Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/126

 was his idol; he also greatly admired Andrew Melville. I quote a part of his first letter to Melville, dated at Paris, 1601, (M‘Crie’s translation):— “The present epistle, learned Melville, is dictated by the purest and most sincere affection. Your piety and erudition are universally known, and have endeared your name to every good man and lover of letters I have always admired the saying of the ancients, that all good men are linked together by a sacred friendship, although often separated by many a mountain and many a town. . . . Permit me to make a complaint, which is common to me with all the lovers of learning who are acquainted with your rare erudition. We are satisfied that you have beside you a number of writings, especially on subjects connected with sacred literature, which, if communicated to the studious, would be of the greatest benefit to the Church of God. Why do you suppress them, and deny us the fruits of your wakeful hours? There are already too many, you will say, who burn with a desire to appear before the public. True, my learned Sir, we have many authors, but we have few or no Melvilles. Let me entreat you to make your appearance, and to act the part which Providence has assigned you in such a manner as that we also may share the benefit of your labours. Farewell, learned Melville, and henceforward reckon me in the number of your friends.” In 1603 Casaubon visited Geneva and was overjoyed to find Beza still alive to welcome him — “Theodore Beza! what a man I what piety! what learning! O truly great man!” (these are his expressions in his diary). The assassination of Henri IV. happened in 1610 (May 14); and it was during the consternation and perplexities incident on such a tragic and sudden catastrophe, that Casaubon accepted King James’ invitation, and arrived in London. He was made a Prebendary both of Canterbury and Westminster, and was allowed to hold those prebends without taking holy orders, and his maintenance was further provided for by a pension. As to the pension there is extant His Majesty’s Memorandum:— “Chancelor of my Excheker, I will have Mr Casaubon paid before me, my wife, and my barnes (23d Sept. 1612).” His friend, Andrew Melville, for resisting the introduction of Episcopacy into Scotland, was undergoing a four years’ imprisonment. Dr M‘Crie says, “The warm approbation of the constitution of the Church of England, which Casaubon expressed, and the countenance which he gave to the consecration of the Scottish prelates at Lambeth, were by no means agreeable to Melville. But notwithstanding this he received frequent visits from him in the Tower; and on these occasions they entertained and instructed one another with critical remarks on ancient authors, and especially on the Scriptures.” Casaubon has recorded his delight with an improved punctuation of I Tim. iii. 15, 16, of which Melville informed him:— “These things write I unto thee — that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God. The pillar and ground of the truth, and great without controversy, is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh,” &c. It is said that such society was Casaubon’s relief from the literary tasks set him by the king. “He (says M‘Crie) who had devoted his life to the cultivation of Grecian and Oriental literature, and who had edited and illustrated Strabo, Athenaeus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Polyaemus, and Polybius, was now condemned to drudge in replying to the Jesuit Fronto le Duc, correcting His Majesty’s answer to Cardinal Du Perron, refuting the annals of Cardinal Baronius, and writing letters to induce his illustrious friend De Thou to substitute King James’s narrative of the troubles of Scotland in the room of that which he had already published on the authority of Buchanan.” Under the year 1613 Anthony Wood notes:— “The most learned Isaac Casaubon was entered a student in Bodley’s Library as a member of Christ-Church in the month of May, but died soon after to the great loss of learning; he was a great linguist, a singular Grecian, and an excellent philologer.” The date of his death was 1st July 1614. He had married in 1587 at Geneva the daughter of Henry Stephanus, by whom he had twenty children. His son, Florence Etienne Meric Casaubon, known as Rev. Meric Casaubon, was born in Geneva, 14th Aug. 1599, and was educated at Sedan and Oxford. He became a student of Christ Church, M.A. in 1621, B.D. in 1628, and D.D. in 1636; he was Rector of Ickham and Prebendary of Canterbury; during the Commonwealth he was deprived, and refused all offers of