Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 12 - Section V
Colomiés.
The eminent refugee, who bore the surname of Colomiés, might have been classified among the clergy, if it was not that it was in literature that he distinguished himself. His grandfather, the pasteur Hierosme Colomiés, was a native of Bearn in Navarre. As a paslor his home was La Rochelle; he was one of the six ministers who constituted the staff of the Reformed Pastorate of that city. In Quick’s Synodicon we find him in the Roll of Ministers for the year 1603, a member of the National Synod in 1614, and surviving in the Roll of Ministers for 1626. The son of Hierosme and the father of the refugee was Jean Colomiés, doctor of medicine; the pasteur’s daughters were Francoise, wife of Pierre Hamelot, doctor of medicine (the date of whose marriage was 1628), and Sara, wife of Jehan Hamelot, merchant in La Rochelle, a brother of Pierre. Thus the refugee had two Hamelot uncles and many Hamelot cousins, the Hamelots being illustrious Rochellers.
Paul Colomiés was born in La Rochelle on 2nd December 1638. He was educated for the ministry, and qualified for a charge in the Reformed Church of France. We do not hear of his having a pastoral charge. As a refugee, he preferred to settle in England, because his friend Isaac Vossius was there. He came over in 1681; he appears at the head of a list of Naturalizations, 21st March 1688. Like Vossius, he imbibed heterodoxy, and he received a severe castigation from the pen of Jurieu. His hobby, however, was to substitute the Greek version of the Old Testament for the Hebrew; and he took bitter revenge upon all who would not follow him in abjuring all the vernacular translations “done out of Hebrew.” He took a special aversion to Presbyterians as the most methodical opponents of heterodoxy — an aversion which he manifests in his “Icon Presbyterianorum,” and in his “Parallele de la pratique de l’Eglise Ancienne et de celle des Protestans de France.” Professor Weiss says that “he passed in England for one of the pillars of Socinianism,” and that “St Evremond, who was amused by his mental eccentricities, described him as an unbeliever, who in his books strove to prove that the Version of the Seventy was divinely inspired, while by his discourse he showed that he did not believe in Divine inspiration.” His temper was perhaps soured by poverty. When Dr Allix, who appreciated his varied learning, came to England and obtained a French Church in London, he gave Colomiés the office of Reader in the church. He accordingly speaks feelingly in his “Parallele” (which should rather have been named Contraste) concerning the services demanded from a Reader:—
“In the ancient church, only one chapter of the Old and of the New Testament was read. Among the French Protestants, the Reader reads ten or twelve, sometimes with a little vexation. In the ancient, the Reader did not begin to read until the clergy and people had come in, as we may conjecture from the celebrated passage of Justin Martyr. Among the French Protestants, when ten persons have assembled, the Reader ascends the pulpit — by which excellent arrangement all the people, who arrive afterwards, understand the Scriptures but imperfectly, having also disturbed the attention of those who had come first.”
He received episcopal ordination, and was made Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. But Archbishop Sancroft lost his see on refusing to take the oaths in favour of William and Mary in 1691; and Colomiés had to retire from Lambeth with his patron.
He had another source of income, the so-called Rectory of Eynsford in Kent. The actual ministers of Eynsford were and are Vicars. Only the Vicars of the parish are recognised in its registers. The Rectory is a sinecure, or an annual rent which is in the gift of the dignitaries of Canterbury Cathedral. This annuity was enjoyed by the Rev. Paul Colomiés. He resided in London, and in his Will he assured the poor of the parish of “Einsford” that he without ceasing prayed for them, and he left them a legacy of five guineas.
This learned refugee was attacked by his last illness in the month of November 1691. His house was in the parish of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, and his host was the Sieur Jacques Arnaud, or Arnaudin, master-surgeon. He received every attention, and was surrounded with Hamelot cousins, one of whom, the Rev. Peter Hamelot, he declared to be his heir. This reverend gentleman would have gladly inherited his admired library; but the invalid took a fancy to sell it, and himself carried out the transaction. Thus he had nothing but cash (amounting to about £120) to bequeath. He dictated a Will in which there is no symptom of unbelief. He said:—
“Sound in mind, by the grace of God, I here declare to all my brethren that I die in the faith of Jesus Christ my Saviour, who loved me and gave himself for me, and in the hope that God will deal mercifully with me, receiving my soul within his paradise, and raising my body at the last day, that I may enjoy the eternal happiness which my Saviour Jesus Christ has promised me.”
He died, a quarter of an hour before midnight, on 4th January 1692 (new style), aged fifty-three.
There is a thick quarto volume of his collected Works, entitled:— “Pauli Colomesii Rupellensis, Presbyteri Ecclesiae Anglicanae et Bibl. Lambethanae Curatoris, Opera,” edited by J. A. Fabricius, 1709. (The Works of Paul Colomiés of La Rochelle, Presbyter of the Anglican Church and Keeper of the Lambeth Library.) Some one having read the Latin title carelessly, a statement appeared that Colomiés had gone over to the Presbyterians, which was absurdly untrue.
His most valuable works are “Rome Protestante,” a collection of statements, involuntarily approving Protestant faith and practice, from Roman Catholic authors; and “Gallia Orientalis” (being a biographical dictionary of Frenchmen who have successfully studied Hebrew and other Oriental languages). He left unfinished a biographical work on Orientalists of other nations. The quarto volume contained all (or almost all) his original compositions. He edited the Correspondence of Isaac Vossius, and published it in a folio volume in 1690. He also published a series entitled Bibliothéque Choisie. His criticisms on authors were considered impartial and valuable. We are indebted to Notes and Queries (2nd. Series, vol. i., p. 5) for printing his Will, extracted from Rev. Peter Hamelot’s note-book:—
Moy Paul Colomiés, Rector d’Einsford en la Province de Kent, demeurant dans la ville de Londres, Paroisse de S. Martin-in-the Fields, sain d’esprit par la grace de Dieu, declare icy à tous mes frères que je meurs dans la foy de J. Chr. mon Sauveur qui m’a aimé et s’est donné soi-mêsme pour moy, et dans l’espérance que Dieu me fera miséricorde, recevant mon âme dans son Paradis, et ressuscitant mon corps au dernier jour, pour me faire jouir de la félicité eternelle que mon Sauveur J. Chr. m’a promise de sa part.
Après cela, je déclare à tous ceux qui peuvent avoir interêt à ma succession, que je fais et institue Monsr. Pierre Hamelot, mon cousin, fils de feu Jerome Hamelot mon cousin-germain, mon héritier universel de tous les biens qu’il a plu à Dieu de me prêter et donner en Angleterre; a condition toutefois qu’il aura soin de la sépulture de mon corps, que je désire ênterré dans la cimetière de l’Eglise parochiale du dit S. Martin, selon les coutumes de l’Eglise d’Angleterre; à condition aussi de payer à Monsr. Jacques Arnaud ce que je luy pourrai devoir, et qu’il payera aussi aux personnes dessons nommés les sommes cy-après et que je leur donne et legue. Scavoir:— Aux pauvres de la paroisse du dit Einsford la somme de cinq guinées, et pour les dits pauvres je verse sans cesse des prières à Dieu.
A Elie Hamelot, aussi mon cousin, la somme de douze guinées. A Monsr. René Cheneau, Ministre Refugié, mon cousin, la somme d’un cheling. A Marie Bouquet, ma parente, la somme de dix shilins. A Monsr. Charles de Seines,[1] Ministre Refugié, mon bon ami, la somme de six guinées. A Maitresse _____ Ferningham, pour les bons services qu’elle ma rendu, la somme de deux guinées. A Mlle. Elizabeth Harlington, pour les grands services qu’elle m’a aussi rendu à Lambeth, la somme de dix guinées. Au dit sr. Jacques Arnaudin, Mre. Chirugien, mon hôte, pour les bons offices que j’ay recu de luy, la somme de quatre guinées. Et a Mlle. Magdelaine Bongrain, pour reconnoissance de toutes les peines qu’elle a prises pour moy dans ma maladie, la somme de trois guinées.
Moyennant le payement desquelles dites sommes par moi présentement données et léguées aux personnes cy-devant nommées, le dit sr. Pierre Hamelot, mon cousin, demeurera paisible et légitime maitre et possesseur de tout le reste de mes dits biens à moi apartenant en Angleterre. Estant cecy ma disposition et ordonnance de dernière volonte, que j’ay dictées et fait écrire ce jourd’hui à Londres deux jours de Janvier 169½, et que j’ay signée de ma main et scellée de mon cachet en présence des témoins soussignés.
| Signé, scellé, et delivré a mon dit cousin Pierre Hamelot, le faisant mon Exécuteur Testamentaire en présence de | Braguier. Paul Vaillant. |
Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury by Peter Hamelott, clerk, 8th January 169½.
- ↑ Perhaps this legatee was Charles Le Cene.