Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné
Encyclopedia
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Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Protestant minister
Minister of religion
In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
of the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
.
He was born at Eaux Vives, a neighbourhood of Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. A street in the area is named after him. The ancestors of his father Robert Merle d'Aubigné (1755–1799), were French Protestant refugees. Jean-Henri was destined by his parents to a commercial life; but at college he decided to be ordained. He was profoundly influenced by Robert Haldane
Robert Haldane
-Biography:Haldane was born in London, the son of James Haldane 2nd of Airthrey House, and his wife Katherine Duncan. His younger brother James Alexander Haldane was also a clergyman...
, the Scottish missionary and preacher who visited Geneva and became a leading light in Le Réveil.
When in 1817 he went abroad to further his education, Germany was about to celebrate the tercentenary of the Reformation; and thus early he conceived the ambition to write the history of that great epoch. Studying at Berlin University for 8 months 1817–1818 he received stimulus from teachers as diverse as J. A. W. Neander and W. M. L. de Wette.
In 1818, d'Aubigné took up the post of pastor of the French Protestant church at Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
where he served for five years. In 1823 he was called to become pastor of the Franco-German Brussels Protestant Church
Brussels Protestant Church
Brussels Protestant Church is a Brussels-based Protestant Christian congregation formally constituted in 1804 and whose roots go back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century....
and preacher to the court of William I of the Netherlands
William I of the Netherlands
William I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....
of the House of Orange-Nassau.
At the Belgian revolution
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
of 1830 he thought it advisable to undertake pastoral work at home rather than to accept an educational post in the family of the Dutch king. The Evangelical Society had been founded with the idea of promoting evangelical Christianity in Geneva and elsewhere, but it was found that there was also needed a theological school for the training of pastors. On his return to Switzerland, d'Aubigné was invited to become professor of church history in an institution of the kind, and continued to labor in the cause of evangelical Protestantism. In him the Evangelical Alliance found a hearty promoter. He frequently visited England, was made a D.C.L. v Oxford University, and received civic honors from the city of Edinburgh. He died suddenly in 1872.
The first portion of his Histoire de la Reformation, which was devoted to the earlier period of the movement in Germany, gave it at once a foremost place amongst modern French ecclestical historians, and was translated into most European tongues. The second portion, dealing with reform in the time of laustively treated, but it did not meet with the same success. It is part of the subject, with which he was most competent to tell, was all but completed at the time of his death. Among minor treatises, the most important are the vindication of character and aims of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, and the sketch of the trendings of the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
.
Works
His principal works are- Discours sur étude de l'histoire du christianisme (Geneva, 1832)
- Le Luthranisme et la Reforme (Paris, 1844)
- Germany, England and Scotland, or Recollections of a Swiss Pastor (London, 1848)
- Trois siècles de lutte en Ecosse, entre deux rois et deux royaumes; Le Protecteur ou la republique d'Angleterre aux jours de Cromwell (Paris, 1848)
- Le Concile et l'infaillibilité (1870)
- Histoire de la Reformation au XVIie sicle (Paris, 1835–1853; new ed:, 1861–1862, in 5 vols.)
- Histoire de la Reformation en Europe au temps de Calvin (8 vols., 1862–1877)
External links
- Histoire de la Réformation au XIV siècle
- L'ancien et le ministère
- Jean Calvin - un des fondateurs des libertés modernes
- Spark of Grace - A book about the Haldane Revival in which d'Aubigné features prominently