Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 6 - Section V
V. Refugees in Oxford.
Nicholas Vignier, M.A. of Saumur, was incorporated as M.A. at Oxford on 14th October 1623, and took the Degree of B.D. in 1624. This date brings us to the end of the reign of King James.
In the next reign the first French graduate is memorialised among Oxford writers by Anthony Wood : “John Verneuil was born in the city of Bordeaux in France, educated in the University of Montauban till he was M.A., flew from his country for religion’s sake, being a Protestant, and went into England, where he had his wants supplied for a time by Sir Thomas Leigh. He retired to Oxford in 1608, and on 4th November, aged twenty-five, he was matriculated in the University as a member of Magdalen College, from which House, as from others, he received relief. In 1625 (December 13) he was incorporated M.A., being the Second-Keeper of Bodley’s Library, where he performed good service for that place, and wrote for the use of students there these things following: — (1) Catalogus Interpretum S. Scripturas juxta numerorum ordinem qui extant in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 4to, 2nd. edit, Oxford, 1635. (2) Elenchus authorum tarn recentium quam antiquorum, qui in quatuor libros Sententiarum et Thomae Aquinatis Summas — item in Evangelia Dominicalia totius anni [the extracts from the Gospels accompanying the Prayer-Book Collects], et de Casibus Conscientise, necnon in Orationem Dominicam, Symbolum Apostolorum et Decalogum, scripserunt. Printed with Catalogus Interpretum, 1635. (3) Nomenclator of such Tracts and Sermons as have been printed and translated into English, upon any place or book of the Holy Scripture, now to be had in Bodley’s Library, 12mo, Oxford, 1637-42. (4) He translated from French into English, a Tract of the Sovereign Judge of Controversies in matters of religion, by John Cameron, D.D., of Saumur, Divinity Professor in the University of Mantauban, afterwards Principal of Glasgow, 4to, Oxford, 1628. (5) He translated from English into Latin a book entitled, Of the deceitfulness of man’s heart, by Daniel Dyke of Cambridge, Geneva, 1634. The said John Verneuil died in his house within and near the East-gate of the city of Oxford, and was buried on 30th September 1647, in the church of St. Peter-in-the-East, at which time our public library lost an honest and useful servant, and his children a good father.” — [aged 64].
Nicholas Lamie, having spent seven years in the study of medicine in the University of Caen in Normandy, entered Pembroke College, Oxford, and took the Degree of Bachelor of Physic in 1631. Another Frenchman, William Manouvrier, styled Dominus de Pratis, was admitted to practise surgery. [De Pratis is the Latin rendering of Des Prés, or Desprez.]
Gabriel du Gres, a Frenchman, studied sometime among the Oxonians — afterwards went to Cambridge, as it seems, and returning thence soon after, taught privately for several years the French tongue in Oxford University. His works are:— (1) Grammatical Gallicai Compendium, Camb. 1636; (2) Dialogi Gallico-Anglico-Latini (including regular pronunciandi, &c), Oxford, 1639, 1652, 1660; (3) Life of Jean Arman du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu and Peer of France, Lond. 1643; and other things as ‘tis probable, but such I have not seen, nor know anything else of the author. [I adopt the phraseology of Anthony a Wood.]