Abbadie, Jacques

ABBADIE, ɑ̄´´bɑ̄´´dî´, JACQUES: Protestant apologist; b. at Nay (10 m. s. by e. of Pau), France, 1654 (?); d. at Marylebone, London, 1727. He studied in the French Reformed Church academies of Saumur and Sedan, and early showed much talent. On invitation of the elector of Brandenburg, he became pastor of the French Reformed congregation in Berlin in 1680; after the death of the elector (1688), he followed Marshal Schomberg to England; and became pastor of the French church in the Savoy, London, in 1689. In 1699 he was made dean of Killaloe, Ireland. His Traité de la vérité de la religion Chrétienne (vols. i. and ii., 3 Rotterdam, 1684; vol. iii., 1689: Eng. transl., 2 vols., London, 1694), became one of the standard apologetic works in French literature. Of his other works, L’Art de se connaître soi-même (Rotterdam, 1692), giving an outline of his moral system, attracted much attention and was warmly defended by Malebranche.

Bibliography: For full list of his writings, consult E. and E. Haag, La France protestante, i., s.v., Paris, 1846; for his life, the collection of his sermons, Amsterdam, 1760, iii., and D. C. A. Agnew, Protestant Exiles from France, pp. 223-228, Edinburgh, 1886; on his work, R. Elliott, The Consistent Protestant . . . with some observations on a treatise . . . by J. Abbadie, London, 1777, and M. Illaire, Étude sur J. Abbadie considéré comme prédicateur, Strasburg, 1858.