Jacques Basnage De Beauval (8 August 165322 December 1723) was a celebrated French Protestant divine, preacher, linguist, writer and man of affairs. He wrote a ''History of the Reformed Churches'' and on ''Jewish Antiquities''.

Biography

Jacques Basnage was born at Rouen in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, the eldest son of the eminent lawyer Henri Basnage de Franquesnay. He studied classical languages at Saumur and afterwards

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

. He was pastor at Rouen from 1676 till 1685, when, on the revocation of the

edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aimed pr ...

, he obtained leave of the king to retire to Holland. He settled at

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

as a minister pensionary till 1691, when he was chosen pastor of the Walloon church. In 1709 the grand pensionary

Anthonie Heinsius Anthonie (or Antonius) Heinsius (23 November 1641, Delft – 3 August 1720, The Hague) was a Dutch statesman who served as Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1689 to his death in 1720. Life Heinsius was born at Delft on 23 November 1641, son o ...

(1641–1720) secured his election as one of the pastors of the Walloon church at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, intending to employ him mainly in civil affairs. Accordingly, he was engaged in a secret negotiation with Marshal d'Uxelles, plenipotentiary of France at the

congress of Utrecht A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. He was then entrusted with several further important commissions. In 1716 Dubois, who was at the Hague at the instance of the regent Orleans, for the purpose of negotiating the Triple Alliance between France, Great Britain and Holland, sought the advice of Basnage, who, in spite of the fact that he had failed to receive permission to return to France on a short visit the year before, did his best to further the negotiations. The French government also turned to him for help in view of the threatened rising in the Cevennes. Basnage had welcomed the revival of the Protestant church by the zeal of Antoine Court. He assured the regent that no danger of active resistance was to be feared from it. True to the principles of

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...

, he denounced the rebellion of the

Camisards Camisards were Huguenots (French Protestants) of the rugged and isolated Cévennes region and the neighbouring Vaunage in southern France. In the early 1700s, they raised a resistance against the persecutions which followed Louis XIV's Revocation ...

in his ''Instructions pastorales aux Réformés de France sur l'obéissance due aux souverains'' (1720), which was printed by order of the court and scattered broadcast in the south of France.

Works

His works include several dogmatic and polemical treatises, but the most important are the historical. Of these may be mentioned ''Histoire de la religion des églises reformées'' (Rotterdam, 1690), the ''Histoire de l'église depuis Jésus-Christ jusqu'à présent'' (ib. 1699)—both of them written from the point of view of Protestant polemics—and, of greater scientific value, the ''Histoire des Juifs'' (Rotterdam, 1706, Eng. trans. 1708) and the ''Antiquités judaiques ou remarques critiques sur la république des Hébreux'' (1713). He also wrote short explanatory introductions and notes to a collection of copper-plate engravings, much valued by connoisseurs, called ''Histoires du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament, représentées par des figures gravées en taille-douce par R. de Hooge'' (Amsterdam, 1704). He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1697.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Basnage, Jacques 1653 births 1723 deaths Basagnes, Jacques Basagnes, Jacques Fellows of the Royal Society French historians of religion 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 18th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Writers from Rouen