Merle D'Aubigne, Jean Henri

MERLE D'AUBIGNE, mkrl do"bf"ny6', JEAN HENRI: Swiss Protestant; b., of French family exiled during the religious disturbances, at Esua

Vives (now a part of Geneva) Aug. 16, 1794; d. at Geneva Oct. 21, 1872. His father, though a citizen of Geneva, was a merchant in Marseilles, and it was intended that the son should follow a like career; but a strong personal inclination led

Life. the latter to the ministry. He was a student at the University of Geneva when the religious movement known as "the Awakening" (le rwvil) began, and in 1816, when the pastors of the city were accused of rejecting the divinity of Christ, he led his fellow students in a public expression of confidence in their spiritual superiors. Early in the following year, however, he came fully under the influence of Robert Haldane (q.v.), the leading spirit of the awakening. It was not without hesitation that he subscribed to the edict issued by the Venerable Company of Pastors

May 3, 1817, forbidding preachers to speak in the pulpit on doctrines in dispute (see Malan, Cesar Henri Abrabam); but the edict was interpreted liberally, and Merle d'Aubign6 was ordained July 3, 1817. He almost immediately went to Germany, where he busied himself with literary studies, translating Arjosto and Schiller, and intending to devote his life to literature. But the celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation at Eisenach in October gave his ambition a new direction and suggested to him the idea of writing an exhaustive history of the Reformation. He went to Berlin, heard Schleiermacher, DeWette, and Neander, and became the warm friend of Neander, whose influence remained with him permanently. Appointed pastor of the Re formed congregation in Hamburg in 1818 and court preacher in Brussels in 1824, he exercised great influence in both places, although opposition in Hamburg at one time induced the consistory to attempt to secure his recall. The revolution of 1830 drove him from Belgium. He was offered a professorship at Montauban and a church in Paris, but, although it involved some pecuniary sacrifice, decided to return to his native city. The Evange~

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ical Society of Geneva (q.v.) had been formed dur ing his absence, and for the rest of his life he labored as professor in the theological school which it founded, lecturing chiefly on church history and doctrine, but also on symbolics, homiletics, catechet ics, ecclesiology, and pastoral duties. In 1832 he founded the weekly Gazette 6cangglique and, with Gaussen and Galland, he preached for the congrega tion of the Society in the Chapelle de 1'Oratoire. The Genevan Church naturally looked with suspicion on the new society, and the Company of Pastors forbade the pulpit to Merle d'Aubignti and his associates. The former had Christian unity deeply at heart, but he felt that he could not allow any external authority to interfere with his office as a preacher of the Gospel. So, reluctantly and under compulsion, as he believed, in 1835 he consented that the Lord's Supper should be administered in the Oratoire, thereby making the congregation independent of the State Church. The final step was taken in 1849 when the Oratoire was united with the old separated church of the B;,ug and the Evangelical Church ('gliee hvangllique) was formed. Two years later, when changes in the constitution of the national church were under consideration, he published La Libert6 des cultes (Geneva, 1851; Eng. transl., The Separation of Church and State, published by the British Anti State Church Association, London, 1851) and other tracts, demanding more power for the laity and that the congregations should have a voice in the choice of pastors, and herein his plea was successful. His contention that the constitution should not emanate from a political body which counted Roman Catholics among its members, but from a synod representing the Protestant citizens was not listened to. His view of the proper relations of Church and State did not exclude all power of the latter in certain external and secular matters. He would not have the Church receive its material support from the State; nor would he have a hard and fast compact, but an understand ing limiting the sphere of each by mutual agree ment. Concerning the form of church government, he held the presbyterial most Scriptural; but re fused to condemn Episcopalians or Congregational ists because of their preference. The first volume of the history of the Reforma tion appeared in 1835, the thirteenth and last in 1878 (the last three volumes published posthu mously). The entire work comprises two parts, the first (la Reformation du seizi~me aikcle, Writings. 5 vols., Paris, 1835-53; Eng. transl. by D. Walther, 3 vols., London, 1838 1841, by H. White, 5 vols., Edinburgh, 1846-53, and others) treating of the time of Luther, about whom are grouped Zwingli and Farel in Switzer land and the predecessors of the Reformation in France and England (vol. v.=La Réformation d'Anr gleterre). In the second part (La Reformation en Europe au temps de Calvin, 8 vols., Paris, 1863-78; Eng. transl., 8 vols., London, 1863-78) Geneva is made the central point of the narrative. The author's chief merit is the patient search for the sources and penetrating study of them. He writes with zeal and learning, earnestness, and charm of

style. His defects are an inclination toward pathos, and such a use of the sources as results in a partizan and prejudiced coloring of the narrative. The work appeared at a favorable time, and its success was remarkable, particularly in Englishspeaking lands.

The more noteworthy of Merle d'Aubign6's other publications, omitting numerous occasional sermons, are the following: Le Cult domeatique (Paris, 1827; Eng. transl. London, 1846); Le Christianisme et Is Protestantisme, sonE-ila deux ckosaa distinctesf (Paris, 1828); Diacours sur 1'6tude de L'Aietoire du Christianisme (Geneva, 1832); La Voix de liglise une eous toutes les formes successives (Geneva, 1834); Foi et science (Geneva, 1835); Les Miracles ou deux erreurs (Geneva, 1840); Gentve et Oxford (Geneva, 1842; Eng. transl., London, 1843); Le Lutheranism et la Réforme (Geneva, 1844; Eng transl., Luther and Calvin, Glasgow, 1844); Rome and the Reformation (London, 1844); Le Protecteur ou la république d'Anpleterre aux fours de Cromwell (Paris, 1848; Eng. transl., Edinburgh, 1847), a somewhat overdrawn apology for the English leader; Trois sitciee de luner en -0cosse (Geneva, 1850), a narrative of the struggle for religious liberty in Scotland from John Knox to the founding of the Free Church in 1843; L'Authorit6 des Ocritures inspire de Dieu (Geneva, 1850); Le Tdmoinape de la th6ologie ou is biblicism de N6ander (Geneva, 1850); Deux discours prononcia d Londree, exposition universelle (London, 1851); Quells est la théologie propre h puhir les mauz du temps actuel f (Geneva, 1852; Eng. transl., What is the Theology Fitted to Cure the Evils of the Present Time? Glasgow, 1853); L'1gliae et la dipte de fiyliee (Berlin, 1853; Eng. transl., The Church and as Church Diet (London, 1854); Du caracti!re n&essaire au thhologien et au chritien dans l'6poque actuelle (Paris, 1845); Faith and Criticism

Address Delivered at the Opening of the Presbyterian College, Belfast (Belfast, 1853; French ed., Geneva, 1854); Jean Chrysost6m (Geneva, 1854); Souvenir des derniers joure de Marianne Merle d'Aubipng nie Br6laz, his first wife (Geneva, 1855); L'Ancien et Is minisere (Paris, 1857); L'AssembMe de Berlin ou unit6 et diversiM dance 1'Eglise (Geneva, 1857); L'Orient ou Orip&e et la science-L'Occuknt ou Cyprien et la pratique (Geneva, 1857; Eng. transl. in Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Edinburgh, 1858); Vie et doctrine (Geneva, 1858); ll y a un minietre de la parole (Paris, 1858); La Pierre our kguelle l'Aead6mie de Gentve fert pos6e en Juin, 1668 (Geneva, 1859); Le R6veil de 1'6ylim contemporaine (Toulouse, 1860); Septembre, 1881, ou 1'Al_ licence Evanpglique h Genhe (Geneva, 1861); Caractisre du Rformateur et de la Réformation du Genive (Geneva, 1862); Enseignemnt de Calvin: plortfler Christ, address at the three-hundredth anniversary of Calvin's death (Geneva, 1864; Eng. transl., Calvin's Teaching for the Present Day, London, 1864); Les Coups et les enseignemnta de Dieu (Geneva, 1865); L'Expiation de la croix (Geneva, 1867; Eng. transl., The Expiatory Sacrifice of the Cross, London, 1868); Jean Calvin un de fondateurs des liberms modernes (Geneva, 1868); Le Comit6 et 1'infallibilitU (Geneva, 1870).

(Duchemin.)

Bibliography: J. Bonnet, Notice our la vie et let 6crita de Merle d'Aubipnd, Paris, 1874.