fontaine, minister of the church of Orleans, might be given to them as their pastors. The Synod granted this request to the extent that these ministers should be lent to the London brethren to re-organise their congregation, and that thereafter they should return to their flocks in France.
In the beginning of 1588 our Queen was disposed to enter into a treaty of peace with Spain. At this time De Villiers was chaplain to Prince Maurice, Governor of the States. The Protestants of the Netherlands were filled with consternation at a report that Elizabeth wished them to be content with liberty of conscience, and not to demand the toleration of their public worship. Three pastors came to London on an embassy, and brought a letter of introduction from De Villiers to his former colleague. De la Fontaine received them on the 24th June, and told them his belief that if a good peace could be made with Spain, little care would be taken of religion. He warned them that the Lords of the Queen’s Council would by no means suffer ministers to meddle with State affairs and with the civil government. “You must excuse yourselves,” said he, “by saying, We are here as clergymen only, and concern ourselves with nothing but religion.”
We pass on to the year 1596, which was an eventful one for De la Fontaine. On Sunday, 19th May, he hired a boat to carry him to his lodging beyond London Bridge. While on the river the boat was unaccountably swept into the current under an arch of the bridge, and he himself was caught up by the water-wheel. Yet he escaped not only death but injury of any kind. He publicly gave thanks at the next meeting for worship in his church, preaching a sermon on Psalm xxxiv., which was printed. In a prefatory account of this thanksgiving sermon he announced that he was 61 years of age. (This enabled us to give 1535 as the year of his birth.) In the month of June following, a petition from London having been presented to the National Synod of Saumur, requesting that Monsieur de la Fontaine might remain (he himself, by letter, joining in the request), the Synod resolved to comply with the petition, always reserving the right which the churches in France have to him; and the Orleans congregation consented on condition that Monsieur Du Moulin, senior, should be settled over them.
In 1600 he published a volume of sermons entitled “Les Funerailles de Sodome et de ses filles, descriptes en vingt Sermons sur l’Histoire de Moyse en Genese, chapitre, 18 et 19.” To this volume was added the thanksgiving sermon on Psalm xxxiv. In 1603 he was named among the divines appointed by the National Synod of Gap to consult and correspond concerning union with the Lutherans.
We meet him once more in the year 1604.[1] the year of Bishop Vaughan’s promotion to the See of London. On that year Mr. de la Fontaine made a Latin speech to the former Bishop (Bancroft), who had received his appointment to Canterbury, and another to the new Bishop. The latter speech is interesting, as narrating the fact that on the accession of Elizabeth, the office of Superintendent of Foreign Churches, which had been held by John a Lasco, was given to John Utenhove, who held it till his death. It was after that event that Bishop Grindal was requested to become Patron and Superintendent, and he having accepted the charge with the Queen’s permission, it devolved by custom on the Bishop of London, ex officio. Bishop Vaughan, in reply, eulogised John a Lasco as vir praestantissimus, ornatus multis dotibus animi et ingenii, and acknowledged the good services to religion and to the state, rendered by the Foreign Churches, with which he had been acquainted for a quarter of a century. He expressed regret at the internal dissensions in the Church of England, and concluded by apologising for his latinity, his speech being ex tempore. Mr. de la Fontaine replied briefly (in Latin), that as refugees they could not interfere in English ecclesiastical affairs, but that they would entertain any suggestion for the promotion of peace in the Church, an end for which they would even lay down their lives. A letter (formerly described) proves that in February 1606 he had as colleagues Messieurs Aaron Cappel and Nathaniel Marie.
In 1610 the bookseller, “Richard Field, demeurant aux Black-Frieres,” published a new edition of “Les Funerailles de Sodome,” “livre grandement utile et necessaire pour appendre à bien et sainetement vivre.” Although it is described as “ceste derniere impression,” there is no indication of the author being deceased at that date.
The Messieurs Haag state that De la Fontaine had several children who settled in England. His eldest son removed to France, and continued the family as a French Protestant one. He was known as Louis Le Maçon, Sieur de la Fontaine et d’Ancerville, conseiller du roi et tresorier de la gendarmerie écossaise.
- ↑ Strype’s “Annals of the Reformation,” vol. iv. (1731), folio, p. 394, No. ccxcii., &c.