Bochart, Samuel

BOCHART, bō´´shɑ̄r´, SAMUEL: French Protestant; b. at Rouen 1599; d. at Caen 1667. His father was the learned René Bochart, pastor at Rouen, and his mother Esther du Moulin. At the age of fourteen he made Greek verses in honor of his masters. He studied philosophy at Sédan, theology at Saumur under Cameron, whom he accompanied to London in 1621. He did not stay long, but soon returned to Leyden, where he took up theology and the study of the Arabic language under Erpenius. He was appointed Protestant minister at Caen, but gave private lessons in a Roman Catholic family. His controversy with the Jesuit Véron, in 1628, gave him a great name, and he edited an account of it (2 vols., Saumur, 1630) to refute Véron's teachings. In 1652 Queen Christina of Sweden wished his presence and he followed her call, accompanied by his pupil Huet, later bishop of Avranches. He remained in Stockholm one year, studying Arabic texts in the queen's library. Returning to Caen, he became the representative of Normandy at the National Calvinist Synod of Loudun. He died suddenly during a session of the academy at Caen. His works include Theses theologicæ de verbo Dei (Saumur, 1620); Actes de 208la conférence tenue à Caen entre Samuel Bochart et Jean Baillehache, ministres de la parole de Dieu en l’Église réformée . . . et François Véron (2 vols., 1630); Réponse à la lettre du père de la Barre, Jésuite, sur la présence réelle (1661); Hierozoïcon sive historia animalium S. Scripturæ (London, 1663); Opera omnia, hoc est, Phaleg, Canaan, et Hierozoïcon, quibus accessere variæ dissertationes (Leyden, 1675).

G. Bonet-Maury.

Bibliography: P. D. Huet, Les Origines de la ville de Caen, Rouen, 1706; Nicéron, Mémoires; W. R. Whittingham, The Life and Writings of S. Bochart, in Essays on Biblical Literature, London, 1829; Smith, Samuel Bochart, Caen, 1833; E. and É. Haag, La France protestante, ed. H. L. Bordier, vol. ii, Paris, 1879; KL, ii, 950–952.