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

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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XI. Primerose.

The pasteur, Gilbert Primerose, was a Scotchman, and a preacher of the Church of Scotland, who, when his native country was disturbed by royal intermeddling with his church, chose to remove to France, and to undertake the office of the Christian ministry among the Huguenots. So far he cannot be classed among French refugees. But in Du Moulins case, we have seen how King James, who was a practical enemy of Protestantism in Scotland, chose to figure as a Protestant champion in France, so as to offend Louis XIII., and to occasion the banishment from France of Huguenot pasteurs who were of Scotch extraction.

Gilbert, son of Gilbert Primros, surgeon (afterwards principal surgeon to James VI.), was born in Edinburgh, in or about 1573.^[1] His father, preferring a more ancient university to the infant College of Edinburgh, sent him to St. Andrews in 1587. In that year his name appears among the nomina intrantium as Gilbertus Primrosus. He left college with a diploma of M.A. The date of his removal to France is not known, but it must have been about 1598. He betook himself to St. Jean d’Angely, in the province of Saintonge. Having exercised his gifts as a preacher with high and general satisfaction, he was appointed to the church of Mirambeau. While serving this rural pastorate, he continued to live at St. Jean d’Angely, and in that city two of his sons were born. His fame soon reached the city of Bourdeaux, which was in the adjacent province to the south. That congregation was an unusually important charge, and in 1598 the National Synod of the French Churches, assembled at Montpellier, decided that there was at its disposal “no pastor sufficiently qualified for the church of Bourdeaux,” and appointed the Colloquies [presbyteries] of Albret, Higher Agenois, and Perigord to fill the pulpit provisionally for a year, i.e., each colloquy to provide for four months’ supply. In 1601 the case came before the National Synod at Gergeau, which came to the following decision:— “The Synod does not count the demand of the church of Bourdeaux reasonable, which requires Monsieur Primerose to be given them for their pastor, because he cannot be taken from the church of Mirambeau, whereunto he is appropriated.” Ultimately, however, the “demand” (which is not so strong a word in French as in English) was granted; and in the first roll of ministers which Mr Quick printed, and which is dated 1603, he is found as one of the ministers of Bourdeaux, in the colloquy of Lower Agenois, and provincial Synod of Lower Guienne. He had signalised his admission to the French pastorate by spelling his name Guilbert Primerose. He sat in the National Synod of La Rochelle in 1607 as a representative of his province. At one of its meetings he presented a letter to the Synod from the magistrates and ministers of Edinburgh, and also from His Majesty the King of Great Britain, recalling him to his native country to become a minister of Edinburgh. Mr Primerose stated that he had never absolutely engaged himself to the Church in France, or to any French congregation, but had always reserved a liberty of departure if he should be duly recalled. The Synod acknowledged this, but entreated him to consider all the circumstances, and to have a tender care and respect to the church of Bourdeaux, which, by “his most fruitful preaching and exemplary gospel conversation,” had been exceedingly edified. Whereupon he promised not to abandon the congregation until it should be better supplied. During his French pastorate he published sermons, “written in good French” (says Anthony a Wood), namely, in 1610, four volumes entitled “Jacob’s vow opposed to the vows of monks and friars,” and a volume of eighteen sermons, entitled La Trompette de Sion, exhorting to repentance and fasting. He also edited, in 1615, La defance de la religion reformée, being a letter from a venerable member of his congregation, named Blouin, to an apostate son.

M. Primerose continued at Bourdeaux in peace until Whitsunday 1619. At this date Father Arnoux, a Jesuit, preached before Louis XIII., at the Castle of Amboise, and declared that neither the Catholic Church nor the Order of the Jesuits held it to be lawful to murder kings, and that both were agreed in anathematising rebels and king-killers. M. Primerose, having been present at that sermon, took the first opportunity of sending a message to Father Arnoux with the following questions which were actually put to him before influential witnesses:—

1. The friar, Jacques Clement, stabbed Henri III., a prince excommunicated by the Pope. Did he, or did he not, kill his king?

2. If the Pope excommunicated his present Majesty, would you own Louis XIII. as your king?

3. If upon the excommunication of Louis XIII., an assassin (such as Jean Chastel, Pierre Barriere, or Francois Ravaillac, disciples of the Jesuits) should attempt his life, would you curse and anathematise him as guilty of treason?

These questions having been put to him, the Jesuit Father was silenced; but he had his revenge. He used his influence to procure an Act which was registered in the Parliament of Bourdeaux, that no stranger, being an alien born, should be minister of a congregation in France. The exact date at which this ordinance took effect in M. Primerose’s case does not appear; but he seems to have remained in France till the meeting of the National Synod at Charenton, in September 1623. The Synod sent a deputation to the king, to petition for the restoration of the outed ministers. The royal reply was to the effect that it was his pleasure, for reasons known to himself, that the ministers Du Moulin, Primerose, and Cameron should be banished, and that no answer could be listened to; but that he would tolerate their residence in France, on condition that they should not receive any employment either as professors or pastors. It was immediately after this notification that M. Primerose removed to London, being now about fifty years of age.

His sons, having been born in France, did not share in his denudation. We may mention here the second son, David, who was born at St. Jean d'Angely in the beginning of the century. He studied at Oxford and Bourdeaux, and became M.A. of Bourdeaux. In 1623 he returned to Oxford, and was incorporated as M.A. He then studied Divinity under Dr Prideaux, and took the degree of B.D., 22d April 1624, Prideaux saying to him on the completion of his examination, Accepimus responsionem tuam, mi fili, tanquam adventantis veris gratissimam primam rosam. In Quick’s list of French Protestant ministers for 1626, he appears as one of the pasteurs of Rouen.

Guilbert Primerose, on his arrival in England, was forthwith installed as one of the ministers of the London French Church. There is no evidence that in his youthful career in Scotland he had offended King James. Certainly, as a refugee, he was received graciously. Perhaps he introduced himself into favour by a printed tract, dated 1624, entitled, “Panegyrique à très-grand et très-puissant Prince, Charles Prince de Galles, par Gilbert Primerose, pasteur de l’Eglise Françoise de Londres,” in which both father and son are rhetorically lauded. The king wrote in his favour to the University of Oxford; and on 18th January 1625 (n.s.) he was incorporated there as M.A., in virtue of his St Andrews’ degree. The Chancellor’s letter was read, declaring the singular probity and great learning of Mr. Gilbert Primerose, and the fact that he had spent twenty years in the study of theology, concluding by nominating him for the degree of D.D., the king’s letter, testifying to his learning and worth, being also read; he thus obtained his doctor’s degree, but on the ensuing 27th of March, King James died. David Primerose now came forward with a poetical effusion of two hundred lines dedicated to John, Earl of Mar, and entitled, “Scotland’s Complaint Vpon the death of our late Soveraigne, King James of most happy memorie, by Mr. D. Prymerose. Edinburgh, Printed by John Wreittoun, Anno Dom. 1625.”

At this date Dr Primerose had not received preferment at court. It was Charles who was his great patron. It is doubtful whether either of the above-mentioned brochures was helpful to his advancement. His own account (in a dedicatory epistle to one of his books) is that Sir James Fullerton introduced him to the new king, and thus paved the way for his appointment as one of the chaplains to King Charles I. His pastoral discourses and writings were creditable to him. In 1624 (October 7) he had preached a fast-day sermon, which was printed in 1625 with the title:— “The Christian Man’s Tears and Christ’s Comforts.” In the same year he published a volume of nine sermons, entitled, “The Righteous Man’s Tears and the Lord’s Deliverance.” In the following year appeared his best publication, “The Table of the Lord, whereof — 1. The Whole Service is the Living Bread; 2. The Guests — any man; 3. The Mouth to eate — Faith onely.” This valuable little volume is made up of two sermons, of which the first was preached at Whitehall to the King’s House on the Communion day, 3rd July 1625; and the second was preached at “Otlans” “before the Kings Majestie,” 12th July 1625. The dedicatory epistle is addressed to “the Right Honourable S^ir James Fowlerton, First Gentleman of his Majestie’s Bedchamber,” &c. On 28th July 1628, Dr. Primerose was installed as Canon of Windsor.

This was a disastrous year to the Protestants of France. On October 30th, La Rochelle surrendered to Richelieu after a siege of nearly fifteen months. The Pope, Urban VIII., wrote a coarse and jubilant letter to Louis XIII., dated 28th November 1628. Our Bishop Hall replied in a letter entitled, “Inurbanitati Pontificiae Responsio Jos. Exoniensis,” dedicated “Amico mihi plurimum colendo D^o. Gilberto Primrosio, S. Theol. Professori, Ecclesiae Gallicae Londinensis Pastori, Regiae Ma^ti. a sacris.” This epistle called forth a reply, “Reverendo in Christo Patri viro incomparabili Josepho Hal, Episcopo Exoniensi, Gilbertus Primirosius s.p.D.” The Pontifical “Breeve” and the above-named rejoinders were printed in 1629.

There was one religious subject in which King Charles, like his father, unhappily interested himself, namely, the observance of the Sabbath. To recommend the Sunday Book of Sports to the frequenters of taverns was easy; but it was difficult to fit it and similar secularizations of the Lord’s Day into a religious theory. As to the day of sacred rest, the problem for courtly divines in the days of the Royal Stuarts was to find the minimum of self-denial for the rich, and the maximum of work for the poor, which could be plausibly defended by a lover of the Gospel. Before the year 1633, David Primerose of Rouen seems to have communicated with his father concerning the possibility of solving the problem. The doctor says —

“I wrote to my sonne, preacher of the gospell at Rouen, desiring him to set downe in a paper (distinctly and clearely), his opinions concerning the Sabbath, with the confirmation thereof by such arguments which hee should think most pregnant, and a solide refutation of the contrary arguments — which he did accordingly, but in the French tongue as writing onely out of a dutifull affection to condescend to my desire” — “I kept it by me three yeeres,” — also “the additions which he sent me at divers times afterwards.”

Unable to obtain a translator, the Canon undertook the work himself; and a quarto volume appeared, entitled: “A Treatise of the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day, distinguished into foure parts. Wherein is declared both the nature, originall, and observation as well of the one under the Old as of the other under the New Testament. Written in French by David Primerose, Batchelour in Divinitie in the University of Oxford, and Minister of the Gospell in the Protestant Church of Rouen. Englished out of his French Manuscript by his Father, G.P., D.D. London, 1636.”

Dr Primerose and Mr Bulteel were the acknowledged leaders of the French Protestant refugees. The former resided in “Chiswell Street, near the Artillery Yard, in the suburbs of London.” The doctor had been married in France, his first wife being the mother of his children; he married secondly, 14th December 1637, in Threadneedle Street, Jeanne Hersey, widow of Monsieur Aurelius (probably Abraham Aurelius, his predecessor in the pastorate); thirdly, on 21st September 1641, Louise de Lobel, a native of Antwerp, his third wife having him as her third husband. He died in 1642, probably in November or December (the patent for appointing his successor in the canonry of Windsor being dated December 27). I present my readers with the following fragment of a pedigree:—

Guilbert Primerose = Guilbert Primerose
$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Jaques = Louise de Hautmont [James]		David = Madeleine Heuze Pasteur of Rouen		$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Etienne [Stephen],		$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	Jean [John],
	M.A. of Bourdeaux, M.D. of Montpellier, incorporated at Oxford in 1629; practitioner at Hull; — married, 27 Dec. 1640, in Threadneedle Street. [Rev. Robert Banks, Vicar of Hull, wrote to Ralph Thoresby, on 14 Apr. 1708, in reply to enquiries as to local authors:— “Old Dr Primrose wrote several books in re medicâ whilst he lived here, but was a Frenchman born.”]					born 12 January 1606 (n.s.) whom his father cut off with sixpence.			born 24 Nov. 1610.
			David, Pasteur of Threadneedle Street (see my next chapter).

1. The earliest extant baptismal register of Edinburgh begins with 1595, and therefore we cannot give the date of our Gilbert’s birth. A family group appears near the beginning of the register:— “Baptism on Sunday, 28th September 1595. James Primros, writter — a son named Gilbert. Witnesses, Gilbert Primros, chirurgener, and Mr George Tod, writter ." [James was the great surgeon’s nephew, and father of Archibald, ancestor of the Earls of Rosebery.]