The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abbadie, Jacques

ABBADIE, Jacques, ab-ad-ē, zhak, or James, French–English divine: b. Nay, Bern. c. 1654–57; d. London, 1727. A poor boy, educated by friends, he took a degree of doctor in theology at Sedan at 17, was minister of a French Protestant church in Berlin some years, then in 1688 accompanied Marshal Schomberg to London for the second English Revolution, and became minister of the French church in the Savoy. He was strongly attached to William's cause, wrote an elaborate defense of it, and a history of the conspiracy of 1696 from materials furnished by the government; and William made him dean of Killaloe, Ireland. A very able man and eloquent preacher, Abbadie is best known by his religious treatises in French, several of them translated into other languages: the most important are: ‘On the Truth of the Christian Religion,’ with its sequel ‘On the Divinity of Jesus Christ,’ and ‘The Art of Self-Knowledge.’