in a manner, broke his heart.[1] It appears that the Pasteur D’Espagne was instrumental in his conversion to Protestant faith. That he left a son and heir to continue his name may be conjectured from the title-page of a volume that now lies before me:— “General Instructions, Divine, Moral, Historical, Figurative, &c., shewing the Progress of Religion from the Creation to this time, and to the End of the World, and tending to confirm the Truth of the Christian Religion. By Theophilus Garencieres, Vicar of Scarbrough, and Chaplain to his Grace Peregrine, Duke of Ancaster.” York, 1728.
1656. April 10. Peter Vasson was created Bachelor of Physic by virtue of the Chancellor’s (Oliver Cromwell’s) letters, dated 25th March, which say that he, the said Chancellor, had received very good satisfaction from several hands touching Mr Vasson, as to his suffering for his religion in his own nation, his service in the late wars to the Commonwealth, his skill in the faculty he professeth, and success (through the blessing of God) in the practice of it, together with the unblameableness of his conversation,” &c. [In 1659 Peter Vasson or Vashon became M.D.]
To these may be added the incorporation on 17th Nov. 1662 (temp. Chas. II.) of Peter Richier of Maremne in Saintonge, who had taken the degree of Doctor of Physic in Bordeaux in 1634.
Among Huguenot theologians, incorporated at Oxford, is the following:—
1656-7. Jan. 29. Abraham Conyard, of Rouen, in Normandy, who had studied divinity several years in academies in France and Switzerland, was created Bachelor of Divinity by the decree of the Members of Convocation, who were well satisfied with his letters-testimonial under the hands of the pastors of the Reformed Church of Rouen, written in his behalf.
The most celebrated name, however, is Du Moulin, of which there were distinguished representatives during three generations. Going back to 1586, we find that King James gave his royal licence to French Protestants and their ministers to live in Scotland; and the General Assembly of the Scottish Church of that year instructed Andrew Melville to write a letter in their name, assuring the refugees that every effort would be made to render their situation agreeable. One of the first who came over was Joachim Du Moulin, Pasteur of Orleans. The Town Council of Edinburgh voted stipends to the ministers of the refugees (11 May 1586), and allowed them to meet for public worship in the common hall of the College. A general collection was made throughout the parish churches in 1587. Dr Lorimer[2] gives an interesting extract from the Minute Book of the General Kirk-Session of Glasgow, May 23, 1588, “the which day the Session ordains Mr Patrick Sharp, Principal of the College of Glasgow, and Mr John Cowper, one of the ministers there, to go to the [Town] Council on Saturday next, and to propound to them the necessities of the poor brethren of France banished to England for religion’s cause, and to crave of them their support to the said poor brethren.” The Presbytery of Haddington took a special interest in Monsieur Du Moulin himself, on October 18, 1589, when they had before them “the warrant from the Synodal for the ingadering of the support to Mr Mwling banest out of France.” It is perhaps of him that this anecdote is told, “Du Moulin, an eminent French Protestant divine, fled from his persecutors during the dreadful massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day. It will be remembered that the destruction of the Protestants was persevered in on this occasion for three successive days. Du Moulin took refuge in an oven, over which, providentially, a spider wove her web. His pursuers actually came to the spot, but, perceiving the cobweb, they did not examine the interior, and the fugitive’s life was saved.” It might apply to Joachim’s illustrious son, Pierre du Moulin, who was then four years of age, having been born
- ↑ Whether he belonged to the same family as Charles Du Moulin, the learned jurist, who is memorialised in Collier’s Dictionaiy, I am not aware. According to that account the Du Moulin family was noble, and descended from the Seigneurs de P'ontenay, to whom our Queen Elizabeth’s maternal ancestor, Thomas Boleyn, or Bulloigne, Vicomte de Rochefort, was related.
- ↑ Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church of France, by Rev. John Gordon Lorimer, page 75.
