Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 19
Chapter XIX.
REFUGEES BEING CONVERTS FROM ROMANISM.
1. Rev. John Francis Bion was born at Dijon, 24th June 1668. He was curate of Ursy, in the province of Burgundy, and thereafter almoner of the convict galley La Superbe. The torments inflicted on the Protestants, and the fortitude, patience, and humility of the sufferers, led him to inquire into their faith. “It was wonderful to see (he writes), with what true Christian patience and constancy they bore their torments, in the extremity of their pain never expressing any rage, but calling upon Almighty God, and imploring His assistance. I visited them day by day. . . . . At last, their wounds, like so many mouths, preached to me, made me sensible of my error, and experimentally taught me the excellency of the Protestant religion.” On his conversion, in the year 1704, he retired to Geneva. Thence he came to London, and for a time he was rector of a school, and minister of a church in Chelsea. He published at London, in 1708, his Relation des tourmens que l’on fait souffrir aux Protestans qui sont sur les galères de France. And in the same year and place he issued an English translation entitled “An Account of the Torments the French Protestants endure aboard the galleys.” Ultimately he settled in Holland as an English chaplain.
2. Charles Charlot, called D’Argenteuil, was a Romanist curate in France, and on his conversion to Protestantism he took refuge in England. He was pastor in several of the French churches in London. In 1699 he preached in the church called Le Tabernacle. He was also an author. (Smiles’ Huguenots.)
3. John Gagnier was born at Paris about 1670. He was educated at the College of Navarre, being a Romanist by birth; and, in due time, he took orders in the Romish Church, and was a canon-regular of St. Genevieve. Becoming convinced of his errors, he left France for England, and embraced Protestantism. He was certified to be a fine oriental scholar, specially in Hebrew and Arabic, and received degrees both from Oxford and Cambridge. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, made him one of his chaplains, and in 1715 he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Oxford. His writings were on rabbinical lore, Mahometanisin, and other subjects connected with his chair, which he filled with honour, he died 2nd March 1740, and left a son, John, of Wadham College, Oxford, B.A. in 1740, and M.A. in 1743, Rector of Stranton, in the diocese of Durham.
4. Michael Malard was a French proselyte from the Romish Church who came to London for liberty of conscience. He was appointed French tutor to the three royal princesses, Anne, Amelia Sophia Eleonora, and Elizabeth Carolina. Himself and the other proselytes imported much disputation and irritation among the refugees. Their deliverance from spiritual despotism seems to have surprised them into a boisterous excitability and a petulant impatience as to doctrinal standards. Malard’s language was peculiarly unbrotherly and abusive, especially as to the royal bounty, in which he thought that the Huguenots proper shared too largely, and as to which he clamoured that a larger share must be allotted to the proselytes.[1] The share of the latter was afterwards defined by a royal grant. He did not, however, lapse into any unsoundness in the faith, as we may judge from his book, “The French and Protestant Companion,” published in 1719, and dedicated to the King, in which Protestantism is expounded in the English column of each page, and French is taught by a translation of the exposition in the second column. He, however, twice introduces the miserable royal bounty annuities, and recommends, in French and English, that the proselytes’ proportion should be distributed by a committee, consisting of the Marquis de Montandre, the Marquis du Quesne, Mr. Rival, a French minister, Mr. Justice Pealing, Sir John Philipps, Dr. Wilcocks, and an ecclesiastic proselyte to be chosen every third year by casting lots (p. 236).
5. Francis de la Pillonnière was in his youth a Jesuit, but dismissed for his inquisitive studiousness and want of blind submission. His father, who lived at Morlaix, in Brittany, and who was opposed to the Jesuit order, welcomed him home, but designed him for priest’s orders in the Romish Church. Young Francis, however, pursued his inquiries, and avowed a theoretical Protestantism. His father sent him to a friend’s house, intending that he should ultimately go to Paris, and be placed under orthodox Romish tutelage. Francis, instead of visiting his father’s friend, removed secretly to Holland, where he resided for a time as a Protestant. Thereafter he went to England, and pursued a quiet course, teaching the French language in academies and private houses, but preparing for the ministry of the Church of England. He sympathised with the more or less decided opponents of clerical subscription to creeds and standards; and in this way he got into a singular squabble. The Pasteurs Graverol and Gideon Delamotte had written well and strongly on the use and necessity of Confessions of Faith; on the other hand, Pasteur Durette, of Crispin Street French Church (sometime a military chaplain), wrote on the abuse of Confessions of Faith, and his book was printed in the French language. La Pillonnière translated it into English, and printed it in 1718. In the meantime the Bishop of London had been frequently conversing with Mr. Durette; the result was that the latter was disposed to withdraw his book, and wrote to La Pillonnière that his mind was not made up on the controversy. La Pillonnière, who had Durette’s consent to translate the book, was irritated, and published the translation, with a long gossipping appendix as to Durette and the London pasteurs generally. La Pillonnière obtained an accidental celebrity through being employed to teach French to the family of Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor. The Bishop’s opponents assumed (which was a mistake) that he admitted the French master to personal friendship; and they endeavoured to account for his lordship’s writings (which seemed to bring the Church of England into danger) by proclaiming that he had a Jesuit in his house. This, though a mere controversial cry, was seriously urged; and it was asserted and asseverated that La Pillonnière was a Jesuit emissary and no Protestant. Into his history it is needless to go further. It is sufficient to say that all unprejudiced men were satisfied with the sincerity of Francis de la Pellonnière’s profession of Protestant faith, and with the excellence of his moral character. [One of his certificates was from Vincent Perronet of Queen’s College, Oxford, 29th October 1717.]
6. Michael le Vassor was born at Orleans about 1648, and died in Northamptonshire as a parish clergyman[1] in 1718. He had been a Roman Catholic, and a member of the congregation of the Oratory. In 1695 he embraced Protestantism, and escaped, viâ Holland, to England. He was patronised by the Earl of Portland and by Bishop Burnet; the bishop obtained a pension for him from William III. During his sojourn in the Oratory he had published three volumes of Paraphrases on books of the New Testament (Matthew, John, Romans, Galatians, and James). During his refugee life he published a temperate treatise on the study of religious controversies, and a translation of De Vargas’s Letters and Memoirs on the Council of Trent; also a vigorous and indignant History of the reign of Louis XIII., in ten volumes, dedicated to the second Earl of Portland (afterwards Duke). This great work exposed him to much fierce criticism, which, however, is neutralised by the verdict of Sismondi: Histoire écrite avec passion, mais generalement avec la passion de la justice et de la verité.
With regard to his book on the study of religious controversies, it is entitled “Traité de la manière d’examiner les dififerens de religion. Dedié au Roi de la Grande Bretagne. Par Mr. Michel Le Vassor. Amsterdam, 1697,” 605 pp.
He is the author of the translation into French of the Letters of Francis De Vargas (which were translated into English by Rev. Michael Geddes, LL.D., Chancellor of the diocese of Sarum). The work is thus described by Principal Robertson (Hist, of Charles V.):
“Vargas, a Spanish doctor of laws, who was appointed to attend the imperial ambassadors at Trent, sent the Bishop of Arras a regular account of the transactions there, explaining all the arts which the legate employed to influence or overawe the Council; his letters have been published, in which he inveighs against the Papal Court with that asperity of censure which was natural to a man whose situation enabled him to observe its intrigues thoroughly, and who was obliged to exert all his attention and talents in order to disappoint them.”
These letters and memoirs of the Council of Trent, which had slumbered in manuscript so long, had come into possession of the Trumbull family. Le Vassor’s publication included a Dedication to Sir William Trumbull, a portrait of that statesman’s grandfather, and a preface by Le Vassor himself on the state of religion in France in 1699. He says, “On y est las de controverse. L’affaire des Protestans, dit on, c’est une affaire finie. Ceux, qui n’ ont pas voulu se rendre aux instructions qu’on leur a données, sont des opiniâtres et des entestez; il faut seulement leur faire sentir les dents de la charité, que Messieurs de Clergé ont si bien nommée une charité mordante.” The preface concludes with a memoir of the ancestral William Trumbull, who had acquired Vargas’s MSS. in Brussels.
His History of Louis XIII. brought him under the notice of monarchs and statesmen. Narcissus Luttrell writes: “28th Dec. 1699. Monsieur Vassor, formerly a priest, and now tutor to Ld. Woodstock (son to the Earl of Portland), having lately written a book of the Life of Lewis the 13th of France, with reflections upon the present king, his most christian majesty sent a letter to the States of Holland to banish him out of their dominions, and another to the Ld. Portland to dismiss him from his service; but the States and his lordship excused themselves from complying, saying they would endeavour to suppress the books there, and would endeavour to get the same done in England.” “4th January 1700 (n.s.). The Earl of Portland, at the French king’s request, has dismissed Monsieur Vassor from being his son’s tutor; but a pension is settled upon him by our king.” I have before me a volume translated from the French, entitled, “The History of the Reign of Lewis XIII., King of France and Navarre. Containing the most remarkable occurrences in France and Europe during the Minority of that Prince. By Mr. Michel Le Vassor. London, 1700.” In the epistle dedicatory to “the Vicecount of Woodstock,” the author states that he was his tutor, “imploycd to entertain you with history.” Alluding to the English people, he calls attention to “the brave efforts of your dear and celebrated country in maintaining their liberty.”
*⁎* A correspondent sends me several names of Romanists who formally abjured Romanism, and whose abjuration was registered by La Cour Ecclesiastique of the Island of Guernsey.
11th Feb. 1717-18. Louis Bertau of Riou, in Saintonge, abjured in the town church.
7th Dec. 1718. Nicolas Mauger, native of the environs of Cherbourg, in Normandy, having abjured within the Anglican Church of St. Pierre du Bois, was received by the Vicar, Rev. Hugues Sacquin.
16th Dec. 1719. Pierre Bureau of Royan, in France, abjured in the church of St. Pierre-Port.
17th August, 1717. Nicolas Le Cordier, of the parish of Louvier, in the diocese of Bayeux, Normandy.
29th April 1720. Marie du Pain, of Vitry.
14th May 1720. Jacque le Grand, of Villedieu.
13th August 1720. Jullien Groslet, widow of Mr le Petit of St Malo.
21st March 1722. Rev. Joseph Querray, formerly a curate in France, and canon regular and prior, declared that he had abjured in London, and having produced a certificate to that effect, and also his deacon’s and priest’s orders, he received a licence from the Very Rev. Jean Bonamy, Dean of Guernsey, having at the same time taken the oaths and signed the three articles of the thirty-sixth canon. [He was made vicar of the parish of St. Pierre du Bois.]
Same day. Rev. Pierre Garcelon, formerly priest in the diocese of Clermont.
6th May 1722. Thomas Dacher, native of St. Martin in Normandy, abjured in the church of St. Martin, Guernsey.
1st March 1724-5. Claude Coquerel, from France.
16th April 1725. Jacques Drouet, from Normandy.
18th December 1725. Jean Le Sevestre, native of Paris.
22d February 1725-6. Le Sieur Jean La Serre, native of Billmagne in Languedoc. [On the next day he married a Guernsey lady, and is still represented in the island.]
18th November 1726. Bernardin Rossignol, native of Quimper in Lower Brittany, formerly a priest of the Church of Rome, having abjured within the church of St. Pierre Port, was received into the communion of the Church of England on the 15th inst.
29th October 1727. Jean Ferdant, from Normandy.
- ↑ Nouvelles litteraires de La Haye, tome viii.