Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/288

 of Literature,” from 1725 to 1727, in six volumes. And finally, “A Literary Journal, or a Continuation of the Memoirs of Literature by the same author,” — this lasted during 1730 and 1731, and extended to three volumes. The third volume (which is the most interesting and contains the author’s own miscellaneous observations) begins in January 1731. In the opening advertisement he says, “If my readers knew the history of this Journal and what crosses and disappointments it has met with, they would pity me.” The concluding advertisement, June 1731, is in these words:— “My readers know that I print this Literary Journal upon my own account. I give them notice that it will be discontinued, till I have sold a certain number of my copies; and then I shall go on with it.”

 

Charles Le Cene was a native of Caen in Normandy, born in 1647. He studied for the ministry of the Protestant Church at Sedan, Geneva, and Saumur. He was ordained at Caen in 1672, and became the pasteur of Honfleur, where he officiated for ten years. In 1682 his talents procured for him the nomination to be one of the pasteurs of Charenton; but his admission was barred by an accusation of heterodoxy, and the case was not concluded at the date of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He then became a refugee in Holland, where he openly declared himself to be an Arminian. In 1684 he wrote a treatise on the theme that “man has the natural power to repent, to become virtuous, and to save himself.” In 1685 he produced a book “On conversion, free-will, and original sin, in connection with Le Clerc’s Essay on Predestination.” He visited England, but did not obtain a charge among the refugees, partly because he was suspected of Socinianism. Ultimately he took up his residence in London, where he died in 1703. In 1696 he issued a proposal for a new translation of the Bible into French [Projet d’une nouvelle version Françoise de la Bible]. His son, Michel Le Cene, probably inherited the manuscript of a new translation. He re-issued his father’s proposal, with the title, “An Essay for a New Translation of the Bible, shewing that there is a necessity for a new translation” (2d edition, London, 1727). He brought out the translation in 1741 at Amsterdam, in 2 vols, folio. The Synod of La Brille condemned this version, and called (unsuccessfully) upon the civil powers to suppress it. The Rev. B. H. Cowper says of Le Cene’s Bible, “It is justly charged with culpable inaccuracy and gross misrepresentation; it is perhaps one of the most remarkable perversions of the sacred text that has ever been made public.” (See Darling’s “Cyclopedia Bibliographica,” and Cowper’s “Memoir in the Imperial Dictionary of Biography.”)  

Among “Oxford Writers,” arranged “under their respective colleges,” who were alive in 1695, Anthony has noticed “John Henry Lusan, son of Henry.” The true surname is Lussan. Among the naturalizations on 4th April 1685, we find “John Henry Lussan” (see List xi.) The grandparents of this refugee were Jean de Lussan, apothecary at Orthez, and Jeanne de la Place, his wife. The father was Henri de Lussan of Paris, apothecary to the king for the Artillery, who married in 1653, Jeanne, daughter of the recently deceased Charenton pasteur, Edme Aubertin. The refugee, “born within the city of Paris, left his native country upon account of religion.” He obtained admission to Oxford University as a poor student or servitor in Pembroke College, “in 1687, aged seventeen years or more” (says Anthony a Wood; I conjecture that the year was 1684); he afterwards became a clerk of All-Soul’s College. He took the degree of B.A.; the dates are in some confusion; but perhaps it was in 1687 that he took his degree. As B.A. he was made Chaplain of New College; he obtained leave of absence to become tutor to a young Welsh gentleman of the name of Morgan. As a writer, he is known only by his translation of Abbadie’s great work on the Christian religion. This translation was published in London in 1694, dedicated to Dr. Henry Beeston, Warden of New College, Oxford. From the title-page we are unable to learn whether the refugee changed the spelling of his name; the title is, “A Vindication of the Truth of Christian Religion against the objections of all modern opposers, &c, &c, Render’d into English by H. L.” He is again met with in the year 1704, as the translator of Abbadis on the Divinity of Jesus Christ, published in London. 