Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 8 - Section I

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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Chapter VIII.

REFUGEES BEING CONVERTS FROM ROMANISM DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV.

I. Breval.

Rev. Francis Durant de Breval, D.D., was a member of a monastic order, and was one of the preachers to Queen Henrietta Maria. The exact date of his conversion to Protestantism I cannot find, but he preached in the London French Church in the Savoy in October 1669. His sermon was generally applauded; but on Sunday, 17th October, the Superior of the Capuchins at Somerset House rudely assailed him, and denounced the sermon as infamous and abominable. It was therefore translated into English, and published with the title “Faith in the Just victorious over the World, a Sermon preached at the Savoy in the French Church, on Sunday, October 10, 1669, by Dr. Breval, heretofore preacher to the Queen Mother; translated into English by Dr. Du Moulin, Canon of Canterbury; London, printed for Will. Nott, and are to be sold at the Queen’s-Arms in the Pell-Mell, 1670.” The text was 1 John v. 4; and the heads of discourse were (1.) Who are those which are born of God? (2.) What victory they obtain over the world. (3.) What this faith is which makes them obtain the victory.

In or about 1670 he was made a chaplain in ordinary to the King, and one of the pasteurs of the French Church in the Savoy; he also had a diploma as Doctor of Theology. In the next year he had an opportunity of proclaiming his functions and dignities in print. Having been privileged to baptize a converted Jew^[1] publicly in his church, he printed the sermon which he had preached on that occasion; it was published with the title: “Le Juif Baptisé — sermon presché dans l’Eglise Francoise de la Savoye. Par Monsieur de Breval, Docteur en Theologie, Chappelain Ordinaire de Sa Majesté, et un des Pasteurs de cette Eglise. A Londres, imprimé par Thomas Niewcomb, et se vend chez Hen. Herringman, Libraire dans la Nouvelle Bourse, et chez Wil. Nott dans le vieux Mail aux Armes de la Reyne, 1671.”

In May 1671 he was made a prebendary of Rochester. On 11th February 1672 (n.s.), John Evelyn notes:— “In the afternoon that famous proselyte, Monsieur Brevall, preached at the Abbey in English extremely well, and with much eloquence; he had been a Capuchin, but much better learned than most of that order.” He was made a Prebendary of Westminster, 21st Nov. 1675, and in the same year he was, by royal command, created S. T. P. of Cambridge. He became Rector of Milton, Kent, on 12th July 1680, but continued to reside at Westminster. He died 26th January 1708 (n.s.), and was buried in Westminster Abbey. By Susanna Samoline, his wife (who died 4th July 1719, aged seventy-three), he had three sons, Theophilus, Henry, and John-Durant, and four daughters, Dorothy, Catherine, Frances, wife of Stephen Monginot Dampierre, and Mary Ann. The youngest son, known as Captain Breval, was an author of poems, and of several folio volumes of travels, well printed and illustrated. (See Chapter XIII.)

1. The convert was an Italian, highly educated in polite learning and Jewish antiquities, son of a famous Jewish physician in an Italian City, and nephew of a wealthy Jewish merchant in Alexandria. When he was about thirty-five years of age, he made a journey to Constantinople, in order to meet the promised Messiah. And deeply chagrined at finding himself the victim of a contemptible impostor, he went to Egypt, and paid a long visit to his uncle in Alexandria. In that city, without his uncle’s knowledge, he prosecuted long and anxious enquiries as to Christ and Christianity; and at length he declared himself to the Romish missionaries as a convert willing to be baptized. The danger of offending his relations was such, that the advice of the French Consul was asked and acted upon. And accordingly he sailed from Alexandria for Marseilles and Paris, with letters of introduction from the consul. When he arrived in France he heard for the first time that there were two very different communions in the Christian Church, namely, the Romish and the Reformed; and he was warned that, before separating from Judaism, he should make up his mind to which of the two he would unite himself. He took this advice. Through the consul’s letter he obtained frequent interviews with a celebrated Parisian Abbé; but he also conferred with a Protestant minister as frequently, although secretly. The Abbé did not confine his arguments to ecclesiasticism and theology, but dilated, in magnificent style, on the worldly advantages which he could promise him. But when the enquirer announced his determination to be baptized in the Reformed Church, the Abbé had recourse to tremendous threats, not only of the persecution of the proselyte in the event of such baptism, but also of the royal vengeance against all the Reformed congregations of France. Protestant friends, therefore, suggested that the candidate for baptism should go to Amsterdam or to London. The first opportunity was for London. There he was anew received as an enquirer by Dr. de Breval, with consent of the Bishop of London. The bishop had a final interview with him, and sanctioned his baptism on the next Lord’s Day within the French Church in the Savoy.