Jacques Abbadie

ABBADIE, JACQUES (or JAMES), D.D.(1654?–1727), dean of Killaloe, preacher, and christian apologist, was born at Nay, near Pau, probably in 1654, although 1657 and 1658 have been given. There is some colour for the assertion of Mr. Smiles that he was ‘the scion of a distinguished Bearnese family;’ although it is probable that the poverty of his parents would have excluded him from a learned career if some of the leading protestants of the district had not charged themselves with the expenses of his education. This was commenced under M. Jean de la Placette, the minister of Nay, and prosecuted successively at Puylaurens, Saumur, and Sedan, where, as is generally said, he took the decree of D.D. at seventeen years of age. An obituary notice, however, which appeared in the ‘Daily Courant’ for 5 Oct. 1727, says: ‘He was not above twenty-two when he undertook of himself his admirable treatise on the “Truth of the Christian Religion.” A few years later he took, with vast applause, his degree of doctor in divinity in the university of Sedan, and about the same year he was sent for by his electoral highness, Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, to be minister of the French church at Berlin.’ The electoral summons found Abbadie at Paris, whither he had repaired to study the masters of protestant eloquence, and it was conveyed through the Count d'Espense, who had been commissioned by his master to make the selection.

The congregation of refugees, small enough at first to be accommodated in an apartment of the Count d'Espense's residence, was augmented gradually by the zeal of the preacher, and by the increased emigration to Brandenburg, caused by the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. The elector ordered the ancient chapel of his palace to be prepared for the congregation, and the services were frequently attended by the younger members of his family. Abbadie's arrival in Berlin has been variously assigned to the years 1680 and 1681. During seven or eight years he used his increasing favour with the elector to relieve the distress of the refugees from France, and especially from his native province of Bearn.

Among the earliest literary ventures of Abbadie were four ‘Sermons sur divers Textes de l'Ecriture,’ 4to, Leyde, 1680; ‘Réflexions sur la Présence réelle du Corps de Jésus-Christ dans l'Eucharistie,’ 12mo, La Haye, 1685; and two highly adulatory addresses on persons in high stations, entitled respectively ‘Panégyrique de Monseigneur l'Electeur de Brandebourg,’ 1684, 4to and 8vo, Berlin and Rotterdam; and ‘Panégyrique de Marie Stuart, Reine d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, de France, et d'Irlande, de glorieuse et immortelle memoire, décédée à Kensington le 28 décembre 1694,’ 8vo, Amsterdam, 1695, also published in England as ‘A Panegyric on our late Sovereign Lady,’ 4to, London, 1695. These four productions, with other occasional sermons, were in 1760 republished collectively, in three 8vo volumes, at Amsterdam, and preceded by an ‘Essai historique sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. Abbadie.’ The pamphlet on the Eucharist was also reprinted at Toulouse, in 1835, under the title of ‘Quatre Lettres sur la Transsubstantiation,’ and appeared in an English translation, by Mr. John W. Hamersley, as the ‘Chemical Change in the Eucharist,’ 4to, London, 1867.

Abbadie's residence at Berlin was varied by several visits which he paid to Holland in 1684, 1686, and 1688, chiefly for the purpose of superintending the printing of several of his works. One of the most [ 16 ] important of them he had already contemplated at Paris; it bore the title of ‘Traité de la Vérité de la Religion chrétienne,’ 2 vols. 8vo, Rotterdam, 1684. The book went through a vast number of editions and was translated into several languages, an English version, by Henry Lussan, appearing in 1694. Completed by a third volume, the ‘Traité de la Divinité de Nôtre Seigneur Jésus-Christ,’ it appeared at Rotterdam, 1689, seventh edition, Amsterdam, 1729. An English translation, entitled ‘A Sovereign Antidote against Arian Poyson,’ 12mo, appeared in London, 1719, and again ‘revised, corrected, and, in a few places, abridged, by Abraham Booth,’ under the title of ‘The Deity of Jesus Christ essential to the Christian Religion,’ 8vo, London, 1777. The entire apology for Christianity formed by the three volumes of the ‘Traité,’ which combated severally the heresies of atheism, deism, and Socinianism, was received with unanimous praise by protestants and catholics. Abbadie continued to occupy his pastorate at Berlin until the death of the great elector, which took place 29 April 1688. He then accepted the invitation of Marshal Schomberg to accompany him to Holland and England, and in the autumn of 1689 he went to Ireland with the marshal. It was in the Irish camp that Abbadie commenced one of his most successful works, which was published at Rotterdam in 1692, as ‘L'Art de se connoître soi-même; ou, La Recherche des Sources de la Morale,’ 8vo, and went through many editions and amplifications. Translations of this work into other languages include a popular English version by the Rev. Thomas Woodcock, ‘The Art of Knowing One-self,’ 12mo, Oxford, 1694.

After the battle of the Boyne, Abbadie repaired to London, where he was presently appointed minister of the French church in the Savoy, which had been founded about the year 1641. Abbadie subsequently published a revised version of the French translation of the English liturgy used at this church, with an epistle dedicatory to King George I. Abbadie's sermons have been variously judged. He was often appointed to deliver occasional discourses, both in London and Dublin, but his want of facility in English prevented his preferment in England, and also excluded him from the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin, to which William III wished to promote him. Abbadie's health suffered from devotion to his duties in the Savoy, and from the climate of this country. He therefore settled in Ireland, and in 1699 the deanery of Killaloe was conferred upon him by the king, whose special favour he had attracted by a spirited vindication of the Revolution of 1688, ‘Défense de la Nation Britannique,’ 12mo, La Haye, 1693, written in answer to Bayle's ‘Avis important aux Réfugiés,’ 1690, and by the funeral oration on Queen Mary (Cotton, Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, i. 412; Dwyer, Diocese of Killaloe, 8vo, Dublin, 1878). Abbadie had also written, at the request of the king, ‘Histoire de la dernière Conspiration d'Angleterre,’ 8vo, London, 1696, which was reprinted in Holland and translated into English, and for which the Earl of Portland and Secretary Sir William Trumbull placed original documents at the author's disposal. It was this work, now extremely scarce, that chiefly helped Abbadie's preferment. After its production, ‘his majesty sent him to Ireland, with an order to the lords justices to confer upon him some dignity in the church, which order was complied with by his promotion to the deanery of Killalow’ (Daily Courant, 5 Oct. 1727).

The remainder of Abbadie's life was spent in writing, preaching, and in the performance — not too sedulous, for he was frequently absent from his benefice — of the ordinary duties of his office, varied by visits to England and to Holland, where most of his books were printed. Amongst his productions of this period the principal was entitled ‘La Vérité de la Religion Chrétienne Réformée, 2 vols. 8vo, Rotterdam, 1717, second edition 1718, a controversial treatise which in its four parts attacks the characteristic doctrines of the Romish church; it was translated into English, for the use of the Roman catholics of his diocese of Dromore, by Dr. Ralph Lambert, afterwards bishop of Meath. The work was completed in 1723 in ‘Le Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion; ou, l'Ouverture des sept Seaux par le Fils de Dieu, où l'on trouvera la première partie de l'Apocalypse clairement expliquée par ce qu'il y a de plus connu dans l'Histoire et de moins contesté dans la Parole de Dieu. Avec une nouvelle et très-sensible Démonstration de la Vérité de la Religion Chrétienne,’ 4 vols. 12mo, Amsterdam. Abbadie visited Holland to see ‘La Vérité’ through the press; and afterwards stayed more than three years at Amsterdam, 1720–23, during the preparation of ‘Le Triomphe’ and other works. He returned to Ireland in 1723. Abbadie's income as dean of Killaloe was so small that he could not afford a literary amanuensis; and Dr. Boulter, archbishop of Armagh, having appealed in vain to Lord Carteret, the lord lieutenant, on Abbadie's behalf, gave him a letter of introduction to Dr. Edmund Gibson, bishop of London, and Abbadie left Ireland. He established himself at Marylebone, [ 17 ] where be devoted much time and care to the revision of his printed works for a complete edition in four volumes, in which were also to be included two unpublished treatises, ‘Nouvelle Manière de prouver l'Immortalité de l'Ame,’ and ‘Notes sur le Commentaire philosophique de M. Bayle.’ Relying upon a remarkable memory, he put off writing until copy was demanded by the printer. These two treatises were thus unfinished, and no trace of them could be found after his death. He died at his lodging at Marylebone on Monday, 25 Sept. 1727, in the 74th year of his age (Daily Courant, 5 Oct. 1727; Daily Post, 6 Oct. 1727; Historical Register, 1727).

References

Niceron's Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Hommes illustres dans la République des Lettres, vol. xxxiii.; Essai historique, prefixed to Sermons et Panégyriques, 1760; Burn's History of the French, Walloon, Dutch, and other Foreign Protestant Refugees settled in England, 8vo, London, 1846; MM. Haag's La France Protestante; Illaire's Etude sur Jacques Abbadie considéré comme Prédicateur, 8vo. Strasburg, 1858; Weiss's History of the French Protestant Refugees, 1854; Agnew's Protestant Exiles from France in the reign of Louis XIV, 2nd edition, 1871–74.

This article is based on the Dictionary of National Biography