Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/131

 In 1600 he published a volume of sermons entitled “Les Funerailles de Sodome et de ses filles, descriptes en vingt Sermons sur l’Histoire de Moyse en Genese, chapitre, 18 et 19.” To this volume was added the thanksgiving sermon on Psalm xxxiv. In 1603 he was named among the divines appointed by the National Synod of Gap to consult and correspond concerning union with the Lutherans.

We meet him once more in the year 1604. the year of Bishop Vaughan’s promotion to the See of London. On that year Mr. de la Fontaine made a Latin speech to the former Bishop (Bancroft), who had received his appointment to Canterbury, and another to the new Bishop. The latter speech is interesting, as narrating the fact that on the accession of Elizabeth, the office of Superintendent of Foreign Churches, which had been held by John a Lasco, was given to John Utenhove, who held it till his death. It was after that event that Bishop Grindal was requested to become Patron and Superintendent, and he having accepted the charge with the Queen’s permission, it devolved by custom on the Bishop of London, ex officio. Bishop Vaughan, in reply, eulogised John a Lasco as vir praestantissimus, ornatus multis dotibus animi et ingenii, and acknowledged the good services to religion and to the state, rendered by the Foreign Churches, with which he had been acquainted for a quarter of a century. He expressed regret at the internal dissensions in the Church of England, and concluded by apologising for his latinity, his speech being ex tempore. Mr. de la Fontaine replied briefly (in Latin), that as refugees they could not interfere in English ecclesiastical affairs, but that they would entertain any suggestion for the promotion of peace in the Church, an end for which they would even lay down their lives. A letter (formerly described) proves that in February 1606 he had as colleagues Messieurs Aaron Cappel and Nathaniel Marie.

In 1610 the bookseller, “Richard Field, demeurant aux Black-Frieres,” published a new edition of “Les Funerailles de Sodome,” “livre grandement utile et necessaire pour appendre à bien et sainetement vivre.” Although it is described as “ceste derniere impression,” there is no indication of the author being deceased at that date.

The Messieurs Haag state that De la Fontaine had several children who settled in England. His eldest son removed to France, and continued the family as a French Protestant one. He was known as Louis Le Maçon, Sieur de la Fontaine et d’Ancerville, conseiller du roi et tresorier de la gendarmerie écossaise.  

Pasteur Jean Castol of the City of London French Church was installed, probably in 1579, and as De Villiers’ successor. He was a zealous minister and an influential man at Court. In 1583 the learned Scottish divine, Andrew Melville, had recourse to him to contradict false reports and insinuations regarding the Presbyterians; Melville’s Letter to Castol is still preserved; Dr. M‘Crie informs us that it is in the Cotton MSS., Calig. C. IX., 59. Strype frequently mentions Castol, and calls him “a discreet and learned man,” — “a knowing person, who had considerable intelligence from abroad, and especially from France.” I have already given the substance of his letter to the Lord Treasurer in 1591, representing that the more wealthy members of his congregation had gone to the army of Henri IV. at their own expense, and that the poorer- men, if able-bodied, had been provided with the means of joining that royal army; thus he demonstrated that no contribution could be sent for the equipment of the English auxiliary forces destined to fight under the same standard. The letter, “so piously and judiciously expressed,” is printed at full length in the original Latin in Strype’s Life of Whitgift, Book IV., Appendix No. XIII. It concludes thus:—

“Ista sunt, amplissime Domine, quae mihi de nostro coetu nimis, et magno cum dolore meo, comperta sunt, et de quibus Dignitatem tuam ad vitandam omnem offensionem certiorem factam velim. Ut finem dicendi faciam, magni beneficii loco repono quod tantum et tarn praestantem monitorem habemus qui nos ad Christianas charitatis obsequium provocare dignetur; sed quoniam summa est tenuitas, et opes non suppetunt, sequitatem ac moderationem tuam e nostro nomine omnem sordium et tenacitatis labem abstersuram spero. Vale, Honoratissime Vir. Deus te, superstite augustissima Regina, diu incolumem servet et omni benedictionum genere locupletet. Datum, Londini, 19 December 1591.

The writer had declared his belief that King Henri’s contest was “pro Dei