Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/140

 
 * 1) Philippe, born 5th August 1589.
 * 2) Jean [Joannes], born 1590. [He departed from the faith.]
 * 3) Abigail (died in 1596).
 * 4) Gentille, born 1596.
 * 5) Elisabeth, born in Montpellier, 1597.
 * 6) Jeanne [Joanna], born 1598.
 * 7) Meric, born in Geneva 1599. His sponsor was Meric de Vic, Governor of Calais, afterwards Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of France.
 * 8) Anne, born 2d November 1600.
 * 9) Paul, born 27th November 1602.
 * 10) Pierre[?], who married Sibelle Aikin. [See as to his son[?], extract from Threadneedle Street marriage register, 21st May 1673, in my Historical Introduction; see also my chap, xiii.]
 * 11) Charles, born 28th September 1607.
 * 12) Marie, born 4th October 1608.
 * 13) James (godson of His Majesty James I., after whom he was named), born 19th October 1612. [Ant. a Wood says — “18 Nov. 1641, James Casaubon of Exeter College was, by an Act, created M.A. — which is all I know of him, only that he studied for some time in that house for the sake of the rector, Dr. Prideaux, merely to advance himself in the knowledge of divinity.”] He died in Canterbury in 1665, and was buried in the Cathedral on March 6th.

Referring to No. 7 in the above list, I begin a memoir of Florence Etienne Meric Casaubon, known as the Reverend Meric Casaubon, D.D., who was born at Geneva on 24th August 1599. He was his father’s only companion on his journey to England. He had received his early education at Sedan. He completed his school education at Eton, and afterwards (in 1614) he went to Oxford. His father had a strong affection for that University. To quote the words of Dr. Samuel Parr, “He had sagacity enough to estimate all the aids and all the encouragements which Oxford then afforded to men of letters.” The only difficulty was the expensiveness of living there. "The prudence and parental affection of Isaac Casaubon impelled him to make enquiries upon the spot; from enquiries he proceeded to experiment; and by experiment he found that the stateliness of the buildings, the largeness of the public revenues, the hospitable living of the heads of houses, and the expenses of the more opulent academics, were not incompatible with the economical plan which he had formed for his son. . . . Instead of being sent, as the father intended to send him (if Oxford had been too expensive), to the care of that great scholar, Daniel Heinsius, Meric entered at Christ Church.”

His college tutor was Dr. Edward à Meetkirk, the king’s Professor of Hebrew; but he had hardly begun his studies at Oxford, when his father died. His mother survived, and her learned relatives gave him, we may be sure, both counsel and assistance. He became M.A. in 1621. It was in that year that he made his first appearance as an author in the filial task of vindicating his father’s character — “Pietas contra maledicos patrii nominis.” His next pamphlet, “Vindicatio patris,” though similar in its title page, had a much narrower range. I myself was imposed upon (and might have led my readers into the trap) by a pamphlet dated 1630, professing to be from Isaac Casaubon’s pen, or, as the title expressed it, “published in the name of ‘Casaubon,’ A.D. 1624 — called in (the same year), upon misinformation — but now (upon better consideration) reprinted with allowances;” the name of this publication was, “The Original of Popish Idolatry; or, the Birth of Heresy.” But I learned from Anthony a Wood’s pages that Meric Casaubon, in his “Vindicatio Patris,” dated 1624, gave true information that the pamphlet was a forgery, “full of impertinent allegations out of obscure and late authors whom his father never thought worthy the reading, much less the using their authority.”

In 1626, Meric Casaubon was formally naturalized as an English subject. He became B.D. in 1628, and became parson of Bledon, in Somersetshire, and in 1630, by command of King Charles I., he was made D.D. of Oxford. He was ultimately Rector of Ickham, in Kent (4 miles from Canterbury), and a Prebendary of Canterbury.

He used to mention several providential deliverances in his life. When a boy in Geneva, he was saved from death in the night-time, the house having taken fire. During his residence in Christ Church, Oxford, he recovered from a sickness, “when he was given over for a dead man.” He was upset in a boat on the Thames, and was buoyed up by his clerical coat, but the two watermen were drowned. The civil wars in England also brought troubles upon him, his jure divino royalist principles (enlivened by personal gratitude to the king) having secured his adherence to the despotic party as opposed to the parliamentary statesmen. Nevertheless, Oliver Cromwell was generously sensible of his worth. Casaubon, on account of the death of his wife, excused himself from an interview with Cromwell, who offered to be his literary patron, and to employ his pen in writing a chronicle of the late civil war;