Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 6 - Section I

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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Chapter VI.

REFUGEES IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIII. AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

I. Casaubon.

The greatest Frenchman who took up his residence in England in the reign of James I., was Isaac Casaubon. He was the offspring of refugees from more ancient persecutions. His parents fled from Bordeaux in Gascogne[1in the reign of Henri II.; his father was the Pasteur Arnauld Casaubon; his mother’s maiden name was Jeanne Rousseau. Isaac was born at Geneva on 8th February 1559 (o.s.). He

^[1] became Greek Professor at Geneva in 1583, and held his chair till 1597, when he removed to the Greek Chair in the College of Montpellier. The chief sources of information concerning him are the collection of his letters (Casauboni Epistolae), and his Diary, begun at Montpellier, which was composed in the Latin language, and which was printed in the same learned tongue by the University of Oxford in the present century. In the beginning of the seventeenth century he came under royal patronage and was brought to Paris, and honoured with office and salary as Reader to the King and Keeper of the Royal Library. His favourite friends and correspondents were Protestants; Henry Stephens (Henricus Stephanus) was his father-in-law; Theodore Beza Was his idol; he also greatly admired Andrew Melville. I quote a part of his first letter to Melville, dated at Paris, 1601 (M‘Crie’s translation):—

“The present epistle, learned Melville, is dictated by the purest and most sincere affection. Your piety and erudition are universally known, and have endeared your name to every good man and lover of letters. . . . I have always admired the saying of the ancients, that all good men are linked together by a sacred friendship, although often separated by many a mountain and many a town. . . . Permit me to make a complaint, which is common to me with all the lovers of learning who are acquainted with your rare erudition. We are satisfied that you have beside you a number of writings, especially on subjects connected with sacred literature, which, if communicated to the studious, would be of the greatest benefit to the Church of God. Why do you suppress them, and deny us the fruits of your wakeful hours? There are already too many, you will say, who burn with a desire to appear before the public. True, my learned Sir, we have many authors, but we have few or no Melvilles. Let me entreat you to make your appearance, and to act the part which Providence has assigned you in such a manner as that we also may share the benefit of your labours. Farewell, learned Melville, and henceforward reckon me in the number of your friends.”

In 1603 Casaubon visited Geneva and was overjoyed to find Beza still alive to welcome him — “Theodore Beza! what a man! what piety! what learning! O truly great man!” (these are his expressions in his diary). The assassination of Henri. IV. happened in 1610 (May 14); and it was during the consternation and perplexities incident on such a tragic and sudden catastrophe, that Casaubon accepted King James’ invitation, and arrived in London.

It may be questioned, however, if we should give a place among Protestant Refugees to one concerning whom Du Moulin wrote, “By all means detain Casaubon in England, for if he returns to France there is every reason to fear that he will recant.” This expressed a general apprehension felt in the French Protestant churches. The grounds for it were stronger than mere suspicion, because Casaubon had allowed himself to be drawn into familiar and argumentative correspondence with Romish proselytizers. The learned Dr. M‘Crie’s conscientious verdict may be quoted:— “When Rosweid published that Casaubon had intended to profess himself a Roman Catholic, the statement was strongly contradicted by his son Meric, and by Jacobus Capellus. But it is evident from his own letters that Casaubon, although he could not easily digest some of the grosser articles of the Popish creed, was seriously deliberating on the change; and his son has kept back a part of one of his letters which contains strong evidence to that purpose.” — (Life of A. Melville.)

Nevertheless, he was born, lived and died a Protestant, and took no step to disappoint the hopes of the National Synod of Gergeau (May 1601), whose confidence he had sought. That Synod resolved on a minute to the following effect:— “A letter from Monsieur Casaubon having been read, the Synod ordered that an answer be sent to him, expressing our joy for his constancy in the true religion, and exhorting him to perseverance in it.” Du Moulin’s hope, that this constancy and perseverance would be finally secured by his settlement in England, had a wider basis than mere residence. The Protestantism of James L, who had renounced the simplicity of Presbyterian ritual for the state and pomp of Anglican ordinances, was a combination of constancy and compromise which was well suited to Casaubon’s views. Pie thus settled down into a Protestantism of the cavalier or royalist type. On 30th Oct. 16 10 he recorded in his diary his approbation of the ordination of an archbishop and two bishops for Scotland, and began at once to look upon Presbyterians and Puritans as needing his prayers for their amendment as well as Romanists. And in January 1611 he fell on his knees at the rails of an Anglican altar, and thereafter declared fervently his approbation of receiving the Communion elements in that attitude — his preference to kneeling there, as contrasted with the French and Swiss custom of sitting at the Lord’s Table [like Galilean fishermen].

Casaubon had corresponded with the king as James VI. of Scotland, who had not forgotten him. A correspondent in England was the learned William Camden. Our ambassador, Sir Henry Wotton, was also a warm personal friend. And thus he had contemplated with pleasure his removal to England. He came in October 1610 with his wife, the mother of his nineteen children. She was Florence, daughter of Henri Stephanus, and had been married to him at St. Peter’s, Geneva, on 28th April 1586.

On the 17th January 1611, he was made a Prebendary of Canterbury, and was allowed to hold the prebend without taking holy orders. In the same month the king granted him £300 a-year (see a copy of the Grant under the Privy Seal, in my Historical Introduction).

In the State Paper Office there are letters alluding to Casaubon, of which I give extracts:—

Sir Thomas Lake wrote to the Earl of Salisbury, 7th April 1611:— “His Ma^t. also willed me to advertise your lo. that whereas Mo^r Causabon was sending his wife into France to remove his family hither and his library, your lo. should writt in his Ma^t. name to his Amb^r. in France to give unto hir all manner of assistance that he may, in furthering hir return or procuring any favors from the Court there which may further it.”

John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton, London, 20th November 1611: “I was this day with the Bishop of Ely, and among other talk lighted upon Casabon who, it seems, is scant contented with his entertainment of £300 a-year, being promised greater matters by the late archbishop who bestowed a prebend upon him at Canterbury which he valued at six score pounds a year, and falls not out worth the fourth part.”

As to the pension, there is extant His Majesty’s Memorandum:— “Chancelor of my Excheker, I will have Mr. Casaubon paid before me, my wife, and my barnes (23d September 1612).”^[2] His friend, Andrew Melville, for resisting the introduction of Episcopacy into Scotland, was undergoing a four years’ imprisonment. Dr. M‘Crie says, “The warm approbation of the constitution of the Church of England, which Casaubon expressed, and the countenance which he gave to the consecration of the Scottish prelates at Lambeth, were by no means agreeable to Melville. But notwithstanding this he received frequent visits from him in the Tower; and on these occasions they entertained and instructed one another with critical remarks on ancient authors, and especially on the Scriptures.” Casaubon has recorded his delight with an improved punctuation of 1 Tim. iii. 15, 16, of which Melville informed him:— “These things write I unto thee — that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God. The pillar and ground of the truth, and great without controversy, is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh,” &c. It is said that such society was Casaubon’s relief from the literary tasks set him by the king. “He (says M‘Crie) who had devoted his life to the cultivation of Grecian and Oriental literature, and who had edited and illustrated Strabo, Athenseus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Polyaenus, and Polybius, was now condemned to drudge in replying to the Jesuit Fronto le Duc, correcting His Majesty’s answer to Cardinal Du Perron, refuting the annals of Cardinal Baronius, and writing letters to induce his illustrious friend De Thou to substitute King James’s narrative of the troubles of Scotland in the room of that which he had already published on the authority of Buchanan.”

His twentieth child was born in England. Chamberlain writes to Carleton, London, 4th November 1612 — “Casaubon had a son lately born here, christened by the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose deputies for that purpose were the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and Rochester; the godmother was Sir George Caries lady.”

Under the year 1613 Anthony Wood notes:— “The most learned Isaac Casaubon was entered a student in Bodley’s Library as a member of Christ Church in the month of May, but died soon after to the great loss of learning; he was a great linguist, a singular Grecian, and an excellent philologer.” Maittaire furnishes the date of his death, viz., 1st July 1614.^[3] I find in a letter from John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, dated London, 7th July 1614, “Casaubon died some few days since, and his wife and children are suitors for his pension.”

I have not attempted a list of his publications. With regard to his “Epistolae,” Dr. M‘Crie refers to the folio edition by Almeloveen (Theodorus Janson), published in 1709, prefaced by Joh. Fred. Gronovius, in a dedicatory epistle dated 9 Kal. Oct. 1638.

Besides what was published, his pen was ever producing fragmentary papers which, as well as his manuscript notes on the margins of the volumes in his library, were much sought after. In the following century a volume entitled Casauboniana was compiled from these. If, like many similar compilations, this little book is of trifling importance, it is nevertheless pleasing as illustrating Casaubon’s love for Biblical studies, and the theoretical excellence of his religious sentiments. As to evangelical truth, he quotes with approbation the following aphorisms:—

Fides justificat causativè, opera justificant ostensivè.
Fides impetrat quod lex imperat.

As to error, he writes, “The best of kings has shewn us a book entitled, ‘The Catechism of the Polish Churches, which worship the God of Israel and the man Jesus,” than which book none more sinful, none more detestable, has been published for many centuries. Yet the author has dared to dedicate it to the King of Great Britain. O what wickedness! Lord Jesus, blot out these impieties from the memory of mankind. Amen.”

He makes a note of a visit from Du Moulin:— “Du Moulin came to me with a complaint that I often criticised his writings in unhandsome terms, and I did not deny that I felt displeasure at the freedom and causelessness of his condemnation, repudiation, and vituperation of pious writers among the ancients. He asked for my copy of his ‘Apology for the King of England,’ in which I had written some notes on passages in which (if I mistake not) he had greatly offended. I gave him the volume, and asked him to take all in good part. I wish that it may be so, and that all my enterprises, as well as his, may be directed to the glory of God.”

Isaac Casaubon was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a tablet to his memory (opposite Dryden’s monument) with this inscription:—

ISAAC: CASAUBON
(O Doctiorum quidquid est, assurgite
Huic tam colendo nomini)
Quem Gallia reipublicae literarias bono peperit
Henricus IV. Francorum Rex invictissimus
Lutetiam literis suis evocatum Bibliothecae suae praefecit
Charumque deinceps, dum vixit, habuit,
Eoque terris erepto,
Jacobus Magn. Brit. Monarcha, Regum doctissimus,
Doctis indulgentissimus, in Angliam accivit,
Munificè fovit,
Posteritasque ob doctrinam seternum mirabitur
H. S. E.
Invidia major. Obiit aeternam in Christo vitam anhelans
Kal. Jul. MDCXIV. set. LV.

Qui nosse villi Casaubonum
Non saxa, sed chartas legal
Superfuturas mannori
Et profuturas posteris.

The Rev. William Beloe (“Anecdotes of Literature,” vol. v. p. 124) gives some curious and friendly jottings regarding him in an article on Sir Henry Savile.

Madame Casaubon survived till March 1616. This energetic and devoted lady is described by Maittaire as ever the most faithful partner of her husband’s vicissitudes, and also as a frequent sufferer from illness. As refugees their life was one of much penury. She made a journey from London to Paris in 1613, to obtain some money due to him, and returned on 26th October 1613, only to be laid up with a tedious illness. Having recovered, she made another journey to Paris in March 1614, and in the following July her husband died. Isaac Casaubon himself seems to have been an invalid for the last two years of his life; and a correspondent of Camden writes of him with commiseration, while he hopes that he will live to complete his edition of “Polybius.” In the year 1617 his notes on the first book [only] of Polybius were printed in Paris [Is. Casauboni commentarii posthumi ad Polybii librum primum], the copyright being granted by Louis XIII. to Florence, daughter of Stephanus and widow of Casaubon; the dedicatory epistle was signed by J. de Gravelle^[4] du Piu, her son-in-law.

The names of Casaubon’s twenty children seem never to have been recorded, but traces of thirteen have been found (chiefly in his Epistolae):—

1. Philippe, born 5th August 1589.
2. Jean [Joannes], born 1590. [He departed from the faith.]
3. Abigail (died in 1596).
4. Gentille, born 1596.
5. Elisabeth, born in Montpellier, 1597.
6. Jeanne [Joanna], born 1598.
7. Meric, born in Geneva 1599. His sponsor was Meric de Vic, Governor of Calais, afterwards Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of France.
8. Anne, born 2d November 1600.
9. Paul, born 27th November 1602.
10. Pierre[?], who married Sibelle Aikin. [See as to his son[?], extract from Threadneedle Street marriage register, 21st May 1673, in my Historical Introduction; see also my chap, xiii.]
11. Charles, born 28th September 1607.
12. Marie, born 4th October 1608.
13. James (godson of His Majesty James I., after whom he was named), born 19th October 1612. [Ant. a Wood says — “18 Nov. 1641, James Casaubon of Exeter College was, by an Act, created M.A. — which is all I know of him, only that he studied for some time in that house for the sake of the rector, Dr. Prideaux, merely to advance himself in the knowledge of divinity.”] He died in Canterbury in 1665, and was buried in the Cathedral on March 6th.^[5]

Referring to No. 7 in the above list, I begin a memoir of Florence Etienne Meric Casaubon, known as the Reverend Meric Casaubon, D.D., who was born at Geneva on 24th August 1599. He was his father’s only companion on his journey to England. He had received his early education at Sedan. He completed his school education at Eton, and afterwards (in 1614) he went to Oxford. His father had a strong affection for that University. To quote the words of Dr. Samuel Parr, “He had sagacity enough to estimate all the aids and all the encouragements which Oxford then afforded to men of letters.” The only difficulty was the expensiveness of living there. "The prudence and parental affection of Isaac Casaubon impelled him to make enquiries upon the spot; from enquiries he proceeded to experiment; and by experiment he found that the stateliness of the buildings, the largeness of the public revenues, the hospitable living of the heads of houses, and the expenses of the more opulent academics, were not incompatible with the economical plan which he had formed for his son. . . . Instead of being sent, as the father intended to send him (if Oxford had been too expensive), to the care of that great scholar, Daniel Heinsius, Meric entered at Christ Church.”^[6]

His college tutor was Dr. Edward à Meetkirk, the king’s Professor of Hebrew; but he had hardly begun his studies at Oxford, when his father died. His mother survived, and her learned relatives gave him, we may be sure, both counsel and assistance. He became M.A. in 1621. It was in that year that he made his first appearance as an author in the filial task of vindicating his father’s character — “Pietas contra maledicos patrii nominis.” His next pamphlet, “Vindicatio patris,” though similar in its title page, had a much narrower range. I myself was imposed upon (and might have led my readers into the trap) by a pamphlet dated 1630, professing to be from Isaac Casaubon’s pen, or, as the title expressed it, “published in the name of ‘Casaubon,’ A.D. 1624 — called in (the same year), upon misinformation — but now (upon better consideration) reprinted with allowances;” the name of this publication was, “The Original of Popish Idolatry; or, the Birth of Heresy.” But I learned from Anthony a Wood’s pages that Meric Casaubon, in his “Vindicatio Patris,” dated 1624, gave true information that the pamphlet was a forgery, “full of impertinent allegations out of obscure and late authors whom his father never thought worthy the reading, much less the using their authority.”

In 1626, Meric Casaubon was formally naturalized as an English subject. He became B.D. in 1628, and became parson of Bledon, in Somersetshire, and in 1630, by command of King Charles I., he was made D.D. of Oxford. He was ultimately Rector of Ickham, in Kent (4 miles from Canterbury), and a Prebendary of Canterbury.

He used to mention several providential deliverances in his life. When a boy in Geneva, he was saved from death in the night-time, the house having taken fire. During his residence in Christ Church, Oxford, he recovered from a sickness, “when he was given over for a dead man.” He was upset in a boat on the Thames, and was buoyed up by his clerical coat, but the two watermen were drowned. The civil wars in England also brought troubles upon him, his jure divino royalist principles (enlivened by personal gratitude to the king) having secured his adherence to the despotic party as opposed to the parliamentary statesmen. Nevertheless, Oliver Cromwell was generously sensible of his worth. Casaubon, on account of the death of his wife, excused himself from an interview with Cromwell, who offered to be his literary patron, and to employ his pen in writing a chronicle of the late civil war; he also offered him a gift of money through a bookseller, and without any written receipt. Both of Cromwell’s offers were refused with serene disdain. Our hero might have saved himself from poverty without any active compliance with the Commonwealth; yet we read with respect about his voluntary privations (including the loss of his livings), of which we obtain a glimpse, in his letter to Archbishop Usher, dated —

“London, Oct. 21, 1650.

“May it please your Grace, I was with Mr Selden after I had been with your Grace; whom upon some intimation of my present condition and necessities I found so noble as that he did not only presently furnish me with a very considerable sum, but was so free and forward in his expressions, as that I could not find in my heart to tell him much (somewhat I did) of my purpose of selling, lest it might sound as a further pressing upon him of whom I had already received so much. Neither, indeed, will I now sell so much as I intended; for I did not think (besides what I have in the country) to keep any at all that would yield any money. Now I shall, and among them those manuscripts I spoke of to your Grace, and Jerome’s Epistles particularly — the rather because I make use of it in my De cultu Dei (the first part whereof your Grace hath seen), which I think will shortly be printed. As for my father’s papers, I do seriously desire to dispose of them some way, if I can, to my best advantage, but with a respect to their preservation and safety — which I think would be, if some library, either here or beyond the seas, had them. I pray, good my Lord, help me if you can, and when you have an opportunity, confer with Mr Selden about it. I will shortly (within these few weeks, God willing) send a note to your Grace of what I have that is considerable, and will part with — not but that I had much rather keep them, had I any hopes at all ever to be accommodated with books, and leisure to fit them for public use myself. But that I have no hopes of; and certainly, so disposed of as I would have them in my lifetime, they will be safer than in my keeping, in that condition I am. It would be a great ease to my mind to see that well done, for I have always reckoned of them as of my life; and if any mischance should come to them whilst they are in my keeping (and indeed they have been in danger more than once, since this my tumbling condition), I should never have any comfort of my life.

“I have sent your Grace the Jerome that you might see it; and if you desire to keep it by you, I shall humbly crave a note of it under your Grace’s hand. So I humbly take my leave.

Your Grace’s in all humble duty,

Mer. Casaubon.”

In Anthony a Wood’s long list of this author’s works I do not find the De Cultu Dei. His only production now easily accessible consists of some annotations on the Psalms and Proverbs, reprinted in the last edition of the Westminster Assembly’s Annotations on the Bible. Passing over various pamphlets, I note his books on “Enthusiasme” (1655), and on Credulity and Incredulity, two volumes (1668-70). In 1656 there was published a Second edition, revised and enlarged, of his “Treatise concerning Enthusiasme, as it is an effect of nature, but is mistaken by many for either Divine Inspiration or Diabolicall Possession.” He writes with genuine pity, and says of one deluded enthusiast, p. 169, “Although I honour his sufferings, yet I do not think myself bound by that to approve his doctrine.” It was in 1664 that he published “Of the necessity of Reformation in and before Luther’s time.”

Dr. Meric Casaubon was restored to his spiritualities by Charles II., and spent a tranquil literary life; he, however, had lost his wife in 1649. He himself survived till 14th July 1671. He was the father of John Casaubon, surgeon in Canterbury, who died in 1693, aged 56, and whose son, Meric, had died in 1681. On the 21st July the learned and venerable prebendary was buried within his cathedral, where his epitaph contains the following encomium:—

Sta et venerare, viator! Hic mortales immortalis spiritûs exuvias deposuit Meric Casaubon
				Magni Nominis Eruditique Generis	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	par haercs
quippe qui	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Patrem Isaacum Casaubonum Avum Henricum Stephanum Pro-avum Robertum Stephanum					$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	habuit
Heu quos viros! quae literarum lumina! quae aevi sui decora! ipse eruditionem per tot erudita capita traduce excepit, excoluit, et ad pietatis (quae in ejus pectore regina sedebat) ornamentum et incrementum feliciter consecravit, rempublicamque literariam multiplici rerum et linguarum supellectile locupletavit —
Vir, incertum doctior an melior — in pauperes liberalitate. in amicos utilitate in omnes humanitate, in acutissimis longissimi morbi tormentis Christianâ patientiâ, insignissimus.

*⁎* Dr Parr’s sketch of his career, written (as that kind-hearted and precise writer declared) “for the credit of Oxford,” is worth quoting:—

“Meric Casaubon entered at Christ-church; he soon became a student there; he took both his degrees in arts; he published several useful works in literature and theology; he was preferred by Archbishop Laud; he was created Doctor of Divinity by the order of Charles I. Though deprived of his livings, he refused to accept any employment under Cromwell, when an immediate present of nearly four hundred pounds, an annual pension of three hundred pounds, and the valuable books of his father, which had been purchased by James I., and then deposited in the Royal Library, were proffered to him at different times. He recovered his ecclesiastical preferment after the Restoration; he lived prosperously and studied diligentlv, till he had reached his seventy-second year; and by his learning, affability, charity, and piety, he proved himself worthy of all the attentions which had been shewn to him by the parent who loved him, the university which had educated him, and the princes who had succoured him.”

*⁎* In the folio edition of Casauboni Epistolae there are fine portraits of Isaac and Meric, also the filial vindications of the former by the latter, reprinted from the original pamphlets. It appears (from a note by the Parker Society) that Isaac Casaubon’s manuscripts found a home in Archbishop Marsh’s Library in Dublin.

1. This is not the famous Bordeaux, or Bourdeaux, which is in the Province of Guienne.
2. “Household Words,” vol. xi. page 76.
3. This is the date on his monument. Camden, in his “Jacobi I. Annalium,” says:— “1614, Junii 30. — Isaacus Casaubonus, vir eruditus obiit; sepultas Westmonasterii juxta Chaucerum.” But Michael Maittaire (Stephanorum Historia, p. 538) may be safely relied on.
4. In Durham Cathedral, 29th December 16S3, there was registered the burial of “Frances Gravelle, niece to Isa. Casaubon.” [Query, grand-daughter of Isaac Casaubon, and niece of Meric Casaubon?]
5. The Dublin Journal, 21st June 1743, announces the marriage of “William Casaubon, junior of Carrigg, co. Cork, to Miss Bell Rogerson, daughter of the late Lord Chief-Justice Rogerson.”
6. Dr. Samuel Parr, “Notes on the Spital Sermon,” in his works, vol. ii. p. 557.