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[German Version] (Dallaeus; Jan 1, 1594, Châtellerault – Apr 15, 1670, Paris), Reformed theologian. After studying philosophy in Châtellerault and Poitiers, Daillé turned to theology in 1612 in Saumur. As the tutor of the grandchildren of P. Duplessis-Mornay in Saumur, he became friends with the professors of the academy and traveled with his students through Western …

[German Version] (Nov 28, 1681, Ribaute-les-Tavernes – May 17, 1740, Chelsea). First a shepherd, then a baker's apprentice, Cavalier fled to Geneva in 1701 for faith reasons. Already in the following year, he stepped forward as a “prophet” and military leader of the Camisards who were secretly gathering in the Cévennes for armed resistance. While the counter-measures of the marshal of Montrevel proved ineffective, his successor Villars succeeded in subduing Cava…

[German Version] (Mar 25, 1510, Dolerie, near Barenton, Normandy – Sep 6, 1581, Paris) studied in Paris, where he became adept in many languages. His participation in a French delegation to Constantinople (1535–1537) brought him into contact with Arabic. On his return, he published not only a grammar of Arabic (c. 1538) but Linguarum duodecim characteribus (1538), a comparative study in which his later ideas were already laid out: the derivation of all languages from Hebrew, the need for Christian mission in the face ¶ of Islam, and knowledge of languages as an instrument for th…

[German Version] (Seigneur de Châtillon; Feb 16, 1519, Châtillon-sur-Loing – Aug 24, 1572, Paris) was admiral of France from 1552 onward, and governor of Picardy from 1555. A Calvinist sympathizer, he was captured by the Spanish at the battle of St. Quentin (1557) and held captive in the Netherlands. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (Apr 3, 1559) enabled him to resume his diplomatic functions. By speaking out in defense of his persecuted co-religionists during the a…

[German Version] (Feb 24, 1591, Metz, France – Dec 28, 1669, Metz). After attending the Jesuit college in Metz, Ferry, from a leading Huguenot family (Huguenots) began his study of the liberal arts in 1607 ( artes liberales ) in La Rochelle and transferred in 1609 to Montauban, to study Protestant theology there until 1611. He was ordained a pastor in Metz on Jan 1, 1612. J.B. Bossuet attacked his Catéchisme général de la réformation et de la religion (1656), and the two were engaged in dialogue thereafter. Ferry eventually rejected Bossuet's attempts at denominational rapprochement. Ferr…

[German Version] (Philippe de Mornay, Seigneur du Plessis-Marly, Baron de La Forêt-sur-Sèvre; Nov 5, 1549, Buhy-en-Vexin – Nov 11, 1623, La Forêt-sur-Sèvre). After his studies – with P. Ramus and others – Duplessis-Mornay traveled through western Europe (1568–1572), on the basis of which he published a report in which he set out France's need for an anti-H…

[German Version] (Sep 1596, Bourgueil, Touraine – Jan 8, 1664, Saumur) studied law at Poitiers and theology at Saumur (1618–1621). In 1626, after a brief stay in London and an initial pastorate at St. Aignan, he became pastor and in 1633 professor at Saumur. His doctrine of hypothetical universalism ( Traité de la prédestination) provoked violent controversy. It is based on the principle that God wills the salvation of all, insofar as they have faith. God's will, however, is frustrated by hum…

[German Version] (Dec 16, 1647, Vassy – Oct 20, 1708, Berlin). Jacquelot succeeded his father as Protestant minister in Vassy; after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (France: III, 1; Huguenots), he took refuge in Heidelberg. In 1686 he became pastor of the French congregation in The Hague. His Avis sur le tableau du socinianisme (1690) brought him into conflict with P. Jurieu, so that he withdrew to Basel. In 1702 he was called to Berlin by Frederick I; he served as court chaplain there until his death. In his writings, he argued with suc…

[German Version] (Feb 8, 1620, Caen – Jan 26, 1721, Paris). Huet was the early orphaned son of a Calvinist who converted to Catholicism. After attending the Jesuit College he studied law in Caen. He shared an interest in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and geography with S. Bochart, whom he accompanied to the Swedish court in 1652. In 1668, he published a manuscript by Origen on the Gospel of Matthew, which he had discovered there. But he had already returned to Paris by 1653. In 1662, he founded an academ…

[German Version] (Andreas Rivetus; Jun 22, 1572, St. Maixent – Jan 1, 1651, Breda). After studying at the Reformed Academy in Orthez under L. Daneau and others, and in 1595 in La Rochelle, Rivet became chaplain to the de la Trémouille ducal house and minister in Thouars. In 1620 he accepted a call to Leiden University. In 1632 he was appointed by Frederik Hendrik of Orange to be the tutor of his son, the future King William II. His related activity as councillor and court preacher ended when he be…

[German Version] (Aug 24, 1572) refers to the massacre of the Huguenots in the night before Bartholomew's Day during the wedding festivities of the Protestant Henri de Navarre with the Catholic Marguerite de Valois (Parisian Blood Wedding). It was triggered by the attempted assassination of the leader of the Huguenots and admiral, G. de Coligny. The bloody terror in Paris …

[German Version] Port-Royal Abbey, south of Versailles near Chevreuse, was founded in 1204 as an abbey for Cistercian nuns (Cistercians). Under the leadership of J.-M. Arnauld, elected abbess in 1602 (Mère Angélique), a reform of the abbey dedicated to inward sanctification and serious piety began in 1608. The reform soon led her mother and her five sisters to join the abbey. One of her sisters was the later Mère Agnès, elected abbess in 1636. In 1625 the abbey moved to Paris on account of the unh…

[German Version] I. Definition – II. Historical Development I. Definition The term “Gallicanism” was created in the late 19th century for the state church system characteristic of France, a system that was rooted in the Middle Ages and remained in effect up to the French Revolution. Gallicanism's focus on national church politics goes back to the liberties of the Gallican church that were partly based on theological considerations but mainly on state church law. The aim was to limit the pope's power in the France of the ancien régime. Institutions advocating Gallicanism were the …

[German Version] (Baron; Jan 8, 1632, Dorfchemnitz – Oct 26, 1694, Berlin). After attending the Fürstenschule in Grimma (1645–1650), Pufendorf studied in Leipzig and Jena from 1650 to 1658. He then took a position in Copenhagen as private tutor in the household of the Swedish ambassador Peter Julius Coyet. During months of Danish imprisonment in 1658, he wrote his Elementorum jurisprudentiae universalis libri duo, dedicated to the elector Palatine Charles Louis, which was published in 1660. This work earned him a call to Heidelberg as the first German profe…

[German Version] (Mar 27, 1695, Villeneuve-de-Berg – Jun 13, 1760, Lausanne). While still a young man, Court resolved to become an itinerant preacher for the purpose of consolidating southern French Protestantism, which had been greatly weakened by the persecution of the Huguenots. In order to achieve this goal, the synodal constitution and church discipline, but also the regular formation of theologians were to be reestablished. On Aug 21, 1715, he convened the first s…

[German Version] (Dec 6, 1640, Paris – Jul 14, 1723, Paris). After attending the Jesuit college in Clermont, Fleury studied law and became parliamentary advocate in 1658. In 1667, he began to study theology under the influence of J.-B. Bossuet and was ordained priest on Jun 8, 1669. From 1672 to 1680, he was the tutor of the princes of Conti, and from 1680 to 1683 of the count of Vermandois, a legitimate son of Louis XIV. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Fleury participated alongside F…

[German Version] (Dec 24, 1637, Mer, Département Loir-et-Cher – Jan 11, 1713, Rotterdam). The son of a Reformed pastor and grandson of the theologian ¶ P. Du Moulin studied in Saumur, Sedan, and England, where he was ordained according to the Anglican rite. In 1660 – after a Calvinist ordination – he succeeded his father in Mer; in 1674, he became professor of theology and Hebrew in Sedan. After the dissolution of the academy in 1681, Jurieu, who had become suspect because of his pamphlet, “La politique du clergé de Fra…

[German Version] (Feb 18, 1559, Geneva – Jul 12, 1614, London). After study at the Geneva Academy, this son of a Huguenot pastor became professor of Greek there in 1583. He taught in Montpellier (1596–1599) but was called to Paris in 1600 by Henry IV. As royal commissioner he took part in the disputation between P. Duplessis-Mornay and Cardinal Duperron, in which he spoke for the latter, earning him the mistrust of his fellow believers. In 1610 he answered a call…

[German Version] (du Buc, Guillaume; born Rouen, died Lausanne, 1603). After 23 years as a pastor and superintendent in Yverdon, Bucanus was appointed professor of theology at Lausanne in 1591. He died before he could accept an appointment to the academy at Saumur. His importance for French Protestantism comes from his Institutiones, planned as a textbook, which expounds the teaching of Calvinistic orthodoxy. They were circulated posthumously through an English translation, expanded by the addition of a tract on The Practise of Papists against Protestant Princes; because of …

[German Version] (Maier, Meyer; Apr 25, 1502, Nuremberg – Nov 28, 1574, Wittenberg). After studying at Wittenberg, Major succeeded C. Cruciger as rector of the Johannisschule in Magdeburg. In 1537 he returned to Wittenberg as preacher at the Schlosskirche. Appointed to the Wittenberg consistory in 1542, in 1545 he took over the professorship of J. Jonas on the theological faculty, having received his Dr.theol. from Luther at the end of 1544. In 1546 he was one of the participants in the Colloquy o…