- Jean Claude
Jean Claude (1619 –
January 13 1687 ) was a French Protestant divine.He was born at
La Sauvetat-du-Dropt nearAgen . After studying atMontauban , Jean Claude entered the ministry in 1645. For eight years he was professor oftheology in the Protestant college ofNîmes ; but in 1661, having successfully opposed a scheme for re-unitingCatholic s and Protestants, he was forbidden to preach in LowerLanguedoc . In 1662 he obtained a post at Montauban similar to that which he had lost, but four years later he was removed from there as well. Next he becamepastor atCharenton nearParis , where he engaged in controversies withPierre Nicole ("Réponse aux deux traités intitulés la perpétuité de la foi", 1665),Antoine Arnauld ("Réponse au livre de M. Arnauld", 1670), andJ.B. Bossuet ("Réponse au livre de M. l'évêque de Meaux", 1683).On the revocation of the
edict of Nantes in 1685 Jean Claude fled to the Netherlands where he received a pension fromstadtholder William of Orange, who commissioned him to write an account of the persecutedHuguenot s ("Plaintes des protestants cruellement opprimés dans le royaume de France", 1686). The book was translated into English, but by order ofJames II of England , both the translation and the original were publicly burnt by the common hangman on the 5th of May 1686, as containing "expressions scandalous to His Majesty the king of France."Other works by Jean Claude were "Réponse au livre de P. Nouet sur l'eucharistie" (1668) and "Œuvres posthumes" (
Amsterdam , 1688),containing the "Traité de la composition d'un sermon", translated into English in 1778.References
*
* See biographies byJ. P. Nicéron andAbel Rotholf de la Devèze ;Eugène et Émile Haag , "La France protestante", vol. iv. (1884, new edition).
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.