Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 16 - Section VII
VI. Rev. Isaac Dubourdieu.
The Rev. Isaac Dubourdieu was born about 1597. He was senior pastor of Montpellier, but persecuting laws condemned both him and his church. Mr. Baynes (“Life of Brousson,” p. 219), says, “Upon judgment being given against Du Bourdieu, sen., by the parliament of Toulouse in 1682, he absconded and repaired to London.” In 1688 an author writes (“Apologie des Refugies,” pp. 98-100), “Among ministers, the good man, M. Du Bourdieu, the father, holds a primary rank. You know that he was one of the best heads of our French presbytery. What he was in Montpellier, that he is in London — wise, laborious, and entirely devoted to the welfare of the Refugee church, which he instructs by his frequent preaching.” In 1684 was published “A Discourse of Obedience unto Kings and Magistrates upon the Anniversary of His Majesties Birth and Restauration. By Isaac Du Bourdieu, D.D., one of the ministers of the French church in the Savoy, the 29th May 1684.” The English translation was dedicated to Henry Savile. An Appendix contains lists of names, &c, connected with the persecutions in France. One outrage was the demolition of the author’s church. On that event two rival epigrams (translated by Isaac Watts D.D.) were written. First, a Jesuit sang:—
“A Hug’nots’ Temple, at Montpellier built,
Stood, and proclaimed their madness and their guilt;
Too long it stood beneath heav’n’s angry frown,
Worthy, when rising, to be thundered down.
Louis, at last, the avenger of the skies,
Commands, and level with the ground it lies.
The stones dispersed, a wretched offspring come,
Gather, and heap them on their fathers’ tomb.
Thus a curs’d house falls on the builder’s head.
Although beneath the ground their bones are laid,
Yet the just vengeance still pursues the guilty dead.”
A French Protestant replied : —
“A Christian Church once at Montpellier stood,
And nobly spoke the builders’ zeal for God.
It stood, the envy of the fierce dragoon,
And not deserved to be removed so soon.
Yet Louis, the vile tyrant of the age,
Tears down the walls, doom’d by malignant rage.
Young faithful hands pile up the sacred stones
(Dear monument!) over their fathers’ bones.
The stones shall move when the dead fathers rise,
Start up before the pale destroyer’s eyes,
And testify his madness to th’ avenging skies.”
It was of Dr. Isaac Du Bourdieu that Quick wrote in 1692: “This reverend and ancient servant of the Lord Jesus resides in London, and preacheth, though 95 years old.” At last he died, and was buried within the Savoy chapel.