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ISAAC    CASAUBON 


1559-1614 


0    DOCTIORUM    QUICQUJD    EST    ASSURGITE 
HUIC    TAM    COLENDO     NOMINI ! 


BY 

MA  RK       PATTISON 

RECTOR    OP    LINCOLN    COLLEGE 


LONDON 

LONGMANS,     GREEN,     AND     CO. 
1875 

[All  rights  reserved] 


OXFORD: 

BY     E.    PICKARD     HALL     AND   J.    H.    STACY, 

PRINTERS  TO  THE  UNIVERSITY. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

1.  PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     1559  — 1578    ...         3 

2.  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596 8 

3.  MONTPELLIER.      1596 — 1599           ...  .84 

4.  PARIS.     1600—1610 149 

5.  LONDON.     1610  —  1614 294 

6.  CASAUBON  AND  BARONIUS'  CHURCH  HISTORY         .         .     362 

7.  LONDON,  ELY,  AND  CAMBRIDGE.     1610 — 1614         .         .     384 

8.  OXFORD  VISIT.     1613 397 

9.  LONDON.     1610 — 1614,  continued 419 

10.  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH,  AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614        .     463 

11.  INDEX  or  CASAUBON'S  WORKS  IN  CHRONOLOGICAL  ORDER    534 


TOV  8'   OVT    ap   %eip.(i)v   /cpuoeif,    OVK   opfipos   a.TTtlp<t>v, 
ov  <p\b£  r)f\ioto  fia/xa^erai,   ov   voaos  alvr), 
OVK   eporis   drjpov    evapel  p,evos,   aXX'    oy    aTfipfjs 
TfTorai   vvKras  re   KOI  rjpap. 


THE  sources  for  the  biography  of  Isaac  Casaubon 
are  unusually  numerous  and  detailed.  Indeed,  no  other 
personage,  eminent  in  letters,  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
can  be  mentioned,  for  whose  history  there  exist  materials 
equally  rich. 

These  sources  are  partly  manuscript,  partly  printed. 

i.  MSS. 

1 .  ADVEES. — Sixty  volumes  of  Adversaria  preserved  in  the  Bod- 

leian Library. 

2.  BUENEY  MSS. — Seven  volumes  of  letters  addressed  to  Casau- 

bon by  his  numerous  correspondents;  preserved  in  the 
Burney  collection  in  the  British  Museum. 

3.  BIBL.  NAT. — The  National  Library  in  Paris  contains:   (i)  The 

series  of  letters  from  Casaubon  to  de  Thou,  some  confi- 
dential portions  of  which  were  omitted  purposely  in  Van 
Almeloveen's  edition.  (2)  Two  independent  sets  of  notes, 
taken  by  hearers,  of  his  lectures  on  Herodotus.  (3)  Other 
notes  on  the  Anthology,  etc. 

4.  GENEVA  MSS. — The  archives  of  the  city  of  Geneva  contain : 

(i)  The  register  of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages.  (2)  The 
minute  books  of  the  Petit  conseil.  The  city  of  Geneva  has 
had  the  singular  good  fortune  of  never  having  been  taken, 
sacked,  or  burnt.  The  series  of  order  books  of  the  Coun- 
cil is  complete.  For  the  period  of  Casaubon's  residence 
these  books  form  our  principal  authority.  The  entries 
relating  to  the  Academy  and  its  professors  are  not  nu- 
merous, but  they  are  significant,  and  enable  us  to  form 
a  tolerably  accurate  conception  of  Casaubon's  position, 
B 


occupations,  and  share  in  the  general  misery  of  the  citizens 
of  Geneva.  I  take  this  opportunity  of  acknowledging  my 
great  obligations  to  M.  Theophile  Dufour,  who  not  only 
guided  my  researches  in  this  register,  but  most  hand- 
somely put  into  my  hands  the  whole  of  the  extracts  from 
it,  which  he  had  himself  made  with  a  view  to  illustrate 
the  history  of  Casaubon. 

2.  PRINTED  DOCUMENTS. 

EpH.=Ephemerides    Isaaci    Casauboni,   ed.  J.   Russell,   2  vols. 
8vo,  Oxon.  e  Typographeo  Academico,  1850. 

Of  this  diary  a  full  account  will  be  given  in  the  course 
of  the  narrative. 

EP.  =  Isaaci  Casauboni  Epistolae  cur.  Th.  Janson  ab  Almeloveen, 
fol.  Rot.  1709. 

This  volume  contains  mo  letters  written  by  Casaubon 
to  his  friends  and  correspondents,  and  50  replies  by  them. 
MER.  CAS.  PiETAS  =  Merici  Casauboni  .  .  .  Pietas  contra  male- 
dicos  patrii  nominis,  4to,  Lond.  16,  also  reprinted  in  the 
volume  of  Epistolse  1709. 

BURH.  SYLL.  =  Sylloge  Epistolarum  aviris  illustribus  scriptarum, 
etc.,  5  vols.  4to,  Leid.  1727. 

Single  letters  of  Casaubon  are  to  be  found  scattered  about 
in  various  published  volumes  of  correspondence.     The  valu- 
able series  of  Scaliger's  letters  to  Casaubon  is  printed  in 
SCAL.  Ep.  =  Scaligeri  Epistolae,  8vo,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1627. 
BULL.  Soc.  DE  L'HIST.  PHOT.  =  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  1'Histoire 

Protestante  de  la  France,  17  vols.  8vo. 

MEM.  Soc.  GEN.  =  Memoires  et  Documens  publics  par  la  Societe 
d'Histoire  et  Archeologie  de  Geneve,  18  vols.  8vo. 

Both  these  series  contain  original  documents  which  are 
of  use  in  completing  our  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Protestants  in  the  latter  end  of  the  i6th  century. 

=  Fragmens  biographiques  et  historiques  extraits  des 
Registres  du  Conseil  d'Etat  de  la  Republique  de  Geneve  des 
1535  a  1792,  Gen.  1815. 

Other  references  will  probably  be  sufficiently  full  to  ex- 
plain themselves. 


1. 

PARENTAGE    AND    EDUCATION. 

1559— 1578. 

ISAAC  CASAUBON  was  born  at  Geneva,  February  18, 
(8  o.  s.),  1559,  being  thus  younger  than  Joseph  Scaliger 
by  eighteen  years. 

He  was  the  son  of  Arnold  Casaubon  and  Jehanne 
Mergine  (nee)  Kousseau1.  They  were  emigrants  who 
had  to  fly  for  their  lives  from  Gascony2,  where  Arnold 

1  Geneva   MSS.  Reg.   de   baptesmes :    '  Ce  i  o  febvrier  fut  baptist 
Isaac  fils  de  Arnaud  Casaubon   et   de    Mergine    sa    femme  presents' 
par  Francois  Hklase'res  (Eglise  de  St.  Gervais).'      But  tbe  certificate 
of  this  entry  in  Advers.   9.  415  has  Mewgine,  and  the  entry  of  the 
baptism  of  Sara,  December  8,  1556,  gives  Mtwgine.     It  would  seem 
that  there  was,  at  the  time,  a  difficulty  in  catching  the  exact  sound 
of  this  very  unusual  name.      Meric,  however,  on  the  first  page  of  the 
Ephemerides,  has  written  it  Mergine,  which  Dr.  Russell  transformed 
into  'meusnie.' 

2  Ep.  453  :    '  Je  riasquis  1'an  1559,  8  Fevrier  dans  Geneve,  ou  mes 
bons  pere  et  mere  s'e"toient  retirez  de  Gascongne,  ayant  failli  d'estre 
bruslez  a  Bourtleaux.'     Cf.  ep.  879  :  'ex  Aquitania.'     Notwithstanding 
these  explicit  passages,  M.  Nisard  (Triumvirat  Litt.  p.  310),  and  the 
biographical  compilations  generally,  make  Arnold  Casaubon  fly  from 
Bourdeaux  in  Dauphine".     The  source  of  the  error  is  the  Latin  life 
by  the  usually  accurate  Van  Almeloveen,  prefixed  to  his  Epistolae  1709. 
Isaac's  own  statement,  sufficiently  explicit,  is  confirmed  by  the  '  Registre 
d'habitation,'  Geneva  MSS.,  in  which  Arnold's  name  stands  as  '  Arnaud 
Casaubon  de  Montfort,  diocese  Dax  en  Gascogne.'     The  entry  is  dated 
ii  janv.  1557.     Montfort  is  conjectured  by  M.  Th.  Dufour,  to  whom 
I  owe  this  extract,  (L'Interme'diaire,  3.  76),  to  be  Montfort-en-Chalosse, 
chef-lieu  de  canton,  dep.  Landes. 

B    2 


4          PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     1559  —  1578. 

had  a  narrow  escape  from  being  burnt  alive.  The 
persecuting  edict  of  Chateaubriand  (1551)  was  out- 
stripped by  the  fanaticism  of  the  religious  mob,  who 
called  for  a  constant  supply  of  new  victims.  The 
Huguenots  were  flying  in  every  direction,  and  Arnold 
Casaubon  had  found  shelter  at  Geneva.  He  had 
reached  this  city  of  refuge  before  December  1556, 
when  his  first  child  was  baptized. 

The  family  of  Casaubon  was  of  old  Gascon  stock ; 
in  some  of  its  branches  noble 3.  The  name  is  probably 
to  be  traced  to  the  town  of  Cazaubon,  on  the  Douze 
(d  p.  Gers),  a  few  miles  from  Mont  de  Marsan.  Arnold 
Casaubon  was  received  as  '  habitant '  of  Geneva, 
January  n,  1557,  and  at  some  later  period  he  must 
have  been  admitted  'bourgeois/  as  his  son  Isaac  is 
afterwards  described  as  '  citoien/  In  the  old  Genevese 
constitution  the  sons  and  descendants  of  one  who  had 
been  admitted  '  bourgeois '  were  entitled  to  full  civic 
rights.  Arnold  did  not  stay  long  at  Geneva.  A  Pro- 
testant congregation  was  organising  itself  at  Crest,  a 
small  town  on  the  Drome  (dep.  Drome),  a  few  leagues 
above  the  confluence  of  that  river  with  the  Ehone.  As 
Made.  Casaubon  was  from  that  part  of  Dauphine, 
her  husband  was  probably  known  to  the  reformed 
party  in  the  neighbourhood.  He  accepted  a  call  to  be 
pastor  of  the  church  of  Crest,  in  1561.  The  child- 
hood of  Isaac  was  passed  in  the  valleys  of  Dauphine, 
amid  the  hardships  and  perils  incident  to  the  life  of  a 
Huguenot  minister  during  the  wars  of  religion.  His 
father  was  his  only  instructor  till  he  was  nineteen. 
Arnold  had  scholarship,  and  some  reading.  He  had 
been  brought  up  in  a  celebrated  school,  the  College 

3  Bertrand  de  Vignolles  Sieur  de  Casaubon  Marquis  de  Vignolles, 
b.  1565,  wrote:  M&noires  des  choses  passe'es  en  Guienne. 


PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     1559—1578.          5 

of  Guienne,  at  Bourdeaux.  He  must  have  been  there 
in  1547,  at  which  time  Muretus,  with  a  brilliant  staff 
of  colleagues,  was  teacher  there.  The  man  who  could 
recommend  Strabo  as  instructive  reading  to  his  son4, 
must  have  known  more  than  the  rudiments  of  greek. 
But  the  father's  time  was  engrossed  by  his  flock.  His 
talent  and  experience  drew  upon  him  much  of  the 
affairs  of  the  scattered  congregations  of  Dauphine  in 
those  critical  years.  He  was  able  to'  be  but  little  at 
home.  And,  even  when  he  was  with  his  family,  it 
might  be  but  to  fly  with  them  to  the  hills.  When 
Isaac  was  nine  years  old,  he  was  able  to  speak  and 
write  latin.  Just  then,  his  father  was  called  away  to 
attend  the  contingent,  which  Dauphine  had  to  furnish 
to  the  general  levy  of  the  Huguenots.  The  monstrous 
edict  of  Saint-Maur,  September  28,  1563,  in  which  the 
government  unblushingly  declared  that  former  edicts  of 
toleration  had  been  intended  to  be  revoked  as  soon  as 
it  was  safe  to  do  so,  had  shown  the  Protestants  of 
France  that  they  had  to  choose  between  civil  war  and 
extermination,  and  they  were  once  more  under  arms. 
Casaubon,  the  father,  was  absent  this  time  three  years. 
When  he  returned  to  Crest,  Isaac  was  found  to  have 
forgotten  all  he  had  learnt.  If  what  Meric  Casaubon 
relates  of  his  father's  precocity  be  true,  perhaps  it  was 
as  well  that  lessons  were  suspended  for  the  three  years 
from  nine  to  twelve.  For  when  the  lessons  were 
resumed,  Meric  relates5,  the  boy  'threw  himself  into 
study  with  such  ardour,  that  if  he  had  not  been 
checked  by  his  father,  his  health,  if  not  his  life,  would 
have  been  endangered.'  He  had  got  as  far  as  greek 
grammar,  and  was  having  his  first  exercises  in  parsing, 

4  Strabo,  1586,  prsef. :  '  Optimi  parentis  hortatu.' 

5  Pietas,  p.  72. 


6          PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     1559—1578. 

in  Isocrates  'ad  Demonicum/  when  the  news  of  the 
S.  Bartholomew  (August,  1572)  drove  them  into  the 
hills  again.  The  greek  lessons  were  continued  in  the 
cave  where  they  sheltered ;  '  in  silvis  miseri,  ingenti 
tamen  animo/  says  Meric. 

When  they  could  return  to  their  home  again, 
Arnold  Casaubon  was  too  much  engrossed  by  the 
urgent  affairs  of  that  dreadful  crisis  to  have  time 
for  teaching  his  son.  Isaac,  however,  was  launched, 
and  struggled  on  for  himself.  For  five  years,  from 
his  1 4th  to  his  ipth  year,  he  had  no  teacher, 
and  but  few  books.  As  an  example  of  piety  and 
severe  life,  he  owed  much  to  his  father,  whose 
memory  he  ever  cherished  with  affection6.  Writing 
to  a  friend  in  1613,  twenty-seven  years  after  his 
father's  death,  he  says  : — '  To  my  father  I  owe  all  I 
have  since  learnt.  Could  you  know  the  story  of  his 
life,  you  would  know  how  unworthy  I  am  to  bear  the 
name  of  a  man  so  wise  and  experienced/  But  the 
want  of  regular  training  Isaac  always  considered  to 
have  been  a  disadvantage  to  him.  In  1605  he  writes 
to  Yertunien 7 ;  '  As  to  what  Mr.  Scaliger  has  said  to 
you  of  my  age  and  of  my  learning,  I  must  be  fain  to 
confess  that,  on  the  first  point,  he  is  not  far  wrong. 
Having  been  born  in  1559,  I  am  now  (1605)  on  the 
verge  of  being  an  old  man,  if  not  one  already.  But  as 
to  the  second  head,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  cannot 
appropriate  the  thousandth  part  of  what  he  has  been 
pleased  to  say  of  me.  I  was  taught  by  my  father, 
a  man  of  great  capacity,  but  wholly  absorbed  in  the 

6  Ep.  908  :  '  Ingratus  sim  erga  Deum,  nisi  illi  gratias  agam,  eo  patre 
esse  me  natum,  cujus  vita  speculum  est  omnium  virtutum.     Illi  ego 
debeo  quicquid  in  literis  didici.' 

7  Ep.  453- 


PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION.     1559—1578.  7 

affairs  of  the  church  ;  sometimes  absent  from  his  family 
for  whole  years  together  ;  nearly  every  year  turned  out 
of  his  house,  to  find  it  sacked  on  his  return.  So  that 
I  cannot  say  that  I  began  rny  studies  till  I  was  twenty, 
when  I  was  sent  by  him  to  Geneva8.  I  am  a  self- 
taught  man ;  d\^//xa0^?  and  auro^a/cro?.  Instead  of 
the  learning  which  Mons.  de  1'Escale's  goodness  credits 
me  with,  I  can  only  console  myself  that  I  lost  the  best 
part  of  my  early  years  in  persecution  for  the  truth,  a 
memory,  which  is  sweeter  to  me  than  honey  or  sugar/ 
At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  was  sent  by  his  father  to 
Geneva  (1578),  where  he  remained,  first  as  a  student, 
and  afterwards  as  professor,  for  the  next  eighteen 
years. 

8  Ep.  453  :  '  Je  puis  dire  avoir  comment  mes  Etudes  lors  que  ag6 
de  vingt  ans  je  fus  par  lui  envoy^  a  Genbve.' 


2. 

GENEVA. 


THE  name  of  Casaubon  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
matriculation  book,  or  'Livre  du  Recteur/  which  is 
still  extant  in  the  archives  of  Geneva.  The  register  is 
perfect,  but  the  entry  of  names  appears  to  have  been 
neglected  for  the  two  years  1577,  8.  Of  his  student's 
years  no  account  is  preserved.  It  appears  probable 
that  he  was  intended  to  become  a  minister,  and  that 
the  destination  of  his  after  life  was  due  to  accident. 
He  had  the  advantage  of  learning  greek  under  a  fairly 
competent  scholar,  Franciscus  Portus,  a  native  Greek 
(he  was  of  Crete),  who  had  taught  greek  at  Geneva 
ever  since  1562.  Casaubon  had  hardly  completed  his 
third  academical  year,  when  Portus  died  (aet.  71), 
having  suggested  Casaubon  as  qualified  to  succeed  to 
his  place.  Portus  was  not  only  an  accomplished  scholar, 
but  a  man  who  had  seen  much  of  the  world,  and  of 
the  cultivated  society  of  the  time.  Leaving  his  native 
country  as  a  child,  he  had  lived  so  long  in  Italy  — 
at  Venice,  at  Modena,  and  Ferrara  —  that  Italian  had 
become  his  mother  tongue.  He  had  forgotten  Romaic, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  Scaliger  \  and  his  letter 
in  reply  to  Crusius  is  written  in  classical  greek2. 
His  discerning  eye  picked  out  the  young  Casaubon 

1  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  193.  2  Crusius,  Turcograecia,  p.  517. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  9 

as  the  one  of  all  his  pupils  competent  to  succeed  him. 
Franciscus  Portus  deserves  commemoration  in  the 
history  of  learning,  if  for  no  other  reason,  for  this, 
that  he  turned  Isaac  Casaubon  to  the  study  of  Greek. 
Though  Casaubon  was  not  his  only  eminent  pupil. 
Portus  had  taught  Sigonius,  and  Sigonius,  then  aet. 
22,  had  succeeded  Portus  as  teacher  of  Greek  at 
Modena,  in  1546. 

The  council  took  a  year  to  make  the  appointment, 
and  then,  on  the  unanimous  recommendation  of  the 
Venerable  Company  and  the  Professors,  received 
Casaubon  as  Professor  of  Greek. 

The  entry  in  the  register  runs  thus 3 : — 

'  M.  Isaac,  fils  de  Arnaud  Casabon,  citoien  de  Geneve, 
a  este  presente  par  M.  de  La  Faie,  recteur,  pour  estre 
professeur  de  la  langue  grecque,  suyvant  1' ad  vis  de 
tous  les  ministres  et  professeurs.  A  este  arreste  quon 
le  recoyve,  et  suyvant  ce  a  preste  serment.' 

The  title  '  Professor  of  Greek '  has  an  imposing 
sound.  But  on  closer  inspection  the  reality  is  very 
simple,  and  more  than  humble.  There  is  no  room  to 
infer  with  the  biographers  an  unnatural  precocity  in 
Casaubon.  When  the  age  of  the  wandering  native 
Greek  teachers  was  past — Franciscus  Portus  was  one  of 
the  last  of  them, — men  who  knew  Greek  at  all  were 
scarce,  and  men  who  knew  it  profoundly  were  not 
to  be  found.  Young  men  fresh  from  the  schools  had 
at  least  not  forgotten  the  rudiments.  So  Xylander 
(Holtzmann)  became  'Professor'  of  Greek  at  Heidel- 
berg, aet.  26,  and  Daniel  Heinsius  lectured  on  it  at 
Ley  den,  set.  18.  The  Academy  of  Geneva  was  far 
enough  from  ranking  with  the  University  of  Heidel- 
berg, and  still  less  with  that  of  Ley  den. 

3  Geneva  MSS.  Registre  du  petit  conseil,  f°,  109,  5  juin,  1582. 


10  GENEVA.     1578— 1596. 

Modern  historians  of  Geneva,  having  before  them 
what  Geneva  became  in  the  eighteenth  century,  may 
be  forgiven  for  having  transported  this  picture  to  an 
earlier  period.  Had  Calvin  conceived  the  idea,  which 
is  attributed  to  him,  of  a  school  of  general  education, 
neither  time  nor  place  would  have  permitted  its  real- 
isation. The  Geneva  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  the 
cosmopolitan  centre,  its  independence  guaranteed  by 
the  strength  of  the  Swiss  cantons  at  its  back,  and  the 
mutual  jealousy  of  the  great  powers,  was  in  a  very 
different  position  from  the  Geneva  of  Calvin.  The 
merit  of  Calvin  consists  not  in  largeness  of  mind,  but 
in  the  judgment  which  perceived  exactly  what  was 
wanted.  It  is  in  vain  that  Calvin's  panegyrists  persist 
in  attributing  to  him  views,  which  he  could  not  have 
had,  without  ceasing  to  be  the  man  he  w#s — the  man 
of  his  age  and  place.  Haag  would  represent4  him 
as  designing  'un  grand  etablissement  ^instruction 
publique  dont  Tenseignement  devait  embrasser  1'en- 
semble  de  toutes  les  connoissances  humaines/  Fine 
phrase  disguising  the  bare  fact!  Calvin  planned  for 
Geneva  that  which  the  reformed  church  of  the  French 
tongue  wanted  in  1559.  An  elementary  school,  and 
a  seminary  for  ministers — this  was  what  was  wanted, 
and  this  was  what  Calvin  supplied.  A  grand  Academy 
of  letters  or  science,  such  as  the  historians  find  in 
his  scheme,  was  as  little  in  Calvin's  thoughts  as  the 
steamboats  which  now  ply  on  the  lake  Leman.  In 
this,  as  in  all  his  undertakings,  Calvin  projected  what 
was  required,  and  what  could  be  effected,  with  a  dis- 
tinctness of  purpose  and  practical  sense,  which  made 
him  what  he  was,  the  head  of  his  party  in  a  struggle 
for  life  against  fearful  odds. 

4  La  France  Protestante,  art.  Calvin. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  11 

Each  of  the  Cantons,  on  embracing  the  reform,  had 
found  the  necessity  of  some  institution  for  the  training 
of  its  own  ministers.  Bale  had  already,  three  genera- 

»tions  old,  a  university  with  papal  privileges  (founded 
1460).  Zurich,  Berne,  and  Lausanne,  erected  their 
own  academies.  Geneva  required  its  own,  not  less. 
The  preamble  to  the  statutes  of  the  academy  of 
Geneva  (1559),  drawn  doubtless  by.  Calvin's  hand, 
does  not  go  beyond  this  intention.  '  Verily  hath  God 
heretofore  endowed  our  commonwealth  with  many  and 
notable  adornments,  yet  hath  it,  to  this  day,  had  to  seek 
abroad,  for  instruction  in  good  arts  and  disciplines  for 
its  youth,  with  many  lets  and  hindrances5/  Note,  in 
the  whole  composition,  the  tone  of  measured  solidity, 
which  says  less  than  it  means  to  perform.  This  self- 
contained  power,  this  suppressed  moral  force,  which 
is  characteristic,  not  of  Calvin  alone,  but  of  the  whole 
of  the  French  reform,  stands  in  noble  contrast  to  the 
vain-glorious  style  which  Europe  now  is  apt  to  ascribe 
to  France  as  catholicised  by  Louis  xiv.  Perhaps  at  the 
time  that  Calvin  gave  utterance  to  this  simple  pro- 
posal, he  foresaw  that  his  new  school  might  have  a 
higher  destiny.  A  seminary  of  ministers  for  Geneva 
and  Dauphine,  that  was  the  first  thing.  That  it- 
might  become  the  seminary  for  the  whole  of  the 
French  reform,  nay  beyond  the  French  tongue,  that 
the  Genevan  academy  would  be  the  heart  of  the  whole 
presbyterian  system  throughout  Europe,  this  hope  may 
have  presented  itself  to  Calvin's  imagination.  He  was 
not  blind  to  the  peculiar  advantages,  political,  geo- 
graphical, ethnical,  of  Geneva.  Ten  years  before,  in 
1549,  ne  na(i  written  to  Bullinger,  'when  I  consider 
what  aptitude  this  little  corner  has  for  promoting 

5  Promulgatio  legum  Academise  Genevensis  ;  Fick's  reprint,  1859. 


12  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

Christ's  kingdom,  I  am  naturally  solicitous  to  keep 
my  hold  of  it6/  But  the  idea  of  a  metropolitan  uni- 
versity, a  nursery  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  had  no 
place  in  the  mind  of  Calvin,  nor  even  in  that  of  the  more 
cultivated  Beza.  The  first  object  was  to  train  pastors, 
and  he  education  given  bore,  in  all  its  parts,  the  stamp 
of  the  ecclesiastical  seminary. 

The  Academy  (so-called)  at  Geneva  was  the  latest, 
and  not  the  least  valuable  of  Calvin's  institutions  *. 
It  was  not  till  after  the  final  humiliation  of  the 
republican  party  (1555),  and  the  satisfactory  un- 
derstanding with  Berne  (1558)  that  he  was  able  to 
organise  it.  A  town  school,  indeed,  there  had  been 
ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  independence  of  Geneva 
(1536).  But  it  had  only  given  the  rudiments  of 
learning.  A  Genevan  youth,  who  wished  to  complete 
his  education,  was  obliged  to  go  abroad  to  do  so7. 

The  new  institution  was  composed  of  two  schools. 
One  for  boys,  a  gymnasium,  college,  or  grammar-school, 
consisting,  according  to  the  universally  received  division, 
of  seven  classes.  In  the  sixth  and  seventh  class  the 
rudiments  were  taught.  From  the  fifth  class  upwards, 
the  instruction  was  in  the  classics.  The  other  part  of 
the  institution  was  one  for  higher  education,  and  was 
intended  to  carry  on  those  pupils,  who  had  passed 
through  the  school.  But  it  was  not  confined  to  them, 
it  was  open  to  any  who  chose  to  enter  their  names 
as  students.  In  the  latin  statutes,  this  part  of  the 

6  Ep.  ad  Bullinger.  *  See  note  A  in  Appendix. 

7  Leges  Academise,  1559  :  '  Quum  ad  eum  usque  diem  coacta  fu- 
isset  civitas  Genevensis,  maximis  cum  incommodis  ac  difficultatibus, 
ab  iis  urbibus  et  gentibus  petere   suse  juventuti  bonarum  artium  ae 
disciplinarum    cognitionem,    quibus    ipsa    .    .    .     syncerse    religionis 
scientiam  de  suo  quodammodo  largiebatur.' 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  13 


institution  was  called  the  Schola  Publica,  and  the  lower 
part,  or  college,  is  styled  the  Schola  Privata.  When 
the  term  '  academy  of  Geneva '  is  used,  the  upper,  or 
schol  publica  of  professors  and  students  is  usually 
intended,  though  '  academy '  is  sometimes  loosely  said 
of  the  whole  institution  t  aken  together.  The  academy 
consisted  at  first  of  three  chairs,  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Arts.  The  department  of  Theology,  which  was  the 
capital  consideration,  was  taught  by  Calvin  (afterwards 
by  Beza)  as  pastor,  without  the  title  of  professor. 
After  a  time,  chairs  in  Law  and  Medicine  were  added. 
Both  schools,  the  upper  and  the  lower,  were  under  the 
control  of  a  rector  cliosen  every  two  years,  but 
re-eligible.  How  entirely  the  education  of  Geneva  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  clergy  may  be  judged  from  the 
fact  that  rector,  professors,  head-master,  and  all  the 
masters  in  the  lower  school  were  appointed  by  the 
Venerable  company  cf  pastors,  and  only  confirmed 
by  the  Council. 

In  entering  their  names  in  the  *  rector's  book'  the 
students  of  the  academy  subscribed  the  statutes,  but 
also  a  lengthened  confession  of  calvinistic  orthodoxy. 
Considering  the  rigidity  of  everything  else,  it  may  seem 
surprising  that  as  early  as  1576,  in  less  than  twenty 
years  from  its  establishment,  this  subscription  had  to  be 
abolished.  Still  more  surprising  is  the  tolerant  motive 
recorded  in  the  register,  that  Lutherans  and  papists 
may  be  no  longer  hindered  from  coming  to  study  here  ; 
and  that,  further,  it  does  not  seem  right  to  press  a  young 
conscience  which  is  unresolved  to  sign  what  it  doth  not 
as  yet  understand ;  and  further  that  they  of  Saxony 
have  taken  occasion  herefrom  to  compel  those  who  go 
from  hence  to  them  to  sign  the  confession  of  Augsburg8/ 

8  Registre  clu  conseil,  ap.  Gabarel,  2.  122. 


14  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

Charles  Perrot,  one  of  the  pastors,  was  put  forward  as 
the  mover  of  this  liberal  step.  But  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  had  the  approbation  of  Beza,  without 
which  nothing  was  done,  at  that  period.  But  for  200 
years  no  further  step  was  taken  in  that  direction. 
Though  subscription  was  abolished  for  students,  yet 
down  to  1796,  no  dissident,  not  even  a  lutheran,  could 
be  a  teacher  in  the  academy,  or  even  a  citizen  of 
Geneva.  Beza,  and  the  sixteenth  century,  were,  if  not 
more  tolerant,  more  enlightened  than  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  was  policy,  not  indifference  to  dogma. 

The  policy  of  the  State  of  Geneva,  its    open-armed 
hospitality,  was  extended  to  its  school  and  university. 
Originally  designed  for  natives,  the  academy  of  Geneva 
became  very  early  a  great   resort  of  foreign  students. 
They  nocked  in  from  all  parts  of  protestant  Europe,  even 
from    lutheran    countries.     That  the    discipline  main- 
tained was  rigorous,  and  that  it  had  a  strictly  church 
character — both  these  facts  contributed  to  accredit  the 
school,    throughoiit  the   reformed    countries.      In    the 
school  the  hour  of  opening  was  six  in  summer,  seven 
in   winter.     The  boys    brought    their    breakfast  with 
them,  and  ate  it  on  the  benches  of  the  schoolroom. 
They  might  not  bring  anything  but  the  simplest  food, 
the  same  for  rich  and  poor.     The  classrooms  were  open 
to  all  the  rigours  of  the  seasons.     In  November  1564, 
a  master  having  petitioned  that  the  windows  might  be 
glazed,  the  council  took  it  into  its  consideration.     The 
decision  arrived  at  was,  that    'the  children  might,  if 
they  liked,  paste  paper  over  the  openings  next  their 
seats9.'     There  was  a  charcoal  brazier  in  each  classroom 
in  the  very  cold  weather,  at  which,  when  the  fingers 

9  Goethe,  Italian.  Eeise,  Werke,  19.  23,  found,  in    1787,  papered 
windows  at  Torbole. 


vpfnsp.rl 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  15 


refused  their  office,  they  might  be  thawed  for  a  few 
seconds.  All  the  pupils  had  to  attend  in  their  place  at 
church,  the  Wednesday  morning  sermon,  on  Sunday 
three  times,  morning  and  afternoon  sermon  and  cate- 
chism. Absence  without  a  valid  excuse  was  followed 
by  punishment.  . 

The  students  of  the  *  public  school'  or  academy 
being  in  great  .part  strangers,  gave  more  trouble- 
especially  the  Germans.  Accustomed  to  the  licence 
of  the  universities  of  the  fatherland,  they  thought 
to  carry  the  privileges  of  the  Bursch  with  them.  They 
were  soon  undeceived.  Certain  families,  'vivans  selon 
Dieu,'  were  selected,  and  the  scholars  not  allowed  to 
lodge  elsewhere.  The  severity  of  its  discipline  recom- 
mended Geneva  as  much  as  the  theological  celebrity 
of  Calvin.  Pious  parents  throughout  Europe  gladly 
accepted  the  risks  of  the  distance,  and  the  dangerous 
neighbourhood,  to  bring  their  sons  under  the  shadow 
of  such  a  training. 

On  the  numbers  of  the  students  the  statements  in 
the  histories  are  vague,  and  marked  with  the  tendency 
to  amplify.  The  figure  of  1000  in  which  the  modern 
writers,  Henry,  Gaberel,  Stahelin,  seem  so  unanimous, 
is  not  traceable  beyond  an  anonymous  letter  quoted 
by  Sayous10,  '  C'est  merveille  des  auditeurs  des  lemons 
de  M.  Calvin  j'estime  qu'ils  sont  journellement  plus 
de  mille.'  Even  if  this  unauthenticated  statement  be 
accepted,  it  must  be  understood  of  the  whole  affluence 
to  Calvin's  lectures,  which  were  doubtless  open  to  the 
public.  We  know  from  the  documentary  evidence  of 
the  '  Leges  academies,'  that  on  the  day  of  opening 
there  were  present  *  600  scholars/  But  this  includes 
the  boys  in  the  lower  school  with  its  seven  classes, 

10  Etudes  litt^raires,  p.  107. 


16  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

comprising  doubtless  the  whole  of  those  between 
seven  and  fifteen,  who  were  of  a  rank  to  receive 
grammar-school  education.  But  there  remains  the 
undeniable  evidence  of  the  matriculation  book  or 
'livre  du  recteur/  From  this  we  find  that,  throw- 
ing out  the  exceptional  years  of  the  plague,  the 
Saint-Bartholomew,  and  the  worst  years  of  the  re- 
ligious war,  the  average  of  entries  was  about  forty 
per  annum.  Tholuck  has  proved  that  for  the  univer- 
sities of  Germany,  at  this  period,  we  may  assume 
four  years  as  the  average  duration  of  a  student's 
residence.  If  this  average  were  applicable  to  Ge- 
neva, we  should  have  160  as  the  total  number  of 
students — the  '  Frequenz/  as  the  Germans  call  it.  But 
for  various  reasons  it  is  probable  that  the  average 
stay  of  a  student  at  Geneva  did  not  reach  four  years. 
We  shall  be  nearer  the  mark,  if  we  assume  the 
number  of  students,  residing  in  any  one  year,  at 
from  100  to  120.  In  the  exceptional  years  above 
named,  the  actual  numbers  were  much  below  this 
average.  In  1572  (Saint-Bartholomew)  there  were  only 
three  matriculations.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1597 
(Edict  of  Nantes)  they  amounted  to  120.  When  this 
is  clear  to  us,  we  understand  how  it  was  possible  to 
get  on  with  so  few  professors.  There  w^ere  at  first 
but  three  literary  professors  ;  two  more  were  added 
afterwards.  There  were  besides  the  two  theological 
professors  ;  but  their  lectures  were,  in  fact,  doctrinal 
sermons,  pastoral  rather  than  professional.  Calvin 
never  would  take  the  title  of  professor.  These  lecture- 
sermons,  though  doctrinal,  were  in  the  form  of  exegesis ; 
they  were  commentaries  on  books  of  the  bible.  Scientific 
'  Dogmatik y  was  an  invention  of  the  1 7th  century. 
The  day  opened  with  a  service  or  sermon  at  5  A.M. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596. 


17 


in  summer,  6  A.M.  in  winter.  This,  not  for  the  stu- 
dents, but  for  the  congregation.  This  lasted  an  hour. 
Immediately  after  the  sermon  followed  the  lecture  of 
the  hebrew  professor.  This  lecture  was  also  exege- 
tical.  He  was  followed  by  the  professor  of  greek, 
who  explained  an  author,  of  philosophy  or  ethics, 
Aristotle,  Plato,  Plutarch,  or  some  Christian  writer. 
Ten  was  the  dinner  hour.  After  dinner  the  greek 
professor  had  a  second  hour,  when '  he  read  some 
greek  poet,  orator,  or  historian.  Latin  authors  were 
considered  to  belong  to  the  province  of  the  professor 
of  arts.  But  only  on  three  days  of  the  week  did  the 
greek  professor  lecture  twice.  On  Wednesday  and 
Friday  he  had  no  morning  lectures ;  on  Saturday  none 
at  all.  But  on  Friday  every  professor  had  to  attend 
the  weekly  consistory,  or  conference  of  ministers. 
The  Sunday  was  spent  in  hearing  the  sermons.  The 
actual  lecturing  of  the  greek  professor  was  thus  only 
eight  hours  per  week. 

But  then  his  lectures  were  not  mere  grammar,  or 
construing  lessons  to  learners.  Greek  was  learnt  in 
the  school.  The  boy  began  greek  in  the  fourth  class, 
i.  e.  at  ten  or  eleven  years  old.  By  the  time  he 
quitted  the  first  class  he  had  read  through  some  of 
the  principal  authors.  The  greek  professor,  therefore, 
was  not  doomed,  like  the  Scottish  professor,  to  teach 
the  elements.  He  had  before  him  an  advanced  class, 
in  whom  he  might  assume  a  knowledge,  not  of  the 
language  only,  but  of  the  ordinary  school  cycle  of 
greek  history  and  antiquities.  We  shall  give  some 
account  below  of  the  subjects  which  Casaubon  taught 
at  Geneva. 

'High  work  did  not  mean  high  pay.     'The  salaries 
of    the    professors/    writes    Calvin,    '  are    not   at   the 

c 


18  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

magnificent  rate  usual  in  Germany,  but  are  on  a  par 
with  those  of  the  pastors,  barely  sufficient  for  sup- 
port11/ They  were  fixed  at  280  genevese  florins. 
Something  could  be  added  to  this  scanty  pay  by 
boarding  students,  as  the  professors  usually  did. 
Ninety  florins  were  considered  sufficient  allowance  for 
board  and  lodging,  out  of  which  there  could  be  little 
profit,  even  though,  as  we  are  told  in  "the  life  of  S. 
Francis  de  Sales,  '  Savoy  is  the  country  in  all  the 
world  where  one  can  live  the  cheapest12/  'A  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  or  Medicine  it  was  necessary,  then  as 
now,  to  pay  more  highly  ;  and  we  read  of  their  having 
600,  700,  and  even  800  genevese  florins.  With  800 
florins,  Ho  toman,  in  1577,  found  it  impossible  to  live, 
but  then  he  had  a  family  of  nine  children. 

It  is  true,  that  this  period,  and  the  I7th  century 
also,  echo  with  the  complaints  of  the  poverty  of 
professors.  But,  in  Geneva,  this  economy  was  not 
niggardliness,  it  was  bare  poverty.  Indeed,  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  republic,  it  is  more  surprising 
that  the  schools  should  have  continued  to  exist  at 
all,  than  that  the  teachers  should  have  shared  in  a 
misery  which  was  common  to  all.  The  struggle  of 
Geneva  against  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  was  not  that  of 
an  affluent  bourgeoisie  ambitious  of  political  independ- 
ence ;  it  was  a  struggle  for  existence.  Geneva  was 
not  only  a  burgher  aristocracy,  hateful  in  the  eyes  of 
sovereign  princes13,  but  an  outpost  of  Protestantism, 

11  Epp.  ap.  Henry,  Leben  Calvin's,  3.  390. 

12  Marsollier,  Vie  de  S.  Fra^ois,  i.  433. 

13  Zurich  Letters,  2nd  ser.  p.  275  :    'As  for  Geneva,  they  not  only 
hate,  but  execrate  it.'     Of.  the  representations  of  S.  Francis  de  Sales 
to  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  ap.  Marsollier,   i.  246  :    '  Que  les  calvinistes 
&oient  naturellement  republicans,  et  ennemis  de  1'dtat  monarclrique,' 
etc. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  19 

encamped  as  it  were  within  the  very  territory  of  Savoy. 
Charles  Emmanuel  had  sworn  that  '  he  would  have 
Geneva  if  it  cost  him  a  million/  Twice  in  one  year 
(1584)  well  concerted  plots,  favoured  by  traitors  within, 
were  detected  when  ripe  for  execution.  Nor  was  it 
only  liberty,  political  and  religious,  which  was  at  stake. 
The  savage  cruelty,  which  was  thought  praiseworthy 
in  catholic  soldiers  dealing  with  Calvinists,  told  the 
Genevese  what  to  expect  if  the  mercenaries  once  got 
within  the  walls14.  In  1589  the  Duke  of  Savoy 
brought  up  an  army  of  18000  regular  troops,  with 
the  determination  to  destroy  the  nest  of  heretics  once 
for  all.  The  little  republic,  deserted  at  the  critical 
moment  by  Berne,  and  hated  by  the  lutheran  princes 
of  Germany,  as  much  as  by  fanatically  catholic  France, 
could  only  muster  2186  men  capable  of  bearing  arms. 
History  has  not  a  more  gallant  struggle  against  odds 
to  record.  Before  it  was  released  by  the  peace  of 
Vervins  (1598),  Geneva  had  lost  1500  men  out  of 
its  total  levy  of  2186.  The  importance  of  destroying 
the  city  was  fully  understood  by  the  catholic  party. 
It  was  especially  urged  by  S.  Francis  de  Sales  in  a 
memorial  presented  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  The  schools 
and  the  printing-presses  are  particularly  pointed  out,  by 
the  catholic  saint,  as  the  instruments  of  mischief15. 


14  A  bishop  of  Geneva  writes  in  1534  ;  Jussie,  Levain  du  Calvinisme, 
p.  84  :  '  Que  la,  ou  on  trouverait  des  Luthe'riens  on  les  pouvoit  prendre, 
tuer,  ou  pendre  a  un  arbre,  sans  nulle  difficult^  ou  doute.' 

15  Aug.  Sales,  Vita  S.  Francisci  de  Sales,  p.  99  :  '  Quid  dicam  de 
prelis  quse  habent  amplissima  et  munitissima,  unde  in  omnem  terram 
pestiferos  libros  spargunt  .  .  .  accedunt  ad  hsec  scholre  ad  quas  plerique 
nobili  sanguine  orti  juvenes  advolant  a  Francia.' 

The  protestants  were   equally  aware  that  the  printing-press    had 
been  a  great  engine  of  the  success  of  the  reformation  in  the  towns  where 

C    2 


20  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

The  misery  suffered  within  the  walls  during  this  siege, 
or  e-7nrei^L(TL<s9  was  frightful.  The  population  of  Geneva 
before  the  troubles  in  France  is  estimated  at  i2OOO18. 
During  the  troubles  hundreds  of  French  families  immi- 
grated ;  the  foreigners  almost  outnumbered  the  native 
townsmen17.  In  1558,  279  foreigners  were  admitted 
citizens  in  one  day.  Yet  in  1589  the  population  was 
only  1 3000 18.  Such  had  been  the  ravages  of  famine, 
pestilence,  misery,  and  war.  Poverty  and  overcrowding 
made  the  plague  more  than  ordinarily  deadly  in  Geneva. 
In  1615,  more  than  4000  died  of  it — a  fourth  of 
the  population.  The  refugees,  happy  to  have  escaped 
with  their  lives,  brought  little  capital  with  them. 
The  town  had  no  trade,  could  have  none,  with  an 
enemy  permanently  encamped  just  outside  the  walls 19. 
It  was  at  the  hazard  of  life  that  travellers  arrived  or 
left  the  city.  Its  fair  had  been  long  before  transferred 
to  Lyons.  The  only  industry  was  printing,  mostly 
little  remunerative,  as  the  example  of  Henri  Estienne 
shows.  '  This  commonwealth  and  church/  says  Beza 20, 

it  was  free.  Grynseus,  Epp.  p.  26  :  '  Turn  solide  doctorum  virorum 
voce  viva  et  scriptis  editis  ;  .  .  .  turn  officmarum  tvpograplricarum, 
quae  maximo  illis  adjumento  fuerunt.' 

16  Bonivard,  Chronique,  2.  385. 

17  Ed.  Mallet,   Mdm.   et   Documens   de  la  Sod4t6  de  1'Hist.   de 
Geneve,  8.  453. 

18  Registre  du  conseil,  ap.  Grdnus,  p.  68. 

19  The  system  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  was  to  erect  two  forts,  Santa 
Catarina  and  '  Mommeliana/  a  short  distance  from  the  city,  on  his 
own  territory,  the  garrison  of  which  commanded  the  roads  on  the  side 
of  Savoy  and  Franche  Cornte'.     These  were  not  destroyed  till  the  cam- 
paign of  1600.     Burney  MSS.  365.   59,  Lect.  to  Casaubon,   13  Nov. 
1 600  :  '  Extat  etiamnum,  quod  mirere,  Catharina  .  .  .  tamen,  dedito 
superioribus  diebus  Mommeliano,  finem  malorum  speramus  ab  exempto.' 
Cf.  Thuanus,  Hist.  125.  13. 

20  Vita  Calvini. 


GENEVA,     1578  —  1596. 


21 


*  may  be  truly  called  a  nursery  of  poverty ' — pauper- 
tatis  officina.  One  resource  it  had  in  the  sympathy 
of  foreign  churches,  kindled  by  returned  students,  who 
carried  back  reports  of  privation  heroically  endured. 
The  registers  of  the  council,  and  the  correspondence 
of  the  period,  are  full  of  acknowledgments  of  such 
aid.  England,  and  English  bishops,  were  not  among 
the  most  backward.  Cox,  Sandys,  Grindal,  never 
send  a  letter  to  Zurich  without  enclosing  a  remem- 
brance21. The  bishop  of  Ely  sends  Gualter  five 
crowns.  The  bishop  of  London  sends  Bullinger  enough 
cloth  to  make  a  gown.  This  was  to  Zurich.  But  in 
1583  the  bishops  procured  a  royal  brief  for  a  collection 
through  the  churches  of  England  in  aid  of  Geneva. 
It  produced  £5039.  Two  public  quetes  made  in 
Holland  raised  considerable  sums,  though  the  United 
provinces  were  then  engaged  in  their  death  struggle 
with  Philip  IT.  The  maintenance  of  the  schools  at 
Geneva  was  a  special  object  of  these  subsidies.  Many 
of  the  reformed  churches,  too,  maintained  students 
at  Geneva.  So  Arminius  was  sent  there  at  the  charge 
of  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  and  Utenbogaert  at  the 
charge  of  Utrecht.  Till  the  rise  in  credit  of  Ley  den 
(founded  1575),  Holland,  excluded  from  Louvain,  was 
compelled  to  seek  education  for  its  youth  in  foreign 
countries.  But  Heidelberg,  or  Herborn  in  Nassau, 
being  more  conveniently  situated  than  Geneva,  received 
most  of  the  Dutch  students 22. 

In  June,  1582,  Casaubon  had  received  his  appoint- 
ment. To  one  whose  boyhood  had  been  a  school  of 
hardship,  a  fixed  stipend  of  £10  a  year  and  rooms  in 


21  Zurich  Letters  (publication  of  Parker  Society),  passim. 

22  Schotel,  Studenten  Oproer  in  1594. 


22  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

the  college,  may  have  seemed  provision  for  a  family. 
Under  Calvin's  rigid  police  early  marriage  was  the 
rule  ;  and  the  strength  of  numbers  must  have  been 
an  object  with  any  government  of  Geneva.  Besides 
there  was  the  consideration  of  boarders.  Accordingly, 
in  September,  1583,  Casaubon  married.  His  wife, 
Mary,  though,  like  himself,  a  native  of  Geneva,  was, 
like  himself,  the  child  of  refugee  parents.  Her  family 
was  from  Bourdeaux  in  Dauphine.  The  union  was 
of  short  duration*.  She  died  in  April,  1585,  leaving 
one  child,  a  daughter. 

Meanwhile,  distress  inside  the  walls  and  terror 
without,  were  slowly  enveloping  the  little  republic 
and  threatening  it  with  extinction.  The  protestant 
cause  was  lost  in  France,  and  it  was  now  a  question 
not  of  liberty  of  conscience,  but  of  life.  Every  one 
who  had  anywhere  else  to  go  made  their  escape  from 
the  doomed  city,  Bonaventure  Bertram,  professor  of 
hebrew,  escaped  to  Frarikenthal,  Hotoman  to  Bale. 
Hotoman  writes  to  Heidelberg  :  '  In  the  whole  of 
France  there  is  no  good  man  who  is  not  suffering 
severely.  In  our  Savoy  a  large  part  of  the  popula- 
tion has  actually  perished  of  famine,  and  now  pesti- 
lence is  attacking  those  that  have  survived24.'  The 
assassination  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  repeated 
attempts  on  the  life  of  Elizabeth,  and  on  that  of  the 
King  of  Navarre,  the  growing  fury  of  the  League, 
the  armament  of  Philip  n.  against  England,  the 
savage  massacres  which  broke  out  from  time  to  time 
in  the  French  towns,  intimated  that  the  policy  of 
S.  Bartholomew,  the  extinction  of  protestantism  by 
the  extermination  of  the  protestants,  was  the  aim  of 

*  See  note  B  in  Appendix. 
24  Hotom.  Epp.  ep.  147. 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  23 

the  triumphant  party.  The  desperate  position  of 
Geneva  was  such  that  foreign  students  ceased  to  come 
at  all,  and  the  greek  class,  as  was  natural,  was  the 
first  to. drop.  In  November,  1585,  we  find25  that 
Casaubon  was  left  with  hardly  any  auditors.  The 
council  amalgamated  the  professorship  of  greek  with 
that  of  history,  and  appointed  Casaubon  to  the 
double  charge.  But  in  1586  things  were  worse,  and 
it  was  resolved  to  give  up  the  academy.  The  council, 
with  many  expressions  of  regret,  intimated  to  the 
professors — the  two  theological  professors  excepted — 
that  their  functions  must  cease26.  In  this  juncture 
the  Ven.  company  of  pastors  came  forward  (October  7) 
and  petitioned  the  council  that  such  a  public  calamity 
as  the  suppression  of  the  academy  might  be  averted, 
and  that  their  own  salaries  might  be  applied  to  the 
payment  of  the  professors.  The  petition  was  refused. 
But  at  the  next  weekly  meeting  of  the  council  the 
Ven.  company  return  to  the  charge  (October  14). 
They  offer  to  raise  among  themselves  1000  crowns, 
and  lend  it  to  the  treasury,  of  course  without  interest, 
for  the  relief  of  the  present  necessity.  'As  for  closing 
the  college,'  says  their  memorial,  'our  academy  is 
now  regarded  as  the  seminary  of  the  churches  of 
France ;  the  school  of  La  Eochelle  being  the  only 
one  now  left  in  that  kingdom.  The  reputation  of 
our  school  is  so  widely  spread  that  even  England 

25  Geneva   MSS.     Registre   du  pet.   cons.    f°.    160.   22    nov.   1585: 
'  D'aultant  que  M.  Casaubon  n'a  presque  point  d'auditeur.' 

26  Geneva  MSS.     Kegistre   du    pet.  cons.    f°.    226,   7  pctob.    1586  : 
*  Suyvant   ce   qui   a  est6  cy  devant  parl£  de  les  easier  a  cause  des 
charges  que  la  ville  supporte  qui  sont  grandes,  a  estd  arrest^  qu'en 
ceste  consideration,  et  d'aultant  qu'ils  n'ont  a  present  des  auditeurs, 
qu'on  les  cong^die,  et  qu'on  retieime  leur  mandement  de  ce  quartier.' 


24  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

sends  us  students.  The  honour  of  your  lordships  is 
involved  in  the  maintenance  of  this  precious  estab- 
lishment. The  classical  languages  and  philosophy  are 
indispensable  for  theology.  Now,  more  than  ever, 
ought  we  to  cherish  the  study  of  the  sciences,  when 
the  Jesuits  have  founded  such  a  quantity  of  schools 
both  in  Switzerland  and  Savoy.  It  is  said  that  the 
number  of  students  in  our  academy  is  become  insig- 
nificant. This  is  not  so,  seeing  that  at  the  last 
"  promotions "  twenty-three  passed  from  the  lower 
school  to  the  public  lectures.  And  as  for  the  attend- 
ance at  these  lectures,  no  one  can  say  that  Mr.  Casaubon 
wants  for  auditors27.  If  the  Council  persists  in  its 
resolution,  our  city  will  suffer  in  character ;  and  the 
foreign  students  once  diverted  from  us  will  not  find 
their  way  back  when  better  times  come/ 

Men,  who  were  prepared  to  make  such  sacrifices, 
were  not  altogether  unworthy  to  exercise  even  the 
despotic  power  which  these  ministers  wielded.  The 
council,  did  not,  for  the  present,  think  proper  to  grant 
this  request,  and  the  lectures  were  suspended28.  We 
do  not  exactly  know  how  long  the  suspension  of  the 
schools  continued.  But,  as  Casaubon  made  a  journey 
to  Frankfort  in  1590,  without  applying  for  leave  of 
absence,  it  may  be  conjectured  that  he  did  not  resume 
before  that  year.  These  two  or  three  years,  1568-88, 
were  the  darkest  period.  In  1587  the  plague  was  at 
its  worst.  It  made  havoc  in  the  uii ventilated  dwellings 

27  The    lectures    on    Persius    were    delivered   '  magna   frequentia,' 
Burmann,    Syll.   i.   ep.  362;    'frequent!    auditorio.'     Schultze,    epp. 
inedd.  p.  14. 

28  Tholuck,  Gesch.  d.  Rat.  quotes  a  private  letter  of  a  law  student 
in   1586,  which  says,  'all  the  professors  here  have  resigned  for  want 
of  hearers/ 


and  cloS' 


GENE  VA.     1578  —  1596.  25 


I 


and  close  streets,  in  which  were  crowded  a  half-famished 
population.  The  splendid  quay,  on  which  now  rise 
the  magnificent  hotels  and  warehouses,  was  then  an 
unwholesome  marsh.  The  marauding  parties  of  the 
mercenary  troops  of  Savoy  made  escape  into  the  fresh 
air  of  the  mountains  impossible.  Duty  on  the  walls 
was  incessant,  day  and  night.  '  The  exhaustion  of  the 
public  treasury/  writes  Casauboii,29  'is  complete.  Our 
burghers  are  entirely  impoverished.  The  city  is  filled 
with  paupers  and  beggars.  A  large  part  of  the  popu- 
lation is  on  the  verge  of  starvation.' 

We  catch  one  authentic  glimpse  which  shows  the 
growing  esteem  which  he  had  conquered,  even  in  this 
time  of  general  suffering.  It  is  the  more  weighty  as  it 
is  embodied  in  the  official  proceedings  of  the  council. 
In  August,  1591,  the  ministers  return  to  the  charge30. 
The  academy  appears,  at  this  date,  to  be  in  exercise 
again,  but  to  be  poorly  supported.  The  ministers  apply 
on  behalf  of  the  professors.  Beza  and  Perrot  were 
deputed  to  wait  on  ( my  Lords,'  and  to  represent 
to  them31 : — 

!9  Ep.  969  (to  Stuck) :  '  Ingens  pauperum  et  mendicorum  turba,  vere 
dico  tibi,  plerique  nostrum  eegre  se  et  suos  defendunt  ab  illo 


!0  Hotoman  writes  to  Tossanus  at  Heidelberg  to  use  his  influence 
with  Beza  '  to  restore  as  soon  as  possible  the  professors  of  Greek  and 
of  Philosophy,  by  whose  suspension  this  State  has  incurred  a  heavy, 
perhaps  incurable  wound/  Hotomann.  Epp.  ep.  145. 

31  Geneva  MSS.  Reg.  du  pet.  cons,  n  aout,  1591,  f°.  149  :  'II  y  a 
le  sieur  Casaubon,  qui  sera  un  tres  rare  personage  si  Dieu  luy  fuit  la 
grace  de  vivre,  est  trSs  humble  et  paisible,  mais  la  ne'cessite'  le  presse 
.  .  .  II  est  recherche*  et  pratique"  d'ailleurs,  car  il  escript  tres  bien. 
Mr.  du  Fresne  1'a  recherche*  pour  1* avoir  pres  de  luy  en  Allemayne,  et 
pour  le  gagner  luy  a  envoye'  50^,  mais  il  a  tout  son  coeur  a  ce  public, 
mais  qu'il  puisse  vivoter,  prient  de  luy  faire  quelque  present  de 


.  26  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

'  That  this  school  is  a  treasure  which  God  has  blessed 
in  such  sort,  that  there  have  issued  from  it  instruments 
of  his  glory.  The  ministers  do  not  doubt  that  the 
council  intend  to  maintain  the  school  in  being,  but  they 
would  particularly  recommend  the  case  of  M.  Chevalier, 
who  discharges  very  well  his  duties  as  professor, 
though  it  may  be  he  has  not  many  pupils.  .  .  .  There 
is  further  the  sieur  Casaubon,  who  will  become  a  very 
rare  personage,  if  God  of  his  mercy  grant  him  to  live  ; 
he  being  very  humble  and  peaceable;  but  he  is  in  great 
necessity,  notwithstanding  that  they,  the  ministers, 
have  succoured  him  to  the  best  of  their  ability.  He  is 
already  sought  for  and  courted  by  persons  abroad,  for 
his  excellent  writings  ;  M.  de  Fresne  has  desired  to 
attach  him  to  himself  in  Germany,  and  has  sent  him 
fifty  crowns  with  this  object.  Notwithstanding  he  has 
his  whole  heart  in  the  service  of  this  public ;  and  that 
he  may  be  able  to  support  bare  life,  they  pray  the 
council  to  make  him  a  present  of  money  out  of  the 
unappropriated  funds  of  the  college,  e.g.  fifty  crowns, 
adding  thereto  some  wheat  for  the  relief  of  his  present 
wants/  Hereupon  the  council  ordered  that  fifty  crowns 
and  six  bolls  of  wheat  be  delivered  to  Casaubon.  In  the 
year  following,  1592,  he  also  receives,  by  order  of  the 
council,  a  present  of  red  wine,  along  with  the  ministers32. 
It  was  an  exceptional  favour,  as  the  other  professors 
are  not  mentioned. 

The  republic  came  through  the  ordeal  reduced  to 

1'argent  .  .  .'  The  expression  '  a  ce  public '  is  peculiar.  An 
inhabitant  of  Geneva  could  not  speak  of  his  country.  Geneva  was  a 
city  of  refuge  filled  with  foreigners,  whose  '  patrie '  was  France. 

32  Geneva  MSS.  Reg.  du  pet.  cons.  4  dec.  1592,  f°.  235,  v°.  .  .  . 
*  Comprenant  avec  les  dites  ministres  le  S1.  Casaubon  professeur  en 
grec.' 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 


.27 


the  lowest  ebb  of  fortune,  but  unbroken  in  spirit. 
Each  pious  bosom  felt  that  no  human  arm,  but  that 
of  Providence  alone,  had  interposed  to  save  the  bul- 
wark of  the  church.  History,  perhaps,  has  never 
crowded  into  two  years  a  greater  number  of  surprising 
events  impossible  to  predict.  The  first  gleam  of  hope 
came  from  the  side  of  France.  The  signal  victory  of 
Coutras,  October  20,  1587,  where  the  'jeunesse  doreV 
of  the  party  of  massacre  went  down  before  half  their 
number  of  poor  and  despised  Huguenots,  gave  im-  . 
mediate  relief.  Then  the  execution  of  Mary  Stuart, 
the  annihilation  of  the  Armada,  the  assassination  of 
the  Guises,  the  union  of  the  two  Henrys  against  the 
catholic  League,  and  finally,  the  accession  of  Henri  TV, 
all  these  great  events  on  the  European  theatre  were 
felt  at  Geneva,  relaxing  the  tension  put  upon  its 
strength — a  strain  which,  had  it  been  continued,  must 
have  ended  in  breaking.  In  April,  1590,  Casaubon 
can  write,  '  Our  affairs  are,  by  the  mercy  of  almighty 
God,  in  not  a  little  better  condition  than  they  were 
when  I  received  your  letter,  about  five  months  back/ 

How  Casaubon  himself  struggled  through  these 
dismal  years  we  are  left  to  conjecture.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  we  have,  for  this  period,  neither  his 
diary  nor  his  letters — by  the  aid  of  which  we  shall  be 
able,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  to  follow  his  fortunes 
with  minuteness  and  accuracy.  The  principal  events 
of  his  life  during  the  years  of  distress  are, — the  course 
of  his  studies  ;  his  father's  death  ;  his  second  marriage. 

His  father,  Arnold,  was  attacked  with  low  fever 
on  January  i,  [586.  His  physician  pronounced  the 
symptoms  favourable,  and  foretold  a  speedy  recovery. 
But  the  patient  himself  was  convinced  he  should  never 
rise  from  his  sick  bed.  It  proved  so.  On  February  i 


28  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

he  died,  not  of  age,  he  was  only  63,  but  worn  out 
with  the  sufferings  and  anxieties  of  the  25  years  of 
persecution.  His  death  took  place  at  Die  in  Dauphine, 
and  his  funeral  was  attended  by  all  the  notables  of 
the  town,  and  many  nobles  of  the  province,  it  so 
happening  that  a  synod  was  being  held  at  the  time. 
' 33I  alone  of  his  children/  writes  Isaac  Casaubon,  'had 
the  misfortune  to  be  absent.'  Isaac  received  the  intel- 
ligence while  he  was  writing  his  notes  on  the  beginning 
of  the  fifth  book  of  Strabo.  He  confides  his  sorrow 
to  his  commentary,  as  to  a  companion  and  friend.  The 
reader  of  Strabo  to  this  day  is  called  upon  to  sympa- 
thise with  Casaubon  in  his  bereavement,  in  the  middle 
of  a  difficulty  which  he  leaves  unexplained  for  that 
cause 34.  It  is  not  only  filial  affection  lacerated  by  death, 
premature  and  unexpected.  It  is  disgust  with  his 
own  occupation  at  the  moment,  when  brought  into 
sudden  contrast  with  the  memory  of  a  parent,  whose 
every  thought  and  every  hour  had  been  given  to  sacred 
things  and  the  cause  of  God.  'There  is  a  difficulty 
here' — in  Strabo' s  account  of  the  southern  shore  of 
the  Italian  peninsula — 'which  I  leave  to  others  who 
have  more  leisure  for  such  work.  I  have  neither  time 
nor  spirit  for  the  discussion  of  such  things.  My  mind, 
overwhelmed  by  the  intelligence  just  received,  has  no 
more  taste  for  these  classical  studies,  and  demands  a 
different  strain  to  soothe  and  heal  it.'  Years  after- 
wards, when  it  became  necessary  for  the  Jesuit  party 

83  Isaac's  own  account  of  his  father  Arnold's  death  is  given  in  ep. 
893  to  Lingelsheim  in  1613.  He  repeats  it  again,  with  fuller  detail, 
in  'Exercitt.  ad  Baron.'  1614,  reproduced  in  Prideaux,  Castigatio, 
p.  224.  The  shorter  accounts  in  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  74,  and  Abbott, 
Antilogia,  ep.  ad  lect.,  are  not  independent  testimony,  being  both  com- 
municated by  Isaac.  34  Comm.  in  Strabon.  p.  211. 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  29 


to  defame  Casaubon,  they  put  in  circulation  a  story 
that  his  father  had  been  hanged.  Gross  as  was  the 
fabrication,  it  wounded  Casaubon  s  sensitive  nature, 
and,  at  the  distance  of  twenty-five  years,  harrowed  up 
the  pang  with  which  he  had  first  received  the  in- 
telligence of  his  parent's  death,  himself,  alone  of  his 
children,  away  from  his  bed  side. 

His  father  died  on  February  i  ;  in  April  Casaubon 
married  a  second  wife.  Prudent  it  cannot  have  been 
in  the  middle  of  the  public  calamities,  when  even  his 
poor  £10  a  year  was  precarious,  to  marry  a  girl  of 
eighteen  without  fortune.  But  in  times  of  distress 
men  seek  consolation,  not  welfare,  and  prudence  is  in 
abeyance.  And  there  were  many  things  to  recom- 
mend the  match.  The  lady  had  beauty,  sense,  worth, 
and  her  grandfather  s  gentleness  of  disposition.  Above 
all,  Florence  Estienne  was  the  daughter  of  the  great 
printer,  Henri  Estienne  (Henricus  Stephanus  n.) 
Casaubon  was  naturally  attracted  to  the  editor  of  the 
Thesaurus,  and  had  probably  fallen  in  love  with  Es- 
tienne's  MSS.  collections,  before  he  began  to  pay  his 
court  to  the  daughter. 

But  there  was  a  difficulty  in  the  way,  over  and 
above  the  moody  and  fitful  temper,  which  was  grow- 
ing upon  Estienne  with  his  failing  fortunes.  The 
special  difficulty  was  a  literary  offence.  In  1566 
Henri  Estienne  brought  out  one  of  his  most  magni- 
ficent volumes,  his  '  Poetse  grseci/  the  cost  of  producing 
which  must  have  been  very  heavy.  But  no  sooner 
was  it  out,  than  Crespin  put  out  a  pocket  volume  of 
poets,  containing  the  Bucolic  and  Gnomic  poets,  who 
had  formed  a  part  of  Estienne's  'Corpus'  (1569). 
Estienne  replied  by  a  pocket  edition  of  the  Idyllic 
poets  (1579).  Vignon,  Crespin's  successor,  retorted 


30  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

with  a  new  edition  of  the  book  of  1569,  on  cheaper 
paper.  He  solicited,  and  obtained,  in  an  evil  hour, 
from  Casaubon,  a  few  pages  of  criticism  to  enliven 
and  recommend  his  volume.  The  rival  books  are,  in 
externals,  precisely  alike.  And,  as  Estienne  flourished 
on  his  title  page  '  Observationes  Henrici  Stephani 
in  Theocritum,'  Vignon  has  upon  his  '  Isaaci  Hortiboni 
Theocriticarum  lectionum  libellus/  Henri  Estienne, 
whose  profits  on  his  Greek  books  were,  to  say  the 
least,  doubtful,  naturally  resented  the  rivalry  in  his 
own  domain,  especially,  if,  as  is  almost  always  the  case, 
to  competition  was  added  underselling.  But  this  was 
not  the  worst.  Estienne  had,  in  each  of  his  editions, 
given  emendations  of  the  text  of  Theocritus.  To  correct 
over  the  irascible  veteran's  head  was  indiscreet,  and 
Casaubon  felt  it  to  be  so.  He  tried  to  mitigate  the 
storm  by  inscribing  his  '  Lectiones  Theocriticse '  to 
Estienne  himself,  and  apologising  most  humbly  for 
their  appearance  at  all.  *  He  had  allowed  Vignon  to 
get  a  promise  from  him  in  an  unguarded  moment.  He 
had  tried  to  be  off  it  afterwards,  but  Vignon  held  him 
to  his  pledge.  It  was  difficult  for  him  even  to  glean 
after  Estienne's  harvest.  His  poor  production  con- 
sisted merely  of  notes  jotted  down  some  time  before, 
for  his  own  use,  and  without  any  view  to  print/ 
'  Should  you  ever  condescend  to  go  through  them, 
you  will  greatly  oblige  me  if  you  will  mark  all  you 
disapprove  with  a  red  pencil.  Nothing  will  satisfy 
me,  but  what  I  find  to  be  satisfactory  to  you/  In 
later  years  Casaubon  learned  to  estimate  better  the 
value  of  Estienne's  'red  pencil/  This  abject  sentence 
disappeared  from  the  dedication  when  it  was  reprinted 
by  Commelin  in  1596. 

Besides  this  offence,  the  youth  of  Florence,  and  the 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  31 

poverty  of  Casaubon  were  grounds  on  which  the  father 
might  justly  disapprove  the  match.  But  he  did  not 
interfere  to  prevent  it,  perhaps  because  he  was  occupied 
with  a  suit  on  his  own  account.  Immediately  on 
the  expiry  of  his  year's  widowhood,  April  24,  1586, 
Casaubon  and  Florence  Estienne  were  married,  in  S. 
Peter's,  and  on  May  9,  Henri  Estienne  espoused  his 
third  wife,  Abigail  Pouppart. 

How  tenderly  Casaubon  was  attached  to  his  wife 
is  evident  throughout  his  diary.  Even  the  moments 
of  impatience,  consigned  to  the  pages  of  that  secret 
record,  may  be  taken  to  prove  affection  and  general 
harmony.  He  certainly  complains  bitterly  on  one 
occasion  of  her  interrupting  him*.  But  over  and  above 
Casaubon' s  constitutional  fretfulness,  we  must  make 
allowance  for  the  irritability  engendered  by  a  life  of 
hard  reading  against  time.  Casaubon  thought  every 
moment  lost  in  which  he  was  not  acquiring  knowledge. 
He  resented  intrusion  as  a  cruel  injury.  To  take  up 
his  time  was  to  rob  him  of  his  only  property.  Casau- 
bon's  imagination  was  impressed  in  a  painful  degree 
with  the  truth  of  the  dictum  'ars  longa,  vita 
brevis.'  As  though  with  a  presentiment  that  the 
end  would  come  to  him  early,  he  struggles,  all 
through  a  life  of  harass,  to  have  his  time  for  himself. 
To  his  wife  struggling  also,  in  her  way,  with 
the  cares  of  a  large  household  and  narrow  means, 
he  may  naturally  have  seemed  at  times  apathetic 
to  her  difficulties,  and  selfishly  'burying  himself  in 
his  books.'  This  is  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
exceptional  allusions  in  the  diary.  Its  general  tone 
is  that  of  true  affection.  When  she  is  away  from  him 
he  writes  to  her  by  every  post,  and  sometimes  cannot 

*  See  note  C  in  Appendix. 


32  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

give  his  attention  to  his  books  owing  to  the  pain  he 
suffers  at  her  absence.  June  1599,  '  dolor  ex  uxoris 
absentia  studia  mea  impediverunt.'  '  To-day  I  got 
two  letters  from  my  wife.  When  will  the  day  come 
that  I  shall  see  her  again  ? '  Every  illness  of  hers  is 
recorded,  and  his  time,  of  which  he  is  avaricious,  is 
devoted  to  waiting  upon  her.  Except  in  being  too 
prolific 35, — they  had  eighteen  children, — she  proved  an 
excellent  scholar's  wife,  according  to  the  model  which 
is  still  traditional  in  Germany.  She  did  not  enter 
into  her  husband's  pursuits,  but  she  encouraged  and 
sustained  his  temper  naturally  given  to  despondency. 
She  is  his  'steady  partner  in  all  his  vexations,'  ep.  750. 
She  relieves  him  of  all  domestic  cares,  so  that  as  he  com- 
plains to  archbishop  Spotswood,  <36when  she  is  absent 
from  him,  he  finds  himself  lost  and  helpless.'  She  is 
sure  to  find,  if  it  can  be  found,  a  valuable  volume  belong- 
ing to  Lingelsheim  '  because  whatever  she  knows  I  have 
at  heart,  she  has  at  heart.'  In  1613  he  writes,  <37I 
know  by  experience  what  a  great  help  in  our  studies 
is  an  agreeable  and  dearly-beloved  wife.'  There  is 
something  touchingly  simple  in  Florence's  entry  in 
the  Ephemerides,  the  solitary  entry  in  her  handwriting, 
February  23,  1601.  Casaubon  had  gone  out  of  Paris 
for  the  night,  to  attend  the  protestant  worship,  a 
journey  not  without  risk  from  the  fanatical  and  fero- 
cious catholic  mob  of  Paris.  Made.  Casaubon  takes 
the  volume  and  writes  *ce  jour  dit,  M.  Casaubon  a 
este  absent,  que  Dieu  garde,  et  moi,  et  les  nostres  avec 
lui.'  Her  economical  talent  comes  out  in  the  birthday 

35  G-eneva  MSS.  Reg.  du  pet.  cons.  17  oct.  1595,  f°.  184  :  '  Sur  la 
n^cessitd  de  sa  famille  qui  s'augrnente  annuellement,'  says  the  order  in 
council,  not  without  a  touch  of  humour. 

36  Ep.  1047.  37  Ep.  853. 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  33 

present  she  brought  her  husband  in  1604 — a  purse  of 
more  than  100  gold  crowns,  the  saving  of  her  thrift 
out  of  their  scanty  income. 

In  other  respects  the  connection  with  the  Estienne 
family  brought  with  it  nothing  but  vexation.  Henri's 
fortunes  were  brought  to  the  lowest  ebb,  and  that  by 
his  own  neglect.  Florence's  dower,  whatever  it  was 
that  was  promised,  remained  unpaid  at  her  father's 
death.  <38To  hope  to  get  my  wife's  dower  paid  by 
Estienne,'  Casaubon  writes  in  1596,  'would  be  to  hope 
for  water  from  the  rock.'  Nor  was  it  only  loss  of 
fortune  that  he  had  to  suffer.  He  had  the  mortifica- 
tion of  seeing  one,  who  bore  a  name  honoured  through 
Christendom,  and  who  had  achieved  so  much  for 
learning,  losing  daily  the  respect  of  others  and  his 
own,  and  lowering  himself  to  become  a  sycophant 
and  a  beggar  at  the  doors  of  bishops  and  princes. 
Estienne  was  a  perfect  dragon  in  the  close  keeping 
of  his  books  and  MSS.  So  far  from  marriage  with 
his  daughter  opening  to  Casaubon  the  father-in-law's 
library,  Casaubon  was  more  rigidly  excluded  from  it 
after  than  before  his  marriage.  Though  Estienne  was 
absent  on  his  wanderings  for  months — even  years — at 
a  time,  Casaubon  never  saw  the  inside  of  the  library, 
except  on  the  one  memorable  occasion  on  which  he 
and  Florence  summoned  courage  to  break  it  open. 
Speaking  of  a  new  book  of  Camerarius,  Casaubon 
writes  to  Bongars 39,  '  Read  it  I  have  not ;  seen  it  I 
have ;  but  it  was  in  the  hands  of  Henri  Estienne, 
who  would  not  so  much  as  allow  me  to  touch,  much 
less  read  it,  while  he  is  every  day  using,  or  abusing, 
my  books  as  if  they  were  his  own.'  Eichard  Thomson 
applied  to  Casaubon  to  get  him  the  loan  of  the  MS. 
38  Ep.  1010.  39  Ep.  21. 

D 


34  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

of  Sextus  Empiricus.  The  greek  text  of  Sextus  was 
not  yet  printed  in  1594,  but  Estienrie  had  a  Florence 
transcript,  which  he  had  bought  in  Italy  in  1555. 
Casaubon  is  obliged  to  reply  to  Thomson  :  '  *°  All  that 
I  have  is  yours.  But  the  MS.  of  Empiricus  belongs  to 
....  (Henri  Estienne).  You  know  the  man  and  his 
peculiarities.  I  have  no  influence  with  him  whatever. 
He  seems  to  have  entered  into  a  conspiracy  for  his 
own  ruin.  Indeed  he  is  not  here  (Geneva)  as  your 
letter  assumes.  For  the  last  nine  months  he  has  been 
on  his  wanderings  about  Germany,  settling  nowhere/ 
Casaubon  had  been  allowed  the  use  of  this  greek 
Sextus,  and  had  quoted  a  long  passage  from  it  in  the 
'  notes  on  Diogenes/  1593,  brandishing  it  in  the  reader's 
eyes  as  'noster  codex.'  He  is  now  driven  to  confess 
to  Thomson,  that  he  had  gone  too  far.  It  was  not  only 
not  his,  but  he  could  not  even  have  the  use  of  it. 

It  will  surprise  no  proprietor  of  MSS.  that  Estienne 
should  have  been  jealous  of  his  treasures,  and  that  he 
should  have  preferred  to  retain  the  power  of  producing 
the  Editio  princeps  of  Sextus  Empiricus  to  himself. 
In  our  own  day,  Cardinal  Mai  wished  to  monopolise 
the  whole  of  the  greek  MSS.  in  the  Vatican.  And 
Casaubon  was  specially  dangerous,  as  being  ready  and 
able  to  correct  and  publish  any  greek  he  could  lay  his 
hands  on.  Sylburgius  knew  this,  and  would  not  trust 
his  transcript  of  Scylax  (then,  1594,  unprinted)  for  an 
hour  in  his  hands.  And  the  same  instinct  was  latent 
in  Casaubon  himself.  At  a  later  period  when  his  own 
books  and  papers  had  become  valuable,  he  leaves  the 
strictest  orders,  on  sailing  for  England,  that  '  41no  one  in 
the  world  be  allowed  to  touch  or  handle  them.'  And 

40  Ep.  12. 

41  Burney  MSS.  367.  p.  66  :  '  Personne  du  monde  ne  les  manie  ni 
louche.' 


Casaubon 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  35 


Casaubon  exaggerates  the  facts  when  he  says  Estienne 
would  lend  him  no  books.  Both  in  the  Strabo  and 
in  the  Athena3us  he  derived  material  assistance  from 
collations  which  Henri  Estienne  had  made  in  Italy. 
His  expression  about  the  Strabo  seems  indeed  to 
intimate  that  it  had  been  obtained  with  difficulty. 
'42Postquam  codicem  suum  optime  de  literis  meritus 
socer  Henricus  Stephanas  nobis  concessit/ 

But  the  regard  and  respect  which  Casaubon  enter- 
tained for  the  veteran,  whose  enthusiasm  for  greek 
learning  had  been  his  ruin,  was  proof  against  Es- 
tienne's  jealousy,  and,  what  he  must  have  felt  keenly, 
the  old  man's  self-exposure  of  garrulous  senility 
through  his  press.  Casaubon  contributed  to  his 
editions,  deteriorating  from  year  to  year,  to  the  Thu- 
cydides  of  1588,  the  latin  Dionysius  of  the  same  year, 
the  Plinius  of  1591,  and  to  the  Diogenes  Laeitius  of 
1593.  He  was  jealously  excluded  from  all  share  in 
the  text  and  translation,  or  from  any  control  of  the 
contents  of  the  volumes.  What  he  gave  was  extorted 
from  his  good  nature,  that  the  title  page  of  a  badly 
edited  book  might  be  decorated  by  the  name  of 
Casaubon.  Anger  was  lost  in  pity.  Gruter  sends 
Casaubon  his  Seneca,  1593,  in  which  were  some  sharp 
reflections  on  Estienne.  Casaubon,  who  knew  how 
just  they  were,  expostulates  with  Gruter.  '43  There 
was  but  one  drawback  to  the  pleasure  I  had  in 
reading  your  book — you  know  what.  I  could  not 
but  feel  pain  at  your  strictures  on  one  so  nearly 
related  to  me.  Believe  me,  my  friend,  when  I  say 
that  if  you  only  knew  the  man  himself  and  his  ways, 
that  even  now  you  could  not  help  loving  him/  All 
grievances  were  forgotten  when  the  melancholy  end 

42  Comm.  in  Strab.  p.  161.  43  Ep.  979. 

D    2 


36  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

came  in  1598.  In  lamenting  the  ' charissimum  caput'  in 
his  diary,  Casaubon  was  only  thinking  of  the  better  days 
of  Henri's  youth,  and  hopes  that  he  himself  may  imitate 
his  father-in-law's  unwearied  industry  in  learning. 

As  his  family  increased,  Casaubon  began  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  distress.  His  wife's  portion  was  not  to 
be  had,  and  in  the  disturbed  state  of  France  it  was 
impossible  to  realise  his  father's  estate.  Besides,  the 
widow  still  lived,  and  had  to  be  provided  for.  Casaubon 
was  obliged  to  appeal  to  the  council.  The  treasury  of 
the  republic  was  in  no  better  plight  than  that  of  its 
citizens.  But  necessitous  as  they  were  they  did  not 
refuse  to  help  Casaubon.  October  28,  1594,  a  bonus 
of  300  florins  (genevese)  is  voted  * M  au  sieur  Isaac 
Casaubon  qui  sert  cette  academic  avec  beaucoup 
d'honneur,  qui  est  dans  la  necessite,  et  qui  se  plaint 
de  ne  pouvoir  vivre  de  ses  gages.'  This  in- 
dulgence to  Casaubon  must  be  ascribed,  not  so  much 
to, personal  esteem,  but  to  the  circumstance  that  his 
classical  lectures  were  the  mainstay  of  the  academy. 
This  we  may  infer  not  only  from  the  general  distress 
of  the  treasury,  which  must  have  precluded  all  senti- 
mental largesses,  but  from  the  fact  that,  two  years 
later,  one  of  the  law  professors,  Jacques  Lect,  was 
suppressed  altogether.  And  Lect  was  a  more  con- 
siderable person  in  the  city  than  Casaubon,  and  was, 
at  the  time  that  he  was  cashiered,  member  of  the 
council.  But  he  was  not  indispensable.  For  he  was 
one  of  two  law  professors,  and  could,  therefore,  be 
regarded  as  a  superfluity.  Lect  remonstrated,  plead- 
ing that  he  had  embarked  his  prospects  in  the  career 
of  law  teacher,  and  had  besides  hurt  his  fortune  by 
buying  the  large  quantity  of  books  which  was  neces- 

44  Registre  du  conseil,  Gr&ms,  p.  76. 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  37 

sary.  But  his  appeal  was  in  vain.  We  may  hazard 
the  conjecture,  though  the  historians  are  silent,  that 
there  was  a  jealousy  between  the  two  gowns,  between 
church  and  law.  At  any  rate  we  find  that  the  faculty 
of  law  was  introduced  into  the  academy,  by  the 
council,  in  the  teeth  of  a  remonstrance  from  the 
pastors.  In  this  remonstrance  they  allege,  amongst 
other  objections  to  the  study  of  law,  ' 45  that  those,  who 
apply  themselves  to  this  faculty,  are  for  the  most  part 
of  dissolute  habits,  being  young  men  of  quality,  whose 
humour  would  not  admit  of  their  being  subject  to  the 
discipline  of  this  church.'  It  may  be  that  Lect  was 
thus  punished  by  the  ministers'  party  for  opposition  in 
the  council,  where  an  able  lawyer,  <46gentil  personage/ 
like  Lect,  might  make  himself  troublesome. 

We  may  certainly  infer  from  the  fact  of  an  aug- 
mentation being  granted  to  Casaubon,  at  a  moment 
when  the  treasury  was  empty,  that  his  means  were 
confessedly  straitened.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  reconcile  with  his  indigence  his  collection  of 
books.  The  valuable  library  he  left  at  his  death  in 
1614  must  have  been,  in  great  part,  the  acquisition 
of  later  years.  Yet  we  know  that  before  1597  ne  was 
in  possession  of  a  fund  of  books,  rich  both  as  to 
number  and  selection.  The  handlist  which  he  made 
when  he  shipped  his  books  for  Moiitpellier  is  pre- 
served47. They  made  thirteen  bales,  and  amount  to 
450  articles — not  volumes.  Many  authors,  such  as 
S.  Augustine,  fill  several  volumes  folio.  Not  a  few 
MSS.  are  among  them. 

From  Casaubon's  commentaries  we  see  that  the  style 
of  his  work  demanded  nothing  less  than  a  complete 

'5  Reg.  du  conseil,  Gre'nus,  p.  46.  46  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  138. 

47  Adversaria,  torn.  22. 


38  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

collection  of  the  classical  remains.  He  wants  to  found 
his  remarks,  not  on  this  or  that  passage,  but  on  a 
complete  induction.  It  seems  easy  for  Bentley48  to  say, 
'Astypalsea  of  Crete  does  not  once  occur  in  ancient 
authors/  But  a  lifetime  is  behind  this  negation.  It  is 
noticeable,  how  early  in  his  career  Casaubon  had  begun 
to  transcend  the  sphere  of  printed  greek.  In  the 
'  Notes  on  Diogenes/  set.  25,  we  find  that  he  had 
managed  to  beg,  borrow,  or  buy  many  anecdota — 
Polysenus ;  Photius ;  a  fragment  of  Theocritus ;  a 
.Theodoret  '  De  servandis  affectibus/  lent  him  by  Pacius; 
Scholia  on  Euripides,  given  him  by  Galesius49.  It 
must  not  be  supposed  that  Casaubon  could  at  this,  or 
any  time,  buy  ancient  greek  MSS.  What  he  bought 
were  transcripts  made  for  sale.  These  were  manu- 
factured by  Damarius.  Damarius  was  one  of  the  last 
of  the  calligraphs,  a  race  who  long  survived  the  in- 
vention of  printing.  Damarius — '  homo  grsecus/  says 
Casaubon,  with  a  tinge  of  bitterness  at  the  recollection 
of  some  of  his  bargains — had,  it  should  seem,  access  to 
the  library  at  Venice,  and  went  about  Europe  to  sell  his 
copies.  His  transcripts  are  no  clivres  de  luxe,'  like  the 
productions  of  the  pen  of  a  Yergecio  or  a  Rhosus — 
true  works  of  art,  made  to  adorn  the  collections  of 
princes  and  cardinals  *.  Damarius'  books  are  hasty 
transcripts,  on  poor  paper,  of  any  inedita  he  could  get 
hold  of  in  Bessarion's  library.  50  Casaubon  may  naturally 

48  Diss.  upon  Phalaris,  Works,  i.  368. 
9  Notae  in  Diogenem,  pp.  3,  14,  16,  79,  120. 

*  See  Note  D  in  Appendix. 

50  S.  Hieronym.  preef.  in  Job  :  '  Habeant  qui  volunt  veteres  libros, 
vel  in  membranis  purpureis  auro  argentoque  descriptos,  vel  uncialibus, 
ut  vulgo  aiunt,  litteris,  onera  magis  exarata  quam  codices,  dummodo 
mihi  meisque  permittant  pauperes  habere  schedulas,  et  non  tarn 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  39 

have  preferred,  with  S.  Jerome,,  correct  books  to  orna- 
mental books,  but  this  he  did  not  get  from  Damarius. 
The  transcripts  of  Damarius  do  not  make  up  for  their 
want  of  external  beauty  by  accuracy  of  text ;  for  the 
transcriber  does  not  seem  to  have  known  even  the  gram- 
mar of  classical  greek.  For  these  wretched  copies  he 
was  able  to  extract  sums  really  vast.  For  the  Polysenus 
Casaubon  had  given  a  great  sum — 'magno  sere.'  A 
Julius  Africanus  was  sold  to  him,  by  the  same  vendor, 
for  300  crowns,  ' 51  almost  its  weight  in  silver/  But 
Polygenus  and  Africanus  were  not  then  in  print, 
and  Casaubon  must  have  them.  But  of  his  printed 
books  many,  the  greek  and  hebrew  especially,  were  not 
books  to  be  found  in  the  shops.  Even  new  books, 
though  their  prices  seem  to  us  low,  were  not  cheaper 
in  relation  to  the  means  of  subsistence,  then  than  now. 
And  then,  as  now,  if  you  wanted  to  make  a  book  come 
specially  for  yourself  from  a  distance,  you  were  obliged 
to  pay  for  it.  We  find  Casaubon,  in  his  earliest  corres- 
pondence, setting  his  friends  to  hunt  for  books  difficult 
to  procure.  In  1596,  when  Sylburgius3  library  is  to  be 
sold  at  Heidelberg,  Casaubon  writes  to  Commelin,  '  If 
there  is  anything  scarce  in  it52  to  secure  it,  that  it  may 
not  get  into  hands  that  can  do  nothing  with  it/  He 
had  commissioned  the  Genevan  bookseller  to  get  him 
the  Eoman  LXX  of  1587, '  at  any  cost ' — '  quovis  pretio.' 
When  Richard  Thomson  was  in  Italy,  he  offered  to 

pulchros  codices  quam  emendates.'  Mindful  of  the  precept  of  Plinius, 
'  fateri  per  quos  profeceris/  I  must  confess  to  owe  this  passage,  so 
important  for  the  history  of  palaeography,  to  Cobet's  Yarr.  Lectt.  p.  5, 
note.  Cobet  derived  it  from  '  Eckhel,  Doctr.  Numm.  v.  4.' 

51  Ep.  227  :    '  Pene  contra  aurum.'    JEn.  Tact.  p.  220,  Sueton.  p. 
47,  ed.  1611. 

52  Ep.  1004  :  *  Si  distrahatur  Sylhurgii  supellex,  et  sit  aliquid  rari, 
id  quseso  vel  tibi,  vel  mihi  compara.' 


40  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

look  out  books  for  Casaubon53.  Casaubon  writes  in 
reply54,  'I  need  send  you  no  list  of  desiderata.  My 
little  stock  of  books  is  well  known  to  you,  and  since 
you  were  here,  I  have  riot  acquired  anything  fresh. 
Besides,  knowing  as  I  do  your  forwardness  to  do  any- 
thing for  me,  I  cannot  think  of  thus  abusing  your 
generosity.  However,  if  you  should  come  across  any- 
thing which  I  have  not  seen,  hebrew,  greek,  or  latin,  it 
will  be  very  welcome/  With  the  same  independent 
feeling,  he  writes,  on  another  occasion,  to  Lambert 
Canter55  that  he  shall  only  ask  him  to  procure  books, 
on  the  condition  that  he  (Casaubon)  is  to  pay  for 
them.  Later,  in  1608,  we  find56  Biondi  having  a 
standing  commission  to  send  books  from  Venice  to 
Casaubon. 

How  the  means  of  this  outlay  were  obtained  we  do 
not  know,  while  he  was  at  the  same  time  supplicating 
the  council  for  bare  subsistence.  Some  may  have  been 
paid  in  kind.  He  tells  Commelin 57  that  he  '  will  settle 
his  debt  to  him  either  by  editing  books  for  him,  or  in 
some  other  way/  Both  publishers  and  authors  were 
always  forward  to  send  him  copies  of  their  learned 
publications.  But  then  this  had  to  be  met,  either  by 
a  return  of  copies  of  Casaubon's  books,  or  by  some 
service  ;  e.  g.  Sebastian  Henrici-Petri  of  Bale58  sends 
him  two  copies  of  his  second  edition  of  Homer,  one  for 
the  king,  and  one  for  himself,  but  with  the  request  that 
he  would  get  him  a  copyright  privilege  for  France. 
Besides  new  publications,  presents  of  rarities  were 

53  Burney  MSS.  366.  p.  225.  64  Ep.  79,  August  1596. 

55  Ep.  88 1.  56  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  285. 

57  Ep.  8 1 :  '  Contractum  apud  te  ses  alienum,  vel  /3i/3Xta  avr\ 
rependens,  vel  alia  ratione  expungam.' 
68  Burney  MSS.  364.  250. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  41 

sometimes  made  him  by  wealthy  friends  or  patrons. 
He  seems  to  have59  begged  books  of  Canaye  de  Fresne, 
who  responded  to  the  appeal  with  great  liberality. 
Bongars  especially,  is  thanked60  for  'various  gifts/ 
some  of  which  were  books.  Thomson,  though  not 
wealthy,  had  sent  him  at  least  three  parcels  of  books 
before  1596.  Loans  of  great  value  were  not  seldom 
made  him  for  the  purposes  of  his  various  editions. 
These  loans  either  became  by  lapse  of  time  property, 
Casaubon  being  tacitly  suffered  to  retain  them,  or 
still  intending  to  use  them.  Certain  it  is  that,  at 
his  death,  in  1614,  many  such  were  found  in  his 
possession,  and  never  reverted  to  the  owners.  Among 
these  may  be  identified  a  MS.  Polysenus  which  belonged 
to  Bongars,  having  been  a  present  from  the  court  phy- 
sician, Superville.  Hoeschel  of  Augsburg  had  lent  a 
valuable  MS.  of  the  epitome  of  Athenseus.  Hoeschel 
outlived  Casaubon,  but  never  got  his  Atheriseus  again, 
both  it  and  the  Polysenus  having  been  impounded,  for 
the  king's  library.  Another  MS.  of  Hoeschel's,  an  Ex- 
cerpta  of  Polybius,  and  another  Polybius  which  had 
been  lent  by  de  Mesmes,  remained  in  England,  and 
getting  in  Selden's  hands,  became  part  of  his  collection 
by  this  process  of  adhesion.  The  same  account  is 
probably  to  be  given  of  a  MS.  Porphyrius  de  Prosodia, 
which  had  been  part  of  Corbinelli's  collection,  and  was 
found  among  Casaubon' s  books  at  his  death. 

All  these  forms  of  supply  were  insufficient  to  feed 
his  reading.  He  writes  to  de  Thou  (1595),  c  61  No  want, 
and  I  have  many,  is  so  sensibly  felt  by  me  as  the 
want  of  books — books  absolutely  necessary  for  what 
I  am  writing.  The  old.  martyrologies  e.  g.  among  others. 
And  there  are  other  books  which  are  indispensable  for 
59  Ep.  972.  fl°  Ep.  1008.  61  Ep.  28. 


42  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

the  elucidation  of  antiquity,  which  I  have  not  as  yet 
been  able  to  procure  here  (Geneva),  and  perhaps  never 
shall.3 

On  the  whole  we  may  conclude  that  Casaubon  had 
strained  his  narrow  means  in  this  one  direction  of  ex- 
pense. Pinched  everywhere  else,  he  spent  all  he  could 
save  on  books62.  Book-buying  was  to  him  not  the  in- 
dulgence of  a  taste  or  a  passion,  it  was  the  acquisition 
of  tools.  While  mere  bibliomania  is  insatiable,  the  books 
wanted  for  a  given  investigation  are  an  assignable 
quantity.  At  the  present  day,  when  the  book-trade  is 
organised,  a  collection  of  classics  complete  enough  to  work 
with,  may  be  made  in  no  long  time.  But  at  the  period 
of  which  we  write,  when  there  were  no  advertisements, 
no  booksellers'  catalogues,  and  hardly  any  booksellers 
(as  distinct  from  printers),  this  was  not  possible.  Your 
only  means  of  knowing  what  new  books  were  being 
published  was  to  attend  the  half-yearly  fair  at  Frank- 
fort. Even  then  yon  would  only  see  the  books  of  those 
printers  who  attended  the  fair,  and  the  stock  they 
brought  with  them.  Each  printer  only  troubled  him- 
self about  the  sale  of  his  own  publications,  and  in  very 
rare  cases  consented  to  sell  those  of  another  firm.  In 
1595,  Casaubon  writes  to  Commelin  at  Heidelberg, 
4  63  If  I  ask  you  to  send  me  direct  all  that  issues  from 
your  press,  it  is  not  believe  me,  dearest  Commelin, 
because  I  am  unwilling  to  buy  them,  but  because  ] 
am  unable.  Our  booksellers  here  (Geneva)  are  a  blinc 
sort  who  don't  care  to  bring  back  (from  Frankfort)  whai 
they  think  will  not  pay.  I  except  Favre,  who  is  noj 
so  stupid  as  the  rest.  From  him  I  bought  such  o: 

62  Ep.  972  :  '  Reculas  pene  omnes  meas  in  aliis  omne  genus  libris 
absumsi.'     Ep.  225  :  He  sold  books  he  had  read,  to  buy  others  with. 

63  Ep.  44. 


vours  as 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  43 


^ours  as  I  have  got.  You  will  have  to  write  to  de 
Tournes  (a  Genevan  printer)  to  order  him  to  deliver 
me  the  Chrysostom,  as  he  refuses  to  do  so,  till  he  has 
your  express  commands.'  From  Rostock  the  lawyer 
Hanniel  writes  to  Scaliger  (1607),  '64I  have  not  been 
lucky  enough  to  see  your  Eusebius  yet.  The  indiffer- 
ence, or  shall  I  say  greed,  of  our  booksellers  is  such 
that  they  give  themselves  no  trouble  about  good  books, 
but  only  think  of  their  profits/ 

Nor  was  the  limitation  of  a  private  collection  made 
good,  as  in  our  day,  by  a  great  public  library.  It  is 
true  that  Geneva,  even  then,  had  a  public  library, 
which  contained  many  valuable  books.  It  was  a  leg- 
acy from  Bonivard.  Here  Casaubon  found  the  Apu- 
leius  of  1469,  the  Suetonius  of  1470,  and  it  is  probable 
that  it  was  the  possession  of  these  books  that  deter- 
mined him  to  become  the  editor  of  those  authors. 
But  the  collection  though  valuable  was  small.  '  Happy 
they/  writes  Casaubon  to  Pithou,  *  who  enjoy  such 
libraries  as  yours  and  those  of  your  brother.  Here 
(Geneva)  there  is  no  one  who  can  assist  me  with  the 
loan  of  so  much  as  a  single  old  book.  As  for  Esti- 
enne  ...  he  guards  his  books  as  the  Indian  griffins 
do  their  gold ;  he  lets  them  go  to  rack  and  ruin ;  but 
what  he  has  or  what  he  has  not  got,  I  am  entirely 
ignorant'  (ep.  41).  And  again:  '65It  has  been  my 
ill-fortune  not  to  be  able  to  come  by  any  books  but 
common  ones.  So  that  the  learned  should  make 
allowances  for  me,  if  in  my  writings  they  find  no 
traces,  or  but  few,  of  that  more  recondite  learning 
which  is  only  to  be  gathered  from  worm-eaten  pages/ 
The  expression  used  here,  '  blattarii  libri/  would  include 

64  Burmann,  Syll.  2.  743.  63  Ep.  76. 


44  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

both  MSS.  and  early  editions,  of  the  importance  of 
which  in  forming  a  text  Casaubon  had  lately  become 
.aware.  This  cry  for  more  books  was  not  the  mere 
craving  of  a  gluttonous  reader,  but  a  demand  for  ma- 
terials for  projected  works.  We  shall  therefore  not 
be  surprised  to  find  this  necessity  among  the  causes 
inducing  him  to  leave  Geneva 66. 

As  illustrating  Casaubon' s  circumstances,  may  be  re- 
lated the  episode  of  his  acquaintance  with  Sir  Henry 
Wotton.  On  June  22,  1593,  young  Henry  Wotton, 
then  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  arrived  at  Geneva,  in  the 
course  of  a  prolonged  tour  which  had  been  extended 
over  Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  and  Switzerland.  It 
was  rather  a  residence  on  the  continent  than  a  tour, 
for  he  was  nine  years  absent  from  England  altogether, 
acquiring  that  knowledge  of  foreign  languages,  which 
afterwards  qualified  him  for  the  Venetian  embassy. 
At  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Geneva  he  was  poor  and 
unknown.  It  so  chanced  that  he  took  up  his  lodging 
in  the  house  of  Casaubon,  to  whom  he  was  recom- 
mended by  Eichard  Thomson.  Wotton's  first  im- 
pressions of  Geneva  are,  though  only  a  glimpse,  a 
graphic  picture  of  its  interior  in  those  years. 

Aug.  22,  1593,  To  Lord  Zouch67. — *  Here  I  am  placed, 
to  my  very  great  contentment,  in  the  house  of  Mr. 
Isaac  Casaubon,  a  person  of  sober  condition  among 
the  French.  .  .  .  Concerning  news,  your  honour  knows 
we  are  here  rather  scholars  than  politicians,  and  sooner 
good  than  wise.  Yet  thus  much  I  must  say,  that  the 
state  of  the  town  is  undone  with  war,  even  in  manners, 

66  Cf.  Ep.   980  :    <Nos,  in  eo  ten-arum  angulo  positi,  ubi  scripta 
ejus  generis  non  facile  reperiuntur,  qusedam  nulla  diligentia  consequi 
adhuc  possumus.'     This  was  in  1594. 

67  Ap.  Reliquiae  Wottonianse,  p.  710. 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  45 

for  certainly  I  have  not  seen  worse  temptations  in  Italy. 
Not  to  let  your  honour  be  melancholy,  I  cannot  abstain 
to  tell  you,  that  since  the  dayes  began  to  shorten,  the 
women,  before  seeming  to  have  digested  certain  hu- 
mors with  walking,  do  now  shell  hemp  till  an  hour 
or  two  in  the  night,  upon  the  bankes  (benches)  in  the 
street,  and  fires  before  them  made  of  those  shales,  a 
custom  drawing  with  it  many  pretty  examples  and 
opportunities.  In  short,  it  was  three  days  since  for- 
bidden with  the  sound  of  the  trumpet68.  Some  accuse 
the  war,  and  lay  the  fault  upon  the  Dutch  (Germans) 
as  having  brought  into  the  town  intemperance  and 
ebriety,  and  such  other  evils  as  follow  them/ 

Casaubon  was  charmed  with  his  inmate.  Wotton 
according  to  Walton  (Life)  was  '  of  a  choice  shape, 
tall  of  stature,  and  of  a  most  persuasive  behaviour, 
which  was  so  mixed  with  sweet  discourse  and  civil- 
ities, as  gained  him  much  love  from  all  persons  with 
whom  he  entered  into  an  acquaintance/  Against  such 
winning  qualities  Casaubon  was  not  proof,  and  allowed 
the  gay  Englishman  to  run  in  debt  to  him  for  part  of 
his  year's  board  and  lodging.  The  usual  tariff  for  board 
and  lodging  was,  as  we  have  seen,  about  ninety  florins. 
Wotton,  when  at  Vienna,  paid  two  florins  a  week  for 
'  chamber,  stove  and  table/  at  which  rate  he  reckoned 
that  it  cost  him  more  by  £5.  45.  yearly  than  it  would 
cost  a  'good  careful  scholar  in  the  universities  of 
England/  If  rhenish  florins  are  meant,  this  rate 

58  Ordinances  or  proclamations  of  the  council  were  by  ancient 
custom  so  made  known  in  the  Swiss  towns.  Jussie,  Levain,  etc.  p.  2 1  : 
'A  son  trompette/  and  Gaullieur,  p.  128,  quotes  the  Kegistre  du 
conseil,  9  mai,  1539:  '  Arretd  qu'on  fasse  publier  a  voix  de  trompe, 
que  nul  n'aye  a  imprimer  chose  que  soit  .  .  .  sans  licence  de 
Messieurs.' 


46  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

would  be  about  £20  sterling  per  annum,  of  that  day69. 
Wotton  had  no  attendant  with  him,  and  was  in  other 
respects  very  economical.  Indeed  he  had  need  to  be 
so,  if  his  whole  fortune  was  the  rent  charge  of  100 
marks,  which  had  been  left  him  by  his  father.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  from  failure  of  remittances,  he  was  not 
able  to  pay  his  bill  when  he  wanted  to  leave.  The 
sum  of  33  gold  crowns  would  have  been  a  serious  loss 
to  Casaubon.  But  this  was  not  the  worst.  Wotton 
had  prevailed  on  Casaubon  to  become  surety  for  a 
much  larger  sum,  which  he  had  borrowed  from  a 
banker,  124  gold  crowns.  And  another  creditor  of 
Wotton' s,  who  had  lent  him  a  further  sum  of  106 
crowns,  being  himself  about  to  leave  Geneva,  came 
upon  Casaubon  to  repay  him.  Even  the  very  horse, 
on  which  he  had  ridden  away,  Wotton  had  taken  on 
credit — Casaubon' s  credit — and  the  dealer  might  come 
any  day  to  Casaubon  to  be  paid.  All  was  to  be  settled 
by  remittances  from  Frankfort.  The  autumn  fair  came 
on,  the  merchants  returned  from  Frankfort,  and  there 
was  not  only  no  cash,  but  not  even  a  line  from  Wotton. 
Casaubon  was  in  the  depths  of,  despair.  He  could  do 
nothing  and  think  of  nothing  but  his  loss.  Two 
hundred  and  sixty-three  crowns,  besides  the  horse ! 
It  was  impossible  for  him  to  raise  the  sum.  He  wrote 
to  Wotton  in  England,  to  Thomson,  to  Scaliger  to 
interest  himself  in  his  behalf  with  the  French  ambas- 
sador at  the  Hague.  It  was  Christmas  before  Wotton 
paid.  But  he  did  so  at  last  in  full.  Though  we  may 
acquit  Wotton  of  dishonesty,  we  must  condemn  him 
for  culpable  neglect. 

69  From  Grynseus'  epistles  (Norimb.  1720)  we  learn  that  the  usual 
tariff  at  Bale,  at  this  period,  in  a  professor's  house,  was  26  to  30 
batzen  per  week.  A  rhenish  florin  contained  2 1  batzen. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  47 

Poor  as  the  provision  made  for  Casaubon  by  the  city 
was,  it  was  not  compensated  by  leisure.  Casaubon,  in 
these  years,  complains  of  poverty,  he  complains  much 
more  of  want  of  time.  This  complaint  may  seem 
inconsistent  with  the  fact,  that  his  statute  only  bound 
him  to  eight  hours  a  week  of  lecture.  But  he  had 
now  added  latin  to  his  greek  lecturing,  and  for  a  time 
supplied  the  place  of  the  hebrew  lecturer70.  And  it  is 
probable  that  he  was  driven  by  necessity  to  give 
private  instruction,  or  at  least  that  he  did  so  to  the 
young  men  who  lodged  in  his  house,  or  who  came  to 
Geneva,  as  many  now  began  to  do,  with  special  recom- 
mendation to  him.  And  the  demand  on  his  time71 
occasioned  by  lectures  must  not  be  measured  by  the 
hours  of  delivery,  but  by  those  of  preparation. 

We  have  the  means  in  our  hands  of  measuring,  with 
some  exactness,  what  the  level  of  the  greek  and  latin 
classes  at  Geneva,  in  these  years,  was.  Three,  at  least, 
of  Casaubon's  published  commentaries  are,  in  substance, 
reproductions  of  his  courses  dictated  to  his  class  at 
Geneva.  Of  these,  the  Notes  on  Persius  are  of  un- 
certain date  ;  those  on  Theophrastus  are  not  later 
than  1590;  those  on  the  2nd  book  of  Suetonius  are 
of  1592.  As  the  Notes  on  Diogenes  Laertius  give 
us  the  measure  of  Casaubon's  own  acquirement  set. 
25,  so  these  three  commentaries  enable  us  to  form  a 
fair  notion  of  what  was  the  character  of  the  instruction 
expected,  and  given,  in  the  academy  of  Geneva  in  the 

70  Ep.  879:    '  Vixi  annos  14  Genevae,  professor  primo  Graecarum 
literarum,   deinde    etiam   Latinarum,    aliquando    etiam    Hebrsearum.' 
The  '  Latin '  professorship  is   that  which  is  called  in  the  order  in 
council,  Geneva  MSS,  Kegistre  du  pet.  cons.  22  nov.   1585,  f°.  160, 
*  Ung  professeur  en  Eloquence  pour  lire  1'histoire.' 

71  Ep.  972  :  '  Docendi  munere  laboriosissimo  fungor  assidue.' 


48  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

closing  years  of  the  i6th  century72.  Not  that  the 
printed  commentary  is  the  lecture  as  delivered. 
Casaubon's  lectures  were  not  written  out,  they  were 
extempore.  But  they  were  from  the  notes  he  took 
into  the  classroom.  These  notes  were  chiefly  refer- 
ences to  the  relevant  passages  in  other  books.  The 
same  nucleus  of  memoranda  received  a  different 
development,  when  written  out  in  the  shape  of  a 
commentary  for  readers,  and  when  addressed  orally 
to  a  class  of  pupils.  But  the  substance  and  charac- 
ter of  the  illustration  remained  the  same.  Nor  is  it 
difficult  in  the  commentary,  e.  g.  on  Theophrastus,  to 
pick  out  passages,  the  tone  of  which  stamps  them 
as  portions  of  a  lecture.  A  lecturer  will  not  go 
where  his  class  cannot  follow.  That  Casaubon  did 
not,  we  know  from  the  success  and  popularity  of  his 
teaching.  But  we  might  infer  it  also  from  the  dif- 
ferent character  of  some  '  Notes  on  Aristophanes' 73 
which  are  the  substance  of  a  course  delivered  at 
Paris  in  1601.  In  that  year  Casaubon  interpreted 
*  The  Knights'  to  a  circle  of  friends  in  his  own 
house 74.  Here  we  find  the  lecturer  judiciously  adapt- 
ing himself  to  an  audience  composed  of  older  persons, 
but  manifestly  less  advanced  in  knowledge  of  the 
language  than  the  younger  class,  with  whom  he  had 
read  Theophrastus  ten  years  before  at  Geneva75.  Casau- 

72  Schultze,    Epp.   inedd.    p.    14  :    '  Olim    cum  Genevse    essem    et 
frequent!  auditorio  poetam  ilium  publice  exponerem,  id  serio  agebam, 
ut  etiam  rudiorum  rationem  haberem.     Hinc  ilia  XcTrroXoy^aTa,  quee 
doctos  offendere  non  debent,  quia  illis  scripta  non  sunt.' 

73  First  printed  by  L.  Kuster  in  his  Aristophanes,  Amstel.  1710. 

74  Eph.  p.  384. 

75  Kuster  accordingly  finds  the  Notes  '  non  seque  elaborate  ac  alia, 
quse  habemus,  eruditissimi  illius  viri  opera,  prselectiones  enim  potius 
fuisse  videotex  in  tironum  usum  conscriptse.' 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  49 

bon  had  been  transferred,  almost  without  interval, 
from  the  bench  of  the  learner  to  the  chair  of  the 
teacher.  What  he  had  learned  under  Portus,  he  was 
to  teach  to  others.  We  cannot  suppose  that  he  raised, 
at  one  stroke,  the  standard  of  the  whole  school,  or 
changed  its  character.  What  he  did,  Portus  must  have 
been  doing,  though  perhaps  not  so  thoroughly,  before 
him. 

Weighing  all  these  facts,  we  can  arrive  at  a  tolerably 
near  estimate  of  the  range  and  compass  of  classical 
instruction  in  the  academy  of  Geneva.  We  find  a 
width  of  reading  possessed  by  the  teacher,  and  a  level 
of  philological  curiosity  assumed  in  the  learner,  which 
it  would  not  be  easy  to  find  surpassed  in  the  most  cele- 
brated lecturerooms  of  our  time.  We  may  safely 
affirm,  that  such  teaching  could  neither  have  been 
given  nor  appreciated  without  the  most  unremitting 
effort  on  the  part  both  of  teacher  and  taught.  Of  him- 
self the  Professor  has  told  us,  that  it  taxed  all  his 
energies  to  master  the  Eoman  history  of  the  first 
century,  A.  D.,  in  a  way  which  was  adequate  to  the 
demands  of  his  class 76.  The  time  demanded  of  the 
Professor,  eight  hours  per  week,  is  not  heavy  ;  but  his 
every  hour  was  required  to  obtain  the  mastery  of 
the  period,  and  the  survey  of  the  whole  of  the 
authorities,  without  which  he  was  not  content  to 
pronounce  an  opinion  on  a  single  passage.  He  does 
not  content  himself  with  the  bare  explanation  of 
the  text  of  his  author.  He  would  grapple  with  all 
the  difficulties  which  emerge,  not  only  in  the  text, 
but  in  the  matter.  And  these  diificultes  he  will 

76  Ded.  in  Sueton.  :  '  In  quo  negotio  ut  ea  fide  versarer,  quam  et 
muneris  mei  ratio  postulabat,  et  alacritas  lionestissimorum  adole- 
scentium  qui  mihi  assiduam  operam  navabant  .  .  .' 

E 


50  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

meet,  not  by  retailing  solutions  ready  made  by  pre- 
vious commentators  ;  he  offers  one  founded  on  his 
own  reading  and  comparison  of  passages.  And  this 
comparison  is  not  one  instituted  for  the  particular 
occasion  by  inspection  of  an  isolated  text  or  paragraph. 
The  whole  of  each  author  is  read  and  possessed,  and  it 
is  with  this  complete  feeling,  that  the  citation  required 
is  brought  up  as  illustration.  The  sense  of  thorough- 
ness, thus  conveyed  by  a  lecturer's  method,  renders  a 
wrong  solution  more  valuable  than  a  right  one  arrived 
at  by  superficial  reading,  or  taken  upon  the  authority 
of  another  expositor. 

Besides  the  books  already  named,  we  find  him  taking 
as  his  text-book,  Arrianus'  Diatribse,  and  Polybius. 
Polybius  was  chosen  with  a  view  to  catch  the  interest 
of  the  military  men.  The  lecturer  went  into  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Roman  army,  and  had,  for  this 
purpose,  that  portion  of  the  greek  text  separately 
struck  off.  The  Arrianus,  as  afterwards  Persius,  was 
selected  with  a  view  to  edification.  The  printed  com- 
mentaries retain  traces  of  this  moral  purpose  which 
had  inspired  the  lecturer.  It  was  a  sentiment  which 
dominated  the  academy,  nay,  the  state.  It  was  its  moral 
intensity  more  than  its  pure  orthodoxy,  which  gave 
Geneva  the  lead  .of  the  calvinistic  churches,  and  caused 
its  school  to  be  sought  from  all  parts.  A  few  years 
after  Casaubon  left,  Valentin  Andrese  was  struck  with 
the  contrast  between  the  religious  earnestness  of 
Geneva,  and  the  dogmatic  scholasticism  of  German 
lutheranism.  Vice  and  luxury  were  here  criminal 
offences77.  Casaubon's  lectures  are  coloured,  without 
being  corrupted,  by  the  same  tone.  He  never  shirks 
difficulties  under  the  cover  of  moral  reflection.  But  he 

77  J.  V.  Andrese,  Vita  ab  ipso  conscripta,  p.  24. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  51 

dms  to  vivify  classical  literature,  and  to  read  a  stoical 
book  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  written.  It  becomes 
not  a  mere  grammatical  amusement,  but  an  education 
of  character  for  the  young,  an  instruction  in  life  and 
manners  for  persons  of  all  ages.  The  affinity  which 
this  temper  felt  for  stoical  literature — for  Arrianus,  or 
Persius,  is  easily  understood.  It  is  characteristic  of 
Beza,  the  able  negotiator  and  man  of  affairs,  that  he 
should  have  recommended  Cicero's  letters  to  Atticus  as 
a  text-book.  And  when  Casaubon  wished  to  gratify 
his  own  antiquarian  taste  by  reading  on  Tertullianus 
De  Pallio,  the  '  coetus  pastorum'  vetoed  the  book,  as 
unedifying.  Though  his  preference  was  for  prose, 
the  tragic  poets  were  not  omitted,  and  Euripides  was 
often  in  hand. 

These  are  all  the  authors  mentioned  by  name  as 
having  been  taken  for  text-books  by  Casaubon.  But 
in  the  course  of  fourteen  years'  professorship  many 
others  must  have  had  their  turn.  He  can  hardly  have 
altogether  ignored  the  requirements  of  his  statute, 
which  names  '  Aristotle,  Plato,  or  Plutarch '  expressly 
as  books  for  the  greek  reader.  Yet  two  inferences 
from  this  fragmentary  information  seem  to  be  war- 
ranted. First,  that  Casaubon  dwelt  more  fondly  on 
the  historical,  antiquarian,  and  learned  literature  of 
Greece,  than  on  the  poets  and  philosophers  of  the  best 
period. 

Secondly,  that  there  did  not  exist  in  the  academy 
of  Geneva  anything  like  a  prescribed  curriculum  of 
classical  study,  through  which  each  student  must  ne- 
cessarily pass.  Indeed  if  this  fixed  'cursus'  was  not 
laid  down  in  theology,  as  it  was  not,  it  was  much  less 
likely  that  the  literae  humaniores  should  have  been 
methodised.  The  German  universities  even  seem,  at 

E  2 


52  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

this  period,  to  have  left  their  professors  very  much  to 
their  own  choice  of  subject,  in  the  philosophical 
faculty.  Much  more  was  this  the  case  at  Geneva, 
where  edification  and  piety  were  the  first  or  sole  con- 
cern. Moral  and  religious  discipline  was  severe,  and 
rigidly  enforced ;  intellectual  discipline  had  not  come 
into  existence. 

This  latitude  of  choice,  both  as  to  text-book  and  as 
to  treatment,  should  have  mitigated  to  Casaubon  the 
grievance  of  lecturing.  For  he  could  thus  read  before 
his  class  the  book,  on  which  he  was  employed  himself. 
Yet  there  were  bounds  to  this  freedom.  First,  it  was 
limited  by  the  approbation  of  the  'ccetus  pastorum.' 
The  ministers  exercised  a  strict  surveillance  over  the 
teaching,  not  only  in  the  school,  but  in  the  academy. 
When  Casaubon  proposed  to  lecture  on  Tertullianus 
De  Pallio,  it  was  vetoed.  A  professor  could  not  even 
publish  without  first  submitting  his  book  to  their 
censorship.  For 78  leave  to  print  his  innocent  Notes  on 
Diogenes  Laertius,  Casaubon  was  compelled  to  get  a 
special  permit  from  the  council. 

The  lecturer  was  also  obliged  to  have  some  regard 
to  the  students.  There  were,  it  is  true,  no  examina- 

78  Geneva  MSB.  12  f£vr.  1583,  f°.  25V :  'Mr.  Isaac  Casaubon,  pro- 
fesseur,  qui  a  prdsente^  requeste  tendant  a  luy  permettre  d'imprimer 
deux  livres  qu'il  a  composes,  1'ung  intituld  Notse  in  Laertium,  le  second 
Observationum  liber,  qui  ont  est6  vus  par  Mr.  de  Bbze  et  M.  Rotan,  a 
estd  arrest^  qu'on  luy  ouctroie  sa  requeste.'  Why  Casaubon  was 
required  to  obtain  an  order  for  publication  on  this  occasion,  I  am 
unable  to  say.  It  does  not  appear  that  other  Genevan  authors  did  so, 
nor  did  Casaubon  do  so  for  his  later  publications.  The  '  Observationum 
liber,'  which  is  said  to  have  been  submitted  to  the  two  ministers,  was 
never  published,  nor  does  any  such  MS.  appear  among  the  '  Adversaria.' 
Cas.  ep.  433,  tells  Bongars  that  he  had  kept  back  'librum  unum 
Observationum  nostrarum  in  sacros  et  ecclesiasticos  scriptores.' 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  53 

tions,  no  curriculum,  nor  even  any  established  authors 
imposed  by  opinion.  But  then  the  greek  class  in  the 
academy  was  not  compulsory,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
carry  your  hearers  with  you.  The  kind  of  books  on 
which  Casaubon  would  have  willingly  worked  himself 
were  impossible.  Theocritus  would  have  been  vetoed 
by  the  censors;  Athenseus  would  have  been  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  class. 

Thus  the  work  of  editing  and  the  work  of  lecturing 
were  incompatible.  In  the  conflict  between  the  two, 
there  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  former  would 
ultimately  carry  the  day.  Casaubon  does  not  share 
the  disgust  which  Scaliger  expressed  for  profes- 
sorial teaching 79.  Even  in  1596  he  declares  himself80 
'ready  to  exert  all  his  power  to  be  of  use  to  his 
auditors,'  but  his  interest  now  centres  elsewhere. 
His  ambition  is  fired.  He  has  extended  his  horizon 
beyond  the  classroom  to  the  republic  of  letters.  He 
has  found  that  he  can  write,  on  classical  antiquity, 
what  attracts  the  attention  of  the  learned ;  what 
Scaliger  does  not  disdain.  He  is  now  wild  with 
eagerness  to  prefix  his  name  to  some  edition  of  a 
capital  work81.  What  he  has  hitherto  done  is  mere 
prelude,  juvenile  production,  hurried  scribblement. 
What  he  has  written,  on  Diogenes  Laertius  and 
Theocritus,  is  ' 82  of  that  sort  that  he  will  not  acknow- 

79  ScaK  ia.  p.  1 8  :  'Si  vitam  Josepho  Scaligero  Deus  longiorem 
concesserit,  nullus  auctor  futurus  est,  primaries  dico,  quern  non  emen- 
daturus  sit ;  ad  id  enim  aptus  natus  est,  non  a  caqueter  en  chaire  et 
pedanter.'     The  words,  thus   reported   by  Vertunien,  are   doubtless 
those  which  Scaliger  himself  used. 

80  Ep.  50:  'Vires  ingenii  contendere.' 

81  Ep.  74  :'  Insanus  quidam  sestus  rei  literarise  juvandse.' 
»  Ep.  4. 


54  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

ledge  it  for  his.'  The  notes  on  the  Gospels  and 
Acts  '  were  extorted  from  him  by  the  publishers/ 
He  is  more  than  usually  emphatic  in  depreciating 
their  value,  and  in  promising  what  he  '  will  do  in  the 
same  field  hereafter,  if  G-od  shall  give  him  leisure' 
(Nota3  inN.  T.  fin.).  The  Strabo  is  <83no  legitimate 
offspring  of  his,  a  mere  abortion.'  He  will  show 
what  he  can  do  by  attacking  the  desperate  chaos  of 
the  great  storehouse  of  classical  wit  and  learning — 
Athenseus. 

This  literary  ardour  was,  however,  liable  to  be  checked 
by  a  controling  religious  sentiment,  which  was  con- 
tinually pushing  Casaubon  in  the  direction  of  theolo- 
gical reading.  This  divine  instinct  was  ever  suggest- 
ing the  futility  of  worldly  knowledge,  and  the  superior 
value  of  religious  studies.  This  impression  may  be  traced 
to  the  early  years  of  the  son  of  the  Huguenot  pastor 
who  had  to  fly  to  the  hills  in  the  reign  of  Terror. 
When  in  1583  Isaac  presented  his  literary  first-born, 
the  Observations  on  Diogenes  Laertius,  to  his  father, 
and  laid  before  him  the  schemes  of  publication  with 
which  at  24  his  brain  was  teeming,  the  good  man 
smiled,  commended  his  zeal  for  learning,  but  said, 
1  he  had  rather  have  a  single  observation  on  the 
sacred  volume  than  all  the  fine  things  he  was  con- 
cocting 8V  And  this  was  not  altogether  the  contempt 
of  ignorance,  the  dictum  of  a  man  who  prizes  the 
Bible,  because  he  knows  no  other  book.  The  man 
who  had  emphatically  recommended  Strabo  to  his 
son85  as  useful  reading  could  not  have  been  a  mere 
ignorant  zealot. 

The    sentiment    thus    implanted    in   early   life   was 

83  Ep.  ii.  ^  Meric  Cas.  Pietas,p.  98. 

85  See  p.  5. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  55 

nourished  by  the  atmosphere  of  Geneva.  The  pnpil 
and  admirer  of  Beza,  who  thought  life  scarce  toler- 
able away  from  Beza's  side86,  was  not  likely  to  be 
allowed  to  regard  classical  learning  as  a  worthy  life-- 
pursuit. Beyond  again  these  influences  of  early  im- 
pression and  later  environment,  religious  awe  was 
constitutional  in  Casaubon,  and  connected  with  his 
depressed  nervous  organism.  Hence  .  it  was  most 
potent  in  his  seasons  of  illness.  Such  an  impulse 
came  over  him  when,  set.  28,  prostrated  by  the  ten- 
sion of  overwork,  he  abandoned  the  study  of  the  law 
and  betook  himself  to  theology.  Law  was  left  for 
ever  ;  but  theology  soon  gave  place  to  Strabo.  Ten 
years  later,  set.  38,  he  writes  to  Sibrand  Lubbert, 
professor  of  theology  at  Franequer,  <87You  invite  me 
to  take  up  some  portion  of  the  history  of  the  pri- 
mitive church.  How  willingly  would  I,  if  I  might! 
Believe  me  that  if  I  have  hitherto  lived  for  studies 
of  another  kind,  it  has  been  chance,  not  choice,  that 
has  determined  it  so.  Yet  I  have  never  so  far  for- 
gotten myself  as  to  form  a  deliberate  resolve  of 
resigning  myself  to  literature.  Circumstances  forced 
me  in  early  youth  into  this  line  of  reading,  and  I 
have  been  kept  dreaming  on  the  rocks  of  the  Sirens 
ever  since.  So  the  best  part  of  my  life  has  been 
passed  in  studies  very  different  from  what  I  should 
have  chosen  for  myself/  This  is  in  September  1596, 
and  he  immediately  plunges  into  his  greatest  classical 
effort  —  the  edition  of  Athenseus.  While  he  is  work- 
ing at  Athenseus,  he  is  wishing,  all  the  while,  that 
he  was  reading  the  Fathers.  '  88  Oh  !  when  will  the 


6  Ep.  114  :  'Vivendi  omnes  causas  mihi  periisse  puto.' 

87  Ep.  77- 

88  Ephem.  p.  77. 


5G  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

day  come/  sighs  the  diary  of  March  13,  1598,  'when 
it  shall  be  God's  will  that  I  shall  have  done  with 
this  editing,  and  be  free  to  give  myself  to  better 
studies/  In  1595  he  writes  to  Bongars89,  'That 
learning  which  was,  in  former  days,  my  highest  am- 
bition, has  now  small  charms  for  me ;  amid  all  this 
public  misery  one's  mind  requires  somewhat  on  which 
it  can  stay  and  repose  itself.'  From  the  first  there 
were  in  Casaubon  two  men,  the  theologian  and  the 
scholar.  He  never  rose  to  the  point  of  union,  where 
theology  falls  into  its  place,  as  a  branch  of  learning. 
He  was  continually  oscillating  between  the  two,  as 
rival,  and  incompatible,  claimants.  The  age,  with  its 
predominant  theological  interests,  was  too  much  for 
him.  After  seeming  for  a  while  to  emancipate  his 
mind,  and  give  it  undivided  to  classical  research,  we 
shall  see  him,  in  his  later  years,  falling  back  again 
into  the  attitude  of  t1  e  vulgar  theological  polemic. 

If  we  recall  the  situation  of  Geneva  during  the  14 
years  of  Casaubon's  professorate,  we  shall  see,  that  this 
highly  charged  devotional  atmosphere  was  nourished, 
if  not  created,  by  the  pressure  of  external  peril.  Ex- 
posed to  the  incessant  assaults  of  a  powerful  neighbour, 
the  city  was  almost  perpetually  in  a  state  of  siege,  and 
all  its  able-bodied  citizens  under  arms.  Its  only  hope 
of  support  was  from  the  Swiss  confederation,  and  the 
Protestant  cantons,  secure  themselves,  seem  to  have 
looked  upon  the  struggles  of  Geneva  with  apathy. 
Grynaeus  writes  calmly  to  a  friend  (October  26,  1586), 
<90Dom.  Beza  makes  many  complaints  of  the  public 


89  Ep.  42  :  '  Ilia  quam  tantopere  olim  ambiimus  7ro)(vp.ddeia  .  .  . 
nunc  minus  grata  ;  quserit  enim  animus,  in  his  publicis  miseriis  aliud, 
nescio  quid,  in  quo  acquiescat.'  9o  Gryn.  Epp.  ep.  47. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596. 


57 


miseries  and  straits  of  the  city  of  Geneva/  The  moral 
result  on  a  generation,  growing  up  under  such  train- 
ing, might  well  have  been  military  barbarism.  But 
another  counteracting  influence  came  into  play.  The 
aggression  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  was  not  a  war  of 
ambition  and  aggrandisement,  but  of  religious  passion. 
To  root  out  heresy  was  the  paramount  motive.  The 
fury  of  the  catholic  exterminator  encountered  an  equal 
religious  exaltation  in  the  calvinistic  resistance.  '  If 
the  Lord  had  not  been  on  our  side'  was  the  heartfelt 
ejaculation  of  the  Genevan  citizen  as  he  witnessed  the 
repeated  and  miraculous  escapes  of  his  republic  from 
treacherous  surprise,  or  the  constant  pressure  of  su- 
perior .force.  ' 91  Whatever  has  been  achieved  against 
the  enemy/  Casaubon  writes  in  1590,  'has  been  done 
by  God's  own  hand,  which  we  have  seen,  I  may 
say,  with  our  eyes/  Piety  became  not  a  personal 
sentiment,  but  a  public  creed.  The  moral  force  thus 
inspired  into  that  generation — Beza's  generation — was 
more  favourable  to  learning,  than  the  external  security 
of  the  half-century  which  followed  1601.  Learning 
was  not  encouraged  by  the  administration  as  such,  but 
it  was  not  interfered  with.  Under  the  literal  (calvin- 
istic) orthodoxy  of  the  i  yth  century  it  became  impos- 
sible for  it  to  exist.  But  as  long  as  Beza  lived,  it 
received  toleration,  if  not  respect.  ' 92  You  may  well  be 
surprised,  but  so  it  is,'  says  Casaubon,  '  I  have  enjoyed, 
through  all,  more  leisure  than  ever  I  had,  and  I  have 
divided  my  time  between  the  recension  of  the  text  of 
Aristotle,  and  looking  on  at  the  wonders  the  Lord 
hath  wrought  for  us/  The  enthusiasm  of  private 
study  alternates  with  fits  of  dejection  when  the  student 

91  Ep.  5-  92  Ep.  5.  1590. 


58  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

looks  on  the  world  without.  ' 93  You  have  been  rightly 
informed/  he  tells  Joachim  Camerarius,  1 594,  '  I  am 
deep  in  Athenaeus,  and  I  hope  my  labour  on  the  edition 
will  not  be  altogether  in  vain.  But  one's  industry  is 
sadly  damped  by  the  reflection  how  greek  is  now  neg- 
lected and  despised.  Looking  to  posterity,  or  the  next 
generation,  what  motive  has  one  for  devotion  to 
study  ]' 

If  it  is  the  general  law  of  nature  that  genius  is 
evoked  and  nourished  by  its  environment,  Casauboii  is 
a  singular  exception.  Neither  in  Geneva,  nor  among 
his  wider  circle  of  correspondents,  if  we  except 
Scaliger,  whom  he  only  came  to  know  in  1594, 
had  he  rivalry,  example,  or  encouragement.  In 
Geneva  nothing  that  could  be  called  literary  interest 
existed.  A  poor  and  starved  seminary  for  pious  train- 
ing ;  a  trading  printing  press  for  the  sale  of  school- 
books,  and  sermons ;  a  theology  not  formal,  but  inter- 
fused through  every  day's  life  and  thinking.  An  armed 
enemy  crouched  at  their  gates,  watching  his  oppor- 
tunity for  the  death  spring ;  each  day  bringing  news 
of  some  fresh  outrage  on  their  coreligionists,  in  the 
countries  where  the  catholic  reaction  was  in  its  full 
tide.  On  this  ungenial  soil,  Casaubon  developed  out 
of  his  own  instincts  the  true  idea  of  classical  learning. 
Not  an  idea  of  scientific  philology  as  we  conceive  it, 
but  that  of  a  complete  mastery  of  the  ancient  world 
by  exhaustive  reading;  a  reconstruction  of  Greek  and 
Roman  antiquity  out  of  the  extant  remains  of  the 
literature.  Instead  of  wondering  that  he  allowed 
this  ideal  to  be  obscured  to  him  by  the  clouds  of  party 
polemics,  what  is  surprising  is  that  he  should  ever 

93  Ep.  996. 


u~     .    u~ 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 


59 


have  been  able,  an  untaught  and  unfriended  man, 
struggling  himself  with  chill  penury,  to  rise  to  it. 

The  depreciation  of  his  own  performance,  which  was 
one  of  Casaubon's  mental  habits,  was  founded  on  the 
disparagement  of  secular  knowledge  in  comparison  of 
piety,  which  was  the  intellectual  atmosphere  he  had 
to  breathe. 

But  it  was  further  connected  with  that  oppression 
of  mind,  which  the  infinity  of  knowledge  lays  upon 
its  votaries.  The  man  of  science  is  often  drawn  as 
standing  on  a  proud  pinnacle,  from  which  he  surveys 
his  conquests,  and  sees  the  universe,  whose  secret  he 
has  wrested,  spread  at  his  feet.  It  is  otherwise  with 
the  man  of  learning.  He  may  joy  in  pursuit,  but  he 
can  never  exult  in  possession.  The  thought  *  quan- 
tum est  quod  nescimus' — Heinsius'  motto — keeps  him 
not  only  humble,  but  despondent.  Even  in  science, 
some  of  the  greatest  .men  have  shared  the  sense  of 
baffled  endeavour.  Newton's  pebbles  on  the  sea-shore 
are  become  proverbial.  La  Place's  dying  words  were, 
'  Thomme  ne  poursuit  que  de  chimeres/  But  it  is  the 
scholar  who  is,  more  than  other  investigators,  subject 
to  these  periods  of  darkness  and  gloom.  The  hopeless- 
ness of  the  task,  which  Casaubon  had  set  himself,  im- 
parts a  hurry  and  restlessness  to  his  day. 

The  constant  complaint  of  want  of  time  reiterated 
by  Casaubon  in  every  preface,  in  his  commentaries,  in 
his  letters — c  94 1  am  so  busy  that  I  have  hardly  time 
to  draw  breath,5  are  not  the  mere  apology  for  im- 
perfection, like  the  *  in  haste'  often  added  at  the 
bottom  of  a  bad  letter.  They  are  indicative  of  a 
settled  habit  of  mind.  Casaubon  is  oppressed  not  by 
hours  of  teaching,  but  by  his  own  studies.  Research 
94  Ep.  14.  1594. 


60  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

is  infinite  ;  it  can  never  be  finished.  The  speculative 
philosopher,  who  has  exhausted  thought,  may  sit  with 
his  head  in  the  clouds,  and  feed  himself  on  contem- 
plation. But  the  commentator  on  a  classical  author 
can  never  make  an  end.  He  is  never  sure  that  the 
very  passage  which  would  explain  his  difficulty  may 
not  have  escaped  him.  '  95The  author  alludes,'  Casaubon 
notes  on  Diogenes  Laertius,  '  to  a  practice  of  that  day, 
which  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  noticed  by  any 
other  author  or  annotator/  But  the  allusion  may 
turn  up.  If  he  had  but  a  little  more  time  to  read ! 
Casaubon  is  always  ill  at  ease,  unless  he  is  acquiring, 
and  acquisition  does  but  give  him  a  glimpse  of  the 
untravelled  world  beyond.  He  will  do  better  things 
in  time, — with  more  time — that  is  the  cry  of  these 
years  of  the  Genevan  professorate.  Bongars  ventured 
to  expostulate  with  him  on  the  slightness  of  so  many 
of  the  things  he  put  his  name  to.  Casaubon  is  thank- 
ful for  the  reproof,  and  promises  in  future  '  96to  digest 
with  thorough  care  and  diligence  what  I  may  prepare 
for  editing/  But  he  is  not  cured.  In  1605  we  hear: 
497 1  am  so  distracted  with  engagements  that  I  swear  to 
you  that  what  I  print  goes  to  press  almost  before  I 
have  thought  it  out.' 

His  aim  is  always  far  ahead  of  his  achievement. 
His  repeated  engagement  that  he  will  some  day  do 
better  is  an  illusion.  But  it  is  not  the  illusion  of 
presumption.  He  grounds  his  confidence  not  on  his 
own  ability,  but  on  the  hope  of  leisure — that  leisure 
which  is  always  promised,  but  never  comes  to  the 
student.  He  knows  the  limitation  of  his  own  talent. 
He  tells  Scaliger,  '  98The  disposition  has  never  been 

95  Notre  in  Diog.  p.  66.  96  Ep.  18.  1594. 

97  Ep.  457.  98  Ep.  17.  1594. 


GENEVA.     1578  — 159G.  61 

wanting,  but  I  have  lacked  all  helps,  even  the  most 
indispensable.  I  have  never  had  time  of  my  own. 
And  I  have  no  talent.  I  mean  natural  gifts,  not 
learning,  if  I  may  call  that  learning  which  is  pos- 
sessed by  men  like  me.  Ambition  is  always  impelling 
me  to  greater  aims,  but  the  "  frigidus  circum  prsecordia 
sanguis"  paralyses  me.  I  never  take  up  your  books, 
or  those  of  your  great  father,  but  I  lay  them  down 
in  despair  at  my  own  progress,  and  resolve  to  adopt 
for  my  motto  \a6e  /3tWa?.' 

Hence  he  is  anxious  for  the  good  opinion  of  others  ; 
but  only  for  that  of  those  who  are, able  to  judge. 
All  writing,  at  least  all  publication,  is  an  appeal  to 
the  verdict  of  the  competent.  When  Newton  wrote 
(February  18,  1670),  'You  have  my  leave  to  insert 
the  solution  of  the  annuity  problem  in  the  "  Philoso- 
phical Transactions/'  so  it  be  without  my  name  to  it; 
for  I  see  not  what  there  is  desirable  in  public  esteem, 
were  I  able  to  acquire  and  maintain  it/  it  is  not 
*  morbid  temperament'  as  De  Morgan"  would  call  it. 
It  is  contempt  for  the  unfounded  plaudits  of  the  un- 
instructed,  a  contempt  which  implies  respect  for  the 
appreciation  of  experts.  Towards  the  close  of  his 
Genevan  period,  Casaubon  is  ever  ready  to  enlarge 
his  circle  of  friends,  yet  not  by  making  promiscuous 
acquaintance,  but  by  cultivating  the  likeminded,  wher- 
ever they  could  be  found.  Before  he  left  Geneva, 
and  before  the  publication  of  his  Athenseus,  he  was 
becoming  known,  not  only  by  name,  but  personally, 
to  the  reading  world.  The  greek  scholars  who  formed 
a  select  company  within  the  general  body  of  the 
reading  public,  had  now  their  attention  fixed  on 
Casaubon  as  the  rising  light,  from  which  illumination 

99  Budget  of  Paradoxes,  p.  456 


62  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

was  to  be  looked  for.  They  court  his  notice,  or  he 
seeks  their  acquaintance,  by  letter.  The  area  of  his 
correspondence  extends  rapidly  each  year.  By-and- 
bye  his  letters  will  come  to  constitute  a  new  demand 
on  his  time.  In  April  1590,  he  undertakes  a  journey 
to  the  Frankfort  fair,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting 
Lipsius.  He  is  disappointed.  Lipsius  does  not  come ; 
Casaubon  is  obliged  to  be  content  with  writing  to 
Lipsius  from  Frankfort,  to  say  that  if  he  had  leisure, 
he  would  go  all  the  way  to  Belgium  to  make  his  ac- 
quaintance. 

Casaubon's  earlier  friends,  so  far  as  they  were 
learned — we  should  say  literary,  all  literature  was 
then  learned — were  among  his  colleagues  in  the 
academy.  Among  these  the  first  place  is  due  to  the 
venerable  Beza.  To  the  aged  Beza,  by  40  years  his 
senior,  Casaubon  looked  up  as  a  son  to  a  parent. 
Years  after  Beza's  death,  Casaubon  writes  to  Prideaux 
(April  7,  1613)  :  ^During  the  14  years  of  my  Genevan 
professorship,  the  whole  company  of  pastors  and  pro- 
fessors at  Geneva  regarded  me,  as  they  still  regard 
me,  with  sincere  affection.  To  Beza,  above  the  rest, 
was  I  very  dear,  he  treating  me  as  his  son,  while  I 
respected  him  as  a  parent.  Were  I  boastingly  inclined, 
I  might  boast  of  having  been  for  so  many  years  Beza's 
colleague.  But  from  him  I  learnt  to  think  humbly 
of  myself,  and  if  I  have  been  able  to  do  aught  in 
letters  to  ascribe  all  the  glory  to  God/  Beza's  time 
and  thought  had,  indeed,  for  many  years  been  absorbed 
by  the  public  affairs  of  the  reformed  churches  or  by 
those  of  his  pastoral  office.  But  Beza  was  a  man  of 
no  vulgar  learning.  Though  he  had  long  relinquished 
the  classics  himself,  he  knew  the  value  of  greek. 

1  EP.  879. 


Casaubor 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  63 


)asaubon  preserved  among  his  papers  two  pages  of 
conjectures  on  the  text  of  Plutarch,  which  had  been 
given  him  by  Beza,  'manus  suaa  monimentum/  as  an 
autograph2.  Beza's  own  attainments3  were  consider- 
able ;  he  knew,  what  few  did,  how  far  Scaliger's  went 
beyond  those  of  any  other  living  man.  On  Beza's 
death,  Casaubon  writes  to  Scaliger  (November,  1605), 
6 1  may  tell  you  what  I  know,  that  in  him  you  have 
lost  one  of  the  few  who  know  how  rightly  to  esteem 
you.  I  was  seldom  with  him,  but  we  spoke  of  you, 
and  I  do  not  know  if  there  was  any  one  else  in  all 
that  country,  except  Beza,  who  thoroughly  understood 
your  position  in  the  republic  of  letters4/  It  is  to 
Casaubon  that  we  owe  one  of  the  last  glimpses  of  the 
Genevan  reformer5.  On  a  visit  to  Geneva  in  June 
1603,  he  spent  a  day  in  the  company  of  Beza,  then 


2  Adversaria,  torn.  1 1 . 

3  Though  we  must  not  adopt  the  exaggerating  assertion  of  Dieterici, 
Antiq.  Bibl.  prolegg.  p.  18,  that  Beza,  before  he  began  his  notes  on  the 
N.  T.,  had  '  gone  through  (evolverit)  all  the  Greek  authors,  sacred  and 
profane.' 

4  Ep.  479- 

6  Eph.  p.  493  :  'Hoc  die  .  .  Beza  .  .  etiam  ccena  nos  accepit,  me, 
inquam,  uxorem,  et  amicissimum  Pinaldum.  Deus  bone  !  qui  vir  1 
qua?  pietas  ?  quse  doctrina  1  o  vere  magnum  virum,'  etc.  Compare 
with  L'Estoile,  Registre-journal,  25  aug.  1603  :  '  M.  Casaubon,  revenu 
de  son  voyage  de  Dauphin^,  ayant  passe'  par  Geneve,  rne  conta,  qu'il 
y  avoit  vu  M.  de  Beze,  ag£  pour  le  present  de  85  ans,  et  qu'ayant 
long-terns  communique'  avec  lui,  il  n'y  avoit  apper£u  aucune  dimi- 
nution d'esprit  et  de  me'moire  pour  le  regard  de  sa  the'ologie  et  des 
bonnes  lettres,  mais  pour  les  affaires  du  monde ;  qu'il  en  avoit  perdu 
du  tout  la  me'moire  et  la  connoissance  ;  demandait  a  tout  le  monde 
comme  se  portait  la  reine  d'Angleterre  ;  ne  lui  avoit  jamais  pu  per- 
suader d'e'crire  au  roi  d'Angleterre,  disant  qu'il  e'toit  mort  au  monde, 
et  qu'il  lui  falloit  songer  de  mourir,  et  non  d'e'crire  aux  rois  et  aux 
reiries ' 


64  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596 

aged  84,  who  entertained  him  at  dinner  in  the  evening. 
Though  his  memory  for  the  facts  of  the  day  was  gone, 
so  that  he  could  not  remember  that  Elizabeth  had 
ceased  to  be  Queen  of  England,  yet  when  the  talk 
was  of  religion  or  theology,  he  spoke  with  all  his 
usual  verve,  and  was  ready  to  quote  the  words  of  the 
New  Testament,  either  in  latin  or  in  the  original. 

Of  all  Casaubon's  Genevan  friends — for  his  relation 
to  Beza  was  filial  rather  than  friendly — Lect  was  the 
dearest  and  most  intimate.  Jacques  Lect  was  law 
professor  till  poverty  obliged  the  council  to  cashier 
him.  He  was  Casaubon's  own  age,  and  no  mere 
lawyer,  but  occupied  himself  with  the  classics,  at  least 
in  his  leisure  hours.  Thus,  while  his  professorship  was 
suspended,  he  published  an  edition  of  Symmachus6. 
In  1585  the  council  had  voted  him  a  gratuity  of  100 
florins,  '7vu  le  grand  nombre  des  livres  qu'il  est  oblige 
d' avoir/  He  was  the  only  man  in  Geneva  who 
could  give  any  sympathy  to  Casaubon  in  his  classical 
studies.  When  Casaubon  removed  to  Montpellier, 
Lect  felt  himself  alone  in  his  native  city8.  'Would 
that  we  could  be  again  together,  and  see  the  suns  down, 
as  we  used ! '  writes  Casaubon  to  him 9.  '  My  dearest 
wish  is  either  to  have  you  here  (Montpellier)  or  to 
be  there  (Geneva)  with  you,  so  that  we  may  spend 
together  what  remains  of  life.  Without  you  life  to 
me  is  no  life/ 

6  In  1587.    See  Symm.  Epp.  ded. :  '  Per  id  temporis  dum  a  publica 
juris  interpretatione  vaco.' 

7  Eegistre  du  conseil,  ap.  Grdnus,  1585. 

8  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  52  :  'Dolens  mcerensque  vixi  ego;  postquam 
sine  te,  mi  Casaubone  ...  in  hac  solitudine.' 

9  Ep.  112:'  Utinam,  mi  Lecti,  iterum  utinam  vel  tu  hie  mecum,  vel 
ego  istic  tecum  vitse  quod  superest  degere,  unaque  soles,  ut  eramus 
soliti,  condere  aliquando  possimus.' 


With 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  65 


With  the  celebrated  Pacius — Pacio  de  Beriga — the 
other  law-professor,  Casaubon  was  on  friendly  but  not 
intimate  terms.  Pacius  was  a  reader  and  editor  of 
Aristotle,  and  Casaubon  had  been  his  pupil  in  civil  law 
and  philosophy10.  Pacius  always  impressed  upon  his 
pupils  the  importance  of  classical  reading,  and  in  a 
letter  to  Casaubon11,  regrets  the  tendency  of  the  law 
students  to  neglect  the  classics.  '  I  wish/  he  writes, 
'  you  had  not  quitted  Montpellier  before  my  arrival.  I 
flatter  myself  you  never  would  have  done  so.  Our  pro- 
fessions, though  different,  are  allied,  and  aid  each  other/ 

Next  to  his  colleagues  came  his  pupils,  among  whom 
a  few  could  value  his  vast  acquirements,  and  none 
could  be  insensible  to  his  amiable  and  affectionate  dis- 
position. Besides,  the  metropolis  of  Calvinism  drew 
pilgrims,  '  religionis  ergo/  from  all  the  reformed 
countries.  And  travellers,  without  religious  objects, 
already  began  to  take  Geneva  as  a  desirable  halting- 
place  en  route  from  Italy.  Others,  who  came  not  to 
Geneva,  men  of  rank  and  influence,  began  to  offer  him 
their  friendship  or  their  patronage. 

Of  these  last  the  most  distinguished  wore  de  Thou 
(Thuanus),  Bongars,  and  de  Fresne.  These  three 
eminent  men  served  France  in  important  diplomatic 
missions,  and  the  first  two  were  devoted  to  ancient 
learning,  and  collectors  of  greek  books. 


10  Ep.  879  :  'Tres  annos  impend!  iis  studiis,  publice  et  privatim 
usus  doctore  Pacio,  cujus  Organon,  et  alia  scripta  philosophica,  opinor, 
vidisti.' 

11  Burney  MSS.  365,  p.    284  :    '  Ego   humaniores  istas   literas,  in 
quibus   excellis,  plurimi  facio,  doleo  autem   plerosque  studiosos  vel 
aversari,  vel  negligere,  qui  cum  juri  dent  operam,  quicquid 
auctoritatis  habeo,  totum  in  id  insumpsissem  ut  tibi  essent  addicti, 
quod  et  ipsis  et  reipublicse  utilissimuni  arbitror.' 

F 


66  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

Jacques  Auguste  de  Thou  was  the  last,  and  most 
illustrious,    example   of  those    public   men   who    were 
formed  to  affairs  upon  the  study  of  greek  and^roman 
history.     Instead  of  composing  his  memoirs,  like  his 
cotemporaries,  in  French,  he  chose  Latin,  not  because  it 
was  the  language  of  diplomacy,  but  because  it  alone 
was  .capable   of  classical   hanging.     Thrust  into  em- 
ployment against  his  will,  dragged  perpetually  from 
the    retirement    he    loved    to   undertake    difficult   or 
dangerous  negotiations,  his  heart  was  in  his   library, 
and  his  historical  work.    The  history  of  'Thuanus'  was 
long  the  manual  of  statesmen  all  over  Europe.     It  is 
now    wholly    neglected,   even   in   the    country   of  its 
author.     The   cause  of  this  neglect  is  not  merely  the 
language,  a  difficulty  which  might  have  been  overcome 
by  translation.     It  is  because  it  is  too  minute.     Even 
in  1733,  and  before  the  revolution  of  '89  had  opened  a 
new  and    absorbing    page   of   history,    Lord   Carteret 
pointed  to  the  extent  of  the  work  as  fatal  to  its  popu- 
larity.    Containing  the  history  of  only  sixty-four  years, 
it  has  been  calculated12  that  de  Thou's  folios  would  re- 
quire twelve  months,  at  four  hours  a  day,  for  their 
perusal.     The  world  has  now  too  long  a  history  for  us 
to  afford  time  to  know  it !     Thus  the  very  merit  of  de 
Thou's  '  Historia,'  its  completeness,  is  the  cause  of  its 
being   left  unread.     De  Thou  was   a   catholic,  but   a 
'  politique/   and  would  gladly  have  secured  Casaubon 
for  France,  without  attempting  to  convert  him. 

Jacques  Bongars  was  a  calvinist,  and  a  calvinist  who 
would  not  allow  his  faith  to  be  tampered  with,  but  he 
was  of  the  moderate  school,  who,  under  the  cant  name 
of '  moyenneurs/  were  odious  to  the  zealots.  Casaubon 

12  Legendre,  r    56. 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  67 

never  mentions  Bongars,  but  he  couples  a  reference  to 
his  '  piety '  with  praise  of  his  love  for  letters.  Bongars 
was  much  relied  on  by  Henri  iv.  in  his  negotiations 
with  South-Germany  and  the  Swiss  cantons,  by  reason 
of  the  thorough  knowledge  he  possessed  of  their  affairs. 
He  was  chiefly  stationed  at  Strassburg,  which,  as  the 
frontier  city  of  the  empire,  and  at  the  same  time  a  free 
town,  was  a  convenient  post  of  observation  for  a  French 
envoy.  Bongars  had  made  Casaubon's  acquaintance 
when  he  was  on  his  hasty  visit  to  Frankfort  in  1590, 
and  was  attracted  at  once,  by  his  enthusiasm  for  learn- 
ing, and  by  religious  sympathy.  Bongars,  like  de 
Thou,  had  prepared  himself  for  a  diplomatic  career,  by 
the  study  of  the  roman  law  and  of  the  classics.  In  1 58 1 , 
when  only  in  his  2/th  year,  he  had  published  an 
edition  of  Justin,  which  earned  for  him  from  Niebuhr 
the  praise  of  '  distinguished  interpreter13/  The  text, 
which  Bongars  constructed  from  a  real  collation  of 
MSS,  however  faulty,  had  remained  untouched  at  the 
time  when  Niebuhr  spoke.  But  Bongars  studied  the 
classics  with  the  aims  of  a  man  of  the  world.  He  thus 
indicates  his  early  studies  in  a  letter  to  a  friend14: 
'  It  is  not  the  travelled  man  only  who  has  seen  life ; 
he  may  be  said  to  have  seen  it  too,  who  has  made 
himself  acquainted  with  the  revolutions  of  states,  the 
geography  of  countries,  and  the  manners  of  different 
nations.  This  knowledge  we  may  acquire  from  the 
writings  of  historians.  So,  while  you  linger  in  Italy  to 
enjoy  the  conversation  of  its  learned  men,  I  have  been 
running  over  a  great  portion  of  the  greek  and  latin 
historians.3  His  letters,  as  giving  the  thread  of  the 

13  Vortrage  iib.  alte  Gesch.  p.  13. 

14  Bongars  to  Rose,  1581. 

F    2 


68  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

South-German  politics,  were,  though  written  by  a 
protestant,  reprinted  by  permission  of  Louis  xiv,.for 
the  use  of  the  Dauphin,  but  with  characteristic 
omissions. 

Neither  the  pressure  of  public  employments,  nor  the 
corrupting  example  of  the  French  court,  extinguished 
Bongars'  love  for  learning  and  learned  books.  In 
1604  he  writes  to  a  friend:  'You  will  smile  at  my 
folly, — I,  who  though  a  courtier,  and  not  wealthy, 
when  all  are  flocking  about  the  king,  to  get  out  of  him 
what  they  can,  turn  my  back  on  it  all,  and  post  off  into 
the  country  to  waste  my  substance  in  buying  up  worm- 
eaten  books  (i.  e.  at  the  sale  of  Cujas'  library).  My 
court  is  paid  to  my  books  ;  oh  !  could  I  only  sit  down 
in  quiet  to  enjoy  them,  I  would  not  envy  either  the 
Persians,  or  Sully,  their  wealth!'  The  books  which 
Bongars  thus  loved  were  nowhere  collected  together,  but 
were  at  his  death  found  dispersed,  like  the  library  of 
Eichard  Heber,  in  several  places.  As  he  was  liberal  in 
lending  them,  many  never  returned  to  him  at  all. 
So  generous  was  he,  to  Casaubon  in  particular,  that 
Casaubon  seems  to  have  ceased  to  distinguish  between 
those  books  which  were  given,  and  those  which  were 
only  lent  him.  The  British  Museum  now  possesses 
more  than  one  of  Bongars7  greek  MSS.  which  passed  to 
it  along  with  the  other  books  of  Casaubon  which  have 
found  their  resting-place  there. 

Philip  Canaye,  the  sieur  de  Fresne,  had  also  been 
bred  up  on  the  civil  law  and  classical  books.  He  had 
translated,  into  French,  extracts  from  Aristotle's  Or- 
ganon  (Paris,  1589),  a  translation  made,  perhaps  with 
Casaubon's  aid,  at  Lausanne,  where  he  resided  as 
representative  of  the  king  of  France.  After  being 
employed  in  various  negotiations  by  Henri  TV,  among 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 


69 


others  one  in  England  (1590),  he  was  named  president 
of  the  '  chambre  mipartie '  in  the  Parlement  of  Lan- 
guedoc,  which  sate  at  Castres.  At  the  conference  of 
Fontainebleau  (1600)  he  was  convinced  by  the  argu- 
ments of  Du  Perron,  or  rather  qualified  himself  for  the 
Venetian  embassy,  by  declaring  himself  a  catholic. 

These  three  personages,  de  Thou,  Bongars,  and 
de  Fresne,  were,  along  with  Pierre  Pithou,  at  this 
period,  Casaubon's  most  influential  friends  and  well 
wishers  on  the  French  side.  They  made  it  their 
common  object  to  secure  him  for  France.  And  it 
was  through  de  Fresne' s  influence  that  his  removal  to 
Montpellier  was  brought  about.  Before  we  come  to 
this  event  in  his  life  we  may  finish  the  survey  of  his 
circle  of  friends. 

We  have  said  that  some  of  the  learned,  or  lovers  of 
learning,  sought  Casaubon's  acquaintance  by  writing 
to  him  directly,  or  by  sending  him  a  polite  message 
through  a  common  friend.  The  acquaintance  of  others 
Casaubon  challenged,  by  writing  to  them  to  propose 
friendship.  This  was  not  always  a  safe  proceeding. 
Casaubon  had,  in  this  way,  solicited  Leunclavius  in  a 
letter  charged  to  the  muzzle  with  gratifying  com- 
pliments. He  ascertained  that  the  letter  reached 
Leunclavius,  and  his  irritation  at  getting  no  response 
sharpened  the  language  of  some  (otherwise  just) 
censure  of  Leunclavius5  Dio  Cassius  (1592),  as  Casau- 
bon himself  confesses,  not  without  some  remorse 15. 

He  'was  more  successful  in  a  quarter  of  much  more 
consequence.  Casaubon  must  naturally  have  wished 
for  a  word  of  approbation  or  encouragement,  from  the 
dictator  of  letters.  But  none  came.  Scaliger  had 
been,  1593,  settled  some  months  at  Leyden,  had  bidden 

15  Ep.  994. 


70  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

farewell  to  France,  and  seemed  thus  to  be  removed 
to  a  distance,  from  which  Casaubon  could  hardly  hope 
to  be  visible  to  his  eye.  After  much  hesitation 
Casaubon  plucked  up  courage  to  send  a  greeting  to 
Scaliger,  by  Eichard  Thomson,  the  young  M.A.  of  Clare 
hall,  who  was  returning  to  England,  via  Leyden. 
Having  gone  so  far,  he  went  a  step  further,  and 
followed  up  his  message  by  a  letter,  in  which  he 
introduced  himself  in  terms,  which  were  certainly 
humble,  but  not  more  so  than  became  their  respective 
age  and  position.  To  the  letter  came  no  answer. 
Casaubon  began  to  feel  the  awkwardness  of  a  man 
who  has  made  unacceptable  advances,  when  Thomson, 
who  was  making  some  stay  at  Leyden,  wrote  to  inform 
him  that  his  message  had  been  graciously  accepted, 
arid  that  the  archcritic  had  uttered  an  emphatic  com- 
mendation of  Casaubon.  The  Theophrastus  had  just 
reached  Leyden,  and  Scaliger,  who  may  not  have  been 
greatly  struck  with  such  of  Casaubon's  books  as  he 
had  previously  seen,  had  instantly  recognised  the  merits 
of  this  commentary,  replete  with  knowledge.  Thomson 
further  hinted  that  why  Casaubon  had  never  been 
noticed  before,  was,  that  he  had  not  sent  Scaliger  any 
of  his  publications.  On  the  receipt  of  this  message, 
Casaubon  wrote  again,  prostrating  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  prince  of  letters,  in  terms  which  we  should 
call  extravagant,  if  they  were  not  so  obviously  sincere. 
He  apologised  for  not  having  offered  any  of  his 
books,  because  none  of  them  had  been  worthy  of 
Scaliger's  notice.  He  promised  to  send  the  Strabo 
(1587),  but  not  till  he  had  gone  through  it  again,  and 
purged  it  of  a  few  of  its  many  errors16.  This  was 
March  4.  Still  no  reply.  On  April  25,  Casaubon  wrote 

6  Ep.  1 1  :  '  Ex  mendis  fcedissimis  quibus  totus  scatebat.' 


again,  { 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  71 


again,  announcing  his  being  at  work  on  Suetonius,  and 
asking  help.  The  explanation  came  at  last  in  the 
course  of  the  summer  of  '94.  It  had  not  been  dis- 
dain on  Scaliger's  part,  it  was  simply  non-delivery 
of  letters.  Casaubon's  letters  had  been  so  slow  in 
reaching  Leyden,  that  the  two  first  had  been  delivered 
together.  And  Scaliger's  reply  to  the  two,  though 
written  at  once,  had  been  entrusted  to  Thomson  to 
forward  to  Geneva,  vid  England.  Scaliger's  answer 
to  Casaubon's  third  he  had  given  to  Commelin,  the 
Heidelberg  publisher,  who  had  lost  it  along  with  a 
presentation  copy  of  the  Cyclometrica.  But  when 
the  Scaliger  letter  arrived,  Casaubon  must  have  felt 
that  it  was  worth  waiting  for.  Scaliger,  who  was 
contemptuous  towards  pretenders,  and  concealed  his 
contempt  too  little  for  his  own  peace,  was  no  niggard 
of  praise  for  true  learning.  If  he  bestowed  his  praise 
rarely,  it  was  because  he  rarely  had  occasion.  He 
must  have  understood  from  Thomson,  that  Casaubon's 
dejected  temperament  and  isolated  position  required 
encouragement.  He  gave  it  in  no  measured  terms. 
'  Casaubon  was  not  to  suppose  that  his  merits  were 
now  for  the  first  time  revealed  to  Scaliger.  Scaliger's 
eye  had  been  on  him  long,  and  his  voice  had  never 
been  wanting  to  proclaim  them.'  From  this  time  till 
Scaliger's  death  (1609)  their  correspondence  was  un- 
interrupted. After  the  first  exchange  of  letters  in 
1594  its  tone  becomes  that  of  intimate  friendship  and 
sympathy.  They  never  met,  yet  esteem  and  sympathy 
grew  up  into  affection.  Scaliger's  last  letter  to 
Casaubon,  dated  August  28,  1608,  on  his  narrow 
escape  from  drowning  in  the  Seine,  is  an  expression 
of  heartfelt  thankfulness  for  the  providential  deliver- 
ance. Casaubon's  entry  in  his  diary,  when  the  news 


72  GENEVA,     1578  —  1596. 

reaches  Paris  of  Scaliger's  death,  says,  that  he  has 
lost  '  the  guide  of  his  studies,  the  incomparable  friend, 
the  sweet  patron  of  his  life/  What  other  men  say 
to  each  other  as  complimentary  forms  of  speech,  these 
two  sincerely  said  of  each  other  in  private.  Not  in 
his  letters,  but  in  his  private  journal,  Scaliger  is  to 
Casaubon  'lumen  literarum,  sseculi  nostri  lampas, 
ornamentum  unicum  Europse/  In  more  discriminating 
style,  Scaliger  always  spoke  to  his  young  friends  of 
Casaubon  as  ' doctissimus/  'He  is  the  greatest  man 
we  have  now  in  greek.  There  I  yield  the  jpas  to  him. 
I  am  his  pupil;  I  have  a  sense  of  things,  but  not 
learning.  Casaubon  is  the  most  learned  man  now 
living.  His  latin  style  is  excellent ;  terse,  not  diffuse, 
Italian  latin.  I  keep  all  his  letters17.' 

Casaubon  always  regarded  Scaliger  as  the  '  author 
of  his  reputation,'  '  autorem  famse18/  Scaliger  would 
have  gladly  served  his  fortunes.  As  early  as  1594  he 
began  to  sound  the  feeling  in  Leyden  about  getting 
him  invited  thither19.  Theodore  Dousa  was  being  edu- 
cated at  Geneva,  and  served  as  a  channel  of  communi- 
cation. Thomson,  too,  coming  fresh  from  the  same 
place,  might  report,  as  Blackburn  did  of  Butler,  that 
Casaubon  was  not  dead  but  buried.  The  idea,  from 
whatever  cause,  was  not  taken  up  by  the  curators  of 
Leyden.  Scaliger  had  not  given  Casaubon  any  hint 
of  his  attempt  to  serve  him.  But  Thomson  had  not 
been  so  prudent.  And  though  Casaubon  did  not  ven- 
ture to  hope  for  such  an  honour  as  a  call  to  Leyden, 
he  began,  from  this  time,  to  be  restless,  and  to  seek 
an  opportunity  of  getting  away  from  Geneva.  If 

17  Scaligerana,  2*.  p.  45.  l8  Ib.  p.  47. 

19  Pithou  to  Seal.  ep.  80. 


GENEVA.     1578—1596.  73 

yden  was  beyond  his  reach,  there  remained  the 
choice  between  Germany  and  France.  In  Germany, 
Strassburg  and  Tubingen  w^ere  closed  to  him  by  their 
lutheran.  orthodoxy.  But  there  was  Heidelberg  to 
which  he  might  aspire. 

The  university  of  Heidelberg  was,  at  this  time,  en- 
joying its  golden  age,  too  soon  to  be  exchanged  for 
the  miseries  of  the  thirty  years'  war,  in  which  the 
Palatinate  had  so  large  a  share.  The  elector,  Fre- 
derick iv,  1592-1610,  was  himself  not  without  acquire- 
ments. Portus  could  write  to  him  in  Greek18.  Though 
fond  of  the  vanities  and  amusements  of  a  court,  he 
took  a  lively  interest  in  his  university.  At  fourteen 
he  had  acted  the  part  of  rector,  and,  when  he  came 
to  his  majority,  he  continued  occasionally  to  preside 
at  the  acts  and  disputations.  He  had  a  pride  in 
collecting  eminent  men.  Toleration  indeed  was  not 
thought  of.  A  profession  of  Calvinism  was  required 
of  all  who  entered.  But  Calvinism,  intolerant  as  it 
was,  was  not  so  narrow,  nor  had  it  so  cramping  an 
effect  on  the  mind,  as  the  cotemporary  lutheranism. 
At  the  neighbouring  universities,  on  either  side  the 
Rhine,  theological  disputation  was  in  full  vogue.  At 
Strassburg  the  work  of  Sturm  had  been  destroyed,  in 
a  generation,  by  the  lutheran  preachers.  At  Tubingen 
all  heads  were  busy  with  the  question  of  the  ubiquity 
of  the  body  of  Christ.  At  Heidelberg,  the  principle  of 
liberality  was  already  germinating.  Though  Pareus' 
'Irenicum'  did  not  appear  till  1615,  it  was  the  ex- 
pression of  a  tendency  which  had  been  growing  up 
in  the  university,  for  the  previous  twenty-five  years. 
A  paternal,  but  economical,  patronage  of  learning  had 

20  Ap.  Schelhorn,  Vita  Gamer,  p.  195. 


74  GENE  VA .     1578  —  1 596. 

created  a  new  interest.  Science  and  learning  were 
drawing  to  themselves  talents,  which  were  elsewhere 
wasted  on  theological  controversy.  Heidelberg  could 
show,  at  one  moment,  a  list  of  names  which  might 
almost  rival  that  of  Leyden,  if  Scaliger  were  ex- 
cepted  from  the  comparison.  Pareus,  Pacius,  Denis 
Godefroy,  Freher,  Gruterus,  Surets,  Obsopaaus, 
Christinann,  were  among  the  professors;  Sylburg 
was  librarian  of  the  university,  Schede  (Melissus)  of 
the  Palatine  library,  as  yet  unplundered  of  its  MSS. 
treasures. 

Nothing  could  be  more  in  the  course  of  nature  than 
that  Casaubon,  a  calvinist,  and  the  rising  greek  scholar 
of  his  generation,  should  have  been  thought  of  for  Hei- 
delberg. We  must  suppose  that  Casaubon  had  thought 
of  it  for  himself,  when  his  uneasiness  at  Geneva 
had  risen  to  a  point,  which  made  him  catch  at  a  faint  hint 
even  of  a  call  to  Franequer.  In  1596  a  place  in  the 
faculty  of  arts  at  Heidelberg  was  actually  vacant  by  the 
death  of  Pithopseus  in  January  of  that  year.  Casaubon 
does  not  stir.  The  place  was  filled  by  ^Emilius  Portus 
(son  of  Casaubon's  own  teacher),  a  man  much  below 
Casaubon,  both  in  the  repute  and  the  reality  of  learn- 
ing, and  who  has  earned  from  Bentley  the  title  of  ' homo 
futilissimus/  And  Portus  was  backed  by  Casaubon's 
patron,  de  Fresne,  who  had  before  endeavoured  to 
get  him  placed  at  Altdorf.  Denis  Godefroy,  who  had 
formerly  taught  at  Geneva,  was  called  to  Heidelberg  in 
1598  (or  according  to  Hautz  in  1600).  Yet  I  find  no 
trace,  at  this  time,  either  of  Casaubon  seeking  Heidel- 
berg, or  of  his  being  sought  for  it.  At  a  later  period  21 
a  chair  was  offered  him  there,  but  the  time  was  gone 
by.  And  he  himself  knew  the  attractions  of  Heidelberg. 

21  1608.     See  Ephem.  p.  571. 


G'ENEVA.     1578—1596.  75 


He  had  visited  it  twice'",  en  route  to  Frankfort,  had 
made  acquaintance  with  the  men  and  manners.  It  is 
true,  that  the  salaries  at  Heidelberg  were  on  the  most 
economical  scale.  But  then  they  were  better  than  the 
starvation  pay  of  Geneva ;  the  necessaries  of  life  were 
far  cheaper 22,  and  there  was  the  Palatine  library  to  set 
against  the  absolute  dearth  of  books  at  Geneva. 

One  reason  why  Casaubon  did  not  turn  towards 
Heidelberg  may  have  been  that  his  wishes  and  hopes 
were  strongly  directed  towards  the  French  side.  Though 
a  native  of  Geneva,  Casaubon  was  a  Frenchman,  and 
always  speaks  of  himself  as  such.  Language,  manners, 
and  connection  all  drew  him  that  way.  And  about  the 
very  time  when  his  dissatisfaction  with  Geneva  began, 
a  prospect  was  held  out  to  him  of  removal,  on  advanta- 
geous terms,  into  France. 

His  anxiety  to  get  away  from  Geneva  begins  to  show 
itself  in  May  1 594,  and  gradually  becomes  the  dominant 
feeling.  The  motive  has  been  variously  sought  by 
the  biographers,  in  a  constitutional  fretfulness  of  tem- 
perament, or  in  personal  disagreement  with  his  col- 
leagues, or  with  the  members  of  the  government  of 
the  republic. 

This  last  supposition  is  founded  upon  Casaubon' s 
many  bitter  utterances  against  the  authorities  of 
Geneva.  Casaubon  had,  in  his  letters,  brought  so 
heavy  charges  of  dishonest  dealing  against  his  com- 
patriots, that  Grotius  thought 23  that  Eivet,  the  editor 
of  the  letters,  would  not  venture,  even  in  Holland,  and 
in  1636,  to  print  passages  which  could  be  so  little  to 
the  taste  of  the  Genevese  ('  minus  ad  Genevalem  stoma- 

*  See  note  E  in  Appendix. 
™  Ep.  72.  *»  Grot.  Epp.  App.  ep.  372. 


76  GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 

chum').  But  the  transaction  which  raised  Casaubon's 
anger  was  of  a  date  much  posterior  to  his  quitting 
Geneva  in  1596.  That  affair  was  as  follows.  When 
Henri  Estienne  died  in  1598,  Madame  Casaubon's  mar- 
riage portion  was  still  unpaid.  When  Casaubon  pro- 
ceeded to  claim  it,  he  found  he  was  only  one  among 
a  number  of  creditors,  of  whom  the  principal  was  Nicolas 
Leclerc,  for  400  crowns.  A  judgment  was  obtained  and 
the  estate  of  the  intestate  was  ordered  to  be  realised 
for  the  settlement  of  his  debts.  The  widow  of  Henri 
had  died  shortly  after  her  husband.  Leclerc  obtained 
only  50  per  cent,  of  his  debt,  viz.  200  crowns,  but  he 
retained  ample  security  for  the  remaining  half.  The 
other  creditors  likewise  got  a  dividend,  on  principal  and 
interest.  Madame  Casaubon  and  the  three  other  sur- 
viving children  of  Henri  claimed  the  residue.  But 
Casaubon  got  nothing.  His  claim  was  disallowed  by  the 
Genevese  tribunal  on  the  ground  of  Robert  Estienne's 
will.  This  had  provided  that  his  printing  establish- 
ment should  never  be  removed  from  Geneva  under 
penalty  of  forfeiture  to  the  State.  It  was  accordingly 
decided  that  Casaubon's  part  of  the  liquidation  could 
not  be  removed  from  the  city,  but  had  lapsed  to  the 
exchequer.  Casaubon  speaks  of  himself  as  having  '  lost 
1300  crowns/  but  this  must  be  considered  an  excited 
statement.  He  must  mean  that  1300  crowns  was  the 
whole  value  of  the  estate  of  which  he  lost  his  share. 
This  is  the  ground  for  his  passionate  denunciations,  in  his 
diary  and  letters,  of  the  Genevese.  Swindlers ;  rascally 
brigands  ;  humbugging  pharisees  ;  diabolical  hypocrites, 
with  their  mock  piety!  The  intelligence  reached  him 
at  Paris  in  the  autumn  of  1607,  and  disturbed  him  so 
as  to  distract  him  for  weeks  from  his  books.  His 
equanimity  was  gone  for  a  time,  and  his  day  was  en- 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596. 


77 


croached  upon  by  the  necessity  of  urging  his  remon- 
strances at  Geneva,  or  endeavouring  to  obtain  redress 
by  the  intervention  of  the  French  government. 

This  grievance,  which  did  not  arise  till  1607,  had 
then  nothing  to  do  with  his  discontent  at  Geneva, 
which  began  in  1594. 

Nor  was  it  mere  love  of  change  that  instigated  his 
projects  of  removal.  The  cause  is  not  obscure.  It 
was  the  pressure  of  positive  evil.  The  disadvantages 
he  laboured  under  at  Geneva  may  be  shortly  enume- 
rated. An  insufficient  salary ;  high  prices  caused  by 
the  blockade  on  the  side  of  Savoy  ;  the  want  of  books  ; 
the  want  of  leisure.  A  minor  evil  was  the  narrow 
accommodation  of  his  apartments  in  the  college,  where 
his  only  study  looked  upon  the  court,  in  which  the  boys 
of  the  school  disturbed  him  with  their  games  during 
play  hours.  The  first  of  these  evils  it  might  be 
thought  was  remediable.  A  small  augmentation 
might  have  enabled  him  to  exist.  But  the  republic 
was  not  only  poor,  but  exhausted.  And  letters  were 
of  small,  rather  of  no,  account  in  Geneva.  For  the 
purposes  of  their  academy,  they  did  not  want  anything 
so  good  as  Casaubon.  If  Casaubon  was  valued  at  all, 
it  was  only  because  he  attracted  pupils.  Except  for 
this  any  young  regent  could  do  all  the  teaching  re- 
quired. In  Geneva  there  was  no  prospect  for  him  in 
the  future,  and  even  the  present  scanty  stipend  was 
not  secure.  The  council  that  had  dismissed  Lect 
might,  any  day,  teh1  Casaubon  that  they  could  pay  him 
no  longer.  He  had  exhausted  the  classical  books  he 
had  been  able  to  procure;  his  father-in-law's  library 
was  closed  against  him.  But  the  aid  of  books  was 
indispensable  if  he  was  to  produce  anything  exhaustive 
of  a  subject.  Above  all  he  sighed  for  leisure,  and  to  be 


78  GENEVA.     1578—1596. 

set  free  from  the  drudgery  of  teaching.  He  would 
gladly  have  passed  the  rest  of  his  days  at  Geneva,  were 
these  difficulties  removable.  But  they  were  not.  He 
must  leave.  When  he  moves,  it  must  be  into  France. 
Books,  leisure,  necessaries — these  are  the  conditions. 
Where  can  they  be  found  ? 

In  1594  a  proposal  was  made  to  him  from  Mont- 
pellier.  The  conditions  were  not  tempting.  Mont- 
pellier  was  almost  as  poor  as  Geneva,  and  the 
protestants  in  Languedoc  not  more  secure  than 
those  in  Geneva.  Sarrasin  arid  Bongars  dissuade. 
Casaubon  is  willing,  but  refuses  in  compliance  with 
their  advice.  De  Fresne,  however,  who  had  secretly 
prompted  the  first  offer,  continues  to  press  the 
municipal  council  at  Montpellier,  and  obtains  better 
terms24.  In  October,  1595,  a  formal  request  from 
the  city  of  Montpellier  is  made  to  the  council  of 
Geneva,  to  send  them,  either  on  loan  or  permanently, 
Simon  Goulart  and  Isaac  Casaubon,  25 '  tant  pour  con- 
server  parmi  eux  la  pure  et  vraye  religion,  que  pour 
instruire  leur  jeunesse  es  lettres  humaines/  The 
council  refuse.  The  two  are  '  men  who  cannot  be  done 

24  De  Fresne  was  instigating  the  municipality  of  Montpellier.     But 
behind  de  Fresne  was  de  Thou,  who  was  the  first  person  to  urge  the 
acquisition  of  Casaubon  for  France.     See  ep.  785  :  'Primo  tibi  venit 
in  mentem  traducendum  me  esse  in  Galliam.' 

25  Geneva  MSS.  Reg.  du  pet.  cons.  15  octob.  1595,  f°.  183  :  '.  .  .  ont 
este'  venues  lettres  escrites  a  Messrs.  par  le  Sieur  des  Fresnes  en  jum 
dernier,  et  autres  du  24  de  7bre  dernier  par  les  consuls  conseil  et  con- 
sistoire  de  la  ville  de  Montpellier,  et  de  leur  mandement,  priant  les 
favoriser  de  tant  que  de  leur  accorder  lesd.  Sr.  Goulard  et  Casaubon, 
tant  pour  conserver  parmi  eux  la  pure  et  vraye  religion,  que  pour 
instruire  leur  jeunesse  £B  lettres  humaines,  a  este*  arrestd  qu'on  s'en 
excuse  envers  eux,  par  lettres,  le  plus  doucement  et  honorablement  que 
faire  se  pourra  sur  la  ne'cessite'  de  tels  personnages.' 


GENEVA.     1578  —  1596.  79 


without/  But  the  principals  had  not  been  consulted 
in  the  transaction.  When  they  are  told  of  it,  they  are 
found  to  be  willing  to  leave.  Goulart,  after  some 
resistance,  at  last  consents  to  remain  at  Geneva26.  But 
Casaubon  will  not.  He  cannot  maintain  himself  on  his 
Genevan  pay.  But  the  council  are  in  earnest.  They 
are  aware  '  what  profit  and  honour  the  learning  and 
renown  of  the  sieur  Casaubon  confer  upon  Geneva,5 
they  will  double  his  pay  for  this  year,  and  will  do  the 
same  year  by  year.  Only  this  last  intention  is  not  to 
be  made  public,  in  order  not  to  rouse  the  jealousy  of 
the  other  professors. 

But  it  is  now  no  use.  Casaubon  wishes  to  visit  his 
mother ;  he  has  long  designed  a  journey  to  Montpellier 
to  see  de  Fresne.  In  short,  he  is  determined  to  settle 
in  France.  He  has  outgrown  Geneva ;  he  is  become,  as 
was  afterwards  said  of  Madame  de  Stael :  '  trop  grand 
poisson  pour  notre  lac  ;'  he  will  migrate  into  more 
spacious  waters. 

26  Geneva  MSS.  Reg.  du  pet.  cons.  17  octob.  1595,  f°.  184:  '.  .  led. 
Sp.  Goulard  apres  quelque  difficult^  faite  a  fmalement  consent!  de 
continuer  icy  sa  charge;  mais  led.  sieur  Casaubon  s'est  tellement 
excuse*  sur  la  ne'cessite'  de  sa  famille,  qui  s'augmente  annuellement,  qu'il 
les  a  resolus  de  ne  pouvoir  plus  servir  a  si  petits  gages,  ayant  d'ail- 
leurs  des  longtemps  propose"  de  faire  un  voiage  aud.  Montpellier  pour 
visiter  sa  mere,  prians  les  d.  sp.  ministres,  que  Messeigneurs  pdsent 
comnie  il  faut  le  profit  et  honeur  qu'aporte  en  ceste  ville  la  doctrine 
et  le  renom  dud.  sieur  Casaubon,  pour  y  avoir  tel  esgard  que  de  raison, 
a  estd  arrests'  qu'on  luy  augmente  ses  gages  pour  ce  coup  de  trois  cent 
florins,  et  qu'on  advise  de  le  gratifier  d'an  en  an  de  mesme  somme,  sans 
ne'antmoins  qu'on  le  luy  die,  afin  d'eViter  toute  jalousie  des  autres 
professeurs.' 


APPENDIX  TO  2. 


Note  A.  p.  12. 

WHILE  every  university,  almost  every  school,  in  Germany  has  its 
history,  there  is  no  special  monograph  on  the  Academy  of  Geneva. 
Materials  are  not  wanting.  Professor  Celle'rier  has  traced  an  outline 
only  of  what  might  be  written  :  Bulletin  de  la  Soci^td  cle  1'Histoire  pro- 
test, tome  4.  M.  Crottet  has  printed  a  journal  of  one  Merlin,  who  must 
have  been  a  student  along  with  Isaac  Casaubon.  The  accounts  in  the 
current  lives  of  Calvin  are  very  loose  and  inexact,  e.  g.  they  mostly 
speak  of  the  '  academy  '  as  distinct  from  the  '  school.'  But  the  statutes 
— 'Leges' — of  1559  call  the  whole  institution  '  Academia/  and  dis- 
tinguish the  lower  section  of  it  as  '  gymnasium/  The  contem- 
porary writers  generally  speak  of  *  the  schools,'  *  les  escholes.'  As  to 
the  number  of  the  students,  the  number  1000  has  established  itself, 
doubtless  permanently,  in  the  modern  histories.  Henry,  Leben 
Calvin's,  3.  391,  'more  than  a  thousand  daily,'  followed  by  Dyer, 
Life  of  Calvin,  p.  459.  The  authority  for  this  figure  is  an  anonymous 
letter,  quoted  in  Sayous,  Etudes,  i.  107,  'c'est  merveille  des 
auditeurs  des  Ie9ons  de  M.  Calvin ;  j'estime  qu'ils  sont  journellement 
plus  de  mille.'  But  these  are  the  congregation  who  followed  Calvin's 
doctrinal  sermons,  of  which  he  preached  2025.  Stahelin,  however, 
Johannes  Calvin,  Leben,  i.  494,  will  have  '900  regular  students,' 
'  nicht  weniger  als  neunhundert  junge  Manner,'  a  blunder  apparently 
arising  from  mistranslating  Gaberel's  'cent  neuf.'  Gaberel,  j.  338, 
gives  the  number  of  students  exactly,  from  the  '  livre  du  recteur,'  as 
109,  and  distinguishes  them  from  the  auditors  of  Calvin,  whom  he 
reckons  at  800.  The  total  number  of  scholars,  including  the  boys  in 
the  lower  school,  was  600  (Leges  Academies,  p.  i).  Beza  (to  Farel. 
ap.  Baum.  Leben,  etc.  i.  519)  says  the  '  scholastici '  at  Lausanne,  in 
1558,  were  '  nearly  700.'  The  foreign  students  formed  the  larger  part 
of  the  whole ;  cf.  Doschius,  Vita  Hotoman.  :  '  cum  propter  urbis  et 


APPENDIX  TO  2. 


81 


doctorum  celebritatem  undique  confluerent  auditores,  interque  eos  e 
Germama  aliquot  adolescentes  principum  filii.'  Tossanus,  writing  to 
Hotoman,  in  1586  (Hotoman.  Epp.  ep.  143),  names,  among  the 
German  nobles,  two  Counts  Witgenstein,  Count  Karl  von  Ortemburg, 
with  his  tutor  Theodor  Clement.  Cf.  Goldasti,  Epp.  p.  118.  The 
existence  of  the  academy  was  still  precarious  in  1611,  and  it  was 
occasionally  subvented  by  the  reformed  churches  throughout  France. 
Me'm.  et  Corresp.  de  Du  Plessis-Mornay,  n.  296.  sept.  1611  :  'J'ai 
repr^sentd  le  me'rite  de  vostre  seigneurie,  e*glise,  et  academic;  la 
necessity  aussi  a  laquelle  tant  de  mise'rables  affaires  avaient  reduict 
vostre  ville ;  telle  que  vostre  dicte  acaddmie,  qui  en  faict  une  bonne 
partie,  estoit  en  danger  de  de'pe'rir  s'il  n'y  estoit  d'ailleurs  pourveu.' 


Note  B.  p.  22. 

The  evidence  for  this  fact  are  three  documents  printed  by  M.  Th. 
Dufour,  L'Interme'd.  3.  81.  i.  The  minute-book  of  a  notary,  Jean 
Jovenon,  preserved  at  Geneva,  has,  under  date  24  aout,  1583,  a 
contract  of  marriage  between  'Spect.  Isaac  Cazaubon,  prof,  en  grec, 
fils  de  Spect.  Arnault  Casaubon,  ministre  du  saint  £vangile  en  I'dglise 
refforme'e  de  Crest  et  Verre  en  Daulphine'e  d'une  part,  et  honn.  fille 
Marye  Prolyot,  fille  de  feu  honn.  M.  Pierre  Prolyot,  en  son  vivant 
maistre  chirurgien,  et  de  Dame  Jehanne  Duret,  de  la  ville  de  Bour- 
deaux,  habitant  a  Geneve,  d'autre  (part).'  2.  The  second  document 
is  the  Registre  des  ddces,  in  which  the  entry  is  '  Marye,  femme  de 
Isac  Casaubon,  bourgeois,  est  morte  d'une  apoplexie,  age'e  d'environ 
25  ans,  ce  27  may,  1585,  au  collayge.'  3.  The  register  of  baptisms 
contains  the  entry  of  the  baptism  of  their  daughter,  called  Jeanne, 
after  Isaac's  mother,  7  Jan.  1585. 

"We  must  suppose  that  this  daughter,  Jeanne,  died  young,  as  no 
mention,  that  I  am  aware  of,  is  made  of  her  anywhere  in  Casaubon's 
papers.  It  must  have  been  before  1598,  as  the  daughter  born  in  that 
year  received  the  name  Jeanne.  That  there  should  have  been  no 
allusion  to  the  first  wife  would  not  have  been  surprising,  as  we  have 
hardly  any  memoranda  which  go  back  as  far  as  1585.  But  it  is  very 
probable,  as  M.  Dufour  conjectures,  that  Cas.  ep.  3,  date  August  23, 
I5^5,  where  he  speaks  of  a  great  misfortune  which  has  suddenly 
overtaken  him,  is  to  be  understood  of  his  wife's  death.  The  words 
are,  '  Dum  ille  discessum  parat,  ecce  repentina  calamitate,  ceu  fluctu 
decumano  aliquo,  ita  totus  obruor,  ut  omnem  continue  et  scribendi  et 


82  APPENDIX  TO  2. 

aliud  quidvis  agendi  curam  omitterem.  sic  factum  est,  ut  ille  ad 
vos  sine  meis  literis  rediret ;  ac  nunc  quoque  quominus  pluribus  ad  te 
scribam,  idem  me  casus  tristissimus  impedit.' 

Note  C.  p.  31. 

Ephemerides,  p.  57.  9  kal.  Jan.  1597  :  '  Studium,  non  sine  dolore 
animi  ob  internam,  et  tibi,  o  Deus,  notam  caussam.  Domine,  fateor 
ita  maritam  esse  meam  ut  quse  alleviationi  et  auxilio  esse  debet,  sit 
interdum  studiis  nostris  impedimento.  scis  tamen,  o  Pater,  quantam 
morositatem  quo  animo  feram,  dum  illud  unice  vereor,  ne  semel  prin- 
cipium  aliquod  discordise  in  utriusque  mentem  penetret/  Ibid,  p.  4 1  : 
'  Tu  scis,  mi  Deus,  mei  doloris  caussam  domesticam.  vel  igitur  niedere 
huic  incommode  studiorum  meorum,  si  ita  placet,  o  Pater,  aut  ei 
ferendo  da  vires.'  Complaints  of  this  sort,  besides  that  they  are  found 
only  in  the  earlier  pages  of  the  diary,  are  greatly  overbalanced  by  the 
far  more  numerous  passages  which  testify  not  only  to  intense  affection, 
but  to  helpless  dependence  on  Florence's  watchful  care ;  e.  g.  ep.  603, 
to  Cappell :  '  Quotidie  videtur  dolor  crescere,  nunc  utique  absente 
uxore,  in  qua  una  ex  humanis  rebus,  curarum  mearum  est  solatium 
ac  levamen.'  Eph.  p.  131:  'Deum  O.  M.  supplex  veneror  regat 
uxorem  liberosque  meos.  non  est  ilia  quidem  dimidia  pars  animae 
mese,  sed  tota  quasi  anima.' 

Note  D.  p.  38. 

Specimens  of  Damarius'  transcription  are  Brit.  Mus.  King's  MSS. 
1 6  xi.  1 6  xiv.  1 6  xviii. 

Note  E.  p.  75. 

There  were  two  visits  to  Germany.  The  first  was  in  April,  1590. 
On  this  occasion  Casaubon  was  at  Frankfort  and  Heidelberg.  Ep.  5, 
to  Theodore  Canter,  was  written  from  Frankfort.  A  letter  to  Lipsius 
(Burmann,  Syll.  i.  348)  is  dated  20  April,  o.  s.  1590,  from  the  shop 
of  Le  Preux,  as  he  is  on  the  point  of  setting  out  for  Heidelberg.  This 
was  the  visit  on  which  he  must  have  made  the  excerpta  from  the 
'Fasti  Siculi/  in  the  Palatine  library,  spoken  of  ep.  252,  and  possibly 
inspected  the  Palatine  Athenseus,  which  he  afterwards  obtained  on  loan, 
ep.  229. 


APPENDIX  TO  2.  83 

The  second  visit  was  in  Jan.  1593.  For  this  journey  he  obtained 
leave  of  absence  from  the  Council.  Geneva  MSB.  Reg.  du  pet.  cons. 
15  decemb.  1592.  f°.  242  :  '  Sr.  Isaac  Casaubon  .  .  .  ayant  estd 
ordonne'  de  luy  bailler  des  gages  aultant  qu'a  ung  de  la  ville,  a  estd 
raportd  qu'il  desire  faire  ung  voyage  jusque  a  Francfort  vers  M.  du 
Fresne,  ayant  promis  de  revenir  au  service  de  la  Seigneurie,  arrest^ 
qu'ou  luy  donne  cong£  a  ceste  condition/  Ded.  of  Suetonius  to 
Canaye  du  Fresne,  p.  2  :  '  In  Germaniam  tuo  accitu  veni.'  I  do 
not  find  that  he  went  further  than  Strassburg.  Adversaria,  torn.  23  : 
'  Itinere  meo  Germanico.'  Ibid. :  *  In  Aristophahe  observata,  6Sov 
,  Argentinse,  a.  d.  kal.  feb.  1593.' 


Q  2 


3. 


MONTPELLIEB. 


1596—1599. 

MONTPELLIER  \  during  the  sovereignty  of  the  kings 
of  Majorca,  had  been  a  flourishing  entrepdt  of  com- 
merce. Nominally  dependent,  it  had  enjoyed  real 
self-government,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  the  free  cities 
of  the  empire,  this  independence  had  led  to  wealth. 
Incorporation  with  France  had  begun  its  decline.  It 
was  a  decaying  town  before  the  wars  of  religion 
came,  at  the  close  of  the  i6th  century,  to  desolate 
Languedoc. 

In  1596,  the  city,  though  saved  by  its  fortifications 
from  the  worst  extremities,  had  lost  its  commerce  in 
the  troubles.  Though  still  the  second  city  in  Lan- 

1  On  the  Academy  of  Montpellier,  I  have  had  recourse  to  Faucillon, 
ap.  Mdmoires  de  1'acade'mie  des  sciences  de  Montpellier,  3.  500;  Ger- 
main, in  Me*m.  de  la  Soc.  arche'ologique  de  Montp.  for  1856,  p.  247, 
seq, ;  Hist,  de  la  Commune  de  Montpellier,  1851 ;  Academia  Mons- 
peliensis  a  Jacobo  Primirosio  Monspeliensi  et  Oxoniensi  doctore 
descripta,  Oxon.  1631;  Astruc,  Me'moires  pour  servir  a  1'his- 
toire  de  la  Faculte*  de  me'decine  a  Montpellier,  Paris,  1867.  A 
paper  in  Me'm.  de  1'Acad.  d.  Sciences  de  Montp.  1872,  tome  5,  p.  207, 
seq.  by  M.  Germain,  with  the  promising  title,  'Isaac  Casaubon  a 
Montpellier,'  is  compiled  only  from  printed  sources,  and  adds  nothing 
to  our  information. 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 


85 


guedoc,  its  treasury  was  empty,  and  in  the  general 
depreciation  of  property  it  could  scarcely  support  the 
weight  of  the  general  taxation.  The  university,  having 
no  independent  endowments,  was  sharing  the  depres- 
sion of  the  town.  The  university  was  an  old  foun- 
dation, its  medical  school  having  existed  long  before 
it  received  a  charter  by  papal  bull  1289.  It  rose 
upon  the  ruins  of  Cordova,  destroyed  by  catholic 
fanaticism,  to  be  the  first  medical  school  out  of  Italy. 
Padua — where  our  Harvey  was  now  (1598)  following 
the  lectures  of  Fabricius  ab  Acquapendente,  had,  for 
a  century,  held  the  first  place.  But  the  flourishing 
period  of  Montpellier  was  now  over.  Its  throngs  of 
students  had  disappeared,  and  the  six  regius  readers 
of  physic  alone  represented  the  numerous  readers  and 
demonstrators  of  anatomy,  whom  the  fees  of  the 
students  had  once  sufficed  to  maintain.  Yet  the 
spirit  of  better  days  was  not  wholly  lost  in  these 
years  of  distress.  The  school  of  Montpellier  was  not 
saved  by  its  endowments.  The  salary  of  the  royal 
readers  remained  at  its  old  figure,  50  livres — a  mere 
nominal  stipend,  even  if  it  had  been  regularly  paid. 
It  was  saved  by  the  tradition  of  science.  Thirty 
years,  a  whole  generation,  of  religious  war,  had  not 
extinguished  this  tradition  in  the  medical  school.  As 
soon  as  the  breathing  time  came,  after  the  accession  of 
Henri  iv,  the  old  habits  and  usages  revived  of  them- 
selves. The  salaries  of  the  professors  were  raised,  by 
royal  ordinance,  and  the  strict  requirements  which  had 
contributed  to  the  former  celebrity  of  the  school  were 
spontaneously  restored.  These  were  principally  four. 

The  examinations  for  the  degree  of  M.D.  were  more 
severe  than  anywhere  else,  not  only  in  France,  but 
in  Europe,  more  severe  even  than  Padua.  First  and 


8  6  MONTFELLIER.     1596—1599. 

last,  sixteen  of  them  had  to  be  passed  before  the  doctor's 
hood  could  be  assumed.  Numbers  of  students  would 
come  to  follow  the  lectures  at  Montpellier,  and  go 
away  to  get  the  degree  at  other  universities,  where 
it  could  be  had  on  easier  terms. 

The  old  practice  of  disputation  was  adhered  to  as 
the  form  in  which  the  exercises  for  degrees  were 
chiefly  exacted,  instead  of  the  more  convenient  and 
otiose  practice  of  written  thesis.  Disputations  were 
going  on  most  days  in  the  week,  so  often,  indeed,  as 
to  leave  scant  time  for  lectures.  In  the  course  of  a 
year  there  was  scarce  any  medical  theorem  but  would 
be  debated  in  public,  'to  the  great  profit  of  the 
students.' 

The  professorial  chairs  Were  awarded  by  com- 
petition. An  instance  is  recorded  in  which  this 
was  carried  to  an  unreasonable  excess,  when  eleven 
candidates  disputed  a  chair  for  thirteen  months,  each 
maintaining  twelve  theses. 

Lastly,  besides  the  six  salaried,  or  royal,  readers  the 
old  custom  was  not  wholly  disused  that  any  doctor 
of  medicine  might  teach. 

The  consequence  of  this  revival  was,  in  a  very  few 
years,  the  recovery  of  the  celebrity  of  the  school.  A 
throng  of  medical  pupils  from  all  nations  was  to  be 
found  there.  Dr.  Primrose,  who  studied  at  Mont- 
pellier in  the  early  part  of  the  iyth  century,  found 
there  Spaniards,  Germans,  Poles,  Danes,  Swedes,  Swiss, 
and  Scotch,  besides  the  French  students.  He  himself 
was  the  only  Englishman  :  though  born  and  educated 
in  France,  he  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Primrose,  canon  of 
Windsor.  From  his  notes  the  above  account  has  been 
chiefly  derived. 

The   faculty  of  law  was  wholly  provincial,  and  as 


4-  V*  S\-V*S\         TT1 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  87 


there  was  another  faculty  in  exercise  at  Toulouse,  it 
could  at  best  divide  the  province  of  La*iguedoc  with 
its  rival.  But  the  law  schools,  both  of  Toulouse  and 
Montpellier,  had  been  reduced  to  the  lowest  condition 
during  the  troubles.  The  rector  of  the  university 
of  Toulouse,  in  July  1598,  complains  of  the  decay 
of  the  school :  declares  that  it  cannot  subsist  much 
longer  :  that  the  youth  of  Languedoc  will  have 
to  be  sent  to  other  universities  to  get  that  legal 
training  which  they  cannot  find  at  home  :  and  reminds 
his  audience  that  Cujas  and  Gregoire  would  neither 
of  them  stay  to  teach  in  their  native  town,  because 
of  the  miserable  poverty  of  the  stipends2.  The 
school  of  Montpellier  was  in  no  better  condition.  It 
had  indeed  four  royal  or  salaried  regents  of  civil 
law.  But  during  the  catholic  reaction  civil  law  was 
out  of  favour ;  the  salary  was  insignificant,  and  not 
made  up  by  pupils7  fees.  We  are  not  surprised  to 
hear  that  in  1590  there  were  only  two  of  these  four 
readers  remaining,  and  these  threatening  to  resign 
unless  something  were  done  for  them. 

The  lowest  place  was  held  by  the  faculty  of  arts. 
There  had,  indeed,  from  ancient  times  existed  a  school 
of  arts  which  was  elevated  into  a  faculty  in  the  I5th 
century.  But  while  the  medical  and  law  faculties 
enjoyed,  each  of  them  separately  and  independently 
of  the  other,  the  title  of  a  'university,5  and  were 
governed  by  their  own  statutes,  the  faculty  of  arts 
was  only  known  as  the  'Ecole-mage'  (majeure).  It 

2  Me*ge,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  4.  625.  Malenfont,  in  1617  (in 
Cousin,  Fragm.  Philos.  3.  79)  reckons  the  number  of  persons  who  spoke 
latin  in  Toulouse  at  6000.  But  far  the  larger  part  of  these  must 
have  been  monks  and  other  ecclesiastics.  Eicheome,  Expost.  Apol. 
p.  54,  says  that  the  number  of  students  at  Toulouse  had  sunk  to  300. 


88  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

was  not  till  a  much  later  time  (1723)  that  the  three 
faculties  were  incorporated  into  one  university.  During 
the  civil  wars,  the  ecole-mage  ceased  to  function.  The 
building  in  which  it  was  held  became  a  ruin,  and  the 
commune  was  unable  to  pay  the  salary  even  of  a  single 
regent.  As  soon  as  there  began  to  be  a  prospect  of 
a  settled  government  in  the  province,  one  of  the  first 
cares  of  the  consuls  of  Montpellier  was  the  restoration 
of  their  school.  In  1 594  they  obtained  a  royal  ordinance 
for  restoring  the  cival  law  readers,  and  augmenting 
their  stipends  to  300  livres.  Two  new  professors  were 
chosen  by  public  competition,  and  the  faculty  of  law 
entered  upon  a  new  and  brilliant  period.  It  only 
remained  to  place  the  school  of  arts  on  a  level  with 
the  two  superior  faculties.  The  appointment  of  the 
regent  in  this  school  was  in  the  hands  of  the  consuls. 
For  Montpellier,  having  become  almost  entirely  cal- 
vinist,  had  chasse  its  bishop,  who  had  hitherto  exercised 
the  function  of  chancellor  of  the  university.  And 
though  the  parlement  of  Languedoc,  sitting  at  Tou- 
louse, had  arrogated  to  itself  a  right  of  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  the  university,  it  was  not  able  to 
enforce  its  claim  upon  a  protestant  population  pro- 
tected by  their  walls.  The  constant  intercourse  between 
the  church  of  Montpellier  and  that  of  Geneva  might 
have  naturally  led  the  consuls  to  fix  their  eyes  upon 
Casaubon ;  but  they  were  besides  prompted  by  de 
Fresne,  who  was  bent  upon  getting  Casaubon  into 
France.  De  Fresne,  who  was  located  at  Castres, 
worked  through  Eanchin.  William  Ranchin  was  of 
an  old  legal  family  at  Montpellier.  He  had  succeeded 
his  father  in  one  of  the  regius  readerships  of  law,  an 
office  which  he  continued  to  hold  after  he  was  trans- 
ferred (1601)  to  the  'chambre  de  1'^dit/  performing 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  89 

the  duties  of  reader  by  deputy.  He  was  a  man  of 
reputation  and  weight,  and  is  spoken  of  by  Casaubon 
as  '  doctissimus/  and  that  in  the  private  diary.  In 
1594,  though  only  34  years  of  age,  he  was  chosen 
first  consul  of  his  native  town,  as  his  father  had  been 
before  him,  and  his  brother  became  after  him. 

In  that  year  (1594),  and  through  Ranchin,  came  the 
first  proposal  to  Casaubon.  The  conditions  are  not 
stated,  but  they  were  such  that  Casaubon  rejected  them 
at  once,  not  without  expressing  some  surprise  that 
de  Fresne,  so  much  his  friend,  should  have  sanctioned 
such  an  offer.  We  may  conjecture  that  it  was  the 
precariousness  of  the  position  that  deterred  Casaubon. 
For  the  regents  in  medicine  and  law  had  a  salary 
secured  by  patent,  partly  upon  the  revenues  of  the 
university,  and  partly  upon  the  general  taxes  of 
Languedoc.  Of  the  300  livres — the  amount  of  the 
annual  stipend — a  sixth  part  was  charged  upon  the 
university  revenues,  which  consisted  wholly  in  fees, 
and  was  payable  by  the  faculty ;  the  remainder  was 
secured  on  the  gabelle,  and  was  payable  by  the 
officers  of  the  revenue.  Small  as  the  stipend  was,  it 
was  at  any  rate  a  certainty.  But  the  faculty  of  arts 
had  no  such  resources ;  indeed  the  faculty  had  no 
existence  ;  for  there  were  not  only  no  regents,  but  no 
graduates.  It  was  necessary  to  recreate  the  faculty, 
and  to  place  its  professor  upon  the  same  permanent 
footing  as  those  in  the  superior  faculties.  A  fresh 
application  was  made  to  the  government  of  Henri  iv. 
Notwithstanding  the  frightful  anarchy  of  the  whole 
realm,  the  embarrassment  of  the  finances,  and  the 
foreign  invasion  on  the  northern  frontier,  the  appli- 
cation was  immediately  met.  The  restoration  of  the 
decayed  educational  establishments  was  a  primary  object 


90  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

with  the  council  of  state.  At  this  very  time  a  com- 
mission was  engaged  in  reforming  the  statutes  of  the 
university  of  Paris.  July  9,  1596,  ]etters  patent 
were  issued,  providing  for  the  restoration  of  the 
college  which  used  to  be  at  Montpellier.  The  patent 
sets  out  the  general  views  of  the  government  for  the 
restoration  of  schools,  and  proceeds ;  *  seeing  that  our 
city  of  Montpellier  is  the  second  city  of  our  province 
of  Languedoc,  that  it  hath  in  its  neighbourhood 
several  other  towns,  boroughs,  and  villages,  in  the 
which  a  number  of  young  persons,  from  want  of  a 
college,  occupy  their  time  in  unprofitable  courses  to 
the  damage  of  our  state ;  and  further  seeing  that 
there  arrive  and  abide  in  the  aforesaid  city  many 
learned  and  sufficient  personages,  who  continue  of  no 
use  to  the  public  and  without  occupation,  we  ordain 
and  enjoin,  etc/  The  patent  goes  on  to  direct  the 
consuls  of  Montpellier  to  restore  the  school  of  arts, 
and  to  provide  it  with  a  sufficient  number  of  regents 
for  instruction  in  the  liberal  arts,  humane  letters,  and 
the  greek  and  latin  languages,  3 '  in  such  sort  as  to 
render  youth  capable  of  learning  the  other  sciences/ 
The  cost  may  be  charged  on  the  gabelle,  and  an  ad- 
ditional tax  of  12  deniers  on  each  quintal  of  salt  is 
specially  affected  to  this  service. 

On  the  strength  of  this  appropriation  of  funds, 
the  town-council  of  Montpellier  proceeded  to  appoint 
a  delegacy  of  eight  persons  (octumviri)  to  prepare  a 
scheme  for  the  college  of  Arts.  As  the  school  was 
to  be  mixed,  the  commission  was  '  mipartie/  four 
protestants,  and  four  catholics,  one  of  the  calvinist 

3  The  letters  patent  are  printed  in  M£m.  de  la  Soci^td  archeologique 
de  Montp.  i.  276.  The  deed  of  appointment  of  March  12,  1597,  is 
printed  in  appendix,  note  A,  from  the  original  in  Burney  MSS.  367.  127. 


Tnirnsf.prc 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  91 


ministers,  Gigord,  being  a  member  of  it,  but  no 
catholic  ecclesiastic.  This  commission  having  now 
an  authorised  position  to  offer,  soon  concluded  an 
arrangement  with  Casaubon.  He  was  to  have  the 
titles  of  '  conseiller  du  roi/  and  4 '  professeur  stipendie 
aux  langues  et  bonnes  lettres/  The  '  stipendie/ 
though  in  writing  to  Scaliger5  Casaubon  omits  it, 
signals  his  position  as  of  the  same  rank  with  the 
medical  and  law  readers.  He  was  to  have  266 
ecus,  in  money,  with  lodging,  fuel,  and  some  other 
small  perquisites  in  kind.  The  266  ecus  were, 
twelve  months  later,  raised  to  1000  livres,  nearly 
£  i  oo  Stirling.  *  Honestissimse  conditiones,'  Casaubon 
calls  these  terms,  implying  that  they  were  very 
respectable,  but  not  brilliant.  They  were  at  least  a 
great  improvement  upon  Geneva.  And  he  was 
besides  promised  that  he  would  find  at  Montpellier 
no  lack  of  lovers  of  classical  letters,  who  were  long- 
ing for  the  arrival  of  a  teacher,  and  who  would 
welcome  him  with  open  arms.  Behind  these  positive 
advantages,  there  was  a  secret  suggestion  which 
came  from  de  Fresne,  and  which  probably  worked 
more  powerfully  than  all  the  rest,  a  suggestion  of 
further  promotion  in  the  distance.  What  the  pro- 
motion might  be,  or  what  must  be  its  indispensable 
condition,  were  considerations  too  remote  for  imme- 
diate computation.  The  libraries  and  book-resources 
of  Paris  were  all  that  Casaubon  saw  on  the  distant 
horizon. 

He  was  allowed  to  depart  from  Geneva,  where  he 

4  So   the    letters    patent.     This   proves    Casaubon' s  exactitude  in 
writing  to  Seal.  ep.  117,  where  he  calls  his  professorship  'linguarum 
et  humaniorum  literarum  professio.' 

5  Ep.  117, 


92  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

had  represented  classical  learning  as  it  never  was 
represented  there  before  or  since,  without  any  effort 
to  detain  him,  without  any  recognition  of  his  ser- 
vices. Goulart  indeed  wrote  to  Scaliger  that  6<notre 
escole  est  maigre,  surtout  depuis  le  depart  de  Monsr. 
Casaubon,  fort  respecte  en  Languedoc.'  But  Goulart 
was  an  exception.  The  public  opinion  of  Geneva, 
which  did  not  care  to  retain  him,  charged  love  of 
money  as  his  motive.  '  He  wanted  to  raise  his  price 
upon  his  native  city,  which  would  show  him  that  it 
could  do  without  him.'  Casaubon's  aimable  heart 
consented  to  ascribe  these  sneers  only  to  the  excess  of 
the  love  his  friends  bore  him,  making  them  unjust 
to  him.  7<What  have  I  not  tried/  he  writes,  'to  be 
allowed  to  be  here !  God  is  my  witness  that  I  have 
sought  nothing  more  than  such  a  small  increase,  as 
should  allow  me  to  give  all  my  mind  to  my  studies, 
by  setting  me  free  from  anxiety  about  the  means  of 
life.  Wealth  I  have  not  desired;  but  it  was  high 
time  that  I  should  at  last  make  some  provision  for 
myself,  my  wife,  and  children,  a  provision  which  is 
denied  me  here/ 

On  September  23,  1596,  he  closed  with  the  Mont- 
pellier  offer.  On  November  20  he  obtained  his  conge 
from  the  Genevan  council.  At  Lyons  he  took  boat 
down  the  river,  and  arrived  at  Montpellier  on  the 
last  day  of  the  year. 

Casaubon's  entry  into  Montpellier  was  a  triumphant 
procession.  A  mile  beyond  the  gates  he  was  met  by 
a  cortege  composed  of  his  own  friends,  of  the  regents 
of  the  faculties,  and  at  their  head  more  than  one  of 
the  consuls  of  the  year, — though  not  the  first  consul. 

6  Ep.  frang.  p.  265.  7  Gas.  epp.  109  and  115. 


MONTPELLIEE.     1596—1599. 


93 


A  few  months  later,  when  the  bishop  made  his  entry, 
none  of  the  regents  would  join  the  procession,  not, 
as  they  said,  on  account  of  reh'gion,  but  because  they 
would  not  yield  the  precedence  claimed  by  the  juge- 
mage.  Casaubon's  welcome  was  unanimous.  He  was 
conducted  by  this  troop  of  honour  to  the  abode  pre- 
pared for  him.  Several  days  were  spent  in  receiving 
the  calls  of  ceremony  or  friendship.  But  he  was  less 
impatient  of  this  sacrifice  of  time,  as  it  seemed  to  him, 
because  his  books,  which  were  to  follow  him  by 
water  from  Lyons,  had  not  yet  arrived.  Seventy 
years  later,  Edward  Browne,  son  of  Sir  Thomas,  de- 
scribed the  population  of  Montpellier  as  prepossessing 
in  their  manner  towards  strangers.  He  writes  (i664)8, 
'  This  place  is  the  most  delightful  of  all  France,  being 
seated  upon  a  hill  in  sight  of  the  sea,  inhabited  by  a 
people  the  most  handsome  in  the  world ;  the  meanest 
of  them  going  neatly  drest  every  day,  and  their 
carriage  so  free,  that  the  merest  stranger  hath  ac- 
quaintance with  those  of  the  best  rank  of  the  town 
immediately/  In  1597,  just  emerging  from  the  pas- 
sions and  the  sufferings  of  a  religious  war,  there  may 
well  have  been  less  civility.  Yet  we  find  a  hint  in 
Casaubon's  letters  that  he  felt  he  was  no  longer  in 
the  rigid  atmosphere  of  Geneva.  Though  he  declares9 
that  'this  church  is  indeed  flourishing  in  piety  and 
good  works  if  any  is  so  in  France/  yet  he  writes 
to  Beza,  '  My  wife,  I  assure  you,  arranges  her  life 
in  such  a  way  that  all  may  easily  see  that  she  was 


8  Ap.  Sir  Thos.  Browne,  Works,  i.  70.     The  reader  of  Rabelais  will 
recall  Pantagruel's  experience  of  Montpellier,  Pantag.  2.  5  :    C0u  il 
trouva  fort  bons  vins  de  Mirevaulx,  et  joyeuse  compagnie.' 

9  Ep.  134. 


94  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

born  at  Geneva,  and  brought  up  in  the  church  there. 
• 10  The  style  of  living  is  very  different  here/ 

What  gratifies  him  more  than  the  attentions  paid 
him,  is  the  discovery  that  the  city  furnished  no  small 
number  of  men  with  a  taste  for  classical  letters.  True, 
civil  disorder  and  religious  exaltation  had  been  un- 
favourable to  study,  and  the  standard  of  attainment 
might  not  be  generally  high.  But  the  professional 
study  of  medicine  and  law  was  not  then  pursued  in 
the  technical  spirit  in  which  it  is  now.  The  study  of 
medicine  included  the  reading  of  Hippocrates  and  Galen, 
in  a  latin  version,  even  if  not  in  the  original  greek. 
Where  a  civil  lawyer  is,  there  the  traditions  of  the 
Eoman  empire  can  never  be  wholly  extinguished.  In 
the  question  which  divided  the  legal  profession  at  this 
time,  viz.  whether  a  lawyer  should  be  liberally  or  pro- 
fessionally educated,  the  bar  at  Montpellier  was  on  the 
side  of  liberality  as  against  the  Bartholists.  At  Geneva, 
what  zeal  there  was  was  all  theological.  Beza  had  not 
ceased  to  value  classics,  but  had  ceased  to  read  them. 
The  Genevese  had  let  Pacius  and  Hotoman  go,  and  Lect, 
having  no  pupils  and  no  salary  any  longer,  had  gone 
in  for  council  business.  At  Montpelh'er,  Casaubon  is 
delighted  to  find  not  only  a  number  of  students  desirous 
to  learn,  but  public  officers,  civil  servants,  practising 
lawyers,  n  'taking  an  interest  in  our  literature/  12  'Here 
we  have  to  do  not  with  boys,  no,  not  with  youths, 
but  with  men  of  mature  age/  There  is  no  allusion 
to  the  clerical  order  as  furnishing  aspirants  of  classical 
studies.  The  catholic  clergy  were  engaged  in  a  struggle 
for  existence,  the  bishop  being  altogether  excluded  from 

10  Ep.  114  :  •'  Nam  hie  quidem  aliter  vivitur/ 

11  Ep.  in:'  Nostrarum  literarum  percupidi.' 

12  Ep-  123- 


MONTPELLTER.     1596—1599.  95 

the  town,  and  they  being  allowed  only  one  church,  '  la  ca- 
nourge,'  for  the  catholic  culte13.  When  the  bishop  did 
succeed  in  edging  himself  into  the  city,  in  November  of 
this  year,  and  before  he  was  formally  restored  by  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  he  was  on  terms  of  civility  with 
Casaubon.  Guitard  de  Eatte  was  not  altogether  with- 
out a  taste  for  letters,  and  had  books  dedicated  to  him, 
but  by  men  of  a  bad  stamp,  e.  g.  Theodorus  Marcilius, 
and  John  a  Wouveren.  The  calvinist  ministers  of 
Montpellier,  however  respectable  for  their  piety,  had 
as  little  taste  for  secular  learning  as  those  of  Geneva. 
Jean  Gigord  was  the  principal  pastor,  and  is  called  by 
Casaubon  u  fa  genuine  theologian/  He  lectured  on 
theology  in  the  calvinist  provincial  seminary.  And  the 
synod  of  Languedoc,  which  had  met  at  Montpellier  in 
the  preceding  August,  had  voted  him  a  small  sum  for  the 
formation  of  a  library15.  But  the  books  were  theo- 
logical. Gigord  was  also  one  of  the  eight  members 
of  the  board  of  studies.  But  he  was  there  to  represent 
the  church,  not  learning.  It  would  have  been  thought 
an  impropriety  in  a  minister  of  the  reformed  churches 
to  have  been  known  to  devote  any  part  of  his  time  to 
secular  studies.  His  attitude  towards  them  differed 
from  that  of  the  catholic  priest,  secular  or  regular. 
The  priest  of  this  generation  feared  and  hated  learning. 
The  reformed  minister  approved  it  for  others,  as  edu- 
cation, as  discipline,  but  would  have  been  ashamed  to 

13  M£m.  de  1'Acad.  des  Sciences  de  Montp.  3. 
•  '  yvrja-ios  theologus,'  Ephem.  p.  130. 

15  Gigord  writes  to  Casaubon  to  lay  out  part  of  this  money  for  him  at 
Geneva.  Burney  MSS.  376.  p.  125  :  '  Je  vous  prie  sur  tout  de  me  faire 
recouvrer  les  livres,  desquels  vous  verrez  le  rolle  et  aviser  au  prix.' 
Even  the  ordinary  theological  books  were  not  to  be  got  at  Montpellier. 


96  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

have  owned  to  it  himself.  In  the  course  of  the  next 
century  the  tide  began  to  turn ;  the  education  of  the 
French  priest  improved,  that  of  the  average  pastor 
deteriorated.  To  this  contrast  certainly  eminent  ex- 
ceptions can  be  at  once  quoted.  Even  in  Casaubon's 
time,  1597,  the  other  ministers  at  Montpellier  were  of 
a  grade  of  intellect  below  Gigord.  Casaubon  tells  us16 
of  a  young  minister,  he  does  not  name  him,  who  in- 
veighed in  his  sermon  against  the  practice  of  those 
preachers,  who  uncovered  the  head  whenever  they  had 
occasion  to  mention  the  divine  name.  On  coming  out 
of  church,  Casaubon  ventured  to  tell  the  youth  that 
this  was  the  practice  of  all  the  reformed  churches  in 
Germany  and  Switzerland ;  to  which  the  young  zealot 
replied  that  'he  anathematised  all  those  churches/ 
*  He  was  one  of  those/  observes  Casaubon,  '  who  be- 
lieve themselves  gifted  with  all  wisdom  and  all  know- 
ledge to  begin  with/  Such  men  of  the  true  puritan 
stamp,  divinely  enlightened,  coritemners  of  human 
learning,  might  be  found  among  the  ministers  of  that 
day.  But  the  management  of  the  reformed  churches 
was  in  better  hands.  Literature  was  respected.  But 
the  respect  paid  it  was  made  up  mainly  of  a  sense  of  its 
Utility  in  controversy,  in  a  less  degree  of  a  perception, 
never  wholly  wanting,  of  its  intrinsic  worth.  Casaubon, 
though  not  an  official  deputy,  was  invited  to  be  present, 
as  '  amicus  curiae/  at  the  national  synod  held  at  Mont- 
pellier in  August,  1598.  The  ministers  patronised  or 
tolerated  him.  He  did  not  even  assume  to  be  on  equal 
terms.  He  writes  in  1597  to  the  synod  of  Sauve,  ex- 
cusing himself  from  attending  on  account  of  illness, 
but  begging  the  *  fathers'  to  direct  his  humble  services 

16  Ephem.  pp.  120.  113. 


to  the  be 


MONTPELLIER.     159G  — 1599.  97 


to  the  benefit  of  the  church,  and  assuring  them  that  it 
was  his  particular  wish  to  be  of  use  to  the  students 
of  theology,  i.e.  in  the  calvinist  seminary  at  Mont- 
pellier17.  He  once  went  so  far  as  to  say18 — but  this  was 
to  Beza — after  proposing  his  own  interpretation  of 
Matth.  28.  17,  'but  be  assured  that  I  shall  finally 
acquiesce  in  that  meaning  which  you  shall  decide  to 
be  the  true  meaning/ 

That  the  friends  found  at  Montpellier  were  nume- 
rous, is  evident  from  the  diary,  where  their  visits  are 
recorded,  and  lamented.  But  the  names  are  seldom 
given.  Only  three  recur  often  for  mention  :  W.  Ban- 
chin,  already  spoken  of;  Sarrasin,  a  medical  professor, 
who  published  Dioscorides  in  1598  ;  and  Canaye  de 
Fresne,  who  lived  not  at  Montpellier,  but  at  Carcassonne. 
To  him  Gasaubon  paid  his  first  visit,  through  the  storms 
and  snows  of  January,  and  took  his  advice  as  to  the 
character  he  should  impress  upon  his  teaching. 

It  was  on  his  return  from  this  visit  to  de  Fresne 
that  he  began  the  '  Ephemerides.'  On  his  3  8th  birth- 
day, being  February  18  (  =  8),  1597,  he  resolved,  as 
many  literary  men  have  resolved,  to  keep  a  diary. 
But  he  continued  to  keep  it  with  the  same  persever- 
ance which  he  carried  into  everything,  daily,  till  within 
a  fortnight  of  his  death  in  1614.  It  is  literally  'nulla 
dies  sine  linea.'  I  recollect  but  one  other  example 
of  such  regularity,  that  of  Joseph  Priestley,  who  began 
to  keep  a  diary  of  his  studies,  aet.  22,  and  continued  it 
till  within  three  or  four  days  of  his  death,  set.  71.  Cas- 
aubon  never  omitted  in  his  many  illnesses,  hardly  on  his 
various  journeys,  a  single  day.  When  he  travels,  the  cur- 
rent volume  accompanies  him  upon  the  sumpter-horse, 

17  EP.  136.  18  EP.  131. 

H 


98  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

and  he  makes  a  note,  however  brief,  of  the  spent  day, 
in  ink,  which  he  takes  also  with  him.  On  one  occasion, 
having  left  it  behind  him,  when  he  went  out  of  Paris 
for  the  night,  his  wife  makes  the  entry  in  his  stead  : 
'  23  fev.  1 60 1  :  ce  jour  dit  M.  Casaubon  a  este  absent, 
que  Dieu  garde,  et  moi,  et  les  nostres  avec  lui, 
Amen.'  The  daughter  of  Henri  Estienne  had  for- 
gotten the  latin  once  so  familiar  in  her  father's  house, 
and  she  makes  her  entry  in  the  vernacular19.  Casaubon 
himself  employs  uniformly  latin,  but  thickly  inter- 
spersed with  greek  words,  even  occasionally  with 
greek  sentences.  He  could  express  himself  with 
almost  equal  facility  in  the  one  language  as  in  the 
other.  He  was  once  asked  by  a  Greek,  who  professed 
to  be  a  descendant  of  Lascaris,  to  turn  a  petition  for 
him  from  latin  into  greek.  He  did  it  at  once,  off 
hand20.  He  never  required  a  lexicon21.  Cardinal 
Du  Perron,  the  earliest  French  pulpit  orator,  said  of 
him,  22  *  When  Casaubon  talks  french,  he  talks  like  a 
peasant ;  but  when  latin,  he  speaks  it  like  his  mother 
tongue.  He  has  neglected  the  one,  and  thrown  all  his 
mind  into  the  other.5  The  latin  of  Casaubon  in  his 
diary,  and  his  letters,  is  the  latin  of  a  master  of  the 
language  in  its  resources  and  its  idiom.  But  it  is 
wanting  in  character,  and  though  far  above  the  vapid 
theme-latin  of  the  Ciceronian  imitators,  it  has  not  the 
verve  arid  pungency  of  Scaliger's  style. 

19  Isaac's  letters  to  Made.  Casaubon  are  always  in  french.      On  one 
occasion  she  opened  a  letter  from  her  son  John,  which  arrived  in 
Isaac's  absence,  and  could  not  read  it  because  it  was  in  latin.     Ep. 
757  :  'Quas  ilia  pro  suo  jure  aperuerat,  sed,  quia  latine  erant  scriptse, 
parum  intellexerat.' 

20  Eph.  p.  228.  21  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  45. 
22  Perroniana,  p.  128. 


The  * 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  99 


The  Ephemerides  extend  from  February  18,  1597^0 
June  1 6,  1614.  On  July  i,  1614,  Casaubon  died.  A 
journal  so  regular  is  rarely  written,  and,  when  written, 
is  too  often  lost  to  history  through  the  jealousy  or 
weakness  of  relatives  or  executors.  In  Priestley's  case 
the  diary  shared  the  fate  of  all  his  collections,  and 
became  the  victim  of  the  savages  of  one  of  our  great 
cities.  We  owe  the  preservation  of  this. precious  record 
of  the  seventeenth  century  to  the  piety  of  Made.  Cas- 
aubon and  her  son  Meric.  Meric,  who  was  prebend 
of  Canterbury,  deposited,  before  his  death  in  1671,  in 
the  chapter  library  of  that  cathedral,  the  six  fasciculi 
which  he  had  inherited.  For  of  seven  volumes  which 
Isaac  had  written,  one,  the  fourth,  containing  the 
entries  of  three  years  and  six  months,  viz.  from  Jan- 
uary i,  1604,  to  July  21,  1607,  was  lost,  at  what  period 
is  not  known23.  The  MS.  had  been  consulted  where  it 
was  deposited  by  various  persons.  Batteley,  arch- 
deacon and  prebend  of  Canterbury,  supplied  a  copy  of 
the  material  parts  of  the  Ephemerides  to  Janssen  Van 
Almeloveen,  who  used  them  in  writing  the  *  Vita  Ca- 
sauboni,'  which  he  prefixed  to  his  magnificent  edition 
of  the  letters.  At  last,  Dr.  Russell,  another  prebend 
of  Canterbury,  transcribed  the  whole  MS.  and  prevailed 
upon  the  managers  of  the  Clarendon  press  to  print  it, 
in  the  year  1850.  The  faithful  accuracy  of  an  editor 

23  Adversaria,  torn.  22,  has  an  entry  written  by  James  Casaubon  at 
Meric's  dictation,  Jan.  9,  1639:  '  Ephemerides  ab  anno  vitse  39 
incipiente,  qui  erat  a  Christo  1597,  sunt  omnino  sex  scapi  separatim, 
aut  tot  saltern  penes  me  sunt,  nam  deest  quartus,  qui  ternpus  annorum 
4  ab  A.D.  1603  usque  ad  1607  complectebatur.  jam  et  ante  statim  a 
patris  obitu  desideratum  fuisse  scapum  unum,  testis  est  fratris  Joannis 
epistola  super  ea  re  ad  me  scripta  matris  nomine,  haud  multo  post 
adventum  meum  Oxoniam.' 

H   2 


100  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

who  religiously  gave  every  word  of  his  MS,  where  there 
was  so  much  temptation  to  excerpt,  deserves  commemo- 
ration. In  other  respects,  Dr.  Russell  fulfilled  none  of 
the  duties  of  editor.  He  did  not  explain  one  of  the 
many  difficulties,  or  clear  up  a  single  obscurity  in  the 
names  mentioned,  or  the  facts  alluded  to,  by  the  diarist. 
He  did  far  less  for  Casaubon's  memory  than  Almeloveen, 
the  Dutch  editor  of  the  letters,  had  done  150  years 
before. 

No  form  of  autobiography  is  calculated  to  be  more 
popular  than  a  private  journal.  But  the  interest  of 
Casaubon's  Ephemerides  suffers  a  heavy  abatement  from 
three  causes.  First,  it  is  written  in  latin ;  secondly,  it 
does  not  concern  itself  with  events  of  public  interest; 
and  lastly,  it  is  surcharged  with  the  language  of  de- 
votion. 

A  scholar's  life  is  seldom  one  of  incident,  and  his 
annals  can  have  little  else  to  tell  than  what  he  reads 
and  writes.  Casaubon  records  what  he  read  day  by 
day,  but  does  not  mix  remarks  of  his  own  upon  it. 
These  were  reserved  for  the  margins,  or  blank  leaves,  of 
his  books,  or  thrown  upon  loose  sheets  of  paper  without 
order.  Sixty  volumes  of  such  Adversaria  are  still  kept 
in  existence,  which  have  been  made  by  binding  these 
sheets  together.  In  a  few  instances  he  has  extracted 
into  the  Ephemerides  a  passage  which  struck  him,  and 
which  he  wished  to  dwell  upon,  sometimes  in  greek ? 
occasionally  a  hebrew  text.  Such  extracts  have  mostly 
a  devout,  not  a  philological,  purpose.  He  does  not,  like 
Fynes  Clinton,  record  how  many  pages,  but  how  many 
hours,  he  read.  Besides  this  timekeeping  of  the  daily 
task,  the  journal  notices,  but  with  great  brevity,  and  as 
secondary  matter,  his  family  affairs,  visits,  journeys,  let- 
ters, conversations,  descending  even  to  his  expenditure,— 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  101 

all  indicated  with  the  brevity  of  a  time-saving  man,  so 
that  an  8vo  page  of  print  seldom  contains  less  than 
three  days,  often  a  week  or  more.  Public  events  are 
little  noticed,  the  chief  exception  being  the  Fontaine- 
bleau  conference,  which  fills  seven  pages.  The  assassi- 
nation of  Henri  iv,  the  most  memorable  occurrence  of 
the  period,  scarcely  takes  a  page,  and  that .  contains  no 
particulars,  but  is  a  commonplace  lament  and  prayer  on 
the  occasion.  His  wife's  confinement  takes  two  pages, 
but  with  the  same  proportion  of  prayer  and  thanks- 
giving. Of  the  whole  diary  it  may  be  computed  that 
no  less  than  one  third  is  occupied  with  these  litanies. 
That  such  pious  aspirations  should  continually  ascend 
to  heaven,  from  the  devout  soul  of  Casaubon,  can  be  no 
matter  of  regret.  But  it  must  be  permitted  us  to  wish 
that  he  had  not  thought  it  necessary  to  write  them 
down,  and  so  fill  his  pages  with  mere  repetition,  to  the 
exclusion  of  more  interesting  matters.  One  observa- 
tion may  be  made  on  the  outpourings  of  prayer  and 
praise.  They  attest  the  pure  and  simple-minded 
character  of  the  man.  Here  is  no  taint  of  cant ;  not 
the  faintest  suggestion  of  that  unsoundness  or  in- 
sincerity, which  seldom  fails  to  attend  the  public 
parade  of  the  language  of  devotion.  We  feel  that 
we  have  surprised  Casaubon  on  his  knees  alone  in  his 
closet.  He  does  not  write  so,  not  even  in  his  most 
familiar  letters  ;  he  did  not  talk  so  in  his  ordinary  con- 
versation. Nothing  but  a  heart  overflowing  with  re- 
ligious feeling  could  have  prompted  a  passionate 
student,  so  jealous  of  his  moments,  to  write  and  re- 
write the  refrain  of  the  same  ejaculation. 

If  we  are  tempted  to  turn  away  from  Casaubon's 
journal  in  disappointment  at  its  barrenness  of  events, 
we  must  remember  that  it  was  undertaken  bv  him  with 


102  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

one  special  object  in  view.  It  was  not  written,  like  the 
cotemporary  '  Begistre-journar  of  Pierre  Lestoile,  for 
the  instruction  of  posterity ;  not  even  of  his  own  family. 
Casaubon  had  no  autobiographical  purpose  in  view.  He 
thus  states  his  own  motive  in  opening  the  diary.  24<The 
expenditure  of  time  being  the  most  costly  of  all  those 
we  make,  and  considering  the  truth  of  what  is  said 
by  the  latin  stoic  that  "  there  is  one  reputable  kind  of 
avarice,  viz.  to  be  avaricious  of  our  time,"  I  have  this 
day  resolved  to  begin  this  record  of  my  time,  in 
order  that  I  may  have  by  me  an  account  of  my 
spending  so  precious  a  commodity.  Thus,  when  I  look 
back,  if  any  of  it  hath  been  well  laid  out,  I  may  rejoice 
and  give  almighty  G-od  thanks  for  his  grace ;  if  again 
any  of  it  hath  been  idle  or  ill  spent,  I  may  be  aware 
thereof,  and  know  my  fault  or  misfortune  therein.'  This 
purpose  of  noting  how  the  time  goes,  is  the  paramount 
purpose  of  the  Ephemerides.  If  we  find  them  more  bar- 
ren of  events  than  we  could  wish,  we  must  call  to  mind 
that  they  were  not  destined  to  be  a  record  of  events, 
but  a  register  of  time.  Casaubon  anxiously  compares  the 
hours  spent  in  his  study  with  those  bestowed  on  any 
other  occupation.  Unless  the  first  greatly  preponderate, 
he  is  unhappy.  When  the  claims  of  business  or  society 
have  taken  up  any  considerable  part  of  a  day,  his 
outcries  are  those  of  a  man  who  is  being  robbed.  When 
he  has  read  continuously  a  whole  day,  from  early  morn- 
ing till  late  at  night,  *  noctem  addens  operi,'  he  enters 
a  satisfactory  '  to-day,  I  have  truly  lived/  '  hodie  vixi/ 
Taking  some  entries  of  the  first  period,  we  have  such  as 
the  following  : — 

'  To-day  I  began  my  work  very  early  in  the  morning, 

24  Ephem.  p.  i . 


notwitli 


MONTPELL1ER.     1596  —  1599.  103 


notwithstanding  my  having  kept  it  up  last  night  till 
very  late.' 

'  Nearly  the  whole  morning,  and  quite  all  the  after- 
noon perished,  through  writing  letters.  Oh  !  heavy 
loss,  more  lamentable  than  loss  of  money  \' 

'  To-day  I  got  six  hours  for  study.  When  shall  I  get 
my  whole  day  \  Whenever,  0  my  Father,  it  shall  be 
thy  will!' 

'  This  morning  not  to  my  books  till  7  o'clock  or 
after ;  alas  me !  and  after  that  the  whole  morning 
lost ;  nay,  the  whole  day.  O  God  of  my  salvation, 
aid  my  studies,  without  which  life  is  to  me  not  life/ 

'  This  morning,  reading,  but  not  without  interrup- 
tion. After  dinner,  however,  as  if  they  had  conspired 
the  destruction  of  my  studies,  friends  came  and  broke 
them  off/ 

'  This  morning  a  good  spell  of  study.  After  dinner 
friends,  and  trifling  talk,  but  very  bothering ;  at  last 
got  back  to  my  books/ 

*  To-day,  though  far  from  well,  got  eight  hours  for 
rny  books/ 

Such  is  the  general  character  of  the  entries  during 
the  first  period.  The  simple  '  studuimus  et  viximus'  is 
the  short  expression  of  the  feeling  of  this  time. 

The  sociable  disposition  of  the  people  of  Montpellier 
caused  him  grievous  trials.  Morning  visiting  was  the 
mode  of  the  place  ;  not  calls  of  ceremony,  but  '  dropping 
in'  to  have  a  chat.  Casaubon  was  liked  for  himself,  as 
well  as  respected  for  his  learning.  He,  too,  could  talk, 
though  his  french  were  french  of  Geneva.  Serious 
talk  with  well-informed  persons  he  does  not  regard  as 
time  ill  spent.  For  a  tete-&-tete  with  Eanchin  or  de 
Fresne,  with  Sarrasin  or  de  Serres,  persons  more  or 
less  behind  the  scenes  of  the  public  drama ;  to  lament 


104  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

the  gloomy  prospects  of  the  reformed  churches,  the 
backsliding  of  Henri  iv,  the  rapid  strides  of  the  Jesu- 
its, to  hear  of  the  last  new  conversion  at  court, — for 
this  he  is  ever  ready.  Nor  was  he  altogether  insen- 
sible to  the  allurements  of  ordinary  companionship. 
He  is  not  unwilling  to  gossip  with  the  gossips.  But 
these  Montpellier  neighbours  know  no  seasons.  They 
come  at  all  hours,  they  stay,  unconscious  of  the  lapse 
of  minutes.  Casaubon  sits  there  fretting,  watching  the 
clock,  wishing  them  gone,  with  his  thoughts  on  that 
25 '  last  wretched  page'  of  his  animadversions  on  Athe- 
na3us,  still  unwritten.  Oh !  '  the  friends,  how  little 
friendly ! ' — amici  quam  parum  amici — who  come  be- 
tween him  and  his  books.  Is  it  suggested  he  might 
shut  them  out  \  How  is  he  to  shut  them  out,  when  he 
has  only  two  rooms,  an  inner  and  an  outer,  a  sitting- 
room  and  a  bedroom  ?  All  his  study  has  to  be  done 
in  the  one  room  in  which  the  family  Hve.  What  a 
power  of  abstraction  must  be  required  even  to  follow 
a  book,  and  how  entirely  must  be  wanting  '  the  bless- 
ings of  contemplation  in  that  sweet  solitariness,  which 
collecteth  the  mind,  as  shutting  the  eyes  does  the  sight ! ' 
(Bacon).  His  resource  against  the  plague  of  friends 
is  to  take  the  early  morning,  and  the  late  night,  hours. 
Eut  I  can  find  no  authority  for  the  statement  of  the 
biographers,  that  he  bathed  his  eyes  with  vinegar  to 
keep  them  open.  The  '  legende  erudite'  has  done  little 
to  embellish  Casaubon' s  life,  for  this  is  almost  the 
only  exception26.  He  has  no  space  to  set  out  his 

25  Ephem.  p.  69  :  '  Ilia  pagina  misella.' 

26  I  find   no  other  authority  for  this  than  the  latin  life  of  Van 
Almeloveen,  p.  73  :  '  Aiunt  Casaubonum,   ne  concubia  nocte  somno 
corriperetur,  oculis  infudisse  acetum.'     Almeloveen  gives  us  himself 
the  source  from  which  he  drew  the  statement,  and   the  means  of 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 


105 


books  on  shelves.  In  time  he  gets  into  a  more  roomy 
abode,  but  the  repeated  removals  have  introduced 
chaos  into  his  books  and  papers.  The  time  lost  in 
searching  for  a  missing  volume  is  so  grievous,  that  it 
is  matter  of  entry  in  the  diary,  with  thanksgiving 
when  found27.  We  cannot  wonder  that  in  such  a 
menage  Florence  Casaubon  should  sometimes  lose  her 
good  temper,  wish  that  her  husband  could  find  a  little 
time  to  attend  to  his  affairs,  or  even  hint  that  he  might 
be  a  little  more  companionable.  This  was  the  severest 
of  all  his  trials.  For  even  in  his  new  house,  where  he 
had  a  private  study  up-stairs,  Made.  Casaubon  was  not 
to  be  excluded28.  So  tender  is  Casaubon' s  feeling,  that 
even  in  his  private  diary  he  does  not  name  her  when 
he  alludes  to  29'this  domestic  hindrance  to  my  studies.' 
A  true  and  loving  helpmeet  she  was  to  him,  as  he 
always  confesses,  and  on  the  whole  really  promoted 
his  studious  abstraction,  by  relieving  him  of  all  house- 
hold cares.  When  she  is  away  from  him  he  is  helpless 
in  these  matters  as  a  child.  30<  Deliver  me,  my  heavenly 
Father,  from  these  miseries,  which  the  absence  of  my 
wife,  and  the  management  of  my  household,  create 
for  me.  Not  being  used  to  keep  our  accounts,  I  am  per- 
fectly aghast  when  I  see  the  expenditure  of  this  family/ 

refuting  it.  He  quotes  'Moyse  Amyraut,  Morale  chre'tienne.'  But  what 
Amyraut  says  is,  not  that  Casaubon  used  vinegar,  but  that  some  one, 
unnamed,  who  wished,  like  Casaubon,  to  study  through  the  night, 
bathed  his  eyes  with  vinegar.  '  Celuy  qui,  pour  imiter  Casaubon,  qui 
estudioit  la  plus  grande  partie  de  la  nuit,  se  mettoit  du  vinaigre  dans 
les  yeux  pour  en  chasser  le  sommeil,  monstroit  bien  qu'il  avoit  de  la 
ge*nerosite,  et  une  grande  affection  pour  les  lettres.' 

27  Ephern.  p.  82. 

18  Ephem.  p.  1 8  :  '  Inter  turbas  domesticas  lectio  aliquot  hora- 
rum.' 

29  Ephem.. p.  42.  30  Ephem.  p.  998. 


106  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

It  might  have  been  better  if  she  had  disturbed  him 
oftener.  His  life  might  have  been  prolonged  some 
years,  if  she  had  more  often  routed  him  from  his  desk, 
and  driven  him  into  the  air.  For  in  these  years  he 
was  laying  the  seeds  of  disease,  and  preparing  his  early 
grave.  He  had  timely  warning  of  his  fate.  Serious 
attacks,  not  once,  but  repeated,  prostrated  him  in  1597 
and  '98,  of  relaxation  of,  and  discharge  from,  the  mu- 
cous lining  of  the  air  passages.  These  attacks  were 
attended  with  violent  fever,  and  had  for  sequel  a  lan- 
guor of  body  and  mind,  which  occasioned  a  further 
wrench,  when  he  dragged  himself  back  to  work  in  spite 
of  it.  They  were  the  first  of  a  series,  which  harassed 
him  all  the  remainder  of  his  life — the  beginning  of 
the  end. 

This  presentiment — that  his  space  of  life  would  be 
curtailed — haunted  him  already,  and  served  to  augment 
the  fever  of  work  which  consumed  him.  He  doles  out 
his  hours  as  one  who  knows  they  are  counted,  yet  he 
is  but  thirty-seven.  Six  a.m.  was  a  late  hour  for 
him  to  enter  his  study ;  5  a.m.  is  more  usual.  He  is 
not  rarely  later.  *  Mane  diei  melior  pars,'  was  his 
maxim.  Like  all  persons  of  weak  constitution,  his 
working  powers  were  freshest  in  the  morning,  and 
flagged  as  the  day  went  on.  But  hours,  which  seem 
to  us  incredibly  early,  were  the  rule  in  the  schools  of 
France.  Henri  de  Mesmes  describes  himself  as  going 
to  school  at  5  a.m.,  31 '  with  our  big  books  under  our 
arms,  our  portfolios  and  lanterns  in  our  hands.' 

31  Me'm.  de  Henri  de  Mesmes,  ap.  Rollin,  Traitd  des  Etudes,  i : 
'  Nous  etions  debout  a  quatre  heures,  et  ayant  pri£  Dieu,  allions  a 
cinq  heures  aux  estudes,  nos  gros  livres  sous  le  bras,  nos  escritoires  et 
nos  chandeliers  a  la  main.'  This  was  at  Toulouse,  in  1545.  Even  in 
Paris,  where  hours  were  later,  6  a.m.  was  the  hour  for  the  greek  class 
in  the  Jesuit  college  of  Clermont. 


On  r^a 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  107 


On  reaching  his  study,  his  first  act  is  one  of  devotion 
on  his  knees.  Unless  specially  busied  otherwise,  he 
takes  the  first  half- hour  for  religious  reading,  often  of 
:he  hebrew  scriptures.  Then  the  author  he  has  in  hand 
3upies  him  till  the  dinner  hour.  This  was  in  schools, 
tiversi ties,  and  burgher  life,  generally  at  10  a.m.  The 
)urt  dined  late,  at  1 2,  or  even  as  late  as  i  on  hunting 
lys.  After  dinner,  he  spends  some  hours  in  preparing 
for  his  lecture,  which  was  at  4  p.m.  An  hour,  four 
days  per  week,  is  his  prescribed  duty.  But  after  the 
end  of  the  first  nine  months,  he  adds,  as  a  voluntary, 
a  greek  elementary  class.  After  lecture,  friends,  supper, 
and  then  to  books  again,  if  friends  will  only  go  away 
in  good  time.  Saturday  was  given  up  to  the  disputa- 
tions ;  Wednesday  was  a  holiday.  The  usual  holiday 
in  the  schools  and  universities  was  Thursday.  In  the 
medical  school  of  Montpellier,  exceptionally,  the  day 
was  Wednesday,  dies  Mercurii,  there  styled  'jour  d'Hip- 
pocrate,'  and  the  other  faculties  conformed  to  the  prac- 
tice of  the  leading  faculty.  On  Sundays,  an  attendance 
on  two  sermons  was  expected  by  public  opinion,  and 
sanctioned  by  custom,  though  it  was  not  a  statutable 
duty.  This  was  the  case  also  with  the  Wednesday 
morning  sermon,  to  which  the  boys  in  the  lower  school 
were  taken  by  their  regents,  and  catechised  afterwards. 
When  Gigord  or  de  Serres  was  the  preacher,  Casaubon 
would  not  find  it  so  hard  to  quit  Chrysostom  or  Basil, 
at  8  and  at  12  (these  were  the  hours),  but  on  ordinary 
days  an  hour's  discourse  must  have  been  a  heavy  burden, 
when  the  pastors  were  such  as  he  describes.  32<  One, 
very  aged,  and  hence,  without  his  own  fault,  lethargic, 
the  other  a  mere  youth,  quite  unequal  to  the  post  of 
first  pastor  in  such  a  large  congregation/  Heylin, 

32  EP.  174. 


108  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

writing  in  1625,  says  of  the  reformed  preachers: 
33 '  Their  sermons  are  very  plain  and  home-spun,  little 
in  them  of  the  fathers,  and  less  of  human  learning, 
it  being  concluded  in  the  synod  of  Gappe  that  only 
the  scriptures  should  be  used  in  their  pulpits.  They 
consist  much  of  exhortation  and  use,  and  of  nothing 
in  a  manner  which  concerneth  knowledge ;  a  ready 
way  to  raise  up  and  edify  the  will  and  affection,  but 
withal  to  starve  the  understanding.' 

Though  Sunday  is  a  public  holiday,  Casaubon  does 
not  allow  himself  one.  He  marks  it  by  reading  some 
theological  book,  often  one  of  the  fathers.  But  after 
a  spell  of  this  reading,  he  turns  to  his  task  of  every 
day.  This,  too,  is  his  day  for  writing  letters.  The 
Scotch  c  sabbath '  was  unknown  to  the  French  reformed 
churches  of  the  1 6th  century,  as  it  was  to  the  catholics. 
The  faculties  kept  holiday,  but  the  disputations  of  the 
surgeons  and  apothecaries,  both  at  Montpellier  and 
Lyons,  were  held  on  the  Sunday.  Sometimes,  but 
very  sparingly,  he  takes  a  walk  beyond  the  walls  on  a 
holiday  to  visit  a  friend's  country  villa,  or  down  to  the 
sea,  to  look  at  the  ruins  of  Maguelonne.  There  are  three 
regular  vacations  in  the  year  of  three  or  four  weeks 
each — at  Christmas,  at  Easter,  and  in  July-August. 
In  these  he  makes  his  more  distant  visits.  His  first 
was  to  de  Fresne ;  the  summer  vacation  of  1597  ne 
devotes  to  a  visit  to  his  mother  at  Die  (dep.  Drome). 
The  summer  of  1598  affords  a  much  longer  excursion 
to  Lyons  and  Paris,  after  which  he  is  surprised  to  find 
how  improved  his  health  is.  In  November,  1598,  but 
after  he  had  ceased  to  act  as  professor,  he  goes  again 
to  stay  with  de  Fresne,  who  is  now  established  at 
Castres,  (dep.  Tarn,)  as  protestant  president  of  the 
33  Heylin,  Travels,  p.  120. 


MONTPELLIER.     1 5  9  G  — 1599.  109 

chambre  mipartie  of  Languedoc.  He  spares  an 
occasional  hour  to  be  present  at  the  medical  disputa- 
tions, or  at  a  dissection.  Once  he  goes  to  the  dis- 
putations of  the  surgeons.  Nor  does  he  quit  Mont- 
pellier  without  having  witnessed  the  sight  of  the 
place — the  manufacture  of  the  popular  electuary, 
kermes,  which,  says  the  German  Sincerus,  34 '  no  one 
should  quit  Moiitpellier  without  going  to  see/  He  was 
appointed  rector  of  the  faculty  of  arts,  for  the  scholar 
year  1597;  held  the  office  again  for  a  short  time  in 
1599  in  the  absence  of  the  rector,  and  found  it  greatly 
troublesome  and  time-devouring. 

When  rector  or  not,  no  one  at  Montpellier  was  likely 
to  interfere  with  his  choice  of  subjects  of  lecture. 
This  choice  was  guided  by  the  fact  already  mentioned, 
that  his  audience  consisted  largely  of  men  past  pupil- 
lage. Just  about  1597  there  was  a  short  reaction 
against  the  barbarism  produced  by  the  civil  war. 
Men  turned  again  with  eagerness  to  the  reopened 
source  of  ancient  learning.  Even  in  the  worst  times 
there  had  not  wanted  lovers  of  good  books.  The 
tradition  of  literature  still  lingered  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  French  bar.  Toulouse  was,  perhaps,  the 
most  fanatical  city  in  the  kingdom,  yet  in  the  parle- 
ment  of  Languedoc,  now  again  restored  to  Toulouse, 
were  not  a  few  men  who  rose  above  the  political 
passion  of  the  day.  Pierre  Du  Faur,  Sieurde  Sanjorry, 
first  president,  had  a  fine  collection  of  books,  and  had 
written  on  law35.  A  catholic,  but  not  a  leaguer,  he 

84  Jodocus  Sincerus,  Itinerarium  Gallise,  1627,  p.  160  :  'Nolim  hinc 
inoveas  non  visa  prius  electuarii  Alkermes  confectione.'  The  alkermes 
was  a  popular  stomachic  electuary,  prepared  from  the  kermis,  an  oak- 
gall  gathered  in  Languedoc,  Spain,  and  Portugal. 

35  Scaligera.  2a.  p.  81  :    '  Ce  n'est  q'un  amasseur,  il  ne  juge  rien.' 


110  MONTPELLIER,     1596  —  1599. 

sent  Casaubon  a  message  of  civility  through  de  Fresne, 
to  which  Casaubon  replied  by  claiming  his  friendship 
and  patronage,  and  calling  him  the  Varro  of  his  age. 
This  might  pass  as  a  complimentary  flourish,  were  it 
not  confirmed  by  Scaliger's  mention  of  him  as  one  of 
France's  learned  men,  though  he  adds  that  his  books 
were  only  compilations,  a  failing  not  uncommon  among 
book-collectors.  Another  member  of  the  same  court, 
and  president  au  mortier  in  it,  Ciron,  followed,  as  col- 
lector, the  footsteps  of  his  chief.  Jacques  de  Maussac, 
father  of  the  editor  of  Harpocration,  makes  a  third 
learned  library  at  Toulouse.  It  is  impossible  that  the 
example  of  the  supreme  court  should  have  been 
without  influence  on  the  province.  Accordingly,  at 
Montpellier,  there  was  a  rush  to  Casaubon' s  lecture- 
room,  not  only  of  younger  members  of  the  bar,  but 
even  of  the  law  professors,  and  more  than  one  of  the 
presiding  judges  in  the  various  courts.  Men  whose 
heads  were  grey,  president  Philip,  '  optimus  et  doctis- 
simus  senex  ; '  M.  de  Massilon, '  vere  eruditus  et  nostras 
litteras  callens/  were  occasionally  present.  If  any 
stranger  of  distinction  passed  by  Montpellier,  one  of 
the  amusements  provided  for  him  was  to  hear  Casau- 
bon. The  hour  assigned  to  Casaubon  was  the  hour  of 
honour,  4  p.m.,  the  latest  hour  in  the  academical  day, 
in  order  to  allow  this  class  of  professional  men  the 
opportunity  of  attending  after  their  business  was  over. 
Grynseus,  writing  from  Bale,  in  1584,  says,  36<  I  have 
been  induced  by  my  curators  to  institute  a  lecture  on 
history  twice  a  week.  It  will  be  at  an  hour  at  which 
the  professional  and  business  men  can  spare  a  little  time 

Pierre  Du  Faur  is   cited  by  Grrotius,  De  Jure  Belli,   2.   16.    i,  as 
'  eminentissimse  eruditionis  Petrus  Faber.' 
36  Grynseus,  Epp.  p.  101. 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  Ill 

for  the  good  of  their  minds,  viz.  4  p.m.'  Men  with 
these  tastes  were  to  be  found,  but  it  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed that  they  abounded.  The  French  noblesse, 
especially  the  haute  noblesse,  were,  as  a  body,  illiterate, 
and  gloried  in  being  so.  The  constable  Montmorency 
could  not  sign  his  name. 

Nor  in  Italy,  where  (Rome  excepted)  culture  was 
more  widely  diffused,  especially  in  ecclesiastical  circles, 
than  in  France,  were  things  otherwise*  Paolo  Gualdo, 
writing  in  1604,  apologises  for  his  own  tastes,  37'I 
know  there  are  not  wanting  persons  who  think  these 
studies  ridiculous/  At  Rome  ambition  had  not  only 
extinguished  learning,  but  created  a  hatred  of  it. 
Seguier  writes  to  de  Thou :  '  Anything  composed  in 
classical  latin  is  suspected  at  Rome  of  impiety/ 

The  subjects  chosen  by  Casaubon  for  his  lectures 
during  his  profession  at  Montpellier  were  as  foUows : — 

i.  An  Account  of  the  administration  and  officers  of 
the  Roman  republic.  2.  A  Synopsis  of  Roman  his- 
tory. 3.  The  Laws  of  the  xii  Tables.  4.  The 
citations  in  the  Digest  from  Ulpianus  on  the  subject 
of  dress38.  5.  Persius.  6.  Plautus,  Capteivi.  7.  The 
Physician's  oath  (opKos)  of  Hippocrates.  8.  Aristotle's 
Ethics. 

These  were  all  the  subjects  of  his  public  lectures, 
and  they  seem  certainly  enoiigh  to  occupy  a  year  and  a 
half  at  four  days  a  week,  with  three  months'  vacation 
in  the  year. 

The  adaptation  of  these  courses  to  the  audience  he 
found  at  Montpellier  is  unmistakable.  There  is  only 
one  of  them  ah1,  viz.  the  Plautus,  which  must  have 
been  a  purely  philological,  or  language,  lecture.  And 

37  Vita  Pinelli,  p.  330.  38  viz.  Digest,  lib.  34.  tit.  2. 


112  MONTPELLIER.     1 596  — 1599. 

this  was  the  only  one  which  was  not  chosen  by  himself, 
but  was  taken  at  the  request  of  his  class39.  In  the 
selection  of  i,  2,  3,  and  4,  the  men  of  the  robe,  whether 
lawyers  or  civil  employes,  were  evidently  considered. 
No.  5,  the  Persius,  was  convenient  to  himself,  as  having 
by  him  notes  of  his  Genevan  lectures.  But  his  en- 
deavour was  to  give  to  the  lecture  an  ethical  cast,  as 
he  expressly  says  in  the  dedication,  and  as  is  still 
evident  in  the  published  book40.  Though  we  have  not 
his  notes  on  the  Ethics  of  Aristotle,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  this  was  also  treated  in  the  same  practical  spirit. 
'  Abeunt  studia  in  mores '  was  his  principle.  The  senti- 
ment is  continually  escaping  him  that  the  classics  were 
an  instrument  of  moral  training :  41'I  desire  to  excite 
myself  to  the  love  of  virtue  and  the  hatred  of  vice,  and 
to  aid  the  studious  youth  in  the  same  endeavour,  an 
object  which  has  been  too  little  regarded  by  former 
commentators/ 

Having  done  thus  much  for  the  students,  the  bar, 
and-  the  public,  that  the  doctors  might  have  their  turn, 
he  takes  up  the  Physician's  oath  of  Hippocrates. 

These  public  lectures  were  in  latin ;  they  were  also  all, 
or  nearly  all,  on  latin  texts.  The  Aristotle's  Ethics,  as 
it  was  meant  for  edification,  must  have  been  a  com- 

59  Ephem.  p.  64 :  '  Eogatu  eorum  quorum  studiis  prodesse  tene- 
mur,'  i.  e.  the  students  as  distinct  from  the  public. 

40  Persii  Sat.  ed.  1605.  ded.  to  Achille  de  Harlay.     Here  Casaubon 
pursues  the  theme  of  the   cultivation  of  the  moral  nature  by  the 
classics,  as  being  their  proper  use  in  education. 

41  Even    greek   grammars   were   composed   with   the   same   view. 
Chytrseus,   Regula   Stud.    1595.   p.    100,   recommends  the  syntax   of 
Posselius,  on  account  of  the  examples  which  followed  the  rules  :  '  Qure 
non  modo  prseceptorum  usum  monstrant,  verum  etiam  utiles  admoni- 
tiones  de  Deo,  de  gubernatione  vitse,  et  regendis  moribus  complec- 
tuntur.' 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  113 

meiitary  on  the  matter,  such  that  it  could  be  easily 
followed  by  those  who  wrould  not  take  much  interest  in 
questions  of  interpretation.  The  term  he  employs  with 
respect  to  the  "Opco?  of  Hippocrates  (interpretari)  seems 
to  imply  that  he  made  the  original  the  text  of  his 
lecture,  and  some  knowledge  of  greek  was  still  exacted 
for  the  degree  of  M.D.  at  Montpellier42.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  time,  Casaubon  put  on  a  greek  lecture — 
first  Homer,  then  Pindar — but  these  were  extra  and 
voluntary  lectures,  intended  for  a  younger  and  special 
class,  and  were  not  part  of  his  public  duty. 

The  freedom  with  which  he  mixes  long  greek  cita- 
tions, and  the  time  he  spends  on  asserting  the  true 
meaning  of  greek  words,  in  his  lectures  on  Persius, 
show,  however,  that  he  addressed  an  audience  to 
whom  greek  was  not  wholly  unintelligible,  or  unin- 
structing.  Yet  the  fact  that  latin  was  the  chosen 
subject  of  his  public  lectures,  at  the  very  time  when 
his  private  reading  was  chiefly  greek,  is  in  conformity 
with  all  we  know  of  the  character  of  instruction  in 
France  at  this  period. 

M.  Nisard  says43  that  after  the  definitive  triumph 
of  Catholicism  in  France,  greek  became  offensive  as  the 
language  of  heresy.  This  is  perhaps  to  say  too  much. 
But  it  is  certainly  true  that  more  strenuous  efforts 
were  made  at  this  moment  to  keep  up  greek  and 
hebrew  in  the  protestant  academies,  poor  as  they  were, 

2  The  '  Registre  des  procureurs/  at  Montpellier,  cited  by  M.  Egger, 
Hellenisme,  i.  175,  has  an  entry  '  Magister  Rabelaisius  pro  suo  ordi- 
nario  elegit  librum  "  Prognosticorum  "  Hippocratis  quern  grsece  inter- 
pretatus  est.'  But  it  seems  clear  from  Rabelais'  own  account,  that 
he  only  referred  to  the  Greek  to  correct  the  errors  of  the  Latin 
version  on  which  he  read.  Aphorismi  Hippocrat.  ded. 

13  Lit.  Fran£.  vol.  i.  p.  431. 

I 


114  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

than  in  the  catholic  and  Jesuit  colleges  and  universities. 
This  was  certainly  from  no  sympathy  on  the  part  of 
the  French  reformed  with  the  true  mind  of  classical 
Greece,  which  was  as  much  out  of  their  reach  as  out  of 
the  reach  of  a  servile  Jesuit.  But  catholic  France  felt 
that  affinity  for  the  Christian  empire  and  its  language, 
which  has  always  been  predominant  among  the  romance 
nationalities.  '  Manners,'  says  M.  Nisard,  '  would  have 
effected,  in  the  course  of  nature,  that  which  religious 
passion  brought  about  violently.  We  are  the  sons  of 
the  latins,  and  the  latin  genius  has  always  had  our 
preference.  We  have  the  practical  spirit  of  Rome,  and 
the  roman  taste  for  the  universal,  which,  in  our  political 
history,  has  shown  itself  in  our  well-known  passion  to 
subdue  and  regulate  everything  according  to  our  own 
pattern/ 

Casaubon's  habit  of  intermixing  greek  words  and 
phrases  was  not  a  pedantic  affectation,  but  the 
natural  language  of  a  man,  who  spent  most  of  the 
hours  of  every  day  in  the  company  of  greek  books. 
With  all  his  wonderful  command  of  latin,  even  for 
uncommon  occasions,  the  greek  phrase  would  occur 
first,  and  he  takes  it  without  waiting  to  think  of  the 
latin.  Though  he  wrote  out  his  inaugural,  his  daily 
lectures  were  delivered  from  notes.  These  notes  were 
chiefly  passages  from  greek  authors,  sometimes  inter- 
pretative of  a  word,  sometimes  illustrating  and  enforcing 
his  author's  statement.  With  these  two  objects — to 
interpret  the  author,  or  to  enforce  his  statement — he 
is  exclusively  occupied.  There  is  no  ad  captandum 
rhetoric,  no  original  thought,  no  flourish  of  trumpets  to 
awaken  the  sleepy,  or  arouse  the  listless.  He  does  not 
forget  that  he  is  there  to  teach,  not  to  please.  If  we 
ask  how  lectures  which  are  so  unmistakably  dull,  which 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  115 

are  so  thickly  sprinkled  with  greek,  which  not  all 
could  follow,  yet  came  to  be  popular,  the  explanation  is, 
that  the  lecturer  did  what  he  proposed  to  do,  and  the 
audience  expected  no  more.  He  proposed  to  interpret 
an  author,  and  the  audience  went  with  their  books  to 
have  the  interpretation.  When  he  lectured  on  Aris- 
totle's Ethics,  I  conceive  his  auditors  to  have  followed 
in  the  latin  version,  and  that  the  lecturer  referred  to 
the  greek  which  was  printed  on  the  same  page,  in  critical 
passages,  and  for  leading  terms.  Eeading  the  classics 
was  not  a  profession  confined  to  experts.  The  classics 
were  the  literature  of  the  educated,  and  they  wanted 
to  be  helped  to  understand  that  literature.  Casaubon, 
busy  on  his  point,  and  keeping  to  it,  was  just  the  man 
for  them.  The  completeness  of  his  knowledge  uncon- 
sciously impressed  even  those,  who  were  incompetent 
to  appreciate  how  complete  it  was.  They  felt  they 
were  in  the  hands  of  a  master  of  the  craft.  Medicine 
and  law,  it  was  said,  they  had  always  had  at  Montpel- 
lier,  now  at  last  Casaubon  had  brought  the  Muses44. 

Casaubon  was  too  modest  to  be  carried  away  by  this 
sudden  popularity.  But  he  was  gratified  by  tasting 
general  recognition,  and  pleased  to  be  able  to  announce 
to  his  patron  de  Fresne  that  his  experiment  had  been 
so  successful,  and  to  let  his  friends  at  Geneva  know 
that  the  prophet,  who  had  no  honour  in  his  own 
country,  had  found  it  elsewhere. 

One  evil  this  public  expectation  brought  with  it.  It 
was  necessary  to  respond  to  it.  The  applause  which 
attended  his  course,  imposed  fresh  labour.  He  was 
obliged  to  devote  hours  to  preparation,  hours  which 
he  wanted  for  his  unfinished  Athenaeus.  His  very 

44  Ep.  115:  '  Multorum  opinio  est,  illatas  in  hanc  provinciam 
musas  adventu  nostro.' 

I    2 


116  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

success  was  a  hindrance  to  him.  He  had  sought 
leisure  in  coming  to  Montpellier,  and  not  found  it. 
45<  Such  studies  as  these/  he  writes  in  September  1600, 
'  require  leisure  and  profound  repose.  I  have  been,  by  a 
succession  of  various  accidents,  called  away  from  work- 
ing at  my  task,  and  may  say  that  I  have  not  had  a 
single  month's,  hardly  a  single  day's,  perfect  quiet 
among  my  books/  And  again  a  little  later,  '  Leisure  is 
what  I  desire  more  than  anything,  if  it  might  be  God's 
will  to  give  it  me.  My  literary  schemes  are  of  such 
a  nature  that  they  demand  repose  of  mind  as  an  in- 
dispensable condition/ 

But  not  all  his  day  was  given  to  his  lecture  and 
to  preparing  his  Athenaeus.  The  diary  enables  us  to 
trace  day  by  day  his  private  reading  at  this  period. 
Besides  the  devotional  book  in  the  early  morning,  he 
looks  into  a  variety  of  books  in  the  course  of  the 
day,  but  has  always  one  author  whom  he  steadily 
goes  on  with  every  day  till  he  has  read  him  through. 
The  first  such  achievement  in  1597  is  Basil,  the  whole 
of  whom  is  read  between  February  19  and  March  IT. 
As  this  must  have  been  Froben's  edition  of  1551, 
which  contains  698  folio  pages  of  greek  type,  packed 
exceptionally  close,  we  have  an  average  reading  of 
thirty-five  pages  per  day ;  yet  he  was  ill  most  of  the 
time,  and  more  than  one  day  out  of  the  twenty  was 
curtailed  or  lost  altogether  by  business.  Either  his 
own  health  or  the  atmosphere  of  the  place  set  him 
next  upon  Hippocrates,  the  whole  of  which  takes 
him  only  twenty-five  days,  though  here  he  was  helped 
by  the  Easter  holidays.  After  this  feat  it  seems  dis- 
proportionate that  Cedrenus  takes  thirteen  days,  but 

"5  Ep.  2 1 3  :   <  Otium  et  quietem  altam  studia  hsec  postulant.'     Ep. 
1023  :  <Ea  molimur  in  literis,  quse  animi  tranquillitatem  desiderant/ 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  117 

other  books  were  in  hand  during  the  time.  We  have 
mention,  besides,  of  Jerome,  Chrysostom,  Tertullianus, 
Menander  Rhetor,  Philostratus,  Apicius,  all  between 
January  and  July.  And  yet  the  diary  omits  to  men- 
tion many  readings.  This  is  evident,  not  only  from 
citations  in  his  commentaries  on  authors,  but  from 
the  volumes  once  in  his  possession  still  extant.  There 
is,  e.  g.  in  the  British  Museum,  a  copy  of  Calvin's 
'Epistolse/  edition  of  Hanau  1597,  marked  throughout 
by  Casaubon's  pen.  We  have  in  it  a  volume  of  780 
pages,  in  small  type,  and  not  on  a  classical  subject, 
read  attentively,  and  yet  not  noticed  in  the  diary, 
unless  we  assume  that  a  Frankfort  book,  published 
in  1597,  did  not  come  into  Casaubon's  hands  till  after 
1603.  In  this  case  it  might  have  been  spoken  of  in 
that  fascicule  of  the  diary  which  is  lost.  While 
lectures  are  proceeding,  Athenaeus  is  in  hand ;  he  is 
continually  ill,  has  his  correspondence  to  keep  up,  and, 
worst  of  all,  is  Rector  of  the  faculty.  This  is  the 
most  vexing  distraction  of  all46.  It  involves  him,  be- 
sides the  comparatively  simple  business  of  the  faculty, 
in  looking  after  the  lower  school,  and  providing  it 
with  regents.  This  *  hated  office'  (munus  invisum) 
was  fortunately  only  for  a  year.  Books  of  controversy, 
e.  g.  Bulenger  against  Du  Plessis,  he  looks  into  in  what 
he  calls  his  *  leisure  hours/  '  horse  succisivse/  though 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  where,  in  the  life  we  have  de- 
scribed, were  any  such. 

It  was  clear,  then,  that  whatever  else  Montpellier 
could  give  him,  it  had  not  given  him  his  long  desired 
leisure.  He  soon  began  to  find  that  it  did  not  realise 
even  the  expectations  he  had  most  certainly  formed. 
Popularity  is  from  its  nature  shortlived,  nowhere  more 

46  Eph.  p.  30  :  '  Officia  a  studiis  avocantia,  et  valde  inofficiosa.' 


118  MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 

so  than  in  France,  where  it  is  the  course  of  nature 
to  '  smile,  adore,  abuse,  discard,  forget.'  The  audiences 
fell  off,  the  novelty  was  gone  and  the  interest  abated. 
The  terms  of  his  engagement,  originally  *  not  brilliant,' 
were  ill  performed.  He  had  been  promised  six  months7 
back  salary  towards  the  expense  of  moving.  He 
could  not  get  any  part  of  it.  He  was  to  have  150 
crowns  to  furnish  with,  this  was  cut  down  to  100. 
A  house  had  been  promised.  He  was  obliged  to 
huddle  his  family  into  two  rooms.  After  some  delay, 
Verchant,  one  of  the  elders  of  the  church,  offered  a 
house.  But  he  had  to  pay  ten  crowns  a  year  for  it, 
and  one  year's  rent  was  deducted  from  his  stipend 
in  advance.  Firewood  had  been  stipulated,  a  costly 
article  in  a  part  of  the  country  far  from  the  great 
forests,  and  where  the  cold  in  winter  is  occasion- 
ally intense.  It  was  doled  out  to  him  in  a  niggardly 
way,  not  a  tenth  part  given  of  his  consumption. 
Finally,  his  salary  itself  was  allowed  to  fall  into  ar- 
rear,  the  two-monthly  term,  which  was  in  the  con- 
tract, was  not  observed.  The  poor  scholar  was  driven 
to  humiliating  importunity.  His  own  and  his  wife's 
ill-health,  and  the  death  of  a  daughter,  Elisabeth,  of 
fever,  brought  back  his  habitual  despondency  about 
his  family  affairs.  De  Fresne  and  Ranchin  were  both 
absent.  He  wrote  to  them  to  Paris  to  ask  them  to 
use  their  influence  in  his  behalf.  The  effect  of  their 
doing  so  was  to  produce  civil  excuses  in  reply  to 
fresh  applications.  The  governor,  the  Due  de  Yenta- 
dour,  was  absent ;  or  one  of  the  consuls  was  ill  in 
bed  ;  or  the  salt  duties,  out  of  which  the  stipend  was 
payable,  could  not  be  collected  because  of  the  troubles. 
He  had  to  pay  a  heavy  fee  on  the  royal  diploma  con- 
ferring his  title  and  his  chair.  He  applied  for  letters 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  119 

naturalisation,  but  the  fee  demanded  by  the  chan- 
cery of  Paris,  though  Ranchin  applied  personally,  was 
so  enormous  that  Casaubon  declined  to  take  them  out. 

.The  same  difficulty  was  renewed  on  his  applying  for 
a  copyright  protection  of  his  volume  of  Notes  on 
Athenseus,  without  which  no  publisher  would  under- 
take the  expense  of  printing.  He  feels,  as  Erskine 
did,  his  children  pulling  the  skirts  of  his  coat  and 
crying  47'get  us  bread/  He  could  not  have  got 
along  but  for  help  from  friends.  Jean  de  Serres,  him- 
self only  a  poor  minister,  shared  his  purse  with 
Casaubon.  A  considerable  present  was  unexpectedly 
sent  by  an  admirer,  the  governor  of  Rodez,  to  whom 
he  was  not  even  personally  known.  Bongars  con- 
tinued his  donations  of  valuable  books.  In  time  some 
of  his  worst  grievances  were  remedied.  He  threatened 
departure  to  Bale,  or  back  to  Geneva.  To  see  him 
go  back  in  disgust  to  Geneva  would  have  been  humi- 
liating to  the  council  of  Montpellier,  which  had  enjoyed 
the  triumph  of  alluring  him  away.  They  agreed  to 
raise  his  salary  to  1000  livres,  in  lieu  of  all  perqui- 
sites ;  payment  seems  to  have  been  more  punctual, 
and  he  removed  to  a  better  house. 

But  he  could  not  settle  down  in  Montpellier.  Even 
before  he  went  there  his  friends  had  let  fall  hints  of 
something  further  in  store.  De  Fresne  and  Ranchin 
were  in  Paris  in  the  autumn  of  1597,  and  their  report 
of  Casaubon  had  filled  the  literary  set  there  with  the 
desire  to  get  him  to  Paris.  When  they  returned  to 
Montpellier,  they  dropped  hints  of  a  mysterious  nature. 
There  was  nothing  definite  named,  perhaps  nothing 
definite  conceived.  But  the  king's  name  was  used. 
'  It  was  not  unlikely  the  king  might  do  something 

47  Eph.  p.  74  :  'Charissimi  liberi  aurem  vellunt/ 


120  MONTPELL1ER.     1596—1599. 

for  him.'  Casaubon  might  have  been  in  the  dark  as 
to  how  little  the  king  could,  or  would,  do.  But  still, 
what  was  said  was  enough  to  unsettle  him,  in  a  place 
in  which  he  had  never  become  rooted,  and  to  prevent 
him  from  ever  trying  to  make  the  best  of  its  vexations. 
To  these  were  now  to  be  added  the  loss  of  a  young 
daughter,  Elisabeth,  after  a  few  days'  illness,  and  the 
continual  aggression  of  the  catholic  clergy,  who  were 
pushing  to  regain  their  old  ascendancy  in  the  university. 

This  small  cloud  was  big  with  elements  of  future  dis- 
turbance. No  sooner  was  the  bishop  restored  than  the 
chapter  began  to  claim  the  college  de  Mende,  the  build- 
ing in  which  the  classes  were  held,  as  their  property. 
The  present  bishop,  de  Ratte,  was  an  antileaguer, 
a  man  of  some  letters,  and  on  friendly  terms  with 
Casaubon.  His  successor,  Fenouillet,  was  a  fanatic, 
a  pupil  of  S.  Francois  de  Sales.  But  even  with  the 
politic  de  Ilatte,  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of  the 
church  was  a  paramount  object.  The  agitation  never 
ceased.  Inch  by  inch  the  lost  ground  was  reconquered. 
In  1600  the  clergy  recovered  the  college  de  Mende.  By 
1613  the  victory  over  the  university  was  completed,  the 
bishop  'visited'  by  his  vicar-general,  and  new  statutes, 
in  a  catholic  spirit,  were  promulgated,  which  required 
every  member  of  the  university  to  attend  mass  daily. 
Of  this  sap  and  siege  Casaubon  only  saw  the  com- 
mencement, but  it  was  enough  to  make  it  count  among 
the  discomforts,  which  made  him  ready  to  embrace  any 
opening  in  another  quarter. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  his  leaving  Montpellier 
was  his  edition  of  Athenseus.  This  he  considered  the 
work  on  which  he  first  really  ventured  his  reputation, 
as  it  proved  to  be  the  work  of  his  life.  All  previous 
books  he  spoke  of  as  untimely  births,  the  produce  of  his 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  121 


apprentice  years.     He  would  not  own  them.  To  Athen- 
aeus he  was  about  to  commit  himself. 

We  first  find  him  engaged  upon  Athenseus  as  early 
as  1590.  In  that  year,  in  the  flush  of  youthful  strength, 
he  announced  48  to  a  young  friend  that  he  might  soon 
look  for  a  volume  of  observations  on  Athenaeus,  of  which 
author  he  had  been  fortunate  enough  'to  get  good 
MSS.'  In  1594,  he  repeats  the  announcement  to 
Scaliger,  but  it  is  now  an  edition  of  Athenaeus 
which  he  contemplates.  In  1596,  when  he  left 
Geneva,  he  had  completed  a  recension  of  the  text, 
and  passed  a  great  part  of  the  sheets  through  the 
press.  He  had  been  printing  this  under  his  own  eye, 
at  the  press  of  Paul  Estienne,  though  it  was  pub- 
lished for  him  by  Jerome  Commelin  at  Heidelberg,  in 
1597.  Being  hurried  by  his  removal,  the  last  sheets 
of  the  book  were  not  so  correct  as  they  should  have 
been  49 ;  the  volume  was  without  preface  or  dedication, 
and  it  contained  not  a  single  note.  The  first  six 
months  at  Montpellier  were  too  much  occupied  with 
their  own  duties,  and  it  was  not  till  the  summer  vaca- 
tion that  he  could  sit  down  regularly  to  the  task.  He 
did  not  propose  to  himself  to  write  a  commentary  on 
Atheneeus50,  but  only  to  attempt  some  correction  of 
its  most  corrupt  text,  and  some  explanation  of  the 
many  obscurities  arising  out  of  that  corruption.  When 
he  began  the  work,  June  23,  1597,  he  had  no  notion  of 
the  time  that  it  would  require.  Looking  back  upon 
the  finished  sheets,  he  says,  '  It  would  be  impossible  to 
explain  to  you,  reader,  unless  you  had  yourself  some 

48  Ep.  5. 

19  Ariimadvv.    in   Ath.   prsef.  :     *  Migratio   nostra   ex   Allobrogum 
finibus  in  Galliam,  fuit  in  causa  ut  ea  editio  inemendatior  prodiret.' 
50  Prsefat.in  Ath.:  'Nee  commentarium  in  A.  scribere  consilium  iiobis.' 


122  MONTPELLIER.     159G— 1599. 

experience  of  this  kind  of  investigation,  what  a  world 
of  labour  and  vexation  this  work  has  cost  me.'  He 
calculated  that  if  he  could  revise  the  original  at  the 
rate  of  four  pages  per  day  it  might  be  done  within 
a  few  months.  As  the  volume  of  text  contained  705 
pages,  six  months  at  this  rate  of  progress  would  have 
sufficed.  So  much  had  he  underrated  the  peculiar 
difficulties  of  this  author,  and  the  consumption  of 
time  in  literary  research,  that  three  years  and  two 
months  of  his  herculean  labour  were  required  to  bring 
the  Observations  to  a  close,  without  the  prolegomena. 

The  diary  enables  us  to  compute  the  time — almost 
the  days  and  hours — occupied  in  the  undertaking. 
The  foundation  had  been  laid,  and  memoranda  accu- 
mulated, during  the  revision  of  the  text  at  Geneva. 
He  began  to  write  the  '  Animadversiones'  at  Mont- 
pellier,  June  23,  1597,  he  completed  them  April  16, 

1 598.  This  was  the  first  rough  draft  of  a  folio  volume,  of 
648  pages.     Within  a  few  days  he  commenced  a  revision 
of  the  whole  of  what  he  had  written.     The  remainder 
of  this  year  was  much  broken  into  by  journeys   and 
visits.     He  began  to  print  the   first  sheet  March  20, 

1599,  and  corrected  the  last  at  Lyons,  August  9,  1600. 
Admitted  thus  behind  the  scenes  to  a  sixteenth-cen- 
tury workshop,  we  feel  that  we  are  now  in  the  age  of 
erudition.     The  renaissance,  the  spring-tide  of  modern 
life,  with  its  genial  freshness,  is  far  behind  us.     The 
creative    period   is   past,  the   accumulative   is   set   in. 
Genius  can   now   do  nothing,  the  day  is   to    dull  in- 
dustry.    The  prophet  is  departed,  and  in  his  place  we 
have  the  priest  of  the  book.     Casaubon  knows  so  much 
of  ancient  lore,  that  not  only  his  faculties,  but  his  spirits 
are  oppressed  by  the  knowledge.     He  can  neither  cre- 
ate nor  enjoy ;  he  groans  under  his  load.     The  scholar 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 


123 


ol  1500  gambols  in  the  free  air  of  classical  poetry,  as 
in  an  atmosphere  of  joy.  The  scholar  of  1600  has  a 
century  of  compilation  behind  him,  and  '  drags  at  each 
jmove  a  lengthening  chain/  If  anyone  thinks  that 
to  write  and  read  books  is  a  life  of  idleness,  let  him 
look  at  Casaubon's  diary.  Pope,  during  his  engage- 
ment on  Homer,  used  to  be  haunted  by  it  in  his  dreams, 
and  '  wished  to  be  hanged  a  hundred  times.'  Vergil, 
having  undertaken  the  ^Eneid,  said  of  himself  that  '  he 
thought  he  must  have  been  out  of  his  senses  when  he 
did  so/  But  of  the  blood  and  sweat,  the  groans  and 
sighs,  which  enter  into  the  composition  of  a  folio  vo- 
lume of  learned  research,  no  more  faithful  record  has 
ever  been  written  than  Casaubon's  '  Ephemerides/ 
Throughout  its  entire  progress,  the  '  Animadversiones ' 
on  Athenaeus  was  an  ungrateful  and  irksome  task, 
'  catenati  in  ergastulo  labores/  He  can  hardly  open 
Athenaeus  without  disgust,  and  he  prays  God,  day  by 
day,  that  he  may  get  away  from  such  trifles  to  better 
reading. 

In  some  instances  the  travail  pangs  and  throbs  atten- 
dant on  composition  are  repaid  by  the  delight  of  the 
parent  in  contemplating  the  offspring.  This  was  not 
Casaubon's  case.  To  himself  the  labour  and  its  result 
were  equally  repulsive  and  disappointing.  He  felt 
most  bitterly,  on  its  termination,  how  far  he  had  fallen 
short  of  his  aim,  moderate  as  his  ambition  was.  For 
he  called  his  book  '  Animadversiones  in  A.  Deipnoso- 
phistas,'  '  Observations  on  Athenseus/  not  a  '  Commen- 
tary.' He  invokes  Scaliger's  aid  to  amend  some  passages, 
whose  corruption  was  beyond  his  own  skill.  To  have 
done  with  the  work  was  all  the  satisfaction  it  gave 
him.  Nor  indeed  did  he  ever  quite  finish  it.  He 
projected  '  Prolegomena,'  which  were  to  give  a  full, 


124  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

(prolixe,)  account  of  the  author,  and  of  the  plan  and 
construction  of  the  Deipnosophists.  He  shut  himself 
up  '  parturiens/  trying  to  put  these  into  shape.  But 
after  three  days'  labour  he  desisted  from  the  attempt, 
being  unable  to  satisfy  himself51. 

When  he  was  ready  with  the  copy  of  the  Observa- 
tions, the  next  thing  was  to  find  a  publisher.  The 
city  of  Hippocrates  contained  no  greek  press  in  1600, 
any  more  than  it  had  done  seventy  years  before,  when 
Rabelais  had  sent  his  edition  of  the  Hippocratic  '  Apho- 
risms' to  be  printed  at  Lyons.  The  earliest  book  known 
as  printed  at  Montpellier  is  not  earlier  than  1597.  Pre- 
fixed to  this — a  law-book — are  some  twenty  lines  of 
greek.  So  that  Jean  Gilet,  the  Montpellier  publisher, 
had  some  greek  type.  When  Casaubon  says52  that 
their  only  printer  had  no  greek  type,  he  must  be  taken 
to  mean  not  enough  for  an  undertaking  such  as  the 
'  Animadversions '  on  Athenseus. 

Commelin  the  publisher  of  his  former  volume,  the 
text,  was  dead,  and  with  Casaubon' s  present  prospects 
it  was  desirable  that  the  book  should  be  published  in 
France.  He  endeavoured  to  get  a  Genevan  printer  to 
establish  a  press  with  a  greek  fount,  and  a  learned  cor- 
rector, at  Montpellier  53.  But  there  was  no  scope  for 
a  learned  press  even  in  a  university  town.  We  may 
remember,  that  Oxford  did  not  get  greek  types  fill 
1586,  and  that  Whitgift  in  1584,  doubted  the  ex- 
pediency of  allowing  a  press  at  all  at  Cambridge 54. 

51  Eph.  p.  289. 

52  Ep.  153:    '  Typographum    hie  habemus,  cujus    operse    utamur, 
imllum  :  qui  adest,  grsecis  literis  caret.' 

53  After  Casaubon' s  departure,  Francis  Chouet,  of  Geneva,  seems 
to  have  acted  on  his  suggestion,  and  to  have  opened  a  branch  at  Mont- 
pellier.    See  Cotton,  Typogr.  Gaz.  2d.  series,  s.  v. 

54  Whitgift  to  Burghley,  Hey  wood's  Transactions,  i.  381. 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  125 

There  was  indeed  a  greek  press  at  Toulouse,  perhaps 
now,  certainly  in  1615,  when  young  Maussac*  edited 
a  tract  of  Plutarch,  and  Psellus  '  De  lapidum  virtu- 
tibus/  But  no  heretic  could  print,  or  even  be,  at 
Toulouse,  a  city  where  even  the  Edict  could  never  be 
put  in  force 55.  What  Casaubon  would  have  preferred 56 
was  the  splendour  of  Parisian  type  and  paper — Morel 
or  Patisson — whose  editions,  even  in  degenerate  days, 
were  '  editions  de  luxe'  when  placed  by  the  side  of  the 
smudgy  and  faded  pages,  which  now  issued  from  the 
presses  of  Geneva  or  Heidelberg.  But  when  proof 
sheets  could  not  be  transmitted  by  a  rapid  post,  you 
could  only  print  where  you  lived.  To  print  in  Paris, 
you  must  be  in  Paris.  In  1558,  Hadrian  Junius  had 
thought  it  necessary  to  convey  his  own  MS.  copy  of  his 
Adagia  from  Haarlem  to  Bale,  not  considering  the 
ordinary  channels  safe.  And  in  1600  when  Casaubon 
sent  by  'the  ordinary'  a  portion  of  the  I5th  book  of 
Athenaeus  from  Paris  to  Lyons,  it  was  not  wit  hout 
great  misgivings 67.  There  remained  Lyons. 

Lyons  was  the  staple  of  the  French  book-trade,  such 
as  that  trade  had  now  become.  In  the  middle  of  the 
century  the  Lyons  presses,  stimulated  by  the  example 
of  the  Swabian  Gryphius,  had  imitated  and  rivalled 
those  of  Italy.  Sebastian  Greiff  died  1556  ;  soon  the 
religious  disturbances  began,  and  Lyons  itself  fell  under 
the  influence  of  the  catholic  epidemic.  The  Lyonnese 

*  See  note  B  in  Appendix. 

5  Toulouse  was  the  scene  of  the  burning  alive  of  Vanini,  in  1619. 
The  ferocious  fanaticism  of  the  place  was  not  subdued  in  1761,  as  we 
find  from  the  frightful  tragedy  of  Jean  Galas. 

56  Ep.  169. 

57  Scheltema,  Vita  Junii,  p.  58  :  '  Vix  reperias,  cui  tuto  perferendum 
aliquid  credas.'     Cas.  Eph.  p.   247:  '  Hodie  quod  supererat  libri  15 
Athensei  Lugdunum   misi,    non    sine    sollicitudine    propter    incerta 
casuum.' 


126  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

presses  took  a  new  direction,  and  entered  upon  a 
rivalry,  not  with  Aldus,  but  with  Geneva,  in  the  fa- 
brication of  wares  for  the  cheap  market.  While 
Geneva  supplied  bibles  and  calvinistic  theology,  Lyons 
was  equally  industrious  in  the  production  of  missals 
and  books  of  hours.  And  not  content  with  the  mono- 
poly of  their  respective  provinces,  Geneva  attempted 
surreptitious  editions  of  Jesuit  publications,  and  Lyons 
sent  calvinistic  hymn-books  into  the  protestant  market. 
In  classical  and  law  books  the  competition  was  open  and 
keen.  Before  Reform  was  heard  of,  a  strong  com- 
mercial jealousy  had  been  entertained  by  the  old 
Eoman  municipium,  towards  the  rising  town  on  the 
Leman  lake.  Theological  antipathy  came  to  embitter 
an  old  grudge.  And  when  the  French  refugees  led 
Geneva  largely  into  the  printing  business,  which  Lyons 
had  hitherto  practised  as  a  monopoly,  and  attracted  the 
Lyonnese  compositors  by  higher  wages,  the  exaspera- 
tion at  Lyons  knew  no  bounds.  The  Lyonnese  printers 
availed  themselves  of  the  brand  of  '  heretic '  to  get  the 
Genevan  books  confiscated  at  the  frontier,  and  thus 
secure  at  least  the  French  market.  Protestant  coun- 
tries had  no  index,  and  the  Genevan  printers  could 
not  retaliate  in  kind.  They  therefore  endeavoured — 
more  irritating  still — to  undersell.  For  the  German 
market,  Geneva  had  the  advantage  of  being  more 
conveniently  situated  towards  Frankfort-,  then  the 
staple  of  the  German  book-trade.  The  Lyonnese 
printers,  though  they  continued  to  frequent  the  fairs 
at  Frankfort,  did  a  much  smaller  business  there  than 
those  of  Geneva.  But  the  Genevese  printers  had  no 
idea  of  foregoing  the  French  sale,  now  that  it  began  to 
revive  at  the  peace,  and  they  had  recourse  to  various 
expedients  to  evade  the  prohibition.  They  omitted 


NONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599  127 

om  the  title  the  obnoxious  '  Genevae/  or  substituted 
some  other  place,  e.  g.  '  Aurefise/  '  Colonise/  '  St.  Ger- 
vais/  '  Antwerp/  They  even  obtained  from  Henri  iv, 
in  his  capacity  of  protector  of  the  republic,  a  patent 
permitting  them  to  use  the  imprint  *  Colonise  Allo- 
brogum '  for  latin,  and  '  Cologny '  for  french  books. 
Another  device  was  for  two  members  of  the  same 
family  or  firm  to  have  establishments  at  both  places. 
This  was  done  by  Pesnot,  by  the  de  Tournes,  by 
Lepreux,  and  by  Le  Maire.  The  'Aristotle's  Works' 
of  1590,  which  Casaubon  had  seen  through  the  press, 
was  thus  printed  by  Le  Maire  at  Geneva,  though  it 
had  Lyons  (Lugduni)  in  the  title. 

While  Casaubon  was  at  a  loss  for  a  printer,  his 
father-in-law's  death  occurred  at  Lyons  (January, 
1598).  It  became  necessary  that  Casaubon  should  go 
to  Geneva,  to  see  after  his  wife's  portion,  which  he 
had  never  received.  On  his  way  he  stopped  at  Lyons, 
where,  most  unexpectedly,  a  patron  was  awaiting  him. 
This  was  Meric  de  Vie,  who  was  now  residing  at 
Lyons,  in  capacity  of  '  surintendant  de  la  justice/  De 
Vic  was  himself  not  without  classical  instruction58 ; 
Madame  de  Vic  was  a  woman  of  superior  understanding. 
They  both  liked  to  have  about  them  men  of  letters, 
and  questions  of  even  professional  erudition  might  be 
heard  discussed  at  their  table.  Casaubon  has  recorded 
one  such  occasion,  when  the  talk  turned  on  the  early 
date  of  the  corruptions  found  in  classical  texts.  The 
instance  of  the  transposition  of  leaves  in  the  fourth 
book  of  Athenaeus,  was  cited  by  one  of  the  company, 
no  doubt  by  Casaubon  himself,  as  he  alone  would  have 

58  Of  Merle  de  Vic,  Grotius  says  in   1622,  Grotii  Epp.  ep.    171  : 
'  Lit  eras  quantum  amaret,   in  Casaubono  ostendit,  et   mihi 
non  obscura  dedit  benevolentise  suse  bigna.' 


128  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

known  of  it.  De  Vic,  in  later  years  the  patron  of 
Grotius,  became  now,  by  de  Thon's  intervention59,  the 
patron  of  Casaubon,  and  insisted  upon  his  becoming  his 
guest.  The  plague  raging  just  then  at  Geneva,  de 
Vic  would  not  suffer  him  to  proceed  on  his  journey. 
Suddenly  summoned  to  Paris  to  attend  the  king,  de 
Vic  proposed  to  Casaubon  to  go  in  his  train.  Under 
these  favourable  auspices  he  saw  Paris  for  the  first 
time. 

He  found  himself  received  with  open  arms,  and  as 
one  well-known  to  them,  by  the  best  set  in  the 
capital. 

This  circle  of  men,  a  society  such  as  even  Paris  has  not 
been  able  to  produce  again,  consisted  chiefly  of  members 
of  the  bar,  or  magistrature.  Their  centre  of  resort 
was  the  house  of  J.  A.  de  Thou,  the  historian,  president 
of  the  court  of  parlement.  Their  presiding  genius  had 
been  Pierre  Pithou,  who  was  just  lost  to  them  by  death, 
1596,  and  at  the  time  of  Casaubon's  coming  to  them 
they  were  none  of  them  young.  None  of  them,  neither 
Nicholas  Rapin,  nor  Passerat,  nor  Servin,  nor  Jacques 
Gillot,  nor  even  Francois  Pithou,  had  the  solid  classical 
learning  of  Pierre.  Francois  Pithou  was  a  scientific 
j  urist,  and  was  deeply  versed  in  the  old  Frankish  codes, 
the  Salic,  Blpuarian,  and  the  capitulaire60 ;  Passerat 
and  Eapin  were  elegant  versifiers,  but  all  alike  agreed 
in  the  love  and  cultivation  of  greek  and  latin  letters. 
Yet  they  were  no  mere  literary  triflers,  witness  the 
c  Historia '  of  de  Thou,  the  ( Annales  Francorum '  of 
Pierre.  Some  of  them  filled  the  highest  civil  or  judi- 

59  Ep.    1020. 

60  Scaligera.  2a.  p.  187  :  '  Fra^ois  Pithou  est  le  plus  doete  d'au- 
jourduy  en  ces  auteurs  du  dernier  temps,  comme  leges  Eipuariorum, 
Capitularia,  etc.,  apres  luy  peut  estre  mis  Freherus.' 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  129 

cial  offices ;  all  of  them  had  gone  through  the  time  of 
the  League,  and  the  Sixteen;  some  had  sate  in  the 
parlement  of  Tours,  or  been  sent  to  the  Bastille  by 
Bussi-Leclerc.  They  were  catholics,  but  of  all  nuances, 
from  Francois,  who  was  devot,  and  hung  about  the 
convents,  to  Pierre,  who  was  a  protestant  brought  into 
the  catholic  fold  by  terrorism.  They  were  catholics, 
but  catholics  who  were  united  in  a  veritable  culte  of 
the  absent  Scaliger,  and  who  sought  to  locate  Casaubon 
in  Paris,  Out  of  their  reunion  had  issued  the  Satyre 
Menippee,  a  literary  pamphlet,  whose  surprising  public 
effect  ranks  it  with  the  '  Epistolse  obscurorum  virorum, ' 
the  letters  of  Junius,  or  the  '  Que  ce  que  le  Tiers-etat  \ ' 
All  past  suffering  is  a  possession,  and  the  trials  from 
which  they  had  barely  emerged,  already  old  men,  had 
given  firmness  to  their  character,  and  breadth  and 
largeness  to  their  views. 

Thirty  years  later  the  Academie  fran9aise  took  its 
rise  in  such  a  reunion  of  like-minded  men,  who  desired 
for  their  literary  activity  the  encouragement  and 
stimulus  of  social  converse.  61<  In  1629  some  private 
persons,  lodged  in  remote  parts  of  Paris,  finding  it 
highly  inconvenient,  by  reason  of  the  great  extent  of 
the  city,  to  visit  each  other  with  the  chance  of  not 
meeting,  resolved  to  see  each  other  one  day  in  each 
week  at  the  house  of  M.  Conrart,  which  was  centrally 
situated/  The  assemblages  at  M.  Conr art's  house  are 
remembered  because  they  have  given  birth  to  a  cele- 
brated society,  the  only  institution  in  France  which  is 
more  than  a  century  old.  The  meetings  at  the  house 
of  de  Thou  are  less  famous,  yet  the  men  who  there 
came  together  were  cast  in  a  nobler  and  more  manly 
mould  than  the  dilettante  critics  who  founded  the 
61  Pellisson,  Hist,  de  1'acad.  fran9.  i .  8. 
K 


130  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

academic.  Ecclesiastical  terrorism,  which  condemned  the 
history  of  de  Thou,  as  unfit  reading  for  good  catholics, 
had  made  in  one  generation  sad  havoc  with  the  indepen- 
dence and  integrity  of  the  French  character.  In  1629 
we  find  ourselves  in  a  salon  of  men  polished,  ingenious, 
and  loving  letters,  but  wanting  the  more  robust  consti- 
tuents both  of  character  and  intellect. 

The  meetings  at  de  Thou's  house,  in  1598,  were  but 
a  revival  of  an  earlier  Sunday-morning  assemblage,  in 
a  time  before  the  S.  Bartholomew  had  come  to  cast  a 
gloom  over  Parisian  life.  In  the  cloisters  of  the 
Cordeliers,  from  eight  to  eleven,  or  in  Christophe  de 
Thou's  house,  after  dinner,  there  used  to  assemble  the 
two  Pithous,  Claude  du  Puy,  Le  Fevre,  Francois  Hot- 
man,  the  young  Scaliger,  with  others  less  famous. 
J.  A.  de  Thou  was  but  a  youth  and  a  listener.  He 
used  to  say  62<  he  had  learnt  all  he  knew  from  the  con- 
versation of  these  men,  who  there  discoursed  of  letters. 
It  required  anyone  to  be  thoroughly  well  read  to  take 
a  part/  To  the  later  period  of  which  we  now  write, 
Bigault's63  description  applies;  ' Numerously  attended 
assemblages  at  the  house  of  de  Thou  maintained  our 
circle  of  friends.  Hither  flocked  all  the  best  and  most 
instructed  men  of  all  ranks,  from  every  province  of  the 
kingdom  and  from  foreign  parts.  There  you  heard  and 
discussed  everything  noteworthy  that  occurred  in  the 
city  or  parlement,  all  the  news  that  sails,  oars,  posts 
brought  in  from  over  seas,  or  the  countries  beyond  the 
Alps  or  Pyrenees.' 

12  Thuana,  p.  188  :  '  La  ils  communiquoient  des  lettres,  et  falloit 
estre  bien  fond£  pour  estre  de  leur  compagnie ;  et  pour  moi,  je  ne 
faisois  qu'escouter.  Cette  compagriie  se  trouvoit  chez  moy  les  festes 
apres  disner,  ou  M.  Scaliger  estoit  souvent.' 

63  Rigaltii  Vit.  Pit.  p.  24. 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  131 

The  men  who  have  been  named,  with  others,  formed 
an  inner  circle  which  was  comprehended  in  one  wider. 
'  One  secret/  says  M.  Ren  an64,  '  of  the  power  of  french 
esprit  is  the  close  union  which  has  ever  existed  among 
us  between  those  who  write  books,  and  those  who  read 
and  appreciate  them/  The  larger  society  is  known 
to  history  as  the  party  of  the '  politiques/  and  consisted, 
to  speak  broadly,  of  all  the  men  of  any  education  in 
France.  The  bar,  the  magistrature,  the  lesser  noblesse, 
and  even  the  church,  contributed  to  this  larger  circle, 
which  comprehended  calvinistic  seigneurs,  as  well  as 
gallican  prelates.  It  was  not  numerically  strong,  but, 
like  the  party  of  enlightenment  in  every  period,  its 
influence  was  greater  than  its  numbers  warranted.  It 
is  the  policy  of  such  a  party  to  ally  itself  with  litera- 
ture, as  it  is  the  only  party  which  the  press  can  really 
serve.  But  the  *  politique  '  and  gallican  party  of  1600 
was  not  only  alMed  with  literature,  its  leading  men 
themselves  were  of  classical  culture  and  tastes,  Such 
were  still,  or  had  been,  Paul  de  Foix,  Henri  de  Mesme, 
Schomberg,  d'Ossat,  Achille  de  Harlay,  Le  Maitre,  Du 
Vair,  the  cardinal  Joyeuse,  Servin,  Edouard  Mole,  men 
in  whose  lives,  the  camp,  the  court,  or  diplomacy,  had 
whetted  the  appetite  for  knowledge,  and  the  desire 
of  recurring  to  good  books,  as  the  food  of  the  mind. 
' II  nous  faut,  si  nous  esperons  de  parvenir  a  quelque 
gloire,  hanter  avec  les  morts/  the  words  of  Du  Vair65, 
was  the  rule  and  practice  of  them  all.  Paul  de  Foix 
had  a  travelling  library,  which  was  unpacked  for  his 
use,  and  that  of  his  suite,  every  evening  on  their 
arrival  at  the  place  where  they  were  to  lodge. 

This  grave  and  solid  generation,  the  salt  of  french 
society  at  that  epoch,  still  moves  before  us  in  the 
64  Etudes  morales,  p.  340.  65  De  I'eloquence  fran9.  (Euvr.  p.  227. 

K  2 


132  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

*  Memoires '  of  de  Thou,  or  the  '  Voyages  en  cour '  of 
Groulart.  The  weight  of  these  men  was  some  set  off 
against  the  mass  of  the  noblesse,  destitute  of  culture 
and  despising  it66,  and  the  mass  of  the  town  populations 
deprived  of  all  ideas  but  those  which  they  gathered 
inside  the  walls  of  the  churches.  But  the  men  of  edu- 
cation by  no  means  balanced  the  united  weight  of  the 
men  of  the  sword  and  the  clergy.  With  this  latter 
party  sided  the  vast  majority  of  the  nation,  and  with  it 
rested  the  real  force  of  the  government.  The  central 
power  in  France  was  not  strong  enough  to  go  against 
the  inert  mass  of  this  catholic  majority,  on  any  matter 
of  public  policy,  which  lay  within  its  apprehension. 
The  small  educated  section  of  which  we  speak  were 
employed  by  the  government,  but  they  did  not  direct 
it.  If  the  experiment  of  placing  government  in  the 
hands  of  men  of  letters  has  been  one  of  the  misfortunes 
of  France  in  recent  times67,  the  want  of  political  know- 
ledge among  the  noblesse  was  most  unfortunate  for  the 
France  of  Henri  iv.  Hence,  they  were  at  the  mercy 
of  the  Jesuits,  who  were  thus  enabled  to  work  France 
in  the  interests  of  an  ultramontane  policy.  The  party 
of  enlightenment  were  obliged  to  be  content  with  the 
subordinate  functions  of  administration,  and  with  alle- 
viating the  mischief  of  a  policy  which  they  could  not 
controul.  Their  best  leverage  was  found  in  the  per- 
sonal character  of  the  king.  This  was  especially  the 
case  in  matters  connected  with  public  instruction,  for  it 
is  in  these  matters  that  the  personal  tastes  of  the  prince 

66  Poirson,  Hist,  du  regne  de  Henri  iv,  3.  630.  Amelot  de  la 
Houssaye,  in  Card.  d'Ossat.  lettr.  195  :  'Henri  iv.  disoit  qn'avec  son 
chancelier  (de  Sillery)  qui  ne  savoit  point  de  latin,  et  son  constable, 
qui  ne  savoit  ni  lire  ni  £crire,  il  pouvoit  venir  a  bout  des  affaires  les 
plus  difficiles.'  <*  Morley,  Voltaire,  p.  57. 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599.  133 


are  most  influential.  The  encouragement  of  science 
and  letters  is  almost  always  a  personal  influence, 
Henri  iv.  had  learnt  regularly  the  usual  latin  and 
greek,  but  he  hated  men  of  any  pretensions  to  learning, 
for  their  independent  bearing.  Scaliger  he  honoured 
with  his  especial  aversion.  But  his  intelligence  was 
too  good,  and  his  views  too  wide  for  him  not  to  feel 
the  advantage  which  general  culture  gives  in  the 
handling  of  affairs.  'Les  lettres  ouvrent  Tesprit  a 
tout/  he  said,  and,  though  he  disliked  the  scholar  by 
profession,  he  preferred  to  employ  and  to  trust  a  well- 
informed  lawyer,  rather  than  an  ignorant  and  arrogant 
grand  seigneur.  He  would  listen  to  de  Thou,  even  if 
unwilling  or  unable  to  act  on  his  suggestions.  68 '  The 
king,'  Casaubon  writes  to  Scaliger,  '  though,  as  you 
know,  not  greatly  given  to  literature,  yet  promises 
himself  much  credit  from  patronising  my  studies. 
This  I  owe  to  your  exaggerated  praises  of  me,  which 
he  is  fond  of  repeating/  Henry  iv,  like  Francis  I, 
like  Louis  xiv,  had  a  royal  sense  of  his  duty  as 
patron  of  learning,  and  enlightenment  enough  to 
understand  the  lustre  such  patronage  could  shed  upon 
his  country  and  reign. 

Knowing  all  this  of  the  king's  disposition,  Casaubon' s 
friends  resolved  to  venture  upon  producing  their  pro- 
tege in  person  at  court.  The  experiment  succeeded ; 
he  made  a  favourable  impression.  The  king — grand 
hableur — kept  him  three  hours  talking  over  the  affairs 
of  the  university  of  Paris,  and  ended  by  inviting  him 
to  Paris  to  be  professor  in  it69.  That  he  might  be 

58  Ep.  208  :  '  Rex,  etsi  lit  scis,  ov  p-ova-iKoaTaros  .  .  .  illis  tuis 
fidera  veri  excedentibus  elogiis  adductus,  quse  sunt  illi  quotidie  in  ore, 
nihil  mediocre  de  studiis  nostris  sibi  pollicetur.' 

69  Casaubon   has   not   himself  described  this  first  interview  with 


134  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

known  to  the  heir  presumptive,  as  well  as  to  the  reign- 
ing sovereign,  Nicolas  Le  Fevre  presented  him  to  the 
young  prince  of  Conde',  who  was  being  brought  up  as 
a  catholic,  but  was  fortunate  in  an  enlightened  pre- 
ceptor. The  prince  began  immediately  to  ask  about 
Scaliger 70 :  '  Would  he  return  \  Such  a  man  ought  not 
to  be  lost  to  France ! '  In  taking  Casaubon  with  him 
to  the  house  of  de  Thou,  de  Vic  was  not  introducing 
a  stranger.  Casaubon  had  been  in  correspondence  with 
de  Thou  for  many  years,  having  introduced  himself  in 
1592,  by  a  present  of  the  first  edition  of  his  '  Theo- 
phrastus.'  He  had  heard  much  of  de  Thou's  library, 
but  it  surprised  his  expectation71.  When  he  entered  the 
splendid  collection  and  read  the  titles — authors  he  had 
never  seen,  or  even  known  to  exist  in  print — his  heart 
sank  at  the  thought  of  how  little  he  knew.  De  Thou 
had  been  employed  forty  years  in  making  this  collec- 
tion, which  at  the  time  of  his  death  consisted  of  8000 
volumes  of  printed  books,  and  1000  MSS,  all  in  that 
sumptuous  binding  so  well  known  to  amateurs.  To 
Casaubon,  to  whom  friends  were  another  name  for 
impediments  to  study,  the  society  of  de  Thou's  salon 
might  not  present  much  temptation.  But  the  libraries 
— de  Thou's  and  the  royal,  with  which  Queen  Cathe- 


Henri  iv.  It  rests  on  the  authority  of  Frai^ois  Pithou,  and  as  the 
date  of  the  epistle  is  doubtful,  it  may  possibly  relate  to  a  later  time. 
Gudii  epp.  ep.  180:  'Cum  Casaubono  de  academia  Parisiensi  insti- 
tuenda  per  tres  horas  locutus,  scribitur  a  Francisco  Pithseo.' 

ro  Ep.  176  :  'Post  prima  salutationis  verba,  quaesivit  a  me  princeps, 
numquid  scirem  quid  valeret  Scaliger  ?  quid  nunc  ageret  ?  an  reditum 
in  Galliam  cogitaret  ?  tantum  virum  non  debere  abesse  Gallia.' 

1  Ep.  175  :  'Lutetiam,  quod  felix  sit,  hodie  primum  vidi;  et  statim 
magni  Thuani  museum  ingressus,  quam  multa  ignorarem,  quam  parum, 
aut  nihil,  scirem,  agnovi.' 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599. 


135 


fine's  had  now  been  united — opened  to  him  that  supply 
for  which  he  had  so  long  thirsted.  From  this  moment 
his  desire  to  remove  to  Paris  became  paramount. 

On  October  27,  Casaubon  returned  to  Montpellier ; 
but  not  to  resume  the  regular  duties  of  his  profession. 
He  was  waiting.  The  appointment  was  delayed,  but 
the  king's  promise  was  passed,  and  there  could  be  no 
doubt  it  would  be  fulfilled.  He  even  announced  his 
impending  resignation  to  the  consuls.  It  would  have 
been  unbecoming  in  him,  he  thought,  to  quit  the  service 
of  those,  who  on  the  whole  had  treated  him  with  much 
respect,  without  requesting  his  conge  in  form.  Not  to 
be  idle72,  he  gave  a  voluntary  course  of  greek,  and 
allowed  the  duties  of  rector,  which  he  detested,  to  be 
imposed  on  him  for  a  short  time.  He  paid  a  visit  of 
a  fortnight  to  de  Fresne  at  Castres.  AIL  this  while  not 
intermitting  his  daily  study,  which  turned,  among  other 
things,  on  Theophrastus'  botanical  works,  Dionysius  of 
Halicarnassus,  and  S.  Jerome.  The  third  volume  of 
the  works  of  S.  Jerome  brought  him  to  the  close  of 
the  year  1598,  still  the  expected  nomination  did  not 
arrive. 

The  long  delay  seemed  ominous ;  but  at  last, 
January  24,  1599,  after  supper,  the  expected  packet 
was  put  into  his  hands.  But  it  was  no  nomination  to 
a  professorship,  or  to  any  office  whatever.  It  was 
simply  an  order,  under  the  sign-manual,  to  leave  Mont- 
pellier, and  to  hasten  to  Paris,  '  where  it  is  our  inten- 
tion to  employ  you  in  the  profession  of  classical  letters 
in  the  university/  The  letter  missive  did  not  even  as- 
sign any  stipend  or  pension,  but  only  intimated  that  such 
a  stipend,  as  well  as  the  expenses  of  removal,  would 
be  forthcoming.  The  original,  which  was  preserved 
72  Eph.  p.  102  :  *  Ne  otiosi  essemus.' 


136  MONTPELLIER.     1596-1599. 

by  Casaubon  among  his  papers,  and  printed  by  Meric 
in  his  '  Pietas,'  ran  as  follows  : — 
'  Monsieur  de  Casaubon, 

'Ayant  delibere  de  remettre  sus  TUniversite  de 
Paris,  et  d'y  attirer  pour  cest  effect  le  plus  de  savans 
personnages  qu'il  me  sera  possible ;  sachant  le  bruit 
que  vous  avez  d'estre  aujourd'huy  des  premiers  de  ce 
nombre  ;.  je  me  suis  resolu  de  me  servir  de  vous,  pour 
la  profession  des  bonnes  Lettres,  en  laditte  Universite, 
et  vous  ay,  a  ceste  fin,  ordonne  tel  appointement,  que 
je  m'assure  que  vous  vous  en  contenterez.  Partant 
vous  ne  faudrez  incontinent  la  presente  receue  de 
vous  preparer  k  vous  acheminer  par  de^a,  pour  vous  y 
rendre  le  plustost  que  le  pourrez  faire/  etc.  etc. 

To  remove  all  difficulty  with  regard  to  his  present 
employment,  the  consuls  of  Montpellier  were  specially 
enjoined  to  release  him  from  his  engagement,  and  to 
offer  every  facility  for  his  departure.  On  February  26, 
having  previously  sent  off  his  wife,  children,  and  books, 
he  bade  farewell  to  Montpellier,  from  which  he  said  he 
carried  away  nothing  but  a  good  character.  73Yet  it 
was  not  without  regret  that  he  parted  from  kind 
friends,  and  a  flourishing  protestant  community,  to  go 
out  into  an  unfriendly  catholic  world. 

He  deviated  from  the  direct  route  to  Lyons  to  visit 
his  mother,  who  was  settled  at  Bourdeaux  in  Dauphine. 
There  he  found  his  wife  and  children,  and  tasted  a 
74  *  wonderful  sweetness '  in  being  again  among  his 
family  friends.  Yet  though  only  there  two  days  he 
managed  each  day  to  get  a  '  few  hours '  for  study,  and 

73  Eph.  p.  136  :  'Non  sine  mcerore  urbem  nostri  amantem  reliqui- 
mus,  florentissimam  ibi  ecclesiam  non  sine  gemitu,  tenellam  filiolam 
non  sine  suspiritibus.' 

74  Eph.  p.  138  :  'Mira  suavitate.' 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1 599. 


137 


read  Du  Plessis'  book  on  the  '  Eucharist'  just  pub- 
lished. He  saw  again  Crest,  where  he  had  been  brought 
up,  and  where,  in  the  Terror,  his  father  had  been 
minister.  On  approaching  Lyons  he  met  de  Vic,  who 
had  come  out  to  meet  him,  and  who  would  not  suffer 
him  to  go  to  an  inn,  but  received  him  and  his  whole 
household  into  his  hotel. 

He  reached  Lyons,  en  route  for  Paris,  March  7,  1599. 
Instead  of  continuing  his  journey,  however,  he  re- 
mained at  Lyons,  and  chiefly  in  de  Vic's  house,  nearly 
twelve  months.  It  was  not  till  February  28,  1600, 
that  he  at  last  set  out  for  Paris.  Of  this  delay,  in 
spite  of  the  urgency  of  the  letter  missive,  which  had 
ordered  him  '  immediately  on  the  receipt  of  these 
presents '  to  repair  to  Paris,  there  seems  no  satisfactory 
account  to  be  given  in  his  letters  or  diary.  That  de 
Vic  persuaded  him  to  await  the  king's  visit  to  Lyons, 
where  he  was  expected:  that  he  had  to  make  two 
journeys  to  Geneva  about  his  father-in-law's  affairs  : 
that  he  resolved  upon  printing  his  '  Observations '  at 
Lyons — these  reasons  are  at  different  times  alleged, 
but  are  insufficient  to  account  for  his  conduct.  Besides 
the  contumelious  neglect  of  the  royal  mandate,  he  was 
incessantly  urged  by  the  letters  of  the  Paris  friends, 
severe] y  blaming  his  unreasonable  procrastination 75, 
and  his  indifference  to  a  favour  which  had  cost  them 
so  much  solicitation.  As  for  the  printing  of  the 
Athenseus,  which  he  repeatedly  assigns  as  the  object 
of  his  stay  in  Lyons,  he  would  have  much  preferred  to 
have  had  it  done  in  Paris.  It  was  with  difficulty  that 
a  printer  was  found  for  it  a,t  Lyons,  where  there  were 


r5  Ep.  191  :  '  Amici  nostram  moram  increpantes  Lutetiam  conviciis 
vocant.' 


138  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

no  greek  compositors,  and  where  it  was  very  badly 
done  when  it  was  done. 

The  true  explanation  of  Casaubon's  seeming  way- 
wardness is,  I  believe,  that  at  Lyons  it  began  to  dawn 
upon  him,  that  a  condition  was  to  be  attached  to  the 
appointment  now  held  out  to  him ;  that  he  was  to 
purchase  a  professorship,  as  Henri  iv.  had  the  crown, 
by  abjuration.  It  is  impossible  to  doubt,  nor  did 
Scaliger  doubt76,  that  the  Paris  friends  acted  in  good 
faith,  and  were  quite  content  to  have  Casaubon  among 
them,  all  calvinist  as  he  was.  But  they  could  only 
persuade  and  solicit.  Those  who  were  nearer  the  king, 
those  who  had  the  bestowal  of  royal  favour,  were  of 
another  sort.  Du  Perron  and  the  catholic  junta  would 
not  give  gratis.  From  the  first,  they  resolved  to  dangle 
the  professorship  before  his  eyes,  but  not  to  bestow  it, 
till  they  had  the  recantation.  This  is  the  explanation 
of  the  mysterious  language  of  the  mandate,  which 
calls  him  to  Paris  to  profess  classics,  yet  does  not 
appoint  him  professor.  Nor  was  it  only  the  knavish 
section  of  the  party  which  beset  him.  De  Vic  and 
Madame  de  Yic,  out  of  pure  concern  for  his  eternal 
welfare,  prevailed  upon  him  to  talk  over  the  disputed 
points  with  two  capuchins.  Madame  de  Yic  endea- 
voured to  inveigle  him  into  being  present  at  mass,  just 
out  of  curiosity,  to  see  a  ceremony  he  had  never  seen 
in  his  life.  She  thought,  in  her  goodness  of  heart,  that 
it  might  be  blessed  to  him. 

From  this  time  a  report  began  to  spread,  that  Cas- 
aubon was  preparing  to  '  go  over.'  Conversions  were 
the  fashion  of  the  day.  From  the  great  ladies  of  the 
court,  down  to  the  meanest  monk,  good  catholics  were 
competing  eagerly  for  the  credit  of  bringing  souls  into 

76  Seal.  Ep.  50. 


the  churc 


MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 


139 


ie  church.  The  '  convertisseurs'  were  incessantly  at 
their  work.  An  abundant  harvest  of  success  rewarded 
their  efforts.  All  places  of  profit  or  distinction  being 
reserved  for  catholics,  abjuration  became  the  necessary- 
step  to  preferment.  The  skill  of  the  converter  con- 
sisted only  in  humouring  the  self-respect  of  the  convert. 
He  heard  a  solemn  dispute,  was  overpowered  by  argu- 
ment and  quotation,  submitted  himself  to  instruction, 
went  into  retreat  for  a  week,  and  came  out  white- 
washed. The  ascendancy  in  opinion,  and  consequent 
mastery  in  controversy,  which,  forty  years  before,  had 
been  on  the  side  of  the  protestants,  had  now  passed 
to  the  catholics.  Daniel  Chamier  says 77  of  pere  Coton : 
'Reboul  had  represented  to  me  Coton  as  not  only 
learned  but  modest.  And  in  fact,  when  I  came  to  have 
to  do  with  him,  I  found  him  more  temperate  and  rea- 
sonable than  Loyolites  in  general.  Still  he  too  had 
adopted  that  attitude,  which  all  Jesuits  assume  in  their 
intercourse  with  us,  that  of  laying  down  the  law  as 
a  teacher  to  a  pupil,  not  disputing  with  us  on  equal 
terms/  For  an  illustrious  heretic  a  public  conference 
would  be  arranged,  where  bishops  and  cardinals  sat  in 
imposing  array.  For  those  of  lower  degree,  a  dispute 
between  a  Jesuit  and  a  minister  was  a  sufficient  occasion 
for  the  would-be  convert  to  declare,  that  he  was  con- 
vinced of  his  error. 

Casaubon  presented  an  obvious  mark  for  this  game, 
from  his  reputation  and  his  personal  character.  He 
was  now  confessedly  the  most  eminent  living  scholar 
after  Scaliger;  his  name  was  known  wherever  greek 
letters  were  read.  As  it  was  well  understood  that 
Scaliger  was  impossible,  Casaubon' s  conversion  was 
the  highest  prize  of  the  kind  which  was  open  to  the 
77  Epp.  Jesuit.  Prsef. 


140  MONTPELLIEE.     1596—1599. 

efforts  of  the  '  convertisseurs/  The  personal  character 
of  the  man,  of  an  anxious  piety  :  not  enthusiastic  but 
devout  to  depression ;  though  a  sincere  huguenot,  yet 
moderate  and  equitable  towards  catholics;  too  learned 
not  to  be  aware  of  the  many  weak  points  in  the  cal- 
vinistic  armour;  a  weakness  of  will  proceeding  from 
mingled  ill  health,  amiability,  and  excessive  reading; 
all  these  characteristics  were,  in  engineering  phrase,  in 
favour  of  the  attack.  More  especially  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  greek  and  latin  fathers,  and  a 
sentiment  for  Christian  antiquity,  indicated  an  affinity 
for  catholic  rather  than  calvinistic  divinity.  The  con- 
temptuous treatment  of  antiquity  on  the  part  of  the 
protestants  was  not  only  unbecoming;  it  was  a  his- 
torical error,  an  error  which  revolted  those  to  whom 
antiquity  was  better  known.  These  facts,  which  soon 
became  known  in  the  Jesuit  camp,  always  well  served 
with  intelligence,  afforded  ground  for  hope,  that  Cas- 
aubon's  case  was  one  where,  instead  of  the  usual 
comedy  of '  coming  over'  being  enacted,  a  real  conver- 
sion might  be  effected.  His  having  quitted  Geneva, 
and  having  come  into  France ;  his  being  the  close 
friend  of  Canaye  de  Fresne,  who  was  known  by  the 
Jesuits  (though  Casaubon  was  innocent  of  it)  to  be 
preparing  to  desert ;  his  quitting  calvinistic  Mont- 
pellier  to  establish  himself  in  fanatical  Lyons,  in  the 
house  of  the  catholic  de  Vic;  and  his  being  known 
to  be  expecting  preferment  from  the  court; — these 
were  certainly  circumstances  calculated  not  only  to 
give  hopes  to  the  Jesuit  faction,  but  to  create  an  im- 
pression on  the  public  at  large,  that  Casaubon  was 
about  to  do  what  everybody  else,  who  wished  to  get 
on,  was  doing  around  him. 

Casaubon  was  deeply  concerned  when  he  found  that 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  141 


reports  of  this  nature  began  to  be  credited  among  his 
own  co-religionists.  78Even  during  his  residence  at 
Lyons,  he  had  to  suffer  from  the  suspicions  of  his 
friends,  who  hinted  that  he  was  about  to  leave  a  losing 
cause.  If  ever  man  was  sincere  in  his  belief,  Casaubon 
was.  His  after  conduct  proves  that  he  was  prepared 
to  make  any  sacrifice  for  it.  But  though  his  conduct 
was  firm  and  consistent,  the  publication  of  his  private 
diary  has  revealed  to  us,  that  there  was  a  moment 
when  his  mind  wavered.  The  traces  indeed  are  slight, 
but  they  are  sufficient.  It  could  not  be  otherwise. 
Belief  is  so  much  a  matter  of  sympathy  and  contagion, 
that  when  all  we  hear  and  see  goes  one  way,  we  re- 
ceive an  insensible  impulse  in  the  same  direction.  An 
uneducated  mind,  in  which  religious  belief  is  a  mere 
matter  of  habit,  might  not  be  affected  by  epidemic 
Catholicism.  But  Casaubon  had  applied  his  know- 
ledge to  the  grounds  of  his  faith.  Examining  and 
re-examining  as  he  was  compeUed  to  do,  the  balance 
of  the  evidence  must  at  different  times  have  seemed 
to  be  on  opposite  sides.  There  was  no  doubt  on  which 
side  his  interest  lay.  When  he  finally  decided  against 
his  interest,  he  gave  the  highest  evidence  man  can  give 
of  a  sincere  love  of  truth.  These  traces  of  momentary 
wavering  are  a  measure  of  the  force  of  the  catholic 
reaction  in  France.  As  part  of  Casaubon' s  biography, 
they  must  be  read  in  connection  with  the  whole  of 
his  confessions.  The  pages  of  the  diary  during  the 
following  years  of  trial  continue  to  abound  in  evidence, 
as  well  of  humble  piety  as  of  single-eyed  love  of  what 

78  Ep.  2ii  :  among  the  reasons  he  assigns  for  wishing  to  get 
away  from  Lyons,  one  is :  '  Odium  nostri  conflatum  in  animis  plero- 
rumque  T£>V  TO.  fj^repa  (frpovovvTw,  cum  in  hac  urbe  (Lyons)  turn  in 
vicinis  provinciis.' 


142  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

seemed  to  him  truth.  We  quote  one  entry.  On  his 
forty-  third  birthday  Casaubon  enters  as  follows79:— 

'I  am  not  excusing  my  act  (not  going  to  church). 
If  religious  feeling  were  as  vigorous  in  my  mind  as 
it  ought  to  be,  neither  the  impediment  to  which  I 
allude,  nor  yet  more  serious  difficulties,  would  have  in- 
terfered with  the  journey.  I  here  confess  to  thee,  my 
God,  what  is  the  truth,  zeal  for  religion  is  languid  both 
in  my  own  mind,  and  among  those  belonging  to  me. 
Do  thou,  o  merciful  Father,  stir  it  up,  and  kindle  it 
into  flame.  Make  us  so  to  live  henceforward  that  those, 
who  are  endeavouring  with  so  much  pertinacity  to  per- 
vert me,  may  know  that  thou,  o  Grod,  wilt  not  suffer 
our  faith  even  to  be  imperilled/ 

The  suspicions  of  those  of  his  own  church  were  not 
the  only  vexations  which  he  had  to  support  during  his 
stay  in  Lyons.  He  had  with  difficulty  found  a  printer80 
for  his  *  Observationes  '  and  de  Vic  had  generously 
advanced  a  portion  of  the  expense.  The  remainder 
was  to  be  found  by  the  author  himself,  who  em- 
barked his  slender  savings  in  the  enterprise.  Of  profit 
there  was  no  thought,  but  he  might  look  forward  to  be 
repaid  his  outlay  by  the  sale  of  the  book.  He  found, 
in  Antoine  de  Harsy81,  one  of  those  cormorants,  who 


79  Eph.  P.  333. 

80  Ep.  1020  :  'Parum  grsecis  edendis  assuetse  sunt  opera  Lugdu- 
nenses.'     A  compositor  was  expected  to  know  latin,  in  order  to  set  it 
up  in  type.     Corranus  complains  of  the  London  printers  in   1574, 
Zurich  Letters,    2d.  ser.  p.    254  :    'So   many  errors   have  crept  in 
through  the  carelessness  of  the  printer,  who  is  unacquainted  with  latin, 
as  are  almost  all  the  printers  in  this  country/ 

81  Antoine  de  Harsy,  son,  or  grandson  of  Denis  de  Harsy,  also 
printer,  f  1614,  after  which  the  business  was  carried  on  by  his  -Yv'idow. 
Eph.  291  :    '  Curis  anxius  propter  improbitatem   istius  Harsii,  quse 


MONTPELLIER.     1596—1599.  143 

about  this  time  began  to  sit  hard  by  the  tree  of  know- 
ledge. The  publisher  hitherto  had  been  the  friend  and 
co-operator  of  the  author,  even  when  not  author  in  his 
own  person.  Casaubon's  Athenseus  is  an  early  instance 
of  spoliation,  though  there  was  not  here  the  usual 
excuse  that  the  publisher  was  risking  his  capital  on 
the  credit  of  the  author's  name.  Madame  de  Harsy, 
who  transacted  the  business  in  her  husband's  absence, 
was  even  more  extortionate.  As  soon  as  she  ascer- 
tained that  Casaubon  was  obliged  to  leave  Lyons  on  a 
certain  day,  she  took  advantage  of  it  to  mulct  him 
of  a  large  sum  as  extra  charges.  He  might  have 
resisted  in  the  law  courts,  where  he  knew  the  judge 
would  have  befriended  him.  But  he  could  not  post- 
pone his  departure,  and  was  obliged  to  pay.  The 
pangs  which  Casaubon  suffered  from  these  Lyonnese 
sharks  will  be  understood,  when  we  remember  how  he 
had  toiled  in  the  compilation  of  his  volume,  and  what 
hopes  he  had  rested  on  its  production.  This  was  all 
that  was  wanting  as  the  fitting  close  of  the  scholar's 
toil — the  last  chapter  in  the  calamities  of  authors. 

Nor  did  his  pecuniary  losses  end  here.  Henri 
Estienne  had  died  intestate.  While  Casaubon  super- 
intended the  printing  of  his  Athenaeus,  Madame  Cas- 
aubon went  to  Geneva  to  look  after  her  share  of  her 
father's  property.  Henri's  affairs  were  found  to  be 
more  involved  even  than  had  been  feared,  and  it 
became  necessary  that  Casaubon  should  interrupt  his 
edition,  and  make  first  one,  and  then  a  second,  journey 
to  Geneva,  in  the  business.  The  affair  dragged  on  in 
the  courts  till  1607.  Casaubon  persisted  in  accusing 
the  council,  and  even  the  Genevese  in  general,  of 

miris  modis  me  vexat  per  somnum,  scelus,  dum  edito  libro  inhiat, 
et  pecuniis  quas  ibi  posuimus.' 


144  MONTPELLIER.     1596  —  1599. 

conspiring  to  rob  him,  and  sometimes  breaks  out  into 
frantic  denunciations  of  the  *  hypocrisy  and  phari- 
saism  which  was  covered  by  the  long  cloak.'  Even  if 
he  did  not  exaggerate  his  loss,  he  could  not  on  cool 
reflection  implicate  the  city  of  Geneva  in  the  decision  of 
a  judicial  tribunal,  even  supposing  that  decision  to 
have  been  unjust.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he 
entered,  and  only  for  the  second  time  in  his  life82,  his 
father-in-law's  library.  '  Such  a  wreck  of  vast  pro- 
jects !  A  memorial  of  stupendous  labour  P  he  exclaimed 
on  seeing  it.  He  used  his  influence  with  the  co-heirs 
to  allow  the  MSS.  to  pass  to  Paul  Estienne,  who  in- 
herited the  greek  press  under  his  grandfather's  will. 
The  printed  books  were  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the 
creditors.  Sold  for  a  soog,  Casaubon  says.  The 
matrixes  of  the  greek  types  remained  in  pawn  in  the 
hands  of  le  Clerc.  With  true  disinterestedness — for  if 
there  was  anything  which  Casaubon  coveted  it  was  a 
greek  MS. — he  asked  nothing  for  himself,  but  begged 
Paul  to  lend  Hoeschel  a  transcript  of  Photius  which  he 
found  in  Henri's  handwriting.  In  telling  Hoeschel 
what  he  had  done,  Casaubon  writes83 :  *  If  I  ask  you 
when  you  have  occasion  to  mention  Henri  Estienne,  to 
do  so  with  as  much  respect  as  you  can,  you  will  think  I 
wrong  your  goodness  of  heart.  I  know  your  excellent 
disposition,  but  you  are  aware  that  it  is  the  fashion, 
now  he  is  gone,  to  run  him  down  and  insult  his 
memory.  I  am  not  going  to  justify  his  moody  and 

82  In  October,  1598,  he  tells  Scaliger,  ep.  175  :  '  Volo,  tamen,  scias, 
nondum  mihi  visam  Stephani  bibliothecam ;  non  dico  ab  ejus  obitu,  sed 
omnino  invisam  earn  esse  nobis.' 

83  Ep.  1 86  :  'Quantus  ille  vir  (Henri  Estienne)  fuerit  in  literis,  si 
nesciebam  ante,  potui  adfatim  discere,  ex  iis  quse  reperta  sunt  mihi  in 
bibliotheca.' 


MONTPELLIER.     \  596  —  1 599. 


145 


irascible  temper ;  some  of  his  latest  things  I  could 
wish  unwritten.  He  had,  indeed,  many  faults ;  but 
how  truly  great  he  was  in  letters,  even  had  I  not 
known  before,  I  should  have  learnt  on  entering  his 
library,  where  I  saw  incredible  monuments  of  learning, 
and  the  love  of  it.'  What  Casaubon  was  foregoing  for 
himself,  may  be  understood  from  the  fact,  that  he  had 
never  read  Photius'  Bibliotheca,  which  was  not  then 
printed,  and  knew  that  it  must  contain  some  things 
which  would  have  been  of  use  to  him  in  his  notes  on 
Athenseus84. 

To  these  annoyances  was  added  another,  brought 
upon  him  by  his  good  nature.  He  had  taken  into  his 
family  his  nephew,  Pierre  Chabanes.  This  youth,  at 
once  stupid  and  froward,  could  not  be  induced  to  behave 
himself  in  de  Vic's  family.  He  was  always  quarrelling 
with  the  servants,  and  once  nearly  set  the  house  on  fire 
by  throwing  hot  coals  at  them  in  the  kitchen.  The  cir- 
cumstance only  brought  into  relief  the  sweet  temper  of 
Madame  de  Vic,  who  was  content  with  a  gentle  repri- 
mand, and  would  not  allow  Casaubon  to  turn  the 
young  mule  out  of  the  house,  within  the  hour,  as  he 
proposed  to  do.  Indeed,  he  kept  the  nephew  with 
him  till  his  death,  which  happened  in  1602.  In 
spite  of  his  bad  disposition,  his  patient  uncle  mourns 
for  his  loss,  as  for  that  of  a  child  of  his  own85. 

De  Vic  continued  to  be  the  adviser  by  whom  all 
Casaubon's  plans  were  now  directed86. 


crux,  et  mors  mea, 


14  Ep.  197. 

15  Eph.  p.  1 60:  <  Petulantissimum      . 
animo  vilissimo.' 

6  Eph.  p.  233  :  '  Cujus  consiliis  naviculam  nostram  gubernari  par 
est.' 


APPENDIX  TO  3. 

NOTE  A.  p.  91. 

DEED  OF  APPOINTMENT  AS  PROFESSOR  AT  MONTPELLIER. 
Burney  MSS.  367.  f.   127. 

LAN  mil  cinq  cens  quatre  vingt  et  dix  sept  et  le  douziesme  Jour  du 
moys  de  Mars  dans  la  maion  Consull'  de  MotpelK  En  personne 
hounorab'  hommes  messieurs  mre  Pierre  Cavassin  erg8  (sic)  droictz, 
mre  Anthonie  Atgier  Sr.  de  la  Bastide,  Anthonie  de  Burgens,  Ber- 
nardin  Durant,  Imbert  Coste  et  Anthonie  Barrat  Consul'  de  la  Ville  de 
Montpellr  lesquelz  de  leur  gre  ensuivant  les  precedates  derliberacons 
du  Confil  de  Vingt  quatre  avec  Ratifficaon  de  ce  qua  este'  faict  et  com- 
mence" et  de  tout  ce  quy  sest  passe*  pour  avoir  appelle*  et  plusieurs  fois 
eit  faict  venir  en  fin  de  la  ville  de  Geneve  en  ceste  ville  Monsieur  mre 
Isac  Cazaubon  professeur  aus  langues  et  bonnes  Ires  pour  y  faire 
doresnavat  sa  residence  et  demeurans  tant  qu'il  plera  a  Dieu  pour  y 
lire  publicquement  et  faire  excercice  publicq'  de  ses  langues  et  bonnes 
Ires  soubz  les  Pactes  et  condicons  a  luy  acordes  et  y  teneues,  en  lacte 
que  luy  a  este  envoyee  par  Sr  Denis  Pasturel  marchand  de  ceste  ville 
envoye  expres  devers  luy  pour  le  conduire  a  faire  lesd'  voyage  qui  sont 
telz  que  sensuivent.  Premierement  que  les  d'  Sieures  Consuls  suivant 
lad'  desliberacon  du  conei*  du  vingt  septic  Octob'  dernier  passe  seront 
teneues  comme  ont  promis  et  promettant  aud'  Sr.  Casaubon  present  et 
aceptant  pour  son  entretenement  et  gages  annelz  luy  faire  payer  la 
somme  de  deux  cents  soixante  six  escus  deux  tiers  payable  par  antici- 
pacio  en  deux  thermes  au  commencement'  de  chaseun  demy  annee. 
Lesquels  gaiges  courront  et  ont  commence  des  le  jour  de  son 
depart  dud'  Geneve  que  feust  le  neufrnesme  de  Decemb'  dernier  sans 
en  ce  comprendre  to  les  fraiz  et  despences  par  eulx  desja  faicts  et 
fournis  a  la  conduicte  dud'  sieur  Casaubon  de  sa  famille  et  bibliotbeque 
despuis  lad'  ville  de  Geneve  jusques  en  cestes  ville  comme  luy  auroit 
este  promis  et  acorde  p  led'  Conseill'  et  ausquels  frais  a  este  desja 
satisfaict  aussi  seront  teneus  lesd'  Sieurs  Consuls  comme  ils  ont  promis 


APPENDIX  TO  3. 


147 


et  promettent  au  non  de  toute  la  ville  et  cornmunaulte  de  luy  dormer 
et  faire  approver  dans  son  logis  chascung  an,  la  quantite  de  cent 
quintaulx  de  bois  de  valleur  et  luy  fournir  une  maison  et  logis  com- 
mode por  son  habitacon  et  demeuran'  tant  quil  servira  a  la  ville,  aute 
despens  dicelle  por  lameublement  de  laquelle  maion  pour  une  fois 
suivant  le  que  luy  auroit  este  acorde  lesd'  Sieurs  Consuls  luy  auroient 
faict  payer  ainsi  que  led'  Sr.  Casaubon  a  confessd  la  somine  de  cent 
escus  suivant  le  mandement  que  luy  auroit  este  despeche  p  lesd'  Sieurs 

Consuls  sur cornmis  a  la  levee  de  la  cour  dung  sous 

por.  chung  quintal  sel  ordonne  por.  1'establissement  dung  College  de 
ceste  ville,  dont  il  sera  content,  et  a  quitte  la  d'  ville  et  communaulte 
moyenant  lesquelz  susd'  pactes  led'  Sr.  de  Casaubon  a  promis  et 
promet  au.sd'  Sieurs  consuls  ville  et  communaulte  de  bien  et  deue- 
ment  verser  en  sa  profession  en  la  d'  ville,  et  de  bien  et  deuement 
faire  son  debvoir  a  la  lecture  desd'  langues  et  bonnes  Ires,  tout 
ainsi  qu'il  a  desja  commence  de  faire  comme  aussi  a  este*  conveneu 
et  acorde,  que  ny  lad'  ville  ny  led'  Sr.  Casaubon  ne  se  pourront 
oncques  de  present  ny  a  la  venir  despartir  du  pnt  contract  que  dung 
mutuel  et  reciproque  consentement.  Et  por  tout  ce  dessus  acorder  et 
server  restituo  de  tor.  despens  domaiges  et  intberests  lesd'  Sieurs 
Consuls  ont  oblige*  tous  et  chacungs  les  biens  de  la  communaulte  de 
lad'  ville,  et  led'  Sr.  Casaubon  les  siens  propres  meubles  et  imeubles 
present  et  advenir  que  pource  faire  ont  soubzines  aulz  rigueurs  des 
cours  de  Monsieur  le  gouverneur  presidial  petit  sul  (?)  royal  ordinance 
dud'  MontpelK  et  aides  requizes  et  necessaires  In  vue  chiine  dicelles 
et  ainsi  lont  promis  et  dirre  et  Renon  a  tous  droictz  et  loix  a  ce 
dessus  contraires. 

Faict  et  recitte*  dans  MotpelK  et  dans  la  Maison  Consullr  en  pre- 
sence de  Sr.  Fran'  Sartie  Borgeois,  Noble  Guillaume  .  .  .  et  Sr.  Jean 
Costier,  habitans  dans  Motpellr.  soubznes  t  .  .  iesd'  parties  a  loriginal, 
et  moy  Pierre  Pesquet  Notar.  Royal  dud'  Motpellier  soubzne. 


PESQUET,  Noter. 


NOTE  B.  p.  125. 


Maussac's  Toulouse  editions  are  :  Plutarchi  libellus  de  fluviorum  et 
montium  nominibus  .  .  .  Philip.  Jacob.  Maussacus  recensuit,  latine 
vertit,  et  notis  illustravit,  Tolosse,  ap.  Dominicum  Bose,  1615,  8°.; 
Pselli  de  lapidum  virtutibus  libellus ;  Philippus  Jacobus  Maussacus 
primus  vulgavit,  latine  vertit,  et  emendavit,  Tolosse,  typis  viduse  J. 

L    2 


148 


APPENDIX  TO  3. 


Colomerii  regis  et  universitatis  typographi  sub  signo  nominis  Jesu, 
1615,  8^. 

Hoffmann  assigns  the  first  edition  of  Scaliger's  '  Aristoteles  Hist. 
Animal.'  to  the  year  1591,  which  would  be  earlier  evidence  of  a  Greek 
press  at  Toulouse.  But  this  date  is  an  error,  a  thing  of  very  rare 
occurrence  in  that  accurate  bibliographer.  Maussac  published  the 
'  Historia  Animal.'  for  the  first  time  in  1619. 


4, 

PARIS. 

1600  — 1610. 

1600.  DE  Vic  was  now  in  Paris.  In  February  lie 
wrote  despondingly  to  Casaubon  to  tell  him  that  all 
past  promises  were  forgotten  ;  that  his  friends  were 
now  powerless ;  that  the  ultramontane  party  were 
wholly  indifferent,  and  that  in  short  he  was  not  to 
look  to  the  court  for  anything.  Casaubon,  having  long 
made  up  his  mind  that  it  would  be  so,  was  not  dis- 
concerted at  intelligence  which  was  no  news,  but 
continued  with  steady  perseverance  to  work  at  his 
Athenaeus.  A  fortnight,  however,  had  hardly  elapsed 
before  de  Yic  wrote  a  summons  to  him  to  come  to 
Paris  immediately,  without  explaining  his  reasons,  but 
in  a  tone  which  compelled  compliance.  On  February 
28,  he  took  horse,  and  used  such  expedition  that,  not- 
withstanding the  badness  of  the  roads,  and  the  heavy 
inundations,  he  reached  de  Vic's  house  in  Paris  upon 
the  seventh  day.  He  was  admitted  to  an  audience, 
and  received  with  suspicious  courtesy  by  the  king  and 
the  lords.  Henri  again  repeated  what  he  had  said 
about  employing  Casaubon  in  the  '  restoration  of  the 
university/  and  the  next  day,  in  council,  spon- 
taneously mentioned  Casaubon's  name,  and  his  own 


150  PARIS.     1GOO  — 1610. 

intentions.  Casaubon  received  an  order  to  wait  upon 
Monsieur  de  Rosny,  and,  as  an  earnest  of  what  was  to 
come,  received  a  gratification  of  two  hundred  crowns. 
After  this  nothing  further  was  done  ;  he  remained  in 
Paris,  apparently  forgotten  and  useless,  separated  from 
the  two  objects  of  his  affection,  his  family  and  his 
books,  and  the  Lyons  press  at  a  standstill.  Of  course 
reading  not  less,  but  even  more,  than  usual.  For  he 
was  now  in  a  land  of  books,  and  had  besides  brought 
along  with  him  in  his  baggage  the  Photius  he  had 
received  as  a  present  from  Hoeschel,  which  he  now 
read  for  the  first  time. 

In  the  midst  of  this  desultory  life,  he  was  surprised 
by  a  summons  from  the  king,  calling  him  to  Fontaine- 
bleau,  where  the  court  then  was,  for  an  '  affair  which  he 
had  much  at  heart/  *  l~M?.  Cazobon,  Je  desire  vous  veoir 
et  vous  communiquer  ung  affaire  que  j'ay  fort  a  cueur 
cest  pourquoy  vous  ne  fauldrez  incontinent  la  presente 
receue  de  vous  acheminer  en  ce  lieu  et  vous  y  rendre 
pour  le  plus  tard  dimanche  au  soir,  et  m'asseurant  que 
vous  n'y  manquiez  je  ne  feray  celle  cy  plus  longue  que 
pour  prier  Dieu  qu'il  vous  ait  en  sa  ste  garde.  Ce 
soir  de  Fontaynebleau  ce  28me  jour  d'Avril  1600, 
Henry1/ 

Casaubon  must  now  have  begun  to  understand  for 
what  purpose  he  had  been  brought  up  from  Lyons  in 
such  hot  haste. 

The  fashion  of  conferences,  and  their  adroit  manage- 
ment by  the  catholic  reaction,  has  been  already  noticed. 
In  the  earlier  days  of  the  religious  troubles,  a  con- 
ference was  a  bon£  fide  attempt  to  come  to  an  under- 

1  Preserved  by  Casaubon  among  his  papers,  and  now  in  Burney 
MSS.  36  7. 


PARIS.      1600  —  1610.  151 


standing.  Such,  e.  g.  had  been  the  colloquy  of  Poissy, 
1561.  Afterwards,  when  the  ascendancy  in  opinion 
was  finally  secured  to  the  catholics,  these  public  dispu- 
tations were  merely  blinds,  under  cover  of  which  those 
desirous  of  apostatizing  could  decorously  effect  their 
retreat.  It  may  seem  surprising,  that  the  huguenot 
party,  after  so  much  experience,  especially  after  the 
farce  of  the  conference  of  Mantes,  1593,  could  allow 
themselves  to  be,  again  and  again,  entrapped  in  the  same 
way.  The  explanation  is  partly  to  be  found  in  the  cir- 
cumstance, that,  while  the  catholics  acted  with  the  una- 
nimity of  an  organised  party,  the  protestants,  dispirited 
and  dispersed,  had  no  centre  of  policy.  Thus,  they  re- 
peated their  mistakes,  in  the  different  provinces,  with 
that  want  of  tactic  which  always  attends  a  losing  game. 

The  conference  of  Fontainebleau,  1 600,  was  the  most 
tragical  of  these  self-imposed  defeats,  because  it  struck 
a  noble  soul. 

Philippe  de  Mornay,  seigneur  du  Plessis  Marly,  is 
justly  described  by  Voltaire  as  '  the  greatest  and  most 
virtuous  man  of  the  protestant  party/  It  is  little  to 
say  of  him,  that  he  was  superior  to  personal  interest2, 
for  merely  to  remain  protestant,  was  now  to  sacrifice 
interest  to  conscience.  Clear  of  the  least  suspicion  of 
making  a  tool  of  his  party,  he  had  staked  life  and 
fortune  in  the  cause  of  Henri  iv.  None  of  his 
adherents  had  rendered  the  king  such  services  as  had 
de  Mornay.  Besides  his  personal  exertions,  he  had 

2  Even  in  the  caricature  of  the  '  Henriade,'  where  the  figures  of 
the  wars  of  religion  are  set  up  in  gilt  gingerbread  in  the  taste  of  the 
'  grand  sie'cle,'  the  noble  lineaments  of  the  calvinist  seigneur  stand  out 
as  if  incapable  of  disfigurement.  See  the  lines,  chant  9  :  '  Son  ex- 
emple  instruisait  bien  mieux  que  ses  discours;  Les  solides  vertus 
furent  ses  seuls  amours/  etc. 


152  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

nearly  ruined  himself  by  loans,  still  unrepaid.  With  a 
catholic  education,  de  Mornay  had  become  protestant 
before  he  was  twenty,  by  study  of  the  controversy. 
He  continued,  notwithstanding  his  public  engagements, 
to  read  theology,  and  collected  a  valuable  library  from 
the  dispersion  of  the  monastic  treasures.  Had  he  not 
been  grand  seigneur,  he  would  have  passed  for  learned. 
He  talked  well,  adding  to  the  accent  of  a  gentleman, 
the  authority  of  knowledge.  Du  Perron,  who  had 
learning,  but  with  the  servile  manners  of  a  court 
chaplain,  envied  him  what  he  tauntingly  calls3  his 
'  eloquence  de  Pericles/  In  1593,  de  Mornay  was  too 
much  of  a  statesman  not  to  see  that  abjuration  was  a 
political  necessity  for  Henri  iv.  But  he  had  understood 
that  the  royal  conversion  was  to  carry  with  it  such  a 
reform  of  the  abuses  of  the  church,  as  might  have 
healed  the  religious  schism ;  a  reform  of  such  a  kind, 
as  had  taken  place  in  England.  He  never  expected  to 
see  Henri  of  Navarre  go  in  for  rampant  ultramon- 
tanism.  The  crafty  Bearnais  took  care  to  encourage 
his  illusion,  and  not  to  undeceive  his  friend,  till  he 
could  do  without  him.  At  the  stiffnecked  Calvinism 
of  a  mere  soldier  like  d'Aubigne",  Henri  could  afford  to 
laugh  ;  the  consistent  integrity  of  a  statesman  like  de 
Mornay  was  a  standing  reproach  to  him.  He  was  not 
sorry  for  an  opportunity  of  discrediting  his  old  ad- 
herent, and  comrade  in  arms.  Such  an  opportunity 
was  now  afforded  him. 

De  Mornay  had,  unfortunately,  written  a  book.  He 
had  always  been  fond  of  writing,  as  well  as  reading, 
theology,  and  he  had  now  employed  the  leisure  which 
his  retirement  from  politics  gave  him,  in  compiling  a 
controversial  treatise  on  the  eucharist.  The  celebrity 
3  Actes  de  la  Conferenceded. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  153 

of  the  author,  and  the  fact  that  the  book  was  composed 
in  french,  would  have  sufficed  to  give  vogue  even  to 
a  superficial  treatment  of  the  reigning  controversy. 
But  de  Mornay's  book  was  not  a  fugitive  pamphlet. 
It  was  a  solid  volume  of  888  pages  8vo.  '  Opus  prae- 
stantissimum,'  said  Scaliger4,  'and  better  than  any  of 
the  books  of  the  professed  theologians,  except  those  of 
Calvin  and  Beza.'  We  are  only  concerned  with  the 
citations.  These  amount  to  nearly  5000,  it  being  a 
principal  object  of  the  book  to  show  that  the  Eoman 
doctrines  of  the  mass,  etc.,  are  not  conformable  to  the 
opinions  of  the  fathers,  or  schoolmen.  Whatever  the 
merit  of  the  argument,  the  book  made  a  prodigious 
sensation.  It  occupied  alike  the  pulpits  and  the  salons. 
The  clergy  were  enraged  to  find,  that,  though  every- 
thing else  was  restored  to  them,  their  old  power  of 
putting  down  heretical  writings  by  force  was  not  yet 
recovered.  They  were  driven  to  the  miserable  re- 
source of  answering  it.  They  put  on  Bulenger,  one 
of  the  king's  chaplains ;  the  Jesuits  made  Fronto  le 
Due  and  Bicheome,  two  of  their  best  men,  write 
answers.  The  strong  point  of  the  book  was  its  cita- 
tions. Bomanist  errors  were  to  be  crushed  by  sho wing- 
that  they  were  novelties.  But  it  was  soon  discovered 
by  hostile  eyes,  that,  in  this  show  of  vast  reading,  lay 
the  weakness  of  the  book.  The  refutations  all  took  the 
form  not  of  counter  argument,  but  of  exposure  of  false 
quotations.  The  general  public,  indifferent,  especially 
in  France,  to  mere  inexactitude,  persisted  in  regarding 
the  main  issue,  and  these  answers  did  not  avail  to  arrest 
the  effect  of  de  Mornay's  book.  He  himself  took  a  con- 
temptuous tone  towards  his  critics.  '  I  did  not  know 
that  "episcopus  miniatensis"  meant  bishop  of  Mende. 
4  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  161. 


154  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

I  should  have  known  it.  I  translated  "tiburiensis,"  "tibur- 
tine,"  and  "concilium  Sardicense,"  "council  of  Sardes." 
I  should  not  have  done  so,  but ! — *  The  errors,  how- 
ever, were  so  many  and  grave  that  they  invited 
a  more  eclatant  exposure.  For  this  the  man  was  Du 
Perron. 

The  part  of  chaplain-man-of-the-world,  a  part  often 
played,  and  still  playable,  has  never  been  played  with 
more  success  than  by  Messire  Jacques  Davy  Du  Perron, 
bishop  of  Evreux,  senior  chaplain  to  the  king,  member 
of  both  councils,  grand  and  privy.  He  had  begun  life 
as  a  protestant,  but  went  over  early,  not  only  into 
Catholicism,  but  also  into  ultramontanism,  though  he 
kept  this  in  the  background  during  Henri's  life.  This 
clever  talker  went  about  everywhere  saying,  that  he 
had  not  examined  the  whole  of  the  big  book,  but  that, 
as  far  as  he  had  gone,  he  had  discovered  500  false  cita- 
tions in  it5.  He  had  really  spent  eighteen  months  in 
carefully  getting  it  up,  and  was  only  watching  for  an 
opportunity  to  bring  his  criticism  to  bear  on  it.  Just 
at  this  time  de  Mornay  came  to  town.  He  had  held 
himself  retired  in  his  government  at  Saumur,  in  his 
dissatisfaction  at  the  catholic  policy,  into  which  the 
court  was  rushing.  He  now  came  to  Paris  to  endea- 

5  Du  Perron  told  Fra  Paolo,  Life  of  Father  Paul,  1651,  p.  6 1,  that 
he  had  not  only  found  the  Huguenots  '  without  learning  or  knowledge, 
especially  in  the  old  fathers,  in  councils  and  historians,  but  he  had 
likewise  found  them  choleric  and  impatient ;  whereupon,  whensoever  he 
disputed  with  any  of  them,  his  chief  aim  was  by  some  piquant  words, 
or  argutenesse,  to  put  them  into  choler,  and  that  being  done,  he  waa 
assured  to  carry  the  victory.'  Cf.  with  this  Casaub.  ep.  214.  It  was 
out  of  modesty,  thinks  the  Carthusian  d'Argonne,  Vigneul  Marville 
Melanges  d'Hist.  i.  64,  that  the  cardinal  said  this.  He  must,  of 
course,  being  a  cardinal,  have  been  too  strong  in  controversy  for 
heretics. 


PARIS.     160Q— 1610.  155 

vour  to  recover  some  part  of  the  sums  owing  to  him. 
To  sting  the  veteran  into  sending  a  challenge  to  Du 
Perron,  the  princess  of  Orange  was  employed  as 
picadore.  The  daughter  of  Coligny,  the  widow  of 
William  the  Silent,  a  protestant,  but  who,  as  grande 
dame,  was  equally  powerful  in  catholic  circles,  offered 
a  convenient  channel  of  communication.  De  Mornay 
was  made  to  believe  that  his  personal  honour  was 
implicated,  and  he  could  no  longer  hold  back.  The 
challenge  was  sent,  and  became  immediately,  says 
1'Estoile6,  the  talk  of  the  town.  Henri  iv.  took  it  up, 
and  insisted  upon  having  a  debate  in  form  at  Fontaine- 
bleau,  where  he  would  be  present  himself.  The  matter 
in  dispute  was  to  be  adjudicated  upon  by  six  commis- 
saries, four  catholic,  and  two  protestant.  The  catholic 
commissioners  were  the  chancellor  Bellievre,  a  pro- 
nounced ultramontane,  Francois  Pithou,  de  Thou,  and 
the  king's  physician  in  ordinary,  Jean  Martin.  A 
masterly  stroke  was  the  nomination,  as  the  two 
protestant  commissioners,  of  Canaye  de  Fresne,  and 
Casaubon.  The  first  was  known  to  be  wanting  a 
pretext  for  conversion,  and  Casaubon,  known  to  be 
honest,  was  supposed  to  be  yielding.  It  was  in  vain 
that  his  protestant  friends  dissuaded ;  that  the  church 
of  Paris  sent  Du  Moulin  to  him,  imploring  him  to 
abstain.  He  listened  to  de  Thou,  and  his  new  catholic 
allies,  who  were  equally  urgent  with  him  to  consent 
to  act.  He  went  to  Fontainebleau ;  he  found  Henri  iv. 
going  in  for  the  sport  with  his  usual  energy.  The 
king  could  think  of  nothing  else.  Difficulties  arising 
about  the  terms  of  the  disputation,  the  king  spent  the 

6  L/Estoile,  Registre  Journal,  p.  312  :  'Cette  dispute  fait  1'entr^tien 
de  tout  Paris ;  dans  les  chaires,  dans  les  dcoles,  chez  les  grands  et 
chez  les  petits,  on  ne  parle  que  de  cet  appel.' 


156  PAEIS.     1600  —  1610. 

whole  of  the  third  of  May,  from  10  a.m.  till  1 1  p.m.,  in 
talking  them  over  with  the  parties.  He  sat  up  till 
that  late  hour  to  get  the  final  list  of  Du  Perron's 
passages,  and  fixed  8  a.m.  next  morning  for  the  hearing. 
Amid  many  difficulties,  one  thing  was  agreed  on  on 
all  sides,  that  this  was  not  a  dispute  about  the  truth  of 
doctrine,  but  about  the  correctness  of  the  quotations  in 
the  book  '  De  1'Eucharistie/  The  nuntio  had  very  early 
got  scent  of  what  was  going  on,  and  had  declared,  that 
the  pope  would  not  suffer  a  doctrinal  disputation  to 
be  held  without  his  sanction.  The  insult  to  the  crown 
of  France  was  allowed  to  pass,  but  such  a  disputation 
had  never  been  in  contemplation.  The  difficulties 
were  raised  by  de  Mornay,  who,,  feeling  that  he  had 
made  a  false  step,  insisted  on  impossible  conditions. 
He  first  demanded  that  a  list  of  all  the  500  impugned 
passages  should  be  rendered  to  him,  before  he  went  into 
the  conference.  He  said,  it  was  quite  likely  that  among 
5000  or  more  citations,  some  might  be  inexact.  If  these 
were  condemned,  and  the  conference  should  not  go  on 
to  the  examination  of  the  whole,  it  would  be  taking  for 
granted  that  the  whole  500  were  equally  faulty.  The 
fact  was,  he  suspected  that  the  bishop,  in  his  usual  style 
of  bavardage,  had  taken  a  little  latitude  with  the  num- 
ber, and  that,  though  it  was  certain  he  had  found  some 
mistakes,  he  could  not  produce  anything  like  500.  Du 
Perron,  as  his  adversary  expected,  declined  to  give  any 
list  of  500,  and  de  Mornay  refused  the  conference, 
except  on  that  condition.  The  king,  in  his  ardour, 
ordered  that  the  inquest  into  the  book  should  be  held, 
whether  the  author  was  present  or  absent.  But  this 
would  have  ruined  the  scheme.  A  condemnation  of  the 
book,  in  de  Mornay 's  absence,  would  have  produced  no 
effect  on  opinion;  it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  he 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  157 

should  be  formally  heard  in  his  defence.  The  wise  heads 
therefore  advised  compromise,  and  after  some  negocia- 
tion,  de  Mornay  was  induced  to  abide  the  arbitration 
on  condition  that  50  alleged  falsities  were  produced  at 
once.  Du  Perron,  to  show  his  resources,  gave  in  a  list 
of  6 1.  The  pourparlers  had  taken  so  long,  that  it  was 
1 1  p.m.,  before  the  list  of  61  errors  was  handed  in  to  de 
Mornay,  and  the  hearing  was  to  be  at  8  next  morning. 
He  had  to  sit  up  all  night  to  verify  his  references, 
and  to  borrow  for  the  purpose  the  necessary  books  from 
his  adversary,  who  had  brought  a  waggon  load  with 
him  from  the  chateau  de  Conde.  He  was  only  able  to 
examine  1 9  of  the  passages.  Upon  these  he  told  the 
king  next  morning,  that  '  he  was  ready  to  stake  his 
honour  and  life,  that  not  one  would  be  found  false.' 

Even  1 9  were  found  to  be  more  than  enough  occupation 
for  one  day.  Preparations  took  so  long,  that  the  confer- 
ence could  not  begin  till  after  dinner,  one  o'clock.  Though 
the  session  was  continued  till  nearly  7  pjn.,  there  was 
only  time  to  examine  9  citations.  The  scene  was  the 
council  chamber  at  Fontainebleau.  In  the  middle,  a  long 
table  of  porphyry  ;  at  one  end  of  which  sat  the  king. 
On  the  king's  right  towards  the  fire,  the  place  of  honour, 
the  bishop  of  Evreux ;  on  the  left  of  the  king,  in  the 
second  place,  the  sieur  deMorna  y.  Down  the  table,  the 
commissioners;  the  chancellor  first,  Casaubon  lowest; 
at  the  lower  end  of  the  table,  the  reporters.  Behind 
the  king's  chair,  various  archbishops  and  bishops,  the 
princes  of  the  blood,  and  other  seigneurs  of  quality, 
catholic  and  protestant.  The  room,  which  could  only 
hold  about  200,  was  filled  with  spectators.  The 
books  were  in  a  neighbouring  room,  and  were 
brought  in  as  they  were  required.  Short  opening 
addresses  were  made  by  the  chancellor,  the  king, 


158  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

and  the  bishop  of  Evreux,  with  much  profession  of 
impartiality,  but  with  a  lofty  assumption  of  the 
truth  of  the  catholic  doctrine.  The  bishop,  indeed, 
had  allowed  himself  to  accent  the  words  *  false,' 
'falsification/  etc.  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  upon 
himself  a  rebuke  from  the  king,  who  desired  him 
1  to  abstain  from  irritating  language.  They  were  here 
to  judge  a  question  of  fact.' 

A  question  of  fact,  it  may  seem,  ought  to  have 
been  easily  determinable.  But  on  going  into  the 
passages  singly,  the  question  was  discovered  to  be 
by  no  means  so  simple  as  it  appeared.  The  bishop's 
challenge  alleged,  500  '  faussetez  enormes  ...  si  evi- 
dentes  que  la  seule  ouverture  des  livres  suffiroit  pour 
le  convaincre/  He  must  have  been  disappointed, 
when,  after  an  hour's  debate,  on  the  first  passage 
only,  he  could  not  convince  a  body  of  arbiters,  of 
whom  the  majority  were  catholic.  On  this  passage 
they  pronounced  a  '  non  liquet/  The  charge  of  '  false 
quotation'  was  an  ambiguous  charge.  De  Mornay 
had  cited  his  authorities  in  three  methods,  i.  He 
had  given  the  whole  passage  literally ;  2.  He  had 
abridged  the  passage  in  the  words  of  the  original ; 
or  3.  neglecting  the  words,  he  had  presented  the 
sense  of  the  author,  as  he  conceived  it,  in  his  own 
words.  Where  he  had  employed  the  second  method, 
that  of  abridgment,  dispute  arose  as  to  whether  the 
words  omitted  were,  or  were  not,  material.  Where 
he  had  adopted  the  third  method,  that  of  rendering 
the  substance  of  a  long  passage,  it  was  a  still  more 
critical  business  to  decide,  if  his  statement  fairly  repre- 
sented the  author's  meaning.  So  far  was  it  from  being 
a  mere  matter  of  verification  of  citation,  that  it  was 
impossible  even  to  confine  the  disputation  to  a  judi- 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  159 

cial  comparison  of  the  equivalents  of  propositions.     It 
was  impossible  but  that  some  truth  should  be  assumed; 
and  the  truth  of  catholic  doctrine  was  not  to  be  called 
n  question. 

One  instance  may  serve  as  a  specimen.  De  Mornay 
had  alleged  some  sentences  of  Theodoret7  in  a  very 
abridged  form,  as  follows :  *  God  doeth  that  which 
pleaseth  him,  but  images  are  made,  such  as  it  pleaseth 
men  to  make  them ;  they  have  abodes  of  sensible  matter, 
but  they  have  no  senses,  being  thus  of  less  worth  than  in- 
sects ;  and  it  is  right  that  those  who  adore  them  should 
lose  their  reason  and  their  senses/  If  the  judges  had 
had  to  decide  only  if  the  citation  thus  abridged  was 
a  fair  abridgment  of  the  original,  they  must  have  de- 
cided that  it  was  so.  But  de  Mornay  had  employed 
the  passage  as  telling  against  what  the  protestants 
called  the  '  idolatry'  of  the  church  of  Rome.  The 
bishop  charged  him  with  having  concealed  the  fact 
that  Theodoret  was  here  speaking  of  the  '  idols '  of 
the  heathen,  not  of  the  *  images '  of  the  Christians,  and 
of  .having  omitted  words  which  disclosed  this  purpose. 
As  the  protestants  everywhere  were  in  the  habit  of 
using  the  scripture  denunciations  of  idolatry,  as  a  con- 
demnation of  the  use  of  images  in  churches;  and  as 
everybody  knew  that  Ps.  113,  on  which  Theodoret  is 
here  commenting,  speaks  of  the  heathen  idols,  it  is  im- 
possible to  suppose  that  de  Mornay  could  have  either 
wished  to  conceal  the  fact,  or  thought  there  was  any- 
thing to  conceal.  The  decision  of  the  judges  was  this : 
*  The  passage  of  Theodoret  must  be  understood  of  the 
pagan  idols,  not  of  the  images  of  the  Christians;  and 
that  this  appeared  by  words  which  had  been  omitted 

7  Theod.  Comm.  in  Ps.  113.  Opp.  i.  662. 


160  PARTS.     1600  —  1610. 

in  the  citation.'  This  decision  therefore  was  not  a  con- 
demnation of  de  Mornay  for  false  quotation,  which  was 
the  point  submitted  to  the  tribunal.  It  was  in  effect 
a  theological  decision,  declaring  that  those  passages 
of  scripture  in  which  idols  are  denounced  are  not 
applicable  to  images  in  Christian  churches;  deciding, 
that  is,  this  vexed  question  of  interpretation  in  favour 
of  the  catholic,  as  against  the  protestant,  expositor. 
In  this  exegesis  the  judges  may  have  been  right. 
Casaubon  thought  so.  But  it  was  not  the  question 
they  had  to  decide;  yet  by  concurring  in  their  de- 
cision, he  allowed  it  to  appear  to  the  world,  with  the 
sanction  of  his  name,  that  de  Mornay  had  been  con- 
victed of  an  '  e'norme  faussete '  in  respect  of  a  quo- 
tation. 

Casaubon8  bitterly  repented  afterwards  of  the  false 
step  he  had  allowed  himself  to  take9,  especially  when 
he  saw  the  king's  letter  to  the  due  d'Epernon,  in  which 
he,  Henri  of  Navarre — paraded  this  stage  trick,  as  a 
grand  '  stroke  for  the  church  of  Grod.' 

'  Mon  amy,  le  diocese  d'Evreux  a  gaigne  celuy  de  Saul- 
mur,  et  la  douceur  dont  on  y  a  procede  a  oste  F  occasion 

8  Casaubon  had  begun  to  enter  in  the  '  Ephemerides/  p.   250,  a 
detailed  account  of  the  Fontainebleau  conference.     But  he  breaks  it 
off  at  the  second  contested  passage,  finding  that  his  memory  would  not 
serve  him,  either  as  to  the  sequence  of  the  discussion,  or  even  as  to 
the  decision  of  the  umpires.     Two  blank  pages  are  left,  but  were 
never  filled  in.     Meanwhile,  we  have  two  authentic  reports  of  the 
conference,  by  the  respective  parties,     i.  Actes  de  la  conference,  etc. 
Evreux,  1601.     This  was   drawn  up  by  the   cardinal   himself,  and 
printed  at  his  private  press.     For  the  use  of  this  rare  volume,  I  am 
indebted  to  the  library  of  Balliol  college.     2 .  Discours  veritable  de  la 
conference  tenue  a  Fontainebelleau  s.  1.  1600;  inspired,  if  not  author- 
ised, by  Du  Plessis  Mornay  himself.     See  Note  A  in  appendix. 

9  Ep.  214  :  'Memoriam  illius  rei  luctu  refugit  animus.' 


a  quelqu< 


PARTS.     1600—1610. 


161 


quelque  hugenote  quo  ce  soit  de  dire  que  rien  y  ait  eu 
force  que  la  verite ;  le  porteur  y  estoit  qui  vous  contera 
comme  j'y  ai  faict  merveilles ;  certes  c'est  un  des  plus 
grants  coups  pour  Teglise  de  Dieu,  qu'il  se  soit  faict 
il  y  a  longtemps;  suyvant  ces  erres,  nous  ramenerons 
plus  de  separez  de  Feglise  en  un  an  que  par  une 
aultre  voye  en  cinquante.' 

This  gasconade  was  printed,  and  circulated,  by  the 
catholic  party,  to  announce  their  i  victory'  in  every 
part  of  France.  Besides  the  *  grant  coup  pour  1'eglise 
de  Dieu/  Henri  gained  by  it  the  humiliation  of  his 
faithful  friend  and  servant,  Du  Plessis  Mornay,  who 
retired  heart-broken  to  Saumur.  Canaye  de  Fresne 
availed  himself  of  it,  as  a  justification  of  the  apostacy 
he  had  long  meditated,  and  was  rewarded  at  once  by 
the  Venetian  embassy10.  Both  friends  and  foes  now 
made  sure  that  Casaubon  would  be  the  next  to  go.  Du 
Perron  closeted  him  and  talked  with  learned  unction 
on  religion.  nMay  12,  1600,  'To-day  serious  conver- 
sation on  religion  with  the  bishop  of  Evreux/  Casaubon 
was  eagerly  claimed  by  the  one  side,  and  angrily  de- 
nounced by  the  other,  as  having  aided  and  abetted  this 
great  victory  of  Fontainebleau.  Daniel  Chamier,  Jean 
Gigord,  Pinaud,  the  leading  calvinist  ministers  at  Mont- 
pellier  and  Geneva;  Jean  Galas,  doctor  of  law,  a  person 
of  great  weight  at  Nimes ;  wrote  bitter  expostulations 
on  his  conduct  in  the  affair,  by  which  he  was  cut  to  the 
heart.  The  protestants  seem  to  have  thought  that 
their  champion  might  have  made  a  few  slips  among 
so  many  thousand  quotations,  but  that  Casaubon,  like 
a  good  advocate,  might  have  brought  him  through.  In 
vain  Casaubon  represented  that  he  had  been  appointed 

10  Eph.  p.  720:  'Vel  rationes,  vel  necessitates  domesticse  in   ro- 
manam  ecclesiam  transtulerunt/  n  Eph.  p.  260. 

M 


162  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

a  judge  and  not  an  advocate,  and  a  judge  of  a  literary 
quarrel,  not  of  a  religious  controversy,  and  that  the 
sentence  of  the  arbitrators,  in  each  of  the  eight  passages, 
was  unquestionably  right.  Technically,  his  defence  of 
himself  was  good;  substantially,  the  protestant  griev- 
ance was  just.  Though  he  had  only  adjudicated  on 
the  correctness  of  de  Mornay's  quotations,  the  result 
had  been  appropriated  as  a  party  victory  by  the  cath- 
olics, a  victory  of  truth  over  error,  of  honest  interpre- 
tation over  heretical  falsification .  '  Even  your  Casaubon 
is  obliged  to  admit  that  antiquity  is  for  us/  Du  Perron 
could  say. 

Casaubon  was  terrified  to  find  that  the  report  of  his 
apostacy  was  now  12<  spread  through  the  whole  of 
France/  Nay,  it  had  reached  Rome.  Whenever  any 
mischief  was  to  be  done  by  tale-bearing  or  slandering 
Scioppius  was  sure  to  be  in  it.  This  creditable  person, 
it  seems,  had  alleged,  as  one  motive  of  his  own  con- 
version, that  he  had  learnt  that  Casaubon  was  medi- 
tating the  same  step.  To  do  something  towards 
counteracting  the  scandal,  Casaubon  addressed  a  formal 
epistle  to  the  protestant  synod  assembled  at  Gergeau, 
asseverating  his  constancy,  and  appealing  both  to  his 
early  education  and  to  his  daily  studies  as  its  sufficient 
guarantee.  The  occasion  was  considered  one  of  such 
public  importance,  that  a  translation  was  published  at 
Geneva  both  of  Casaubon' s  letter  and  the  response,  for 
wider  circulation  in  classes  in  which  latin  was  not 
read13.  More  than  the  violent  rage  of  the  ministers  he 

12  Ep.  232  :   '  Sparsum  de  nobis  tota  Gallia  rumorem.' 
3  The  original  is  in  latin,  in  the  collected  volume  of  Epistolse,  ep. 
232.     The  french  translation  has  on  the  title  page,  Gen.  1601.    There 
is   a  copy  in  the  Brit.  Mus.  with  a  note,  in  sir  H.  Wotton's  hand, 
stating  that  the  translator  was  de  Montliard. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  163 


feared  the  cool  penetration  of  Scaliger's  judgment. 
Scaliger  would  not  pronounce  an  opinion  till  he  had 
heard  all  the  circumstances.  He  begs  for  Casaubon's 
own  account.  Not  till  September  22  did  Casaubon 
even  mention  the  subject  to  him,  and  then  in  as  few 
words  as  possible,  and  with  reluctance — '  hsec  scribo 
prope  invitus.'  He  laments  the  exposure  of  de 
Mornay's  weakness,  who  would  never  have  gone  there 
if  he  had  acted  with  his  usual  prudence.  He  admits 
that  the  defeat  was  complete,  clothing  the  admission  in 
greek  to  hide  it  from  prying  eyes  (ra  irep\  r^v  Traitielav 
eXarrw/xara).  'I  could  weep  when  I  call  to  mind  the 
sad  spectacle  of  that  day,  the  theatrical  triumph  over 
the  noble,  the  talented,  the  true !  There  are,  who 
blame. the  k — .  Whenever  I  have  pleaded  the  cause 
of  our  friend  to  him,  his  answer  has  been  "it  is 
his  own  fault.  What  did  I  do  f"  Scaliger's  reproof 
was  conveyed  by  his  silence.  He  never  alluded  to  the 
transaction,  though  continuing  a  steady  correspondence 
with  Casaubon.  What  his  opinion  was  we  know  from 
Vassan's  notes  of  his  conversation  in  1603.  He  said14, 
*  Casaubon  ought  never  to  have  gone  to  that  con- 
ference ;  he  was  the  ass  among  the  apes ;  the  only 
learned  man  among  the  judges/ 

An  impartial  writer,  de  Burigny,  thinks  Scaliger 
could  not  have  said  this,  because  de  Thou  and  Pithou 
were  men  of  merit,  and  at  least  de  Thou  was  highly 
esteemed  by  Scaliger  himself.  Both  of  them  were,  it 
is  true,  men  of  great  reading,  even  learning.  But  not 
in  the  matter  in  hand.  Their  reading  was  not  in  the 
schoolmen  or  fathers.  Neither  of  them  could  be  consi- 
dered qualified,  upon  the  spot  and  without  preparation, 

14  Scaliga.  2a.  p.  45  :  'Casaubonus  non  debebat  interesse  colloquio 
Plessiseano ;  erat  asinus  inter  simias,  doctus  inter  imperitos.' 

M    2 


164  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

to  say,  e.  g.  what  was  Durandus'  real  opinion  on  tran- 
substantiation.  They  were  imperiti,  not  indocti.  They 
were  overborne  by  the  volubility  and  readiness  of  Du 
Perron,  whose  art  of  controversy  consisted  in  accumu- 
lating quotations15.  He  was,  as  Casaubon  pleads  in  apo- 
logy, '  skilled  in  all  the  jugglery  of  the  sophistic  art.' 

Casaubon  returned  to  Paris,  with  his  plans  still 
unsettled,  uncertain  what  his  occupation,  even  where 
his  home,  was.  Madame  Casaubon  was  still  at  Geneva. 
The  Athenseus  hung  in  the  Lyons  press,  and  he 
found  it  would  be  impossible  to  get  it  out  without 
being  on  the  spot.  As  this  was  the  most  urgent  call, 
he  resolved  to  go  back  to  Lyons  and  to  see  his  book 
published.  The  summer  months  of  1600  were  accord- 
ingly passed  at  Lyons,  and  on  August  9  he  sent  to  the 
press  the  last  corrected  sheet  of  this  !6'most  wearisome 
work.' 

All  this  while  he  had  been  harassed,  not  only  by  the 
conflict  with  his  publisher,  but  by  anxiety  as  to  his 
own  future.  He  was,  and  he  was  not,  in  the  service  of 
the  king.  The  acts  of  the  conference  at  Fontainebleau 
style  him  '  le  sieur  de  Cazaubon  lecteur  de  Sa  Majeste;' 
a  title  which  may  be  explained  as  titular  professor, 
professor  not  of  the  university,  such  as  were  the  professors 
of  the  College  royal.  In  this  capacity  he  had  received 
money  from  Eosny,  and  that  more  than  once ;  as  lately 
as  May  12,  300  escus  for  journey  money  for  himself,  his 
family,  and  his  books.  This  he  had  taken,  and  yet 
here  he  is  at  Lyons  debating  if  he  shall  return  to  Paris 
at  all.  De  Vic,  as  envoy  to  the  Swiss  confederation, 
is  going  to  remove  from  Lyons  to  settle  at  Soleure,  and 
wished  to  take  Casaubon  with  him.  It  was  painful  to 
him  to  refuse  the  offer  of  his  benefactor,  whose  house 

15  D'Aubigne',  M&n.  i.  147.  16  See  supra,  p.  140. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  165 


he  had  been  using  as  his  own  all  these  months,  to 
whom,  especially  to  Madame  de  Vic,  he  was  sincerely 
attached.  But  to  be  permanently  settled  in  the  house- 
hold of  a  strong  catholic  must  strengthen  the  suspicions 
already  entertained,  and  expose  him  to  daily  trials. 
Soleure  was  a  catholic  canton,  and  in  the  town  itself 
was  no  protestant  temple.  This  privation  of  public 
worship,  both  himself  and  Madame  Casaubon  had  ill 
supported  at  Lyons,  and  could  not  bear  to  think  of 
making  it  permanent.  These  considerations,  not  to 
mention  the  want  of  a  library,  and  of  persons  of  edu- 
cation, neither  of  which  existed  at  Soleure,  the  re- 
proaches he  must  expect  from  the  Paris  friends  that  he 
was  deserting  them,  and  the  obligation  he  had  incurred 
by  receiving  money  from  the  exchequer, — decided  him 
to  refuse.  De  Vic  was  highly  incensed,  and  when  he 
left  for  Soleure,  did  so  without  taking  leave  of  Casau- 
bon. They  met  again  years  afterwards,  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  their  former  close  friendship  was 
renewed. 

The  die  was  now  cast,  and  Casaubon  returned  to 
Paris,  for  good  or  for  evil.  As  he  now  had  his  family 
and  books  with  him,  he  found  it  expedient  to  abandon 
the  post-horse  travelling  (relais)  which  he  had  used 
before,  for  the  slower,  more  economical,  water  convey- 
ance. The  *  relais'  was  one  of  the  excellent  institu- 
tions of  Sully,  and  one  which  was  so  well  appointed, 
that  it  had  been  possible  for  Casaubon  in  March  to 
reach  Paris  on  the  seventh  day  from  Lyons.  This 
implied  an  average  of  fifty  miles  (english)  per  day; 
severe  riding  for  a  sedentary  scholar,  in  feeble  health, 
unaccustomed  to  any  exercise.  Yet  he  found  he  could 
bear  it ;  though  as  the  worst  dressed,  and  least  likely 
looking  cavalier  of  the  party  he  was  always  put  off 


166  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

with  the  worst  hack17.  But  it  was  cheap  travelling, 
the  tariff  being  fixed  at  thirty  sous,  equal  five  francs 
forty  cents  per  day.  Sumpter-horses  could  also  be 
hired  for  the  transport  of  the  traveller's  baggage. 
From  Lyons  to  Paris,  however,  the  Loire  offered  faci- 
lities which,  when  speed  was  not  an  object,  made  that 
route  generally  preferred.  You  embarked  on  the  river 
at  Hoanne,  and  left  it  at  Orleans.  Thus  the  distance 
which  had  to  be  ridden  was  reduced  to  the  fifty-four 
miles  from  Lyons  to  Roanne,  and  the  seventy-three 
miles  from  Orleans  to  Paris.  The  rest  of  the  distance 
was  performed  in  the  coche  d'eau,  a  covered  barge,  not 
towed,  but  impeUed  by  the  stream,  aided  and  guided 
by  sails.  The  miseries  of  travelling  were  thus  miti- 
gated, but  not  wholly  escaped.  The  water  in  the 
Loire  is  always  low  in  September,  and  the  neglect  of 
the  embankment  in  the  troubles  had  aggravated  the 
evil.  Water  conveyance  was  a  security  against 
highway  robbery,  an  incident  not  unknown  on  the 
French  roads  at  the  time.  Indeed,  the  post-book 
printed  and  sold  by  the  Estienne,  for  the  government, 
gave  it  a  sort  of  legitimisation,  marking  certain  points 
on  the  Lyons  road  with  a  *  and  adding  the  note  *  here 
look  out  for  brigands/  The  true  brigands,  however, 
were  those  of  the  custom-house.  On  arriving  at 
La  Charite,  the  officers  of  the  douane,  or  peage,  insisted 
that  Casaubon's  baggage  and  books  were  merchandise, 
and  made  the  captain  of  the  boat  pay  for  them  as  such, 
a  fraud  which  cost  Casaubon  more  than  four  gold 
crowns.  It  took  seven  days  to  descend  from  Koanne 
to  Orleans.  It  was  usual  to  bring  to  for  the  night, 

17  Eph.  p.  233  :    'Pessimis  semper  usi  equis  cum  meliores  ro>  KO.\\IOV 
iQfv  darentur  neque  ego  recusarem.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  167 

and  land  at  some  village  in  search  of  bed  and  pro- 
visions. Inns  in  the  villages  on  the  river  bank  were 
probably  not  at  any  time  famous.  France  and  Italy 
were  yet  the  only  countries  in  which  the  comfort  of 
the  traveller  was  at  all  attended  to.  A  generation 
later,  France  could  vaunt  with  truth  18<la  belle  com- 
modite  des  hostelleries  ou  Ton  est  recu  comme  chez 
soi/  But  in  1 600,  thirty  years  of  barbarism  had  told 
cruelly  on  manners.  The  system  of  relais  had  been 
only  three  years  in  operation,  and  had  not  had  time  to 
reintroduce  civility  along  the  road.  To  the  ordinary 
causes  of  the  malignity  of  the  '  caupo/  were  now 
added  those  of  religious  hatred.  When  the  Casaubons 
arrived  at  midnight,  at  the  door  of  the  inn,  wet 
through  and  hungry,  Madame  Casaubon  in  a  delicate 
condition,  the  cherished  daughter  Philippa,  a  frail 
creature,  already  drooping  into  an  untimely  grave,  it 
was  whispered  that  they  were  Huguenot.  Not  a  hand 
was  stirred  for  their  service.  No  food,  no  fire,  no  light. 
Their  own  bargeman  lighted  them  with  a  blazing  wisp 
of  straw,  but  not  to  bed ;  there  was  none  for  them. 
They  might  sleep  on  the  floor,  perhaps  on  clean  straw, 
such  as  Tollius19,  in  1687,  found  to  be  still  the  ordinary 
bedding  in  the  Westphalian  inns.  Thus  it  was,  all 
through  the  catholic  Borbonnais,  nor  did  their  entertain- 
ment mend  till  they  reached  Orleans,  where  the  calvin- 
ists,  though  crushed,  were  still  numerous.  Here  they 
were  hospitably  received  in  the  house  of  Turquois, 
refreshed  after  their  fatigues,  made  a  great  deal  of,  and, 
at  last,  dismissed  with  presents  of  books. 

The  party   arrived   at   Paris  in  health   and  safety, 
September  13,  having  been  fifteen  days  on  the  road. 

18  Guide  des  Chemins,  1643.  19  Epp.  itin.  p.  17. 


168  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

They  were  housed  by  Henri  Estienne,  a  first  cousin 
of  Madame  Casaubon.  One  of  Robert  Estienne's  sons 
had  returned  to  Paris,  and  to  the  catholic  church.  In 
this  instance,  however,  the  ties  of  blood  were  not  sac- 
rificed to  those  of  party.  The  publishing  business  of 
the  Parisian  Estienne  was  carried  on  by  the  Patissons, 
some  of  the  grandsons  of  Robert  I.  being  concerned  in 
it  as  partners.  Of  these  Parisian  Estienne,  La  Croix 
du  Maine  says,  '  nez  aux  lettres  et  desireux  d'apprendre 
de  pere  en  fils ; '  and  of  two  of  them  in  particular, 
Robert  and  Frangois,  that  they  were  learned  in  greek 
and  latin.  We  find  Casaubon  buying  a  book  in  order 
to  make  it  a  present  to  Robert,  who  he  thought  ought 
rather  to  have  given  him  books.  Henri,  a  younger 
brother,  was  not  in  the  firm,  but  had  a  place  in  the 
exchequer,  that  of '  tre'sorier  des  batimens  du  roi/  Not- 
withstanding this,  he  was  a  man  of  probity,  and  had 
been  entrusted  with  Casaubon's  little  capital,  for  w Inch- 
he  faithfully  accounted.  He  continued  a  firm  friend 
of  the  Casaubons,  as  long  as  they  lived  in  Paris,  and 
their  children,  second  cousins,  afterwards  intermarried. 
In  March,  Isaac  had  been  lodged  by  this  cousin  of  his 
wife's,  and  Estienne  now  took  the  whole  party  in,  till 
an  apartment  could  be  found20. 

In  his  choice  of  a  lodging,  Casaubon  was  obliged  to 
consult,  not  only  his  small  means,  but  convenience  of 
situation.  It  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  king's 
reader,  titular  professor  classical,  would  have  wished  to 
establish  himself  in  the  university  quarter.  There  were 
the  libraries,  there  were  the  pupils,  if  he  meant  to  have 
any.  But  for  various  reasons,  he  chose  to  settle  as  far 
in  the  other  direction  as  possible,  on  the  court  side  of 

!0  Eph.  p.  306  :  '  Me  meamque  omnem  familiam  domi  apud  se 
detinuit,  et  omnibus  rebus  necessariis  fovit.' 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  169 

the  river.  Scaliger,  who  knew  France  and  Paris,  arid, 
from  Leyden,  saw  things  much  more  clearly  than  Cas- 
aubon  on  the  spot,  had  warned  him  of  three  evils 
which  he  would  have  to  contend  with,  in  his  new  po- 
sition. The  first  of  these  was  the  consequence  of  his 
own  celebrity.  Casaubon's  wishes  were  few, — indeed 
maintenance  once  secured,  they  were  only  two, — books, 
and  leisure  to  read  them.  Paris  was  the  place  for 
books.  Besides  the  libraries,  there  was  the  rue  S. 
Jacques,  according  to  Coryat,  1608,  'very  full  of  book- 
sellers that  have  faire  shoppes  most  plentifully  fur- 
nished with  bookes/  '  But/  writes  Scaliger 21,  '  if  you 
expect  to  be  left  alone,  you  are  very  much  mistaken. 
You  are  now  too  widely  known  to  hope  for  that  un- 
noticed and  inglorious  retirement,  for  which  every 
muse-smitten  mortal  of  us  longs.  That  out-of-the- 
way  corner  of  Paris,  in  which  you  are  proposing  to 
bury  yourself,  will  not  secure  you  against  the  constant 
invasion  of  your  friends.'  The  prediction  was  abun- 
dantly verified,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  see. 

During  the  whole  ten  years  of  his  Paris  sojourn, 
we  shall  find  Casaubon  incessantly  scheming  to  go  to 
some  other  place.  When  we  review  the  inconveniences 
attached  to  his  situation,  as  a  huguenot  dependent  of 
a  catholic  court,  we  should  not  be  justified  in  ascribing 
this  inquietude  to  mere  restlessness  of  disposition.  It 
had  its  justification,  but  too  well  founded,  in  the  sense 
that  his  position,  depending  as  it  did  on  the  life  of 
Henri  iv,  hung  by  a  thread.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
does  not  seem  altogether  without  reason,  that  the  bio- 
graphers charge  him  with  habitual  fidgettiness.  This 
appears  in  his  many  removals  in  Paris,  chasing 
comfort,  from  lodging  to  lodging,  without  ever  finding 
21  Seal.  EP.  53. 


170  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

it.     Between  1600  and  1607,  he  changed  his  abode  in 
the  capital  seven  times. 

I.  On  arriving  in  the  city,  March  6,  1600,  he  was 
temporarily  entertained  in  de  Vic's  hotel.  2.  March  28, 
de  Vic  returned  to  Lyons,  and  Casaubon  became  the 
guest  of  his  wife's  cousin,  Henri  Estienne.  He  goes 
to  Lyons,  where  he  stays  in  de  Vic's  house,  and  re- 
turns to  Estienne's  in  Paris,  September  13.  3.  October 
25,  he  at  last  establishes  himself  in  a  lodging  of  his 
own.  4.  January  24,  1601,  he  quits  this  inconvenient 
lodging,  to  occupy  one  in  the  house  of  an  '  honest  man 
one  Georges/  5.  July  17,  another  removal,  to  a  house 
found  for  him  by  Achille  de  Harlay,  who,  says  G-illot, 
'  1'a  loge  bravement,  et  assez  pres  de  nous.'  It  was  on 
the  court  side  of  the  water,  and  '  far  from  the  library.' 
His  friends  had  got  him  among  them,  but  this  soon 
turned  out  an  inconvenience  not  to  be  supported,  and 
he  shifts  again.  6.  October,  1604,  he  goes  over  the 
water,  to  be  away  from  his  friends.  After  some  search 
he  finds  an  apartment  in,  or  attached  to,  the  house  of 
one  Coq,  a  member  of  the  bar,  who,  having  built  a  large 
new  house  for  himself,  let  off  a  detached  portion  to 
Casaubon.  This  was  in  the  faubourg  S.  Germain. 
7.  Finally,  he  settled  himself  close  to  the  library,  oppo- 
site the  great  convent  known  as  the  Cordeliers,  on  the 
site  of  which  is  now  the  musee  Dupuytren.  For  this 
house,  which  was  a  large  one,  he  paid  the  enormous 
rent  of  400  livres22.  Besides  his  apartment  in  Paris, 

22  From  the  rents  paid  by  Casaubon  we  may  infer  that  he  required 
a  tolerably  spacious  apartment  to  house  his  family  and  books.  We 
find  from  Fynes  Moryson's  Itinerary,  that  in  1595  a  single  chamber 
could  be  hired  for  two  crowns  a  month  =  72  livres  a  year  =267  francs 
at  the  present  day.  Itin.  pt.  3.  p.  135  :  'He  may  have  a  well 
furnished  chamber  at  Paris  for  some  two  crowns  a  mouth.' 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  171 

he  had  occasional  country  quarters;  first  at  Madrid,  in 
the  Bois,  afterwards  at  La  Bretonniere.  And,  ulti- 
mately, he  established  himself  in  a  country  house  at 
Grigny,  on  the  terres  of  his  intimate  friend  Josias 
Mercier,  seigneur  Des  Bordes*. 

Each  of  these  removals  had  its  special  and  sufficient 
reason;  yet  all  taken  together,  and  along  with  the 
discontent  with  where  he  is,  the  incessant  sighing  to 
be  somewhere  else,  the  cry  for  '  leisure/  we  cannot  be 
surprised  that  his  contemporaries  should  have  thought 
of  Casaubon  as  a  querulous  dissatisfied  man,  and  that 
the  biographers  should  have  enhanced  this  impression 
still  further. 

The  true  account  of  the  matter  is,  it  seems  to  me, 
that  Casaubon  had  the  nervous  sensibility  of  the  hard 
student.  This  susceptibility  made  him  unequal  to  face 
the  fret  and  worry  of  life,  and  especially  of  Parisian 
existence.  But  he  shunned  the  outer  world  not  as 
trouble,  but  as  interruption ;  he  wanted  to  be  free, 
not  for  an  epicurean  inaction,  but  for  hard  work — 
the  work  he  felt  he  could  do.  To  do  this,  he  would 
fain  have  been  released  from  that  he  could  not  do. 
If  he  is  solicitous,  more  than  we  think  is  dignified, 
about  provision  for  his  own  necessities  and  those  of 
his  family,  it  is  not  covetousness,  it  is  that  with  a 
free  mind  he  may  bestow  it  all  on  his  one  object  in  life. 
The  nomadic  Italian  humanist  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury roved  incessantly  from  court  to  court,  with  the 
aim,  which  in  a  scholar  is  sordid,  of  bettering  his  for- 
tunes. Casaubon's  removals  were  dictated  by  the 
single  desire  to  secure  time  for  his  work. 

Achille  de  Harlay  had  bestowed  a  doubtful  benefit 

*  See  note  B  in  Appendix. 


172  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

on  him  when  he  had  found  him  a  lodging  '  assez  pres 
de  nous.'  The  diary  begins  again  to  echo  with  groans 
over  time  running  to  waste.  He  tells  Lipsius 23  that  he 
is  driven  to  do  his  translation  of  Polybius  as  the  sheets 
pass  through  the  press,  'from  want  of  time.  The 
greater  part  of  my  day  is  wasted  upon  wretched 
nothings  in  this  busy  capital,  busy  because  all  the 
men  have  nothing  to  do.'  Day  after  day  the  entry  in 
the  diary  is,  *  This  day,  too,  my  friends  have  made  me 
lose  !  amici  studiorum  meorum  inimici.'  '  Aug.  3,  1601, 
O  woe,  O  wretchedness,  all  study  is  at  an  end  for  me, 
how  much  of  each  day  do  I  spend  in  reading,  each  day 
do  I  say,  a  whole  week  is  gone,  a  whole  month,  and  I 
can  hardly  get  to  look  at  a  book.'  The  wailings  of 
Montpellier  are  revived,  but  upon  a  greater  stage. 
Being  a  sort  of  court  pensioner,  Casaubon  too  is  part 
of  the  court.  He  has  to  wait  upon  the  king  ;  to  wait, 
a  good  deal,  upon  Kosny  ;  upon  various  grands  seigneurs, 
a  little  in  his  own  affairs,  much  in  those  of  his  friends. 
He  began  to  experience  the  annoyances  which  await 
one  who  is  supposed  to  stand  well  with  men  in  power. 
4  This  morning  my  friends  ad  proceres  me  rapuerunt 
negotiorum  suorum  causa ! '  '  Put  my  lord  Bolingbroke 
in  mind  To  get  my  warrant  quickly  sign'd,  Consider  'tis 
my  first  request/  He  felt  most  grateful  to  the  chan- 
cellor Bellievre,  who  being  told  one  day,  that  Casaubon 
was  waiting  in  his  ante-chamber,  sent  him  word  to 
go  home  to  his  books,  and  not  waste  his  valuable  time 
in  that  way ;  he  might  state  his  friend's  case  by 
letter.  Other  duties  of  friendship  besides  solicitation 


23  Burm.  Sylloge,  i.  366:  'Ad  hoc  .  .  .  adigit  me  temporis 
inopia,  cujus  pars  maxima  in  hac  civitate  negotiosissima,  otiosorum 
hominum  matre,  misere  quotidie  mihi  surreptum  perit.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  173 

bad  to  be  discharged.  De  Thou  lost  his  wife  in  the 
prime  of  life,  set.  35,  and  Casaubon  could  not  but 
devote  much  time  to  sympathy,  and  condolence.  He 
was  with  him  daily  for  some  time  ;  one  day  no  less  than 
twelve  hours.  Besides  the  constant  attendance  on,  and 
visits  from  the  parisian  friends,  there  are  the  strangers. 
Going  and  coming,  every  one  passes  through  Paris,  every 
one  who  reads,  wishes  to  see  Casaubon.  -His  house  is 
a  shrine  of  protestant  pilgrimage.  Hear  e.  g.  the  Od- 
combian,  25 '  I  enjoyed  one  thing  in  Paris,  which  I  most 
desired  above  all  things,  and  oftentimes  wished  for  before 
I  saw  the  citie,  even  the  sight  and  company  of  that 
rare  ornament  of  learning,  Isaac  Casaubonus,  with  whom 
I  had  much  familiar  conversation  at  his  house,  near 
unto  St.  German's  gate  within  the  citie.  I  found  him 
very  affable  and  courteous,  and  learned  in  his  dis- 
courses, and  by  so  much  the  more  willing  to  give  me 
entertainment,  by  how  much  the  more  I  made  relation 
to  him  of  his  learned  workes,  whereof  some  I  have  read. 
For  many  excellent  bookes  hath  this  man  (who  is  the 
very  glory  of  the  french  protestants)  set  forth  to  the 
great  benefit,  and  utility  of  the  common  weale  of 
learning/  Nay,  long  after,  in  the  middle  of  the  i8th 
century,  old  learning,  and  with  it  Casaubon' s  memory, 
was  not  yet  obliterated.  In  1755,  when  Ruhnken 
spent  a  year  in  Paris,  there  were  still  antiquaries  a 
few — Capperonier,  no  doubt — who  preserved  the  me- 
mory of  where  Casaubon  had  lived  for  study26. 
Euhnken  did  not  fail  to  visit  the  house,  and  perhaps 

25  Coryat,  Crudities,  i.  42.  ed.  1776. 

26  Wyttenb.  Vita  Euhnk.  p.  67  :  '  ^Ediculam,  in  qua  Casaubonus 
literis    operari  solebat,  Ruhnkenio   monstrarunt  Parisienses  quidam, 
qui  pauci  veterem  venustatem  retinerent,  eoque  ventitarent  quasi  salu- 
tatum  manes  herois  de  optimo  hominum  genere  optime  meriti.' 


174  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

in  company  with  Musgrave  and  Tyrwhitt,  to  salute 
the  manes  of  the  heroic  man!  The  house  to  which 
these  visits  were  paid  was  not  that  found  for  him  by 
de  Harlay,  but  the  librarian's  house,  close  to  Cordeliers, 
and  in  the  very  heart  of  the  pays  latin. 

Casaubon's  aversion  to  the  university  had  led  him, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  seek  an  abode  as  remote  from  it 
as  possible.  This  was  the  second  of  the  three  sources 
of  vexation  which  Scaliger's  experience  had  pointed 
out.  It  is  necessary  to  enter  into  some  explanation  of 
Casaubon's  relations  to  the  -university  of  Paris.  This 
cannot  be  done  without  touching  upon  the  general  con- 
dition of  the  university  at  this  period,  circ.  1 600  *. 

Casaubon  had  left  an  honourable,  though  poor,  posi- 
tion at  Montpellier,  in  virtue  of  a  summons  which 
invited  him  to  aid  '  in  restoring  the  university  of  Paris,' 
and  offered  him  *  la  profession  des  bonnes  lettres  en 
laditte  universite.'  When  he  waited  upon  the  king,  in 
March  1 600,  Henri  repeated  more  than  once 27,  with  his 
own  mouth,  the  words  of  the  letter  of  January  1599, 
'Remettre  sus  T  universiteV  'To  restore  the  university/ 
the  phrase  requires  explanation,  for  it  was  not  one  ha- 
zarded by  the  king  on.  the  moment ;  it  was  a  phrase 
current  at  the  time,  and  employed  as  well  by  the  friends 
as  the  enemies  of  the  university.  It  is  the  consecrated 
expression  in  all  the  memoirs  and  documents  of  the 
period.  The  formal  petition  addressed  by  the  uni- 
versity itself  to  the  parlement  of  Paris,  asks 28  that  court 
1  to  set  up  again  the  decaying,  and  almost  ruinous, 

*  See  note  C  in  Appendix. 

27  Ep.  208  :  '  Non  semel  demonstravit  nobis  voluntatem  suam  opem 
nostram  utendi  in  restauranda  hac  schola.' 

28  Libellus  supplex,  p.  3 1  :  '  Labentem  et  pene  cadentem  academiam 
erigere.' 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  175 

iniversity.'  The  lament  of  the  university  is  reechoed 
oy  its  enemy  and  pushing  rival,  the  Jesuits,  who 
Pounded  on  this  fact  of  decay  their  own  claims  to 
admission.  It  was  safe  then  for  Casaubon,  in  the 
dedication  of  his  Athenseus,  to  pray  the  king 29  '  not  to 
permit  that  university  once  the  shining  light,  not  only 
of  France  but  of  Europe,  to  lie  for  ever  prostrate/ 

The  decay  thus  familiar  in  men's  mouths  did  not 
mean  decay  of  learning.  Such  decay  had,  indeed, 
taken  place.  The  deterioration  of  the  standard  of 
learning  in  the  university  of  Paris,  circ.  1600,  is  a 
striking  fact  in  the  literary  history  of  Europe  ;  a  fact 
so  manifest  to  us,  that  when  the  writers  of  Henri  iv's 
reign  speak  of  '  decay,'  we  are  ready  at  once  to  inter- 
pret their  language  of  intellectual  decay.  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  what  they  meant.  It  was  true,  but 
they  did  not  know  it.  Decay  creeps  on  a  literary 
corporation,  as  on  the  individual,  insensibly  to  its 
subject. 

The  university  of  Paris  had  been,  for  some  cen- 
turies, not  only  the  first  university  of  Christendom, 

Ded.  Obs.  in  Athenaeum  (to  Henri  iv)  :  '  Patieris,  princeps 
benignissime,  jacere  aeternum  tuam  illam  Academiam,  clarissimum 
quondam  non  solum  Galliarum,  sed  totius  Europae  lumen.'  M.  Gustave 
Masson,  Bull,  de  la  Soc.  de  1'Hist.  prot.  [8.  398,  n.  refers  these 
words  to  the  college  royal.  It  is  with  great  hesitation  that  I  differ 
from  one  who  is  the  highest  english  authority  on  the  history  of  the 
french  reform.  But  it  is  clear  to  me  that  Casaubon,  here  and  else- 
where, speaks  of  the  university  of  Paris.  And  it  is  very  far  from 
being  true  of  the  college  royal,  that  '  Henri  iv  lui  rendit  en  effet  tout 
son  e'clat/  The  regius  chairs  continued  to  be  filled,  from  ecclesiastical 
considerations,  with  incompetent  persons.  The  series  of  greek  pro- 
fessors in  the  years  of  reaction,  was,  1595,  George  Crichton;  1603, 
Jerome  Goulu  ;  161  r,  Nicolas  Bourbon  ;  1619,  Pierre  Valens  ;  1623, 
Pierre  de  Montmaur. 


176  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

but  the  centre  of  intellectual  life  and  freedom.  As 
long  as  the  scholastic  philosophy  had  been  the  ex- 
pression of  this  life,  Paris  continued  the  chosen  home 
of  the  study,  which  it  had  created  and  developed. 
But  now  the  intellectual  life  of  Europe  had  passed 
into  the  study  of  the  classics,  and  into  the  art  and 
science,  which  were  to  spring  from  that  study.  For 
a  short  time  it  had  seemed  as  if  this  new  life  of  the 
classical  renaissance,  exiled  from  Italy,  was  about  to 
select  its  home  in  Paris.  But  the  beginning  so  aus- 
piciously made  by  the  foundation  of  the  college  royal 
was  cut  short  by  religious  fanaticism.  The  S.  Bar- 
tholomew, 1572,  and  its  sequel,  involved  protestantism 
and  classical  learning  in  a  common  ruin.  Ramus 
owed  his  death  as  much  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
university  reformer,  as  that  he  was  suspected  of  cal- 
vinism.  The  days  of  BudaBus,  of  Turnebus,  Lambi- 
nus,  Danes,  Vatable,  Tusan,  Gralland,  Eamus,  were 
passed.  Their  chairs  remained,  but  filled  by  a  name- 
less generation,  of  baser  metal.  How  inferior  none 
cared ;  indeed  few  knew.  The  tradition  of  classical 
learning  was  preserved  by  french  scholars,  but  by 
Scaliger  who  was  an  exile,  by  Casaubon  who  was  an 
alien. 

The  decay  complained  of  then  was  not  decay  of 
learning,  but  material  decay. 

In  this  respect  the  university  of  Paris  came  out  of 
the  religious  wars  a  wreck.  It  had  suffered  in  its 
property.  Its  students  had  disappeared.  Discipline 
was  at  an  end.  This  was  the  natural  result  of  thirty 
years  of  civil  war,  a  drama  including  such  acts  as  the 
massacre  of  '72*  the  League,  the  barricades,  the  siege 
of  '93.  During  the  siege  the  attendance  had  reached 
the  lowest  point.  One  college  alone,  that  of  Lisieux, 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  177 

Continued  in  exercise.  To  this  had  come  down  the 
30000  students30  of  which  the  university  used  to 
boast  before  the  troubles.  To  be  without  students 
was  to  be  without  means.  For  the  university  of 
Paris,  even  at  a  time  when  its  renown  filled  Europe, 
was  poor,  without  revenues,  without  buildings,  as  a 
university.  Till  the  foundation  of  the  college  royal 
by  Francis  i,  none  of  its  teachers  had  enjoyed 
an  endowment.  The  teachers  depended  for  payment 
on  their  pupils.  Six  crowns  a  year,  =  £2  sterling, 
was  the  highest  fee  usual  in  the  three  first  classes  ; 
in  the  lower  classes  it  was  less ;  the  notoriously 
poor  were  excused  payment  altogether.  What  pro- 
perty the  university  had  belonged  to  the  colleges. 
For  the  university  of  Paris,  like  the  English  uni- 
versities, consisted  of  its  colleges.  But,  unlike  the 
colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  the  colleges  of 
the  university  of  Paris  had  but  slender  endowments, 
often  nothing  beyond  their  buildings.  In  some  col- 
leges '  bourses '  were  founded,  which  provided  a  scanty 

0  The  mystical  number  of  30000  reappearing  at  this  period  may 
seem  suspicious,  especially  as  there  is  no  appearance  of  a  register  of 
scholars.  It  can  have  been  at  most  an  approximative  computation. 
But  as  such  it  is  confirmed  by  many  contemporary  authorities.  In 
the  time  of  Charles  vn  the  number  had  been  estimated  at  25000. 
In  1546,  Marino  Cavalli  (Tommasseo,  Kelations  des  ambass.  Venit.  i. 
263)  gives  16000  to  20000  as  the  number.  The  larger  number  of 
30000  is  the  popular  estimate  for  the  period  preceding  the  religious 
troubles  Gamier,  n.  on  Ronsard,  (Euvres,  2.  1379.  Scaliga.  2a.  p. 
179  :  'Parisiis  erant  meo  tempore  30000  studiosorum,  semel  armati 
sunt  a  Condaeo/  Lippomanno  (Tommasseo,  2.  605)  in  1577  : 
1  L'universitd  est  rarement  frequence  par  moins  de  30000  ^tudiants, 
c'est  a  dire,  autant  et  peut-etre  plus  que  n'en  ont  toutes  les  universites 
d'ltalie  prises  ensemble.'  Du  Moulin,  Defense  de  la  foy  catholique, 
p.  53 :  '  Ou  est  ceste  university  de  Paris  qui  avoit  plus  de  30000 
escholiers,'  etc.  Arnauld,  Discours  au  Roi,  p.  65. 

N 


178  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

maintenance  for  students  (chiefly  in  theology),  through 
a  more  prolonged  course  of  study,  and  enabling  them 
to  reach  the  doctorate. 

At  the  time  of  which  we  write,  the  forty  colleges 
were  empty  of  students.  A  solitary  principal,  without 
fees  to  pay  tutors,  or  keep  house,  'tacitis  regnabat 
Amyclis ! '  Some  colleges  were  in  ruins.  Spanish 
and  Neapolitan  soldiers  of  the  garrison  had  installed 
themselves  in  the  chambers,  had  burnt  the  humble 
furniture  for  firewood,  had  stabled  their  horses  in 
the  chapel.  Others  were  invaded  by  poor  peasant 
families  from  the  banlieu,  rendered  houseless  by  the 
devastation  of  the  siege.  Others  had  been  so  long 
untenanted,  that  thistles  and  brambles  covered  the 
court.  In  those  which  had  fared  best,  discipline  was 
entirely  disorganised.  The  'boursiers,'  who  may  be 
compared  to  the  scholars  and  fellows  of  our  colleges, 
as  they  were  tern.  James  i,  had  possessed  themselves 
of  what  property  remained.  They  were  engaged 
either  in  dividing  the  capital  among  themselves,  or 
in  living  on  the  revenue  without  performing  the 
statutable  exercises,  and  in  resisting  the  attempts  of  the 
principal  to  reduce  them  to  obedience.  The  authority 
of  the  principals,  or  grand  masters,  had  lapsed  from 
their  hands.  The  regents  ( =  tutors  of  our  colleges)  had 
disappeared  with  their  pupils. 

These  were,  or  seemed  to  be,  the  consequences  ol 
war.  But  now  there  was  peace,  and  a  prospect  of  a 
settled  government.  It  might  have  been  expected 
therefore  that,  by  the  mere  operation  of  social  habit, 
the  colleges  would  fill  again,  and  the  university  thus 
restore  itself.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
university  of  Paris  was  not  merely  what  we  now 
understand  by  a  university,  a  place  which  takes  up; 


PARIS.     1600—1610. 


179 


roung  men  where  school  ends.  It  was  at  once  school  and 
university.  It  received  on  its  benches  the  boy  at  nine 
years  old,  and  carried  him  on  to  the  doctorate  at  thirty- 
five.  It  was  the  great  grammar  school  for  the  whole 
of  Paris.  For  Paris,  it  was  protected  by  a  monopoly. 
No  individual  was  permitted  by  law  to  open  a  school, 
or  hold  a  class,  or  to  teach  publicly  or  privately, 
unless  he  himself  had  regularly  graduated,  or  been 
admitted  as  graduate  of  the  university,  and  his  pupils 
had  become  matriculated.  Private  tutors,  living  in 
the  family,  were  bound  to  send  their  eleves  to  the 
classes  of  some  college. 

Under  this  monopoly,  and  with  the  prestige  of  the 
university,  it  might  have  been  anticipated  that  peace 
and  settled  government  were  all  that  was  required 
to  restore  prosperity  to  the  colleges,  and  that  the 
classes  would  have  been  again  full.  The  decay 
continued,  and  was  indeed  so  alarming  that  it  forced 
itself  upon  the  attention  of  government.  Of  the 
three  leading  constituents  of  Paris,  the  small  Paris 
of  Henri  iv,  with  its  population  of  some  400000, — 
out  of  the  three  factors  of  its  prosperity,  the  convents, 
the  court,  and  the  university,- one  seemed  lost.  There 
was  a  loud  call  upon  the  paternal  government  of 
Henri  iv,  which  was  doing  so  much  for  the  restoration 
of  the  country,  to  undertake  the  restoration  of  'the 
schools/  '  les  ecoles/  as  the  university  was  called. 

The  first  step  towards  remedying  the  decay,  was  to 
ascertain  its  cause.  The  ultimate  cause  stated  in 
general  terms,  was  that  the  education  offered  in  the 
schools  of  Paris  no  longer  met  the  demands  of  the  day. 
The  statutes  by  which  it  was  governed,  and  on  which 
its  system  was  founded,  were  those  which  had  been 
framed  by  the  cardinal  d'Estouteville,  papal  legate  in 

N    2 


180  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

1452.  Since  that  period  the  classical  renaissance  had 
come,  and  had  changed  the  material,  and  the  form,  of 
education  throughout  western  Europe.  But  Paris,  the 
leader  of  fashion,  had  remained  as  unchangeable  as 
Salamanca.  Philosophy,  become  a  lifeless  verbiage, 
was  still  the  prescribed  curriculum  of  the  faculty  of 
arts.  That  the  teaching  offered  in  the  colleges  of  Paris 
no  longer  met  the  requirements  of  french  society,  was 
the  remote  cause  of  the  falling  off  of  students.  This  is 
clear  to  our  eyes,  but  it  was  not  so  to  those  of  con- 
temporaries. Had  they  seen  it  as  we  see  it,  they 
would  have  found  the  immediate  remedy  in  remodelling 
the  curriculum  of  arts.  But  they  looked,  as  practical 
men  always  look,  for  proximate  causes.  They  saw  that 
the  schools  of  Paris  were  empty,  and  they  asked, 
Where,  then,  was  the  youth  of  France  ?  It  was  in  the 
colleges  of  the  Jesuits.  Many  poor  families,  ruined 
and  disorganised  by  the  war,  let  their  sons  go  without 
education  in  letters.  Others,  better  off,  engaged  private 
tutors  at  home.  Bicher31  asserts  that  the  custom  of 
private  instruction,  scarcely  known  before,  had  become 
very  common  since  the  wars.  But  the  vast  majority 
of  the  middle  class  youth  who  formerly  peopled  the 
schools  of  the  university  were  in  the  colleges  of  the 
Jesuits.  Not  in  the  college  of  Clermont,  rue  S.  Jacques, 
which  was  shut  up,  but  in  the  provinces — at  Toulouse 
or  Bordeaux,  Auch,  Agen,  Bhodez,  Perigueux,  Limoges, 
Le  Puy,  Aubenas,  Beziers,  Tournon,  in  the  colleges  of 
Flanders  and  Lorraine,  Douai,  or  Pont-a-Mousson, 
places  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  parlement  of 
Paris,  or  even  of  the  crown  of  France.  It  is  character- 
istic of  the  legislative  confusion  of  the  period,  that  the 
banishment  of  the  society  of  Jesus  from  the  district  of 

31  Vie,,  p.  38. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  181 

Paris  had  been  by  arret  of  the  parlement  of  Paris 
alone,  and  had  never  been  confirmed  by  the  crown32. 
Lyons  loudly  demanded  a  Jesuit  college,  and  even  the 
huguenot  Lesdiguieres,  almost  king  in  Dauphine,  was 
preparing  to  erect  one  at  Grenoble.  Amiens,  Eeims, 
Bouen,  Dijon,  Bourges,  were  only  waiting  a  favour- 
able opportunity  to  introduce  the  Jesuits  within  their 
walls. 

Here,  then,  was  the  cause  of  the  '  decay '  of  the 
university  of  Paris.  Friends  and  foes  of  the  university 
alike  agreed  in  attributing  its  fallen  condition  to  the 
rivalry  of  the  new  teachers.  There  were  only  two 
methods  by  which  the  university  and  the  old  colleges 
could  be  saved.  Either  the  competition  of  the  Jesuits 
must  be  put  down,  or  the  old  colleges  must  be  re- 
formed to  be  able  to  compete  with  the  new.  The 
university,  of  course,  preferred  the  former  method. 
Some  of  its  more  judicious  friends  desired  to  try  the 
latter 33. 

The  former  method  was  tried.  An  arret  of  the 
parlement  of  Paris  was  procured,  prohibiting  parents 
from  sending  their  children  out  of  Paris  to  the  Jesuit 

32  Cre'tineau-Joly,  2.  463. 

33  Antoine  Arnauld,   father    of   a    more  famous  Antoine  Arnauld, 
in  his  '  Discours  au  Hoi/  1594,  is  the  one  of  the  complainants  who 
comes    nearest    the    real  gravamen.     But  even    this    bold   advocate 
could  not  utter  the  simple  truth,  that  the  zeal  of  the  Jesuits  for  the 
'education'  of  the  young  was  a  mask  for  their  one  object, — ultra- 
montane propagand.     Arnauld's    pleading,  and  the  answer  to  it  by 
Eicheome,  '  Plainte  apolog^tique,  Bordeaux,  1603,'  are  only  the  prin- 
cipal,  and   semi-official,  manifestoes  on  either  side,     Richeome   goes 
into  the    causes   of    the    decay   of   the  university   of    Paris.     It    is 
not  due  to  the  Jesuit  competition,  but  to  the  rise  of   catholic  uni- 
versities in  other  countries.     See  p.  52  of  the  latin  translation,  Lugd. 
1606. 


182  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

colleges,  in  or  out  of  France.  The  order  was  simply 
neglected.  It  was  reiterated  in  1598,  again  in  1603; 
the  repetition  is  but  proof  enough  that  it  was  dis- 
obeyed. The  Jesuit  schools  overflowed  with  pupils. 
In  Flanders  there  was  not  a  town  of  any  consideration 
in  which  the  whole  education  of  the  place  was  not  in 
the  hands  of  the  Jesuits.  At  Douai  the  logic  class 
alone  contained  400.  To  put  down  the  Jesuit  colleges 
in  1 600  would  have  required  much  greater  power  than 
the  parlement  of  Paris  ever  enjoyed.  The  Jesuits 
were  the  rage  of  the  period.  The  catholic  reaction 
was  in  full  flow,  and  the  society  was  floated  onwards 
on  the  crest  of  the  wave.  Jesuit  confessors,  preachers, 
spiritual  directors,  were  everywhere  superseding  the 
older  orders.  Especially  Jesuit  schools  enjoyed  the 
confidence  of  the  public  in  a  degree  which  placed  them 
beyond  competition. 

There  remained  for  the  university  to  attempt  to 
reform  its  system  of  study  in  such  a  way  as  to  enable 
it  to  compete  with  the  Jesuits.  This  course  was 
urged  by  the  enlightened  section  of  the  parlement,  de 
Harlay,  de  Thou,  etc.  It  was  obvious  to  say  to  the 
university  as  the  king  did  say34:  'If  the  Jesuit  schools 
are  full,  and  yours  empty,  c'a  este  pour  ce  qu'ils 
faisoient  mieux  que  les  autres/  In  this  originated  the 
celebrated  reform  of  the  university  of  Paris.  The  com- 
mission obtained  for  the  purpose,  on  which  de  Harlay 
and  his  friends  contrived  to  get  a  majority  of  the 
tolerant  party  nominated,  framed  revised  statutes,  by 
which  the  university  was  governed  for  170  years. 
These  statutes  removed  some  of  the  more  flagrant 

54  '  Discours  au  Roi,'  Lat.  trans,  p.  24  :  '  Agite  vos,  industria  vincatis 
jesuitas  .  .  .  atque  numero  auditorum  sine  dubitatione  vincetis.' 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  183 

abuses  of  the  university,  and  partially  introduced  the 
new  classical  curriculum. 

But  the  case  was  one  in  which  legislative  relief  could 
do  but  little.  It  was  in  vain  the  statutes  were  changed, 
and  the  studies  remodelled — the  old  spirit  was  un- 
changed. The  classics  were  there,  and  might  be  read, 
but  the  spirit  of  the  university  remained  ecclesiastical 
and  scholastic.  Theology  still  held  the  first  place  ;  the 
faculty  of  arts  languished.  What  was  wanted  was  men. 
The  best  statutes  will  not  make  a  university  without 
men  in  whom  is  the  breath  of  life.  The  mere  intro- 
duction of  the  classics  into  the  curriculum  of  arts  was 
nothing  without  the  living  voice  to  teach  their  use. 
The  treasures  of  ancient  tradition,  '  ein  lebendiges  fur 
die  lebendigen  geschrieben,'  are  mere  dry  leaves  to 
those  who  have  not  learnt  to  love  them. 

It  was  therefore  the  wish  of  the  commissioners  that, 
in  order  to  .give  impulse  to  the  new  studies,  some  new 
philological  power  should  be  imported  into  the  teaching 
personnel.  Two  men  at  the  moment  took  the  lead  of 
classical  learning  in  Europe,  Scaliger  and  Casaubon  ; 
and  it  so  happened  both  were  of  french  nationality. 
Of  Scaliger  it  was  useless  to  think,  for  other  reasons, 
but  also  for  one  decisive  one,  it  was  well  known  that 
he  would  not  consent  to  teach.  But  Casaubon  was 
not  only  french,  but  was  actually  teaching  in  a  french 
university.  Even  had  he  not  been  personally  known 
to  de  Thou,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  commissioners 
should  turn  their  eyes  upon  him.  That  he  was  in- 
tended to  be  placed  in  the  university,  is  evident  from 
his  patent  of  appointment,  which  bore  upon  its  face  the 
royal  purpose,  '  pour  remettre  sus  TuniversiteY  On  the 
strength  of  this  brief  he  had  relinquished  his  situation 
at  Moritpellier,  had  come  to  Paris,  had  seen  the  king, 


184  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

who  then  repeated  his  promise  of  the  appointment. 
He  then  proceeded  to  remove  his  family  to  Paris,  and 
established  himself  there.  We  gradually  cease  to  hear 
of  the  proposed  professorship,  till  we  find  Causabon 
in  the  receipt  of  a  pension  unconnected  with  the 
university,  and  waiting  for  the  vacancy  of  the  place 
of  sub-librarian  to  the  king,  of  which  he  has  the 
reversion. 

Notwithstanding  that  we  have  both  Casaubon's  diary 
and  his  confidential  letters  of  this  period,  the  nature 
of  this  hitch  in  the  business  is  nowhere  explicitly  de- 
clared. But  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  it  had  its 
source  in  the  religious  difficulty. 

By  the  new  statutes  of  the  university  no  person 
could  teach,  or  take  a  degree,  or  even  be  admitted  as  a 
bursar  or  student  of  any  college,  who  did  not  make 
profession  of  the  catholic  religion,  apostolic  and  roman. 
This  clause,  not  in  the  old  statutes,  was  introduced  into 
the  new  code  of  1600.  These  statutes  had  been  drawn 
by  the  tolerant  party,  and  emanated  from  the  parle- 
ment.  It  is  significant  of  the  state  of  public  opinion, 
and  of  the  reduced  condition  of  the  huguenots,  that  such 
a  clause  should  have  been  forced  upon  the  framers  of 
the  statute.  Indeed,  the  exclusion  was  not  sufficiently 
complete  to  satisfy  the  feeling  of  the  Parisians.  For 
though,  by  the  statute,  the  optioa  of  becoming  a  day 
scholar  was  left  open  to  the  children  of  protestants,  in 
fact  they  dared  not  avail  themselves  even  of  this  privi- 
lege. A  protestant  having,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  xm, 
claimed  his  right  of  being  admitted  to  the  lectures  of 
the  professors,  it  required  an  arret  of  the  parlement  of 
Paris  to  enforce  it.  The  parlement  rendered  such  a  decree 
in  his  favour.  But  the  necessity  of  appealing  to  it  is 
evidence  that  the  right  was  not  habitually  enjoyed. 


I  PARIS.      1600  —  1610.  185 

Casaubon  then,  as  a  dissident,  was  statutably  ex- 
cluded from  any  university  appointment.  It  was  still 
possible  to  have  appointed  him  to  one  of  the  chairs  in 
the  college  royal.  For  these  chairs  were  outside  the 
corporation  of  the  university,  and  were  not  regulated 
by  the  new  statutes.  The  chair  of  latin,  or  *  eloquence/ 
as  it  was  styled,  was  not  vacant.  It  was  filled  by 
Federic  Morel35,  who  has  left  memorials  of  himself  in 
numerous  greek  editions,  especially  the  handsome 
Libanius  of  1606.  Morel  was  king's  printer  as  well  as 
king's  professor,  and  was  more  equal  to  the  duties  of 
the  former,  than  of  the  latter,  office.  In  his  Libanius 
the  editing  is  by  no  means  on  a  level  with  the  splen- 
dour of  the  typography.  Ernestine  Eeiske36  says  of  it : 
*  Morel's  text  is  so  full  of  faults  that,  perhaps,  no  other 
ancient  author  has  been  so  incorrectly  edited/ 

But  the  chair  of  '  eloquence/  or  as  we  should  say, 
'  latin  composition/  was  not  the  one  for  which  Casaubon 
was  particularly  fitted.  For  the  chair  of  greek,  how- 
ever, he  was  without  a  rival ;  by  Scaliger's  own 
admission,  the  first  greek  scholar  in  the  world.  And 
by  a  singular  chance  it  became  vacant  in  1603,  just 
when  Casaubon  was  in  Paris,  and  was  deliberating 
whither  he  should  go  for  a  maintenance.  Here  was  an 
opportunity,  which  those  who  wished  to  '  restore  the 

35  Morel  is  styled  by  Goujet,  College  de  France,  2.  326:  '  Lecteur  et 
professeur  royal  en  Eloquence    grecque    et   latin.'     By  Duval,    Coll. 
royal,   Par.    1644,  he  is   placed    among  the  Professors   '  eloquentise.' 
This  is  strictly  correct,  and  it  was,  perhaps,  because  Morel  occupied 
himself  more  with  greek  than  with  latin  that  Goujet  uses  the  epithet 
'  grecque.'     It  is  an  incongruous  epithet,  as,  by  the  usage  of  the  time, 
the  word  '  eloquentia '  was  appropriated  to  the  professor  of  latin. 

36  E.  Reiske,  Libanius,  1791,  t.  i.  prsef. :  '  Textus  Morellianus  adeo 
scatet  vitiis,  ut  non  alius  scriptor  antiquus  mendosius  editus  videatur.' 
Cf.  Reiske,  prsef.  in  Dion.  Chrysost. 


186  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

university'  must  have  gladly  availed  themselves  of. 
The  chair  is  immediately  filled — but  not  by  Casaubon — 
by  Jerome  Goulu,  a  young  man,  of  merit  possibly,  but 
also  a  protege  of  cardinal  Du  Perron.  To  this  young 
man  of  twenty-two,  the  cardinal  had  the  effrontery  to 
give  a  testimonial  in  which  he  declared  that  '  he  knew 
no  one  at  that  time  who  surpassed  him  in  a  know- 
ledge of  the  greek  tongue,  and  of  the  authors  who  have 
written  in  it.'  Jerome  Goulu  had  the  sense  not  to 
commit  himself  by  printing  a  single  page  of  greek,  but 
to  justify  his  appointment  in  the  eyes  of  the  university 
by  his  'zeal  for  the  true  religion/  37'he  would  never 
suffer,  as  far  as  he  could  prevent  it,  any  calvinist  to 
take  a  degree.'  What  else  could  be  expected  in  a 
learned  university  in  which  Pierre  Cayet  was  regius 
professor  of  hebrew,  and  in  which  the  great  question, 
whether  or  no  wax  tapers  for  the  feast  of  the  purifica- 
tion should  be  distributed  to  the  grand  messengers,  was 
sufficient  to  occupy  all  minds38. 

Casaubon  was  not  spoken  of  for  the  greek  professor- 
ship. It  does  not  appear  that  he  thought  of  it  himself. 
At  least  there  is  no  trace  of  disappointment  in  his  diary 
or  letters,  nor  does  he  anywhere  mention  the  name  of 
the  man  who  had  been  preferred  to  him.  It  was  pos- 
sible to  have  appointed  him  a  supernumerary.  This 
was  not  done.  Though  he  was  officially  styled  '  lecteur 
du  roi/  and  his  friends  so  addressed  his  private  letters, 

37  Goujet,  Coll.  de  France,  i.  538:    'II  £tait  zel£  pour  la  vraie 
religion     .     .     .     ne  soffrit  jamais,  autant  qu'il  fut  en  lui,  qu'aucun 
calviniste  s'introduisit  dans  la  faculteY 

38  Crevier,  Hist,  de  1'univ.  de  Paris,  7.  48.    The  point  could  not  be 
determined  theologically  on  the  merits.     The  distribution  was  nega- 
tived because  the  finances  of  the  university  were  not  equal  to  the 
expense. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  187 

he  never  was  connected  with  the  university  of  Paris. 
What  was  done  was  to  assign  him  a  pension,  and  to  go 
on  hinting  at  the  appointment  in  the  university  as 
something  to  come.  We  must  conclude  that  the  friends 
who  procured  the  original  nomination,  which  was  sent 
him  at  Montpellier,  reckoned  upon  his  conversion. 
This  would  have  removed  all  obstacles,  and  in  no  other 
way  could  they  be  removed.  It  was  supposed  that 
Casaubon  was  not  altogether  unwilling  to  do  what  his 
best  friend,  Canaye  de  Fresne,  was  doing.  All  the 
worldly  considerations  pointed  in  that  direction,  and 
public  opinion  had  decided  that  the  balance  of  con- 
troversy was  heavily  in  favour  of  the  catholic  side  of 
the  question.  We  cannot  be  surprised  that  Casaubon's 
change  of  religion  was  considered  imminent,  that  it 
was  repeatedly  announced  as  an  accomplished  fact. 
Baronius39  himself  writing  from  Borne,  November,  1603, 
says  that  he  had  heard  of  it  there. 

However  much  his  friends  may  have  desired  to  get 
Casaubon  settled  in  the  university,  they  could  not 
have  done  it  as  long  as  he  remained  a  heretic.  But  it 
began  gradually  to  appear  that  even  if  the  religious 
difficulty  were  removed,  Casaubon  himself  might  not  be 
willing  to  accept  the  appointment.  He  began  to  be  no 
longer  so  desirous  of  it  as  he  had  been  at  first.  His 
feeling  on  the  subject  was  not  the  fastidious  aversion 
for  teaching,  as  such,  which  was  avowed  by  Scaliger. 
Casaubon  had  no  disinclination  to  lecture.  In  the 
winter  of  1601-2  he  gave,  in  his  own  apartment,  a 
course  of  greek  lectures,  first  on  Herodotus,  and  after- 
wards on  Aristophanes40.  These  were  originally  intended 

19  Burney  MSS.  363. 

10  Ep.  294  :  '  Amicorum  rogatu,  in  privatis  sedibus,  ejus  (Herodoti) 
interpretationem  suscepissem,  horis  succisivis.'  Two  sets  of  notes, 


188  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

for  some  six  or  seven  young  friends  of  his  own.  But 
no  sooner  was  it  known  that  Casaubon  was  giving  a 
greek  lecture  than  his  room  was  crowded  by  men  of 
distinction  from  all  parts  of  Paris.  Even  this  gave 
such  umbrage  to  the  professors  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water,  that  '  strong  reasons '  were  soon  given  him 
which  induced  him  to  discontinue.  Health  was  the  plea 
easily42,  and  too  truly,  alleged  for  his  sudden  withdrawal 
from  teaching.  He  never  again  attempted  it,  and 
though  enjoying  brevet  rank  as  '  regius  reader/  from 
this  time  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  university43. 

For  as  he  came  to  see  the  university  nearer,  he  dis- 
cerned that,  difficulty  of  creed  apart,  it  was  no  place 
for  him.  The  university  of  Paris,  once  the  symbol  and 
centre  of  European  intelligence,  was  sunk  into  a 
corporation  of  trading  teachers,  whose  highest  ambition 
was  to  compete  with  the  Jesuits  in  a  lucrative  pro- 
fession. It  was  become  a  school,  of  which  the  professors 
were  the  masters.  They  shrank  from  contact  with 
real  knowledge,  such  as  Casaubon  possessed,  and  carried 
it  loftily  towards  him  on  the  ground  of  their  superior 
orthodoxy.  They  shut  themselves  up  with  their  pupils, 
before  whose  wondering  eyes  they  paraded  their  crude 
reading.  A  portrait  of  a  professor  of  the  period  has 
been  drawn  for  us  by  Casaubon,  who  never  draws  upon 

taken  down  by  hearers,  are  still  preserved  in  the  Bibl.  nat.  an9.  fonds. 
6252.  I  do  not  know  if  either  of  them  is  in  the  writing  of  Pierre  Du 
Puy.  But  Rigaltius  says  (Vit.  Putean.  p.  14)  that  the  brothers  Du 
Puy,  at  some  time  or  other,  '  heard  lectures  of  Casaubon,'  which  must 
have  been  on  this  occasion. 

12  Ep.  294  :  '  Causas  graves  habui,  ut  valetudini  mese  consulerem,  et 
abstinerem.' 

3  Ep.  687  :  'Ego  res  academies  hujus  non  magis  attingo,  quam  vel 
tu,  vel  quicunque  alius  hinc  abest  &s 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  189 

his  imagination,  in  the  person  of  Theodore  Marcilius. 
Marcilius  had  succeeded  Passerat  as  professor  of  elo- 
quence44 in  the  college  royal.  A  Dutchman,  but  a 
catholic,  he  had  been  trained  in  the  school  of  much 
reading.  His  learning  was  prodigious.  A  small  man 
of  wiry  frame,  and  sound  health,  he  had  passed  ten 
years,  like  another  Pythagoras,  so  ran  the  legend,  with- 
out quitting  the  walls  of  his  college,  the  college  of 
Plessis,  in  which  he  had  taught  a  class,  before  becoming 
regius  professor.  He  had  read  so  much  that  Scaliger45 
wickedly  said  of  him  that  he  '  had  read  himself  into 
ignorance/  But  he  had  also  read  himself  into  re- 
nown. The  hermit  of  the  college  de  Plessis  was 
46 '  grand  personnage.'  When  Oasaubon  first  came  to 
Paris,  1599,  Marcilius  sent  him  a  message,  that  if  he 
wished  to  see  him  he  might  call  upon  him.  Casaubon 
meekly  complied,  and  his  account  of  his  visit,  written 
to  Scaliger,  rises,  for  once,  almost  into  humour.  Pre- 
senting himself  at  the  college  gate,  he  was  bidden  to 
mount  to  the  top  of  a  staircase  pointed  out  by  the 
porter.  Here,  under  the  tiles,  he  found  the  'paeda- 
gogorum  Apollo '  in  an  apartment,  the  walls  of  which 
were  lined  with  pigeon-holes.  In  these  were  stored 

44  As  Morel  was  at  this  time  professor  '  eloquentise,'  there  must 
have  been  two  co-ordinate  professors  of  the  same  subject.     Or  Morel 
may   have  been  'professor  emeritus.'     Goujet,    Hist,  du  college  de 
France,  is  much  more  full  than  Duval,  but  is  wanting  in  exactness, 
as  well  as  in  appreciation  of  his  own  matter. 

45  Seal,    to   Gas.,  Seal.  Epp.  p.    198:    '  Quum   animum    remittere 
volo,  assumo  in  manus  scripta  illius  qui  amphitheatrum  Martialis,  et 
Persium,  nuper  KcnWxoSei/.  nam  nunquam  suavius  rideo,  quam  cum 
aliquid  ejus  lucumonis  video,  ssepe  mirari  soleo  ilium  tantum  scrip- 
torum  legisse,  ideo  ut  nihil  sciret  et  tamen  habet  admi- 
ratores.  habeat     .     .     .     sed  Parisienses.' 

46  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  151. 


190  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

away  the  fruits  of  his  vigils,  not  in  one,  but  in  all, 
departments  of  ancient  learning.  There  were  com- 
mentaries on  the  civil  law ;  treatises  on  roman  antiqui- 
ties ;  translations  of  the  principal  Aristotelian  treatises. 
What  he  most  prized  were  the  notes  of  his  philological 
lectures,  on  the  greek  and  latin  classics,  which  had 
been  accumulating  during  his  twenty  years'  teaching, 
first  at  Toulouse,  then  at  Paris.  He  informed  Cas- 
aubon  that  the  trifles  he  had  hitherto  edited,  such  as 
the  '  Aurea  carmina/  and  the  '  Martial/  were  the 
follies  of  his  youth,  and  that  what  he  should  publish 
henceforth  would  be  of  a  very  different  order,  but  that 
they  would  not  see  the  light  till  all  the  learned  of  the 
day  had  printed  their  blundering  attempts.  It  was 
no  secret  to  Casaubon  who  were  meant.  He  had  been 
told  that  Marcilius  was  accustomed  to  spice  his  lectures 
with  contemptuous  flings  at  Scaliger  and  himself,  and  to 
correct  their  mistakes  for  the  edification  of  his  class.47 
The  removal  to  Paris,  which  brought  Casaubon  nearer, 
made  the  man  of  real  learning  more  offensive  to  the 
charlatan.  Marcilius  redoubled  the  bitterness  of  his 
invectives.  He  certainly  succeeded  in  provoking  ir- 
ritation. Casaubon,  who  was  submissive  to  the  arro- 
gance of  Scaliger,  could  not  brook  the  presumption  of 
Marcilius.  His  language  to  his  correspondents  about 
Marcilius  displays  a  passionate  displeasure,  which  seems 
disproportionate  to  its  object.  Casaubon,  indeed,  was 
extremely  thin-skinned.  Had  he  been  the  butt  of  a 
tenth  part  of  the  obloquy  which  Scaliger  had  to  bear, 
it  must  have  killed  him.  Marcilius'  insults  drew  from 
him  expressions  of  anger  more  contemptuous  than  he 
exhibits  towards  any  other  person  whatever.  Nor  was 
the  antipathy  confined  to  private  letters.  Casaubon 
47  Cas.  ep.  199. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  191 

takes  occasion,  in  various  of  his  notes48,  to  make  sar- 
castic allusions  to  an  ignoramus  whom  he  does  not 
name.  To  Scaliger  he  writes  that  he  49<  has  been  read- 
ing the  stuff  which  a  Parisian  schoolmaster,  the  most 
arrogant  of  all  living  two-legged  creatures,  has  blurted 
out  about  Persius.  Before  I  took  the  book  up  I  knew  I 
was  not  to  expect  great  things  from  the  buffoon,  but 
the  ignorance,  the  stupendous  asinity  of  the  man,  is 
beyond  anything  I  had  conceived/  It  could  not  but 
gall  him  to  see  5°'this  discreditable  pretender  drawn 
from  his  obscurity  and  placed  in  that  chair  from  which 
Turnebus,  Mercerus,  and  other  eminent  men  have  in 
old  time  delivered  oracles.  Happy  you  who  see  not 
these  things.'  Marcilius,  from  the  regius  chair,  con- 
tinued to  bespatter  Casaubon51,  till  he  was  informed 
that  the  king  had  expressed  his  displeasure.  He  then 
changed  his  tone,  and  sent  a  Catullus  of  his  editing 
(the  Catullus  of  1604),  with  a  message  to  Casaubon, 
that  he  was  now  sorry  for  having  assailed  him,  and 
wished  to  be  friends  with  him.  Casaubon,  who  was  as 
placable  as  he  was  inflammatory,  accepted  the  apology, 
and  sent  Marcilius  word  that  he  had  only  to  speak,  as 
he  ought  to  speak,  of  those  who  had  done  letters  good 
service,  and  he  should  find  a  friend  in  Casaubon. 

Casaubon's  time  in  Paris  was  being  spent  very  little 
to  his  own  satisfaction.  '  0  jacturam  temporis !'  records 
the  diary  of  July  23,  1602.  On  July  24  same  com- 
plaint. *  Busy  the  whole  day,  yet  very  few  hours 

48  See  among  other  passages,  Hist.  Aug.  Scriptt.  (ed.  1603)  P-  5^5  : 
'  Commodum  offertur  mihi  musteus  adhuc  liber  pantosophomastigis 
illius  magistelli,'  etc. 

49  Ep.  370.  50  Cas.  to  Seal.  ep.  370. 

51  Gillot  to  Seal.  ep.  fran9.  p.  101  :  '  Ce  fol  insense',  arrogant,  de 
Marsilius  a  escrit  centre  M.  Casaubon  cles  injures  de  harangere.' 


192  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

well  spent.'  On  the  25th  he  writes  to  Hoeschel52:  'A 
thoroughly  wretched  life  it  is  that  I  lead  here ;  not 
among  my  books,  but  among  engagements  of  I  know 
not  what  kind,  which  sometimes  do  not  allow  of  my 
opening  a  book  from  morning  till  night.  Life  cannot 
but  be  bitter  to  me,  when  I  am  thus  robbed  of  my  one 
solace.  I  have  now  been  returned  home  fifteen  days, 
and  have  hardly  had  as  many  hours'  reading,  all  the 
rest  of  the  time  has  been  taken  from  me  by  friends,  or 
by  the  discharge  of  social  duties/ 

His  day  was  then  only  spent  to  his  satisfaction  when 
he  had  had  it  for  unbroken  study  from  early  dawn. 

One  serious  drain  upon  his  time,  which  he  felt  sorrow- 
fully, but  did  not  dare  to  complain  of,  was  attendance 
at  court.  From  time  to  time  Casaubon  waited  on  the 
king  at  the  Louvre,  a  duty  which  was  expected  of  all 
who  belonged  to  the  court,  in  which  category  the  '  lec- 
teurs  du  roi'  were  included.  He  was  always  received 
with  favour,  sometimes,  as  he  notes,  with  marked  distinc- 
tion. 'June  19,  1602:  The  king,  as  usual,  received 
me  most  graciously,  and  called  me,  in  jest,  "  an  accom- 
plice of  Biron."  Then  becoming  grave,  he  said,  (I  give 
his  very  words),  "  Vous  voyez  combien  j'ai  de  peine 
afin  que  vous  estudiez  surement." '  When  Casaubon, 
in  the  same  year,  meditated  removal  from  court,  the 
king  caused  it  to  be  intimated  to  him  that  he  desired 
his  stay,  and  gave  him  53 '  no  small  testimony  of  his 
favour/  On  more  than  one  occasion  Henri  repeated 
his  intention  of  appointing  Casaubon  custodian  of  the 
library,  whenever  it  should  become  vacant.  July  5, 
1 60 1,  the  diary  records  'a  day  lost  in  attendance  at 
court.  Yet  perhaps  it  was  worth  something  to  have 

M  Ep.  298,  53  Ep.  274. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  193 

received    so   marked   a   token   of  the   king's   favour.' 
What  the  token — *non   obscurum  testimonium' — was, 
we  learn,  this  time,  from  a  letter  of  Gillot  to  Scaliger, 54 
giving  an  account  of  this  very  interview.      'The  day 
before  yesterday  the  king  gave  Casaubon  a  hearty  re- 
ception, reproaching  him  with  having  wished  to  leave 
him,  and  telling  him  "  he  would  never  find  so  good  a 
master  who  would  love  him  as  he  (the  king)  did.     That 
he  intended  to  place  him  in  his  library,  and  that  the 
present  librarian  could  not  live  another  year.     That  he 
should  then  look  up  his  fine  books,  and  tell  him  what 
was  in  them,  for  he  himself  didn't  understand  things 
of  that  sort."     In  a  word,  he  treated  Casaubon  with 
marked  distinction.     Yesterday  Casaubon  supped  with 
me,  when  I  encouraged  him  in  his  resolution  to  remain 
among  us,  telling  him  there  were  still  many  of  us  who 
were  his  admirers,  and  honoured  his  virtue,  and  that 
he  would  want  for  nothing.     I  feel  sure  that  he  will 
make  up  his  mind  to  stay.     Indeed,  do  what  we  will, 
we  cannot,  and  do  not,  deserve  to  keep  him.     I  hardly 
think  France  is  worthy  of  such  a  man,  whether  one 
regards  his  learning  or  his   character.     I  never    part 
from  him  myself  without  feeling   the   better   for   his 
company/     It  should,  be  remembered  that  the  writer 
was  a  catholic,  and,  though  a  counsellor  in  the  parle- 
ment,  held  a  canonry  in  the  Sainte  chapelle.     Henri's 
favour  towards  Casaubon  was  founded  on  a  personal 
liking,  and  was  maintained  in  spite  of  Casaubon's  pro- 
testantism.     Henri  iv.  was  not  one  of  those  cradled 
princes  who   can   know   of  men   only  what  they  are 
told,  and  who  thus  become  the  sure  prey  of  sycophants 
and  partisans.     Early  and  long  training  in  the  equal 
school   of  camps   had   made   him   a  shrewd  judge  of 
64  Ep.  fran9.  p.  105. 

o 


194  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

character.  He  was,  says  Dupleix55,  'autant  habile 
qu'homme  de  son  royaume  pour  juger  de  1'humeur, 
et  du  merite  des  personnes/  Frank  and  sociable,  he 
liked  to  talk  with  Casaubon ;  not  as  James  i.  did,  of 
'  classics,  fathers,  wits,'  but  he  heard  from  him  of 
Geneva,  of  Montpellier,  of  the  grievances  and  wishes 
of  the  calvinists.  He  took  Casaubon's  learning  for 
granted,  but  appreciated  the  sterling  worth  of  the 
man.  At  times  he  was  angry  at  Casaubon's  'obsti- 
nacy;' at  times  he  understood  that  there  was  a  depth 
of  conviction  which  could  not  be  reached  by  the  trivial 
topics  of  controversial  rhetoric. 

Standing  thus  high  in  the  royal  favour,  and  with 
these  repeated  promises  of  the  succession  to  the  li- 
brary, it  was  to  be  supposed,  that,  whenever  the  va- 
cancy should  occur,  Casaubon  would  step  into  the 
place  as  matter  of  course.  The  promises  indeed  were 
not  confined  to  mere  words.  In  November,  1601,  a 
patent  was  issued  to  Casaubon,  in  regular  form,  ap- 
pointing him  to  the  office  of  librarian,  though  with 
the  proviso  that  the  present  holder,  Gosselin,  should 
not  be  disturbed.  The  salary,  however,  named  in 
the  instrument,  and  which  was  to  be  in  addition  to 
his  pension,  was  to  commence  at  once.  Casaubon, 
with  great  delicacy,  never  mentioned  to  G-osselin  that 
he  was  in  possession  of  such  a  patent.  This  was  all 
the  more  creditable,  as  Casaubon  was  perpetually 
being  thwarted  in  his  natural  curiosity  to  explore 
the  treasures  of  the  library,  by  the  morose  temper 
of  the  custodian.  '  I  knew  his  way,'  writes  Sca- 
liger56,  in  1605,  *  forty-four  years  ago  ;  too  ignorant  to 

65  Dupleix,  Hist,  de  France,  quoted  by  Cr^tineau-Joly,  Hist,  de 
la  comp.  de  J£sus,  3.  36.  5<3  Seal.  ep.  p.  273. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  195 

use  the  library  himself,  too  jealous  to  allow  others 
to  use  it/ 

Scaliger's  reminiscence  carries  us  back  to  1561,  the 
commencement  of  Gosselin's  librarianship.  He  was 
appointed  in  1560,  and  held  the  office  four-and-forty 
years.  Jean  Gosselin  was  not  an  ignorant  man,  at 
least  only  relatively  so.  He  was  a  mathematician, 
and  author  of  several  treatises  in  that  -department57. 
He  was  well  known  in  the  literary  society  of  the 
former  generation,  and  is  celebrated  among  the  wits 
of  the  day  by  de  la  Boderie,  in  la  Galliade  (1578), 
*  Gosselin,  ornement  de  sa  ville  de  Vire,  etc.'  But,  of 
the  greek  and  latin  MSS,  of  which  he  was  keeper,  he 
was,  likely  enough,  ignorant,  and  probably  threw  im- 
pediments in  the  way  of  the  young  and  impetuous 
Gascon,  who  rushed  upon  the  king's  MSS.  as  he  after- 
wards did  upon  those  of  'Cujas  at  Valence,  58  *  M.  Cujas 
disoit  que  j'avais  depucelle  les  MSS/  If  Gosselin 
was  ignorant  of  the  contents  of  his  books,  he  was 
their  faithful  custodian,  through  risks  and  adventures 
far  more  serious  than  those  which  our  royal  library  went 
through  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth.  Gosselin 
was  now  in  the  imbecility  of  extreme  old  age,  but 
still  clutched  his  treasures  with  desperate  grip.  He 
was  near  one  hundred  years  old,  and  might  have 
lived  on,  but  for  accident. 

In  November,  1604,  the  poor  old  man  came  to  a 
melancholy  end.  Left  by  his  attendant  sitting  alone 
before  the  fire,  he  was  found  in  the  morning  burnt 
to  death,  having  fallen  out  of  his  chair  in  helpless 


57  A  list  of  his  publications  is  given  by  Frere,  Manuel  de  bibliogr. 
normande,  2.  32.  Some  account  of  Gosselin  is  in  Bulletin  du  biblio- 
phile for  1871.  58  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  60. 

0    2 


196  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

decrepitude 59.  The  post  of  librarian  thus  vacant,  why 
did  not  Casaubon  immediately  come  forward  and  claim 
an  appointment  which  was  already  his  own  1 

Legal  instruments  and  royal  nominations  were  facts 
of  weight,  but  in  France  at  this  time  there  was  another 
power  which  was  weightier  still60.  The  vacancy  in  the 
library  had  occurred  at  a  moment  when  the  ultra- 
montane flood  had  risen  higher  than  ever.  The  furious 
fanaticism  of  the  League  was  indeed  out  of  fashion,  but 
it  had  been  followed,  not  by  a  reaction,  but  by  a  more 
cool  and  calculating  political  Catholicism.  The  ter- 
rorism of  the  S.  Bartholomew  had  done  its  work,  and  it 
was  now  replaced  by  the  system  of  political  exclusion. 
In  vain  the  edict  of  Nantes  declared  protestants  ad- 
missible to  all  offices  and  employments,  it  was  a  mere 
paper  law  which  could  not  be  enforced.  Exclusion  was 
the  mot  d'ordre.  For  any  protestant  who  wanted  a 
career  there  was  only  one  way  open — '  se  faire  catho- 
lique.'  The  power  of  the  clergy,  and  the  popularity  of 
the  religious  orders,  which  had  been  distinctly  seen  to 
totter  fifty  years  before,  was  now  higher  than  ever. 
Swarms  of  orders,  new  and  old,  male  and  female,  recol- 
lets,  feuillants,  teresians,  capucins,  barnabites,  settled 
down  upon  the  fair  face  of  France.  The  grand  affair  of 
1603  had  been  the  recall  of  the  Jesuits.  To  get  the 
Jesuits  back  to  France,  and  to  give  the  king  a  Jesuit  con- 
fessor, these  were  the  objects  of  the  highest  European 

59  Ep.  428  :  'Belictus  a  famulo  decrepitus  senex  ante  focum,  semi- 
ustulatus  et  vitse  expers  postridie  est  inventus.'  Compare  with  this 
Lestoile,  Reg.  journal,  suppl.  p.  380,  ed.  Champollion.  Scaligerana  2a. 
p.  97.  The  attendant  was  suspected  of  having  hastened  his  master's 
end,  but,  it  seems,  without  grounds. 

0  Ep.  256:  'Quod  si  non  obstaret  pontificis  Romani  respectus, 
pridem  factum  esset,  ut  regis  jussu  publice  doceremus.' 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  197 

smanship.  In  1603  they  were  achieved.  Henri,  who 
had  contracted  a  second  marriage  at  the  age  of  forty- 
seven,  and  had  supplied  the  place  of  Gabrielle  with 
Henriette,  was  besides  visibly  enfeebled  by  an  obstinate 
disorder,  and  yielded  to  the  pressure  brought  to  bear 
upon  him.  Father  Coton  was  passed  upon  him.  By  his 
insinuating  address,  by  an  adroit  mixture  of  terrorism 
and  meekness,  he  completely  tamed  the  prince.  Henri 
was  charmed  with  him,  had  never  had  any  confessor 
like  him.  Fascinated  himself  by  the  address  of  the 
Jesuit,  he  supposed  others  must  yield  to  the  charm. 
Unfortunately  he  ordered  Coton  to  try  his  powers 
upon  Casaubon.  By  the  king's  command  Casaubon 
waited  upon  the  Jesuit  in  the  library.  But  Casaubon, 
who  was  occasionally  seriously  embarrassed  by  the 
learned  objections  of  Du  Perron,  was  not  in  any  danger 
from  the  honeyed  tongue  of  Coton,  in  whom  Gillot61 
found  that  '  though  he  talks  well,  he  has  d'instruc- 
tion  peu  ou  point.'  Coton' s  failure  exasperated  him, 
and  he  resolved  that  Casaubon  should  not  have  the 
library.  The  danger  was  dwelt  upon  of  committing 
the  custody  of  the  books  to  a  heretic,  who  might  make 
an  ill  use  of  what  he  found  in  them.  They  told  Henri 
that  Lipsius  was  the  most  learned  man  of  the  age,  and 
should  be  invited  from  Flanders  to  be  librarian.  Cas- 
aubon is  not  only  heretic,  but  an  '  obstinate  heretic/ 
i.  e.  one  that  knows  the  truth  and  hardens  himself 
against  it,  and  has  not  the  excuse  of  ignorance. 

The  king  took  to  the  suggestion  of  Lipsius'  name. 
'  I  have  been  told/  he  said  one  day  to  Thiou  des  Fortes, 
'that  Lipsius  is  the  most  learned  man  of  the  age/  Des 
Fortes  immediately  named  Scaliger,  affirming  that  Sca- 
liger  possessed  more  knowledge  of  all  sciences  and  all 
61  Ep.  frans.  p.  435. 


198  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

languages  than  Lipsius  had  of  any  one.  Henri  replied, 
'  They  have  never  told  me  that.'  Des  Fortes  ventured 
to  say  that  '  after  Scaliger,  Casaubon  deserved  to  be 
included  in  the  very  small  number  of  the  truly  learned/ 
and  added  adroitly,  '  they  are  both  Frenchmen/  The 
lawyers  also  pointed  out  to  the  king  the  danger  of  the 
precedent  if  an  appointment  once  made  were  cancelled 
on  a  religious  ground.  This  the  church  party  met  by 
a  proposal  to  call  the  young  Grotius  from  the  Hague, 
in  order  to  make  it  appear  that  the  objection  to  Casau- 
bon was  not  merely  his  protestantism.  When  Cas- 
aubon was  told  of  this  manoeuvre,  he  only  remarked 
'  that  if  Grotius  would  be  pleased  to  come,  he  (Casau- 
bon) would  be  well  pleased  to  see  him  there.' 

The  matter  being  thus  in  suspense,  Casaubon's  friends 
thought  that  his  best  chance  lay  in  a  personal  applica- 
tion to  the  monarch.  They  built  upon  the  public 
favour  with  which  he  was  always  received,  and  the 
esteem  which  Henri  had  always  been  accustomed  to 
express  for  the  threadbare  scholar.  As  long  as  the 
king  was  absent,  Casaubon  sturdily  refused  to  make 
any  suit  to  the  secretary,  Yilleroy,  or  to  move  in  the 
matter  at  all 62.  But  when  Henri  returned  to  Paris  from 
the  Sedan  expedition  in  December,  Casaubon  could  not 
refuse  to  pay  his  respects  among  the  rest,  and,  as  assist- 
ant in  the  library,  to  inform  him  of  Gosselin's  death. 
This  he  did  simply,  without  reminding  Henri  of  his 
promise,  or  proffering  any  solicitation  for  himself.  He 
did  not  fail  to  observe  the  unwonted  coldness  of  the 
king's  manner,  and  withdrew  in  the  belief  that  the  day 
of  his  favour  was  gone  by.  Great,  then,  was  his  as- 

"2  Ep.  371  :  'Securus  in  museo  expecto  quid  jussurus  sit,  cujus  est 
imperium  (i.  e.  the  king),  nam  ut  de  ea  re  verba  cuiquam  faciam, 
nemo  a  me  impetraverit.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610. 


199 


z 


tonishment  when,  three  days  afterwards,  the  king's 
private  secretary  came  to  him  with  his  appointment  to 
the  royal  library,  ready  made  out,  and,  what  was  more, 
ith  an  augmentation  of  400  livres  to  his  former 
ary.  The  influence  was  that  of  de  Thou,  an  in- 
fluence never  exerted  but  for  good,  and  though  just  now 
minimized,  yet  never  wholly  destroyed  even  in  the 
worst  times.  In  June,  1605,  Gillot63  writes  to  Scaliger, 
We  are  now  completely  under  the  loyolite  yoke. 
There  is  a  general  rush  into  their  camp.  Father 
Gossyp  (Coton)  is  the  greatest  person  that  ever  was. 
We  breathe  only  Eome,  "  et  Gallia  submittit  fasces/' 
The  first  president  (de  Harlay)  has  been  ill  of  a  fever, 
and  many  an.  ear  was  pricked  up  thereupon.  God 
preserve  us  from  such  a  change  ;  for  he,  with  our  de 
Thou,  is  the  only  one  who  has  still  some  hold  over  the 
helm,  and  still  makes  head  against  a  general  wreck.' 
The  welcome  addition  to  his  salary  was  the  unsolicited 
act  of  Villeroy64.  Villeroy,  though  ex-leaguer,  Spanish, 
a  corrupt  intriguer  who  was  for  an  exclusively  catholic 
policy,  was  generous  in  money  matters,  and  not  with 
the  public  money  only,  and  now  threw  a  scrap  to  a 
starving  scholar.  Scaliger  expressed  himself65  highly 
gratified,  not  only  with  Casaubon's  success,  but  with  the 
check  given  to  the  Jesuit  party,  who  had  used  all  their 
influence  against  him.  At  the  same  time,  he  warned 
his  friend  that  the  same  interest  which  had  worked  to 
keep  him  out  would  be  incessantly  plied  against  him, 


13  Ep.  fran£.  p.  416. 

64  Villeroy  befriended  Casaubon  to  the  last. 


Henri  iv's  discrimi- 
nating character  of  this  old  servant  of  the  crown  may  be  read  in  the 
Pseudo-Sully,  7.  224,  among  other  things,  it  is  said  of  him  :  '  II  a  le 
cceur  gdne'reux ;  n'est  nullement  adonne'  a  Vavarice.' 
65  Seal.  Epp.  p.  272. 


200  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

and  therefore  his  position  would  call  for  great  circum- 
spection. 

The  office  which  the  dominant  party  had  thought  it 
worth  while  to  dispute,  and  which  had  been  variously 
intrigued  for  by  others  underhand,  by  interest,  and  by 
money66,  was  in  value  400  livres,  about  £35  sterling, 
per  annum.  It  was  the  pay  of  a  professor  in  a  pro- 
vincial university — a  classical,  not  a  law  professor, 
these  got  much  higher  stipends, — or  a  principal  regent 
in  a  provincial  college. 

The  official  title  was  '  Garde  de  la  librairie  du  roi,' 
'  keeper/  in  fact,  sub-librarian  under  the  '  Maltre  de  la 
librairie/  The  maltre  at  present  was  de  Thou,  a 
position  which  had  enabled  him,  at  the  last  moment,  to 
exert  a  deciding  influence  in  the  appointment  of  the 
garde.  The  office  of  maitre  had  been  created  by 
Francis  i.  in  1522.  It  was  intended  to  be,  and  had 
been  hitherto  regarded  as,  a  post  of  dignity,  the  highest 
literary  prize  in  the  realm.  It  carried  the  salary  of  a 
household  officer,  1200  livres,  about  £110  sterling,  and 
imposed  no  laborious  duties.  The  services  of  per- 
sonal attendance  and  administration  were  discharged 
by  the  keeper. 

The  library  was  not,  in  its  original  destination,  a 
public  library ;  it  was  the  king's  library,  and  had  been 
formed  for  the  use,  or  the  pride,  of  the  monarch.  It  is 
an  interesting  fact  in  the  life  of  the  unfortunate  Peter 
Ramus,  that  he  was  the  first  person  to  suggest  that  the 
books  should  be  removed  to  Paris,  to  be  made  useful  to 
the  learned.  The  primitive  nucleus  of  the  collection 
had  been  formed  in  the  chateau  at  Blois.  Francis  i.  had 
the  books  at  Blois  removed  to  Fontainebleau,  and  may 
be  considered  the  real  creator  of  the  library,  which  is 

56  Cas.  Ep.  376  :  'Cum  alii  gratia,  alii  pecunia,  rem  tentareut.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  201 

ow  the  bibliotheque  nationale,  by  the  vast  collections 
which  he  caused  to  be  made.  In  the  reign  of  Charles  TX, 
books  were  not  in  demand  at  court,  and  Ramus'  pro- 
position to  convert  the  king's  library  to  the  use  of  the 
public  was  graciously  acceded  to.  The  collection  was 
removed  to  Paris,  not  to  the  Louvre,  but  to  some  room 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  colleges,  though  the  pre- 
cise situation  is  not  ascertainable.  Like  our  own  royal 
library  during  the  reign  of  the  puritans,  the  library 
of  Francis  I.  ran  great  dangers  during  the  league. 
Gosselin,  who  had  come  with  it  from  Fontainebleau, 
was  in  charge  of  it  all  through  the  troubles,  and  has 
left  a  short  account  of  its  escape 67.  Casaubon  used  to 
chafe  at  Gosselin  for  impeding  his  free  access  to  the 
books,  but  Gosselin's  experiences  are  his  sufficient 
excuse.  He  thanks  God  for  having  given  him  grace  to 
save  this  library  several  times  from  dispersion  or  ruin, 
and  notably  during  the  last  troubles,  when  some  of  the 
imps  of  the  league  would  have  forced  themselves  into 
the  place  under  colour  of  ordering  it  after  their  fashion. 
Gosselin,  thinking  that  they  would  have  more  liberty 
to  do  mischief  if  he  were  there,  than  if  he  were  out  of 
the  way,  withdrew  to  the  royalist  head-quarters,  at 
S.  Denis,  fastening  the  door  of  the  library  with  a  strong 
lock,  and  besides  with  a  padlock  attached  to  a  stout 
bar  of  iron  on  the  inside.  So  effectually  had  Gosselin 
secured  the  door  that  de  Nully  was  unable  to  force  it 
open,  and  was  compelled  to  break  a  hole  in  the  wall  to 
get  in.  He  was  there  several  times  with  his  folk,  and 
each  time  they  were  seen  to  retire  carrying  pretty  big 

67  Gosselin's  own  narrative  has  been  found  recently.  It  is  a  memo- 
randum written  on  the  first  page  of  a  MS,  La  Marguerite  of  Jean 
Massue.  It  has  been  printed  in  Bulletin  du  bibliophile,  1871, 
P-  4i5- 


202  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

packages  away  under  their  cloaks.  Barrabas  (Bar- 
nabas) Brisson,  who  however  might  plead  that  he  knew 
how  to  use  books,  more  decently  borrowed  a  great 
many.  After  his  unhappy  end,  his  widow  sold  them  for 
a  mere  song.  After  the  surrender  of  Paris  to  Henri  iv, 
Gosselin  returned  to  find  the  havoc  which  had  been 
committed.  But  the  perils  of  the  library  were  not  yet 
at  an  end 68.  A  claimant  arose  for  the  whole  collection 
in  the  person  of  the  cardinal  Bourbon,  who  said  that 
Henri  in.  had  given  it  to  him.  It  required  an  inter- 
position of  despotic  authority  on  the  part  of  Henri  iv. 
to  vindicate  it  as  an  heirloom  of  the  crown.  He  sent 
the  claimant  word  that  '  he  (the  king)  could  take  better 
care  of  it  than  could  the  cardinal,  and  that  the  cardinal 
was  rich  enough  to  buy  himself  another.'  After  a 
series  of  adventures  of  this  character,  we  can  hardly 
wonder  if  Gosselin  forgot  everything  except  the  safe 
custody  of  his  treasures. 

When  the  Jesuits  were  expelled  from  Paris,  1595, 
the  college  of  Clermont,  rue  S.  Jacques,  was  appro- 
priated for  the  reception  of  the  books,  and  the  revenues 
of  the  college,  not  very  considerable,  were  laid  out  in 
binding.  De  Thou  obtained  a  rich  accession  for  the 
library  in  the  books  of  Catherine  de  Medicis.  These, 
chiefly  MSS,  many  greek,  gathered  in  Italy,  had  be- 
longed to  marshal  Strozzi.  Catherine,  who  had  sump- 
tuous tastes,  had  bought  the  collection  from  Strozzi's 
heirs.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  they  had  not,  at 
her  death,  been  paid  for.  As  she  did  not  leave  any- 
thing, 69  *  pas  meme  .un  seul  sol/  the  creditors  seized 
the  books,  or  would  have  done  so,  but  for  the  abbe  de 

58  Sylloge  scriptorum,  Thuana,  p.  200. 
9  Brant ome,  i.  85. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  203 

Bellebranche,  who  saved  them  till  they  also  were 
claimed  by  Henri  iv,  and  united  with  the  royal  books 
in  the  college  of  Clermont  in  1599.  Here  the  library 
remained  from  October  1595  to  1605.  In  this  year, 
the  first  of  Casaubon's  librarianship,  the  Jesuits  re- 
covered their  college,  and  would  have  been  well  pleased 
to  keep  the  books  too.  They  said  they  had  lost  a  good 
library  by  confiscation,  and  would  have  to  form  another. 
But  de  Thou  and  Casaubon  were  able  to  save  the  books, 
though  they  had  to  evacuate  the  building,  and  they 
removed  their  treasures  to  an  empty  hall  in  the  great 
convent  of  the  Cordeliers,  famous  in  1790,  and  which 
occupied  the  site  of  the  present  ecole  de  me'decine70. 
It  was  close  to  the  porte  S.  Germain,  and  to  the  city 
wall.  After  Casaubon,  the  guardian  lived  in  the  library. 
But  it  was  not  possible  for  a  married  man  to  live 
within  the  enceinte  of  a  Franciscan  convent,  and  Cas- 
aubon had  to  hire  an  apartment  close  by ;  '  vis-a-vis  des 
Cordeliers,'  his  letters  are  addressed.  This  was  the 
seventh  removal  that  he  had  undergone  in  less  than 
seven  years  since  his  first  arrival  in  Paris.  He  com- 
plains that  now  he  could  no  longer  find  his  own  books, 
he  had  so  often  placed  and  replaced  them  in  a  different 
arrangement.  This  house,  outside  the  porte  S.  Ger- 
main, and  therefore  in  the  faubourg,  not  in  the  city,  is 
the  house  which  was  remembered  in  after  times  as 
Casaubon's  house71.  For  this  house  he  says  he  paid 
500  livres. 

It  must  have  been  with  peculiar  gratification  that 
Casaubon,  who  all  his  life  had  been  thirsting  for  books, 
found  so  rich  a  treasure  all  at  once  at  his  uncontrolled 
disposition.  In  greek  MSS.  the  king's  library  was  then, 

70  The  mus^e  Dupuytren  stands  on  the  site  of  the  refectory. 

71  See  above,  p.  171. 


204  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

as  it  still  is,  second  only  to  the  Vatican.  The  actual 
number  of  MSS.  in  the  united  libraries  was  considerable; 
but  as  there  was  no  complete  catalogue,  and  no  nume- 
ration, the  quantity  was  as  usual  exaggerated  by  the 
anticipations  of  the  learned  world.  A  catalogue,  which 
was  compiled  by  Casaubon's  successor,  Eigault,  in  1620, 
informs  us  that  the  total  of  the  Foiitainebleau  collection 
was  upwards  of  4700  MSS.  But  of  these  the  greater 
part  were  modern  papers,  charters,  records,  and  state 
documents.  At  least  260  of  these  were  greek  MSS,  for 
the  old  catalogue  of  Vergecio  (circ.  1550)  vouches  for 
that  number.  To  these  must  be  added  Catherine's 
books.  These  numbered  4500  volumes,  of  which  800 
— the  Strozzi  coUection — were  MSS,  greek,  latin,  or 
hebrew.  But  the  interest  excited  by  the  deposit  was 
occasioned  not  so  much  by  the  number  of  volumes,  as 
by  the  fact  that  the  MSS.  had  been  only  partially 
examined.  During  a  librarianship  of  forty-four  years 
Gosselin  had  not  accomplished  the  task  of  making  a 
catalogue.  If  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  this  laches 
substantiates  Scaliger's  charge  of  ignorance,  and  that 
Gosselin  did  not  catalogue  the  MSS.  because  he  could 
not,  we  may  remember  that  he  was  no  longer  young 
when  he  was  first  appointed,  that  the  books  were  imme- 
diately removed  from  Fontainebleau  to  narrow  rooms, 
that  they  were  shifted  and  shifted  again,  that  these 
years  were  years  of  trouble  and  confusion,  especially  in 
the  capital,  and  that  the  keeper  received  a  mere  pittance 
for  his  services.  Casaubon,  himself  acting  librarian  for 
six  years,  and  titular  for  more,  does  not  seem  to  have 
attempted  a  catalogue,  though  he  complained  much 
before  he  succeeded  to  the  office  of  the  imperfections  of 
that  which  existed. 

The  expectation  of  the  learned  as  to  the  find  which 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  205 

awaited  them  was  unlimited.  The  demand  came  not 
from  France,  sunk  in  religious  and  political  party,  but 
from  foreign  countries.  Lying  in  the  heart  of  the 
colleges  and  convents  of  Paris,  the  classical  treasures 
were  unheeded  by,  and  were  unintelligible  to,  their 
occupants.  Federic  Morel,  regius  professor,  alone  con- 
tinued to  issue  from  his  press  a  series  of  greek  tractates 
transcribed  or  edited  from  the  MSS,  far  too  rapidly  to  be 
done  with  any  care.  It  was  from  Leyden  and  from 
Germany  that  the  requisitions  poured  in.  Scaliger,  of 
course,  was  among  the  most  urgent.  But  Scaliger 
now,  set.  64,  was  weighed  down  by  his  vast  work — 
the  Eusebius — and  asked  only  for  what  immediately 
bore  upon  the  task  which  he  sometimes  feared  he 
should  not  live  to  complete.  One  of  Casaubon's  first 
cares  was  to  send  off  to  Leyden  some  excerpta  of  a  greek 
chronologer  *,  which  he  had  discovered,  and  thought 
might  be  of  use.  Scaliger  immediately  recognised  por- 
tions of  book  i.  of  Eusebius'  Chronicon,  and  considered 
it  the  most  valuable  contribution  which  had  been  made 
to  his  Thesaurus  temporum — 72'the  Minerva  of  Phidias 
among  the  other  sculptures/  Besides  Scaliger  he 
supplied  Heinsius  at  Leyden,  Gruter  and  Freher  at 
Heidelberg,  Hoeschel  at  Augsburg,  and  Savile  at  Eton 
with  materials  or  collations  for  their  publications.  He 
complains  much  of  the  consumption  of  time  in  these 
friendly  offices,  though  he  now  began  to  have  the  im- 
portant assistance  of  Charles  Labbe.  Labbe  was  one  of 
the  troop  of  young  scholars  formed  in  the  school  of 
Scaliger,  who,  while  refusing  the  professor's  chair,  sowed 
the  seeds  of  learning  wherever  he  came  in  contact  with 

*  See  note  D  in  Appendix. 

72  Seal.  epp.  p.  292:  '  Fragmentum  illud  TO>V  (rraStoviKcov,  quod  nobis 
liberalitas  tua  impertivit,  est  ut  Minerva  Phidise  in  nostro  opere.' 


206  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

a  capable  mind.  Labbe — 73  docte  et  infatigable — trans- 
cribed for  his  master,  in  a  greek  hand  of  such  exquisite 
neatness  that  it  surpasses,  in  this  respect,  that  of  the 
master  himself,  while  Casaubon  writes  a  straggling 
greek74,  which  can  have  given  him  no  satisfaction  in 
the  transcriber's  weary  task. 

But  of  this  work  he  did  little.  While  Scaliger  im- 
posed upon  himself  the  task  of  writing  out  whole 
books — 75 '  books  which  are  only  lent  me  for  a  short  time, 
syriac,  arabic,  hebrew,'  and  that  at  65,  when  the  'labour 
will  profit  only  those  who  shall  possess  my  library  after 
me/  Casaubon,  though  he  noted  much,  copied  little. 
The  longest  excerpt  remaining  among  his  papers  is 
a  portion  of  Leo's  Tactica,  transcribed  in  the  country 
in  the  vintage  season  of  1609.  The  use  he  made  of  the 
library  was  one,  which  no  librarian  ought  to  make — 
it  was  to  read  the  books.  Casaubon,  indeed,  was 
what  he  was  by  his  incessant  reading,  seconded 
by  a  capacious  memory.  Early  in  life  he  had  made 
his  own  all  the  classical  remains  accessible  in  print. 
He  had  pined  in  the  south  because  he  could  not 
get  books,  though  he  borrowed  from  all  his  friends 
who  had  them.  Exhaustive  reading  of  the  greek  and 
latin  writers  was  what  he  proposed  to  himself.  When 
he  first  came  to  Paris,  not  knowing  how  short  his 
stay  might  prove,  he  made  the  resolve  to  read 
those  books  which  he  could  not  hope  to  get  else- 
where76. His  written  memoranda  as  well  as  his  pub- 
lished notes  bear  witness  to  the  eagerness  with  which 
he  devoured  the  royal  MSS77. 

73  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  134. 

7*  Seal.  2a.  p.  45  :  '  II  a  uiie  trbs  mauvaise  lettre  grecque.' 

75  Seal.  Ep.  p.  299.  76  Eph.  p.  340. 

77  Eph.  p.  339  :  '  Libris  nostris  renunciamus,  soils  illis  operam  daturi, 


Tf,  will 


PARIS.      1600  —  1610.  207 


It  will  not  therefore  surprise  us  to  find  that  he  did 
nothing  for  arranging  or  cataloguing,  hardly  anything 
for  publishing  new  texts.  The  librarian  who  reads  is 
lost.  There  was  now  at  his  disposal  a  rich  mine  of 
greek  anecdota.  But  he  left  the  glory  of  communi- 
cating these  to  the  world  to  Meursius  and  Morel.  His 
own  pleasure  was  to  read  them  ;  who  liked  might  print 
them.  For  he  has  no  jealousy,  none  of  that  desire  of 
keeping  things  for  himself  which  used  to  govern  all 
libraries,  and  still  lingers,  if  report  be  true,  about  the 
Vatican.  When  any  correspondent  asked  for  any 
book,  he  tried  to  find  it,  but  he  never  made  any 
thorough  and  complete  investigation,  once  for  all,  of 
what  was  there,  much  less  a  catalogue.  In  1608 
Hoeschel  applied  to  him  for  MSS.  of  Arrianus.  Though 
Casaubon  had  then  been  nearly  four  years  in  full 
possession  of  the  library,  he  did  not  know  if  there 
were  any  MSS.  of  Arrianus,  but  would  look78.  He  found, 
on  searching,  at  least  two.  As  late  as  1607,  in  reply  to 
Scaliger's  urgent  entreaty  for  any  fragments  of  a  chron- 
ological nature,  he  says  he  will  have  a  good  search 
through  all  the  cases.  He  began  to  have  access  to  the 
books,  though  restricted  access,  in  1599.  From  1605  to 
October  1 6 1  o,  the  library  was  wholly  at  his  disposal,  yet 
the  only  anecdotum  he  publishes  is  ^Eneas  Tacticus79. 
The  selection  of  this  author  was  not  determined  by  the 
value  of  the  royal  library  codex.  What  he  found  there 
was  only  a  modern  sixteenth  century  transcript  by 
Vergecio,  and  Casaubon  had  in  his  own  hands  a  much 
older  MS,  which  had  been  lent  him  by  Bongars. 

quos  alibi  nancisci  non  possemus,  hie  possumus  segre  quidem,  sed  tamen 
possumus.  hujus  generis  sunt  libri  regise  bibliothecae.'         78  Ep.  607. 

79  Commentarius  tacticus  et  obsidionalis,  in  the  Polybius  of  1609. 
It  is  the  Ed.  Pr.  of  the  text  of  ^Eneas. 


208  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

A  large  part  of  these  years  was  given  to  his  edition 
of  Polybius.  This  again  was  a  choice  not  guided  by 
the  merit  of  the  royal  MSS.  It  was  an  old  design  of 
Casaubon  to  edit  Polybius,  an  intention  which  he  had 
announced  as  far  back  as  1595,  and  indeed  had  pub- 
licly pledged  himself  to  in  the  first  Suetonius80.  Here 
again  he  only  used  from  the  royal  collection  a  modern 
MS  81,  again  one  of  Vergecio's  copies,  and  indeed  nothing 
more  than  a  transcript,  made  in  1 547,  from  the  printed 
text  of  Opsopaeus'  edition,  though  Casaubon  did  not 
know  this.  This  neglect  of  good  things  would  be 
more  amazing  if  it  were  the  fact  that  cod.  reg.  1648 
(A.  Sch weigh.)  was  actually  among  Catherine's  books, 
and  that  Casaubon  had  not  found  it  out. 

Besides  his  Polybius,  and  ^Eneas  Tacticus,  he  prints 
during  this  period  two  inedited  pieces,  but  neither  of 
them  from  royal  MSS.  One  was  the  '  Inscriptio  Hero- 
dis/  which  he  printed  from  a  copy  sent  from  Eome  to 
Gillot  by  Christophe  Du  Puy ;  the  other  was  an  epistle 
of  Gregorius  of  Nyssa  from  a  MS.  of  Nicolas  le  Fevre. 
All  this  while  he  had  untold  treasures  under  his  hand, 
e.g.  the  'De  administrando  imperio'  of  Constantinus 
Porphyrogeneta,  which  he  names  himself  as  worthy  of 
publication  by  royal  command82.  He  himself  was 
content  to  have  read  it.  He  describes  his  own  feel- 
ings among  the  MSS.  when  he  writes  to  Saumaise, 
who  was  revelling  in  the  treasures  of  the  Palatine, 
yet  unplundered,  that  83<he  must  be  suffering  the 
torment  of  Tantalus,  not  being  able  to  read  all  the 
books  at  once.' 

80  Sueton.  Tib.  cap.  65,  and  ded. 

81  Cod.  reg.  1649.  82  Prsef.  in  Polyb. 

3  Ep.  543  :  '  Videor  mihi  videre  te  in  mediis  aquis  Tantalo  simi- 
lem ;  neque  enim  potes  omnibus  perfrui  Palatinse  bibliothecse  divitiis.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  209 

When  Casaubon  succeeded  to  the  care  of  the  library 
he  was  only  forty-six.  Though  premature  infirmity 
had  already  begun  to  undermine  his  strength,  he  had 
still  an  enormous  appetite  for  reading,  but  his  taste 
was  gradually  taking  a  direction  which  was  leading 
him  away  from  greek.  He  did  not  conceive  that  he 
was  renouncing  old  studies  to  take  up  with  new.  He 
continued  to  labour  at  Polybius,  and  expended  much 
time  and  research  on  his  edition.  But  his  leisure  hours, 
as  he  calls  them,  were  given  to  controversial  reading, 
and  his  interests  were  passing  over,  in  spite  of  himself, 
to  this,  the  fashionable,  topic. 

It  has  been  already  noticed  that  Casaubon  suffered, 
all  his  life,  from  the  disease  of  double-mindedness.  He 
was  a  man  of  a  divided  interest — avr/p  Styvxos.  While 
he  was  reading  classics,  he  was  always  wishing  to  be 
reading  the  fathers.  While  editing  Athenasus  he  was 
longing  to  have  done  with  it,  that  he  might  give  him- 
self to  Christian  antiquity.  The  literary  gossips  have 
put  upon  this  fact  the  vulgar  interpretation,  that  he 
was  fluctuating  in  his  choice  between  the  rival 
churches.  The  truth  is,  he  was  staying  himself  in  a 
learned  equilibrium  between  opposite  fanaticisms — 
the  biblical  and  the  ecclesiastical.  In  order  to  hold 
his  own  in  the  midst  of  the  fray,  he  was  compelled 
to  bestow  no  little  attention  on  the  facts  involved. 
He  had  to  articulate  the  argument,  and,  against  such 
an  adversary  as  Du  Perron,  to  defend  it  by  citation 
from  the  authoritative  books.  Thus  the  kind  of  reading 
which  he  secretly  liked  was  stimulated  by  an  external 
necessity,  while  the  study  of  the  classics  had  to  be  sus- 
tained in  the  face  of  total  neglect  on  the  part  of  the 
|public.  The  inward  strife  of  conflicting  tastes  is 
[common  to  all  gifted  natures  in  youth.  But  it  is 

p 


210  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

usually  composed  long  before  mid-age  by  a  deliberate 
decision,  which  selects  for  good  one  goal.  That  youthful 
state  of  mind  which  Donne83  describes  himself  as 
suffering  from,  'an  hydroptique  immoderate  desire  of 
humane  learning  and  languages/  either  dies  out,  or 
takes  some  specific  direction,  before  forty.  The  cir- 
cumstances into  which  Casaubon  was  thrown  by  his 
position  in  Paris  maintained  a  life-long  distraction 
between  two  tendencies. 

We  have  seen  the  assault  upon  his  religious  con- 
victions commence  with  his  arrival  in  Paris  in  1599. 
When  it  was  found  that  the  citadel  was  not  carried 
by  a  coup  de  main,  it  seemed  at  first  that  the  attacking 
party  retired  in  disgust.  The  king  was  angry,  and 
looked  coldly  upon  him.  Why  did  not  Casaubon  fulfil 
the  condition  on  which  he  had  been  brought  from  Mont- 
pellier  ?  They  had  made  so  sure  of  his  conversion  that 
they  told  the  duchesse  de  Bar,  the  king's  sister,  that  it 
was  quite  settled.  This  Casaubon  contradicted  inform, 
obtaining  an  audience  from  the  high  lady  for  the  pur- 
pose84. This  was  too  bad,  not  only  to  persist  himself, 
but  to  spoil  the  game  with  Madame.  Casaubon's  coming 
over  would  bring  many  others  with  him  ;  but  he  could 
not  be  allowed  to  go  about  confirming  other  heretics 
in  their  obstinacy.  He  must  be  dismissed  in  disgrace. 
Casaubon  had  made  up  his  mind  that  so  it  must  be. 
Suddenly  the  policy  of  the  Jesuits  altered.  They  are 
all  smiles  and  blandishments.  Casaubon  85  writes  to 
Scaliger  in  October,  1604: — 

*  I  must  now  tell  you  that  things  are  changed  with 

83  Donne,  Letters,  p.  51. 

84  Eph.  p.  378  :  '  Venimus  ad  rfjv  SeWoii/av,  et  sine  fuco  et  fallaciis 
quid  de  recta  fide     .     .     .     judicaremus,  prolixe  exposuimus/ 

86  Ep.  416. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  211 

me  here ;  I  who  was  an  object  of  hate  to  the  loyolites 
for  my  steadiness  in  the  profession  of  pure  religion, 
am  now  become  their  dearest  friend.  Whether  I  am 
in  town,  or  retired  into  the  country,  I  must  be  among 
them,  and  converse  with  them.  Lately  I  had  a  visit 
from  Gonter,  with  I  know  not  how  many  bishops  ; 
next  day,  when  I  was  deep  in  my  books,  coxes  Fronto 
le  Due.  ...  He  had  no  sooner  saluted  me,  than  he 
began  to  tell  me  he  was  sent  by  the  king  with  orders 
to  press  it  upon  me,  as  a  thing  which  the  king  had 
very  much  at  heart.  I  made  them  all  the  same  answer, 
to  the  effect,  viz.  That  truth  had  always  been  my  one 
aim ;  that  I  would  always  be  ready  to  consider  and 
weigh  all  real  arguments  which  could  be  advanced, 
but  that  promises  of  favour  from  my  prince  would 
have  no  weight  whatever  in  such  a  matter.  I  ex- 
pressed my  surprise  that  after  the  emphatic  proofs  I 
had  already  given  of  my  firmness  in  my  present  con- 
victions, any  further  attempt  should  be  made  upon  me/ 
The  explanation  of  this  change  of  tactic  was  that 
the  Jesuits  had  seen  that  the  vulgar  motives  of  royal 
favour,  and  pension,  which  sufficed  in  so  many  cases, 
would  not  succeed  with  Casaubon.  He  was  ready, 
if  need  were,  to  give  up  his  place  and  go  into  exile. 
He  not  only  declared  this,  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
he  was  man  enough  to  do  it.  But  the  wily  emis- 
saries of  Rome,  who  have  always  piqued  themselves 
upon  their  knowledge  of  men,  saw,  or  thought  they 
saw,  that  the  case  was  not  hopeless  for  all  that. 
There  was  a  side  of  Casaubon  on  which  he  was 
assailable.  This  was  his  learning.  He  knew  too 
much  to  go  in  for  all  the  untenable  notions  of  his 
own  church  and  friends.  On  a  rude  unlettered  pastor, 
who  knew  nothing  but  his  french  bible  and  Calvin's 

p  2 


212  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

Institutes,  there  was  no  prize.  But  a  learned  man, 
who  appealed  to  antiquity,  who  admitted  the  fathers 
and  councils  as  authority,  must  be  to  be  had. 
Honestly  convinced  that  fathers  and  councils  were 
on  their  side,  the  Jesuits  conceived  that  they  had  but 
to  get  him  into  controversy,  to  show  him  that  the 
fact  was  BO,  in  order  to  convince  him  of  his  error, 
and  bring  him  to  renounce  it.  He  himself  had  said 
he  would  do  so. 

It  was  in  this  way  that  Casaubon  was  drawn  into 
controversy,  and  through  controversy  to  interest,  and 
further  reading  on  the  controverted  points.  The 
management  of  the  business,  indeed,  passed  out  of 
the  immediate  hands  of  the  Jesuits.  The  most 
learned  man  they  had  at  the  moment  available  was 
Fronto  le  Due.  But  Fronto,  though  translator  and 
editor  of  greek  fathers,  and  notably  of  Chrysostom, 
had  not  strength  enough  to  cope  with  Casaubon. 
Du  Perron  was  obliged  to  be  called  in.  It  was  im- 
possible for  Casaubon  to  decline  frequent  encounters 
with  *  the  archsophist.'  The  cardinal,  as  grand  au- 
monier,  had  a  general  superintendence  over  the 
publication  of  theological  books.  Casaubon' s  library 
duties  brought  him  into  constant  intercourse  with 
him86.  Notwithstanding  his  many  defeats  and  disap- 
pointments, these  reunions  were  used  unceasingly  by 
Du  Perron  for  controversy, — by  the  king's  command, 

86  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  what  was  the  nature  of  the 
authority  which  cardinal  Du  Perron  exercised  over  the  library.  The 
editor  of  the  splendid  History,  too  splendid  for  use,  issued  from  the 
Imprimerie  imp^riale,  knows  nothing  of  it.  But  it  is  clear  from 
Casaubun's  correspondence,  that,  in  some  way,  Du  Perron  was  his 
official  superior.  See  Cas.  epp.  ep.  652,  ep.  624.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  Eph.  p.  666,  he  says  on  one  occasion  when  the  cardinal  sent  for 
him,  that  it  was  '  nomine  regis.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  213 

he  said.  Scaliger  thought  it87  not  unlikely  that  this 
was  true,  looking  at  Casaubon's  great  reputation,  and 
Henri's  eager  desire  to  please  the  pope.  *  He  thinks 
if  he  could  only  vanquish  you,  and  suspend  the 
spoils  of  your  firmness  on  the  fisherman's  doors,  that 
it  would  greatly  increase  his  credit  among  his  trans- 
tiberine  friends/ 

A  letter  of  Casaubon,  written  in  1604,  gives  us  an 
insight  into  the  trouble  occasioned  him  by  the  state 
of  siege  in  which  he  was  compelled  to  live88 : — 

'If  I  had  attached  the  importance  to  these  dis- 
putations which  I  find  others  do,  I  would  have 
taken  care  that  you  should  have  heard  from  myself 
what  took  place  on  the  occasion.  Being  invited 
lately  to  breakfast  by  cardinal  Perron,  he  started  a 
desultory  discussion  on  religious  subjects.  I  own  I 
was  surprised  at  this,  for  for  some  years  past  he  has 
not  opened  his  mouth  to  me  on  these  matters  at  all, 
and  I  perceived  that  it  was  a  plot  directed  against 
my  simplicity,  and  originating  with  some  other  per- 
sons who  were  at  table.  Be  this  as  it  may,  I  was 
in  for  what  became  a  very  lively  controversy.  And 

87  Seal.  epp.  p.  271  :  *Non  parvam  lauclem  putat  apud  transtibe- 
rinos  fore,  si  spolium  constantly  vestrae  ad  illos  referat,  quod  e  valvia 
piscatoris  aliquando  pendeat.' 

88  Ep.  420.     This  interesting  letter  was  printed  by  Gronovius,  in 
1638,  as  addressed  to  an  anonymous  correspondent,  N.  N.  Almeloveen 
in  reprinting  it,   1709,  appended  to  it  a  note  of  Colomie's,  in  which 
it  is  conjectured  that  the  correspondent  was  Paul  Petau.     The  con- 
jecture is  wrong.     The  letter  was  really  addressed  to  de  Thou,  and 
the    original   is    still  to  be  seen   in   the  MS.    volume    of   Casaubon's 
letters  to  de  Thou,  Bibl.  nat.  coll.  Dupuy,  708.     The  disclosure  of  the 
desperate  attempts  to  get  over  Casaubon,  and  their  failure,  was  still  in 
1638  a  matter  sufficiently  delicate  to  make  it  desirable  to  suppress  the 
name  of  de  Thou,  as  Casaubon's  confidant  on  the  subject. 


214  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

I  was  led  to  suspect  that  many  of  the  company,  who 
were  net  in  the  secret,  supposed  this  to  be  one  <  f 
those  farcical  disputations  which  they  get  up,  and 
was  concerted  with  me,  to  give  a  colour  to  my  con- 
version. And  it  so  fell  out,  that  immediately  the 
party  broke  up,  the  rumour  was  bruited  about  the 
town  that  I  had  given  in,  and  that  my  conversion 
was  now  imminent.  At  first  I  tried  to  laugh  it  off. 
And,  indeed,  I  cannot  but  think  it  ridiculous  to  make 
a  serious  n  atter  out  of  one's  conversation  at  table. 
But,  finding  that  my  character  was  at  stake,  I  was 
obliged  to  write  to  the  cardinal  a  letter  of  expostula- 
tion, of  which  letter  I  enclose  you  a  copy,  reserving 
further  particulars  for  our  next  meeting/ 

Compelled  thus  to  encounter  an  adversary  whose 
learning  he  respected 89,  and  whose  argumentative 
dexterity  embarrassed  him,  it  was  impossible  for 
Casaubon  not  to  give  some  time  to  theological  read- 
ing. It  grew  upon  him  as  the  struggle  intensified, 
and  came  to  occupy  more  and  more  of  his  thoughts. 
He  had  always  been  longing  for  the  time  when  he 
might  steep  himself  in  Christian  antiquity,  and  now 
the  subject  was  forced  upon  him.  90 '  O  that  some 
man  would  arise,'  he  cries  in  1 606,  '  who  would 
revive  the  study  of  true  ecclesiastical  archaeology ! ' 

89  Casaubon  always  speaks  with  respect  of  Du  Perron's  reading,  and 
with  something  like  awe  of  his  controversial  ability.  The  Italian 
biographer  of  Fra  Paolo,  Engl.  transl.  p.  61,  says  of  the  cardinal, 
'  truly  that  elevated  spirit  of  his  had  an  argute  manner  of  disputing 
and  extremely  provocative,'  a  description  identical  with  Casaubon's, 
Ep.  214:  TTJS  <ro(ptcrTucfi$  reptipfias  rpifiav.  Thus  he  was  more  power- 
ful as  a  disputant  than  as  a  writer,  yet  his  controversial  books  are 
singled  out  by  Jer.  Taylor,  Dissuasive,  6.  486,  as  '  the  more  learned 
answers  of  Bellarmine  and  Perron,'  in  contrast  to  'the  more  weak 
answers  offered.'  *°  Ep.  518. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  215 

There  was  store  of  patristic  greek  in  the  royal 
library,  which  Casaubon  could  have  approached,  as 
no  one  has  yet  approached  it,  with  a  complete  read- 
ing of  pagan  antiquity.  Here  was  his  true  occu- 
pation, one  in  which  he  might  have  satisfied  at  once 
both  of  the  instincts  which  divided  him.  Instead  of 
this,  he  was  driven  to  Polybius,  and  to  the  transcription 
of  the  military  writers,  an  alien  subject,  to  which  he 
could  bring  but  a  factitious  interest.  From  his  own 
peculiar  field  he  was  excluded  by  the  theologians, 
who  would  not  allow  a  heretic  to  handle  the  fathers91. 
His  own  Chrysostom,  of  whom  there  were  sixty  MSS. 
in  the  royal  library,  was  forbidden  to  Casaubon,  and 
reserved  for  Fronto  le  Due. 

For  Casaubon' s  efforts  were  not  wholly  in  vain.  It 
would  not  do  to  have  this  heretic  librarian  going  about 
saying,  that  the  king's  collection  was  full  of  most 
valuable  greek  MSS.  of  the  fathers,  that  he  was 
desirous  to  print  them,  but  that  the  clergy  would  not 
let  him.  What  made  it  worse  was  that  he  was  the  one 
man  most  competent  in  France, — in  the  world — for 
the  work.  Something  must  be  done.  Would  the 
king  not  find  the  funds  necessary  for  an  undertaking 
which  would  be  so  glorious  for  his  reign  1  Ask 
Sully,  who  grudged  Casaubon's  keep  already,  thought 
'he  cost  the  king  too  much,'  if  he  would  pay  for 
printing  the  fathers?  Would  he  not  reply  by  asking, 
Why  don't  you  do  it  yourselves  out  of  your  rich 
benefices,  you  bishops  and  abbots  ?  Such  a  public- 
spirited  act  would  shed  great  lustre  on  the  church!' 
If  the  mass  of  the  dignified  clergy  were  little  likely 

11  Ep.  509  :  '  Editionem  patrum  hie  curare  non  possum,  quia  non 
permittitur  homini  hseretico  id  genus  librorum  attingere,  multo  minus 
quicquam  adjicere  mearuui  observationum.'  Cf.  ep!  647. 


216  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

to  listen  to  such  a  suggestion,  there  was  a  small 
minority  among  the  bishops  possessed  of  sufficient 
culture  to  think  it  not  quite  absurd.  In  an  assembly 
which  they  held  in  Paris  in  1606,  it  was  suggested 
that  as  the  estate  of  the  clergy  had  just  received  a 
remission  of  their  tenths  from  the  crown,  to  the  amount 
of  400000  crowns,  a  portion  of  this  sum  might  be  de- 
voted to  printing  the  fathers.  No  more,  however,  could 
be  extracted  than  2000  crowns,  to  which,  by  cardinal  Du 
Perron's  influence,  was  afterwards  added  another  thou- 
sand. Fortified  with  this  small  subvention  a  bookseller, 
01.  Morel,  engaged  to  bring  out  the  works  of  Chrysos- 
tom.  As  the  Eton  Chrysostom  (1612)  cost  sir  H.  Savile 
£8000  sterling  to  produce,  it  is  clear  that  Morel  must  have 
relied  on  the  sale  to  the  public  to  repay  his  expenses. 

But  though  Casaubon  might  not  use  the  MSS.  of 
the  royal  library,  he  might  use  others,  and  nothing 
could  interfere  with  his  printing  in  a  foreign  country. 
His  earliest  essay  in  patristic  criticism  he  thus  speaks 
of  in  1596,  in  writing  to  Bongars,  92<I  had  begun 
lately  to  put  together  in  a  book,  "Observations  on 
the  ecclesiastical  writers ; "  but  I  afterwards  forebore  ; 
well  enough,  methinks,  is  soon  enough/  It  was  not  till 
1605  that  he  stole  into  the  world,  unobtrusively, 
almost  timidly,  with  a  first  essay  in  this  forbidden 
walk.  His  friend  Hoeschel  was  publishing  at  Augs- 
burg, '  Origen  against  Celsus,'  a  greek  text  then  un- 
printed,  setting  herein,  with  far  inferior  resources,  an 
example  of  what  might  have  been  done  in  Paris. 
The  treatise  was  to  be  accompanied  by  the  eloge  of 
Gregorius  of  Neocaesareia  on  Origen,  which  had  been 
once  before  printed,  in  a  very  bad  state,  in  1587. 
The  text  of  this  last  piece  Hoeschel  communicated  to 
92  Ep.  433- 


i 


PAfrfS.     1600  —  1610.  217 

Casaubon,  who  sent  back  a  few  pages  of  emenda- 
tions. Hoeschel,  glad  to  adorn  his  book  with  Casaubon' s 
name,  printed  these  notes  along  with  Casaubon's  letter 
at  the  end  of  his  volume.  Being  purely  critical,  they 
excited  no  attention  in  Paris,  and  were  so  little 
known  at  all,  that  Meric  even 93  had  never  seen  them  *. 
In  the  next  year,  1606,  grown  more  bold,  he  ventured 
print  in  Paris,  and  with  his  name,  a-  little  volume 
mtainirig  an  inedited  epistle  of  Gregorius  of  Nyssa, 
with  a  preface  and  notes.  It  was  published  by  his 
cousin  and  friend  Eobert  Estienne,  in  partnership  with 
the  heirs  of  Patisson.  It  attracted  some  attention,  as 
having  the  name  of  Casaubon  on  the  title.  Lestoile 
mentions  it94  as  'bien  digne  d'estre  recueilliee/  and 
it  was  cheap  enough,  being  sold,  bound  in  parchment, 
for  a  quarter  of  a  crown.  But  if  Lestoile,  or  the 
public,  expected  a  theological  manifesto  they  were 
disappointed.  The  notes  are  not  theological,  but 
illustrative  and  interpretative  only.  The  different 
usage  of  the  same  word  by  the  ecclesiastical,  and  by 
the  classical  writers,  is  often  richly  exemplified.  Yet 
there  are  allusions  which  show  how  full  the  editors 
mind  was  of  the  present.  There  is  an  oblique  glance, 
p.  60,  at  the  '  invent iuncul se  humanse  mentis '  on  the 
subject  of  pilgrimage.  And  the  preface  is  altogether 
a  concealed  allusion  to  the  circumstances  of  the  day, 
for  it  is  a  recommendation  to  concord  among  Chris- 
tians. In  the  sensitive  state  of  the  public  mind  in 
Paris,  to  insinuate  that  the  huguenots  were  Christians 
was  a  spark  on  gunpowder.  Casaubon  was  admon- 
ished, and  given  to  understand  that  his  position  as  li- 
brarian and  king's  pensioner  must  not  be  used  for  the 
83  Pietas,  p.  98.  *  See  note  D  in  Appendix. 

94  Registre-journal,  p.  402. 


218  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

subversion  of  the  catholic  faith.  In  his  disappointment 
he  wrote  to  Vertunien95  that  'he  should  never  be  at 
rest  till  he  found  himself  in  a  free  country,  where 
he  might  have  liberty  to  reply  to  the  Jesuits.5  Casau- 
bon  had  only  himself  to  blame,  for  having  taken  the 
opportunity  of  a  greek  book  to  make  an  edifying 
application. 

If  he  might  not  write  as  a  protestant,  there  was 
another  controversy  on  foot,  in  which  he  thought  the 
*  king's  librarian '  might  without  rebuke  take  up  a 
pen.  The  old  debate  between  the  gallican  and  ultra- 
montane parties,  indigenous  to  french  soil,  had  just 
now  sprung  up  again  into  the  question  of  the  day, 
owing  to  the  struggle  going  on  between  Pius  v.  and 
the  republic  of  Venice.  The  gallican  party  in  Paris 
sympathised  keenly  with  the  republic  in  its  courageous 
resistance,  and  were  desirous  of  having  an  argument 
on  the  principle  drawn  for  circulation  in  France. 
Casaubon  had,  independently,  from  his  own  point  of 
view,  read  with  keen  interest  the  books  and  pamphlets 
which  inundated  the  press  in  these  years.  He  had 
been96  especially  attracted  by  those  of  Fra  Paolo,  the 
Servite,  in  which  he  recognised  the  flavour  of  that 
ecclesiastical  science,  which  was  his  own  unattainable 
ideal.  The  distance  between  the  real  learning  of 
Casaubon,  and  the  disputative  energy  of  Du  Perron 
may  be  measured  by  their  respective  judgments  on 

05  Ep.  frang.  p.  524:  'Mondict  sieur  Casaubon  m'a  mandd  qu'il 
n'auroit  jamais  repos  en  son  ame  qu'il  ne  se  veit  en  lieu  libre  pour 
respondre  aux  calomnies  et  impostures  des  Jdsuistes.' 

96  Ep,  542.  Gas.  to  Scaliger  :  '  Vidistine,  obsecro,  quse  Venetiis  pro- 
diere  scripta  a  paucis  mensibus  ?  prsesertim  magni  illius  Pauli  Veneti 
.  .  .  ego  cum  ilia  lego,  spe  nescio  qua  ducor,  futurum  illic  ali- 
quando  et  literis  sacris,  et  meliori  literature  locum.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  219 

Fra  Paolo.  'I  met  Fra  Paolo  at  Venice/  said  the 
cardinal97,  'I  saw  nothing  eminent  about  him  ;  he  has 
good  judgment  and  good  sense,  but  no  great  knowledge' 
Casaubon  was  easily  prevailed  upon  to  undertake 
the  subject,  as  that  which  he  would  have  preferred 
was  closed  to  him.  But  as  a  protestant  name  would 
have  damaged  the  effect  of  the  book,  it  was  to  be 
anonymous,  after  the  precedent  of  Ranchin's  'Keview 
of  the  Council  of  Trent/  Casaubon  himself  is  careful 
not  to  tell  his  correspondents  what  it  is  on  which  he 
is  engaged.  But  it  could  not  be  kept  altogether 
secret.  EC  rly  sheets  were  procured  by  the  nuncio 
during  the  progress  of  the  work,  and  Fra  Paolo 
wrote98  that  it  was  eagerly  expected  in  Venice. 
Casaubon  threw  himself  into  the  fray  with  zeal. 
The  pamphlet  was  becoming  a  book,  and  the  sheets 
were  printed  off  as  fact  as  they  were  written. 
Fifteen  sheets  were  already  thrown  off  when  the 
nuncio  interfered,  and  demanded  the  suppression  of 
the  book.  He  had  before  obtained  an  interdict  to 
stop  the  reprint  of  Gerson,  *  De  Potestate  ecclesiastica/ 
and  he  had  no  difficulty  in  now  procuring  an  inhibi- 
tion of  Casaubon's  book  ".  The  king  was  very  angry, 
'grandement  indigne/  and  Casaubon  was  fain  to  write 
a  letter  to  Villeroy  to  excuse  himself.  He  does  this 
as  well  as  he  can1,  but  cannot  deny  the  fact  that  he 

17  Perromana,  p.  259.  98  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  285. 

99  The  suggestion  that  Casaubon  should  be  engaged  to  write  came 
originally  from  Venice.  Camdeni  Epp.  ep.  65.  Becher  to  Camden, 
June  4,  1607  :  '  Monsieur  Casaubon  hath  two  pieces  coming  forth,  but 
neither  of  them  yet  finished,  Polybius,  and  another,  De  libertate  eccle- 
siastica,  at  the  instance  of  the  Venetian  ambassador ;  and  although 
their  difference  be  compounded,  yet  it  goeth  forward,  and  there  is 
great  expectation  of  it.'  Cf.  Cas.  ep.  882.  Burney  MSS.  363.  p.  93. 

1  %  557- 


220  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

has  been  writing  '  against  the  pope/  The  government 
of  Henri 2,  which  was  at  this  period  wholly  ultra- 
montane, seconded  the  nuncio.  The  'De  libertate 
ecclesiastica 3 '  remained  not  only  unprinted,  but  un- 
written. Some  copies,  however,  of  the  printed  sheets 
had  got  abroad,  and  from  one  of  these  Melchior 
Goldast  reprinted  the  fragment  in  Germany,  1612, 
and,  by  a  curious  coincidence,  in  the  same  collection 
of  tracts  which  contained  Gerson,  '  De  Potestate/ 

Casaubon  had  lost  much  precious  time  over  an 
abortive  scheme  ;  but  his  eagerness  for  the  fray  was 
not  abated.  He  wanted  to  write  a  review  of  Baronius' 
'  Annals/  This,  where  the  argument  was  not  political, 
where  the  discussion  turned  entirely  on  the  interpreta- 
tion of  ancient  authors,  was  Casaubon's  proper  territory. 
Here  he  might  expatiate  in  the  field  of  ecclesiastical 
archaeology  which  he  was  sighing  to  enter.  But  he 
could  not  do  it,  even  in  his  own  moderate  style,  without 
permission.  He  applied  for  this  permission  and  it  was 
refused ;  gently  indeed,  but  seriously  ;  '  the  time  was 
not  yet  come/  The  strictest  orders  had  been  issued  in 
Italy4  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  '  to  write  against 
Baronius ;'  an  order,  as  Fra  Paolo  remarks,  *  which 
shows  there  was  a  good  deal  to  be  said/  Father  Paul 

2  Michelet,  vol.  5.  p.  463,  thinks  that  Henri  iv.  desired  to  act  in 
favour  of  the  protestants  as  early  as  1600.  If  this  was  so,  it  coulc 
only  have  been  a  momentary  impulse.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  was  noi 
till  the  dispute  between  Venice  and  the  see  of  Rome,  that  a  Gallican 
party  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  France,  and  that  Henri  iv.  began  to 
lean  towards  it. 

8  The  fragment  De  Libertate  is  in  Goldasti  Monarchia  S.  Romani 
imperil,  Hanov.  1612.  vol.  i.  pp.  674-716. 

4  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  285.  Fra  Paolo  to  Cas. :  '.  .  .  ne  quid 
vel  minimum  contra  Baronium  scribatur,  vel  alibi  scriptum  in  Italiam 
importetur.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  221 


\  rould  have  answered  it  himself,  had  he  been  permitted, 
lut  Venice  soon  made  up  its  quarrel  with  Home,  and 
the  opportunity  was  past.  France  was  equally  under 
Ilornan  influence,  and  Casaubon  must  defer  his  criti- 
cism of  Baronius  to  a  later  day,  and  a  freer  country. 

Thus  precluded  from  the  topic  in  which  his  interests 
were  most  engaged,  Casaubon  was  compelled  to  fall 
back  upon  the  classics.  If  we  must  regret -that  Casau- 
bon laid  out  some  of  his  best  years  upon  Polybius,  we 
must  remember  that  he  was  driven  upon  it,  by  being 
debarred  from  the  better  work  he  would  have*  done, 
but  might  not. 

In  taking  up  Polybius,  he  took  up  an  old  thread. 
Years   ago,   in    1595,    he    had   pledged  himself  to  an 
edition,  and  the  author  was  not  unsuitable  to  his  turn 
of  mind.      Notwithstanding  his   admiration   of  Theo- 
critus, he  was  destitute,  if  ever  mortal  was,  of  poetic 
feeling.     The  erotic  and  wanton  greek  muse  offended 
his  huguenot  asceticism.    He  had  no  metrical  skill.     He 
had  as  little  taste  for  philosophy  as  for   poetry.     In 
working  upon  Athenseus,  though  he  had  expatiated  on 
the  antiquarianism,  he  had  been  wearied  with  the  fri- 
volity  of  the   dilettante   litterateur.     The    level  good 
sense   and  practical   intelligibility  of  Polybius  suited 
him.     Living   about   a   court   like   that   of  Henri  iv, 
where  literature  was  in  low  esteem,  he  felt  keenly  the 
desire  to  evince  its  value  to  men  of  the  world.     Not 
Eon  sard,    but  Malherbe,  the  versifier  of  good  sense, 
was  now  the  fashionable  poet.     Casaubon' s  celebrated 
preface  to  his  Polybius,  which  was  long  considered  one 
of  the  masterpieces  of  modern  latin,  is  entirely  a  piece 
de  circonstance.     It  must  be  read  as  addressed  to  the 
court — the  court  of  1609.     *  The  statesman  should  read 
history,'  is  its  thesis  ;  and  by  history,  classical  history  is 


222  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

intended.  In  it,  history,  and  pre-eminently  that  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  is  held  up  as  the  school  of  civil 
prudence  and  military  skill.  The  mere  literary  use  of 
the  classics,  the  reading  of  a  book  like  Caesar's  Com- 
mentaries, only  to  acquire  a  pure  style,  is  condemned. 
Of  Polybius'  sixth  book  he  says  that  it  ought  not  only 
to  be  read,  but  to  be  learned  by  heart,  by  all  princes, 
generals,  and  public  men.  Argument  and  example  are 
employed  with  force,  and  without  tedious  accumulation, 
to  show  the  utility  of  the  classics  to  public  men.  The 
pleading  is  an  argumentum  ad  hominem,  for  it  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  ear  of  Henri  iv's  court.  But  it  is  good 
for  all  time,  and  is  indeed  the  basis  on  which  the 
defence  of  classical  education  must  ultimately  rest. 
'  The  finest  prefaces  ever  written,'  said  Joseph  Warton 5, 
adopting  a  dictum  of  Bayle,  'were  perhaps  that  of 
Thuanus  to  his  History,  of  Calvin  to  his  Institutes,  and 
of  Casaubon  to  his  Polybius/  Warton,  a  critic  who 
had  the  distinction  of  being  also  a  scholar,  admired  it 
for  its  general  style  and  subject.  It  is  no  less  in- 
teresting to  us  as  a  historical  document,  peculiarly 
addressed  to  a  special  audience,  and  giving  us  a 
measure  of  the  taste  and  acquirements  of  what  was 
called  *  the  court '  in  1609. 

The  object  he  had  in  view  in  editing  Polybius  not 
only  inspired  the  preface,  but  governed  the  character 
of  the  whole  volume.  From  not  attending  to  this 
purpose,  subsequent  editors  have  misjudged  the  edition. 
Schweighseuser  has  blamed  Casaubon  for  his  negligent 
indication  of  the  sources  of  the  emendations  introduced 
into  his  text.  The  usual  apology  is,  '  Such  was  the 
habit  of  the  editors  of  that  age/  But  Casaubon's 

5  Warton's  Pope's  Works,  1797,  vol.    i.  p.   i  ;  Bayle,  Diet,  Art. 
Calvin,  note  F. 


PARIS.      1600  —  1610. 


223 


omission  of  this  duty  must  be  ascribed  not  to  want  of 
accuracy,  but  to  such  accuracy  being  beside  his  purpose. 
He  wanted  to  make  Polybius  readable.  If  he  were  to 
be  read,  he  must  be  presented  in  latin.  Accordingly, 
upon  the  latin  translation  Casaubon  spent  his  labour. 
In  1588,  when  he  gave  Polyaenus  to  the  press,  he  had 
said  contemptuously  that 6 '  he  could  not  afford  to  invest 
good  hours  in  making  latin  translations;  that  was  a 
kind  of  business  he  was  content  to  leave  to  others.' 
Now  it  is  precisely  the  reverse.  The  translation  is  his 
first  concern.  His  Polybius  is  rather  to  be  described  as 
a  translation  accompanied  by  the  text,  than  as  an 
edition  of  the  text.  He  has  indeed  altered  Ursinus' 
text  much,  but  often,  too,  the  emendation,  which  he 
should  have  introduced  into  the  text,  appears  only  in 
the  version.  The  version  does  not,  in  these  cases, 
correspond  to  the  text  in  the  accompanying  column. 
But,  in  such  cases,  it  is  the  latin,  and  not  the  greek, 
which  gives  what  Casaubon  supposed  Polybius  to  have 
written.  7t  I  can  answer  for  the  fidelity  of  my  transla- 
tion/ he  writes  to  Scaliger.  'I  wish  I  was  equally 
certain  of  its  latinity.  But  how  few  of  us  now  can 
write  good  latin!  By  the  way  I  can  tell  you  what 
will  amuse  you.  You  know  how  the  Italians  have 
admired  Perotti's  latin  in  his  version  (of  Polybius.)  No 
wonder !  for  when  the  good  fellow  is  puzzled  by 
Polybius'  greek,  which  happens  sometimes,  he  has 
transcribed  the  parallel  passage  from  Livy,  who,  you 
know,  follows  Polybius  often  pretty  closely.' 

If  it  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  Casaubon  should  have 
been  driven  from  Chrysostom  to  Polybius,  it  must  be 
more  so  that  he  should  have  embarked  four  years  of 
his  limited  span  upon  what  is  little  more  than  a  latin 

0  Praef.  in  Polysen.  1588.  7  Ep.  485. 


224  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

translation.  For  there  was  no  commentary.  The 
notes  were  reserved  for  a  second  volume,  which  never 
appeared,  and  which  was  never  written.  What  was 
found  of  this  kind  after  his  death  among  his  papers 
amounted  to  about  200  pages,  and  was  published  in 
a  small  volume  by  Antoine  Estienne,  1617.  In  these 
notes,  though  the  old  manner  of  illustration  is  pre- 
served, there  is  constantly  present  an  intention  of 
dwelling  upon  the  practical  lessons  of  history.  He 
will  turn  aside  to  quote  something  not  very  relevant 
because  it  contains  words  of  political  wisdom8. 

Yet,  after  all  these  imperfections,  such  is  the  power 
of  knowledge,  that  Casaubon's  Polybius  has  deserved 
that  Schweighseuser9  should  say  of  it,  that  '  there  is  not 
a  page  of  it  which  does  not  show  how  much  Polybius 
owes  to  the  learning  and  sagacity  of  that  industrious 
editor.'  It  may  be  instructive  to  observe  that  even 
Casaubon's  knowledge  did  not  preserve  him  from 
making  blunders  as  a  translator.  Henri  Valois  10  says 
on  this:  'Out  of  the  numbers  of  translators  of  greek 
books  whom  we  have  had,  who  is  there  who  has  not 
occasionally  slipped?  The  latin  version  of  Polybius 
by  Isaac  Casaubon  is  held  by  common  consent  as  one 
of  the  best  and  most  correct  which  we  have.  And  yet 
it  is  not  free  from  blunders/ 

The  work  engaged  him  from  the  end  of  August, 
1605,  to  August  28,  1609,  on  which  day  he  revised 
the  last  proof  sheet.  He  did  not  print  with  his  wife's 
connection,  Estienne  and  Patisson,  who  had  published 
the  Gregorius  Nyssenus  for  him  in  1606.  Though 


8  Comm.  in  Polyb.  p.  88  :  *  Verba  civilis  prudenfeiae  plenissima.' 

9  Schweigh.  praef.  in  Polyb.  p.  Ixxx. 

10  Excerpta  Constantini,  1634,  ad  lect. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 


225 


ley  possessed  some  greek  type,  they  had  neither  the 
capital  nor  the  plant  for  a  folio  of  1250  pages.  Esti- 
enne  (R.  Stephanus  in.)  was  also  a  notoriously  slow 
printer,  out  of  whom  it  was  difficult  to  extract  a  proof 
sheet.  It  is  true  his  slowness  proceeded  from  his  scru- 
pulous accuracy,  and  even  learning.  He  would  come 
down  himself,  all  the  way,  to  Casaubon  to  consult  him 
about  an  accent  which  he  thought  wrong  placed11. 
Though  inferior  to  the  best  specimens  of  Eobert  Esti- 
enne  (E.  Stephanus  I.)  'or  Turnebus  of  fifty  years 
before,  the  Polybius  of  1609  is  among  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  Paris  printing.  But  latin  and  greek  upon  the 
same  page  cannot  show  either  type  to  advantage. 

It  was  turned  out  by  Drouard  (Jerome),  who  had 
published  the  Hist.  Aug.  Scriptores  in  1603,  and  who 
afterwards  with  Cramoisy,  Beys,  and  Co.,  formed  the 
association  known  as  'a  la  navire/  for  publishing  the 
greek  fathers.  Drouard  had  a  connection  with  Wechel 
at  Frankfort,  which  enabled  him  to  secure  the  German 
sale  for  his  books.  Early  sheets  were  transmitted 
through  the  ambassador  to  Marny,  who  carried  on 
Wechel's  business,  and  he  issued  the  book  for  Germany 
with  another  title-page  as  his  own12.  This  was  not  a 
piratical  invasion  of  Drouard's  property,  but  an  arrange- 
ment between  the  publishers,  by  which  the  copyright 
was  secured  in  the  empire.  Drouard  was  a  man  of 
substance,  for  such  a  volume  could  not  be  produced 
without  a  large  outlay,— at  the  present  day  it  would 
cost  from  £800  to  £900  to  bring  out — and  we .  hear 
of  none  of  the  vexations  which  attended  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Athenseus  with  the  de  Harsy  of  Lyons,  or 
of  any  advances  of  cash  by  Casaubon  towards  the  cost 
of  printing. 

11  Ep.  550.  12  Goldasti  epp.  p.  156. 

Q 


226  PARIS.     1600—1610.       . 

Casaubon  had  applied,  through  the  chancellor  Sillery, 
for  permission  to  dedicate  to  the  king.  Bruslart  de 
Sillery,  who  had  recently  become  chancellor,  1607,  had 
known  Casaubon  many  years  before  at  Geneva,  when  on 
a  diplomatic  mission  to  Switzerland.  Like  some  others 
of  '  the  court/  he  was  not  without  his  share  of  letters, 
and  Casaubon  had  brought  out  liis  Theophrastus  in 
1592  under  his  patronage.  But  his  interests  were 
now  entirely  gone  into  making  his  political  career, 
and  if  he  patronised  Casaubon  on  this  occasion,  jealousy 
of  Sully  had  probably  more  to  do  with  it,  than  favour 
to  the  book13.  However,  the  chancellor  obtained  the 
permission,  which  was  given  in  a  way  which  seemed  to 
intimate  that  the  dedication  would  be  more  acceptable 
from  a  catholic14.  The  king's  name  was  an  adver- 
tisement, and  it  was  the  interest  both  of  editor  and 
printer  that  it  should  figure  on  the  title-page15. 

Next  came  the  business  of  presenting  copies,  hand- 
somely bound, — the  binding  at  the  author's  cost.  This 
was  often  a  heavy  tax  ;  Casaubon,  with  his  many  great 
friends,  had  to  give  away  fifty-five  copies  of  Polybiiis. 
The  tax  on  time  was  heavy  too,  as  many  of  these  had 
to  be  offered  in  person.  The  first  copy  was  for  the 
chancellor,  who  had  obtained  the  permission,  and  who 
now  undertook  to  bespeak  a  favourable  moment  for 
the  presentation  of  the  royal  copy.  On  a  day  ap- 

13  Casaubon    acknowledges   that   de  Sillery  had  always  stood  hi 
friend.     Ep.    934  :    '  Dominum  cancellarium,  cujus  unius  ope  atqu 
auctoritate  reculas  meas  isthic  stare  nullus  dubito.' 

14  Eph.  p.    651:    'Vocatus  ad  prandium  hodie  a    cancellario  Fr. 
(Francise)  D.  Silerio  nonnulla  cum  spe  sum  reversus,  fore  ut  Polybius 
noster  regi  sit  acceptus.  sed  ego  artes  aulicorum  novi.'    - 

15  Eph.  474  :   '  Hie  fructus  nostrarum  vigiliarum,  quas  postquam  in 
lucem  emisimus,  ingens  occurrit  numerus  eorum  quibus  necessario  clandi 
sint.' 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 


227 


pointed.  Casaubon  attends  at  the  Tuileries.  The  hour 
is  not  propitious ;  he  is  desired  to  come  again,  or  better, 
to  Fontainebleau,  where  royalty  has  more  leisure.  He 
waits  a  fortnight,  and  goes  out  to  Fontainebleau, 
carrying  his  folio.  His  own  reception  was,  as  always, 
gracious ;  but  16  *  my  work  was  received,  as  it  was  to 
be  expected  it  would,  by  one  who  is  absolutely  illiterate/ 
The  chancellor,  who  had  repeatedly  promised  to  explain 
to  Henri  what  the  business  was,  had,  of  course,  for- 
gotten all  about  it.  Casaubon' s  elaborate  compliments  in 
the  preface  were  thrown  away.  In  vain  he  had  reminded 
Henri  '  of  what  you  once  told  me  yourself,  Sire,  that 
you  had,  when  a  child,  translated  the  whole  of  Coesar's 
Commentaries  into  french,  for  your  preceptor  Florent 
Chrestien/  He  returned  from  Fontainebleau  disgusted 
with  courts,  angry  with  himself  for  his  dedication, 
laughing  a  bitter  laugh  at  the  folly  of  it  all.  How- 
ever, after  he  was  gone,  some  one,  perhaps  Sillery, 
made  the  king  understand, — not  the  latin  preface,  but 
his  obligation  as  dedicatee.  When  La  Boderie,  am- 
bassador at  S.  James',  was  asked  17<if  Henri  iv.  would 
receive  a  copy  of  James  I's  "  Apologia  pro  juramento," 
he  discreetly  answered  that  his  master  would  doubtless 
receive  it,  but  he  would  not  answer  for  his  reading 
it/  That  Henri  would  read  a  line  of  Casaubon's  elabo- 
rate preface,  is  not  to  be  supposed.  But  he  could 
understand  that  a  poor  scholar,  with  a  host  of  children, 
had  embarked  all  his  time  and  learning  for  many 
years  in  the  present  now  laid  at  his  feet.  A  few  days 
afterwards  Casaubon  was  surprised  by  a  call  from  a 
maltre  de  requetes,  one  de  Gourges,  who  was  great  in 
the  business  of  conversions,  and  hung  much  about 

16  Eph.  p.  693  :  'Qui  literarum  est  reAe'cos  rudis.' 

17  Fortescue  Papers,  Camden  Society,  p.  4,  note. 

Q    2 


228  'PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

Casaubon  with  this  view.  On  this  occasion  it  was 
not  Casaubon's  soul  he  came  to  save,  but  a  thousand 
crowns  he  brought — and  this  not  in  a  paper  order,  which 
might  have  been  subject  to  a  heavy  discount,  but  so 
many  hard  gold  pieces  in  a  bag. 

The  entry  in  the  diasy 18  lets  us  see  that  acceptable 
as  the  money  was,  the  appreciation  pleased  much  more. 
The  present  was  handsome ;  too  much  for  a  huguenot. 
But  then  Henri  had  just  given  100000  crowns  to  the 
Jesuits  of  La  Fleche  to  finish  their  chapel  with.  And 
1000  crowns,  after  all,  was  about  half  what  he  had  once 
paid  for  an  embroidered  handkerchief  for  Gabrielle. 

What  of  literary  appreciation  might  be  in  store  for 
the  Polybius  must  come  from  abroad.  In  Paris  it 
passed  unheeded.  In  the  university  of  Paris  there  was 
no  one  who  could  distinguish  greek  of  Casaubon  from 
greek  of  Morel  or  Fronto  le  Due.  Lestoile,  who  col- 
lected all  the  pamphlets  and  squibs  of  the  day,  and 
gives  us  title  and  cost  of  each,  makes  no  mention  of 
Casaubon's  publication,  though  he  had  evidently  seen 
the  book,  and  been  reading  it,  as  he  quotes  from  it, 
under  September  7,  two  passages,  one  of  which  he  finds 
very  applicable  to  Sully,  whom  he  detested.  In  1607, 
William  Becher  sends  Camden  19,<  among  other  Paris 
gossip,  the  news  that  '  Monsr.  Casaubon  hath  two  pieces 
coming  forth,  but  neither  of  them  yet  finished,  Poly- 
bius, and  another,  "  De  libertate  ecclesiastica," '  adding 
that  of  the  latter  w '  there  is  great  expectation/ 

During  the  four  years'  work  on  Polybius,  we  have 
a  renewal  of  the  same  mental  symptoms  and  conditions 
as  were  brought  out  by  the  Athenseus.  At  one  time 

18  Eph.  696  :  '  Non  sine  honore  yerborum.' 

19  Camdeni  Epp.  ep.  65. 

20  See  above,  p.  219. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  229 

jrish  intensity  of  application,  impatient  of  any  inter- 
ruption ;  at  another  disgust  at  the  self-imposed  task, 
and  wish  to  be  reading  Christian  literature.  There  are 
times  when,  as  he  tells  Eitterhusius 21,  he  is  '  thankful 
to  be  compelled  by  his  engagement  to  busy  himself  in 
his  task,  that  he  may  shut  out  the  many  sorrows  and 
vexations  of  his  life/  His  shrinking  from  intrusion  and 
hindrance  amounts  to  an  indifference  to  external  events, 
an  indifference  which  grows  upon  him.  Then  physical 
fatigue,  the  amount  of  mere  mechanical  labour  attend- 
ant on  the  production  of  a  thick  folio,  the  irregularity 
of  the  printers,  the  workmen  one  while  taking  un- 
reasonable holiday,  '  improbe  luxuriantur  ; '  at  another, 
pressing  for  copy  till  he  has  to  send  each  sentence  of 
translation  to  press  as  fast  as  it  is  made,  *  ut  quasque 
periodus  erat  versa/  break  him  down  momentarily,  and 
he  longs  to  be  quit  of  it.  No  sooner  is  he  quit  than  he 
begins  again.  He  allows  the  booksellers  to  extort  from 
him22  promises  to  revise  for  second  editions  his  '  Theo- 
phrastus '  and  his  '  Suetonius.'  As  soon  as  these  are 
done  he  will  set  about  his  commentary  on  Polybius. 
Meanwhile,  he  undertakes  to  lecture  to  a  class  on 
Aristotle's  «  Politics.' 

Slavish  work  at  the  desk,  begun  sometimes  at  3  a.m., 
and  worry  out  of  doors,  seem  at  this  period  to  make  up 
the  sum  of  our  author's  life.  But  the  picture  is  not  one 
of  unmitigated  gloom.  The  refrain 23,  '  ego  vero  vix,  ac 
ne  vix  quidem  jam  aerumnis  par  sum/  from  time  to 
time  gives  place  to  a  somewhat  more  cheerful  strain. 
The  five  years,  from  1605  to  1610,  were,  on  the  whole 
for  Casaubon  as  for  France,  years  of  prosperity  and 

!1  Ep.  6  u  :  '  Juvit  me  non  mediocriter  quod  per  inchoatam 
dudum  Polybii  editionem  cessare  mihi  non  licebat.' 

22  Ep-  654-  23  Eph.  546- 


230  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

comfort,  if  not  of  calm.  Casaubon's  timorous  and  ap- 
prehensive spirit  occasionally  feels  these  influences. 
Halcyon  days  of  repose — otium — he  calls  them  once  or 
twice23,  but  adds  characteristically,  that  this  repose 
*  has  a  suspiciousness  about  it  when  he  thinks  of  his 
sins/  But  this  repose — otium — means  for  him  not  the 
dreamy  slippered  ease  of  the  literateur  of  academy 
days,  but  sustained  and  fagging  drudgery.  Many  a 
day  the  only  entry  in  the  diary  is,  '  My  daily  task, 
thanks  be  to  God24/  The  amount  of  labour,  mental 
and  mechanical,  which  is  intimated  by  this  short  phrase, 
must  be  estimated  by  reference  to  his  printed  books, 
and  to  the  still  extant  Adversaria,  from  which  his 
books  proceeded. 

Rare  were  the  occasions  on  which  he  allowed  him- 
self relaxation.  In  1603  he  took  a  couple  of  months, 
May  and  June,  for  a  visit  to  his  mother  and  friends  in 
the  south,  and  at  Geneva.  Madame  Casaubon  accom- 
panied him,  making  the  journey  on  horseback,  except 
the  last  stage  from  Dijon  to  Paris,  when  she  took  the 
coach.  The  rate  of  travelling  by  this  conveyance  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  Casaubon,  who  was  on 
horseback,  arrived  at  home  some  hours  before  the 
coach 25. 

A  retirement  into  country  shades  from  Paris  glare 
and  dust  was  as  necessary  then  as  since.  Casaubon 
was  occasionally  invited  to  pass  a  few  days  at  de  Thou's 
country  house  at  Villebonne,  the  retreat  of  the  learned 
and  the  wise,  as  his  hotel  in  Paris  was  their  gathering 
place26.  Such  visits  might  not  be  all  holiday.  On 


23   Eph.  pp.  447.  545.  24  ra   eyKVKXia   6fo>  x<*Pts' 

25  Eph.  504. 

26  Eph.  441  :  'Diem  egimus  in  hoc  amoenissimo  praetorio,  et  sua- 


one   of  1 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  231 


me  of  these  Bigaltius  began  his  edition  of  '  Arte- 
midorus,'  and  found  the  genius  loci,  or  the  society  of  de 
Thou,  a  great  aid27.  On  another  occasion  Casaubon  is 
obliged  to  put  off  his  visit  for  a  week  by  the  physician, 
who  is  bleeding  him.  And  he  regrets  it  because  '  I  had 
already  in  imagination  devoured  one  or  two  books  in 
your  library,  which  I  had  decided  on  reading  at  Ville- 
bonne 28/  At  another  time  Casaubon  makes  a  party  to 
visit  the  palace,  new  and  old,  at  S.  Germain's29;  not, 
however,  without  a  groan  at  the  loss  of  time,  and  a 
prayer  that  as  much  as  he  came  short  in  learning*  so 
much  he  might  profit  in  piety !  These  were  rare  in- 
dulgences, once  or  twice  in  the  season.  By-and-bye  he 
seeks  to  secure  a  pied-a-terre  for  himself.  First  at 
Madrid,  in  the  Bois,  where  a  few  houses  had  grown 
round  the  summer-house  built  by  Francis  i.  after  his 
captivity  in  Spain.  Henri  iv.  did  not  much  affect 
Madrid.  But  on  one  occasion  his  restless  roaming 
brought  him  thither,  on  a  day,  August  22,  1601,  when 
Casaubon  happened  to  be  there.  The  Persian  etiquette 
of  the  i/th  century,  which  separated  prince  and  sub- 
ject, did  not  yet  exist.  Henri  immediately  took  Cas- 
aubon into  his  company,  and  showed  him  over  the 
rooms  in  the  chateau,  talking  all  the  while  most 
seriously  on  religious  subjects 30. 

In  1606  came  the  year  of  the  plague,  and  consequent 

vissimis  de  literis  sermonibus,  aut  ambulationibus  cum  magno  Thuano, 
uxore  mea,  aut  aliis  amicis.' 

'2r  Artemidorus  TUgaltii,  1603.  prsef.  :  'Quum  una  tecum  essem  in 
Villabonio  tuo,  ne  amcenissima  rusticatione  abuti  viderer  .  ,  .' 

28  MSS.  bibl.  nat.  collection  Dupuy,  708.  Cas.  to  de  Thou,  without 
date,  but  probably  1609:  'Jam  spe  certa  devoraveram  unum  aut 
alterum  librum  quern  isthic  legere  constitueram.' 

!9  Eph.  302.  80  Eph.  367  :  '  Graves  de  pietate  sermones.' 


232  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

panic,  when  all  who  could  rushed  from  the  city.  Cas- 
aubon  at  first  resolved  to  stay  by  his  work  and  the 
library.  Indeed,  Lestoile  affirms 31  that  the  alarm  was 
greater  than  the  danger;  that  the  death-rate  of  Paris 
in  ordinary  times  was  eight  per  day,  and  this  was  not 
increased  by  the  pestilence.  And  Casaubon  thinks32 
that  the  hard  winter  of  1607-8  carried  off  more  than 
the  plague  of  1606  had  done.  He  complains  of  the 
want  of  sanitary  police  in  Paris,  the  nurses  from  the 
hospitals  walking  about  the  streets  in  broad  day  with- 
out' so  much  as  warning  those  they  met  to  keep  their 
distance,  a  thing  which  would  not  have  been  tolerated 
in  Lyons.  When  his  own  friends  and  neighbours  began 
to  die  off,  he  thought  it  prudent  to  withdraw  to  a 
greater  distance  than  Madrid.  The  place  he  selected 
was  La  Bretonniere,  eight  leagues  from  Paris,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Chartres.  The  following  summer 
was  one  of  excessive  heat,  succeeded  by  a  winter  of 
great  severity33.  He  now  accepted  from  his  friend 
Mercier  des  Bordes  a  refuge  on  his  estate  at  Grigny, 
on  the  Seine  above  Paris.  Besides  the  convenience  of 
water  conveyance  for  the  distance  of  five  leagues,  it 
was  near  Hablon,  and  the  chateau  of  des  Bordes  had 
itself  the  right  of  exercise  of  the  reformed  worship 34. 
This  gite  Casaubon  retained  to  the  end  of  his  life,  even 
after  his  removal  to  England. 

Attendance  on  the  public  ordinances  of  his  sect  was 
not  to  Casaubon  an  irksome  duty  which  he  discharged 
with  reluctance,  it  was  a  delight  and  a  solace.  He  well 
understood  that  to  read  Chrysostom  in  his  study  was 

31  Eegistre-journal,  p.  409.  32  Ep.  593. 

33  Dan.  Chamier,  Journal,  p.  64. 

34  Undei;  the  Edict,  the  assembly  for  this  purpose  in  the  manoirs  of 
lords,  not  being  hauts  justiciers,  must  not  exceed  thirty  persons. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  233 

ore  edifying  than  most  of  what  was  to  be  heard  in 
a  sermon.  But  the  congregational  sentiment,  powerful 
at  all  times,  becomes  an  urgent  necessity  to  a  down- 
trodden sect,  writhing  under  the  insults  of  a  wealthy  and 
arrogant  church.  Avaricious,  as  we  have  seen,  of  his 
hours  and  minutes,  Casaubon  never  grudges  the  whole 
day  which  his  journey  to  Hablon  or  Charenton  con- 
sumed. He  goes,  not  regularly,  it  was  impossible,  but 
whenever  he  can.  He  records  a  regret  whenever  he  is 
prevented  from  going.  This,  indeed,  happens  often ; 
no  wonder,  when  we  remember  his  multiplied  engage- 
ments in  a  dependent  position,  and  the  preparation 
required  to  face  the  distance  and  the  bad  weather  so 
common  in  the  fickle  climate  of  Paris.  For  four  years 
of  his  residence  there,  1601-1606,  the  place  of  meeting 
for  the  protestants  of  the  capital  was  at  Hablon,  ten  miles 
distant  from  the  centre  of  the  city.  The  Parisians  who, 
says  Lestoile,  '  would  think  it  less  wicked  to  enter  a 
brothel  than  a  protestant  meeting-house/  could  not  en- 
dure heresy  nearer.  Hablon  was  on  the  Seine,  and  the 
journey  to  and  fro  was  made,  when  the  state  of  the 
water  permitted,  in  a  towbarge.  At  other  times  Cas- 
aubon must  walk  both  ways,  unless  he  could  get  a 
seat  'in  the  carriage  of  some  rich  coreligionist — the 
Arnalds  or  Du  Plessis  Mornay.  The  diary  abounds 
in  entries  which  relate  to  the  pains  and  pleasures  of 
these  Sunday  expeditions. 

'March  3,  1602.  To-day,  self,  wife,  daughter,  and 
some  of  our  household  got  to  Hablon,  and  though  we 
suffered  much  from  the  bitter  wind,  we  returned  safe 
and  sound/ 

'March  24,  1602.  Set  off,  self,  wife,  and  Philippa 
for  Hablon.  But  on  getting  down  to  the  quay,  found 
that  the  boat  was  already  full  three  times  over/ 


234  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

'May  13,  1602.  Went  down  to  the  quay,  but  the 
boat  could  not  start  as  the  wind  was  too  high/ 

'  December  29,  1602.  The  service  to-day  was  longer 
than  usual.  I  was  returning  ]ate  in  the  carriage  of 
two  noble  ladies,  Madame  de  Cricebant,  and  Madame 
de  Mantaleon,  when  the  coachman  lost  the  way  in  the 
dark.  One  of  the  horses  got  into  the  river,  and  was 
with  difficulty  got  out,  half  drowned.  It  was  a  mercy 
we  were  not  all  lost/ 

'December  24,  1607.  The  fatigue  of  yesterday  (walk- 
ing both  ways  to  Charenton)  prevented  me  from  doing 
anything  all  day/ 

'January  6,  1608.  My  wife  was  to  have  gone  to 
Charenton  to-day  in  the  carriage  of  the  ladies  Arnald. 
But  finding  the  cold  too  severe,  she  arranged  that 
I  should  take  her  seat.  We  set  off,  but  could  not 
go  very  far  ;  the  icy  cutting  wind  made  it  impracticable 
for  the  horses  to  move  against  it/ 

'  November  8,  1609.  The  church  throughout  France 
keeps  its  fast  to-day.  We  went  and  heard  three  sermons, 
from  Du  Moulin,  Le  Faucheur,  and  Durand,  discourses 
adapted  to  the  occasion  with  wonderful  skill  and  piety. 
I  was  so  moved,  that  I  was  hardly  master  of  myself. 
Both  myself  and  my  wife  forgetting  the  miseries  we  had 
gone  through  in  the  morning  in  a  wretched  little  barge, 
prayed  God  that  he  would  grant  us  more  such  days/ 

On  one  of  these  expeditions  he  was  in  very  great 
danger.  We  relate  the  incident  in  his  own  words — 
he  tells  it  twice,  once  in  a  letter  to  Scaliger35  and  in 
the  diary  under  date, 

'August  20,   1608.     We  set  off  for  Charenton,  my 
wife,  John,  Meric,  and  my  sister.     When  we  got  down  j 
to  the  quay,  though  it  had  not  yet  struck  seven,  we  i 

39  Ep.  706. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  235 

the  boats  gone  except  a  wretched  wherry, 
without  any  awning.  After  some  hesitation,  we  got 
into  it,  as  we  did  not  wish  to  lose  our  service.  We  had 
got  half  way,  when,  by  some  mismanagement,  a  heavy 
barge,  towed  by  two  horses,  ran  into  us  astern.  John 
and  Meric  and  my  sister  scrambled  into  the  barge.  I 
looked  round  for  my  wife,  and  saw  her  faint  with 
terror,  fallen  into  the  Seine  with  half  her  body,  the  rest 
in  the  wherry,  which  began  to  fill.  With  a  sudden 
exertion  of  all  my  forces,  physical  and  moral,  I  got  her 
within  reach  of  the  people  in  the  barge,  who  pulled  her 
in.  In  doing  this,  I  had  let  go  my  hold  on  the  larger 
boat,  and  was  nearly  lost  myself,  if  my  wife's  cries  had 
not  called  the  others  to  my  succour.  The  only  loss  I 
sustained  in  the  accident  was  my  book  of  psalms — my 
greek  testament  I  recovered  ah1  wet  out  of  the  water. 
The  psalm-book  was  precious  to  me,  as  I  had  presented 
it  on  our  marriage  to  my  dear  wife,  and  had  used  it  con- 
tinually for  two-and-twenty  years.  I  did  not  find  it 
out  till  we  began  to  sing  in  the  temple,  and  I  put  my 
hand  into  my  pocket,  and  it  was  gone.  By  a  sin- 
gular coincidence  the  psalm  was  86  :  "  Tirant  ma  vie 
du  bord  Du  bas  tombeau  de  la  mort."  We  had  been 
singing,  I  and  my  wife,  on  board  the  boat,  as  we  usually 
do,  and  had  just  arrived  at  the  seventh  verse  of  the 
92nd  psalm  when  the  collision  took  place.  I  could 
not  but  remember  that  place  of  S.  Ambrose,  where  he 
says  ....  that  "  this  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  book  of 
Psalms,  that  every  one  can  use  its  words  as  if  they 
were  peculiarly  and  individually  his  own." 

We  may  imagine  what  must  have  been  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  women  and  the  delicate, — we  hear  of 
infants  dying  on  their  way  to  baptism.  As  long 'as 
only  poor  huguenots  endured  these  hardships,  they 


236  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

might  have  continued  unrelieved.  But  two  men,  who 
still  retained  influence  at  court,  happened  to  be  of  the 
persecuted  sect,  Sully  and  de  Calignon.  By  their  in- 
fluence an  edict  was  obtained  removing  the  place  of 
exercise  to  Charenton  S.-  Maurice,  distant  only  two 
miles,  and  also  on  the  Seine,  the  temple  being  close  to 
the  landing-place  of  the  boats.  Nearer  than  this  it 
was  not  safe  to  bring  the  place  of  exercise.  But  some- 
times the  duchess  of  Bar  came  to  court  and  braved 
her  brother's  displeasure  by  having  la  preche  in  her 
lodging.  At  times  there  was  a  French  sermon36  at  the 
English  embassy,  and  on  all  such  occasions  Casaubon 
gladly  embraces  the  opportunity  of  attending. 

That  his  public  communion  with  his  church  was  a  sen- 
timent which  lay  near  Casaubon' s  heart  is  more  surely 
proved  by  the  large  part  it  occupies  in  his  thoughts, 
and  the  sacrifices  of  time  he  ungrudgingly  makes  to  it, 
than  by  any  overt  assurances  he  utters.  Indeed  the 
impediments  to  the  free  exercise  of  his  culte,  and  the 
desire  to  taste  its  unrestricted  enjoyment,  had  no  small 
share  among  the  motives  which  made  him  seek  removal 
from  Paris.  In  1601  he  wrote  to  Heraldus37,  'Both 
my  wife  and  myself  are  impatient  under  the  famine  of 
the  word  of  God,  which  we  endure  here.  It  is  seldom 
and  with  much  difficulty  that  we  can  get  out  to 
Hablon.  We  have  not  been  accustomed  to  this  de- 
privation/ The  desire  had  not  abated  in  1607,  though 
Casaubon' s  ideas  had  undergone  considerable  enlarge- 
ment in  the  interval,  and  his  calvinistic  prejudices  were 
being  supplanted  by  a  church  ideal  founded  on  the 
fathers  of  the  fourth  century. 

Besides  the  deprivation  of  the  ordinances  of  religion, 

there  were  other  reasons  why  a  protestant,  and  a  pen- 

38  Eph.  597.  3T  Ep.  1023. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  237 

sioner  of  the  court,  should  feel  his  position  in  Paris 
precarious.  The  animus  of  the  lower  populace  towards 
the  calvinists  was  not  changed  since  the  Bartholomew, 
it  was  only  lulled  to  sleep.  The  pays  latin,  the 
students,  the  swarms  of  fanatical  friars  and  monks, 
which  the  countless  convents  harboured,  were  no  less 
ready  for  a  bloody  fray  than  they  had  ever  been. 
On  Sunday,  September  18,  i6o538,  a  .placard  was 
found  posted  up  at  the  gate  Saint  Victor,  summoning 
the  scholars  (they  had  ceased  to  be  called  clercs)  to 
assemble  after  dinner  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine  with 
clubs  and  arms,  '  pour  la  s'opposer  aux  insolences  de  la 
maudite  sect  huguenote  et  abloniste.'  The  police  was 
strong  enough  to  prevent  worse  consequences  on  this 
occasion  than  a  single  assassination.  But  the  '  vaches  a 
Colas '  (this  was  the  slang  designation  of  the  hu- 
guenots) had  an  intimation  on  this,  and  on  one  or 
two  other  like  occasions,  of  the  volcano  that  was- 
sleeping  below. 

The  violence  of  the  mob  was  uncertain  and  re- 
strained by  the  government  ;  the  gradual  undermining 
of  the  legal  liberties  secured  to  the  protestants  was 
allowed  and  encouraged.  Henri  had  undertaken  to  the 
pope,  Clement  vin,  so  to  manipulate  '  the  edict  which 
I  have  published  for  the  tranquillity  of  my  kingdom 
that  its  solid  results  shall  be  in  favour  of  the  catholic 
religion/  He  kept  his  promise.  The  system,  which  went 
on  till  it  culminated  in  the  revocation  of  the  edict,  may  be 
said  to  have  commenced  from  its  first  publication,  1598. 
To  worry  the  protestants  became  the  occupation  of 
every  bishop  throughout  France.  To  interpret  the  edict 
always  in  favour  of  the  catholic  suitor  was  the  rule  for 

38  Lestoile,  Reg.-journ.  siippl.  p.  388. 


238  PARIS.     1600  —  1610 

every  court  of  justice.  To  goad  them  into  revolt,  and 
then  to  crush  them  with  armed  hand,  was  the  policy  of 
every  civil  governor  who  sought  to  recommend  himself 
to  authority.  The  clergy  never  met  in  their  annual 
assemblies  without  lodging  gravamina  of  the  *  insolence ' 
of  the  heretics,  and  extorting  from  the  crown  an  en- 
largement of  their  own  privileges,  which  was  always 
stated  pro  forma,  to  be  *  without  prejudice  to  the 
edict.' 

Still,  as  long  as  Henri  lived,  no  general  attempt  to 
upset  the  edict  was  to  be  apprehended.  In  1605, 
Casaubon  was  greatly  alarmed  at  the  turn  things  were 
taking,  and  had  almost  made  up  his  mind  to  leave. 
Scaliger  writes  back39  that  gloomy  as  the  prospect  was 
for  the  future,  he  saw  no  reason  for  thinking  the  danger 
was  immediate.  That  even  if  Casaubon  was  resolved 
upon  departure,  he  could  not  do  so  without  permission 
obtained  from  the  king,  and  that  whether  the  permis- 
sion were  granted  or  not,  the  having  asked  it  would  be 
equally  an  offence. 

Looking  to  the  sources  of  the  troubles  and  annoy- 
ances which  beset  Casaubon  during  his  Parisian  period, 
creating  in  him  the  constant  desire  to  get  away,  they 
are  found  to  be  very  various,  and  some  of  them  such 
as  change  of  place  could  not  have  remedied. 

i.  The  discomforts  and  perils  attending  the  practices 
of  the  reformed  culte  have  been  already  noticed.  But 
the  religious  difficulty  was  by  no  means  confined  to 
these  occasions.  The  efforts  to  convert  him  occasionally 
intermitted,  but  only  to  revive  again  with  fresh  vigour, 
and  in  a  more  overbearing  tone.  His  resistance  was 
resented.  His  obstinacy  in  heresy  was  ascribed  to 
moral  defects ;  he  was  charged  with  ingratitude  to- 
39  Seal.  epp.  p.  293. 


PAMIS.     1600  —  1610.  239 

wards  a  benefactor.  It  was  plainly  insinuated  that  the 
king  had  by  his  favours  bought  his  religion,  and  that 
as  the  price  had  been  paid,  it  was  now  quite  time  that 
the  article  should  be  delivered.  When  the  manage- 
ment of  this  difficult  case  was  handed  over  to  Du 
Perron,  it  took,  as  we  have  seen,  a  different  turn.  The 
vulgar  means  of  suasion  were  replaced  by  learned 
argument.  The  former  kind  of  appeal  could  be  met  by 
blank  refusal ;  argument  must  be  encountered  by  ar- 
gument, citation  by  counter  citation.  Hence  a  grievous 
expenditure  of  precious  time  in  preparation,  in  resisting 
an  assault  sure  to  be  renewed  on  the  next  occasion. 
'  Loth  I  am,  my  God  is  witness,  to  waste  my  time  in 
this  kind  of  disputation.  It  is  not  my  fauJt.  I  am 
compelled  by  necessity  to  undergo  it,  though  I  take 
care  to  let  them  know  how  immovable  I  am  in  matter 
of  religion.'  The  siege  laid  to  his  religious  convictions 
had  begun  with  his  removal  to  Paris.  It  had  abated 
nothing  of  its  vigour  in  the  last  year  of  his  residence, 
1609-10.  The  pages  of  the  diary  are  full  of  such 
entries  as  the -following  : — 

'  March  6.  Several  hours  to  day  with  the  cardinal. 
He  sent  for  me  in  the  king's  name,  and  I  went,  though 
most  unwillingly.  We  had  much  and  serious  talk  of 
religion/ 

'  December  10.  To-day  with  cardinal  Du  Perron,  and 
long  talk  of  religion.' 

'December  n.  Again  to-day,  a  severe  encounter 
with  the  cardinal.' 

*  December  21.  0  wretched  life !  cannot  they  let  me 
alone,  but  must  make  it  their  business  to  pry  into 
my  faith.  This  is  what  makes  my  life  a  burden! 
What  folly  to  try  to  persuade  me  that  their  church 
cannot  err ! ' 


240  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

'December  22.  With  cardinal  Perron  to-day,  having 
been  repeatedly  sent  for  by  him.' 

'  December  28.  To-day  with  cardinal  Perron.  He  is 
really  great.  Would  that  he  may  always  be  a  de- 
fender of  sound  learning ! ' 

The  catastrophe  of  May  14,  1610,  suspended,  but 
only  for  a  time,  the  persevering  attempts  of  the  cardinal. 
Du  Perron  now  renewed  the  bait,  offered  years  before, 
of  a  professor's  chair  in  the  university,  and  the  per- 
secution was  only  broken  off40  by  Casaubon's  de- 
parture from  Paris.  Rosweyd  asserted,  and  no  doubt 
believed,  '  that  Casaubon,  convinced  by  the  weight  of 
Du  Perron's  logic,  had  given  a  promise  to  abjure 
at  Whitsuntide.  That  the  death  of  the  king  alone 
interfered  with  the  execution  of  the  promise,  causing 
a  panic  among  the  calvinists  as  if  S.  Bartholomew 
was  to  be  repeated,  and  inducing  Casaubon  to  with- 
draw for  safety  to  England/ 

Baffled  by  Casaubon  himself,  the  convertisseurs  had 
turned  their  attention  to  Madame  Casaubon.  Here, 
however,  they  could  get  no  prize  of  any  kind.  Simple 
Genevan  detestation  of  popery  was  impenetrable.  They 
tried  the  daughter,  Philippa.  From  this  cherished 
daughter  the  father  did  not  conceal  his  most  secret 
thoughts. 

He  subjected  her  to  a  trial  which  we  might  hardly  have 
thought  justifiable,  but  that  he  considered  it  a  duty  to 
let  her  understand  how  her  worldly  interest  was  in- 
volved in  her  creed.  He  explained  to  her  the  temporal 
advantages  which  he  could  secure  for  her  if  she  became 
a  convert.  He  told  her  '  that  she  was  penniless ; 
that  after  the  wreck  of  his  patrimony,  he  could  give 
her  no  portion  at  which  any  respectable  Parisian  bour- 
40  Rosweyd,  Lex  Talionis,  ap.  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  85. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  241 

geois  would  look ;  that  he  anxiously  desired  to  see  her 
well  married ;  that  the  only  hope  of  this  was  in  the  royal 
bounty,  which  could  only  be  obtained  by  conforming/ 
This  was.  indeed  to  put  his  child  to  a  hard  trial. 
But  it  was  with  a  thrill  of  delight  that  the  father 
heard  the  temptation,  not  only  overcome,  but  indig- 
nantly spurned  by  the  generous  girl.  '  It  was  wicked/ 
she  said,  *  even  to  deliberate  on  such  a  choice.  She 
was  prepared  to  take  up  her  cross,  and  follow  Christ 
even  to  her  last  breath ;  if  her  father  could  leave 
her  nothing,  God  would  provide  for  her;  she  would 
work,  and  could  live  upon  a  very  little/  God  did  pro- 
vide for  her ;  she  was  removed  from  this  world  at  the 
age  of  nineteen. 

With  the  eldest  son,  John,  they  had  more  success. 
A*  little  controversy  backed  by  a  promise  of  a  pen- 
sion of  200  crowns,  but  more,  perhaps,  the  spirit  of 
the  time  and  place,  and  the  example  of  those  about 
him,  carried  him  over  in  August  1610.  The  blow 
fell  heavily  on  Isaac  at  a  period  of  general  calamity. 
After  Isaac's  death,  the  conversion  of  his  son  was 
exploite  by  the  flemish  Jesuit,  Hosweyd,  as  evidence 
of  the  father's  catholic  leanings.  Rosweyd  roundly 
asserted41  that  John  had  been  placed  under  a  scotch 
Jesuit,  George  Strahan,  ostensibly  as  mathematical 
tutor,  but  with  secret  instructions  to  draw  him  in- 
sensibly over  to  the  catholic  religion.  With  refer- 
ence to  this  charge,  Lancelot  Andrewes,  bishop  of 
Winchester,  told  Meric43  that  he  had  himself  ques- 
tioned John  Casaubon  on  the  subject.  John  had  then 
made  the  following  declaration :  l  As  to  the  step  I  took 
in  changing  my  religion,  I  am  obliged  by  my  con- 
science to  clear  my  father  before  God  and  men  of 

11  Kosweyd,  Lex  Talionis,  praef.  42  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  87. 

R 


242  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

all  cognizance  of  the  act.  It  was  wholly  my  own 
act,  I  did  not  consult  him/  But  the  diary  here  is 
the  best  evidence,  and  evinces  how  untrustworthy  is 
the  gossip  of  the  Jesuit  colleges,  which  Rosweyd  cre- 
dulously states  as  fact.  Isaac  was  informed  of  his  son's 
perversion  Aug.  14,  1610,  and  the  entry  on  that  day  is 
one  mixed  of  anguish  and  wrath ;  bitter  ejaculations 
against  the  generation  of  vipers  who  have  compassed 
this  treachery  against  him,  and  entangled  in  their 
controversial  net  a  youth  wholly  ignorant  of  theology. 

Besides  John,  a  nephew  of  Madame  Casaubon,  An- 
toine  Estienne,  son  of  Paul,  was  received  into  the  church 
by  cardinal  Du  Perron,  who  rewarded  him  by  making 
him  publisher  of  his  own  popular  writings. 

2.  Casaubon's  dependence  on  the  court  was,  in  other 
ways  than  that  of  being  regarded  as  an  unfulfilled  bar- 
gain, a  source  of  constant  discomfort  to  him.  Later  in 
the  century,  under  Louis  x-iv,  pensions  were  the  fashion, 
and  a  literary  man  could  accept  one  from  a  sovereign 
without  any  sense  of  humiliation,  even  with  pride  at 
being  distinguished.  And  as  Casaubon  fairly  earned  his 
salary  at  the  library,  he  had  nothing  to  feel  on  this 
score.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  as  yet  no  public 
service.  All  employe's  were  the  servants  •  of  the 
monarch.  The  librarian  was  so  in  an  especial  manner. 
It  was  'the  king's  library/  and  he  was  'king's  li- 
brarian/ He  belonged  to  the  court,  and  had  his 
share  in  the  obligations  which  the  court  imposed  on 
all  within  its  circle.  There  was  no  humiliation,  but 
also  there  was  no  independence.  Life  then  was  a 
system  of  dependence.  The  roturier  placeman  was 
dependent  on  the  favour  of  the  noble ;  the  lesser 
noble  on  '  les  grands ; '  the  great  noble  himself, 
though  not,  at  this  period,  so  entirely  as  at  a  later 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  243 

ime,  upon  the  king.  The  lowliness  of  Casaubon's 
situation,  and  the  paltriness  of  his  pay,  only  made 
the  ownership  more  unmistakable.  A  man  who  sells 
himself  so  cheap  must  be  supposed  to  have  sold 
himself  on  servile  conditions — to  have  made  himself 
over,  body  and  soul.  A  mistress  purchased  almost  at 
her  weight  in  crown  pieces,  may  bear  herself  proudly, 
and  repel  her  royal  lover  with  insolent  disdain.  The 
poet  or  the  scholar,  to  whom  a  pitiful  sum  is 
grudgingly  doled  out,  may  not  think,  speak,  or 
write  his  own  thoughts.  Write  against  Baronius ! 
No,  the  pope  does  not  allow  it.  Edit  a  greek  father ! 
That  is  not  for  such  as  you.  Even  what  he  received, 
Casaubon  had  not  the  consolation  of  believing  to  be 
given  as  recognition  of  learning.  His  literary  emi- 
nence had  no  other  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  Bdarnais 
roue,  but  as  it  made  him  worth  buying  as  a  convert. 

3.  Another  crook  in  his  lot  was  connected  with 
his  religion,  in  the  personal  share  he  began  to  have 
in  the  system  of  public  defamation  set  on  foot  at 
this  time  by  the  Jesuits.  Casaubon  was  named,  but 
only  named,  not  pilloried,  in  the  ( Amphitheatrum ' 
(1605).  The  order  went  round  that  he  was  to  be 
spared  in  print,  because  there  were  hopes  of  him. 
But  he  was  to  be  threatened,  and  might  be  talked 
against.  They  sent  him,  from  their  libel-manu- 
factory at  Maintz,  a  title-page  of  a  book  which  they 
professed  to  have  in  the  press  against  him43.  It 
went  no  further  at  present  than  letting  him  know 
that  Scioppius,  at  Eome,  spoke  of  him  as  Thraso  and 
atheist.  Casaubon  says  of  this  in  a  letter 44  to  Chessel 
|  (Caselius)  at  Helmstadt  :  '  There  is,  I  believe,  no- 
j  thing  of  Thraso  in  my  writings  ;  and  if  I  were  an 
43  Ep.  555.  «  Ep.  516. 

R  2 


244  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

atheist,  I  should  now  be  at  Borne,  whither  I  have 
been  often  invited.  I  am  resolved  to  make  no  reply 
to  the  snarlings  of  such  a  cur/  When  Henri  iv. 
expressed  his  displeasure  for  the  book  he  was  writing 
'  against  the  pope/  Casaubon  alleged,  in  his  own 
defence45,  that  'for  the-  space  of  three  years  last  past, 
they  have  been  describing  me  as  a  wicked  atheist, 
as  prodigiously  ignorant,  and  are  now  engaged  in 
compiling  a  special  book  against  me,  full  of  scurrility/ 

It  is  observable  that  these  brutalities  did  not 
emanate  from  France  or  from  the  french  Jesuits. 
Twenty  years  before,  the  furious  preachers  of  the 
league  had  vented  enough  of  foul  language.  But 
literary  controversy  in  France,  even  when  most  bitter, 
has  on  the  whole  been  creditably  decorous.  It  has 
often  been  cruel  and  insolent,  but  it  has  not  known 
the  depths  of  degradation  in  which  the  German- 
Jesuit  pamphlets  of  this  period,  compounds  of  the 
beerhouse,  the  cloister,  and  the  brothel,  are  steeped. 
Scaliger  expostulates46  with  Marc  Welser,  an  Augs- 
burg catholic,  on  this  ground.  'It  is  Germany,  look 
you,  Germany,  once  the  mother  of  learning  and 
learned  men,  that  is  now  turning  the  service  of  letters 
into  brigandage.  My  France  produces  none  of  these 
foul  scurrilities.  From  your  presses  it  is  that  the  poi- 
sonous matter  comes  forth.  Antwerp,  you  will  say; 
but  Antwerp  only  reprints  what  you  produce.  The 
wretch  (Scioppius)  has  no  other  motive  for  assailing 
Casaubon,  than  mortification  at  his  surpassing  merit. 

45  EP.  557- 

46  Seal.  epp.  p.  406  :  '  Vestra  Germania,  mi  Velsere,  quse  tot  eru- 
dites olim  viros  protulit,  solum  hoc    spectare  videtur,  ut  nulla  alia 
gens  sanctissimum  litterarum  ministerium  in  latrocinium  convertisse 
videatur.  ilia  sane  portenta  mea  Gallia  non  producit.' 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  245 

It  is  Casaubons  superiority  that  will  not  allow  them 
to  rest.  They  bark  whenever  they  hear  his  name, 
and  I  would  take  my  oath  that  they  can't  understand 
the  tenth  part  of  what  he  writes/ 

Though  Casaubon  was  spared  for  the  moment,  yet 
he  was  only  on  good  behaviour,  and  was  under  the 
surveillance  of  the  bandits.  He  could  not,  too,  but 
share  keenly  in  the  pain  inflicted  upon. his  honoured 
friend  and  master.  He  gave  Scaliger  all  the  sym- 
pathy and  affection  it  was  possible  to  give  under  his 
trial.  Good  men  everywhere,  even  among  the  Pari- 
sian catholics,  disapproved  the  '  Amphitheatrum/  but 
not  as  emphatically  as  they  ought  to  have  done. 
Scaliger  was  bespattered  with  dirt,  and  though  the 
hand  that  threw  it  was  the  hand  of  a  scoundrel,  they 
were  not  quite  sorry  it  was  done.  It  was  the  in- 
terest of  the  church  that  the  credit  of  the  huguenot 
critic  should  be  lowered.  Few  felt,  as  Casaubon  felt, 
that  learning  itself  was  insulted  and  outraged  in  the 
person  of  Scaliger.  Casaubon's  personal  share  might 
be  less  than  Scaliger's.  But  to  both  of  them  it  was 
a  bitter  disillusion  to  find  that  knowledge  which  they 
had  devoted  life  to  acquire,  was  the  unpardonable 
crime  which  drew  down  upon  them  an  overwhelming 
load  of  slander  and  abuse. 

4.  But  it  was  not  only  on  the  side  of  catholics  that 
Casaubon  had  to  endure  much  misrepresentation.  His 
own  co-religionaries  were  not  a  little  troublesome  to 
him.  In  their  anxiety  for  his  steadfastness,  they  beset 
him  with  exhortation,  remonstrance,  or  objurgation, 
according  as  the  fears  or  hopes  of  the  writer  pre- 
dominated at  the  moment.  In  1601,  he  had  found  it 
advisable,  as  we  have  seen,  to  give  a  public  assurance 
of  his  attachment  to  his  principles,  in  a  letter  to  the 


246  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

synod  of  Gergeau.  This  served  for  a  time.  But  the 
reports  gathered  head  again,  from  time  to  time,  and 
not  unnaturally.  When  his  conversion  was  so  repeat- 
edly announced  as  a  fact  by  the  catholic  party,  it  could 
not  but  acquire  some  credit  among  the  protestants, 
especially  at  a  distance.  In  1604,  when  Gillot  re- 
turned to  Paris  from  Poitou47,  he  found  the  colporteurs 
in  the  streets  crying  a  broadside,  '  The  conversion  of 
M.  Ca^aubon/  and  people  '  talking '  of  nothing  else. 
But  it  was  in  1610  that  the  report  acquired  fresh  con- 
sistency. CasauJ^on  had  recently  received  a  severe 
injury,  as  he  conceived,  at  the  hands  of  the  autho- 
rities of  Geneva.  He  did  not  scruple  to  go  about 
using  strong  language  in  condemnation  of  their  be- 
haviour to  him.  He  was  closeted,  day  after  day, 
with  cardinal  Du  t  Perron.  Offers  of  promotion  were 
made  him.  In  his  disputes  with  the  cardinal  he  gave 
up  much  of  the  ground  which  the  calvinist  polemics 
were  accustomed  to  maintain ;  and  it  was  becoming 
known  that  he  disapproved  the  neglect  or  contempt 
of  Christian  antiquity  which  the  calvinist  doctors  pro- 
fessed. Especially  on  the  eucharist,  he  did  not  con- 
ceal that  the  doctrine  of  the  catholics  was  nearer,  than 
that  of  the  calvinist  churches,  to  what  he  conceived  to 
be  the  opinion  of  the  ancient  church.  We  find  him 
admitting  to  his  friends  that  *  there  were  many  weak 
points  in  the  protestant  system ;'  that  the  writings 
of  the  fathers  were  often  '  strongly  forced  to  get  from 
them  a  sense  favourable  to  the  protestant  view ;'  that 
Du  Moulin' s  position  that,  '  Scripture  is  so  plain  that 
it  needs  no  interpreter/  is  false  and  dangerous.  We 
can  imagine  that  his  appearances  at  the  Temple  of 
Charenton,  often  far  between,  were  narrowly  watched, 
47  Ep.  fran9aises,  p.  419. 


and  what 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  247 


and  what  a  scandal  must  have  been  created,  when  the 
man,  who  a  few  years  before  thought  it  a  sin  to  be 
present  at  mass,  now  heard  (on  passion  Sunday  1610) 
a  papist  preach,  and  could  approve  much — not  by  any 
means  all — he  said. 

I  The  ground  now  taken  up  by  Casaubon  was,  in 
ality,  much  firmer  than  that  he  had  occupied  before, 
asmuch  as  it  was  one  of  knowledge.  Some  few  of 
the  best  men  of  the  party  fully  understood  this,  e.g. 
Du  Plessis  Mornay  writes48  to  Erpenius,  January,  1611, 
' 1  have  never,  as  you  know,  believed  that  he  would 
draw  near  to  Eome/  But  the  calvinist  public  could 
not  know  this ;  what  they  did  know  was,  that  he  no 
longer  shared  all  their  ideas  and  sentiments.  This 
was  quite  enough  to  make  him  an  object  of  suspicion, 
at  least,  to  his  own  party,  a  party  heated  by  a  sense  of 
defeat,  and  kept  in  a  perpetual  state  of  nervous  appre- 
hension by  continued  injustice  and  encroachment.  The 
eyes  of  all  the  reformed  congregations  throughout 
France  were  on  Casaubon  ;  they  were  watching  his 
every  movement  with  disquietude,  and  were  agitated 
with  reports  of  his  backsliding. 

It  would  have  calmed  their  apprehensions  if  the 
pastors  of  his  own  church,  the  church  of  Paris,  could 
have  given  him  a  certificate  of  orthodoxy.  But  un- 
fortunately the  leading  minister  at  this  period,  Pierre 
Du  Moulin,  had  grievances  of  his  own  against  this 
illustrious  member  of  his  flock,  whose  reputation  threw 
his  own  into  the  shade.  Du  Moulin  was  a  zealous 
religionist,  who  had  given  up  a  secure  and  honourable 
position  at  Leyden,  for  the  illrewarded  and  battered 
life  of  minister  in  his  native  country.  Fond  of  dispute, 
and  vain  of  his  powers,  he  spent  his  life  in  discussion 
48  Mem.  et  corresp.  de  Duplessis-Mornay,  n.  143. 


248  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

and  controversies,  or  in  writing  attacks  and  answers. 
A  man  who  maintained  so  much,  and  so  dogmatically, 
was  naturally  obliged  to  be  content  sometimes  with 
weak,  sometimes  with  false,  arguments.  Casaubon,  who 
had  to  hear  his  learned  displays  before  his  wondering 
and  obedient  flock  at  Charenton,  could  not  help  at 
times  throwing  out  hints  of  the  insufficiency  of  his 
glib  references  to  the  fathers,  or  regrets  at  the  levity 
with  which  Christian  antiquity  was  set  aside.  He  read 
Du  Moulin's  pamphlets,  and  on  the  margin  of  one  of 
these,  the  *  Defence  of  King  James'  confession  of  faith/ 
had  marked  a  few  of  the  writer's  errors.  This  copy  had 
been  seen  by  some  mutual  friends,  and  Du  Moulin 
called  on  Casaubon  and  insisted  on  having  it.  Casaubon 
gave  it  up,  begging  him  to  take  his  notes  in  good  part. 
This  was  just  before  Casaubon's  departure  from  Paris, 
but  it  was  the  climax  of  a  condition  of  distant  relations 
between  the  straying  sheep  and  his  spiritual  shepherd. 
That  Casaubon  had  not  the  least  thought  of  quitting 
the  communion  of  his  church  because  the  minister  who 
preached  to  him  was  one  of  the  half-learned,  is  evident 
from  his  whole  mental  attitude  at  this  time.  One 
passage  of  the  diary  may  be  quoted  which  bears  on 
this  subject.  He  enters,  September  5,  1610  :  'Com- 
municated, and  heard  the  learned  sermon  of  Du  Moulin. 
I  cannot  indeed  deny  that  the  ancients  thought  very 
differently  of  this  sacred  mystery,  and  administered  it 
otherwise.  I  could  wish  that  we  had  not  departed  so 
far  from  either  their  faith  or  their  ritual.  But  inas- 
much as  neither  that  faith  nor  that  ritual  rests  upon 
the  explicit  word  of  God,  and  I  am  but  a  private 
individual  whose  duty  it  is  to  follow,  and  not  to  lead 
in  the  church,  I  have  no  just  ground  for  making  any 
change  myself;  least  of  all  so  at  a  time  when  every 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  249 

ibrt  is  being  made  to  establish  all  the  superstitious 
figments  which  ages  have  accumulated.' 

To  be  looked  on  coldly  by  the  calvinistic  Du  Moulin 
was  enough  to  increase  the  suspicions  afloat  of  Casau- 
bon's  unsoundness  in  the  reformed  faith.  He  added  to 
this  another  error,  that  of  being  in  friendly  relations 
with  theologians  of  a  freer  cast  of  doctrine.  Neither 
Daniel  Tilenus,  nor  John  Uytenbogaert  -could  be  ac- 
cused of  inclining  to  popery ;  but  their  sentiments 
were  felt  to  be  not  altogether  those  of  the  old  fashioned 
calvinistic  school.  The  new  Arminian  protestantism 
which  was  in  the  next  twenty  years  to  play  such  a 
part  in  Holland  and  England,  had  not  been  taken  up 
in  France,  where  the  reformed  churches  were  too  severly 
pressed  upon  by  the  catholics.  But  it  had  been  heard 
of,  and  Uytenbogaert  was  already  (1610)  in  ill  odour 
with  orthodox  calvinists 49.  With  Uytenbogaert,  Casau- 
bon  only  became  acquainted  in  the  last  year  of  his 
Paris  residence,  when  he  attended  the  embassy  which 
came  in  the  spring  of  1610  from  the  States  General  to 
Henri  iv.  Casaubon  heard  the  remonstrant  champion 
preach,  with  approbation 60.  They  had  together  a  long 
conference  on  theological  topics.  Of  this  conference 
no  mention  is  found  in  the  diary.  But  notes  of  it 
were  taken  by  Uytenbogaert  at  the  time,  and  though 
it  must  be  read  with  the  latitude  required  as  con- 
versation reported  from  memory,  it  is  valuable  evidence 
of  Casaubon's  sentiments  at  the  period  (1610).  It  is 
therefore  given  entire  (from  Epp.  ecclesiasticse  (1704), 
p.  250). 

19  Daersen  writes  to  Uytenbogaert,  in  1610,  epp.  eccles.  p.  245: 
'  Vostre  nom  n'est  pas  peu  descri£  en  plusieurs  endroits  de  ce  royaume 
...  la  France  qui  est  la  plus  inquiete  en  pareilles  matieres  .  .  .' 

50  Eph.  p.  736. 


250  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

'  Cas.  Je  suis  fils  d'un  ministre.  Les  ministres 
point  a  leur  aise  pour  maintenant. 

Uyt.     II  cuidoit  estre  brusle  a  Bourdeaux. 

Cas.  Dieu  a  voulu  que  je  viensse  icy,  depuis  ceux 
de  Geneve  m'ont  fait  la  plus  grande  iniquite  du  monde. 
Les  papist es  pensoyent  a  cette  occasion  se  prevaloir  de 
moy  ;  me  solliciterent  fort,  meme  le  roy.  Je  luy  dis 
que  je  le  suppliois  ne  me  faire  rien  faire  contre  ma 
conscience  ;  qu'il  en  feroit  un  hypocrite.  II  dit  qu'il 
ne  voulust  pas  que  je  changeasse  de  religion,  mais  que 
je  conservasse.  Depuis  je  suis  ete  fort  attaque,  nom- 
mement  de  M.  Du  Perron,  qui  a  la  verite  est  fulmen 
nominis ;  car  comme  je  suis  bibliothecaire  du  roy, 
quand  il  vient  en  la  bibliotheque,  les  occasions  ne  luy 
manquent  point.  J'ay  subsisted  jusques  ores,  graces 
a  Dieu  ;  mais  il  faut  que  cependant  je  vous  confesse 
qu'il  m'a  donne  beaucoup  de  scrupules,  qui  me  restent, 
et  ausquels  je  ne  s^ay  pas  bien  respondre ;  il  me  fasche 
de  rougir.  L'eschappade  que  je  prens  est,  que  je  n'y 
puis  respondre,  mais  que  j'y  penseray. 

Je  confesse  que  je  ne  puis  approuver  le  concile  de 
Trente,  en  ce  qu'il  a  deer  ete  touchant  les  livres  apo- 
cryphes  ;  c'est  chose  abominable,  car  ce  sont  des  fables  ; 
id  pour  la  translation  latine ;  c'est  chose  abominable. 
La  tyrannic  aussi  du  pape  est  intolerable.  Et  pour  ]e 
fait  des  images,  ainsi  comme  cela  maintenant  est  en 
usage,  c'est  un  abus  trop  manifeste,  et  tout  plein  d'autres 
choses.  Mais  il  fault,  monsieur,  que  je  vous  confesse, 
qu'il  y  en  a  d'autres  que  me  mettent  en  peine,  quand 
je  considere  ceste  venerable  antiquite.  Pour  nostre 
police  ecclesiastique,  elle  ne  me  semble  pas  accorder 
avec  1' antiquite. 

Uyt.     Icy  je  consens. 

Addit.     Que  M.  de  Beze  luy  avoit  dit,  que  M.  Calvin, 


yoyant  les 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  251 


yant  les  abus  de  1'eglise  Romaine  en  cest  endroit, 
avoit  racle  cela ;  mais  qu'en  effet  M.  Calvin  estoit 
evesque  de  Geneve,  et  que  peu  devant  son  trespas,  il 
en  avoit  nomme  de  Beze,  qui  n'en  voulut  point.  Un  jour 
M.  de  Beze  avoit  fait  un  preche  oii  il  avoit  exhorte  le 
magistrat  de  son  debvoir  sur  quelque  proces,  affin  que 
justice  tint  la  balance  droite.  Monsieur  de  la  Faye, 
recitant  ces  propres  mots,  en  avoit  preche  centre.  Moy 
m'addressant  a  M.  de  Beze,  qui  en  pleuroit  de  regret, 
(c'estoit  une  ame  vrayement  chrestienne,  qui  me  dit  uii 
jour  qu'il  avoit  occasion  de  demander  pardon  a  Dieu 
de  ses  pe"ches,  mais  que  jamais  il  n'en  demanderoit  de 
1'ambition ;  vice  auquel  il  estoit  le  moins  addonne) 
Je  luy  dis,  que  s'il  avoit  la  police  de  1'antiquite,  cela 
n'adviendroit  pas  ;  ce  que  m'advoua.  Je  luy  demandai, 
pourquoy  done  il  avoit  tant  resiste  a  TAngleterre  r(  il  ne 
respondit  rien.  2.  Nous  n'avons  plus  de  devotion ; 
en  1'acte  meme  de  faire  la  sainte  cene,  comme  nous 
allasmes,  quelque  un  me  demanda,  comment  se  porte 
le  coque  de  vos  poules  d'Inde  ?  se  dire  des  injures. 
3.  Pour  les  malades  porter  la  cene,  cela  est  dans 
1'antiquite.  4.  Pour  le  baptesme,  est  advenu  qu'en 
un  temps  extremement  rude  quelqu'un  portoit  son 
enfant  pour  estre  baptise  a  Charenton,  Tenfant  estant 
malade  a  la  mort,  on  ne  voulut  pas  le  baptiser  devant" 
le  preche  ;  Tenfant  mourut,  le  pere  se  revolta.  5.  Pour 
le  sacrement,  mesmes  il  est  certain,  que  1'antiquite 
donne  a  entendre,  qu'il  y  a  bien  quelque  autre  chose. 
Plessis  beaucoup  de  faussetez.  Moulin  aussi  au  3  chap, 
de  S.  Denis  71-^009  fyopavrov  Sapov.  6.  Pour  la  predes- 
tination, il  est  mal  aise  de  ne  tirer  la  consequence, 
Deus  est  author  mali.  7.  Pour  le  liberal  arbitre, 
M.  Calvin  fait  dire  a  S.  Augustin,  ce  qu'il  ne  dit  pas. 
8.  Pour  les  bonnes  oeuvres,  il  y  a  quelque  autre  chose 


252  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

qu'on  ce  dit ;  pour  le  moins,  il  les  faudroit  plus  prescher ; 
M.  Perrot  disoit  un  fois  a  Geneve,  qu'on  avoit  trop 
preche  la  justification  par  la  seule  foy ;  il  est  temps 
qu'on  parle  des  oeuvres.  9.  Pour  la  descente  aux 
enfers,  M.  Calvin  parle  trop  cruement.  Je  scay  que 
M.  Calvin  a  este  grand  person nage,  mais  ses  disciples 
empirent  les  affaires.  II  y  a  un  vray  Pharisaisme. 
M.  Goulart  un  jour  taschoit  de  faire  jurer  les  Institu- 
tions de  M.  Calvin.  Je  suis  en  la  plus  grande  peine  du 
monde.  D'un  coste  et  d'autre  je  suis  mal,  non  obstant 
qu'il  y  a  des  gens  doctes,  graces  a  Dieu,  qui  m'aiment.' 

The  rest  of  the  memorandum  is  in  Latin.  Casaubon 
inquires  if  Arminius  had  expressed  himself  dissatisfied 
with  the  current  tenets  of  the  church  to  which  he 
belonged  \  Uytenbogaert  answers  :  '.He  did  so,  but 
his  main  point  was  the  reunion  of  Christendom ;  and 
the  basis  he  projected  was,  the  drawing  a  line  between 
fundamentals  and  non-fundamentals/  Casaubon  ex- 
claimed, '  O  pious  intentions  !'  .  .  .  Here  the  conversa- 
tion was  interrupted  by  the  entrance  of  Reygersberg. 

These  notes  bear  internal  evidence  of  their  genuine- 
ness. The  Arminian  party  valued  them  for  the  sake  of 
giving  their  views  the  authority  of  Casaubon' s  name. 
We  cannot  wonder,  if  this  was  the  style  of  his  conver- 
sation, at  his  becoming  a  scandal  and  stumbling-block 
to  believing  calvinists.  They  afford  no  evidence  of  a 
disposition  to  embrace  Catholicism,  while  they  suffi- 
ciently account  for  the  origin  and  prevalence  of  such 
a  rumour. 

Daniel  Tilenus,  professor  of  theology  at  Sedan,  had 
long  been  one  of  his  trusted  correspondents.  It  was  a 
letter  to  Tilenus  which  had  brought  Casaubon  into 
trouble  some  years  before.  In  1602,  he  had  in  few 
and  simple  terms  expressed  his  indignation  at  the  tone 


PARIS.      1GOO— 1610.  253 

lopted  by  Canaye  de  Fresne,  who  had  no  sooner 
?one  over  than  he  began  to  indulge  in  abusive  language 
of  those  who  did  not  follow  his  example.  A  copy  of 
the  letter  was  shown  to  Canaye  de  Fresne  at  Venice, 
and  seems  to  have  stung  a  conscience,  not  quite  easy 
at  his  act,  to  fury.  He  set  on  the  catholic  bloodhound, 
Scioppius,  and  made  a  formal  complaint  to  the  king. 
This  complaint  could  come  to  nothing,  as  there  was 
really  nothing  to  complain  of.  In  1 6 1  o,  Tilenus  is  still 
the  person  to  whom  Casaubon  is  able  best  to  confide 
his  misgivings  as  to  the  calvinistic  system,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  reasserts  his  own  steadfastness  as  against 
the  inducements  held  out  to  him  to  desert  to  Rome. 
He  tells  Tilenus51  that  it  is  quite  true  that  the  people 
and  government  of  Geneva  have  done  him  a  great 
injury,  but  not  true  that  he  ever  thought  of  abandoning 
his  religious  principles  on  that  account.  '  I  thank  you/ 
he  continues,  'for  informing  me  that  such  reports  are 
current.  But  is  it  possible  that  you  yourself  were 
inclined  to  attach  any  credence  to  them  1  Have  I 
ever  shown  any  particular  desire  of  wealth  and  honour  1 
Have  I  not  had  golden  fortune  knocking  at  my  door, 
almost  breaking  it  open,  and  have  I  not  resisted  the 
temptation  ? 

'  How  then;  you  will  ask,  did  a  report  to  this  effect 
originate  1  Let  me  remind  you  of  the  situation  in 
which  I  have  been  placed.  For  years  past  I  have 
scarce  had  a  day  free  from  contests  with  persons  pro- 
fessing a  different  religion.  With  what  freedom,  with 
what  zeal  I  have  spoken  on  these  occasions,  God  knows. 
I  never  invited  these  conflicts ;  they  were  always 
forced  upon  me.  I  was  not  a  theologian,  but  being 
compelled  .to  give  reasons  for  my  opinions,  I  was 
51  Ep.  1023. 


254  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

driven  to  suspend  all  other  studies  and  to  give  myself 
up  to  this  one.  I  compared  the  writings  of  our  friends 
and  their  opponents  with  the  doctrine  of  the  ancient 
church.  Among  the  rest  I  read  Bellarmine.  On 
scripture,  tradition,  the  authority  of  the  old  com- 
mentators, on  the  power  of  the  pope,  on  images,  on 
indulgences,  I  could  by  certain  reasons  demonstrate  all 
Bellarmine' s  positions  to  be  false.  But  when  I  come 
to  the  chapter  on  the  sacraments  (though  there  be  also 
some  things  which  can  be  refuted),  it  is  no  less  clear  to 
me  that  the  whole  of  antiquity  with  one  consent  is  on 
the  side  of  our  opponents,  and  that  our  writers  who 
have  attempted  to  show  that  the  fathers  have  held  our 
views  have  egregiously  wasted  their  time.  The  careful 
study  of  the  ancients  has  raised  certain  scruples  in  my 
mind.  About  these  I  would  give  a  kingdom  to  be  able 
to  consult  you,  for  all  I  desire  is  to  learn.  That  I  am 
staggered  by  the  consent  of  the  whole  ancient  and 
orthodox  church  I  cannot  conceal/ 

When  things  had  gone  so  far  as  this,  we  must 
admit  that  if  there  was  no  real  foundation,  there  was  at 
least  some  justification,  for  the  alarms  of  the  protestants 
and  their  jealousy  that  Casaubon  was  about  to  desert 
them. 

5.  Other  sorrows  which  attend  our  advancing  years 
now  began  to  crowd  round  Casaubon.  The  death  of 
his  mother  in  1607  was  in  the  course  of  nature.  She 
had  survived  her  husband  twenty-two  years,  and  her 
declining  age  had  been  sustained  by  the  affection  of 
her  illustrious  son,  who,  poor  as  he  was,  had,  out  of 
his  poverty,  ministered  to  her  comfort.  She  had 
declined  to  follow  him  to -Paris,  naturally  preferring 
the  climate  of  her  native  south,  and  a  protestant  neigh- 
bourhood. As  Ions:  as  Casaubon  resided  at  Geneva  or 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  ,  255 

Montpellier,  she  made  frequent  and  long  visits  to  him. 
After  his  removal  to  Paris,  he  visited  her  as  often  as  he 
could;  the  last  time,  in  1603;  visits  which  Casaubon 
could  dwell  upon  after  her  death52  as  consolatory.  He 
writes53  to  Pierre  Perillau  of  the  incredible  satisfaction 
which  he  has  had  in  this  visit  to  his  mother,  from 
which  he  is  just  returned.  '  I  wanted  to  have  located 
her  at  Geneva ;  but  she  would  not.  I  have  therefore 
purchased  a  house  for  her  at  Bordeaux  (in  Dauphine) 
and  have  done  my  possible,  nay,  more,  to  relieve  her 
from  all  apprehension  about  the  future.  Thank  God, 
she  is  now  in  sufficiently  easy  circumstances  for  a 
person  who  has  so  few  wants.' 

In  1602  he  had  lost  the  best  of  his  sisters,  Sara  Cha- 
banes.  One  of  her  sons,  Pierre,  Isaac  had  undertaken 
to  educate  and  provide  for.  Just  as  the  youth  was 
beginning  to  be  very  useful  to  Casaubon,  both  in  his 
reading,  and  in  the  library,  when  he  was  just  of  age, 
he  fell  a  victim  to  one  of  the  voyages  to  Hablon. 
He  caught  his  death  in  the  boat  on  a  bitter  Palm 
Sunday,  such  as  Parisians  know  too  well. 

The  heaviest  blow  was  the  loss  of  his  much-cherished 
daughter,  Philippa.  Superior  endowments  of  mind,  and 
a  generous  elevation  of  character,  had  endeared  this 
daughter  to  the  father  above  all  his  many  children. 
Philippa  was  his  pride  and  his  consolation.  Without 
beauty,  she  had  the  sweet  charm  of  graceful  serious- 
ness, or  softened  melancholy,  which  belonged  to  the 
huguenot  women  of  that  generation.  A  presentiment 
of  her  early  grave  perhaps  hung  about  herself,  which 
her  delicacy  of  constitution,  and  frequent  ailments,  too 
surely  predicted  to  the  apprehensive  mind  of  the  fond 
father. 

82  Eph.  558.  53  Bulletin  de  la  soc.  prot.  2.  290. 


256  PARIS.     1600  -» 1610. 

Philippa  had  been  much  noticed  by  the  family  of  the 
English  ambassador,  Carew.  Lady  Carew  (she  was  a 
Godolphin)  took  such  a  liking  to  her  that  she  offered  to 
taka  her  into  her  house  as  companion.  The  other 
advantages  were  great,  but  the  opportunity  of  learning 
the  language  was  what  chiefly  attracted  Philippa, 
whose  young  life  was  clouded  with  dread  of  a  time 
when  they  might  all  have  to  fly  for  life,  and  looked  to 
England  as  the  place  of  refuge.  The  parents,  though 
loth  to  part  with  their  darling,  thought  they  ought  not 
to  reject  such  an  introduction  for  her.  In  a  few  months 
she  became  an  established  favourite  in  the  household  of 
the  Carews,  who  told  the  parents  they  ought  to  think 
themselves  happy  indeed  in  such  a  child.  The  flower 
was  nipt  in  the  bud  by  a  fever  which  carried  her  off, 
after  a  few  days'  iUness,  set.  19.  The  entry  of  the  inter- 
ment in  the  cemetery  of  the  faubourg  S.  Germain  is 
dated  February  26,  i6o854.  Lady  Carew  joined  her 
tears  with  those  of  Madame  Casaubon55.  For  Isaac  all 
attempts  to  return  to  his  books  were  for  some  time 
fruitless. 

The  blow  was  the  more  severe  as  none  of  the  other 
children  seemed  likely  to  replace  the  lost  one,  but  were 
rather  a  source  of  discomfort.  John,  the  eldest,  early 
developed  a  crooked  disposition.  We  find  him56,  set. 
1 8,  thieving  from  his  parents'  poor  purse  nine  crowns, 
and  otherwise  distressing  them  by  lending  a  favourable 
ear  to  the  professional  convertisseurs.  Twelve  months 
afterwards,  set.  19,  he  went  over,  as  has  been  already 
related.  It  was  in  great  measure  upon  the  lies  set 

54  Bulletin  de  la  soc.  prot.  12.  276.  Heg.  de  decks,  26  fdvr.  1608: 
'  Philippe  Casaubon,  fille  de  M.  Casaubon,  professeur  du  roy,  et  garde 
de  sa  bibliotheque.' 

55  Eph.  589  :  'Suas  nostris  lacrimas  adjungens.'         56  Eph.  625. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  257 

loat  by  this  young  rogue  among  his  new  associates 
that  the  reports  were  founded  of  Isaac's  apostacy. 

Of  his  children  in  general  the  diary  says57,  in  1607, 
'  They  are  almost  all  great  troubles  to  me,  some  of 
them  because  they  are  always  ill,  some  because  they 
make  no  progress  either  in  virtue  or  in  letters/  He 
is  in  fear  that  more  of  them  will  follow  John's  ex- 
ample 58.  This  grievous  disappointment  was  not  to 
extend  to  Meric.  Meric,  at  the  date  when  this  wail  was 
wrung  from  the  desponding  father,  was  only  seven. 
In  the  following  year,  aet.  8,  he  was  sent  to  school  at 
Sedan,  under  Samuel  Neran.  Here  he  remained  till 
16 ii,  when  he  rejoined  his  father  in  England.  Isaac 
lived  to  see  Meric  confirmed,  but  not  to  see  developed 
in  him  those  learned  tastes  and  accomplishments  which 
might  have  consoled  the  father  for  the  degeneracy  of 
the  rest  of  the  children.  The  only  letter  which  Meric 
preserved  of  those  written  to  him  in  his  school-days,  is 
so  characteristic  of  the  writer  that  it  is  thought  right  to 
give  it.  It  is  dated  Paris,  September  18,  1609. 

'  Meric,  I  am  glad  that  you  write  to  me  tolerably 
often,  and  shall  be  more  so  if  you  do  so  oftener.  I 
shall,  however,  expect  each  letter  to  show  some  pro- 
gress since  the  one  which  preceded  it.  I  see  that  you 
are  beginning  to  compose  latin  themes,  but  not  without 
bad  mistakes.  Learn  something  every-day.  Exercise 
your  memory  diligently.  If  Terence  is  one  of  the 
books  you  read  at  school,  I  desire  that  you  will  commit 
it  to  memory  from  beginning  to  end.  No  one  will  ever 
speak  latin  well  who  has  not  thumbed  Terence. 
Write  me  word  if  you  read  Terence,  and  what  it  is  you 
read  at  school.  Above  all,  be  good,  fear  God,  pray  for 
father,  mother,  brothers,  and  sisters.  Honour  your 
67  Eph.  p.  546  58  Eph.  p.  764. 


258  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

teachers,  and  be  obedient  to  them.  Be  careful  not  to 
waste  time.  If  you  do  this,  God  will  bless  your  studies. 
I  have  written  to  the  master,  and  to  the  person  with 
whom  you  board,  not  to  let  you  want  for  anything. 
Your  mother  sends  her  remembrances,  and  desires  you 
will,  from  her,  kiss  Mrs.  Capell's  hands,  as  I  do  also. 
Your  father,  Is.  Casaubon.  Eemember  me  to  the 
Hotomans/ 

In  the  same  year  that  his  mother  died,  1607,  his 
surviving  sister,  Anna,  left  a  widow  by  the  death  of  her 
husband,  Jean  Hi  got,  came  to  Paris.  Isaac  had  por- 
tioned her,  giving  her,  with  Madame  Casaubon'  s  con- 
sent, 500  crowns,  their  joint  savings  intended  for 
Philippa.  Her  husband's  brothers,  the  Bigots,  had  some 
claim  upon  Jean,  which,  after  a  litigation  of  twelve 
years,  resulted  in  a  decision  adverse  to  Anna.  She  was 
left  penniless,  and  Isaac,  who  had  maintained  her  as 
well  as  his  mother,  now  took  her  to  live  with  him. 
Her  temper  soon  proved  the  bane  of  his  household59. 
She  and  Madame  Casaubon  could  not  agree,  '  fire  and 
water  sooner,'  says  the  diary60.  It  went  on  from  bad 
to  worse.  She  soon  turned  on  Isaac,  reproaching  him 
with  doing  no  more  for  her.  At  last  she  became  so 
unreasonable  that  it  was  doubtful  if  she  were  in  her 
right  mind.  Yet  the  long-suffering  man  continued  to 
keep  this  61f  monstrum  mulieris  '  in  his  household. 
Well  might  he  ask  Eutgers62,  who  offered  him  hospi- 
tality, 'Are  you  a  Crassus  that  you  can  lodge  an 
army  ?  Were  I  really  to  appear  with  my  whole  estab- 
lishment, you  would  be  alarmed.' 

6.    Other   troubles    originated   with   the    family   of 


60 


Eph.  p.  629  :  '  Nube  tristissima  hanc  domum  obfuscavit.' 
Eph.  p.  517.  «  Eph.  p.  672.  6*  Ep.  723. 


PARTS.     1600  —  1610.  253 

iis  wife.  Paul  Estienne,  Madame  Casaubon's  brother, 
though  himself  a  member  of  the  council  of  200  at 
Geneva,  was  somehow  compromised  in  the  treasonable 
practices  of  the  syndic  Blondel.  Blondel  was  exe- 
cuted in  September  1606.  Paul,  however,  who  was 
perhaps  guilty  of  nothing  more  heinous  than  the  de- 
sire to  save  Blondel,  got  off  for  a  few  weeks'  im- 
prisonment. He  was  released  on  engaging  to  appear 
whenever  called  upon.  He  had  before  this  neglected 
his  business63,  and  in  1607  he  made  his  appearance 
in  Paris  in  a  state  of  penury.  The  business  which 
brought  him  was  the  affair  of  the  greek  matrixes 
before  spoken  to.  It  would  seem  that  sir  Henry 
Savile  was  desirous  of  employing  the  royal  type  in 
his  edition  of  S.  Chrysostom,  and  for  this  purpose 
would  have  been  willing  to  purchase  the  set  of 
matrixes  which  were  at  Geneva.  In  this  negotiation 
Savile  sought  the  mediation  of  Casaubon,  who  had 
supplied  him  with  collations  from  the  royal  library, 
and  lodged  500  crowns  in  the  hands  of  the  English 
ambassador  at  Paris.  Casaubon,  or  his  wife,  as  co- 
heir of  Henri  Estienne,  was  joint  owner  of  the  ma- 
trixes. But  as  Henri,  in  his  lifetime,  had  been 
compelled  to  mortgage  this  property,  they  must  be 
disengaged  before  they  could  be  sold.  Isaac  Casaubon, 
besides  finding  Paul  in  a  supply  of  cash  for  his  im- 
mediate necessities,  became  surety  for  200  crowns, 
and  sent  him  back  to  Geneva,  to  effect  the  object. 
But  when  it  became  known  that  the  matrixes  were 
about  to  be  sold  to  England,  the  authorities  of  Ge- 
neva interfered.  They  claimed  them  as  part  of  the 
establishment  of  Eobert  Estienne,  and  as  irremovable 

63  Ep.  605 :    '  Fatal!  circa  rem  familiarem  negligentia.' 
S    2 


260  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

from  Geneva  under  his  will64.  At  the  same  time 
the  Genevan  courts  of  law  decided,  on  the  suit  of 
Nicolas  Leclerc,  the  mortgagee,  in  his  favour,  to 
the  effect  that  he  should  be  repaid  the  amount  of 
his  advance,  400  crowns,  out  of  the  estate  of  Henri 
Estienne.  As  neither  Paul  Estienne,  nor  Anna  Bigot, 
had  a  single  crown  which  they  could  call  their  own, 
this  was  to  decide  that  Isaac  Casaubon  should  pay 
his  father-in-law's  debts,  and  yet  not  get  possession 
of  the  valuable  property  pledged  to  meet  them.  He 
had  to  satisfy  Henri  Estienne's  creditors  out  of  his 
own  purse.  No  wonder  that  his  denunciations  were 
passionate  and  bitter.  Besides  the  heavy  pecuniary 
loss,  he  was  irritated  by  the  injustice,  and  by  the 
quarter  from  which  it  proceeded,  'his  own  Geneva, 
for  which  he  would  readily  have  laid  down  his  life.' 
Worse  still,  he  met  with  110  sympathy  from  his 
Genevese  friends.  In  all  the  city,  Diodati,  the  pro- 
fessor of  Hebrew,  was  the  only  person  who  offered 
condolence.  All  Geneva  approved  the  sentence. 
Laurence,  the  scholarch,  Casaubon's  successor  as  clas- 
sical professor,  in  writing  to  the  victim  himself65, 
could  not  conceal  his  delight.  Lect,  his  own  advo- 
cate, and  legal  adviser  in  the  business,  who  did  not 
defend  the  decision,  hinted  that  it  was  hardly  ra- 
tional to  ascribe  a  decision  of  a  court  of  law  to  the 
rapacity  of  the  pastors  and  professors,  as  Casaubon 
did.  The  letter  of  remonstrance66  written  by  Simon 

€4  The  will  of  Robert  Estienne  is  printed  from  the  archives  of 
Geneva  in  Re*nouard,  Annales  des  Estienne,  ed.  3°.  p.  578.  The 
affairs  of  the  Estienne  are  still  involved  in  some  obscurity,  I  have 
given  the  best  account  I  can  of  Casaubon's  implication  in  the  business, 
but  am  in  some  doubt  as  to  parts  of  my  statement, 

65  Ep.  600.  M  Burriey  MSS.  367. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  261 


Goulart,  in  the  name  of  the  '  ccetus  pastorum,'  and  in- 
tended to  pacify  Casaubon,  was  little  adapted  to  do 
so,  being  written  in  a  canting  tone,  alleging  their 
wellknown  god-fearing  character  as.  proof  that  they 
could  not  have  wronged  him. 

7.  As  there  are  men  who  continually  grow  richer 
without  effort,  so  there  are  others  who  are  con- 
tinually impoverished  without  any  fault  of  their  own. 
Capital,  small  or  large,  requires  an  attentive  eye  to 
nurse  it,  and  the  scholar's  attention  is  necessarily 
elsewhere.  Isaac  Casaubon  seems  never  to  touch 
money  but  to  lose  it.  He  lost  for  himself,  he  lost 
for  his  sister,  he  had  lost  before  for  his  mother. 
His  own  little  patrimony  at  Bourdeaux,  his  wife's 
dower  at  Geneva,  his  sister's  portion,  all  disappeared, 
not  spent,  but  lost.  Biographers  rap  out  the  con- 
secrated phrases  about  '  bearing  losses  with  philo- 
sophy.' Philosophy  teaches  the  contrary  lesson ;  it 
teaches  the  all  importance  of  money,  as  the  condition 
of  moral  activity.  Casaubon's  financial  calamity  dwelt 
on  his  mind  and  interfered  seriously  with  his  read- 
ing :  67 '  For  some  months  past  I  have  lost  that  spring 
of  mind  which  used  to  bear  me  up,  amid  my  studies.' 

Casaubon' s  financial  grievances  are  a  pervading  topic 
of  his  diary  and  letters,  in  which  they  occupy  a  more 
prominent  place  than  will  be  approved  by  those  who 
think  that  scholars  ought  to  affect  to  live  on  greek 
roots.  This  biography  is  not  intended  as  an  apology, 
but  as  a  portrait,  and  therefore  must  present  what  it 
finds.  But  indeed  no  apology  is  needed.  If  it  be 
to  a  man's  credit  to  be  unworldly,  Casaubon  was 
eminently  unworldly.  His  money  troubles  are  the 

57  Ep.  587  :  '  Ab  aliquot  mensibus  alacritatem  illam  prorsus  amisi- 
mus?  quse  studia  nostra  plurimum  gublevabat/ 


262  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

troubles  of  a  man  who  could  neither  get  it  nor  keep 
it,  a  man  for  whom  the  world  is  too  keen  and  sharp, 
who  is  conscious  that  he  is  surrounded  by  money- 
getting  creatures  more  able  than  himself.  Nor  does 
he,  any  more  than  any  other  philosopher,  desire 
wealth  apart  from  its  uses.  Through  all  his  moan- 
ings  and  wailirigs,  his  outcries,  and  wringing  of  hands, 
the  one  object  of  his  existence  is  perceptibly  in  his 
thoughts,  leisure  and  books — books  and  leisure  to 
read  them, — the  scholar's  life — income  only  as  its 
means  and  guarantee. 

He  does  not  complain  of  the  insufficiency  of  his 
salary.  Indeed  his  salary  and  pension  together  were 
of  larger  amount  than  the  average  of  academical  or 
scholastic  incomes  at  the  time.  Besides  this  there 
come  occasional  presents,  not  often  such  munificent 
gifts  as  those  of  the  king  and  de  Harlay.  Then  he  got 
something,  small — but  something,  for  his  books  from 
the  booksellers,  something  also  from  dedicatees  for 
dedications.  Chouet,  the  German  bookseller,  was  to 
give  him  a  half  escu  per  sheet  for  revising  his  Sue- 
tonius, and  something  besides — '  quantum  sequum  erit ' 
— for  new  matter68.  He  takes  boarders  occasionally 
into  his  house,  but  only  the  sons  of  great  people, 
who  might  be  expected  to  pay,  e.  g.  lord  Herbert 69  of 
Cherbury,  the  two  sons  of  Calignon,  the  chancellor 
of  Navarre,  and  the  son  •  of  Sapieha,  chancellor  of 
Lithuania.  And  though  the  rent  of  his  house  in 

68  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  62. 

69  Life  of  Lord  Herbert,  p.  67,  about  1608,  in  company  with  Aurelian 
Townsend  :    '  Through  the  recommendation  of  the  lord  ambassador, 
I    was   received    to    the  house    of  that  incomparable    scholar,   Isaac 
Casaubon,  by  whose  learned  conversation  I  much  benefited  myself.' 
Cf.  eph.  p.  641 :  '  Angli  hodie  nos  adierunt.'     Patrick  Young,  son  of 
Sir  Patrick,   was  intended  to  have  been  sent  to  Casaubon  in  1608. 
Smith,  Vita  Junii,  p.  9. 


PARIS.     1600-1610.  263 

the  faubourg  S.  Germain  is  uncommonly  high,  it 
should  seem  that  Mercier  des  Bordes  had  some  arrange- 
ment by  which  he  shared  it  with  him,  as  well  as, 
possibly,  provided  his  country  retreat  at  Grigny. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  scale  of  living,  and  every 
other  expense,  especially  firewood,  was  then,  as  now, 
excessively  high  in  the  capital  as  compared  with 
the  provinces.  At  Montpellier  30  livres  had  been 
sufficient  to  find  him  a  lodging.  In  Paris  he  must 
pay  400.  A  parisian  laquais  would  spurn  the  modest 
portion  which  would  be  accepted  as  suitable  with  a 
daughter,  by  a  provincial  bourgeois.  When  the  city 
of  Nimes  offered  Casaubon  1800  livres,  they  told 
him70  that  he  would  find  it  more  at  Nimes  than  the 
larger  salary  he  was  actually  receiving. 

At  one  time  difficulties  experienced  in  the  payment 
of  his  stipend  counted  as  one  of  his  standing  troubles. 
The  aversion  of  de  Rosny  (Sully)  for  all  pensions  was 
proverbial.  He  justly  dreaded  Henri's  facility  in  grant- 
ing orders  on  the  treasury,  and  resisted  or  evaded  pay- 
ment as  long  as  it  was  possible.  He  had  acquired  the 
character,  most  valuable  to  any  keeper  of  an  exchequer, 
of  being  a  dragon  of  the  public  money.  He  was  the 
terror  of  the  holders  of  orders,  whom  he  snubbed  and 
humiliated  even  when  compelled  to  pay71.  Casaubon 
had  at  first  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  Sully 's  antechamber, 
to  go  and  wait  hours,  and  then  be  told  to  come  again 
another  day. 

*  March  13,  1 60 1.  This  day  also  wholly  lost.  Went 
to  Rosny,  who  gave  me  plainly  enough  to  understand 
what  I  may  look  for  at  his  hands.  .  .  De  Thou  and  other 
great  friends  who  really  care  for  my  interest,  have  no 
influence  with  this  barbarous  man/ 

70  Ep.  456.  71  Lestoile,  Keg.-journal,  p.  531. 


264  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

'December  19,  1603.  Some  work  early;  then  to 
Rosny,  but  fruitlessly  ;  he  was  at  home  and  disengaged, 
but  I  could  not  get  speech  of  him/  In  October  1604, 
Scaliger  writes 72  to  him  that  he  is  not  afraid  of  Henri 
abandoning  him  ;  '  more  is  to  be  feared  from  the  dragon 
that  guards  the  golden  fleece,  than  from  your  avowed 
enemies.  He  is  the  only  person  who  can  convince  the 
king  that  "  plus  capere  intestina  philologi,  quam  arcam 
unius  TTopvoftoa-Kov" ' 

But  Sully  did  not  take  this  view  of  their  comparative 
claims.  Casaubon's  demands  were  a  bagatelle  by  the 
side  of  the  lavish  extravagance  which  Sully  was  daily 
called  on  to  meet.  To  mistresses  so  many  100000 
livres.  To  the  great  nobles  so  many  millions.  Sully 
himself  was  on  the  pension  list  for  20000  francs.  But 
then  king  and  nobles,  these  were  beings  who  had  a 
right  to  existence!  Sully' s  own  account  of  the  matter 
was 73,  (  Henri  invited  Casaubon  to  come  to  Paris  with 
his  family,  and  assigned  him  a  pension  which  permitted 
him  to  live  as  becomes  a  man  of  that  sort,  who  is  not 
called  to  govern  the  state/  Besides  the  just  dislike  of 
'  mere  nothings'  which  the  true  pursekeeper  has,  Sully 
wanted  to  see  Casaubon  '  do  something  for  his  money/ 
and  told  him  so 74 :  '  Vous  coutez  trop  an  roi,  monsieur ; 
vous  avez  plus  que  deux  bons  capitaines ;  et  vous  ne 
servez  de  rien.' 

Even  the  professors  of  the  college  royal  could  not 
get  their  nominal  salaries  paid.  Etienne  Hubert,  for 
example,  an  intimate  friend  of  Casaubon,  and  a  man  of 
real  merit,  was  regius  reader  of  Arabic.  He  had  been 
employed  by  the  government  in  negotiations  with  the 
Algerines,  and  sent  out  to  Morocco.  On  his  return  he 

72  Seal.  epp.  p.  271.  rs  (Econ.  royales. 

M  Esprit  de  Henri  iv,  p.  104. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  265 

was  rewarded  with  the  chair  of  Arabic.  The  king  gave 
the  chair,  but  Sully  had  to  pay  the  salary,  and  never 
did.  For  himself,  Casaubon's  own  personal  favour  with 
Henri  got  him  out  of  the  difficulty.  *  When  you  want 
to  be  paid75,  you  come  to  me  and  I  will  give  you  a 
password,  which  will  enable  you  to  get  your  money. 
Never  mind  Eosny ;  it  is  his  share  of  the  business  to 
say  the  disagreeable  things ;  the  saying  -the  pleasant 
things  I  keep  for  myself.'  Accordingly,  in  the  later 
years  of  the  Paris  residence  we  find  no  further  com- 
plaints from  Casaubon  of  non-payment.  What  the 
nature  of  the  password  was  we  are  not  told.  But 
whatever  it  was  it  was  good  only  for  Casaubon  him- 
self. He  failed  entirely  to  get  the  same  privilege  for 
Hubert.  In  vain  he  used  his  own  small  influence,  and 
got  de  Harlay  to  promise  to  take  the  matter  up.  De 
Harlay  undertook  to  speak  to  Sully,  and  said  the  affair 
would  soon  be  settled.  It  never  was  settled,  and 
Hubert  was  obliged  to  leave  his  arabic  studies  and 
chair,  and  go  off  to  Orleans,  to  earn  his  bread  by  the 
practice  of  medicine. 

Among  all  the  pensions 76,  that  to  Casaubon  was  the 
only  outlay  Henri  made  on  literature.  And  the  excep- 
tion confirms  the  rule.  Even  in  this  unique  2000 
livres,  literature  had  the  least  share.  The  consideration 
for  which  it  was  given  was  only  partly  Casaubon's  ser- 
vices as  librarian ;  it  was  much  more  the  anticipated 
conversion.  To  the  last  Henri  continued  to  expect 

75  I  quote  these  words  of  the  king  from  '  L'esprit  de  Henri  iv/  p. 
104,  which  gives,  as  its  authority,  'manuscrit  in  4°.' 

6  Henri  iv.  invited  Malherbe  to  court,  telling  him  'qu'il  lui  ferait 
du  bien.'  He  never  did  anything.  It  was  not  till  after  Henri's  death 
that  the  poet  obtained  a  pension  of  1 500  livres  from  the  government 
of  the  queen  regent. 


266  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

the  recantation,  to  urge  it  through  Du  Perron,  and 
to  refuse  Casaubon's  repeated  request 76  to  be  dismissed. 
These  applications  were  made  through  Villeroy77, through 
Sully  himself,  nothing  loth.  Sully  was  mollified,  and 
permitted  himself  to  be  gracious  to  Casaubon  when  he 
found  that  his  pensioner,  instead  of  hanging  on  about 
the  court  for  what  he  could  get,  wanted  much  more 
to  be  gone  elsewhere.  It  was  Henri's  personal  good 
will  that  chained  Casaubon  so  long  in  the  uncongenial 
]ife  of  the  intensely  catholic  capital.  It  would  perhaps 
be  unjust  not  to  allow  that  some  humane  feeling 
mingled  with  the  egotistic  monarch's  arriere  pensee. 
He  treated  his  scholar,  whenever  he  saw  him,  with  so 
much  bonhommie,  that  we  cannot  but  wish  that  he  had 
been  able  to  appreciate  him.  We  feel  disposed  to  say 
with  Scipio  Gentilis 78,  '  One  thing  only  is  wanting  in 
your  great  king  to  make  him  perfect,  viz.  that  he  does 
not  sufficiently  value  your  learning.  0  !  if  he  only 
knew  latin  to  be  able  to  do  so  ! '  Casaubon  well  under- 
stood that  nothing  but  Henri's  personal  favour  pro- 
tected him.  The  thought  could  not  but  often  occur : 
*  If  anything  should  happen  to — it  was  too  dreadful ! 
If  that  thread  should  break,  what  would  become,  not 
merely  of  Casaubon,  but  of  the  whole  huguenot 
population  of  Paris  ! ' 

8.  Death  began,  as  time  went  on,  to  be  busy  among 

76  Exercc.  in  Baron,  p.  42. 

77  Ep.  557  :  '  Que  sa  Majeste*  me  permette  me  retirer  ailleurs,  si 
tot  que  mon  grand  ouvrage  de  Polybe     .     .     .     s£ra  acheve.'     Cas. 
to  Villeroy,  June,  1607. 

78  Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  137:   'Ad  summum  et  perfectissimum  om-  j 
nium  virtutum  culmen  una  res  deesse  magno  regi  videmus,  quod  vir-  j. 
tutem  et  eruditionem  tuam  non  satis    intelligat,  intelligent   autem 
satis,  si  latine  modo  sciret.'     Scipio  Gentilis  to  Cas.  1609. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  267 

friends.  In  1606  died  his  friend  and  patron 
Calignon,  chancellor  of  Navarre,  one  of  the  few  great 
men  who  remained  stanch  huguenots,  and  yet  retained 
some  influence  at  court.  In  1607  he  lost  Lefebre,  his 
trusted  physician,  who  best  knew  his  constitution79. 
Lefebre  had  attained  the  age  of  seventy-two,  but 
Hadrian  Williams  of  Flushing  was  cut  off  in  the  flower 
of  youth.  In  him  Casaubon  had  just  found,  what  he 
had  long  sought  in  vain,  a  young  and  eager  disciple, 
athirst  for  knowledge,  and  giving  his  whole  soul  to 
acquiring  it.  He  had  come  with  an  introduction  from 
Scaliger,  and  had  at  once  recommended  himself  to 
Casaubon  by  his  simple  modest  manners,  and  ardour  of 
study.  He  was  a  student  of  medicine,  and  was  eager 
to  penetrate  the  great  secret  of  nature.  Such  means  of 
observation  as  the  medical  school  of  Paris  afforded  he 
used  industriously,  but  thought,  as  was  commonly 
thought  then,  that  more  might  be  learned  from  the 
arabian  writers.  Though  every  part  of  knowledge 
had  attractions  for  his  ample  curiosity,  arabic  was  the 
immediate  point  of  contact  between  Hadrian  and  Cas- 
aubon. Hadrian  had  come  to  Paris  more  for  the  sake 
of  being  near  Casaubon  than  for  the  schools 80.  Isaac 
soon  found  that  whatever  might  be  his  own  superiority 
in  greek,  in  arabic  the  young  Fleming  was  qualified  to 
be  his  teacher.  '  He  had  thumbed  Avicenna  by  con- 
stant use ;  the  Koran  was  so  familiar  to  him,  that  after 
you,'  Casaubon  writes  to  Scaliger 81,  '  I  suppose  no  Euro- 
pean would  come  near  him/  He  was  preparing  to  go 
in  the  suite  of  the  french  ambassador  to  Constan- 

79  Eph.    p.   475  :    '  Sapientissimus  medicus  atque  exercitatissimus 
Faber  sic  tractandas  vires  hujus  infirmi  corpusculi  judicat.' 

80  Seal.  epp.  p.  185  :  'Non  urbis  celebiitas,  sed  eximia  eruditio  tua 
evocavit.'  81  Ep.  402. 


268  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

tinople,  when  he  was  seized  with  inflammation  of  the 
bowels,  and  died  after  a  few  days'  illness.  His  projects 
and  accomplishments  vanished  into  air  !  and  Casaubon's 
arabic  reading  was  discontinued  when  the  instructor 
and  the  stimulus  were  withdrawn82.  Charles  Labbe, 
though  intimate,  and  even  useful,  never  came  into  the 
place  which  Hadrian's  death  left  vacant. 

The  death  which  searched  Casaubon  most  deeply  was 
that  of  Scaliger.  Had  he  lost,  in  losing  him,  only  the 
patron  of  his  fame  and  fortunes,  the  true  and  sympa- 
thetic friend  to  whom  he  told  the  secret  troubles  of  his 
life,  the  loss  would  have  been  heavy,  and  at  fifty  irre- 
placeable. But  Scaliger  was,  besides  this,  the  oracle 
who  could  resolve  his  learned  difficulties,  the  only 
reader  who  could  appreciate  his  classical  work83.  For 
whom  should  he  write,  now  Scaliger  was  not  •  there  to 
read  1  Others  might  applaud,  but  it  was  with  a  pur- 
blind admiration.  The  death  of  Scaliger  was  like  the 
setting  of  the  sun.  It  was  now,  not  dark,  in  the  re- 
public of  letters,  but  starlight  only.  To  the  last  he 
saw  and  read  everything  that  came  out,  with  his 
faculties  and  his  memory  perfect,  and  appraised  it  at 
its  value.  In  his  correspondence  with  Casaubon  his 
amiable  qualities,  often  obscured  by  his  contact  with  a 
malignant  and  unscrupulous  party,  come  into  full 
evidence.  Their  intercourse  had  been  conducted 
wholly  by  letter.  They  never  met.  Scaliger  left 
France  for  Holland  in  1593,  before  Casaubon  quitted 
Geneva ;  and  Casaubon,  though  often  scheming  a  visit 
to  Leyden,  had  never  found  it  possible  to  put  the 
design  into  execution.  Yet  a  fast  and  intimate  friend- 

82  Ep.  548. 

83  To  appreciate  Casaubon's  books  was  claimed  by  Scaliger  as  his 
peculiar  privilege.     Seal,  opuscula,  p.  520.  epp.  p.  301. 


PARIS.      1600  —  1610. 


269 


ship  had  grown  up  between  them.  There  is,  perhaps, 
hardly  another  instance  on  record  of  such  a  perfect 
intimacy  created  and  maintained  without  personal 
intercourse.  Something  may  have  been  due  to  the 
mediation  of  friends,  especially  Eichard  Thomson  and 
young  Dousa,  towards  exciting  in  Scaliger  affection  for 
the  man,  whose  learning  he  had  begun  to  respect  from 
his  books.  It  is  the  charm  of  their  mutual  correspon- 
dence, which  we  have  still  complete  on  both  sides,  that 
in  it  we  can  trace,  from  its  first  germ,  the  formation, 
growth,  and  development  of  this  perfect  friendship, 
which,  from  first  to  last,  was  never  once  clouded  by  a 
moment's  suspicion,  disagreement,  or  misunderstanding. 
Casaubon  introduced  himself  to  Scaliger  by  an 
epistle,  simply  asking  for  his  acquaintance, — an  epistle 
such  as  he  addressed  to  many  other  men  of  learning. 
The  request  was  prompted  by  the  yearning  for  sym- 
pathy, which  every  engrossing  study  creates, — a  yearn- 
ing which  found  no  response  in  theological  Geneva. 
Nearly  twenty  years  younger  than  Scaliger,  and  still 
unknown,  Casaubon  ventured  to  approach  the  prince  of 
letters,  timidly,  and  on  his  knees,  with  homage,  which 
would  seem  overacted,  only  that  it  is  not  acting  at 
all.  Scaliger,  at  first  somewhat  condescending  and 
patronising,  as  Casaubon  grows  bigger  and  bigger, 
gradually  admits  him  to  an  equal  familiarity  of  ad- 
dress, conceding  to  him  distinctly  the  superiority  in  the 
matter  of  greek  reading.  This  is  done  without  affecta- 
tion, without  mortification,  rather  with  undisguised 
satisfaction  in  the  discovery.  From  the  moment  he 
saw  the  Suetonius  (1595)  he  wished  to  get  him  called 
to  Leyden,  and  endeavoured  it,  but  in  vain84.  After 


84  Seal.  epp.  p.  153. 


270  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

Casaubon  was  settled  in  Paris,  Scaliger  was  steady  in 
advising  him  to  stay,  where  he  was  tolerably  well 
off,  and  ever  endeavoured  to  soothe  his  friend's  restless 
fears.  But  he  pressed  for  the  visit  which  was  ever 
promised.  85<  Should  it  please  the  Almighty  Father  to 
prolong  my  days  till  the  spring,  that  I  might  receive 
you  here,  I  should  indeed  be  happy  in  seeing  that 
which  many  things  forbade  me  ever  to  hope.  If  you 
do  think  of  coming,  take  my  advice,  and  come  in  May 
— not  earlier.  In  this  climate,  winter  leaves  its  mark 
even  so  late  ;  no  trace  of  spring  is  visible  till  Taurus  is 
pretty  well  set.  But  only  come ;  come  even  in  mid- 
winter if  you  choose  to  do  so.  We  will  counteract 
him  by  the  cheerful  fire  which  I  will  keep  in  your  bed- 
chamber, sparely  furnished  maybe,  but  clean  ;  for  I 
have  only  to  offer  the  "  concha  salis  puri,"  and  a  heart 
which  is  devoted  to  you/  Casaubon86  replies,  '  That  he 
had  resolved  not  to  be  a  burden  to  Scaliger  during  his 
stay  in  Ley  den,  but  rather  to  go  to  the  inn.  After 
such  an  invitation,  however,  he  was  afraid  he  should 
not  be  able  to  resist  the  temptation/  Though  Scaliger 
speaks  of  his  humble  saltcellar,  the  Heidelberg  book- 
seller, Coinmelin,  thought  his  entertainment,  on  his  visit 
to  Leyden,  magnificent.  This  invitation  was  sent  in 
1604-5.  Then  the  visit  was  deferred  from  year  to 
year.  In  the  autumn  of  1608  the  weakness  which 
began  to  confine  Scaliger  to  his  bed  declared  itself,  and 
the  visit  never  took  place  at  all. 

Twelve  months  prior  to  his  last  illness,  Scaliger  had 
made  a  will,  and  dividing  a  few  memorials  among  his 
friends,  he  left  Casaubon  a  piece  of  plate 87.  *  Touchaiit 

85  Seal.  epp.  p.  268.  86  Ep.  428. 

87  This    cup    is    left    by   Casaubon's    will    'to    that    sonne,    who 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  271 

pen  que  j'ay  d'or  on  argent  en  ceuvre,  je  legue  au 
Sieur  Isaac  Casaubon  soubs  maltre  de  la  librairie  du 
roi,  urie  coupe  d' argent  doree  avec  son  estuy,  que  les 
messieurs  des  etats  de  Zeelande  m'ont  donne88.'  He 
tells  Casaubon  that  he  had  given  him  something ;  '  I 
have  left  trifling  remembrances  among  my  friends, 
proofs  of  affection,  not  of  wealth.  Enrich  them  I 
cannot,  nor  will  they  expect  it.  The  little  matter  I 
have  left  you,  I  could  wish  had  been  better  and  larger ; 
but  I  trust  it  will  gratify  you,  as  it  is  an  honour  to  me 
to  have  named  you  even  in  my  last  will/  So  well  was 
it  understood  that  Casaubon  was  the  nearest  and 
dearest,  that  it  was  to  him  that  Henisius  addressed  the 
graphic  and  touching  narrative  of  the  hero's  last  hours. 
Casaubon  was  to  communicate  it  to  de  Thou.  To 
Casaubon  was  assigned,  by  consent  of  all  the  friends, 
the  composition  of  a  prefatory  eloge  to  Scaliger's  col- 
lected essays,  which  was  published  in  1610,  a  piece 
which  Scipio  Gentilis,  cast  away  in  the  pine-barrens 
of  Franconia,  could  not  read  without  tears89.  Indeed, 
Casaubon  had  not  waited  for  death  to  sanctify  such  an 
effusion,  but  had  given  vent  to  his  feelings  in  a  preface 
to  Scaliger's  translation  of  Martial,  a  panegyric  upon 
the  living  which  was  intended  as  compensation  for  the 
brutal  attack  of  the  '  Amphitheatrum/  and  was  taken 
by  Scaliger  as  such90. 

Casaubon's  letters  to  Scaliger  are  truly  autobiogra- 

walkinge  in  the  feare  of  God,  shal  be  fittest  to  sustayne  my  family,  I 
doe  give  the  cup  of  Mr.  Scaliger,  of  moste  happie  memory.'  See 
note  A  in  app.  to  chap,  j  o. 

i8  Burney  MSS.  367,  and  see  Bullet,  de  la  soc.  prot.  18.  595. 

!9  Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  141. 

90  Seal.  epp.  p.  337:  'Ego  profecto  illam  non  ad  meam  laudem, 
sed  ad  defensionem  mei  comparatam  esse  judico.' 


272  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

phical.  In  the  whole  folio  volume,  among  more  than 
1 200  letters,  there  are  none  which  have  the  same  confi- 
ding tone,  the  perfect  trust  that  what  is  said  will  fall 
on  a  friendly  ear,  and  be  secure  of  friendly  response. 
Scaliger  is  an  accurate  and  satisfactory  correspondent  : 
replying  himself  to  each  topic  started  in  the  letter  he  is 
answering  ;  a  punctuality  which  Casaubon  does  not 
imitate.  From  no  one  does  Casaubon  receive  in  his 
griefs  that  solid  comfort  which  Scaliger  was  prompt 
to  offer.  *  I  cannot  tell  you/  writes  Casaubon91  in 
July,  1608,  'the  satisfaction  your  last  gave  me.  It 
was  so  unmistakably  evident  how  much  you  loved 
me,  and  how  deeply  you  felt  my  adverse  fortune. 
You  were  the  only  one  who  sympathised  with  me 
when  I  was  swindled  by  the  petty  tyrants  of  the 
lake  (Geneva).  And  now  again  this  thunderbolt  has 
fallen  on  my  house  (death  of  Philippa),  your  letters 
show  that  you  feel  it  with  me.  The  labour  you 
spent  in  writing  to  me  was  not  thrown  away,  Sie 
ye'pov,  the  reading  of  your  epistle  was  no  small  com- 
fort to  me/  Casaubon' s  affectionate  nature  having 
found  a  strong  soul  to  which  to  cling,  abandoned 
itself  to  the  culte  of  the  hero  with  a  devotion  which 
bordered  on  idolatry.  'I  know/  he  writes92  in  1605, 
'  what  the  good  and  the  learned  owe  to  you  ;  how 
much  more  do  I  owe !  Were  I  to  spend  my  life 
in  your  service,  in  executing  your  commands,  I  could 
not  repay  a  tenth  part  of  the  debt.  What  a  father 
is  to  a  son,  that  you  are  to  me ;  I  am  your  devol 
client/  While  the  loss  was  recent  he  writes 
Kirchmann 93  :  '  What  tears  are  enough  at  this 
funeral  ?  Past  ages  have  never  seen  his  like ;  per- 
haps no  future  time  will.  The  more  conversant  air 

91  Ep.  606.  92  Ep.  460.  °3  Ep.  628. 


PARIS.     1600—1610. 

one  becomes  with  letters,"  the  more  grand  will  he 
find  that  incomparable  hero  in  his  writings !'  To 
Du  Plessis  Mornay  he  says94,  '  His  death  has  taken 
away  all  my  courage.  Now  I  can  do  nothing  more/ 

To  all  these  losses,  sorrows,  and  vexations  must  be 
added  another  constant  source  of  misery.  This  was 
the  habitual  ill-health  of  himself  and  almost  all  his 
family.  Madame  Casaubon,  besides  her  twenty-two 
confinements,  was  always  ailing,  often  alarmingly  ill, 
though  she  survived  her  husband,  notwithstanding, 
many  years.  On  the  occasion  of  these  frequent  at- 
tacks, which  seem  to  have  been  of  the  nature  of 
intermittent  fever,  Isaac  was  assiduous  in  waiting  on 
his  wife,  and  sacrificed  his  hours  without  a  murmur. 
The  children  were  equally  troublesome ;  first  one,  then 
another,  sometimes  all  at  once.  January,  1604,  he 
writes  to  Du  Puy,  *  Since  you  left  us  we  have  hardly 
spent  a  single  day  free  from  illness,  either  of  myself 
or  my  wife,  or  both.'  September  12,  1610,  the  diary 
has,  'My  wife,  setting  off  to  receive  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  supper,  had  no  sooner  entered  the  barge  than 
she  began  to  be  unwell.  She  communicated,  but  was 
immediately  after  brought  home  by  our  two  friends, 
M.  Herauld  and  Dr.  Arbault  (the  physician),  and  she 
now  lies  suffering  from  a  severe  attack  of  fever. 
Meanwhile  the  greater  part  of  our  children  are  in 
bed  with  fever,  and  I  too  have  begun  to  be  unwell. 
God  eternal,  look  upon  this  prostrate  family/ 

Upon  Isaac  himself  the  shadow  of  death  was  slowly 
advancing  for  years  before  the  closing  scene.  His 
ailment  was  constitutional,  but  was  aggravated  by  the 
sedentary  life  he  had  led  from  his  early  youth.  Sca- 
liger  already  in  1606  knew  of  him,  by  description, 

94  EP.  624. 
T 


274  PARIH.     1600  —  1610. 

as  '  tout  courbe  d'estude/  he  was  then  only  forty-seven. 
August,  1 6 10,  is  the  first  occasion  on  which  the 
diary  notes  the  passing  of  gravel,  though  as  a  symp- 
tom which  had  appeared  sometime  before.  He  is 
always  dosing  himself  with  purgatives,  or  being  treated 
or  bled  by  his  doctors.  After  the  death  of  Lefevre, 
'  who  best  knew  how  to  treat  this  weakly  carcase  of 
mine/  there  were  Arbault  and  Mayerne,  the  latter  of 
whom  he  again  met  in  England.  From  what  we 
hear  of  their  treatment,  it  seems  to  have  been  gov- 
erned exclusively  by  a  fear  of  fever,  and  by  the  pre- 
sence of  gravel.  He  drinks  Spa  water,  which  was  as 
procurable  in  Paris  then  as  now.  For  years  he  had 
used  little  or  no  wine.  *  Wine  does  not  make  men 
more  disposed  to  study/  he  says  in  correcting  <pi\iav 
for  (piXoo-ofoav  in  Athenseus,  5.  i.  As  early  as  1597, 
Varanda,  the  Montpellier  physician95,  used  to  tell  him 
that  if  he  continued  to  live  as  he  was  then  doing, 
he  would  have,  like  Achilles,  a  glorious  career  but  a 
short  one. 

The  bodily  languor,  of  which  he  constantly  com- 
plains, manifested  itself  in  a  dejected  and  apprehen- 
sive condition  of  mind.  This  grew  upon  him.  He 
begins  to  consider  himself  a  marked  man,  against 
whom  the  fates  have  conspired.  His  letters  are  lost ; 
no  one  else's  are,  of  course96.  '  I  recognise  my  luck, 
a  man  to  whom  for  months  past  nothing  has  hap- 
pened, but  what  is  disagreeable  and  contrary.'  This 
general  tinge  of  sadness  not  only  colours  the  diary, 
it  is  visible  in  all  he  writes.  He  expresses97  his  fear 
that  traces  of  this  depression  will  be  found  in  th< 
Polybius;  in  the  commentary,  no  doubt,  for  it  coulc 

95  Ep.  132,  where  Veranseus  is,  no  doubt,  Varanda. 

96  Ep.  604.  97  Ep.  623. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  275 

iardly  infect  translation.  Translation,  demanding  close 
ittention  and  watchful  care,  but  no  intellectual  elas- 
ticity, was  just  the  occupation  to  deaden  sorrow. 
Polybius,  he  tells  Eitterhusius98,  had  been  his  refuge 
md  solace,  the  only  anodyne  of  his  suffering  under 
the  loss  of  his  daughter,  which  else  had  been  un- 
bearable. Heavy  grief,  such  as  this,  drove  him  to 
lis  books,  lesser  annoyances  and  worries  took  him 
Torn  them",  so  fretted  his  mind,  'that  he  must 
almost  renounce  the  Muses.'  This  happens  especially 
on  occasions  of  Madame  Casaubon's  absence.  The 
cares  of  the  household  are  then  thrown  upon  him  ; 
a  hungry  craving  for  her  presence  takes  possession  of 
rim  ;  he  is  in  positive  anguish  if  she  does  not  write 
)y  every  post ;  if  she  postpones  her  return  from 
Grigny  for  a  single  day,  he  is  the  most  wretched  of 
men. 

There  is,  indeed,  in  the  faces,  as  in  the  words,  of  all 
the  old  huguenots  of  Henri  iv/s  reign,  a  common  trait 
of  mournfulness.  They  write  as  men  for  whom  hope 
is  extinct,  whose  cause  is  lost ;  with  a  consciousness 
hat  they  belong  to  a  past  age,  that  they  have  no- 
thing to  look  for  in  this  world.  They  sit  waiting  for 
death  as  the  hour  of  relief.  1{My  last  sad  consola- 
tion/writes  Scaliger,  in  1606,  *  is  that  if  any  general 
disaster  is  in  the  air,  death  is  near  at  hand  to  deliver 
me.'  De  Calignon,  aet.  57,  sank  under  the  weight 
of  chagrin  in  the  same  year,  saying,  2'good  men 
had  no  reason  to  desire  to  live.'  Da  Plessis  Mor- 
nay  we  have  seen  retire  broken-hearted  to  his  petty 

98  EP.  6n.  "  Ep.  584- 

1  Seal.  epp.  p.  327:  'Ultima  est  ilia  consolatio,  sed  miserrima, 
quod  si  qua  futura  est  calanritas,  eo  brevior  erit,  quo  propius  a  morte 
absum.'  2  Thuani  Hist.  6.  381. 

T  2 


276  PARTS.     1600—1610. 

governorship  of  Sauniur ;  D'Aubigne  was  equally 
estranged ;  de  Thou  struggled,  alone  and  in  vain, 
against  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  the  tendencies 
of  the  age. 

Forgetfulness  was  surely  the  only  condition  on 
which  a  huguenot  could  live  in  Paris.  It  is  surpris- 
ing, after  what  had  occurred,  after  1572,  and  the  ten 
subsequent  years,  to  find  them  within  twenty  years 
domiciled  in  the  capital,  still  stained  with  their  blood, 
and  going  about  among  a  populace  which  was  still 
taught  to  execrate  them.  The  administration  of 
Henri  iv,  though  not  what  can  be  called  a  strong 
police,  was  firm  and  just  enough  to  be  respected. 
Yet  no  executive  has  been  secure  against  surprise  by 
the  excitable  Parisian  mob,  and  much  mischief  could 
be  done  before  armed  help  could  come.  Scaliger's 
estimate  of  the  situation  at  the  time  of  the  huguenot 
panic  of  1605  seems  to  put  it  in  a  clear  light.  Him- 
self in  a  safe  retreat,  yet  having  his  most  valued 
friends  in  the  place  of  danger,  and  in  intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  french  embassy  at  the  Hague,  he 
was  better  informed  than  Casaubon,  though  on  the 
spot.  He  writes  July  24,  1605,  'The  two  principal 
topics  in  your  last,  viz.  the  perpetual  terror  in  which 
you  live,  and  the  offer  from  Nimes,  require  more  time, 
and  more  consideration,  if  I  am  to  make  an  advised 
answer.  But  I  can  now  only  write  a  few  hurried 
words,  as  young  Yassan,  who  takes  this,  is  leaving 
immediately.  You  tell  me  you  do  not  think  your- 
self safe  where  you  are,  where  bad  men  have  the 
upper  hand,  and  the  influence  of  the  good  is  diminish- 
ing daily.  I  make  allowance  for  some  misgiving; 
there  is  too  much  ground  for  it,  you  share  it  witl 
all  good  men  ;  and  I  cannot  be  surprised  that  you 


PARIS.      1600  —  1610. 


277 


should  have  thought  of  removing.  But  if  one  looks 
oaore  closely  into  the  grounds  of  this  panic,  it  does 
not  certainly  seem  to  me  that  there  is  sufficient 
reason  for  forming  any  such  desperate  resolution. 
After  all,  the  bad  have  not  yet  reached  such  a 
height  of  power  as  to  have  the  good  at  their  mercy  ; 
nor  under  the  present  sovereign  is  the  innocent  less 
safe  there  than  the  bully.  I  do  not  see  any  ground 
for  thinking  that  you  cannot  continue  to  live  there 
in  safety.  If  you  come  to  the  inscrutable  future 
(TO  afyXov  rov  fieXXovro?)  and  urge  that  the  part  of 
prudence  is  to  anticipate  the  fall  of  the  house,  and 
not  to  wait  till  it  has  tumbled  in  upon  you,  I  remind 
you  that  a  man  is  a  man,  and  not  God,  who  alone 
can  know  future  events.  If  it  is  the  part  of  the 
wise  to  suspect  a  calm,  I  rejoin  it  is  also  his  part 
not  to  believe  every  alarming  rumour.' 

The  obscure  allusion  in  the  last  sentences  is  to  what 
neither  of  the  correspondents  would  put  into  words, 
but  what  was  in  both  their  thoughts.  The  catastrophe 
of  May  14,  1 6 10,  was  felt,  and  known  to  be  coming, 
even  then,  at  five  years7  distance. 

It  was  not,  then,  mere  fretful  restlessness  which 
urged  Casaubon,  during  his  twelve  years'  sojourn  in 
Paris,  to  be  always  planning  to  leave.  The  uncertain 
tenure  of  his  office,  the  insecurity  of  life  itself,  com- 
bined with  the  wearying  distractions  of  society,  to 
engage  him  to  seek  quiet  and  safety  elsewhere.  It 
was  so  well  known  that  he  was  on  the  wing,  that  over- 
tures were  being  continually  made  to  him,  from  various 
quarters.  With  each  of  these  he  dallied  for  a  time, 
but  when  it  came  to  the  point,  the  negotiation  was 
always  broken  off.  The  real  reason  was  that  he  could 
not  make  up  his  mind  to  offend  Henri  iv,  who  made 


278  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

his  stay  a  personal  matter,  and  would  have  made  his 
departure  a  personal  quarrel.  By  going  elsewhere  he 
might  get  rid  of  importunate  visitors,  but  would  sacri- 
fice valuable  friends.  And  what  library  could  replace 
to  him  the  royal  library  1 

Of  all  places  Geneva,  his  native  city,  which  had  so 

wronged  him,  was  least  likely  to  be  the  chosen  Zoar. 

Yet  his  friends  in  Geneva,  Lect  and  Diodati,  were  not 

without  hope.    In  1 60 1,  Lect  writes 3  that  their  poverty, 

and  the  Savoy  fort,  prevented  them  from  thinking  of 

establishing  a  second,  or  extraordinary  professorship  of 

classics,  and  that  it  was  equally  impossible  to  disturb 

the  actual  holder,   Du  Laurens,  in  the  professorship 

which  had  been  Casaubon's.     After  the  destruction  of 

the   fort,   Lect   writes    again    that    they   had    invited 

Godefroy  to  be  professor  of  law,  but   that  he  could 

never  describe   the   academy  as  flourishing,  till  they 

got    Casaubon    back.      It   was    at   Lect's   house   that 

Casaubon  was  lodged  during  his  visit  in  1603*;  Lect 

was  also  his  lawyer  in  his  Genevan  affairs,  and  was  a 

member  of  the  council.     So  that  there  was  no  want 

either    of  goodwill   or    opportunity    on    Lect's   part. 

But  we  do  not  find   that  Casaubon  much  encouraged 

these  overtures,    if  they   can   be   so   called.     He  had 

outgrown  the  situation.     He  was  aware  that  Geneva, 

with     its    narrow    religionism,    was     no     longer    any 

place   for  him.      Church   politics  were   the   one   only 

interest   in   the    calvinist    capital.      They   had    given 

Casaubon  a  handsome  reception,  in  1603,  poor  as  they 

were  ;  had  invited   him  to  a  public  banquet,  but  it 

3  Burney  MSS.  365.  pp.  60.  68. 

4  At  the  time  of  this  visit,  Lect  writes  to  Goldast,  Goldasti  epp. 
p.  1 1 8,  mentioning  Casaubon's  being  at  Geneva,  but  without  any  hint 
of  his  being  invited  to  remain. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  279 

ras  as  a  '  distinguished  coreligionist ; '  and  Pierre  Du 
Moulin  shortly  afterwards  received  the  same  honour6. 
For  learning  there  was  in  Geneva  not  a  spark  of 
intelligence,  sympathy,  or  appreciation.  Casaubon  too 

lust  have  been  shocked  at  the  poverty-stricken  aspect 
>f  the  city.  Beza  in  a  letter  dated  October  18,  1603, 
describes  it 6 :  *  This  poor  republic  supports  a  burden 
under  which  it  is  a  miracle  that  it  does  not  sink ;  being 
obliged  to  keep  up  a  garrison  of  from  360  to  400  men. 
The  very  houses  are  fast  becoming  ruinous,  and  all 
things  are  much  changed  since  you  left/  Godefroy, 
who  at  first  accepted  the  invitation  sent  him,  when  he 
saw  what  the  place  was  like7,  preferred  to  return  to 
Heidelberg.  The  duke  of  Savoy,  unable  to  capture 
the  city,  had  succeeded  in  nearly  ruining  it.  Had 
Casaubon  ever  seriously  entertained  the  thought  of 
returning  to  settle,  at  Geneva,  it  became  impossible 
after  they  had  confiscated  his  father-in-law's  property, 
and  he  had  proclaimed  them  in  Paris  as  hypocritical 
thieves ! 

We  have  seen8  that,  at  an  earlier  period  of  his  life, 
Casaubon  might  have  been  glad  of  a  call  to  the  uni- 
versity of  Heidelberg.  The  position  which  was  then 
desirable,  was  become  now  highly  eligible.  The  Pala- 
tinate, its  court  and  university,  had  been  making  rapid 
progress  not  only  in  political  importance,  but  in  educa- 
tion and  culture.  It  was  become  the  intellectual  centre 
of  western  Germany.  Refinement  is  perhaps  a  term 
hardly  applicable  to  any  German  court  of  the  period. 
Hunting  and  hawking,  heavy  feasts  prolonged  to  swinish 
intoxication,  were  the  serious  occupations  of  the  princes 

5  Du  Moulin,  autobiographic,  Bullet,  de  la  soc.  prot.  7.  342. 

6  Bullet,  de  la  soc.  prot.  20.  162. 

7  Goldasti  epp.  p.  118.  8  See  above,  p.  74. 


280  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

and  nobles ;  genealogy  their  only  science.  Frederick  iv, 
elector  Palatine  (t 1 6  TO),  was  not  exempt  from  the  failings 
of  his  class,  and  possibly  hastened  his  end  by  intemper- 
ance. Yet  the  debasing  habits  of  his  nation  and  class 9 
had  not  extinguished  in  Frederick  iv.  a  taste  for  better 
things.  He  was  able  to  take  an  intelligent  share  not 
only  in  the  administration  of  his  hereditary  principal- 
ities, but  in  the  political  complication  which  was  en- 
veloping the  Palatinate  in  its  fatal  web.  The  electress 
Louisa  Juliana,  daughter  of  William  of  Orange  and 
Charlotte  of  Bourbon,  imported  into  her  german  court 
something  both  of  french  breeding,  and  of  republican 
simplicity.  The  test  men  of  the  protestant  party,  such 
as  Christian  of  Anhalt,  came  and  went  as  frequent 
visitors.  Lingelsheim,  who  had  been  preceptor,  and 
was  now  minister,  of  the  elector,  was  a  devoted  admirer 
of  Scaliger,  and  had  been  for  some  time  among  Isaac 
Casaubon's  correspondents.  Marquard  Freher,  another 
member  of  the  prince's  council,  eminent  as  a  teutonic 
antiquary,  had  corresponded  with  him  since  1594. 
Another  link  with  Heidelberg  was  Bongars,  one  of 
Isaac's  best  friends  and  earliest  patrons,  who  was  agent, 
or  envoy,  for  France  to  the  german  princes,  and  was 
perpetually  passing  between  Paris  and  the  Rhenane 
cities.  Christian  of  Anhalt,  during  his  visits  to  Paris, 
had  taken  much  notice  of  Casaubon.  To  von  Buwink- 
hausen,  the  Wurtemberg  envoy,  he  '  had  dedicated  his 
Gregorius  Nyssenus.  All  these  were  men  of  influence 

9  Stamler  writes  to  Ritterhusius,  in  1603,  that  Pacius  declines  a 
call  to  Heidelberg  because  '  a  principe  indocto,  cui  docti  et  literse 
sordent,  aulici  plus  quam  studiosa  juventus  et  professores  amentur.' 
Vita  Camerarii,  p.  201.  There  was,  however,  a  not  inconsiderable 
amount  of  life  in  the  university.  See  the  vague  panegyric  of  Hausser, 
Geschichte  der  Pfalz.  2.  260. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  281 

i.nd  position.  Beside  them  Casaubon  was  lie'  with  the 
more  eminent  men  of  letters — they  were  not  many, 
who  were  to  be  found  on  the  upper  Rhine,  with  Denis 
Grodefroy,  with  Grater,  Jungerman,  Scipio  Gentilis, 
and  stood  himself  in  the  light  of  patron  to  the  young 
Saumaise,  a  french  scholar,  who  was  now  engaged  in 
disinterring  the  MS.  treasures  of  the  Palatine  library. 

It  was  natural,  on  both  sides,  that  Casaubon  should 
think  of  Heidelberg  as  his  place  of  retirement,  and 
that  the  Palatine  Athens  should  offer  an  invitation. 
In  August,  1607,  Casaubon  gives  Lingelsheim  to 
understand  that  he  may  have  to  leave  Paris10: — 

1 1  have  little  doubt,  most  noble  sir,  that  Denis 
Godefroy  has  reported  to  you  something  of  the  con- 
versations we  had,  with  much  mention  of  you,  during 
a  is  visit  to  this  place  (Paris).  He  may  have  hinted 
to  you  that  the  present  state  of  tranquillity  we  have 
enjoyed  by  favour  of  the  Almighty  for  some  years  past, 
is  only  on  the  surface,  as  it  were  skin-deep,  and  is 
watched  with  much  anxiety  by  those  who  can  read 
the  signs  of  the  times.  During  the  late  distemper  of 
our  prince,  all  good  men  were  in  great  alarm.  I,  for 
my  part,  was  meditating  flight.  God  was  merciful,  and 
restored  health  to  him,  on  whose  safety  ours  depends. 
I  trust  I  may  never  see  a  day  so  woful  to  our  France. 
But  should  it  happen  otherwise  (which  God  forbid)  I 
have  resolved  upon  taking  refuge  among  you,  and 
placing  me  and  mine  out  of  danger.' 

On  this  hint,  the  electors  council  authorised  von 
Buwinkhausen  to  make  overtures  to  Casaubon.  What 
was  proposed  to  him  was  a  theological  chair  of  some 
kind,  probably  ecclesiastical  history.  The  offer  did  not 
come  till  July  1608,  but  it  must  have  been  decided  on 
10  Ep.  562. 


282  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

some  time  before,  as  Lingelsheim  speaks  of  it11  as 
already  mooted  in  November  1607,  and  Scaliger,  at 
Leyden,  knew  of  the  intention  as  early  as  March  1608. 
He  wrote  to  Casaubon  then,  and  received  for  reply12 
that  he  had  heard  something  of  the  sort  talked  of,  but 
did  not  believe  there  was  anything  in  it.  In  December 
1607,  Lingelsheim  expresses  himself  as  '  out  of  patience 
with  the  usual  dilatoriness  with  which  Casaubon's 
business  proceeds/  In  July  1608,  the  offer  was  made 
in  form.  Casaubon,  with  many  professions  of  his  own 
unworthiness,  accepted.  The  arrangements  were  to  be 
completed  after  the  return  of  the  envoy,  who  was  going 
out  of  town  for  a  short  time.  He  did  not  return  as 
soon  as  expected,  and  when  he  did  the  matter  was  not 
resumed.  Why,  I  am  unable  to  explain.  Casaubon 
speaks13  of  impediments — quae  id  inceptum  circum- 
stent  impedimenta — in  a  way  to  imply  that  they  were 
on  the  german  side,  and  not  on  his. 

After  Heidelberg,  the  most  eligible  offer  was  from 
Nimes 14.  The  college  of  arts  in  this  town  was  a  founda- 
tion of  Francis  i,  which  had  survived  the  troubles  of 
religion.  Like  the  town  generally,  it  was  protestant, 
and  managed  by  the  consuls.  The  administration  of 
the  college  was  conducted  by  a  rector,  who  was  by  the 
statutes  one  of  the  professors,  elected  for  two  years 
only.  But  he  was  re-eligible,  and  in  practice  it  had 
become  customary  to  continue  him  in  the  office  as  long 
as  he  chose.  The  celebrated  Julius  Pacius,  in  the  course 
of  his  wandering  existence,  had  held  the  rectorate  at! 
Nimes  for  two  or  three  years.  When  Scaliger  said  that 

11  Lingelshemii  epp.  ep.  80.  12  Ep.  593.  13  Ep.  623. 

14  The  account  which  pastor  Borrell  has  given  of  the  academy  of 
Nimes,  Bullet,  de  la  soc.  prot.  13.  288,  would  have  been  more  valuable  \ 
if  the  authorities,  on  which  it  is  based,  had  been  cited. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  283 

if  he  were  to  quit  Leyden,  the  place  he  should  choose 
to  set  up  his  staff  in  would  be  Nimes 15 ;  he  had  in 
view  not  only  the  climate,  but  the  character  of  the 
college. 

Theology  was  less  exclusively  dominant  there  than 
in  any  of  the  other  protestant  academies.  This  is  not 
saying  much  ;  and  though  there  were  teachers  of  some 
repute  at  the  college,  among  them  several  Scots,  there 
was  not  sun  and  air  enough  for  a  Casaubon,  much  less 
for  a  Scaliger.  In  1605,  however,  the  consuls  made 
Isaac  the  formal  offer  of  a  chair,  and  the  rectorate. 
They  would  give  600  crowns,  and  a  roomy  house.  The 
amount  shows  the  importance  they  attached  to  Casau- 
bon's  presence,  as  the  previous  rector,  Charles  d'Aubus, 
had  only  a  third  of  the  sum.  Even  Pacius  at  Mont- 
pellier,  where  he  now  was,  was  only  at  500  crowns, 
besides  fees  however.  Six  hundred  crowns  was  the 
highest  honorarium  then  paid  to  any  teacher  in  the 
faculty  of  arts,  and  was  only  given  in  rare  cases ;  e.  g. 
it  was  what  had  been  offered  to  Lipsius  to  induce  him 
to  settle  in  the  university  of  Paris.  '  Never,'  writes 
Casaubon 16,  '  do  I  remember  to  have  been  in  greater 
perplexity  as  to  what  I  should  do.  For  months  past 
I  have  been  agitated  by  this  deliberation.  When  I 
,think  of  my  studies,  I  should  choose  to  live  and  die 
here,  where  there  is  wealth  of  books.  And  de  Thou 
bids  me  not  to  think  of  removal.  I  must  consider  my 
great  patron  too,  who,  I  know,  likes  me — one  point 
only  excepted.  And  then  the  distance  from  you 
(Scaliger) ! '  In  1 606  the  negotiation  is  still  pending. 
Adam  Abernethey,  one  of  the  Scottish  regents,  writes 

15  Scaligerana,  p.  169  :   'Si  je  voulois  demeurer  en  quelque  lieu  je 
choisirois  ce  pays  de  Nismes  pour  y  planter  mon  bourdon.' 
18  Ep.  456. 


284  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

to  Casaubon 17,  promising  himself  great  profit  in  learn- 
ing from  his  settlement  at  Mmes.  But  across  this 
proposal  came  the  more  eligible  Heidelberg  offer,  and 
Nimes  was  dropped. 

Another  place  of  retreat,  of  which  Casaubon  had  once 
thought,  was  Sedan 18.  In  the  little  court  kept  by  the 
due  de  Bouillon,  there  were  to  be  seen  nobles  and 
princes,  among  them  the  duke's  nephews,  the  sons  of 
the  elector  palatine,  resorting  thither  as  a  place  where 
they  could  combine  a  protestant  education  with  the 
advantage  of  learning  the  french  tongue.  It  was  not 
that  he  might  mix  with  princes  and  nobles  that  Sedan 
was  chosen  by  Isaac  as  Meric's  school.  As  a  kind  of 
frontier  fort  on  the  confines  of  the  protestant  north, 
it  offered  facilities  for  escape  in  case  of  a  religious 
outbreak.  We  find,  however,  no  actual  proposal  for 
settling  there  made  by  Isaac.  The  unsettled  relations 
between  the  duke  and  the  french  government  in  these 
years  made  it  .uncertain  how  long  the  little  principality 
would  continue  to  enjoy  that  semi-independence 
which  was  the  only  guarantee  of  its  preserving  its 
protestantism. 

At  one  time  Isaac  planned  a  visit  to  Venice.  This 
was  suggested  by  Fra  Paolo.  Not  that  the  father 
invited  him.  On  the  contrary,  he  gave  him  a  hint  ta 
stay  away.  '  The  air  of  Italy  might  easily  disagree 
with  him19;'  a  significant  hint  from  one  who  had  just 
escaped  assassination.  Casaubon  had  been  in  correspond- 
ence with  this  remarkable  person  since  1604.  It  was 
indeed  a  correspondence  conducted  under  difficulties. 
Casaubon  could  not  use  the  channel  of  the  french  am- 
bassador, his  former  friend,  now  become,  like  all  perverts, 
an  ultramontane  enrage.  Consequently,  his  letters 

17  Burney  MSS.  363.  18  Ep.  233.  19  Ep.  811. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  285 

were  long  on  the  road  ;  one  of  them,  with  a  copy  of  the 
Polybius,  eleven  months20.  Casaubon  had  introduced 
himself  to  Fra  Paolo  in  his  usual  way.  The  father 
knew  of  him,  of  course,  and  not  only  knew  of  him  in 
1604,  when  Isaac  had  already  acquired  a  name,  but 
had  done  so  ever  since  his  notes  on  Diogenes  Laertius. 
This  fact  shows  how  closely  Fra  Paolo  watched  the 
publishing  world.  A  scrubby  volume,  of  no  particular 
mark,  published  in  the  capital  of  heresy,  had  not 
escaped  his  eye.  In  1606,  when  father  Sarpi's  writings 
on  the  interdict  reached  Paris,  Casaubon's  attention 
was  immediately  arrested  by  them.  '  Have  you  seen/ 
he  asks 21  Scaliger,  *  the  brochures  which  have  been, 
published  at  Venice  within  the  last  few  months  ?  If 
you  have,  I  should  like  to  hear  your  opinion  of  them, 
especially  of  that  of  the  great  father  Paul.  In  reading 
them,  I  cannot  but  hope  that  the  time  is  at  hand  when 
letters  and  sacred  learning  may  find  a  place  in  those 
countries.'  This  hope  was  hardly  uttered  before  it  was 
extinguished  by  the  settlement  of  the  dispute,  France, 
as  always,  throwing  its  weight  into  the  ultramontane 
scale.  But  Fra  Paolo  still  lived,  in  spite  of  the  papal 
daggers.  Accordingly,  in  March  1610,  when  delivered 
from  the  task  of  revising  his  Suetonius,  Isaac  planned  a 
visit  to  Venice 22.  *  I  wish  to  see  the  country,  and  the 
learned  men  who  are  there,  but  above  all  the  greatest 
of  them,  the  famous  Paul.  I  desire  also  to  see  with 
my  own  eyes  the  greek  church,  and  to  make  myself 
acquainted  with  its  faith  and  observances.  God  eternal, 
do  thou  forward  me  on  this  journey,  if  it  be  for  the 
promotion  of  thy  glory,  and  the  welfare  of  me  and 
mine ;  if  otherwise,  prevent  it/  The  events  which 

20  Burney  MSS.  365.  21  Ep.  542.  22  Eph.  p.  724. 


286  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

shortly  followed  may  have  been  the  answer  to  this 
prayer,  making,  the  Italian  visit  impossible.  Saumaise 
formed  a  few  years  later  a  like  purpose,  but  was  diverted 
from  it  by  a  dream  23.  Saumaise' s  object  was  to  see 
the  classical  remains.  It  will  be  remarked,  as  charac- 
teristic of  the  predominance  of  theological  ideas  in 
Isaac  Casaubon's  mind,  that,  though  his  life  had  been 
spent  upon  the  classics,  and  latterly  upon  Roman 
history,  Polybius,  Suetonius,  the  Augustan  historians, 
he  never  thinks  of  the  Roman  architecture  among  the 
objects  of  a  journey  to  Italy.  What  he  wishes  to  see 
is  the  greek  church !  The  importance  of  the  monu- 
ments was  not  generally  recognised  by  the  scholars  till 
the  end  of  the  century.  To  Casaubon,  as  to  his  contem- 
poraries, the  ancient  world  was  comprised  in  books. 
Clement,  writing  the  life  of  Saumaise  in  1656,  asks, 
'  What  had,  or  has,  Rome,  that  the  learned  should  be 
so  desirous  of  seeing  it  1  Everything  which  can  pro- 
mote learning  and  the  knowledge  of  antiquity,  be  it 
inscriptions  or  monuments,  is  now  to  be  had  printed, 
or  engraved,  with  accuracy,  and  with  far  greater  neat- 
ness and  distinctness,  than  they  would  be  seen  in 
situ/ 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  placed  to  Casaubon's 
credit  that  he  recognised  the  importance  of  Paolo  Sarpi, 
and  gives  him  the  epithet  of '  great,'  which  is  here  well 
placed.  In  the  same  way  it  gives  the  measure  of  car- 
dinal Du  Perron  out  of  his  own  mouth,  that  that  char- 
latan could  see  nothing  eminent  in  the  father,  nothing 
more  than  common.  '  II  a  un  bon  jugement  et  bon 
sens,  mais  de  grand  s^avoir  point.  Je  n'y  vis  rien  que 
de  commun/  He  who  to  Du  Perron  seemed  '  like  any 
other  monk/  was  a  man  whom  Casaubon  would  fain 

23  Vita  Salmasii,  p.  xxxix. 


PARIS.     1600  —  1610.  287 

ave  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Venice  to  see.  Among 
ether  traits  by  which  our  Robert  Sanderson  reminds 
us  of  Isaac  Casaubon,  is  a  speech  of  his  recorded  by 
Walton24,  that  he  wished  he  had  gone  as  chaplain  to 
sir  Henry  Wotton,  on  the  Venetian  embassy,  as  was 

ntended,  '  as  by  that  means  I  might  have  known  one 
of  the  late  miracles  of  mankind  for  general  learning, 

prudence,  and  modesty,  Padre  Paolo/ 

Fra  Paolo  continued  to  correspond  with  Casaubon, 
and  to  procure  him  books,  such  as,  especially  Hebrew 

)ooks25,  could  not  be  met  with  in  France.     Casaubon 

particularly  prized  his  letters26.     One  of  these  has  a 

Deculiar  value,  as  putting  forward  the  father  s  position 
towards  his  own  church,  as  a  position  for  which  he 
could  expect  sympathy  from  Casaubon27.  *  I  commend 
you  in  that  you  disapprove  those  persons  who  seek 
force  the  fathers  to  be  of  their  minds.  Indeed  that 

and  of  interpretation  by  violence  is  most  reprehen- 
sible ;  but  no  less  a  wrong  is  done  to  the  same  fathers 
when  an  authority  is  claimed  for  them  which  they 
never  thought  of  claiming  for  themselves.  Who  wishes 

X)  be  taught  by  the  fathers,  should  first  learn  from 
them,  how  much  weight  properly  attaches  to  their 
words/  He  quotes  passages  of  S.  Augustin  in  this 
sense  and  proceeds :  '  You  meet  with  absurdities  on 

this  subject  among  your  friends  as  well  as  among  ours, 
and  I  would  not  have  you  lose  any  temper  thereat. 
As  long  as  there  are  men,  there  will  be  fanaticisms. 
The  wisest  man  has  warned  us  not  to  expect  the  world 
ever  to  improve  so  much  that  the  better  part  of  man- 
kind will  be  the  majority.  No  wise  man  undertakes 

24  Life  of  Sanderson,  Works,  6.  326. 

25  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  286. 

26  Ep.  812.  2r  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  288. 


288  PARIS.     1600—1610. 

to  correct  the  disorders  of  the  public  estate.  Be  it 
enough  for  you,  if  you  do  some  good  to  me.  The  wise 
man  again  saith,  that  he  who  cannot  endure  the  mad- 
ness of  the  public,  but  goeth  about  to  think  he  can 
cure  it,  is  himself  no  less  mad  than  the  rest.  Since 
God  has  enabled  you  to  see  the  truth,  do  you,  like 
Timotheus,  sing  to  yourself  and  the  muses.  The  just 
shall  live  by  his  faith.  Leave  the  rest  alone,  your 
own  mind  is  theatre  enough  for  yourself. — Venice, 
August  17,  1610.' 

It  is  natural  to  enquire  why  was  not  Casaubon  in- 
vited to  Leyden  on  Scaliger's  death  in  1 609  ?  That 
place  was  not  filled  till  1632  by  the  call  of  Saumaise, 
who  was  expressly  invited,  not  to  teach,  but  as  Voorst 
insists  in  his  funeral  oration28,  '  that  he  might  shed 
upon  the  university  the  honour  of  his  name,  illustrate 
it  by  his  writings,  adorn  it  by  his  presence/  The 
intervening  period  is  an  unhappy  page  of  dutch  his- 
tory. Patriotism  and  public  spirit  were  lost  amid 
doctrinal  disputes,  in  which,  barren  and  unmeaning  as 
they  were,  all  the  intellectual  energy  of  the  schools 
of  Holland  was  merged.  In  1653,  Gronovius  (J.  F.)29 
writes  thus  bitterly  of  the  decay  of  Leyden :  '  Expect 
nothing  from  us  in  letters,  I  do  not  say  great,  but  not 
even  liberal,  or  becoming  a  gentleman.  This  condition 
of  things  has  long  been  preparing.  As  far  back  as 
Scaliger's  death,  when  they  might  have  had  Casaubon 
for  lifting  up  a  finger,  he  was  kept  out  of  it,  as  Bochart 

28  Vita  Salmas.  p.  xlii :  '  Ut  nominis  sui  honorem  academiae  huic 
impertiret,  scriptis  eandem  illustraret,  prsesentia  condecoraret.' 

29  Burmann,   Syll.  5.  p.  208  :  e .      .       .       Casaubonum,   cum   post 
Scaligeri  mortem,  percussione,  ut  sic  dicam,  digitorum  possent  habere, 
excluserunt  illi  maxime  semuli,  quos  ille  sibi  fidissimos  ibi  putabat  .  .' 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Dan.  Heinsius  is  the  person  intended. 


PARIS.     1600—1610.  289 

was  lately,  by  the  jealousy  of  the  very  persons  whom 
he  thought  he  could  most  rely  upon.  They  expelled 
Vossius,  they  expelled  Meursius.  Themselves,  they 
never  formed  a  single  disciple,  or  follower  who  was 
worth  anything ;  never  gave  any  advice  worth  having 
about  the  method  of  study.  Their  only  object  was  to 
deter  or  suppress  rising  talent,  while  they  openly  pro- 
fessed a  cynical  contempt  of  the  very  studies  which 
had  brought  themselves  into  notice/ 

Casaubon  had  many  friends  in  Holland,  which  was 
now  becoming  a  centre  of  learning,  and  rendezvous 
of  learned  men.  Vulcanius,  Baudius,  Bertius,  Scrive- 
rius,  Cunaeus,  Drusius,  Meursius, — with  all  these  he 
was  in  relations  more  or  less  close.  With  Grotius  he 
had  been  in  correspondence  since  1602,  and  became 
personally  acquainted  with  him  in  England  at  a  later 
period.  Vandermyle,  the  ambassador  from  the  States 
General  to  the  court  of  France,  was  among  his  pa- 
trons. But  his  principal  correspondent  at  Leyden, 
after  the  death  of  Scaliger,  was  Daniel  Heinsius. 
They  were  both  united  in  the  culte  of  the  hero,  and 
this  was  their  only  bond  of  union.  Heinsius  did  not 
realise  in  his  maturity  the  promise  of  his  early  years. 
Instead  of  a  second  Scaliger  he  turned  out  a  fine 
writer.  An  elegant  latinist,  his  lectures  and  ora- 
tions were  charming.  In  this  spirit  he  edited  various 
classical  writers,  with  commentaries  in  which  super- 
ficial knowledge  is  thinly  concealed  by  refined  taste. 
His  mind  was  given  elsewhere, — to  pushing  his  for- 
tunes— and  he  wrote  of  the  classics  as  a  man  of  the 
world  writes  of  them.  Casaubon,  who  saw  the  Poetics, 
the  Theophrastus,  and  the  Horatius,  cannot  have  been 
blind  to  their  worthlessness.  But  he  will  not  say 
so.  It  was  not  that  he  was  disarmed  by  the  constant 


290  PARIS.     1600  —  1610. 

homage  paid  by  the  commentator  to  himself  as  'vir 
incomparabilis/  it  is  that  the  memory  of  Heinsius' 
devotion  to  Scaliger  protects  him  from  criticism,  nay, 
even  extorts  praise  of  the  garrulous  notes,  elegant, 
witty,  but  uninstructive.  But  Casaubon's  praise  is 
cold,  and  altogether  his  correspondence  with  Heinsius, 
though  it  was  continued  to  the  last,  is  the  most  un- 
satisfactory of  any  that  has  been  preserved  after  they 
cease  to  write  about  Scaliger.  The  two  correspondents 
are  always  complaining  of  each  other  for  not  writing, 
and  wishing  each  other  to  write  oftener,  and  when 
they  do  write,  they  have  nothing  to  send  each  other, 
but  forced  compliments.  Casaubon  would  have  sent 
over  Meric  to  study  under  Heinsius,  whose  eager 
nature  and  ready  abundance  made  him  an  excellent 
teacher.  But  in  1610  it  would  not  have  suited  Hein- 
sius7 purpose  to  have  had  Isaac  himself  at  Leyden, 
any  more  than  the  call  of  Saumaise  suited  him  in 
1630. 


APPENDIX  TO  4. 

NOTE  A.   p.  1 60. 

IN  the  '  Tre'sor  des  merveilles  de  Fontainebleau,  par  le  Pkre  Dan, 
1642,  is  an  account  of  the  conference,  founded  upon  information  given 
the  author  by  one  who  was  present.  One  incident,  in  which  Cas- 
aubon's  name  occurs,  I  have  not  met  with  elsewhere.  P.  162 :  '  Alors  un 
certain  ministre  de  Terreur,  qui  estoit  proche  du  sieur  Casaubon,  luy 
ayant  dit  qu'il  n'y  avoit  point  au  texte  grec  (of  S.  Chrysostoin)  de 
negation,  et  Casaubon,  qui  tenoit  le  livre,  luy  faisant  voir  du  contraire, 
il  demeura  si  confus  qu'il  se  retira  promptement  parmy  la  presse,  et 
servit  de  risee  a  la  compagnie.  le  roy  dit  alors  ce  bon  mot ;  "  que 
c'estoit  un  jeune  carabin,  qui  apr&s  avoir  tird  son  coup  de  pistolet, 
s'estoit  retir£  a  1'^cart." ' 


NOTE  B.    p.  171. 

The  authorities  for  Casaubon's  seven  removals  of  abode  in  Paris 
are  as  follows.    Ep.  541:  '  Spatio  annorum  vix  septem,  septies  hue 
illuc  libraria   mea  supellex  est  circumlata.'     i.  He  arrives  in  Paris 
March  6,  1600,  at  de  Vic's  hotel.    Eph.  p.   234  :     2.  March  28,  he 
leaves  de  Vic  to  become  the  guest  of  his  wife's  cousin,  Henri  Estienne. 
Eph.  p.  239  :  '  Cujus  probitas  nos  illexit  ut  ejus  hospitio  vellemus  uti.' 
He  leaves  for  Lyons  May  30,  and  returns,  this  time  with  all  his  house- 
hold, to  Henri  Estienne's.     Eph.  pp.  261,  298.    3.  October   25,  he 
first  establishes  himself  in  an  apartment  of  his  own.     Eph.  p.  306  : 
'Demum  conducto  hospitio.'    It  is  very  uncomfortable.    Eph.  p.  326: 
'Incommodi  non  parum  ex  habitatione  priore/  and    4.  he  quits  it, 
anuary  24,  1601,  for  one  in  the  house  of 'viri  honesti  D.  Georgii.' 
.  July  17.    Another  removal.    Eph.  p.  360:  'Familia  in  has  sedes 
igravit.'     This  was  a  house  found  him  by  Achille  de  Harlay.    Gillot, 
p.  fran9_  p.  105  :  '  Monsieur  le  premier  president  qui  1'ayme  comme 

U    2 


292  APPENDIX  TO  4. 

sa  vertu  le  me'rite,  1'a  log£  bravement  et  assez  pres  de  nous.'  Eph. 
p.  360:  'J3dium  commoditas.'  Ep.  385:  'Abest  longius  a  biblio- 
theca.'  6.  October,  1604.  Ep.  432:  '  Mihi  tandem  inventum  hos- 
pitium;  illud  quidem  angustum  et  non  nimis  commodum,  sed  in  quo 
tamen,  ego  atque  uxor,  hoc  prsesertim  rerum  statu,  acquiescimus. 
Dominus  aedium  est  senator  Gallus,  sive  Coq,  qui  vastissimam  domum 
sibi  nuper  aedificavit,  et  angulum  quendam  a  reliquo  corpore  separavit 
quod  mercede  locaret.  TO  ZVOLKIOV  est  aureorum  centum.'  It  was  in  the 
faubourg  S.  Germain.  Address  of  letters,  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  23. 
7.  Finally,  he  settled  close  to  the  library.  Ep.  461  :  '  Notissima  est 
Franciscanorum  \avpa,  in  qua  regione  habito  prope  sedem  illorum.' 
Ep.  456  :  '  Libras  pendo  annuatim  in  hac  urbe  quingentas.'  Address 
of  letters,  Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  12,  'vis-a-vis  des  Cordeliers.'  Madrid 
he  began  to  frequent  in  May,  1604,  Ep.  397,  Schulze,  ep.  9.  La 
Bretouniere  was  substituted  for  Madrid  in  the  summer  of  1606, 
Burney  MSS.  365.  address  of  letters.  Grigny  was  acquired  in  1607, 
Eph.  p.  540. 

NOTE  C.   p.  174. 

The  long  struggle  of  the  university  of  Paris  against  the  Jesuits 
(1564—1620)  has  been  generally  treated  as  an  episode  of  the  history 
of  the  Gallican  church.  It  ought  to  be  viewed  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  history  of  letters  and  civilisation  in  France.  The  official  history  by 
M.  Jourdain,  which  is  sufficiently  copious  in  point  of  detail,  does  not 
place  the  true  issue  clearly  before  the  reader.  University  reform  was 
the  terrain  upon  which  the  liberals  contended  with  the  reaction.  On 
this,  as  on  every  other  point,  the  victory,  after  the  avenement  of 
Henri  iv,  remained  with  the  catholic  and  obscurantist  party.  This 
fact  is  entirely  disguised,  or  ignored,  in  the  general  histories,  which 
make  much  of  the  reformation  of  September  18,  1600.  Ultra- 
montanism,  indeed,  received  a  signal  check.  The  authority  of  the 
lay  sovereign  was  vindicated,  as  against  the  ecclesiastical.  Whereas 
the  previous  '  reform '  had  been  carried  through  by  a  cardinal  legate, 
in  the  name  of  the  pope,  the  reform  of  1600  was  conducted  without 
reference  to  the  legate,  by  a  royal  commission.  This  point,  and  it  was 
a  great  one,  gained  for  the  gallican  and  national  party,  the  reformers  had 
exhausted  their  strength.  The  first  article  of  the  new  statutes  enacted 
the  exclusion  of  all  non-catholics  not  only  from  teaching,  but  from 
being  taught,  in  the  public  schools.  Whatever  de  Thou  and  Achille ! 


APPENDIX  TO  4.  293 

de  Harlay  may  have  wished,  they  could  not  have  got  Casaubon  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  professors  of  the  college  royal.  M.  Martin, 
indeed,  makes  him  one,  Hist,  de  France,  10.  478:  'En  de*pit  des 
lettres  patentes  de  Charles  ix,  qui  avaient  exclu  le  protestant  Ramus, 
Henri  iv.  appela  parrni  les  professeurs  le  protestant  Casaubon, 
1'e'rudition  incarne'e.'  M.  Martin  adds  that  the  reform  of  1600  was  so 
sound  and  durable  that  '  au  fond  nous  en  vivons  encore.'  That  is 
true,  except  that  the  insignificance  of  the  university  of  Paris  in  point 
of  science  and  learning  dates  from  1572  instead  of  from  1600.  For 
a  full  exposd  of  the  character  of  the  statutes  of  1600,  M.  Martin  refers 
to  'un  tres  bon  chapitre'  of  II.  Poirson's  elaborate  monograph  on 
Henri  iv.  M.  Poirson  is  equally  blind  to  the  capital  fact  of  this 
'  reform,'  viz.  that  it  was  the  triumph  of  Catholicism.  The  university 
was  kept  in  subordination  to  the  church.  Over  this  decisive  fact  M. 
Poirson  glides,  by  the  statement,  3.  763  :  '  Les  statutes  pourvoient  des 
les  premiers  articles,  a  ce  que  la  jeunesse  des  colleges  soit  e'leve'e  dans 
la  connoissance  et  la  pratique  de  la  religion,  a  ce  que  son  Education 
soit  e'minemment  chre'tienne.' 

NOTE  D.  p.  205. 

The  *  Excerpta  Eusebiana '  form  the  most  considerable  fragments 
remaining  of  the  greek  '  Chronica '  of  Eusebius.  They  are  found  in 
cod.  reg.  2600,  a  MS.  of  (-see.  15,  consisting  of  miscellaneous  extracts, 
grammatical,  historical,  etc.  They  are  printed  in  Scaliger's  'The- 
saurus Temporum,'  Add.  p.  224,  and  more  fully,  in  Cramer,  Anecd. 
Paris,  2.  115.  The  copy  sent  to  Scaliger  at  Leyden  was  made  by 
Charles  Labbe',  and  collated  with  the  original  by  Casaubon.  Ep. 
446:  '  Contulimus,  et  studiose  anoypafyov  ipsius  (Labbe')  cum  auto- 
grapho  contendimus,  ut  de  fide  lectionis  clubitare  non  debeas.  Quod 
si  qusedam  occurrent  mendosa,  occurrent  autem  nonnulla,  scito  non 
aliter  in  regio  codice  esse  scriptum.'  The  errors  which  Cramer 
attributes  to  Scaliger's  text  are,  according  to  Bernays,  corrections 
silently  made  by  Scaliger.  See  fuller  account  of  the  find,  and  the 
delight  which  it  gave  Scaliger,  in  Bernays,  J.  J.  Scaliger,  Bel.  no.  73, 
Casaubonische  Excerpte. 


5. 
LONDON. 

1610 — 1614. 

OF  possible  places  of  refuge  in  case  of  necessity, 
there  remained — England.  Had  it  been  200  years 
earlier,  nothing  would  have  been  more  simple,  than 
that  a  learned  man,  who  was  dissatisfied  in  Paris, 
should  have  migrated  to  Oxford,  for  a  time,  or  for 
life.  But  now  it  was  different.  Neither  North  nor 
South  Britain  entered  into  the  comity  of  nations,  in 
such  a  way  that  natives  of  all  countries  indiscrimi- 
nately circulated  through  our  universities,  either  as 
students  or  professors,  as  they  had  once  done,  and  as 
they  still  did  in  the  other  parts  of  western  Europe. 
Casaubon  tells  Baudius  \  ( It  is  not  the  manner  of  the 
English  to  import  distinguished  men  of  learning  from 
other  countries.'  And  Thomson  writes  to  the  same2; 
'  Our  English  students  seldom  travel  abroad,  so  that 
you  need  not  wonder  that  you  see  so  few  of  them 
where  you  are.'  But  the  settlement  of  the  foreigner 

1  Ep.  853  :  '  Non  est  mos  Anglorum,  ut  viros  eruditione  claros 
aliunde  accersant.' 

2  Baudii  epp.  p.  514:  'Angli  nostri  studiosi  raro  peregrinantur,    j 
quare  minim  non  est  si  pauci  ad  vos  confluunt.'     Thomson  to  Dom. 
Baudius,  1605. 


LONDON.     1610  — 1G 14.  295 

in  London  was  of  common  occurrence,  while,  more 
often  still,  travelled  Englishmen  contracted  intimacy 
and  maintained  correspondence  with  continental 
scholars. 

Alberic  Gentilis  had  recently  died  (1608)  as  pro- 
fessor of  civil  law  at  Oxford  ;  Saravia  was  still  living 
as  canon  of  Canterbury  ;  Theodore  Diodati  was  re- 
siding in  Aldersgate  ;  Dr.  Raphael  Thoris,  a  native  of 
Flanders,  lived  in  Broad  Street ;  and  Lobel  at  High- 
gate,  through  in  extreme  old  age.  Even  at  the  uni- 
versities, in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  more  than  twenty  names  of  foreigners,  en- 
tered or  graduated  at  Oxford,  may  be  found  in  the 
records. 

Besides,  there  were  other  conditions,  at  the  present 
juncture,  which  might  serve  to  recommend  England 
to  Casaubon  as  his  choice,  or  reconcile  him  to  it  as 
a  necessity. 

The  reigning  prince  was  a  lover,  if  not  of  learning, 
at  least  of  a  kind  of  theological  lore  which  borrowed 
its  lights  from  learning.  James  I.  surrounded  himself 
with  divines  whose  talk  was  of  fathers  and  councils. 
'  He  doth  wondrously  covet  learned  discourse,'  writes 
lord  Howard  to  Harington3,  not  indeed  of  the  grand 
classical  antiquity,  for  which  none  about  him  had  eye 
or  ear,  but  the  bastard  antiquity  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. They  searched  the  ecclesiastical  writers  for 
precedents  in  support  of  English  episcopacy,  but  they 
read  them  in  the  original,  and  this  served  to  main- 
tain greek  at  a  premium.  For  the  first  and  the  last 
time  in  our  annals,  the  court  was  the  theatre  of 
these  learned  discussions.  Notwithstanding  foibles 
which  have  handed  down  his  character  to  ridicule, 

3  Harington,  Nugae  antiq.  i.  390. 


296  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

neither  the  understanding  nor  the  attainments  of  James 
were  contemptible.  But  his  speech  and  action  had 
a  taint  of  puerility  which  degraded  them.  The  ironical 
nickname  of  the  British  Solomon  incurably  clings  to 
the  only  English  prince  who  has  carried  to  the  throne 
knowledge  derived  from  reading,  or  any  considerable 
amount  of  literature.  Despised  by  the  men  of  busi- 
ness as  a  pedant,  James  had  'by  far  the  best  head 
in  his  council4.'  In  the  piteous  condition  of  learning 
and  the  learned  at  that  time,  without  patron  or  home, 
it  was  natural  that  the  eyes  of  these  outcasts  of  so- 
ciety should  be  directed  to  the  only  court  in  Europe 
where  their  profession  was  in  any  degree  appreciated. 
And  Casaubon  was  not  wholly  without  acquaintance 
and  correspondents  even  among  insular  Britons. 

We  have  seen  how  his  position  at  Geneva  led 
to  his  acquaintance  with  the  'roving  Englishman/ 
and  in  the  instances  of  Wotton  and  Thomson  even 
to  intimacy.  In  1601,  Spotswood,  then  only  minister 
of  Calder,  afterwards  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and 
Andrew  Lamb,  afterwards  bishop  of  Galloway,  came 
over  to  Paris  in  the  suite  of  the  duke  of  Lennox, 
ambassador  extraordinary  from  the  king  of  Scots. 
Even  in  1601,  Casaubon  was  sufficiently  known  to  be 
sought  out  by  foreigners  of  curiosity  who  visited 
Paris.  Spotswood  brought,  not  exactly  a  message 
from  James  vi,  but  told  Casaubon  that  his  learning 
and  piety  were  well  known  to  that  learned  monarch. 
Spotswood  urged  him  to  address  a  letter  of  com- 
pliment to  James.  Casaubon  did  so,  and  wasted,  to 
his  great  grief,  two  days  in  penning  an  inflated 
epistle  in  the  usual  style  of  tasteless  adulation, 
which  Spotswood  carried  back  and  duly  delivered. 

4  Speckling,  Life  of  Bacon,  4.  278. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  297 

Tames  replied  to  his  dearest  Casaubon,  telling  him 
that,  '  besides  the  care  of  the  church,  it  was  his 
fixed  resolve  to  encourage  letters  and  learned  men, 
as  he  considered  them  the  strength,  as  well  as  the 
ornament,  of  kingdoms/  He  concluded  by  hoping 
that  Casaubon  would  visit  him  in  Edinburgh,  now 
he  was  so  near,  as  he  would  much  prefer  talking  to 
him  to  writing  to  him.  Casaubon  could  from  this 
time  reckon  a  crowned  head  among  his  regular  cor- 
respondents. But  James'  accession  to  the  English 
throne,  which  was  the  signal  for  others,  who  had  over- 
looked him  before,  to  fall  on  the  knee  before  him  as 
suitors,  only  deterred  Casaubon  from  further  corre- 
spondence. Indeed  his  stock  of  flattery  must  have 
been  exhausted,  and  the  two  letters  which  he  ad- 
dressed in  1  60  1  and  1602  to  'a  sovereign  such  as 
Plato  had  imagined  but  never  seen/  consisted  of 
very  commonplace  incense.  He  not  only  did  not 
join  the  throng  of  applicants,  but  did  not  even 
write  the  congratulatory  epistle,  which  might  na- 
turally have  been  expected  of  him.  He  would  not 
'  come  with  his  pitcher  to  Jacob's  well  as  others  do/ 
as  Bacon  said  of  himself.  He  had  indeed  solicited, 
through  Spotswood,  the  charity  of  the  king  of  Scots, 
but  not  for  himself,  —  for  Beza,  who  in  extreme  age 
was  without  the  most  necessary  comforts,  —  for  the 
Academy  of  Geneva  which  was  struggling  to  exist 
with  an  empty  exchequer  and  no  resources  5.  From 
this  time  there  were  constant  reports  among  Casau- 
bon' s  friends  in  France  and  Germany  that  he  had 
been  invited  to  England,  long  before  any  thought 
of  this  kind  had  been  entertained  by  any  one  in  this 


.  343- 


298  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

country.  In  1603,  L'  Hermit  e  had  heard  it  at  Soleure8. 
In  1609,  Scipio  Gentilis  had  heard  it  at  Altorf.  '  Nugae, 
nugse,'  writes  Casaubon7  in  answer  to  this  letter.  'I 
have  been  invited,  but  not  by  the  king,  and  in  a 
way  quite  different  from  what  you  suppose.'  The  in- 
vitations were  from  friends  to  pay  them  a  visit,  not 
offers  of  preferment  from  a  patron. 

Gradually  Casaubon  began  to  plan  a  visit ;  but  a 
visit  might  be  a  reconnaissance.  He  would  see  if 
the  island  could  afford  him  a  safe  retirement  from  the 
worry  and  controversial  baiting  which  made  his  life 
in  Paris  intolerable.  He  mentioned  the  scheme  as  a 
thing  he  had  in  view,  to  Scaliger.  Scaliger  dis- 
couraged it.  As  early  as  1604  he  wrote8: — 'Surely 
you  will  not  give  up  a  certainty  for  an  uncertainty. 
Settlement  in  a  foreign  country  is  at  best  but  a 
hazardous  experiment.  You  would  put  yourself  to 
the  cost  of  a  removal,  and  then  only  be  laughed  at 
by  all  the  court  monkeys  for  your  credulity.  I  could 
tell  you  much  of  the  English,  what  a  disagreeable 
people  they  are,  inhospitable  to  foreigners,  particu- 
larly churlish  to  Frenchmen,  against  whom  they 
cherish  a  traditional  antipathy.  If  it  be  in  the  fates 
that  you  are  to  settle  in  England,  at  least  do  not 
precipitate  the  event.  Wait  till  you  are  called;  do 
not  offer  yourself,  and  sell  your  venture  at  as  high 
a  price  as  you  can/ 

Scaliger's  advice  was  dictated  by  his  own  feelings. 
He  overlooked  one  attraction  which  the  English  in- 
vitation contained  for  Casaubon,  because  it  would 
have  been  no  attraction  for  himself.  In  1604,  when 
Scaliger's  advice  as  above  was  given,  Casaubon  had 

6  Barney  MSS.  364,  L'Hermite  to  Casaubon,  1603. 

7  Ep.  630.  8  Scalig.  Epp.  pp.  241.  253. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  299 

hardly  begun  that  dissatisfaction  with  the  calvinist 
worship  which  in  1610  had  grown  into  a  serious 
grievance  to  his  conscience.  He  had  been  gradually 
worked  into  this  state  of  mind  by  the  necessity  of 
daily  encountering  the  catholic  disputants.  The 
ministers  of  his  own  communion  scouted  antiquity,  of 
which  they  were  ignorant,  and  which  Casaubon  re- 
garded as  the  only  arbiter  of  the  quarrel.  Books 
fell  in  his  way  written  on  this  side  of  the  channel, 
in  w^hich  he  met  with  a  line  of  argument  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  uninstructed,  but  presumptuous  dog- 
matism of  the  calvinist  ministers.  He  found  to  his 
surprise  and  delight  that  there  were  others  besides 
himself  who  could  respect  the  authority  of  the  fathers, 
without  surrendering  their  reason  to  the  dicta  of  the 
papal  church.  The  young  anglo-catholic  school  which 
was  then  forming  in  England  took  precisely  the  ground 
which  Casaubon  had  been  led  to  take  against  Du 
Perron. 

The  change  of  face  which  English  theology  effected 
in  the  reign  of  James  I.  is,  to  our  generation,  one  of 
the  best  known  facts  in  the  history  of  our  church. 
But  it  is  often  taken  for  granted  that  this  revolution 
was  brought  about  by  the  ascendancy  of  one  man, 
whose  name  is  often  used,  to  denominate  the  school 
as  the  Laudian  school  of  divines.  Laud  was  the 
political  leader,  but  in  this  capacity  only  the  agent 
of  a  mode  of  thinking  which  he  did  not  invent. 
Anglo-catholic  theology  is  not  a  system  of  which  any 
individual  thinker  can  claim  the  invention.  It  arose 
necessarily,  or  by  natural  development,  out  of  the 
controversy  with  the  papal  advocates,  as  soon  as  that 
controversy  was  brought  out  of  the  domain  of  pure 
reason  into  that  of  learning.  That  this  peculiar 


300  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

compromise,  or  via  media,  between  romanism  arid 
Calvinism  developed  itself  in  England,  and  nowhere 
else  in  Christendom,  is  owing  to  causes  which  this  is 
not  the  place  to  investigate.  But  that  it  was  a  pro- 
duct, not  of  english  soil,  but  of  theological  learning 
wherever  sufficient  learning  existed,  is  evidenced  by 
the  history  of  Casaubon 's  mind,  who  now  found  him- 
self, in  1610,  an  anglican  ready  made,  as  the  mere 
effect  of  reading  the  fathers  to  meet  Du  Perron's  in- 
cessant attacks. 

England  thus  seemed  to  open  to  Isaac  Casaubon 
not  only  an  asylum  from  the  teasing  persecution  of 
the  convertisseurs,  but  a  church  whose  doctrines  and 
ministrations  were  more  congenial  than  were  afforded 
him  in  his  own  communion,  and  which  in  a  great 
measure  realised  the  ideal  he  had  formed  from  the 
study  of  catholic  antiquity. 

His  wish,  formerly  entertained,  to  visit  Venice  in 
search  of  the  greek  church,  now  gave  place  to  a  desire 
to  visit  England,  and  see  for  himself  the  english 
church.  He  mentioned  his  wish  to  the  king,  and 
begged  leave  of  absence.  Henri  always  put  him  off, 
wishing  the  irrevocable  step  of  conversion  to  be  taken 
before  he  trusted  him  out  of  his  sight.  But  Casaubon, 
though  obliged  to  defer  its  execution,  persisted  in  his 
intention.  On  April  20  he  wrote  to  James  I,  inti- 
mating clearly  the  wish  at  which  he  had  before  only 
distantly  hinted.  But  he  could  not  leave,  even  for 
a  visit,  without  an  open  rupture  with  a  master  to 
whom  he  was  bound  by  duty,  gratitude,  and  interest. 

On  May  14,  1610,  these  bonds  were  severed  in  a 
fatal  moment  by  the  knife  of  a  wretched  fanatic.  The 
first  moments  of  terror  were  passed  by  Casaubon  at 
Grigny,  where  he  was  when  the  news  reached  him. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  301 

ie  king  was  wounded.  The  evening  was  spent  in 
dreadful  suspense.  Next  morning  a  special  messenger 
sent  out  by  Madame  Casaubon  brought  the  real  truth. 
Death  had  followed  instantaneously  upon  the  second 
stroke  of  the  assassin's  knife,  but  the  secret  had  been 
so  well  kept  that  Lestoile  tells  us9  that  at  5  p.m.  it 
was  only  at  the  Louvre  it  was  known  that  the  king 
was  dead.  Casaubon  determined,  whatever  the  danger 
might  be,  to  share  it  with  his  friends,  and  immedi- 
ately returned  to  Paris10.  The  terror  of  the  huguenots 
was  sufficiently  visible  in  the  irresolution  of  Sully. 
He  set  off,  on  the  i4th,  to  drive  to  the  Louvre, 
thinking  the  king  only  wounded.  But  finding  he 
was  dead,  he  dared  not  show  himself,  and  retired  to 
the  arsenal.  It  was  not  till  the  next  morning  that 
he  ventured  to  appear  in  his  place  at  the  council. 
The  protestants  had  expected  the  mob  to  rise  and 
repeat  '72.  No  movement  of  the  sort  took  place. 
The  Parisians  were  stunned  for  the  moment  by*  the 
greatness  of  the  blow. 

The  assassination  took  place  on  April  14.  On  the 
i  yth  Du  Perron  returned  to  the  charge.  Casaubon 
was  sent  for,  and  had  to  hear  a  lecture  upon  the  true 
sense  of  some  of  the  passages  usually  relied  on  against 
transubstaiitiation.  The  cardinal  saw  that  if  he  were 
to  have  Casaubon  it  must  be  now.  The  tie  that  had 
bound  him  to  France  was  severed.  He  knew  Casau- 
bori's  cherished  wish  to  visit  England,  and  foreboded 
in  what  the  visit  would  end. 

Both  parties  felt  that  the  crisis  of  the  long  struggle 
was  come.  Casaubon,  simple-minded  as  he  was,  must 

9  Registre-journal,  p.  586. 

10  Ep.  695  :  c  Ut  quicquid  bonis  futurum  esset,  sors  illorum  mihi 
cum  bonis  ess?et  commimis.' 


302  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

have  understood  that  he  was  now  at  the  mercy  of  the 
court.  The  alternative  offered  him  now,  whatever  it 
might  have  been  before,  was  conversion  or  dismissal  > 
But  the  cardinal,  with  a  fine  tact,  continued  to  treat 
the  question  as  one  of  pure  learning,  and  love  of  truth. 
He  makes  no  allusion  to  Casaubon's  altered  circum- 
stances, avoiding  thus  any  alarm  to  his  conscience  or 
his  pride.  Casaubon,  on  his  part,  though  aware  that 
the  bread  of  his  family  is  at  stake,  and  though  agi- 
tated to  distraction  by  the  complication  in  which  he 
finds  himself  entangled,  exhibits  himself  to  us,  not  only 
in  his  familiar  letters,  but  in  the  secret  pages  of  the 
diary,  endeavouring,  with  an  honest  and  honourable 
soul,  to  find  out  on  which  side  his  actual  opinions 
placed  him.  It  is  clear  that  his  struggle  is  not  be- 
tween his  conscience  and  his  preferment,  it  is  an  in- 
tellectual struggle,  an  endeavour  to  choose  between 
the  riva]  churches. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  historians,  looking  at  the 
broad  outline  of  things,  should  have  fixed  on  Casaubon 
the  charge  of  'wavering.'  Meric  has  replied  to  the 
round  assertion  of  Heribert  Rosweyd  that  his  father 
Isaac  had  promised  the  cardinal  to  make  his  recanta- 
tion at  Whitsuntide,  but  was  anticipated  by  the  english 
invitation.  The  only  answer  which  this  unsupported 
assertion  admitted  of,  or  deserved,  was  a  flat  contra- 
diction. It  was  simply  a  lie  with  a  circumstance,  such 
as  were  hatched  by  the  dozen  in  the  Jesuit  colleges 
of  that  period.  But  impartial  historians,  e.  g.  Hallam11, 
have  spoken  of  Casaubon's  '  wavering'  as  a  fact.  If 
there  be  a  moment  in  his  life  on  which  the  charge  of 
having  wavered  can  be  fixed,  it  is  the  moment  at 
which  we  are  now  arrived.  Yet  at  this  very  moment, 

11  Hallam,  Lit.  Hist.  2.  302. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  303 

e  perversion  of  his  eldest  son,  John,  of  which  he 
beard  August  14,  drew  from  him  the  bitter  cry  of 
pain  which  is  recorded  under  that  date.  The  heart 
from  which  that  cry  of  paternal  anguish  was  wrung 
was  in  no  mood  to  fraternise  with  the  crew  of  intriguers 
}y  whom  the  blow  had  been  dealt.  What  on  a  cursory 
inspection  of  Casaubon's  remains  looks  like  wavering 
will,  I  think,  be  found  on  a  closer  view  to  be  a  more 
complex  mental  state.  He  was  indeed  in  an  intellec- 
tual difficulty,  but  it  was  that  he  found  his  own 
opinions  coincide  neither  with  Calvinism,  nor  with 
ultramontanism.  He  had  been  forced  by  reading, 
and  controversy,  into  a  middle  position  between  the 
two,  and  did  not  yet  know  how  far  the  position  thus 
created  was  a  tenable  one,  or  that  it  was  shared  by 
others  besides  himself.  Circumstances  were  preparing 
bis  removal  to  a  country,  in  which  to  his  surprise  he 
found  a  whole  national  church  encamped  on  the 
ground,  on  which  he  had  believed  himself  to  be  an 
isolated  adventurer. 

Meantime  he  had  escaped  into  the  country,  and  hid 
himself  in  his  retreat  at  Grigny  as  much  as  his  duties 
in  the  library  would  allow.  The  cardinal,  too,  had 
graver  business  to  call  him  off  from  his  pursuit  of 
Casaubon.  Things  in  France  were  rapidly  going  in 
the  direction  which  had  been  foreseen.  The  first  shock 
had  sobered  parties  and  inspired  a  momentary  patri- 
otism. On  June  i,  Casaubon12  wrote  that  the  hand 
of  providence  was  visible  in  the  unanimity  of  all  the 
great  men  and  nobles  to  fly  to  the  aid  of  their  country. 
Before  another  month  his  language  is  changed.  On 
June  25  he  writes  to  Heinsius13 :  'The  most  grievous 
thing  to  me  is  the  murder  not  being  pursued  in  the 
12  EP.  674.  u  EP.  675. 


304  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

way  of  justice  as  it  ought  to  be.  It  is  notorious  whose 
teaching  it  was*  that  instigated  the  fatal  deed,  who 
they  are  who  have  proclaimed  regicide  as  a  principle  ; 
yet  we  sleep  on  in  utter  indifference.  I  cannot  express 
to  you  the  anguish  of  mind  from  which  I  am  now 
suffering.  It  is  not  mere  regard  for  my  own  individual 
prospects  which  tortures  me,  and  makes  me  pass  sleep- 
less nights,  but  a  sense  of  the  public  calamity  which 
is  fallen  on  my  country/ 

On  June  15  the  english  embassy  had  written14  to 
the  same  effect :  '  The  duke  D'Espernon  doth  act,  if 
not  the  chiefest,  at  the  least  the  most  busy  and  in- 
truding part  in  this  comedy, — I  pray  God  it  do  not 
prove  a  tragedy, — who,  joyned  with  the  count  of 
Soissons  and  the  jesuites,  together  with  some  of  the 
greatest  officers,  doth  begin  by  their  meanes  to  en- 
croach upon  the  chiefest  authority  and  administration/ 
To  the  .same  effect  Casaubon15  writes  on  September  6  : 
'  Things  here  are  come  to  that  pass  that  we  shall  all 
soon  be  mere  slaves  of  the  loyolites.  I  know  my 
countrymen  well  enough  to  know  that  they  will  not 
submit  to  the  yoke  without  some  convulsive  spasms ; 
but  submit  they  will  in  the  end ;  the  powers  that  be 
are  engaged  on  that  side/  Nor  was  it  only  the  court 
which  was  inclining  to  the  roman  and  Spanish  in- 
terest. The  passions  of  the  mob  were  engaged  in 
the  cause,  and  in  the  hot  nights  of  midsummer  the 
panic  of  the  huguenots  was  renewed.  If  there  were 
an  outbreak,  they  knew  that  they  would  be  the  first 
victims.  The  Jesuit  writers  affirm  that  these  terrors 
were  feigned.  They  may  have  been  unreasonable— 
a  panic  always  is — but  they  were  real.  Casaubon's  ! 

14  Winwood,  Memorials,  3.  189,  Beaulieu  to  TrumbulL 

15  Ep.  684. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  305 

liary  records  that  on  July  19  he  was  unable  to  do 
anything,  owing  to  his  friends  flocking  in  terror  to  his 
house,  which  was  in  the  most  dangerous  (the  latin) 
quarter.  On  July  ,V  Beaulieu16,  wrote  from  Paris : 
'  There  have  been  such  alarms  taken  these  three  or 
four  nights  by  those  of  the  weaker  side,  that  the  duke 
of  Bouillon  and  the  prince  of  Conde  ...  did  sit  up 
with  all  their  household  in  arms  almost  all  those  nights 
long.  .  .  .  A  man  can  see  nothing  almost  in  the  streets 
but  carrying  and  providing  of  arms  in  every  house, 
as  it  were  upon  assured  expectation  of  imminent 
disorder.' 

It  was  in  the  thick  of  these  alarms  that  the  de- 
cisive invitation  to  England  reached  Casaubon's  hands 
(July  20).  It  was  an  official  invitation  from  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury 17.  As  far  back  as  March, 
or  earlier,  definite  proposals  had  been  sent  him  in  an 
unofficial  way  through  sir  George  Carew,  the  ex- 
ambassador,  in  whose  household  Philippa  had  died. 
The  archbishop  (Bancroft)  now  writes  himself,  re- 
iterating the  terms  which  had  been  before  proposed. 
Casaubon  was  assured  '  that  his  coming  among  them 
would  be  welcomed  by  them  all ;  that  a  prebend  of 
Canterbury,  then  actually  vacant,  was  reserved  for 
him ;  and  as  the  income  of  the  stall  might  not  be 
sufficient  for  his  maintenance,  a  promise  was  added 
that  it  might  be  increased  from  other  sources.  He 
might  come  over  and  see  for  himself.  Or,  if  he 
chose  to  throw  himself  for  good  upon  the  generosity 
of  the  king,  and  to  rely  upon  the  assurances  now 
given  him  by  the  archbishop,  he  might  remove  his 
family  at  once.  In  the  latter  case  he  was  to  draw 

6  Winwood's  Mem.  3.  191. 

17  Burney  MFS.  263,  printed  ap.  Russell,  p.  1097. 
X 


306  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

upon  the  english  embassy  for  £30  for  the  expenses 
of  the  journey.  Any  how,  when  he  comes  he  would 
find  the  archbishop  ready  to  do  his  utmost  in  his 
behalf.  Finally,  the  archbishop,  while  leaving  the 
choice  entirely  to  Casaubon's  own  discretion,  seemed 
to  recommend  a  private  retreat,  in  preference  to  a 
public  withdrawal  from  the  French  service. 

The  terms  of  this  communication  were  somewhat 
vague,  but  Casaubon  was  able  to  put  an  exact  value 
upon  them  by  the  aid  of  sir  G.  Carew's  letter  of 
March  12,  '  The  archbishop,  it  will  be  observed,  speaks 
of  the  king's  generosity,  and  the  archbishop's  honour. 
This  was  delicate,  as  the  provision  designed  for  him 
was  a  contribution  to  be  made  up  out  of  the  bishops' 
own  purses.  The  prebendal  stall  was  valued  at  £88, 
besides  house,  fuel,  and  corn,  and  the  bishops  were 
to  subscribe  among  themselves  what  would  make  it 
up  to  equal  what  he  was  getting  in  France,  till  he 
could  be  further  provided  for  out  of  church  revenues. 
The  king  does  not  appear  to  have  promised  anything, 
though  he  may  have  intended  to  give  him  some- 
thing more  in  the  church.  The  invitation  was  from 
the  archbishop,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
king  himself  was  promoting  the  step.  As  early  as 
1608,  Bancroft  had  carried  a  copy  of  the  'De  libertate 
ecclesiastica '  to  James,  who  had  been  so  delighted 
with  it,  that  for  many  days  he  could  talk  of  nothing 
but  Casaubon18. 

The  stalls  at  Canterbury  were  not  of  the  arch- 
bishop's collation.  But  Bancroft  was  not  unwilling 
to  be  the  channel  of  communication,  as  it  cost  him 
nothing,  and  it  was  well  understood  in  England  that 
Casaubon  was  as  little  inclined  to  favour  Bancroft's 

u  Burney  MSB.  366.  p.  141. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  307 

enemies,  the  puritans,  as  the  king's  enemies,  the 
ultramontanes.  He  viewed  Casaubon,  and  no  other 
view  was  taken  of  him  by  the  other  persons  concerned, 
the  king  excepted,  as  an  instrument  of  controversy, 
which  it  was  desirable  to  enlist  in  the  service  of  the 
english  church.  James  himself,  who  was  just  now 
very  busy  with  pamphlet  writing,  and  who  was  com- 
missioning his  ambassador  at  the  Hague  19<to  find 
some  smart  Jesuit  with  a  quick  and  nimble  spirit' 
to  write  against  Vorstius,  doubtless  designed  employ- 
ment of  the  same  sort  for  Casaubon.  But  he  also 
promised  himself  much  delectation  from  this  addition 
to  his  sanhedrim. 

After  the  receipt  of  the  official  invitation,  Casaubon 
still  lingered  some  months  in  France.  The  delay 
was  caused  by  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  necessary 
permission  from  the  court.  He  did  not  think  proper 
to  make  the  clandestine  departure  which  Bancroft 
had  suggested.  He  applied  for,  and  at  last  obtained, 
a  furlough  in  form.  It  was  understood20  that  he 
was  to  make  a  visit  of  a  few  weeks,  leaving  his 
family  and  his  library  behind;  and21  he  solemnly 
engaged  himself  to  return  whenever  he  should  be 
summoned. 

The  ambassador  extraordinary,  lord  Wotton  of 
iMarley,  who  was  on  his  return  to  England,  offered 
I  him  a  place  in  his  suite.  Besides  a  free  passage,  he 
I  thus  enjoyed  many  advantages  above  the  ordinary 
traveller.  Yet  his  sufferings  were  still  such  as  to 
|make  us  wonder  at  the  readiness  with  which  our  an- 
cestors met  the  dangers  and  horrors  of  the  channel. 

9  Wiriwood's  Mem.  3.  311. 

20  Ep.  864  :  '  Qui  paucas  hebdomadas  me  hsesurum  in  Britannia 
H>opoiideram.'  2l  Ep.  700. 

X   2 


308  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

We  abridge  his  own  graphic  narrative  from  the  diary 
and  the  letters  to  his  family 22. 

The  cavalcade  were  eight  days  on  the  road  between 
Paris  and  Calais,  which  they  reached  October  15. 
Here  they  were  detained,  waiting  for  the  king's  ship, 
which  was  to  be  sent  to  bring  over  the  ambassador. 

'The  i/th  of  October  was  Sunday,  when  I  would 
fain  have  joined  public  worship,  but  had  to  think  of 
somewhat  else.  For  my  lord  had  ordered  two  trans- 
ports, one  for  our  baggage,  the  other  for  the  horses; 
and  the  whole  morning  was  spent  in  getting  them 
on  board.  As  the  ship  of  the  royal  navy  did  not 
arrive,  my  lord  was  much  in  doubt  whether  he 
should  wait  for  it,  or  should  hire  one  that  lay  in 
the  harbour,  where  there  were  some  150  vessels, 
small,  and  mostly  fishing  boats.  As  we  could  hardly 
hope  to  set  sail  this  day,  my  lord  bade  us  sit  down 
to  dinner.  Himself  and  his  lady  would  not  eat,  in 
case  they  might,  after  all,  have  to  go  on  board. 
We  sat  down  and  had  gotten  to  about  the  second 
course,  when  word  was  brought  that  the  wind  had 
now  become  dead  against  the  passage  to  England. 
Upon  this  the  ambassador  and  his  lady  also  sat  down. 
After  dinner  I  walked  down  to  the  harbour,  and  had 
hardly  returned  to  the  inn,  when  I  found  the  face 
of  things  changed,  and  that  we  were  to  sail  at  I 
once.  A  ship  had  come  from  England,  not  indeed  | 
a  king's  ship,  but  one  of  large  burden,  too  big  toj 
enter  the  harbour,  and  was  now  at  anchor  a  league  i 
out  to  sea.  We  were  rowed  off  to  it  in  boats,  I 
having  wrapped  myself  up  in  my  galligaskins  against! 
the  cold.  It  was  about  two  when  we  got  on  board,! 
and,  the  wind  being  favourable,  we  hoped  to  be  at; 

2  Eph.  p.  769,  compared  with  ep.  691. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  309 

over  in  about  three  or  four  hours.  Joyful  therefore, 
I  stepped  on  to  the  big  ship,  the  first  vessel  of  any 
size  I  had  ever  seen,  with  three  sails  and  the  royal 
arms  of  England  on  a  silken  flag.  We  got  mider 
way,  our  hopes  mounting  high,  when  on  a  sudden 
the  wind  veered  round  dead  against  us.  Do  what 
we  could,  we  could  not  make  head  against  it,  and 
night  coming  on,  the  captain  knew  not'  whereabouts 
we  were.  One  while  we  were  said  to  be  within  ten 
miles  of  the  English  coast ;  then  back  at  Calais  or 
Peronne,  or  I  know  not  where.  Having  never  been 
at  sea  before,  I  was  badly  sea  sick  from  the  first, 
and  for  some  hours  suffered  much  from  pain  and 
faintness.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  kindness  shown 
me  by  my  lord  and  lady  and  by  many  of  the  suite. 
They  took  me  down  into  my  lord's  private  cabin  and 
placed  me  in  his  bed.  At  last  the  violent  rain  driv- 
ing my  lord  and  lady  off  the  deck,  I  was  obliged  to 
be  removed  to  an  aftercabin  with  many  charges 
that  I  should  be  taken  care  of.  Here  I  could  have 
done  pretty  well  but  for  the  plague  of  mischievous 
beasts,  which  came  out  of  the  sailors'  clothes  on  which 
I  lay.  To  me  and  all  of  us  the  night  seemed  incre- 
dibly long,  and  I  understood  the  force  of  the  words 
in  the  Acts,  "they  wished  for  the  day."  When  at 
last  we  reached  the  harbour  we  had  a  narrow  escape 
of  being  wrecked  against  it  in  entering  it,  the  prow 
of  the  vessel  being  heavily  crushed.  But  we  escaped 
harm  and  were  at  last  safely  housed  in  our  inn/ 

From  Dover  his  first  thought  was  to  write  home  a 
full  account  of  the  perils  he  had  braved.  He  had 
already  written  from  Amiens  to  his  son  John,  and  his 
nephew  Isaac.  He  repeats  his  cautions,  and  puts 
precise  questions,  to  which  he  demands  precise  answers. 


310  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

23 '  As  you  love  me  and  respect  my  commands,  I  charge 
you  to  let  me  hear  from  you  at  London  how  my  wife 
is,  and  how  she  takes  my  absence.  My  books  and 
papers  you  will  take  especial  care  of.  The  king's 
library,  Isaac,  is  in  your  individual  keeping.  Do  not 
be  too  easy  in  admitting  anyone  into  the  room,  and 
never  more  than  one  person  at  a  time.  Explain  to 
monseigneur  de  Thou  how  it  happened  that  that 
volume  I  borrowed  of  him  was  not  returned  before 
my  departure,  and  let  no  one  touch  the  book  except 
by  his  orders.  Tell  your  mother  that  those  English 
coins  which  Madame  Gentilis  let  me  have,  and  which  I 
wrote  to  say  I  had  left  behind  in  my  study,  I  found 
in  my  chest,  in  a  corner  where  I  had  stowed  them 
myself.  ....  Let  me  have  an  account  how  Gentllle, 
Jeanne,  and  Anne  behave  ;  as  for  Paul,  I  persuade 
myself  he  is  already  grown  quite  a  scholar.  Tell  me 
also  about  Marie,  whom  I  did  riot  embrace  at  parting, 
and  about  the  rest  of  the  children ;  about  all  the 
Desbordes  family.  Has  my  wife  been  to  Grigny  ? 
What  has  she  done  about  that  rascally  bailiff?  In 
short,  tell  me  everything,  public  or  private,  which  I 
ought  to  know/ 

At  Canterbury  he  was  detained  some  days  by  the 
hospitality  of  his  travelling  companion,  Benjamin 
Carier.  Carier  was  one  of  the  prebendaries,  and  was 
now  proud  to  introduce  Casaubon  to  the  chapter,  of 
which  it  was  intended  that  he  should  become  one.  It 
is  characteristic  of  Casaubon's  irritability  and  placa- 
bility, that  he  now  commends  the  obliging  entertain- 
ment he  met  with  from  Carier,  as  warmly  as  he  had 
before  grumbled  at  his  selfishness  during  the  journey; 
Carier  was  one  of  the  high  church  party,  and  boasts 

23  Ep.  691. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  311 

/asaubon81  that  he  always  says  the  morning  and 
evening  prayer,  as  the  law  prescribes.  He  it  was  who 
afterwards  received  Casaubon's  dividend,  as  prebendary, 
and  accounted  for  it  to  him. 

Carier's  kindness  may  not  have  been  altogether 
disinterested.  The  deanery  of  Rochester  becoming 
vacant  a  year  later,  he  sought  to  avail  himself  of 
Casaubon's  supposed  interest  at  court  to  get  it  for 
him.  He  pleaded  that  '  the  deanery  was  a  very  poor 
one,  and  that  he,  holding  the  living  of  Thornham  in 
the  neighbourhood,  had  advantages  for  the  exercise  of 
hospitality  at  Rochester.'  Bancroft  was  not  averse  to 
pluralities ;  '  a  doublet  is  necessary  in  cold  weather,' 
he  is  reported  to  have  said.  But  the  deanery  was 
given  to  Milbourne,  and  shortly  afterwards  Carier, 
being  abroad,  caused  great  scandal,  in  high  church 
circles,  by  going  over.  He  was  a  man  of  more  than 
common  reading,  and  possessed  some  books,  many  of 
which  were  new  to  Casaubon,  who  did  not  neglect  the 
opportunity  of  going  through  them.  Among  others 
he  mentions  the  Calvino-Tui  cismus,  in  which  Rainolds, 
Hie  roman  catholic  brother  of  the  president  of  Corpus, 
made  out  an  ingenious  parallel  between  the  calvinists 
and  mahometans,  25 '  a  book,  on  account  of  its  style  and 
recondite  learning,  by  no  means  to  be  despised/ 

Casaubon  was  delighted  with  Canterbury,  both  the 
place  and  the  people26,  though  the  church  services 
seemed  unnatural  to  him,  and  he  felt  odd  to  be  keeping 
a  saint's  day — S.  Luke's — which  happened  during  his 
stay. 

24  Burney  MSS.  363.  Carier  to  Caeaubon,  1611.  25  Eph.  p.  779. 

26  Ep.  1045  :  '  Cum  hospitis  mei,  turn  aliorum  prsestantissimomm 
virorum  cxiniiu  huinanitate  ita  sum  captus,  et  loci  elegantia  atque 
amcenitate  sic  quotidie  oblector  .  .  .' 


312  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

On  October  29,  he  set  off  for  London,  and  was  hos- 
pitably received  at  the  deanery  of  S.  Paul's  by  Overall, 
as  had  been  arranged  for  him  by  Carier.  No  time  was 
lost  in  presenting  him  to  the  archbishop,  to  whom  he 
was  taken  the  very  day  of  his  arrival.  He  was  most 
graciously  received  by  the  venerable  prelate,  who 
detained  him  some  time  in  conversation 27.  It  was  at 
once  intimated  to  him  that  if  he  could  make  up  his 
mind  to  stay  in  the  country,  it  was  the  wish  of  the 
king  and  the  bishops,  that  he  should  do  so.  Two  days 
afterwards  he  paid  a  second  visit  to  Lambeth,  and  this 
was  the  last  time  he  was  to  see  Bancroft,  who  died  a 
few  days  after  this  interview,  November  12.  In  him  Cas- 
aubon  thought  he  had  lost  a  special  friend  and  patron  28. 
He  did  not  promise  himself  the  same  friendliness  from 
the  new  archbishop.  Abbot  had  had  no  share  in  inviting 
Casaubon  to  England,  and  his  29<  behaviour  and  carriage 
toward  the  greatest  nobility  in  the  kingdom,  was,'  what 
Laud  thought,  *  very  insolent  and  inexcusable.'  In  this 
respect  Casaubon  was  agreeably  disappointed.  Abbot 
was  uniformly  friendly  to  him,  sent  for  him  often  to 
Lambeth  or  to  Croydon,  made  him  a  present  regularly 
at  Christmas,  and  consented  to  be  godfather  to  a  son, 
James,  the  only  child  born  to  him  in  England. 

The  other  bishops  vied  with  each  other  in  welcoming 
him,  and  feting  him,  in  the  hospitable  english  way, 
by  entertaining  him  at  dinner.  Overall,  not  only  took 
in  Isaac  himself  at  the  deanery,  but  also  his  wife  arid 
family  when  they  arrived.  Here  he  made  his  home 
for  the  first  twelve  months,  from  October  1610  to 

27  Eph.  p.  781  :  Tuit  mihi  cum  eo  multus  sermo.' 

28  Eph.  p.  797  :   '  Quantam  jacturam  fecerim  in  morte  archiepiscopi 
videor  incipere  intelligere.'  29  Clarendon,  Life,  i.  65. 


L  OX  DON.     1 G 1 0  — 1614.  313 


September  1611,  though  it  seems  probable30  that,  at 
least  during  the  dean's  absence,  who  had  a  house  out 
of  town  at  Islington31,  Casaubon  provided  his  own 
household  expenses.  Nor  did  their  civility  wear  out 
with  the  novelty.  We  find  him,  up  to  the  last,  dining 
with  them  both  privately32,  and  on  their  grand  oc- 
casions 33,  and  presents  are  sent  by  them  at  Christmas 
to  himself  or  to  Madame  Casaubon34. 

The  bishop  of  Ely  was  able  to  report  to  the  king 
that  Casaubori's  reputation  was  borne  out  by  his  con- 
versation. James  was  impatient  to  make  trial  of  the 
new  man,  and  ordered  him  to  be  brought  out  to  him 
to  Theobald's.  Casaubon,  nervously  solicitous  about 
the  etiquette  of  the  eriglish  court,  thought  that  no 
one  less  than  the  archbishop  could  instruct  him,  and 
went  out  to  Lambeth  to  ask  how  he  was  to  behave. 
Bancroft,  who  must  have  been  amused  at  his  simplicity, 
made  him  stay  to  dinner,  and  calmed  his  fears,  gratify- 
ing him  at  the  same  time  by  the  marked  attention  he 
showed  him.  On  November  8,  Casaubon  was  taken 
out  to  Theobald's  in  lord  Dunbar's  carriage 35.  Casau- 
met the  gracious  reception  which  he  had  been  led 
to  expect,  and  had  the  honour  of  being  the  principal 
figure  in  the  circle  which  stood  round  the  royal  chair 
at  supper. 

30  Eph.  p.  827.  31  Burney  MSS.  364. 

32  Eph.  p.  978.  33  Eph.  p.  1049. 

14  Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  337. 

35  Sir  George  Home,  cr.  1605,  earl  of  Dunbar  at  this  time,  1610, 
Deeper  of  the  privy  purse,  the  king's  declared  favourite,  of  whom 
Jume  says,  Hist,  of  Engl.  that  '  he  was  one  of  the  wisest  and  most 
irtuous,  though  the  least  powerful,  of  all  those  whom  he  honoured 
with  that  distinction.'  Dunbar's  influence,  however,  overbore  that  of 
he  whole  bench  of  bishops  on  one  memorable  occasion,  when  he  got 

bbot  promoted  to  Canterbury  instead  of  Andrewes. 


* 


314  LONDON.      1610—1614. 

James'  learned  repasts  have  been  often  described, 
among  others,  by  Hacket 38 :  '  The  reading  of  some  books 
before  him  was  very  frequent,  while  he  was  at  his 
repast ;  he  collected  knowledge  by  variety  of  questions 
which  he  carved  out  to  the  capacity  of  different 
persons.  Methought  his  hunting  humour  was  not 
off,  while  the  learned  stood  about  him  at  his  board ; 
he  was  ever  in  chase  after  some  disputable  doubt, 
which  he  would  wind  and  turn  about  with  the  most 
stabbing  objections  that  ever  I  heard ;  and  was  as 
pleasant  and  fellow-like  in  all  these  discourses,  as  with 
his  huntsmen  in  the  field.  Those  who  were  ripe  and 
weighty  in  their  answers,  were  ever  designed  for  some 
place  of  credit  or  profit/  Seat  and  food  were  for 
sacred  majesty  only.  It  is  ill-talking  between  a  full 
man  and  a  fasting,  says  the  proverb ;  scarcely  less  so 
between  one  sitting  and  one  standing.  It  happened 
this  first  day,  that  the  king  was  taken  up  with  a  new 
french  pamphlet  against  himself.  The  pamphlet  was 
anonymous,  and  he  was  attributing  it  to  the  one  name 
best  known  to  him,  that  of  cardinal  Du  Perron.  Casau- 
bon  was  able  to  undeceive  him,  to  tell  him  the  name 
of  the  real  author,  as  well  as  something  about  him. 
James  wTas  well  satisfied,  and  Casaubon  was  ordered 
to  attend  again  the  next  day. 

Casaubon  was  rapidly  established  in  the  royal  favour. 
The  king  was  insatiable  of  his  conversation,  was  always 
sending  for  him  and  keeping  him  talking  for  hours. 
James  talked  well  himself,  liked  a  good  hearer,  but 
was  ready,  which  is  not  always  the  case  with 
talkers,  to  listen  in  return.  In  graver  conversation  he 
was  perhaps  even  superior  to  what  he  was  in  light 

36  Life  of  AbP.  Williams,  pt.  2,  p.   38;  cf.  Jessop,  Life  of  Donne, 
p.  xxviii. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  315 

He  loved  speculative  discourse  upon  moral  and 
political  subjects  ;  and  his  talent  for  conducting  such 
discussions  is  a  frequent  theme  of  admiration,  not  only 
among  his  courtiers,  but  in  the  unsuborned  writings 
of  the  foreigners  who  visited  him.'  Casaubon  on  his 
part  was  a  ready  talker38,  and  if  his  french  was  not 
good,  his  matter  was  inexhaustible.  His  memory  sup- 
plied him  with  an  endless  store  of  diversified  infor- 
mation on  the  topics  which  James  liked  best.  The 
conversation  was  conducted  in  french,  which  James 
spoke  fluently39,  though  we  may  suppose  with  a  scotch 
accent.  Casaubon,  who  never  could  accomplish  englisfi, 
and  was  compelled  with  the  bishops  to  stumble  on  in 
latin,  found  his  tongue  set  free  in  the  court  circle. 

Of  these  conversations,  serious  or  gossiping,  he  has 
only  recorded  one,  and  that  very  scantily  40.  It  was  one 
of  the  first;  in  November  1610,  on  the  day  on  which 
the  king  commemorated  by  a  solemn  service  his  de- 
livery at  Gowrie  house.  The  conversation  was  directed 
by  the  king  to  general  literature.  Of  Tacitus,  James 
said  they  were  wrong,  who  thought  him  the  one 
historian,  who  was  a  master  of  political  wisdom. 
Casaubon  was  delighted  to  reply  that  in  his  late  preface 
to  Polybius,  he  had  passed  a  similar  judgment;  and 
that  the  historical  lesson  to  be  learnt  from  Polybius 
was  far  more  instructive.  The  king  blamed  Plutarch 
for  his  partiality  against  Caesar. 

In  Commines  he  noticed  his  flippancy,  and  his  ha- 
tred of  the  english.  Casaubon,  whose  idea  of  a  king's 

37  Chambers,  Life  of  James  I,  2.  154. 
8  Thorii  ep.  '  serin onis  prompt  issi  mi/ 

59  Epp.  p.    931:   'Hodie  regis  pietatem,  doctrinam,  et  facultatem 
utrius?que  sermonis  Gallici  et  Latini  nobis  mirari  licuit.' 
40 'Ep.  704. 


316  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

conversation  was  formed  upon  that  of  Henri  iv,  wise 
and  ruse,  but  who  had  at  most  read  Amyot's  french 
Plutarch,  was  astounded  by  finding  here  a  king  who 
could  pronounce  opinions  original,  and  not  unjust,  on 
classical  authors,  which  he  had  read  himself.  M.  Saint- 
Beuve41  suggests  that  James  disliked  Commines  for  his 
constitutional  opinions  in  favour  of  the  rights  of  the 
etats,  and  adds  that  there  is  no  levity  in  the  judgment 
which  Commines  passed  on  english  institutions.  In 
the  king's  remark  on  Tacitus  we  may  probably  trace  a 
reminiscence  of  Buchanan,  and  a  revolt  against  the 
notions  of  his  master.  Casaubon,  when  he  wrote  the 
passage  in  his  preface  to  Polybius,  was  thinking  of 
Lipsius,  and  meant  that  the  history  of  the  world  on 
an  oecumenical  scale  was  a  nobler  study  than  that  of 
a  court,  which  exhibited  only  the  triumph  of  vice 
and  personal  despotism.  So  that  the  coincidence  was 
more  seeming  than  real. 

The  king  was  now  bent  upon  retaining  Casaubon 
permanently  in  England.  He  had  come  over  pro- 
fessedly on  a  short  visit.  But  it  had  been  understood 
at  the  english  embassy  that  Casaubon  was  gone  pro- 
specting. In  October  the  ambassador  had  reported  to 
Winwood 43 :  '  M.  Casaubon  is  gone  into  England,  in 
the  company  of  the  lord  Wotton,  to  make  a  tryall, 
whether  the  condition  that  is  offered  him  for  the 
settling  him  there  shall  be  to  his  liking/  An  official 
application  was  now  made  to  the  french  government, 
and  an  indefinite  permission  of  absence  was  accorded. 
That  it  was  a  leave  of  absence  and  not  a  dismissal, 
and  that  his  french  pension  was  to  run  on,  were  favours 
secured  for  him  by  personal  friends — de  Thou  or 
Villeroy.  De  Them's  prudence  desired  to  keep  open 

11  (/Miseries  clu  lundi,  14.  403.  2  Win  wood's  Mem.  3.  226. 


LONDON.     1G10  — 1614.  317 

or  him  a  retreat  into  France,  which  circumstances  might 
any  day  render  expedient,  Casaubon,  on  his  part,  in 
consenting  to  remain  for  a  time,  reserved  his  duty  to 
his  own  sovereign.  '  I  consider  myself/  he  writes  to 
Fronto  le  Due 43,  '  now  and  always,  as  long  as  breath 
is  in  my  body,  the  queen's  servant/  He  had  in  fact 
been  admitted,  before  quitting  Paris,  to  an  interview 
with  Marie  de  Medicis,  who  had  strictly  'charged  him 
to  return  soon.  He  had  pledged  himself  to  do  so, 
whenever  summoned.  Stepmother  as  Paris  had  been 
to  him,  it  cost  him  a  pang  **  *  to  bid  a  long  farewell  to 
my  country  and  friends/  And  he  tells  de  Thou  45 '  that 
he  cannot  shake  off  the  painful  sense  of  being  an  exile  ; 
though  it  is  true  that  the  singular  kindness  with  which 
he  is  treated  by  the  king  softens  to  him  not  a  little  the 
want  of  home/ 

The  king  gave  the  best  proof  of  the  interest  he  took 
in  his  new  acquisition  by  providing  for  him,  at  once, 
himself.  Bancroft's  plan  was,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the 
bishops  should  subscribe  the  difference  between  the 
income  of  the  Canterbury  prebend,  and  the  stipend  of 
the  royal  librarian.  The  king  came  forward  at  once 
with  a  pension  of  £300  a  year  from  his  own  purse,  in 
addition  to  the  prebend  of  Canterbury,  and  a  promise 
of  something  more  on  the  church  establishment  here- 
after. A  stall  at  Westminster  was  named  *.  This 
promise  was  not  fulfilled ;  why  I  cannot  explain,  as  on 
Saravia's  death,  in  January  1613,  the  opportunity  was 
afforded. 

The    patent    conferring    the    pension   runs   thus46: 

43  Ep.  725.  44  Eph.  796  :  '  Durum  est  et  asperum.' 

45  Ep.  702.  *  See  note  A  in  Appendix. 

16  Rymer,  Feed.  16.  710,  reprinted  in  Russell,  p.  1122. 


318  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

4  James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  etc.  to  all  men  to  whom 
theis  presents  shall  come,  greeting. 

4  As  our  progenitors  have  heretofore  beene  carefull  to 
call  into  their  realme  persons  of  eminent  learning, 
agreeing  in  profession  of  religion  with  the  church  of 
England,  and  here  to  make  use  of  them  for  the  further- 
ance of  learning  and  religion  among  their  people  ;  as 
namelie  of  47  Paulus  Fagius,  Martin  Bucer,  Peter  Martin, 
and  others  ;  soe  have  wee,  in  regard  of  the  singular 
learning  of  Isaac  Casaubon,  and  of  his  concurrancye 
with  us  and  the  church  of  England  in  profession  of 
religion,  invited  him  out  of  Fraunce  into  this  our  realme, 
here  to  make  his  aboad ;  and  to  be  used  by  us  as  we 
shall  see  cause  for  the  service  of  the  church ;  and  for 
his  better  support  and  mayntenance,  during  the  time 
of  his  aboade  here ;  we  are  pleased  to  give  unto  him, 
and  of  our  especiall  grace  certayn  knowledge  and  meer 
motion  have  given  and  graunted  and  by  theis  presents, 
for  us  our  heires  and  successors,  doe  give  and  graunt 
unto  the  saide  Isaac  Casaubon  a  certayn  annuitye  or 
pension  of  three  hundred  poundes  of  good  and  lawfull 

money  of  England  by  the  yeare 

Witness  our  self  at  Westminster  the  nynteenth  daye  of 
Januarie  1611.' 

In  1 6 10,  James  had  already  begun  to  feel  the  pres- 
sure of  poverty.  Even  Cecil  could  not  make  the 

47  Paulus  Fagius  (Buchlein)  and  Martin  Bucer  (Putzer)  came  to 
England  together,  on  the  invitation  of  AbP.  Cranmer,  in  1549.  Zurich 
Letters,  3.  535.  They  were  entertained  at  Lambeth  before  they  were 
removed  to  Cambridge.  Peter  Martyr  (Vermigli)  had  preceded  them. 
He  came  to  England  in  1547,  in  company  with  Bernardino  Ochino. . 
A  bill  of  the  expenses  of  their  journey  from  Basel,  amounting  to 
.£126  75.  6d.,  as  sent  in  to  the  privy  council,  is  printed  in  the  Archseo- 
logia,  21.  471. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  319 

come  of  the  crown  cover  the  expenditure.  In  1612 
the  annual  deficit  had  reached  £160000,  with  a  debt  of 

500000.  The  king  was  unable  to  pay  even  his  brew- 
er's bill.  If  in  this  situation  of  the  exchequer  we  are 
disposed  to  look  at  Casaubori's  pension  with  the  eyes 
of  the  lord  treasurer,  we  may  observe  how  trifling  is 
its  amount,  in'  comparison  of  the  sums  whicb  the  king 
habitually  lavished  on  the  favourites,  who  brought 
him  nothing  but  public  hatred  and  disgrace.  James  was 
facile  in  giving  away,  rather  than  liberal.  From  weak- 
ness of  character,  he  yielded  to  the  importunity  of  the 
hungry  suitors,  by  whom  he  was  surrounded.  In  Cas- 
aubon's  case,  what  was  given  was  unsolicited,  and  had 
at  least  the  colourable  appearance  of  being  patronage  of 
learning.  James  was  purchasing  some  credit  at  a  very 
cheap  rate.  The  £300  a  year  spent  on  Casaubon  is  some 
set  off  against  the  thousands  afterwards  squandered  on 
unworthy  favourites — on  Car,  or  Villiers. 

Casaubon  proceeded  to  take  out  letters  of  natural- 
isation, and  to  look  forward  to  a  permanent  settlement 
in  this  country.  But  if,  in  coming  over,  he  had  in- 
dulged any  hope  of  being  master  of  his  own  time,  of 
acquiring  at  last  that  *  otium '  for  which  he  had  been 
iall  his  life  sighing — the  leisure,  that  is,  to  toil  from 
early  dawn  till  deep  into  the  night  in  the  execution 
)f  some  cherished  literary  scheme — he  was  soon  un- 
deceived. 

The  first  and  great  claimant  of  his  time  was  the 
king.     Instead  of  tiring  of  him  as  the  novelty  wore  off, 
-he  demand  for  him  became  more  frequent.     It  grew 
.0  be  an  eatablished  custom  that  he  was  to  present 
imself    every    Sunday48.      As    James    was    little   in 
London,  but  always  on  the  move  from  one  hunting  seat 

18  Epli.  p.  964  :  '  Ad  regem  prout  soleo  Kaff  cKao-rrjv  KvpiciKi]v. 


320  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

to  another,  Casaubon.  was  dragged  out  to  Theobald's, 
Royston,  Greenwich,  Hampton  Court,  Holdenby,  New- 
market, wherever  the  court  might  be49.  Sometimes, 
not  always,  he  had  the  convenience  of  a  court  carriage. 
When  the  distance  obliged  him  to  spend  the  night,  he 
had  to  provide  his  own  lodging,  as  the  accommodation 
at  these  royal  residences  was  but  scanty 50.  In  writing 
to  James  from  Paris,  in  April,  Casaubon  had  naively 
proposed,  as  the  one  object  of  his  visit  to  England,  that 
he  '  might  have  a  good  talk  with  your  majesty51.'  He 
was  now  taken  at  his  word ;  and  before  the  end  of  the 
year  he  had  had  enough  of  it.  Not  that  he  grew  tired 
of  the  king.  He  tells  de  Thou 52  *  that  he  found  him 
greater  than  report,  and  thought  him  more  so  every  time 
he  saw  him/  In  February  1613,  he  writes53,  'I  enjoy 
the  favour  of  this  excellent  monarch,  who  is  really  more 

49  Ep.  794  :'  Ilia  ipsa  die  juberet  me  rex  se  Londino  proficiscentem 
sequi.' 

50  Voltaire  says  of  the  court   of  France   in  1562,  Essai   sur   les 
mceurs,  3.  233 :  'On  couchait  trois  ou  quatre  dans  le  meme  lit,  et  on 
alloit  a  la  cour  habiter  une  chambre  ou  il  n'y  avait  que  des  coffres 
pour  meubles.' 

51  Ep.  664  :  (  Majestatis  tuae  sensus  omnes  propius  cognoscere,  et 
qui  mihi  in  mentem  venibant  posse  eidem  communicare.' 

52  Ep.  692  :  '  Majorem  fama  sua  inveni,  et  quotidie  magis  magisque 
invenio.' 

53  Ep.  864.  Casaubon's  language  about  James  to  others  is  honourable 
to  the  king,  and,  I  think,  with  some  exceptions  (see  Epp.  ep.  249)  not 
overcharged.    His  language  to  James  himself  is  adulatory.    But  it  was 
the  style  of  the  court,  and  meant  nothing,  or  meant  only  '  wonderful 
for  a  king/     Bacon,  nay  Selden,  was  equally  lavish  of  the  dialect  of 
flattery,  the  latter  to  an  extent  which  raised  in  Dr.  Aikin,  Lives  of 
Selden,  etc.  p.  37,  'a  painful  sense  of  the  degradation  incurred  by 
literature  when  brought  in  collision  with  power,  unless  supported  by  a 
proper  sense  of  its  own  dignity.'     The  words  of  Selden  to  which  Dr. 
Aikin  refers  are  in  Selden,  Opp.  3.  1400.     See  note  B  in  Appendix. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  321 


instructed  than  most  people  give  him  credit  for.  He  is 
a  lover  of  learning  to  a  degree  beyond  belief;  his 
judgment  of  books,  old  and  new,  is  such  as  would 
become  a  professed  scholar,  rather  than  a  mighty 
prince.'  But  it  was  the  ruin  of  his  leisure.  Casaubon 
was  flattered  by  the  attention,  while  he  chafed  under 
the  outlay  of  time  it  occasioned.  Time  spent  in  con- 
versation, however  agreeable,  was  to  him  time  lost. 
He  begs  Montagu 54,  Lake,  the  king  himself,  to  permit 
him  to  bury  himself  in  his  study,  and  to  present  any 
observations  he  may  have  to  make  by  their  mediation. 
'  It  is  not  fitting  for  one  so  lowly  as  I  am  to  approach 
so  great  a  monarch,  save  through  a  third  person  *.' 

One  consequence  to  Casaubon  of  this  establishment 
in  the  circle  that  stood  round  the  royal  chair  was,  that 
his  thoughts  were  more  and  more  turned  from  their 
own  direction.  Learning  ceased  to  occupy  his  mind, 
and  he  was  now  engrossed  by  the  ecclesiastical  topic, 
which  was  the  paramount  object  of  interest  in  this 
society.  He  occasionally  thinks,  with  a  sigh  of  regret, 
of  his  unfinished  Polybius,  But  he  never  touches  it. 
The  king,  who  had  started  on  his  career  with  the 
axiom  imbibed  from  Buchanan,  'that  a  king  ought  to 
be  the  most  learned  clerk  in  his  dominion,'  now  never 
read  anything  but  controversial  divinity,  and  chiefly 
the  pamphlets  of  the  day.  *  Nothing  escapes  him/ 
Casaubon  writes  to  Fronto 55.  To  cardinal  Du  Perron 
he  writes 56,  *  Neither  his  private  affairs  nor  public 
business  interest  his  majesty  so  deeply  as  do  affairs  of 
religion,  and  his  desire  of  bringing  about  concord 

54  Ep.  696.  *  See  note  D  in  Appendix. 

55  Cas.  ep.  ad  Front,  p.  37  :  '  Nildl  ilium  fugit  eorum  quae  a  vestris 
hominibus  scriptitantur ' 

56  Cas.  resp.  ad  card.  Perr.  p.  4. 

Y 


322  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

among  the  divided  members  of  the  church/  This 
temper  of  the  english  court  was  well  understood  on 
the  continent.  Fra  Paolo  regrets  57  '  that  the  king  of 
England  was  become  a  doctor  of  divinity.'  '  I  come 
from  England,'  Grotius  writes  in  1  6  1  3  5S,  '  where  there  is 
little  commerce  of  letters  ;  theologians  are  there  the 
reigning  authorities.  Casaubon  is  the  only  exception  ; 
and  he  could  have  found  no  place  in  England  as  a  man 
of  learning;  he  was  compelled  to  assume  the  theo- 
logian.' Heinsms  sent  Casaubon  a  copy  of  his  edition 
of  the  (  Poetics/  Casaubon  took  the  book  with  him  to 
court  to  read  himself59,  but  he  does  not  speak  of  it  to 
the  king,  and  only  tells  him  that  Heinsius  has  sided 
against  the  arminians. 

Casaubon  at  first  lamented  this  growing  ecclesi- 
astical passion,  which  was  swamping  better  tastes  both 
in  court  and  church.  In  November,  1611,  he  writes60 
to  Charles  Labbe  :  *  If  you  wish  to  know  what  I  am 
doing  here,  I  can  only  report  that  all  my  old  studies 
have  entirely  ceased.  The  king,  great  and  learned 
as  he  is,  is  now  scr  entirely  taken  up  with  one  sort 
of  book,  that  he  keeps  his  own  mind  and  the  minds 
of  all  about  him  occupied  exclusively  on  the  one 
topic.  Hardly  a  day  passes  on  which  some  new 
pamphlet  is  not  brought  him,  mostly  written  by 
Jesuits,  on  the  martyrdom  of  Saint  Garnett,  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  english  catholics,  or  matters  of  that 
description.  All  these  things  I  have  to  read  and 
give  my  opinion  upon/  In  March,  1613,  things  had 


67  Paolo  Sarpi,  Lettere,  88. 

68  Grotii  Epp.  p.  751  :  '  Ne  huic  quidem  locus  fuisset  in  Anglia  ut 
literatori,  theologum  induere  debuerit.' 

59  Ep.  754-  60  Ep.  753. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  323 

not  altered.  He  writes  to  a  friend61  :  '  As  long  as  I 
shall  stay  in  England,  I  see  that  I  must  make  up 
my  mind  to  forego  classical  letters.  Our  excellent 
and  most  religious  king  is  so  fond  of  theology,  that 
he  cares  very  little  to  attend  to  any  literary  subject/ 
Grotius  recollected  in  1 628 62,  that  Casaubon  had  told 
him  '  that  he  had  now  laid  aside  all  his  interest  in 
the  military  affairs  of  ancient  Home.'  Henri  iv, 
greatest  of  monarchs  and  of  captains,  had  put  him 
upon  them.  But,  after  his  removal  to  Britain,  he 
had  transferred  his  studies  and  his  interests  to  other 
matters,  viz.  religion  and  religious  concord,  for  which 
alone  the  king  of  England  cared/ 

The  call  of  the  greatest  scholar  of  the  age  to  Eng- 
land, and  his  endowment  out  of  the  revenue  of  the 
english  church,  was  a  creditable  act  of  government 
in  a  country  and  a  church  whose  history  is  not 
illumined  by  any  public  spirited  patronage  of  science 
or  learning.  The  incident  figures  in  the  histories  of 
the  church  in  this  capacity.  It  is  disappointing,  when 
we  come  to  look  narrowly  into  the  transaction,  to 
find  that  this  solitary  instance  of  disinterested  patron- 
age of  learning  is  no  instance  at  all.  Then,  greek 
scholarship,  however  eminent,  was  not  a  commodity 
for  which  king,  bishops,  or  parliament  of  England 
would  have  paid  £300.  The  king  was  delighted  to 
find  in  Casaubon  a  new  gossip,  deferential,  without 
being  obsequious,  whose  memory  was  an  inex- 
haustible store  of  book  learning.  The  high  church 
bishops  sought  for  their  party  the  credit  of  a  dis- 

61  Ep.  872. 

32  Grotii  Epp.  ep.  1 84.  app. :  ' .  .  .  translation  in  Britanniam 
|  studia  quoque  se  eo  transtulisse,  quo  vergeret  animus  regis,  cui  non 
I  tarn  anna  quarn  pax  et  religio  cordi.' 

Y    2 


324  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

tinguished  convert  from  puritanism,  and  they  in- 
tended to  employ  his  pen  in  behalf  of  their  cause, 
struggling  in  1610  against  unpopularity.  The  read- 
ing public  saw  in  Casaubon  the  vindicator  of  the 
civil  power  against  the  spiritual  tyranny  of  the  bishop 
of  Rome,  of  the  protestant  faith  against  popery.  All 
these  parts  Casaubon  had  to  submit  to  act  with  as 
good  a  grace  as  might  be. 

When  historians  credit  James  with  surrounding 
himself  with  learned  men,  it  should  be  added  that 
it  was  with  learned  divines  only.  There  did  not 
exist  in  this  country  any  distinct  class  of  scholars, 
or  guild  of  learning,  such  as  had  been  found  in  Italy 
in  the  I5th  century,  or  as  is  formed  by  the  german 
professorium  of  our  day.  When  Eitterhusius  wanted 
to  secure  a  copyright  in  England  for  an  edition  of  the 
'  Novelise '  he  wras  printing  at  Altorf,  Casaubon  assured 
him  that  63 '  the  precaution  was  unnecessary ;  the 
English  printers  care  nothing  for  that  sort  of  book. 
The  only  reading  which  flourishes  here  is  theology  ; 
no  books  but  theological  books,  and  those  of  english 
authors,  are  published  here.  The  educated  men  in 
this  part  of  the  v\orld  contemn  everything  which 
does  not  bear  upon  theology/ 

There  was,  indeed,  a   set   of  men    in   England   to 
whom  the  title  of  learned  is  eminently  due,  though 
their   reading  was   directed,  not  to  the   classics,    but| 
mainly    to    the    antiquities    of     their    own    country. 
Camden,  Cotton,  Spelman,  above  all,  Selden,  and  those , 
who  formed  the  society  of  antiquaries,  were  not  onb 
the   best   set   of  their  time,  but   one  which  we  shal 

63  Ep»  766  :  '.     .    .     typograplii  Angli  ejusmodi  libros  non  curant.j 
sola  est,  quse  hie  floreat,  sacra  Theologia  ;  soli  fere  libri  theologici, 
fere  Anglorum,  qui  hie  eduntur.' 


LONDON.     1610  —  1G14. 


325 


hardly  match  in  our  later  history.  Bacon  had  been 
tmong  them  before  he  sold  himself  for  official  ad- 
vancement, and  Andrewes  had  imbibed  something  of 
their  spirit.  But  this  set  of  men  was  neglected,  or 
crowned  upon,  by  the  court.  If  James  showed  in 
1610  some  interest  in  Camden's  '  Annals,'  it  was  only 
in  respect  of  the  political  capital  he  reckoned  to  make 
out  of  it,  or  with  a  view  to  the  vindication  of  his 
mother's  character.  Bacon  had  appealed  to  the  king 
in  the  'Advancement  of  Learning/  and  had  satisfied 
himself  that  there  was  no  hope  from  that  quarter, 
for  help  for  the  'Instauratio  Magna6V  In  1609, 
Bacon  doubts  if  he  can  still  interest  Andrewes  in  his 
speculations,  as  he  intimates  in  sending  to  the  bishop 
his  '  Cogitata  et  Visa  6V  Instead  of  encouraging  Bacon, 
the  bishops  were  scheming  a  college  at  Chelsea  for 
the  production  of  more  controversial  divinity.  The 
king  gave  a  patent,  and  licence  of  mortmain,  and 
actually  nominated  seventeen  fellows  and  a  provost66. 
A  Jesuit  pamphleteer  had  taunted  Andrewes  with 
having  got  a  bishopric  by  reading  Terence  and 
Plautus.  This  is  an  imputation  on  his  character 
from  which  Casaubon  must  defend  him67 ;  'In  the  last 
thirty  years  he  has  rarely  had  Plautus  in  his  hands ; 
Terence  never  once.  If  in  his  writings  any  traces  of 
his  classical  reading  are  to  be  found,  let  the  blame 
rest  on  his  retentive  memory,  and  on  the  giver  of 
that  mental  endowment/  Aptly  enough,  though  in 

64  Spedding,  Life  of  Bacon,  4.  23.  65  Ibid.  p.  141. 

66  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.  10.  3,  19. 

67  Cas.  ep.  ad  Front,  p.  159:  'Accusat  praesulem  quod  Terentium 
et  Plautum  legerit  juvenis  in  academiis  ;  nam  ex  eo  tempore,  h.  e.  ab 
annis  30,  Plautum  vix  in  maims  aliquando  meminit  sumsisse ;  Teren- 
tium ne  semel  quidem  attigit.     Siqua  igitur  veteris  lectionis  vestigia 
in  scriptis  senis  venerandi  apparent,  accuset  felicem  illius  memoriam.' 


326  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

jest,  the  earl  of  Suffolk  advises  sir  J.  Harington 58, 
4  You  are  not  young,  you  are  not  handsome,  you  are 
not  finely,  and  yet  you  will  come  to  courte,  and 
think  to  be  well-favoured !  why  I  say  again  "  good 
knight,"  that  your  learning  may  somewhat  prove 
worthy  hereunto ;  your  latin  and  your  greek,  and 
Italian,  your  Spanish  tongues,  your  wit  and  discre- 
tion, may  be  well  looked  unto  for  a  while  as  strangers 
at  such  a  place,  but  these  are  not  thinges  men  live 
by  now  a  days/ 

How  entirely  the  soul  of  true  learning,  viz.  the  spirit 
of  investigation,  was  wanting  in  the  circle  which  sur- 
rounded James,  and  into  which  Casaubon  was  now 
matriculated,  is  evinced  by  what  happened  to  Selden 
in  1618.  He  published  in  that  year  his  'History  of 
Tythes/  It  is  the  work  of  a  legal  antiquary,  and  if 
not  in  point  of  arrangement  a  model  of  historical 
criticism,  it  follows  the  true  path  of  critical  inquiry. 
Selden,  with  Scaliger's  example  before  him,  had  raised 
himself  to  the  idea  of  an  historical  investigator;  in- 
quiring into  facts,  not  drawing  up  a  case.  The  '  History 
of  Tythes/  written  in  this  spirit,  was  received  with  a 
howl  of  rage  by  the  learned  divines  of  the  court  circle. 
They  could  not  conceive  that  a  book  could  be  written 
on  tithes,  which  was  neither  for,  nor  against,  the  church. 
The  high  commission  court  was  brought  down  on  the 
unfortunate  author,  who  had  committed  the  crime  of 
carrying  historical  criticism  into  the  region  of  eccle- 
siastical antiquity.  This  error  Selden  was  compelled 
to  apologise  for,  and  to  retract  by  a  court  of  which 
Abbot,  King,  Buckeridge,  and  Andrewes,  were  mem- 
bers. 

But  though  the  Jacobean  divines  do  not  constitute 

68  Nichols'  Progr.  2.  414. 


LONDON.     1610—1614. 


327 


an  epoch  of  learning,  th'ey  represent  a  stage  on  the 
road  towards  it.  Critical  inquiry  was  not  only  un- 
known, but  was  proscribed.  Yet  a  zeal  for  reading, 
and  patristic  research  characterised  them,  which  abated 
the  raw  ignorance  of  the  preceding  century.  They 
were  led  into  the  region  of  learning.  Barren  as  their 
controversial  pamphlets  are,  yet  theology  approached 
the  ground  of  scientific  criticism  more  nearly  than 
amid  the  bandying  of  scriptural  texts,  which  had  been 
the  controversial  form  of  the  century  of  the  reformation. 
Anglicanism  was  purging  itself  of  its  fanaticism,  and 
leaving  that  element  to  the  puritans.  It  is  true  that 
all  study  was  theological,  and  that  the  theology  was 
contentious,  not  scientific.  But  at  any  rate  there  was 
study.  A  german  visitor,  young  Calixtus,  always 
said 69  that  *  his  tutors  in  Germany  had  not  done  as 
much  in  spurring  him  on  to  the  study  of  ecclesiastical 
history  as  had  the  english  bishops,  and  the  well  stored 
libraries  he  had  seen  among  them,'  during  his  visit  in 
1612.  The  influence  of  Andrewes  on  Cambridge  could 
not  but  be  beneficial.  We  find  him70  'making  con- 
tinual search  and  inquiry  to  know  what  hopeful  young 
men  were  in  the  university ;  his  chaplain  and  friends 
receiving  a  charge  from  him  to  certify  what  hopeful 
and  towardly  young  wits  they  met  with  from  time  to 
time/  The  instructions  issued  by  the  crown  to  the 
vice-chancellor  of  Oxford 71,  '  according  to  which  young 
students  were  to  be  incited  to  bestow  their  time  in  the 
fathers  and  councils,  schoolmen,  histories  and  con- 
troversies, and  not  to  insist  too  long  in  compendiums 
and  abbreviations/  are  in  the  same  direction.  '  You 

69  Henke,  Calixtus  Leben,  i.  149. 

70  Isaacson,  Life  and  Death  of  Andrewes,  p.  xvii. 

71  Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  71. 


328  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

must  not  suppose/  Casaubon  writes  to  Saumaise72,  '  that 
this  people  is  a  barbarous  people ;  nothing  of  the  sort ; 
it  loves  letters  and  cultivates  them,  sacred  learning 
especially.  Indeed,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  soundest 
part  of  the  whole  reformation  is  to  be  found  here  in 
England,  where  the  study  of  antiquity  flourishes  to- 
gether with  zeal  for  the  truth.' 

At  fifty-one  friends  are  but  slowly  made.  Yet  men 
who  have  long  been  before  the  world  in  their  books,  do 
not  approach  each  other  for  the  first  time  as  strangers. 
In  this  circle  of  divines  Isaac  Casaubon  was  soon  at 
home,  but  there  were  two  with  whom  he  became 
specially  intimate ;  '  the  only  two  native  Englishmen/ 
he  says 73,  '  with  whom  he  lived  on  intimate  terms  in 
London/  These  were  the  bishop  of  Ely  and  the  dean  of 
S.  Paul's. 

Lancelot  Andrewes,  just,  September  1609,  trans- 
lated to  Ely,  was  a  prelate  who  united  a  sincere 
piety  with  a  genial  wit,  and  who,  if  he  had  not  been 
a  bishop,  might  have  left  an  eminent  name  in  eoglish 
literature.  For  a  man  who  had  been  long  about  court, 
who  had  the  preaching  gift,  and  was  in  the  way  of 
preferment,  his  reading  was  considerable,  though  it  has 
been  much  overrated.  He  had,  in  common  with  many 
english  divines  his  contemporaries,  an  extensive  ac- 
quaintance with  what  may  be  called  the  '  apparatus 
theologicus.'  He  knew  enough  of  the  latin  and  greek 
ecclesiastical  writers  to  find  out  whether  another  man 
knew  them.  He  knew  enough  to  appreciate  Casaubon's 
knowledge  of  them.  He  had  been  a  prime  mover  in 
bringing  Casaubon  to  England.  He  had  thus  taken  on 

72  Ep.  837  :    '  Hsec  gens  nihil  minus  est  quam  barbara,  amat  et 
colit  literas,  prgesertim  autem  sacras.  quod  si  me  conjectura  non  fallit, 
totius  reformationis  pars  integerrima  est  in  Anglia.' 

73  Eph.  915  :  '  Quos  solos  Anglorum  familiares  habeo.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614. 


329 


himself  the  obligation  to  befriend  him.  But  when  he 
came  to  make  Casaubon's  acquaintance,  the  character  of 
the  man  suited  and  attracted  the  bishop.  Profound 
piety  and  great  reading,  common  to  both,  placed  them 
at  first  in  sympathy.  Of  bishop  Andrewes,  it  is 
affirmed7*  that  'he  daily  spent  many  hours  in  holy 
prayers  and  abundant  tears/  Casaubon's  diary  is  one 
prolonged  litany.  Andrewes  was75  indefatigable  in 
study  from  childhood  to  age.  From  the  hour  he  rose, 
his  private  devotions  finished,  to  the  time  he  was  called 
to  dinner,  which  was  not  till  twelve  at  noon  at  soonest, 
he  kept  close  to  his  book,  and  would  not  be  interrupted 
by  any  that  came  to  speak  with  him.  He  would  be  so 
displeased  with  scholars  that  attempted  to  speak  with 
him  in  a  morning,  that  he  would  say,  *  he  doubted  they 
were  no  true  scholars  that  came  to  speak  with  him 
before  noon/  When,  after  his  promotion  to  a  bishopric, 
his  own  studies  were  cut  short,  he  was  ready  to  encou- 
rage those  of  others76.  He  sent  Bedwell  to  Leyden  to 
study  arabic,  and  promised  to  bear  the  charges  of 
printing  his  *  Thesaurus  Arabicus.'  In  tastes  thus 
alike,  they  had  the  further  bond  of  community  of 
theological  opinions.  And  the  coincidence  of  opinion 
had  the  charm  of  rencontre.  Their  opinions  had 
been  arrived  at  by  each  independently.  The  two 
had  not  been  formed  in  one  school,  but  had  found  out 
primitive  antiquity,  each  for  himself  in  a  different 
country,  and  without  communication.  It  was  a  source 
of  ever  fresh  delight  and  surprise  to  them  to  find  how 
independent  reading  had  conducted  them  to  identical 
results. 

74  Isaacson,  Life  and  Death,  etc.,  p.  xiii.  75  Ibid.  p.  25. 

76  Cas.  epp.  831  :  '  Hie  dignissimus  prsesul  non  solum  est  doctissi- 
mus,  sed  etiam  egregie  favet  literis  ;  itaque  Bedwello  pecuniam  polli- 
citus  est  necessarian!  ad  Thesauri  Arabici  editionem.' 


330  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

With  these  conformities  of  character  and  opinion, 
there  was  sufficient  intellectual  difference  to  lend  the 
interest  of  contrast  to  their  intercourse.  As  when  Ben 
Jonson  encountered  Shakespeare,  it  is  the  collision  of 
learning  with  wit.  Casaubon  might  admire  the  nimble 
suggestion,  the  ready  memory,  the  prompt  repartee  of 
his  new  friend.  Andre wes  must  have  felt  that  he  was 
in  the  presence  of  one,  who  knew  more  than  himself,  of 
the  things  of  which  he  knew  most ;  one,  the  relation  of 
whose  knowledge  to  his  own,  was  that  of  the  whole  to 
the  part.  They  soon  mutually  delighted  in  each  other's 
society.  Andre  wes  carried  Casaubon  to  Ely  with  him, 
kept  him  there  as  long  as  he  could  make  him  stay,  and 
pressed  him  to  go  down  again  in  the  following  summer. 
Casaubon  writes  of  him  to  all  his  friends ;  to  de  Thou 
that 77  'he  is  a  man  whom  if  you  knew  you  would  take 
to  exceedingly.  We  spend  whole  days  in  talk  of  letters, 
sacred  especially,  and  no  words  can  express  what  true 
piety,  what  uprightness  of  judgment,  I  find  in  him.'  To 
Heinsius  he  says 78,  'I  am  by  way  of  seeing  the  bishop 
daily.  He  is  one  of  a  few  whose  society  enables  me  to 
support  being  separated  from  de  Thou.  I  am  attracted 
to  the  man  by  his  profound  learning,  and  charmed  by  a 
graciousness  of  manner  not  common  in  one  so  highly 
placed/  Again  in  1613  he  tells  Heinsius 79,  '  If  you 
come  over  here  you  will  receive  the  warmest  welcome 
from  the  bishop  of  Ely ;  he  longs  to  see  you  at  Ely' 
House.' 

With  all  these  endowments  of  nature  and  education, 
Andrewes  had  not  risen  above  his  surroundings.  His 
piety  had  not  softened  his  heart,  his  reading  had  not 
enlarged  his  intellect.  Nothing  in  his  writings  rises 
above  the  level  of  theological  polemic,  or  witty  con- 
77  EP.  741.  78EP.  754-  79EP.88i. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  331 

undrum  making.  He  warns  Bellarmine  what  he  may 
expect  if  he  should  be  caught  in  England 80.  He  was 
one  of  the  knot  of  bishops  who  planned,  and  deliberately 
carried  through,  the  wanton  execution  of  Legatt.  He 
sat  on  the  commission  in  the  Essex  case  and — there 
is  a  lower  depth  of  infamy — gave  his  voice  for  the 
divorce. 

The  dean  of  S.  Paul's  had  taken  in  Casaubon,  and 
entertained  him  as  his  guest  for  nearly  twelve  months. 
Yet  so  much  in  his  company,  there  is  little  reference  to 
him  in  Casaubon's  remains.  The  kind  attentions  and 
hospitality,  both  of  the  dean  and  of  Mrs.  Overall,  are 
warmly  acknowledged  in  a  letter  81  which  is  a  record  of 
Casaubon's  gratitude.  A  short  note  from  the  dean  to 
Casaubon  S2  contains  an  invitation  to  him  to  go  out  of 
town  to  visit  him,  in  his  country  house  at  Islington. 
Among  the  Adversaria  of  1610  is  a  memorandum,  that 
the  dean  had  suggested  on  Hebr.  10.  5,  that  o-w^a  is  a 
corruption  of  cor/a  with  reduplication  of  the  final  9  of 
the  preceding  word;  and  that  he  proposed  to  read 
i  Cor.  6.  4  interrogatively.  It  may  be  noticed  that 
even  in  this  rough  note,  for  his  own  eye  only  intended, 
Casaubon  cannot  name  Overall  without  adding  'vir 
longe  doctissimus/  a  testimonial,  which  is  of  vastly  more 
weight  than  A.  Wood's 83,  '  one  of  the  profoundest  school 
divines  of  our  nation/  or  than  Camden's84,  fa  man 
learned  all  round.' 

Casaubon  writes  to  Heinsius  S5  that  there  were  only 
three  men  in  England  who  deserved  the  name  of  theo- 
logian ;  the  bishop  of  Ely,  the  dean  of  S.  Paul's, 
and  the  dean  of  Winchester.  But  at  this  date  his 

80  Tortura  Torti,  p.  47.  81  Ep.  739. 

12  Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  337.  83  Athen.  2.  812. 

84  Camden,  Annales,  p.  849.  85  Ep.  744. 


332  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

acquaintance  with  english  churchmen  was  limited. 
When  he  visited  Oxford  he  became  acquainted  with 
several,  of  whom  two  at  least,  Abbot  (Robert)  and 
Prideaux  (John)  deserved  the  compliment  equally  with 
the  three  he  names.  Prideaux  was  rising  into  dis- 
tinction as  tutor,  and,  1612,  rector,  of  Exeter.  He 
particularly  affected  foreigners.  In  his  time,  and  by 
his  means,  the  resort  of  foreigners  to  Oxford,  which  the 
reformation  had  broken  off,  seemed  to  be  revived  for  a 
short  time,  and  on  a  small  scale  86.  Some  of  these  were 
young  matriculated  students ;  others,  older  men,  who 
only  rented  chambers  in  the  house,  '  to  improve  them- 
selves by  his  company,  his  instruction,  his  direction/ 
His  manners  were  irore  polished  than  those  of  the 
average  academic,  and  Casaubon  was  attracted87  to 
him  at  once.  As  Prideaux  was  selected  by  the  arch- 
bishop to  reply  for  Casaubon  to  Eudsemon- Joannes,  the 
preparation  of  the  pamphlet  led  to  much  correspon- 
dence between  the  two.  Prideaux,  who  was  a  young 
and  rising  man,  was  very  anxious  to  be  received  into 
the  favoured  circle  of  court  divines,  and  saw  his  way  to 
this  by  the  medium  of  the  pamphlet.  He  was  nervously 
desirous  that  what  he  wrote  should  be  satisfactory  to 
the  king,  and  that  it  should  have  Casaubon's  recommen- 
dation in  that  quarter 88.  He  succeeded  in  pleasing  the 
king  and  the  archbishop  by  his  pamphlet,  and  was  re- 
warded for  it  by  the  Eegius  professorship  of  divinity. 
But  this  was  after  Casaubon's  death. 

Of  his  principal  Cambridge  friend,  Richard  Thomson, 

86  A.  Wood,  Ath.  3.  269. 

87  Ep.   903  :  '  Ita  me  nuper  cepisti,  cum  istliic  te  primum  vidi ; 
multo  magis  quum  te  loquentem  audivi.' 

88  Ep.  915  :  '  Non  dubito  quin  ea  res  optimi  regis  animum  tibi  sit 
conciliatura.' 


LONDON.     1 610  — 1614. 


333 


something  has  been  said  before.  Thomson  was  among 
his  earliest  acquaintance.  Travelling  to  Italy,  as  tutor 
to  some  nobleman,  Thomson  had  made  some  stay,  as 
most  Englishmen  did,  at  Geneva.  It  was  he  who  had 
introduced  Henry  Wotton  to  Casaubon,  and,  more  than 
this,  who  first  mentioned  Casaubon  to  Scaliger.  Thom- 
son may  thus  be  said  to  have  been  the  discoverer 89  of 
Casaubon,  as  it  was  through  Scaliger  that  Casaubon 
became  known  to  the  parisian  friends.  Thomson  was  a 
book  and  manuscript  hunter,  and  had  helped  Casaubon 
to  some  things  of  this  kind,  which  he  would  fain  have 
had  regarded  as  presents,  but  on  this  point  Casaubon 
was  scrupulous.  Nor  was  it  only  gratitude  which  bound 
Casaubon  to  Thomson.  Thomson's  amiable  qualities 
attached  Casaubon;  he  was  a  favourite  with  Madame 
Casaubon,  and  he  is  the  only  correspondent  to  whom 
the  children  send  their  remembrances.  In  his  univer- 
sity (he  was  M.A.  of  Clare)  he  was  well  considered  as  a 
scholar,  and  was  on  the  company  of  translators  of  king 
James'  bible,  for  Hebrew.  But  he  had  also  coquetted 
with  many  classics,  greek  and  latin,  helping  any  of  his 
friends  in  their  editions.  He  had  given  suggestions  to 
Casaubon  for  Suetonius,  for  Polybius,  for  the  Augustan 
historians,  and  to  Farnaby  for  Martial.  He  had  talked 
of  editing  himself  the  Epistles  to  Atticus,  Zonaras' 
Lexicon,  but  never  did  anything.  He  was  drawn, 
like  his  friend,  into  the  theological  vortex,  and  his 
literary  schemes  ended  in  a  polemical  tract. 

After  his  arrival  in  England,  Casaubon  occasionally 

39  In  Bacon's  comm.  solutus,  Spedd.  4.  64,  is  a  paper  headed  '  Q. 
of  learned  men  beyond  the  seas  to  be  made,  and  hearkening  who 
they  be  that  may  be  so  inclined.'  Mr.  Spedding,  4.  145,  explains 
'  made '  persuaded  to  take  an  interest  in  the  '  Great  instauration.' 
It  appears  to  me  that  'made'  is  to  be  referred  to  Q.==c  enquiry 
to  be  made.' 


334  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

saw  Thomson,  and  always  with  pleasure.  Eichard 
Thomson  and  the  bishop  of  Ely  are  two  men  in  whose 
society  time  is  not  lost 90.  When  he  visited  Cambridge 
it  is  Thomson  to  whom  Casaubon  belongs,  who,  as 
matter  of  right,  shows  him  over  the  university.  And 
when,  afterwards  in  16 n,  Thomson  got  into  trouble, 
it  is  to  Casaubon  he  turns  to  befriend  him  with  the 
bishops91. 

Outside  the  circle  of  court  divines,  or  '  the  theo- 
logians/ Casaubon  formed  hardly  any  acquaintance 
during  his  english  residence.  His  relations  with  the 
'  antiquaries/  as  we  may  call  the  non-theological  men 
of  letters,  were  merely  distant. 

Bacon's  name  is  the  symbol  of  so  much,  that  we  may 
be  naturally  desirous  to  find  any  traces  of  his  inter- 
course with  Casaubon.  In  1609,  Casaubon  had  read 
Bacon's  '  De  Sapientia  Veterum/  and,  struck  by  the 
originality  of  the  piece,  had  spoken  of  it  in  a  letter  to 
sir  George  Carew.  Sir  George  had  told  Bacon  of 
Casaubon's  good  opinion.  Bacon,  who  was  at  that 
time  desirous 92  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  f  learned 
men  beyond  the  seas/  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
Casaubon  : — 

*  Understanding  from  your  letter  to  the  lord  Carew 
that  you  approve  my  writings,  I  not  only  took  it  as  a 
matter  for  congratulation,  but  thought  I  would  write 
to  tell  you  how  much  pleasure  your  favourable  opinion 
had  given  me.  My  earnest  desire  is,  as  you  rightly 

90  Eph.  p.  876  :  'A  prandio  nihil  prorsus ;  neque  taraen  pcenitet,  nam 
totum  tempus  fui  cum  magno  prsesule  D.  Episcopo  et  amicissimo 
Tomsone.' 

91  See  below,  p.  394. 

}2  Spedding,  Life,  4.  146.  Birch  appears  to  me  to  have  rightly 
fixed  the  date  of  Casaubon's  letter  (to  which  Bacon  alludes)  to  some- 
where between  October,  1609,  and  March,  1610. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  335 

livine,  to  draw  the  sciences  out  of  their  hiding-places 
into  the  light.  To  write  at  one's  ease  that  which  others 
are  to  read  at  their  ease  is  of  little  consequence  ;  the 
contemplations  I  have  in  view  are  those  which  may 
bring  about  the  better  ordering  of  man's  life  and 
business  with  all  its  turmoil.  How  great  an  enterprise 
this  is,  and  with  what  small  helps  I  have  attempted  it, 
you  will  perhaps  learn  hereafter.  Meanwhile  you 
would  do  me  in  return  a  very  great  pleasure  if  you 
would  communicate  to  me  your  own  plans  and  occu- 
pations. For  I  ever  think  that  this  intercommunion 
of  pursuits  conduces  more  to  friendship  than  political 
connections  or  mutual  services.  I  think  no  man  could 
ever  more  truly  say  of  himself  than  I  can,  "  multuni 
incola  fuit  anirna  mea."  Indeed,  I  seem  to  have  my 
conversation  among  the  ancients  rather  than  among 

these  with  whom  I  live If  in  anything 

my  friendship  can  be  of  use  or  grace  to  you  or  your's, 
assure  yourself  of  my  good  and  diligent  service;  and 
so  biddeth  you  farewell,  Your  friend,  etc/ 

This  letter  is  but  a  draft,  and  was  never  sent.  It 
may  be  conjectured  that  Casaubon's  coming  to  England 
about  that  time  removed  him  from  the  category  to 
which  Bacon's  memorandum  referred.  While  Bacon's 
mind  was  occupied  with  the  speculations  of  the  '  Sapi- 
entia  Yeterum,'  he  might  tell  Casaubon  that  '  I  seem  to 
have  my  conversation  among  the  ancients  more  than 
among  those  with  whom  I  live/  This  was  a  passing 
phase.  If  he  inquired  about  Casaubon,  Bacon  would 
learn  that  he  was  too  much  engrossed  with  the  episcopal 
pamphlet  warfare  to  be  available  for  the  purposes  of 
the  '  De  Augmentis  Scientiarum.'  We  know 93  what 
Bacon  thought  of  church  controversy.  Had  Bacon 
93  Speckling,  Life,  4.  137. 


336  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

frequented  the  bishop  of  Ely,  he  might  then  have 
chanced  on  Casaubon.  But  we  learn  from  his  own 
letter  95  that  he  now  saw  little  or  nothing  of  the  bishop, 
and  that  from  this  very  cause,  that  '  your  lordship  hath 
been  so  busy  in  the  church  and  the  palace,  disputing 
between  kings  and  popes;'  a  sentence  which  hardly 
disguises  Bacon's  contempt  for  the  bishop's  occupation. 
With  William  Camden,  the  '  Pausanias  of  Britain/ 
as  A.  Wood  calls  him,  Casaubon  would  naturally  be 
more  in  sympathy.  In  the  early  Genevan  days,  when 
an  exile  from  learned  society,  Casaubon  had  ventured, 
among  other  feelers,  a  letter  to  Camden,  desiring  his 
acquaintance  on  the  ground  of  his  admiration  of  the 
1  Britannia.'  In  his  remote  corner,  difficult  as  books 
were  to  get,  this  small  volume,  published  in  London, 
and  relating  to  distant  England,  had  not  escaped 
Casaubon' s  watchful  eye.  The  same  letter  intimated 
to  Camden  respectfully,  but  unhesitatingly,  that  the 
word  'Britain'  was  not  derived  from  *  Brith  and 
Tcwa96.'  The  head  master  of  Westminster  was  not 
accustomed  to  have  his  greek  questioned.  He  did  not 
condescend  to  alter  his  derivation  in  the  edition  of 
1607,  and  the  acquaintance  made  slow  progress.  But 
when  Casaubon  was  settled  in  Paris,  Camden  now 
become  Clarencieux,  and  in  regular  correspondence 
with  the  British  embassy  and  with  de  Thou,  heard 
much  of  Casaubon.  The  books  Casaubon  was  known 

95  Spedding,  Life,  4.  141. 

96  Tam'a— a  narrow  strip  of  land,  like  a  loose  riband  or  streamer. 
See  Weeseling  on  Diodorus,  i.  36.    Dio  Chrysost.  p.  83.    But  Camdeii 
writes  ravia,  or,  in  all  editions  after  the  first,  tania,  and  affirms  that  the 
glossarists  explain  it  as  '  regio/     Casaubon  remarks  that  the  word  is    j 
not  greek.     Perhaps  Camden  got  his  word  from  Stephanus,  who  says, 
Thes.  p.  1308  :  'At  TCWO,  pro  plaga,  regio,  tractus  terrarum  nescio 
unde  afferatur.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  337 

to  be  writing,  formed  part  of  the  public  news  with 
which  William  Becher  entertained  Camden.  And  so, 
through  the  embassy,  Camden  sent  Casaubon  a  copy  of 
the  new  edition  of  his  'Britannia/  1607.  Casaubon 
returned  the  compliment  by  sending  Camden  a  copy  of 
his  '  Polybius ; '  though  he  could  hardly  hope  much 
appreciation  of  his  labour  from  one  who  identified 
-tannia  with  ravia.  When  Casaubon  came  to  England, 
the  acquaintance  went  no  further.  Camden  lived  now 
at  Chiselhurst.  A  journey  thither  wTas  the  business 
of  half  a  day.  For  some  reason  or  other,  perhaps 
because  of  his  close  connection  with  Wotton  and  Savile, 
Camden  showed  no  desire  to  cultivate  Casaubon. 

We  do  not  find  that  sir  Robert  Cotton  appreciated 
Casaubon  much  better  than  Camden  did.  We  hear97 
of  his  spending  one  day  with  sir  Eobert,  or  probably  in 
his  library.  He  could  have  access  to  it,  as  he  offers  to 
search  it  for  the  purposes  of  Charles  Labbe98.  And 
Cotton  had  pointed  out  to  Casaubon  that  '  nos '  was  the 
reading  of  the  passage  in  Rishanger,  where  Parsons 
chose  to  print  "  *  vos/ 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  one  cause  of 
his  not  extending  his  acquaintance  more  widely  must 
have  been,  that  his  time  was  now  closely  occupied  with 
the  work  imposed  upon  him. 

We  have  seen  that  Casaubon  contemplated  at  first 
only  a  short  visit  to  this  country.  When  he  became 
Overall's  guest,  he  did  not  think  that  he  should  remain 
at  the  deanery  for  a  whole  year.  His  stay  in  England 

87  Eph.  1036.  98  Ep.  753. 

99  Exercc.  in  Bar.  ded.  p.  1 2,  and  proleg.,  where  he  quotes  Matthew 
Paris,  <  Vita  Abbatum/  from  a  MS.  which  sir  K.  Cotton  had  shown  him 
'  in  sua  libraria.'  The  letter  in  which  he  asks  for  these  references  to 
be  given  him  on  paper  is  in  Birch's  papers,  Sloane  MSS.  4164.  p.  220. 

Z 


338  LONDON.     1610— 1G1 4. 

was  prolonged  *  from  interval  to  interval,  but  was  still 
considered  by  himself  as  provisional.  He  experienced 
a  sense  of  relief  in  getting  away  from  Paris 2.  '  My 
country,  dear  as  it  is  to  me  on  many  accounts,  is  be- 
come, by  the  murder  of  my  prince,  an  object  of  loathing 
and  aversion/  He  cannot  bear  to  see  those  whose 
doctrine  instigated  and  authorised  the  deed  lording  it 
in  the  scene  of  their  crime.  Then  the  reception  he  met 
here,  and  the  succession  of  occupations  forced  on  him 
by  the  king,  detained  him,  but  always  subject  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  french  government.  '  The  most  Christian 
king,  whose  subject  and  servant  I  am,'  is  his  style. 
There  was  difficulty  in  getting  leave  for  Madame  Cas- 
aubon  to  come  over ;  greater  still  in  getting  his  books. 
He  was  more  than  a  year  in  England  without  his 
family  and  without  any  of  his  books.  Madame  Casaubon 
joined  him  in  October  1611.  The  queen  regent  flatly 
refused  permission  for  his  library  to  be  sent  him3. 
More  than  once  he  learns  that  he  is  to  be  immediately 
recalled.  James  had  to  request  as  a  personal  favour  to 
himself  the  loan  of  Casaubon.  His  leave  of  absence  is 
indefinitely  prolonged ;  but  he  is  not  discharged.  As 
for  his  books  and  papers,  he  may  have  some  of  them, 
just  what  he  requires  for  the  thing  he  is  now  writing4. 
These  are  enough  for  his  shorter  pamphlets  ;  but  when 
he  comes  to  write  against  Baronius  he  wants  them  all. 
Madame  Casaubon  returns  to  Paris  to  plead  the  cause. 
She  waits  upon  the  queen  :  '  You  have  done  well  to 
come  back/  was  the  answer  of  Marie  de  Medicis.  '  I 

1  Ep.  705  :'  Cum  paucos  menses  destinassem  evenit  longe  aliter.' 

2  Epp.  698,  699. 

3  Eph.  p.  843  :   '  Regina  negat  se  permissuram  ut  deferatur   hue 
bibliotheca.'     June,  1 6 1 1 . 

4  Ep.  749  :  '  Nondum  plenam  missionem  a  regina  impetravi.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  339 


have  written  to  your  husband  to  return  at  once,  and  it 
is  my  pleasure  that  you  do  not  go  back  to  England  to 
him/  There  had  to  be  more  negotiations,  a  contest 
between  the  two  courts  for  the  possession  of  Casaubon6. 
Casaubon  is  to  stay  a  little  longer ;  Madame  Casaubon 
may  return.  The  books,  some  of  them,  may  go  for 
present  use  ;  not  all,  a  third  part,  and  not  the  most 
useful  books ;  e  *  we  must  retain  some  lien  upon  our 
subject/  His  french  pension  even  is  continued  to  him, 
but  from  term  to  term.  He  does  not  consider  himself 
permanently  settled ;  when  he  has  done  with  Baronius 
there  is  nothing  that  need  keep  him  in  England  another 
hour 7. 

At  first  he  had  been  a  guest  or  a  lodger  of  the  dean 
of  S.  Paul's ;  then  of  Madame  Killigrew.  At  Michael- 
mas 1611,  he  took  a  house  in  S.  Mary  Axe.  The  house 
was  found  for  him  by  Abraham  Aurelius  (Auriol), 
minister  of  the  french  congregation,  who  himself  lived 
in  Bishopsgate  ward 8.  S.  Mary  Axe  ran  from  Leaden- 
hall  to  Camomile  Street,  and  is  described  by  Stowe  as 9 
'  a  street  graced  with  good  buildings,  and  much  in- 
habited by  eminent  merchants/  At  an  earlier  period 
even  country  gentlemen  had  dwelt  in  S.  Mary  Axe, 
as  sir  Edward  Wotton  had  his  town  house  there. 
But  the  Wottons  had  migrated  further  west  before 

5  Ep.  732  :  '  Uxorem  pene  detinuit  regina,  vetuit  redire  in  Angliam; 
sed,  mox,  consilium  de   me    revocando   aut  omissum  est,  aut  inter- 
missum.' 

6  Ep.  733:    'Ne,  semel  nactus  meam  bibliothecam,  patrise   obli- 
viscar.' 

7  Ep.  810  :  '  Hunc  librum  si  dedicavero  .    .    .  nihil  est  quod  me  in 
hoc  regno  velhoram  imam  teneat.' 

8  Camden  Society,  vol.  82.  p.  70. 

9  Stowe,  Survey  of  London,  i.  420. 

Z    2 


340  LONDON.     1610—1014. 

Casaubon  came  to  settle  in  the  street.  In  September 
1613,  he  removed  to  one  more  commodious,  and  further 
west,  in  the  '  new  rents/  Drury  Lane.  He  is  only  here 
provisionally;  and  though  the  discomforts  of  London  are 
great,  the  compensations  are  not  a  few.  Indeed,  the  two 
years,  1611, 1612,  were,  on  the  whole,  peaceful,  and  not 
unhappy,  years.  He  enters  in  his  diary,  on  his  fifty- 
third  birthday,  an  expression  of  thankfulness,  that  he 
has  passed  the  year 10  without  serious  disaster,  or  cause 
of  complaint ;  and  this  is  the  only  entry  of  the  kind  in 
the  diary.  The  means  of  subsistence  were  provided  for 
him  not  altogether  insufficiently ;  he  was  honoured  and 
made  much  of  at  court ;  above  all,  he  was  happy  in  the 
free  exercise  of  the  rights  of  conscience.  The  anglican 
ritual  exactly  met  his  aspirations  after  the  decent  sim- 
plicity of  primitive  worship.  Almost  his  first  intro- 
duction to  the  ceremonial  of  our  church  was  on  the 
notable  occasion  of  the  consecration  of  the  Scottish 
bishops,  October  21,  1610.  He  was  highly  pleased 
with  the  order  of  that  service  ;  with  the  ordinary  cele- 
bration of  the  communion  in  S.  Paul's ;  with  the  wash- 
ing of  the  feet  on  Maundy  Thursday ;  though  his 
presbyterian  sentiment  was  at  first  inclined  to  find  a 
little  too  much  pomp  and  pride  mingling  in  the  solemn 
scene  of  an  episcopal  ordination  n.  But  on  the  whole 


10  Eph.  918  :  *  Sine  graviore  noxa  aut  querella.' 

11  The  same  impression  had  been  made  upon  Sully,  when  he  came 
over  in  1603.     Barlow,  Hampton  Court  conference,  p.  38  :  'My  lord 
of  London  put  his  majesty  in  mind  of  the  speeches  which  the  french 
embassador  Mosr.  Rogne  gave  out  .  .  .  upon  the  view  of  our  solemne 
service  and  ceremonies,  that  "  If  the  reformed  churches  in  Fraunce  had 
kept  the  same  orders  among  them  which  we  have,  he  was  assured  that 
there  would  have  bene  many  thousands  of  protestants   more   there, 
than  now  there  are."  ' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  341 


he  preferred  the  angiican  ceremonies  to  the  bare  and 
naked  usages  of  his  own  communion.  His  infant  son 
James  was  baptized,  and  Meric  confirmed12,  according 
to  the  angiican  ritual,  not,  as  all  their  brothers  and 
sisters  had  been,  by  the  calvinistic  ministers.  He 
approves  the  lent  fast,  and  the  use  of  the  cross  in 
baptism.  On  the  points  on  which  the  high  and  the 
low  party  within  the  church  differ,  at  least  on  the  real 
presence  and  on  confession,  he  inclines  rather  to  the 
sacerdotal  side.  But  he  did  not  forsake  the  french 
congregation,  of  which  he  continued  to  be  a  member. 
He  attended  the  preaching  from  time  to  time,  though 
not  seldom  hearing  doctrine  from  which  he  differed, 
and  philology  which  he  knew  to  be  rotten 13 ;  and  was 
on  terms  of  friendly  intimacy  with  the  ministers  Cappel 
and  Auriol,  who  were  assiduous  ia  attending  him  in  his 
dying  moments. 

In  one  main  feature  his  London  life  exactly  re- 
sembled the  routine  of  Paris.  It  was  a  life  of  in- 
cessant toil,  and  a  constant  struggle  to  protect  his 
time  against  the  encroachments  of  visits  and  visitors. 
English  men  of  letters  at  this  time  were  few,  and 
those  few  did  not  draw  to  Casaubon.  Casaubon  had 
been  accustomed  in  Paris  to  the  gossips  crowding  to 
him 14.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  english  callers 
would  flock  in  shoals  in  London,  to  the  house  of  a 
man  who  could  not  speak  their  language,  and  who 
was  ignorant  of  what  was  going  on.  Nor  was  Lon- 
don, like  Paris,  the  resort  of  the  learned  foreigner, 
to  whom  it  offered  no  attraction  either  in  books  or 

12  Eph.  pp.  950.  1054.  823.  817.  818. 

3  Eph.  p.  854  :  '  Pastorcm  Mariuru  audivi  .  .  .  qui  ab  interpretatione 
veterum  et  doctrina  longe  abiit,  nee  minus  a  significations  verborum 

et  TfXewdrjvai.'  14    Eph.  p.  694. 


342  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

men.  Here,  too,  Casaubori  was  free,  both  from  the 
pushing  intrusion  of  the  catholic  proselytizer,  and 
from  the  sans  ceremonie  of  the  huguenot  residents, 
made  gregarious  by  common  misery.  He  was  fur- 
ther relieved  from  his  duties  at  the  library. 

All  this  was  favourable  to  work.  But  the  claims 
on  his  time,  official  and  social,  from  which  he  was 
relieved,  were  replaced  by  others  no  less  trouble- 
some. In  Paris  he  was  the  king's  servant,  but  he 
did  not  belong  to  the  court.  In  London,  though  of 
one  so  humble  it  could  not  be  said  he  was  '  of 
the  court/  yet,  according  to  the  distinction  drawn  by 
lord  Clarendon15,  he  'followed'  it.  He  was  with  the 
king,  as  we  have  seen,  every  Sunday,  sometimes  also 
on  week-days,  and  these  were  not  audiences,  but 
attendances  prolonged  for  hours.  With  the  going 
and  the  returning,  the  attendance  never  took  less 
than  the  whole  day ;  when  the  court  was  in  the 
country,  two  or  more  days.  When  from  May  5  to 
September  19  he  has  not  seen  the  king,  he  thinks 
this  a  long  interval 16.  .  James,  who  was  on  progress 
in  the  southern  counties,  returned  to  Whitehall  on 
September  8,  but  did  not  stay17,  and  on  September  19 
Casaubon  goes  out  to  Theobald's,  and  is  honoured 
with  a  long  and  serious  colloquy  on  various  mat- 
ters 18.  He  must  also  occasionally  visit  prince  Henry  ; 
after  his  death;  prince  Charles ;  often  the  archbishop. 

15  Clarendon,  Life,  I.  36  :  'Thomas  Carew  .  .  .  followed  the  court, 
which  the  modesty  of  that  time  disposed  men  to  do,  sometime  before 
they  pretended  to  be  of  it.' 

16  Eph.  p.  1014. 

17  Nicholls,  Progr.  of  James  i,  2.  677. 

8  Eph.  p.  1014:  '  Gravia  cum  rege  de  rebus  variis  habui  col- 
loquia.' 


LONDON.     1610  — 1G 14.  343 

The  archbishop  is  out  at  Croydon.  This,  we  might 
imagine,  would  consume  the  whole  day,  yet  Casaubon 
will  find  time  after  his  return  to  write  some  part  of 
the  genealogy  of  the  Herods.  He  is  invited  to  dine 
by  the  bishops,  by  the  french  ambassador,  by  the 
ambassador  of  the  czar  of  Muscovy,  by  the  prince  of 
Baden,  by  the  lord  mayor  of  London.  Overall  takes 
him  to  the  banquet  of  the  Merchant  Taylors,  than 
which  'he  never  saw  anything  more  magnificent.1  He 
is  often  at  Madame  Killigrew's,  sees  much  of  the  french 
pastors,  as  of  his  compatriot,  Theodore  de  May  erne19, 
first  physician  to  the  king,  and  of  Kaphael  Thoris. 
Abraham  Scultetus,  then  residing  in  London,  is  much 
with  him,  and  welcome.  Occasional  visits  from 
foreigners,  though  more  rare  than  at  Paris,  happened 
now  and  then  ;  as  when  the  due  de  Bouillon,  attended 
by  his  Sedan  ministers,  Justell,  Cappel,  Du  Tiloir,  came 
over  and  had  to  be  attended  to.  James,  in  his  capa- 
city of  theologian,  is  professionally  curious  to  have 
explained  to  him  the  points  of  doctrine  in  which  the 
church  of  Sedan  differs  from  the  church  of  Paris. 
Then  a  new  libel  of  Scioppius  appears,  and  has  to 
be  read  and  elucidated  to  the  king.  'Ite  studia! 
nihil  vobiscum  mihi !  ecce  totum  diem  in  aula  egi  ad 
10  horam  noctis,'  is  the  entry  on  May  15.  He  may 
say  his  friends  are  few,  but  they  are  too  numerous 
for  continuous  work.  'June  7,  1612.  Housed  out  of 
bed  almost  before  break  of  day  to  attend  upon  some 
friends,  which  took  a  long  time.'  'June  18.  Went 
to  spend  the  day  with  the  excellent  Bedwell,  with 
my  wife ; '  and  so  on. 

9  Theodore  Turquet  was  born  at  Geneva,  1573,  and  may  have 
known  Casaubon  at  Montpellier,  where  he  took  the  degree  of  M.B. 
1597- 


344  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

Of  the  foreign  visitants  who  came  to  him  in  Lon- 
don two  deserve  separate  mention.  The  young  Georg 
Calixtus  was  in  London,  in  the  summer  of  1612,  in 
the  course  of  that  four  years'  travel,  by  which  he 
sought  to  counteract  in  himself  the  narrowing  in- 
fluence of  the  Lutheran  bigotry,  by  which  he  was 
surrounded  even  in  liberal  Helmstadt20.  Calixtus, 
though  only  twenty-six,  had  already  conceived  the 
idea  of  going  back  to  the  study  of  the  fathers,  in 
order  to  retrieve  religion  from  .  the  suspended  ani- 
mation in  which  it  was  held  in  the  orthodox  for- 
mularies. At  his  age  Calixtus  must  have  been  without 
acquisitions,  but  he  possessed  vision  and  aims.  The 
young  aspirant,  who  had  raised  himself  above  luther- 
anism,  was  naturally  anxious  to  approach  the  veteran 
scholar,  who  was  known  to  have  himself  emerged 
from  Calvinism.  Casaubon  granted  him  two  inter- 
views, which  naturally  left  a  deeper  impression  on 
the  younger,  than  on  the  older,  man.  Calixtus,  whose 
life  labour  was  an  'Irenicon,'  may  have  found  him- 
self strengthened  by  the  sympathy  which  Casaubon 
would  accord  to  this  direction  of  his  youthful  admirer. 
Casaubon,  who  was  in  infrequent  correspondence  with 
Caselius  (Johann  Chessel),  Calixtus'  teacher,  would 
be  able  to  learn  that  even  among  the  lutherans 
there  were  some  not  so  wholly  lost  to  humanity  as 
Scaliger  used  to  affirm21.  But  Casaubon  was  now 
absorbed  day  and  night  in  the  push  to  finish  the 
1  Exercitationes,'  and  even  so  promising  a  visitor  as 
Calixtus  counted  only  as  one  more  thief  of  time. 
On  the  day  on  which  he  saw  Calixtus  the  second 

20  Georg  Calixtus,  b.  1586,  f  1656. 

21  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  151  :   '  Martinistes,  il   n'y  a  point  de  gens  si 
ignorans  et  barbares  qu'eux  en  Alemagne.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  345 

time,  Casaubon  has  only  entered  in  the  diary  'sacra 
synaxis,  amici,  studia22.'  Beyond  the  brief  remark 
that  he  had  found  him  23<  learned  and  of  no  common 
taste  in  letters,'  there  is  no  note  of  their  intercourse. 
With  this  recommendation  he  sent  off  Calixtus  to  de 
Thou  in  Paris. 

With  his  other  visitor,  a  name  of  greater  renown 
than  Calixtus,  Casaubon,  though  at  high  pressure  on 
Baronius,  spent,  reluctant  yet  willing,  many  hours, 
even  days.  Grotius  24>  was  in  London  in  March  and 
April,  1613.  He  was  already  in  correspondence,  and 
in  ecclesiastical  sympathy,  establised  through  corre- 
spondence, with  Casaubon.  Their  point  of  view  was 
sufficiently  like  for  them  to  be  classed  by  the  his- 
torians25 together  among  the  waverers.  Their  aim, 
the  reunion  of  Christendom,  was  the  same.  They 
sought  it  by  different  roads  ;  Grotius,  by  the  states- 
man's road  of  a  political  comprehension  ;  Casaubon, 
sj)y>the  theologian's,  a  merging  of  minor  differences  in 
a  common  Christianity,  on  the  basis  of  the  primitive 
centuries.  Casaubon  was  introduced  to  Grotius  at 
the  young  prince  of  Baden's  lodging.  On  this  occa- 
sion they  had  a  long26  conversation  and  met  after- 
wards as  often  as  they  could.  Casaubon  took  him 
to  dine27  at  the  dean's,  the  bishop  of  Ely's,  and  the 
french  embassy.  On  April  30,  Grotius  and  the  dean 
were  entertained  at  supper  by  Casaubon.  Grotius 
says28  that  'they  saw  each  other  daily.'  Common 
sentiments  brought  them  together,  but  Casaubon 

22  Eph.  p.  936. 

23  Ep.  8 1 8  :  '  Doctum  et  judicii  in  literis  non  vulgaris.' 

24  Grotius,  b.  1583,  t  1645.  25  E.  g.  by  Hallam,  2.  312. 
26  Eph.  p.  975  :  'Detentus  din.'               27  Ep.  886. 

28  Grotii  Ep.  ep.  184.  app.  :   '  Cum  quotidie  simul  essemus.' 


346  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

soon  felt  the  personal  fascination  of  Grotius'  talk. 
He  cannot  express 29  the  happiness  he  enjoys  in  this 
intercourse.  '  I  knew  him  before  to  be  a  wonderful 
man ;  but  the  superiority  of  that  divine  genius  no 
one  can  properly  appreciate,  without  seeing  his  coun- 
tenance, and  hearing  his  conversation.  Integrity  is 
stamped  on  his  face ;  in  his  talk  is  exhibited 
the  union  of  exquisite  learning  and  genuine  piety. 
Nor  is  it  I  only  who  am  so  taken  with  our  visitor, 
all  the  learned  and  good  who  have  been  introduced 
to  him  have  fallen  under  the  spell,  and  the  king 
more  than  any  one.'  Upon  Grotius'  mind  the  memory 
of  this  intercourse,  remained  still  fresh  after  five-and- 
twenty  years.  In  1639  ne  writes30  to  Gronovius 
(J.  F.),  '  Of  the  pieces  of  good  fortune  which  have  be- 
fallen me  in  the  course  of  my  life,  I  reckon  it 
among  the  chief  that  I  had  the  regard  and  affection 
of  that  great  man,  whose  piety,  honesty,  and  can- 
dour, were  not  less  remarkable  than  his  vast  all-em- 
bracing erudition.  I  can  look  back,  without  sadness, 
to  those  times,  gloomy  as  they  were,  and  those  trying 
occasions,  in  which  I  guided  myself  by  his  counsel,  and 
those  of  the  party  which  he  approved/ 

He  contrived  to  make  all  these  calls  upon  his  time 
compatible  with  unremitting  industry  at  his  desk.    The 
whole  space  of  time  lived  in  England  was  three  years 
and  eight  months,  a  period  of  broken  health  and  ebbing 
strength.     In  this  time  he  wrote  :   i .  Epistola  ad  Fron- 1 
tonem,  171  pp.  4to.      2.  Kesponsio  ad  epistolam  Card. 
Perronii,  8 1  pp.  /j.to.     3.  Exercitationes  in  Baronium, 
830  pp.  fol.     4.  To  these  must  be  added  the  letters, 
both  of  business  and  friendship,  of  which  some  280,  j 
written  in  England,  have  been  recovered  and  published.  I 
29  Ep.  88 1.  30  Grotii  Epp.  ep.  1168. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  347 

These  letters  would  form  a  thick  8vo  volume,  reckoning 
the  average  length  of  a  letter  at  two  pages.  But  we 
know,  from  the  diary,  that  the  published  letters  are  but 
a  part  of  what  he  threw  off,  all  from  his  own  pen.  There 
is  of  course  some  repetition  of  the  sense,  thoughts,  and 
words  to  different  correspondents.  On  the  other  hand, 
many  are  elaborate  compositions,  some  of  considerable 
length,  and  nearly  all  in  latin.  Letter  writing  was 
a  material  part  of  every  day's  work  ;  when  a  foreign 
courier  was  starting,  the  whole  day  was  often  thus 
occupied.  The  letters,  even  if  not  on  affairs  of 
consequence,  are  always  worded  with  care  and  thought, 
and  the  latin,  though  without  the  racy  flavour  of 
Scaliger's  latin  style,  is  by  no  means  commonplace. 
5.  The  diary  continued  to  be  regularly  kept,  and  the 
english  portion  of  this  occupies  295  pages  8vo  of  print. 

Over  and  above  what  he  writes  himself,  he  has  to  read 
over,  and  advise  upon,  what  others  write.  When  he 
arrived  in  England,  October  1610,  Andre wes  had  nearly 
completed  his  '  Responsio'  to  card.  Bellarmine's  '  Apo- 
logia/ Casaubon  had  the  task  of  reading  this  over, 
and  making  corrections,  which  corrections  the  author 
adopted 31.  Then  he  had  to  begin  the  '  Epistola  ad 
Frontonem/  The  writing,  correcting,  and  printing 
this  took  up  the  greater  part  of  1611.  When  this  task 
'  was  disposed  of,  he  hopes  to  be  able  to  get  his  time  for 
his  own  readings.  He  has  immediately  to  begin  another, 
the  '  Epistola  ad  Card.  Perronium.'  He  composes  this, 
or  rather  writes  it  over,  in  a  few  days,  for  the  matter  is 
supplied  by  the  king 32,  and  Casaubon  has  only  to  find 

11  Eph.  p.  7  9  2  :  '  Meas  notulas  non  neglexit,  imo  pluris  fecit,  quam 
merebantur/ 

12  Ep.  839  :  '  Le  roy  s'est  servi  de  moi  pour  secretaire,  mais  la 
piece  est  de  sa  majestd     .     .     .     il  a  exactement  medit£  cette  sienna 
rdponse.' 


348  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

the  latin.  But  the  king  and  the  coterie  of  bishops  had 
to  revise  and  retouch.  The  court  was  at  Royston,  an$ 
it  was  the  hunting  season.  It  took  time  to  get  the 
piece  corrected,  and  written  over,  so  that  it  was  not  sent 
to  the  cardinal  till  Dec.  29,  1611.  We  may  easily  un- 
derstand that  it  took  more  trouble  and  time  to  be 
secretary  to  the  epistle,  than  to  have  composed  it.  It 
was  sent  to  the  cardinal  in  MS,  but  he  printed  it,  with 
his  own,  to  which  it  was  the  answer,  in  Paris.  Casaubon 
was  ordered  by  the  king  to  print  an  authorised  edition 
in  London,  and  to  write  a  preface,  which  was  to  be 
at  the  same  time  an  answer  to  another  libel  of  one 
Pelletier  a  Jesuit.  The  preface  was  to  be  his  own,  and 
yet  he  was  to  be  told  what  he  was  to  say  in  it.  Before 
the  book  was  off  his  hands  came  a  pamphlet  of  Vorstius, 
which  so  absorbed  James  that  for  days  he  could  talk 
of  nothing  else33,  and  Casaubon  must  be  there  to 
be  talked  to  about  it.  James  must  reply  to  Vorstius. 
But  Casaubon  is  not  to  be  used  against  the  armin- 
ian  heretics.  He  is  hardly  sound  himself  there 34,  and 
besides  he  is  to  be  kept  for  the  catholic  controversy. 
And  he  is  no  longer  to  be  frittered  away  in  this 
skirmishing  business.  He  is  to  attack  the  Annals  of 
Baronius  35.  This  was  a  compromise  ;  Casaubon  would 
be  contending  for  the  cause,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
would  be  treating  matter  which  had  more  interest  for 
him  than  the  pamphlets  on  which  the  last  eighteen 
months  had  been  spent. 

33  Ep.  799  :  '  Serenissimum  regem  ita   occupatam   animi   mentem 
habuisse  in  recente  quodam  libro  Vorstii,  ut  plures  dies  alia  de  re  fere 
nulla  mecum  ageret/- 

34  Eph.  p.  896  :  '  Laudo  regis  zelum  pro  religione.  scimus  viros  graves, 
et  apprime  doctos  de  Bertio  non  ita  sentire,  Deque  de  Arminio/ 

35  Ep.  810  :  '  Ut  immimitatem  aliarum  angariarum  milri  pararem, 
et  maximo  tamen  regi  satisfacerem. ' 


. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  349 


It  is  impossible  not  to  regret  that  Casaubon,  who 
could  have  done  work  which  no  one  else  could,  should 
have  been  kept  to  writing  pamphlets,  which  scores  of 
others  could  have  written  quite  as  well.  But  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  he  shared  this  regret  himself,  or 
that  he  wras  writing  as  a  hired  advocate  for  a  cause  in 
which  he  was  lukewarm.  It  is  to  him,  not  the  cause  of 
the  king  and  bishops  in  which  he  is  fighting,  it  is  the 
cause  of  the  church  of  God,  the  cause  of  civil  society 
against  the  common  enemy,  the  bishop  of  Home,  and 
his  emissaries.  Coming  from  France,  he  knew,  better 
than  the  anglican  bishops,  what  that  ultramontane 
yoke  meant,  against  which  the  english  church  was 
struggling.  He  tells  Schott 36  that  it  was  horror  at  the 
assassination  of  his  prince  that  had  driven  him  to  the 
meditation  of  this  subject  of  the  roman  claims.  In 
writing  his  '  Epistola  ad  Frontonem'  in  defence  of 
James,  he  was  thinking  of  Henri  iv.  The  act  of 
Ravaillac  was  well  understood  to  be  the  legitimate, 
however  remote,  result  of  the  theories  of  the  ultra- 
montane school.  He  writes  to  Hoeschel 37,  'If  you  want 
to  know  the  cause  of  the  king's  death,  read  the  "  Direc- 
torium  Inquisitionis."  The  murder  of  my  great 
Maecenas  has  so  enraged  me  against  the  mystery  of 
iniquity,  that  I  think  it  now  a  part  of  my  religion  to 
make  public  profession  of  belief  (in  the  royal  supre- 
macy/) 

The  anti-papal  controversy  of  James3  reign  is  as  obsolete 
for  our  generation  as  any  other  theological  squabble, 
and  the  books,  in  which  it  is  consigned,  are  equally  for- 
gotten ;  Casaubon's  among  the  rest.  But  those  who  are 

36  Ep.  777  :  '  Ipse  e/c&>j>  aeVom  ye  6vp(p  ad  tractationem  ejusmodi 
argument!  animuni  appuli.  quis  coegit  1  inquies.  dicam  tibi  quod  res 
est.  ilia  atra  et  nefasta  dies,'  etc.  s7  Ep.  827. 


350  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

acquainted  with  the  situation  of  affairs  at  that  period, 
are  aware  that  this  was  no  brawl  of  rival  divines. 
The  catholic  historian 38,  following  the  catholic  reporter 
de  la  Boderie,  draws  a  ludicrous  picture  of  James, 
withdrawing  from  affairs  of  state  and  the  pleasures 
of  the  chase,  shutting  himself  up  with  his  doctors, 
and  concocting  an  argument  to  prove  the  pope  to  be 
anti-christ.  Nothing  that  James  did  was  done  becom- 
ingly. His  pedantic  vanity  laid  him  open  to  the 
sarcasms  of  the  french  ambassador.  At  a  later  period 
he  forfeited  the  confidence  of  his  subjects  by  a  catholic 
policy;  by  the  Spanish  negotiation,  the  french  match, 
and  the  inadequate  support  of  his  son-in-law  and  the 
protestants  of  Germany.  But  in  1611  he  was  heartily 
contending  against  the  still  advancing  tide  of  the 
catholic  reaction.  The  form  in  which  this  was  threaten- 
ing Europe  was  indeed  that  of  military  force,  but  it 
was  also  an  invasion  of  opinion.  The  Jesuits  did  not 
draw  the  sword  in  Germany  until  they  had  gained 
a  footing  in  the  minds  of  men.  The  books  and 
pamphlets  they  were  now  disseminating  were  what 
made  the  thirty  years'  war  possible.  When  the  enemy 
was  successfully  availing  himself  of  the  power  of  the 
press,  it  was  wise  and  necessary  that  he  should  be 
met  on  the  same  ground.  Nor  was  James  fighting 
for  his  own  skin,  nor  even,  as  he  phrased  it,  for  the 
rights  of  princes.  The  hopes  of  the  ultramontane 
party  at  this  moment  embraced  no  less  than  the  re- 
conquest  of  Christendom  to  the  holy  see ;  the  exter- 
mination of  heresy  by  fire  and  sword,  as  Scioppius 
had  boldly  proclaimed  in  his  Ecclesiasticus  ( 1 6 1 1 ). 
It  was  no  mere  paper  warfare.  The  powder-plot, 

38  Lingard,  Hist,  of  Engl.  7.  78  ;  cf.  Churchill,  Gotham,  6.  2  :  '  And 
pamphlets  wrote  when  he  should  save  the  state.' 


LONDON.     1 610 —  1614.  351 

which  we    try  to   forget,   or  laugh   at,  was   a   recent 

act;  the  murder  of  Henri  iv.  more  recent  still.     The 

S.    Bartholomew,    the    Armada,    and   the   cruelties   of 

Viva   in  Flanders,  were  not  incidents  of  a  legendary 

fore-time,  but  the  exploits  in  which  a  menacing  and 

aggressive   party   gloried,  and  which   they   hoped   to 

repeat  or  to  outdo. 

Casaubon's  share  in  the  interchange  of  pamphlets 
Between  England  and  Rome  was  not  large,  though  it 
was  more  than  could  be  well  spared  out  of  a  life  which 
closed  at  fifty-six. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  powder-plot, 
its  atrocity,  would  have  originated  a  reaction  against 
the  party  by  which  it  was  conceived.  This  was  the 
case  in  our  own  country.  But  not  so  on  the  con- 
inent.  The  ultramontane  pamphleteers  had  been  able 
;o  excite  considerable  sympathy  for  the  conspirators, 
and  especially  for  Garnett.  He  was  represented  by 
them  as  a  martyr  to  the  inviolability  of  the  secret  of 
confession.  These  representations  were  making  so 
deep  an  impression  on  the  public,  that,  when  they 
reached  England,  authenticated  in  an  elaborate  state- 
ment by  cardinal  Bellarmine,  it  was  necessary  to  oppose 
some  official  denial39.  This  was  done  by  the  king 
tiimself  in  his  own  name.  James  published  a  '  Monitory 
epistle  to  all  Christian  monarchs,  free  princes,  and 
states,'  and  prefixed  it  to  a  new  edition  (1609)  of  his 
former  pamphlet,  'Triplici  nodo  triplex  cuneus/  In 
this  monitory  epistle  he  asserted  that  Garnett  had 
acknowledged  his  being  cognisant  of  the  plot,  other- 
wise than  in  confession.  At  the  same  time  a  more 

39  Bellarmine's  book  is  '  Responsio  Matthsei  Torti  ...  ad  librum 
inscriptum,  Triplici  nodo  triplex  cuneus.'  Col.  Agripp.  1608. 


352  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

elaborate  answer  was  prepared  by  Andre  wes,  then 
bishop  of  Chichester,  in  which  this  thesis  was  main- 
tained at  greater  length,  and  authenticated  by  citation 
of  Garnett's  written  confessions.  This  answer  was 
published,  in  1 609,  under  the  title  of  '  Tortura  Torti,' 
and  has  a  historical  value,  because  two  of  the  papers 
cited  as  written  by  Garnett  are  no  longer  extant  among 
the  rest  of  the  original  papers  relating  to  the  plot. 
But  so  strongly  was  the  current  of  feeling  running 
in  favour  of  the  ultramontane  party,  and  so  superior 
were  the  means  of  influencing  opinion  possessed  by 
the  Jesuits  to  those  which  the  protestants  could  employ, 
that  neither  the  king's  affirmation,  nor  the  bishop's 
vouchers  could  stem  the  tide.  The  belief  in  Saint 
Garnett,  the  martyr  of  the  secret  of  confession,  grew 
amain,  and  soon  blossomed  into  a  miracle.  The  myth 
of  Garnett' s  straw  germinating  in  the  fancy  of  a  silly 
enthusiast,  grew  in  a  short  space  into  such  proportions 
that  it  became  the  theme  of  a  diplomatic  correspond- 
ence. Received  with  entire  faith  in  catholic  countries, 
the  legend  excited  so  much  interest  in  Spain,  that  the 
english  ambassador  was  directed  to  make  a  represen- 
tation to  the  Spanish  authorities  on  the  subject^.  It 
was  thought  that  Casaubon's  name  might  help  to  abate 
the  delusion,  which  was  gaining  for  the  catholic  party 
dangerous  sympathies.  English  testimony  was  of  light 
weight  in  catholic  countries  ;  it  was  thought  that 
the  attestation  of  an  independent  foreigner,  whose 
character  for  veracity  was  unimpeachable,  might  be 

40  Winwood's  Mem.  2.  336.  Cornwallis  to  Salisbury,  August  29, 
1607.  The  growth  of  the  fable  of  '  Garnett's  straw'  is  traced  in  detail 
by  Jardine,  Gunpowder  Plot,  pp.  266  seq.  In  this  instance,  as  in  that 
of  La  Salette,  we  have  in  our  hands  the  means  of  following,  step  by 
step,  the  genesis  of  a  catholic  legend. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  353 

listened  to.  This  is  the  origin  of  Casaubon's  '  Epistola 
ad  Frontonem,'  1612,  of  which  M.  Jardine  says  that 
'  though  new  to  this  kind  of  writing,  Casaubon  ac- 
quitted himself  well  in  it/  His  statement  wants  the 
keen  edge  and  point  of  Andrewes'  dialectic,  but  it  is  also 
free  from  the  bishop's  cavil  and  passion  for  verbal 
victory.  Having  to  deal  with  opponents  whose  case 
was  a  tissue  of  unscrupulous  misrepresentation,  he 
meets  their  perversity  not  with  excited  passion,  but 
with  a  grave  statement  of  the  simple  facts.  It  is 
characteristic  that  he  is  more  angry  when  he  has  to 
correct  Baronius5  chronological  errors,  or  mistranslations 
of  greek,  than  over  the  most  provoking  distortion  of 
fact  in  the  Jesuit  account  of  the  powder  conspiracy. 
He  earned  the  praise  of  moderation,  but  beyond  this  he 
neither  obtained  credit  for  his  clients,  nor  reputation  for 
himself,  by  going  into  the  quarrel.  He  became  a  mark 
for  the  vulgar  personalities  which  are  the  ordinary 
missiles  in  party  warfare.  Hitherto  he  had  lived  for 
science,  in  a  region  apart,  where  he  reigned  without 
rivalry  or  contradiction.  He  had  now  descended  into 
the  arena  where,  muscle  for  muscle,  the  arm  of  a 
butcher  might  be  more  powerful  than  his. 

There  was,  of  course,  an  *  answer'  forthcoming  to  the 
*  Epistola  ad  Frontonem/  It  was  from  a  Jesuit  pen, 
and  one  only  second  in  its  clever  smartness  to  that  of 
Scioppius41.  The  '  Eesponsio '  of  Andreas  Eudsemon- 
Joannes,  stripped  of  its  flippant  rhetoric,  reduces  itself 
to  a  reassertion  of  what  Bellarmine  had  before  affirmed, 
viz.  that  Garnett  had  been  executed  for  not  divulging 

41  Eudsemon- Joannes'  book  is  '  Responsio  ad  epistolam  Isaac!  Casau- 
boni.'  The  only  edition  I  have  seen  is  Colon.  Agripp.  1612,  but  it 
may  be  a  reprint.  Abbot's  book  is  'Antilogia  adversus  apologiam 
Andreae  Eudsemon- Joannis.'  Londini,  1613,  4°. 

A  a 


354  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

the  secret  of  confession.  But  it  was  quite  successful. 
Reassertion.  was  argument  enough  for  the  catholic 
public.  As  Casaubon  had  failed  to  reach  them,  Abbot, 
the  regius  professor  of  divinity,  was  put  on  the  con- 
troversy, and  restated  the  case  of  the  crown  in  greater 
detail,  and  with  more  elaborate  proof.  In  vain.  Abbot 
had  no  greater  success  than  Andrewes  or  Casaubon. 
Catholic  literature  had  become  a  system  of  falsehood 
and  imposture.  Catholic  histories  continued,  -nd 
continue  still,  to  repeat  that  Garnett  had  suffered, 
not  for  treason,  but  for  religion. 

Upon  this  vain  effort  to  stem  the  reactionary  flood, 
our  scholar  had  flung  away  precious  months.  It  may 
have  been  some  perception  of  this  waste  of  power 
which  determined  the  king's  resolution  that  Casaubon 
should  do  no  more  pamphlet  work.  He  is  to  hava  ro 
more  tasks  set  him.  His  whole  time  shall  be  devoted 
to  the  work  on  church  history. 

We  have  seen  how,  in  the  earliest  days,  Casaubon 
had  desired  to  devote  himself  to  sacred  studies.  Both 
his  literary  ambition,  and  his  love  of  learning,  con- 
curred in  taking  this  colour  from  the  deep  religious 
impressions  of  his  youth.  We  have  seen  how  he 
became  a  classical  student  and  editor  in  spite  of  him- 
self. Strabo,  Suetonius,  Atheneeus,  Polybius,  and  the 
rest,  were  successively  taken  up  as  interimistic  jobs, 
mere  exercises  to  keep  his  hand  in,  till  he  could  get 
freed  from  the  entanglements  of  life,  into  the  pure 
empyrean  of  that  happy  leisure  which  formed  his  ideal, 
when  he  would  concentrate  his  matured  powers  upon 
sacred  criticism.  This  longed-for  42<otium'  we  have 

42  Ep.  1023:  'Omnino  otia  quaerimus,  si  ita  modo  visum  fuerit 
D.  0.  M.  Ea  enim  molimur  in  literis,  quse  animi  tranquillitatem 
desiderant.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  355 

seen  him  pursue  from  Geneva  to  Montpellier,  from 
Montpellier  to  Paris,  from  Paris  to  London,  as  the 
vision  still  fled  before  him.  He  is  now,  April,  1612,  in 
his  fifty-fourth  year.  Though  entered  on  the  decline  of 
life,  though  a  friendly  physician  can  read  the  fatal  sign 
on  his  brow,  he  feels  no  intellectual  decay ;  he  may 
still  have  years  before  him  enough  for  the  production  of 
some  capital  work  on  the  antiquities  of  the  church.  He 
is  removed  above  want,  if  not  altogether  above  anxiety 
on  the  score  of  provision  for  his  family.  He  is  to  have 
no  more  pamphlet  work.  He  may  select  his  own  sub- 
ject, or  rather  the  subject  he  has  already  selected  him- 
self is  the  very  one  which  will  best  please  his  patron. 

The  refutation  of  Baronius  was  an  employment 
which  was  not  suggested  to  him  first  in  England.  We 
have  seen  that  he  had  long  meditated  it.  In  1 605  he 
only  took  up  Poly bi  us  because  the  ultramontane  policy 
of  Henri  iv.  dared  not  permit  criticism  on  a  book 
which  the  see  of  Rome  would  not  allow  to  be  contra- 
dicted43. Now  that  he  is  free,  he  recurs  to  his  cherished 
idea.  He  will  satisfy  himself  by  writing  on  church 
history.  He  will  satisfy  his  party  by  destroying  the 
credit  of  the  catholic  historian. 

The  early  and  constant  bent  of  Casaubon's  mind  had 
been  towards  theology.  But  what  was  commonly 
known  by  this  name,  doctrinal  or  systematic,  theology, 
as  taught  in  the  schools,  lay  entirely  outside  his  walk. 
His  reading  had  led  him  at  once  to  the  sources  out  of 
which  had  been  constructed  that 44<  web  of  subtlety  and 
spinosity,'  the  scholastic  theology.  He  was  in  posses- 
sion, as  hardly  any  one  else  had  been,  of  the  key  of 
ecclesiastical  antiquity.  Having  exhausted  heathen 

13  '  Quasi  a  Baronio  dissentire  sit  nefas/  says  Rigaltius,  Contin. 
Thuani,  6.  470.  44  Bacon,  Advancement  of  Learning. 

A  a  2 


356  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

greek,  he  had  gone  on  into  Christian  greek.  At  first 
as  greek  only,  but  he  had  found  it  full  of  a  new 
interest.  Casaubon  never  reads  as  a  grammarian  in 
pursuit  of  words.  He  is  thoroughly  realistic.  He  is, 
indeed,  quite  alive  to  the  importance  of  seizing  the 
exact  sense  of  words,  but  only  for  the  sake  of  that 
which  is  to  be  learnt  from  the  words.  The  true  ap- 
proach to  Christian  antiquity  is  through  pagan  antiquity. 
The  continuity  of  history  is  complete.  There  is  no 
break.  As  the  Christian  empire  is  the  pagan  empire 
under  a  new  name,  so  Christian  literature  is  the  out- 
come of  the  greek  classical  literature.  It  is  not  only 
built  up  with  the  old  materials,  like  the  forts  which 
the  Turks  constructed  with  the  sculptured  blocks  of 
the  greek  temples,  it  issues  from  the  greek  sources  of 
thought.  In  earlier  times,  Casaubon  had  dreamed  of 
treating  this  period  of  literature  in  the  spirit  of  learned 
research.  In  1596,  at  Geneva,  in  the  plenitude  of  his 
acquirement,  he  had  proposed  to  Tbring  out  Athenasus 
first,  then  to  dispose  in  like  manner  of  Polybius,  after 
which  he  would  45'set  an  example  to  our  side,  that, 
forsaking  these  gladiatorial  combats  so  pernicious  to  the 
Christian  world,  they  should  busy  themselves  rather  in 
illustrating  the  aifairs  of  the  ancient  church,  and  the 
holy  fathers/  Gradually  he  is  drawn  into  the  vortex 
of  controversy.  Instead  of  approaching  the  history  of 
the  church  from  the  classical  side,  he  will  approach  it 
from  the  modern  side,  and  the  interests  of  his  own  day. 
The  conception  which  he  had  formed  of  Christian  archae- 
ology fades,  and  mixes  itself  with  the  idea  of  proving 

15  Ep.  1008  :  '  Majus  opus  movebimus  et  nostro  exemplo  prseibimus 
hominibus  partium  nostrarum  ut  ad  res  veteris  ecclesiae  et  sanctissimos 
patres  illustrandos  novam  operam  conferre  malirit,  quam  ad  anclabaticas 
istas  pugnas,  toti  orbi  christiano  tarn  perniciosas.' 


LONDON.     1610    -1614.  357 

liow  far  the  church  of  Rome  has  strayed  from  primitive 
faith  and  worship.  His  indignation  at  the  blunders 
of  Baronius  is  as  keen  as  ever,  but  he  is  no  longer  the 
scholar  indignant  at  a  literary  impostor ;  he  is  the 
theological  polemic  burning  to  turn  these  blunders  to 
account  in  the  quarrel  of  his  church  with  Rome.  The 
centre  of  his  interests,  which  once  was  scientific,  has 
become  denominational.  He  who  in  1605  had  written 
to  Du  Perron46  the  proud  boast  that  all  his  studious 
hours  had  been  given  to  the  search  of  truth,  not  to 
exhibitions  in  the  arena  of  paper  warfare,  was  catching 
the  infection  from  his  environment,  and  on  the  way 
to  rejoice  in  fighting.  He  regularly  reads  the  flying 
sheets  with  which  the  press  teems,  which  kind  friends 
send  him  sometimes  in  early  copies,  before  publication, 
and  in  which  he  now  finds  his  own  name  recur  with 
increasing  frequency.  He  knows  what  answers  are  in 
preparation,  and  rejoices  beforehand  in  their  crushing 
effect.  47  *  As  for  Bellarmine's  book,'  he  says  on  one 
occasion,  '  I  can  leave  it  alone,  as  he  will  soon  see  it 
quashed  by  Barclay  fils  as  dead  as  a  mouse  in  a  trap/ 

This  being  Casaubon's  own  disposition,  we  cannot 
charge  it  upon  the  english  king  and  bishops,  that  he 
gave  the  rest  of  his  life  to  antagonistic  writing,  and 
that  he  threw  his  learning  into  the  unfortunate  shape 
of  a  critique  on  Baronius. 

Casaubon  had  never  seen  the  '  Annales '  till  the 
summer  of  1598.  Geneva  was  too  poor  to  buy  books, 
and  the  circulation  of  Baronius,  large  as  it  was,  was 

46  Ep.  417  :  'Ego  vigilias  ornnes  meas  amori  veritatis  in  quocun- 
que  genere  literarum  semper  impendi,  non  Aoyo^axiW  npbs  f-rridfigiv 
comparatis/ 

47  Ep.  ad  Front,  p.  38  :  '  Qui  suum  ilium  librum    ...    a  Barclai 
filio  .  .  .  videbit  brevi  soricina  nsenia  conibssiorem  redditum.' 


358  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

wholly  catholic.  Protestant  cities,  such  as  Geneva  and 
Montpellier,  had  probably  not  seen  a  copy.  During 
his  stay  in  de  Vic's  house  at  Lyons  in  1598,  Casaubon 
first  fell  in  with  some  of  the  earlier  volumes43.  At 
de  Vic's  suggestion,  he  sent  a  letter  to  Baronius,  ex- 
pressing the  sentiments  of  respect  and  admiration  which 
had  been  excited  in  him  by  the  first  reading.  Baronius 
returned,  in  1599,  a  copy  of  his  8th  volume,  which  was 
just  out,  and  a  civil  reply49,  in  which  he  persisted  in 
regarding  Casaubon's  compliment  as  a  feeler.  '  He 
rejoiced  to  find  him  knocking  at  the  gate  of  the 
church,  for  no  less  could  he  understand  by  his  com- 
mending the  work  of  an  orthodox  man/  In  an  Italian, 
a  cardinal,  and  a  holy  man,  we  might  naturally  view 
this  letter  as  preluding  to  a  bargain.  And  Clement 
viii.  did,  afterwards,  send  Casaubon  an  intimation  that 
he  might  have  a  pension  of  1300  crowns  if  he  chose 
to  go  to  Rome  for  it.  But  the  suspicion  would  be 
unjust  to  the  simple-minded  character  of  Baronius50. 
His  narrow  education  led  him  to  regard  the  ark  of 
Peter  as  possessing  the  same  supernatural  attractions 
for  all,  which  it  had  for  himself.  Casaubon,  an  equally 
candid  soul,  took  the  letter  in  this  light,  as  a  proffer 
of  amity.  In  1603,  he  sent  the  return  compliment, 
in  the  shape  of  a  copy,  or  promise  to  send  one  the 
first  opportunity,  of  his  '  Historic  Augustse  Scriptores,' 

48  Ep.   175  :    'Contigit  mihi  dum  Lugduni  otiosus  agerem  tuum 
opus  cum  Baronii  annalibus  nondum  mihi  turn  visis,  posse  contendere.' 

49  Burney  MSS.  363.  ap.  Russell,  i.  32:  *  Cum  tantopere  orthodox! 
hominis  scripta  commendas,  plane  pultare  te  ecclesise  catholicse  janu- 
am  satis  intelligo.' 

50  Dr.  Donne,  however,  Letter  to  sir  H.  G.  p.  33,  writes:  'I  have 
known  that   Serarius   the  Jesuit    was   an   instrument  from   cardinal 
Baronius  to  draw  him  (Hugh  Broughton)  to  Rome,  to  accept  a  stipend 
only  to  serve  the  Christian  churches  in  controversies  with  the  jews.' 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  359 

with  a  civil  allusion  to  the  places  in  the  notes  in  which 
51 '  my  calculations  differ  from  yours/  Baronius  replied, 
not  expressing  any  interest  in  the  Augustan  historians, 
or  in  Casaubon's  criticism  on  himself,  but  great  concern 
for  his  salvation.  52<He  would  be  pleased  to  receive 
the  book,  but  much  more  so  to  hear  that  the  announce- 
ment, so  often  made,  of  his  conversion,  was  true/  This 
was  a  kind  of  correspondence  which  it  did  not  pay 
Casaubon  to  maintain,  and  he  let  it  drop.  He  is  now 
in  possession  of  a  copy  of  the  *  Annales/  and  his  respect 
for  the  compiler's  learning  is  rapidly  vanishing.  He 
is  irritated  by  the  vogue  of  a  book  so  uncritical  and 
unscholarlike,  and  proposes  to  review  it,  philologically 
only — not  otherwise.  Even  a  philological  review  of  a 
roman  book  is  impossible  in  France,  in  face  of  the 
reaction,  and  Casaubon  turns  to  Polybius  since  he  could 
do  no  better.  When  then,  in  1612,  he  undertakes  a 
review  of  the  *  Annales/  he  is  but  reviving  an  old  pro- 
ject, for  which  he  had  already  got  together  materials. 
Baronius  meanwhile  had  profited  by  the  correspondence 
of  1603,  for  in  his  next  edition  he  adopted  every  one 
of  the  corrections  Casaubon  had  made,  but  without 
acknowledgment. 

51  Ep.  338,  also  in  Baronius,  Epistolse,  ep.  165. 
62  Burney  MSB.  363.  ap.  Russell,  i.  115. 


APPENDIX  TO  5. 

NOTE  A.   p.  317. 

ALL  the  biographies  of  Casaubon  endow  him  with  a  prebend  of  West- 
minster. In  doing  this  they  have  followed  each  other  without  en- 
quiry. The  first  who  mentions  the  Westminster  prebend  is  Almelo- 
veen,  in  his  Casauboni  vita,  p.  54,  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  Casauboni 
epistolse,  Rot.  1709.  And  Almeloveen  relied  upon  the  Ephemerides, 
in  which  Casaubon  made  the  following  entry,  '  18  kal.  Jan.  1610: 
Literas  episcopi  Bathoniensis  ad  me  scriptas  accepi,  jussu  regis 
scriptas.  Deus  bone,  quam  Isetas  !  quibus  mihi  rex  suam  singularem 
benevolentiam  patefacit  et  rebus  meis  consulit.  Duas  prsebendas 
assignat,  Cantuariae  unam,  alteram  Westmonasterii,  quse  fortasse  ad  duo 
millia  librarum  annui  reditus  accedunt/  The  original  letter  of  Montagu 
is  not  preserved,  but  Casaubon  appears  to  be  quoting  its  words.  All 
that  the  words  warrant  is  that  two  prebends  were  designed  for  him. 
He  was  actually  put  in  possession  of  the  Canterbury  stall,  but  never 
of  the  stall  at  Westminster.  And  as  there  is  no  further  mention  of 
Westminster,  the  intention  must  have  been  dropped.  Almeloveen  is 
very  careful,  and,  writing  in  Holland,  may  readily  be  excused  for 
having  taken  this  distinct  promise  for  sufficient  proof  of  the  fact.  The 
error  was  corrected  by  Beloe,  Anecdotes  of  literature,  5.  126,  but  the 
correction  remained  unheeded  by  all  the  biographers  and  church  his- 
torians since  Almeloveen,  except  the  painstaking  and  accurate  Hallam, 
Hist,  of  lit.  2.  274. 

The  dean  of  Westminster  has  had  the  books  of  the  chapter  ex- 
amined for  me,  and  no  trace  of  Casaubon  as  prebendary  is  found  in 
them. 

NOTE  B.   p.  420. 

Casaubon's  account  of  his  intercourse  with  James  I.  is  so  favourable 
to  the  king,  that  it  may  be  thought  overcharged  by  those  who  have 


APPENDIX  TO  5.  361 

iccustomed  themselves  to  think  meanly  of  that  prince.  Those  whose 
.mpressions  of  character  have  been  chiefly  derived  from  modern 
liistories  will  find,  that,  as  they  become  better  acquainted  with  the 
3ontemporary  memoirs,  their  estimate  of  James'  abilities  will  be 
raised.  Casaubon's  language  to  James  is  adulatory.  But  then  such 
was  the  style  of  the  english  court,  and  had  been  to  Elisabeth,  whose 
vigorous  understanding  is  not  questioned.  And  even  when  the  king 
is  spoken  o/,  there  doubtless  mingles  in  the  panegyric  something  of  the 
feeling  '  Wonderful  for  a  king  ! '  At  any  rate,  what  Casaubon  has  said 
of  James'  parts  and  acquirements,  does  not  go  beyond  what  was  said  of 
him  by  the  two  Englishmen  most  competent  to  judge,  Bacon  and  Selden. 
As  illustrating  Casaubon's  high  estimate,  I  quote  a  passage  from  Selden, 
Opp.  3.  1400:  'He  (the  king)  then  also  most  graciously  vouch- 
safed to  have  speech  with  me,  as  the  time  permitted,  of  divers  parts  of 
learning  which  either  offered  themselves  out  of  the  consideration  of  that 
book,  or  obviously  fell  into  his  so  searching  a  discourse,  and  this, 
twice  at  Theobald's  and  once  at  "Whitehall;  and  at  every  of  those 
times,  besides  the  exceeding  sweetness  of  this  nature,  which  I,  being 
convented  before  so  great  a  majesty,  largely  tasted  of,  I  saw,  with 
wonder,  the  characters  of  such  a  fraught  of  learning,  of  such  a  readiness 
of  memory,  of  such  a  piercing  fancy  joined  with  so  absolute  a  judg- 
ment in  him,  as  if  his  greatness  in  all  these  abilities  had  been  no  less 
than  in  his  hereditary  titles.' 


6. 
CASATTBON    ON   BABONIUS. 

THE  german  reformation  is  imperfectly  described, 
when  it  is  considered  as  an  appeal  to  scripture  versus 
tradition.  It  was  rather  an  appeal  to  history.  The 
discovery  had  been  made  that  the  church,  as  it  existed, 
was  an  institution  which  no  longer  corresponded  to  its 
original,  that  it  was  a  corrupted,  degraded,  perverted 
institution.  The  appeal  to  scripture  was  not  itself 
the  moving  spring  of  the  reformation,  it  was  the  con- 
sequence of  the  sense  of  decay  and  degeneracy.  As 
the  doctrine  of  the  fall  of  man  was  the  key  of  human, 
so  the  doctrine  of  the  corruption  of  the  church  was 
the  key  of  ecclesiastical,  history.  The  reformation 
appealed  to  the  bible,  because  in  this  the  earliest 
record  of  the  church,  it  had  a  measure  of  the  deviation 
from  type  which  had  been  brought  about.  This  cor- 
ruption was  not  the  mere  rust  of  age  which  gathers 
about  all  merely  human  institutions.  The  church  was 
the  work  of  God,  and  time  alone  would  not  have 
marred  and  scarred  its  divine  lineaments.  Its  degra- 
dation was  the  work  of  a  special  principle  of  evil,  the 
mystery  of  iniquity,  the  visible  embodiment  of  which 
was  now  enthroned  on  the  seven  hills. 

This  thesis  was  worked  out  by  the  'Magdeburg 
centuries/  In  this  protestant  delineation,  the  church 


BARONIUS.  363 

N tarts  in  the  apostolic  age  in  perfect  purity,  and  is 
perverted  by  a  process  of  slow  canker,  till  it  has 
become  changed  into  its  opposite,  and  is  now  the 
uhurch  not  of  Christ,  but  of  anti-christ,  an  instrument 
not  for  saving  men  but  for  destroying  them. 

The  '  Centuries '  had  not  any  great  success  as  a  publi- 
cation. The  strictly  lutheran  public  was  not  numerous, 
and  not  rich.  It  was  not  a  book  buying  public.  But 
though  the  thirteen  folios  of  the  Centuries,  1559-1574, 
had  no  extensive  circulation,  the  historical  thesis  of 
which  they  were  the  laborious  evidence  made  a  deep 
impression.  At  Rome,  the  centre  of  Europe,  where, 
almost  alone,  a  general  view  of  the  current  of  public 
opinion  was  attainable,  it  was  felt  that  an  answer,  or 
antidote,  was  urgently  required.  It  was  provided  with 
an  eclat,  and  upon  a  scale,  which  extinguished  the 
centuriators. 

S.  Philip  Neri,  the  founder  of  the  oratory,  cast  his 
eyes  upon  a  young  Neapolitan,  who  was  burning  with 
the  fervour,  epidemic  at  the  period  (end  of  cent.  16), 
of  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  church.  From  preaching 
and  hearing  confessions,  in  which  the  ardent  youth 
was  consuming  his  energy,  the  father  took  him  to  give 
lessons  on  church  history  in  the  oratory  of  S.  Jerome, 
at  Kome1.  Beginning  as  sermons  for  the  edification 
of  the  congregation  in  that  church,  these  deliveries 
grew  into  lectures.  The  lectures  arranged  themselves 
in  a  course,  which  in  thirty  years,  the  lecturer  Cesare 
Baronio  (t  1607)  repeated  seven  times.  As  he  went  on, 
his  studies  in  preparing  his  lectures  became  more  and 
more  searching  and  extended.  His  director  gradually 

1  Baronius  has  given  his  own  account  of  this  origin  of  his  work  in 
the  c  Annales'  themselves,  under  A.D.  57,  §.  162.  With  characteristic 
modesty,  he  does  not  name  himself. 


364  BARONIUS. 

led  him  on,  till  he  found  himself  insensibly  engaged 
in  the  production  of  his  vast  work,  the  'Annales 
eccleslastici.'  The  duration  of  Baronius'  labour  was 
that  of  his  life.  He  began  his  popular  readings  in 
the  oratory  set.  21,  he  died  set.  69,  while  engaged  on 
his  thirteenth  volume.  He  had  waited  till  he  was  forty- 
nine  before  he  began  to  publish.  Perhaps  no  modern 
historian,  not  Gibbon,  or  Grote,  ever  devoted  the  whole 
of  a  life  so  entirely  to  one  historical  work,  or  made 
such  a  noviciate.  The  author  must  have  succumbed 
under  the  magnitude  of  an  undertaking  too  vast  for 
a  single  workman,  had  he  not  had  support  from 
without.  As  long  as  S.  Philip  Neri  lived  he  kept  his 
disciple  to  his  work,  urging,  stimulating,  commanding, 
as  if  he  had  to  exact  from  him  a  day's  taskwork2.  The 
virgin  and  the  saints,  especially  SS.  Peter  and  Paul, 
gave  him  special  aid,  and  the  Almighty  blessed  him 
with  unbroken  health  to  his  dying  day.  Without 
these  helps  he  could  not  have  supported  the  con- 
tinued labour  of  reading  and  extracting.  Baronius, 
like  Bellarmine,  employed  no  amanuensis.  His  notes, 
and  extracts  even,  were  all  made  by  his  own  hand; 
in  this  unlike  the  centuriators,  who  worked  with  a 
subordinate  staff  of  ten  paid  clerks. 

In  other  respects,  the  unsuccoured  and  thankless 
toil  of  the  centuriators  offers,  to  the  cherished  and 
petted  lot  of  Baronius,  as  great  a  contrast  as  the 
bleak  and  sandy  wastes  of  Mecklenburg  to  the  sunny 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  archives  of  the 
Vatican,  and  all  the  resources  of  the  Italian  libra- 
ries were  thrown  open  to  him.  The  papal  press 
printed  for  him  ;  the  wealth  of  the  church  defrayed 

2  Alberici,  Vita  Baronii,  p.  30  :  '  Durus  quodammodo  diurni  pensi 
exactor/ 


BARON  I  US.  365 

ids  charges;  its  highest  dignities  rewarded  his  suc- 
cess. Commenced  as  edifying  homilies  to  an  ignorant 
.[Ionian  congregation  by  a  young  priest  little  less 
ignorant  than  themselves,  the  work,  as  it  grew  in 
size,  grew  into  a  reputation  for  learning,  little  short 
of  supernatural.  Its  circulation,  for  its  bulk,  twelve 
folios,  one  for  each  century,  was  unprecedented  then, 
and  without  example  since.  The  libraries  of  all  the 
monasteries,  of  the  cathedral  chapters,  of  the  Jesuit 
colleges  and  houses,  the  princes  and  prelates,  through- 
out the  catholic  world,  took  off  edition  after  edition. 
Vol.  i  of  the  'Annales'  saw  the  light,  '  Komse  ex 
t/prgraphii  Vaticaria  1588,'  and  Clement  enumer- 
ates five  complete  editions  before  1610.  The  volumes 
were  dedicated  to  none  below  popes,  emperors,  and 
kings,  the  author  condescending  to  bestow  one  at  last 
on  Henri  iv.  after  he  had  qualified  himself  to  receive 
this  certificate  of  orthodoxy.  The  book  was  transla- 
ted, commented,  supplemented,  continued  till,  not  its 
faults,  but  its  very  completeness,  arrested  its  circula- 
tion. In  the  great  Lucca  edition  1738-1787,  it  had 
grown  to  thirty-eight  vols.  folio,  and  thus  purchase 
was  made  difficult,  and  perusal  impossible.  And  it 
was  finally  supplanted  by  the  elegant  compendium  of 
^leury,  which  gave  its  contents  to  the  world 3  in  the 
universal  language  of  literature. 

At  the  opening  of  the  seventeeth  century  the  rela- 
tive position  of  the  two  religious  parties  was  reversed. 
The  catholic  party  had  recovered,  and  more  than  re- 
covered, their  ascendancy  in  the  west  of  Europe.  It 
was  a  moral  ascendancy  over  opinion  of  which  they 

3  Fleury,  Hist,  eccles.  liv.  75.  I  :  'Ici  [1198]  finissent  les  annales 
du  cardinal  Baronius,  que  j'ai  principalement  eu  pour  guide  dans  cette 
liistoire.' 


366  BARONIUS. 

now  found  themselves  possessed,  an  ascendancy  founded 
on  superiority  of  numbers  and  wealth,  but  intensi- 
fied by  religious  zeal.  They  were  fast  making  way 
to  intellectual  preponderance.  At  this  moment  ap- 
peared Baronius'  '  Annals.'  A  work  of  such  vast 
compass,  dealing  with  an  important  theme,  would 
have  been,  at  any  time,  a  consid  rable  phenomenon 
in  the  literary  world.  Appearing  at  the  moment  it 
did,  it  had  the  significance  not  of  a  mere  literary 
publication,  but  of  a  political  event.  The  'Centuries' 
had  shown  the  history  of  the  church  as  the  growth 
of  the  spirit  of  evil  waxing  through  successive  ages, 
till  it  was  consummated  in  the  reign  of  anti-christ. 
Baronius  exhibited  the  visible  unity  and  impeccable 
purity  of  the  church  founded  upon  Peter,  and  handed 
down  inviolate,  such  at  this  day  as  it  had  ever  been. 
The  whole  case  of  the  romanists,  and  especially  the 
supremacy  of  the  see  of  Eome,  was  here  set  out,  under 
the  form  of  authentic  annals4,  with  an  imposing  array 
of  pieces  justificatifs,  of  original  documents  which  were 
inaccessible  to  the  protestant  centuriators,  and  ex- 
tinguished their  meagre  citations  from  familiar  and 
printed  books.  The  unsupported  theory  of  the  pro- 
testant history  is  refuted  by  the  mere  weight  of  facts. 
When  we  read  as  an  event  of  A.D.  44  that  in  this 
year  Peter  transferred  his  episcopal  chair  from  An- 
tioch,  w^here  he  had  been  seven  years  bishop,  to  Eome, 
where  he  continued  for  five-and- twenty  years  to  ad- 
minister the  affairs  of  the  church,  we  are  reading  a 

4  Baronius  states,  Annal.  eccles.  prsef.,  his  own  purpose  to  be  'catho- 
licse  ecclesise  visibilem  mon  archie m  a  Christo  domino  institutam, 
super  Petrum  fundatam,  ac  per  ejus  legitimos  verosque  successores, 
Romanes  nimirum  pontifices,  inviolate  conservatam  .  .  .  per  singula 
tempera  demonstrare/ 


BARONIUS.  367 

ire  fact  as  well  known  at  Eome  as  the  transactions 
>f  the  year  1544.     The  protestants  saw  their  historical 
Dleadings,  not  answered,  but  eclipsed.     They  had  been 
:he  aggressive  party ;  they  were  now  put  out  of  court. 
The  '  Annals '  transferred  to  the  catholic  party  the  pre- 
oonderance  in  the   field  of  learning,  which  ever  since 
Erasmus  had  been  on  the  side  of  the  innovators.     It 
was  the  turn  of  the  protestants  to  feel  the  urgent  need 
of  an  antidote  to  Baronius. 

Exterminated  in  southern  Europe,  ground  to  the 
dust  in  France,  threatened  with  violence  in  Germany, 
t  was  only  in  Holland  or  Britain  that  the  protestant 
3arty  had  strength  or  heart  for  any  literary  under- 
:aking.  But  neither  in  Holland  nor  Britain  were 
there  the  resources  for  a  history  on  the  scale  of 
Baronius.  And  there  was  only  one  man  who  possessed 
:he  knowledge  requisite  ;  he  was  some  way  past  fifty, 
and  exhausted  by  a  life  of  desk-work.  Yet  Casaubon 
resolutely  girded  himself  for  the  fray.  The  idea  was 
not  new  to  him ;  he  had  long  contemplated  the  plan 
of  an  answer  to  Baronius  in  the  only  shape  in  which 
t  was  possible. 

At  his  age  a  rival  church  history  was  not  to  be 
thought  of.  Nor  is  it  clear  that  if  such  a  history  had 
)een  written  it  would  have  commanded  much  attention, 
much  less  that  it  would  have  driven  the  *  Annals '  out 
of  the  field.  What  had  the  protestants  to  set  against 
:he  mysterious  '  archives '  of  the  Vatican,  whose  records 
lad  been  kept  by  seven  notaries  ever  since  the  days  of 
S.  Clement  ?  It  is  true  the  oldest  documents  were 
not  forthcoming  ;  they  had,  perhaps,  been  destroyed  in 
Diocletian's  persecution.  But  no  matter.  All  that  was 
important  in  them  was  well-known  ;  it  was  an  office 
tradition ;  a  fact  whose  notoriety  dispensed  with  proof. 


368    •  CASAUBON. 

Besides,  the  success  of  Baronius  had  been  due  to  his 
having  met  a  popular  demand.  There  are  periods 
when  destructive  criticism  is  the  vogue,  and  only  he 
who  speaks  against  the  established  beliefs  can  obtain  a 
hearing.  Such  a  period  had  been  the  first  half  of  the 
1 6th  century.  Another  access  of  the  same  temper  was 
to  occur  again  in  the  i8th  century.  But,  about  1600, 
what  the  religious  public  wanted  was  a  conservative 
reconstruction  of  the  ecclesiastical  legend.  An  uneasy 
feeling  had  been  diffused  by  the  reformation,  which 
troubled  pious  souls,  as  if  the  hagiological  tradition 
contained  a  fabulous  element.  It  was  poison,  this  scep- 
tical suspicion,  for  how  could  the  fabulous  have  got  in, 
unless  it  had  been  wilfully  put  there  ? 

The  history  of  the  catholic  church  had  long  ceased  to 
be  regarded  as  history.  It  was  an  edifying  story,  in 
which  the  devotional  effect,  and  not  the  matter-of-fact, 
was  the  object  of  the  narrator.  The  hagiographer  had 
no  idea  of  imposture,  of  palming  off  as  true,  that  which 
he  knew  was  not  true.  The  plenitude  of  his  faith  in 
the  church  supported  anything  which  was,  or  could  be, 
told  to  the  honour  of  the  servants  of  Christ.  It  was 
not  mere  scepticism,  it  was  an  entirely  new  view  of  the 
church,  when  the  protestant  critic  began  to  regard  the 
church  as  an  institution  in  time  and  place,  and  to  ask  if 
this  or  that  alleged  event  was  a  real  event — had 
actually  happened. 

This  desire  to  believe,  this  pious  wish  to  have  the 
legend  authenticated,  was  what  Baronius  met  and 
satisfied.  He  gives  the  substance  of  historical  evidence 
to  the  supernatural  chronicle  of  the  early  and  middle 
age  church.  The  surprising  vogue  of  his  history  was 
due  to  its  want  of  true  historical  criticism.  His  pages 
embody,  and  sanction,  with  a  vast  apparatus  of  quota- 


ON  BARONIUS.  369 

tion,  all  the  romantic  legends  so  dear  to  the  faithful  but 
uneducated  catholic.  And  while  he  preserved  round 
the  church  story  that  picturesque  haze  which  faith 
cherished  and  which  historical  science  would  dissipate, 
he  satisfied  the  requirements  of  the  political  churchman 
by  turning  the  annals  of  the  church  into  one  long  proof 
of  the  supremacy  of  the  roman  pontiff. 

A  protestant  history,  which  had  no  saints,  no  mi- 
racles, could  have  had  no  success.  History  cannot  be 
negative,  it  must  have  something  to  narrate.  All  that 
was  possible  therefore  for  Casaubon  was  criticism. 
There  was  one  side  on  which  Baronius  was  vulnerable, 
and  on  that  side  Casaubon  resolved  on  making  his 
attack. 

The  c  Annals '  was  a  work  of  gigantic  labour.  In 
the  first  flush  of  its  early  triumph,  the  imposing  array 
of  authorities,  the  exhaustive  compilation  of  all  the 
passages,  had  overwhelmed  criticism,  and  it  passed  for 
a  work  of  learning,  not  only  in  catholic  universities,  and 
in  Italy,  where  the  tests  of  learning  had  ceased  to 
exist,  but  generally.  Casaubon  himself,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  been  impressed  by  his  first  sight  of  the  earlier 
volumes  in  1598.  But  as  time  was  given  for  exami- 
nation of  the  details,  it  began  to  appear  that  the 
champion  of  the  church  was  not  only  wanting  in  his- 
torical criticism,  but  destitute  of  the  more  elementary 
acquirements  necessary  for  extracting  the  sense  of 
ancient  writers.  Had  the  '  Annals '  been  the  work  of  a 
scholar,  it  was  impossible  that  in  so  enormous  a  mass  of 
facts  there  should  not  have  been  errors.  A  benedictine 
monk  is  said — but  the  authority5  is  not  first-rate,  for  it 
is  that  of  the  professional  gladiator,  Scioppius — to  have 
found  2000  errors  in  Baronius.  And  Lucas  Holstenius, 

5  Ap.  Colomids,  Bibl.  choisie,  p.  153. 
B    b 


370  CASAUBON 

afterwards,  professed  to  have  swelled  the  number  to 
8000 6.  But  mere  mistakes  are  but  errata  and  can  be 
corrected.  Casaubon  gradually  discovered  that  Baro- 
nius'  errors  were  errors  of  scholarship.  Rather  he  was 
not  in  possession  of  the  elements  of  learning.  He 
knew  no  hebrew,  no  greek7.  He  was  totally  destitute 
of  the  critical  skill  which  is  implied  in  dealing  with 
ancient  authors,  so  as  to  elicit  their  meaning.  In  fact 
this  vast  historical  edifice,  with  its  grand  front  and 
stately  chambers,  was  a  house  of  cards,  which  a  breath 
of  criticism  would  demolish  in  a  moment. 

If  Casaubon  did  not  detect  the  imposture  at  once  on 
first  looking  into  the  book,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
he  only  had  the  reading  of  a  volume  casually,  and 
while  he  was  engrossed  with  other  subjects.  At  the 
very  first  reading  he  had  felt,  and  had  expressed  to 
Scaliger8,  his  keen  perception  of  the  difference  between 
the  real  learning  of  the  '  Thesaurus  Temporum '  and  the 
'  Annales.'  Besides,  Casaubon  himself  was  in  steady 
growth,  and  in  the  ten  years  which  followed  1598, 
raised  his  standard  of  judging,  and  especially  enlarged 
his  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity. 

He  was  at  first  disposed  to  attribute  the  citation  of 
so  much  apocryphal  literature  to  bad  faith  on  the  part 
of  Baronius.  He  could  not  believe  that  any  one  who 
was  in  the  habit  of  handling  the  remains  of  the  greek 
and  latin  writers,  should  not  know  better.  Here  he 

6  Guy  Patin,  Lettres,  25  f£v.  1660,  to  Falconet. 

7  This  was  well  understood  in  protestant  circles.    See  Cappelli  Vin- 
dicise  pro  Isaaco  Casaubono,  1619:  'Deerat  illi  [Baronio]  sane  lin- 
guarum  orientalium  cognitio,  grsecam  vix  primoribus  labris  delibarat 
disciplinis  mathematicis  imparatus  erat.' 

8  Ep.  175  :  '  Ita  demum  didici    .     .     .    inter  (fnXaXfideiav  et  gratise 
aucupium  interesse  tantum.' 


ON  BARONIUS.  371 

was  undeceived  by  Fra  Paolo,  to  whom  he  had  commu- 
nicated this  suspicion.  While  speaking  meanly  of  the 
work,  the  father  vindicated  the  character  of  the  author. 
*  Those  who  know  the  man,'  he  writes 9  to  Casaubon, 
4  will  not  easily  be  persuaded  to  think  him  dishonest. 
It  is  want  of  mind,  of  critical  knowledge.  I  knew  him 
at  Borne,  before  he  put  himself  in  the  road  to  prefer- 
ment, or  had  got  the  itch  of  writing,  at  -  a  time  when 
the  cure  of  his  soul  was  his  only  business.  I  never 
knew  a  more  simple  being.  He  had  no  opinions  of  his 
own ;  he  caught  up  the  opinions  of  those  he  lived  with, 
and  obstinately  maintained  them,  till  some  new  person 
supplied  him  with  a  new  one.  He  was  without  judg- 
ment, if  you  please  ;  but  "  dolus  malus,"  there  was  none 
about  the  man.  I  cannot  think  that  he  is  an  antagonist 
worthy  of  you ;  and  it  has  always  been  matter  of 
surprise  to  me  that  his  work  should  have  stood  so  high, 
as  it  has,  in  public  esteem/ 

Further  study  of  the  'Annals'  convinced  Casaubon 
of  Baronius'  good  faith.  But  it  was  at  the  expense  of 
his  understanding10.  The  prestige  of  the  work  had 
imposed  upon  him  at  first.  It  had  seemed  impossible 
that  a  history,  which  all  the  world  was  agreed  to  regard 
as  a  learned  work,  should  not  have  some  title  to  be  so 
considered.  He  was  irritated  as  a  scholar  by  the  vogue 
of  an  uiischolarlike  work.  He  lamented,  as  a  citizen, 
the  triumph  of  the  evil  cause.  He  thought  he  could 
not  render  a  better  service  to  the  church  than  by 

9  EP.  8n. 

10  On  one  occasion  Casaubon  is  compelled  to  admire  the  dexterity 
of  Baronius.     It  is  where  Yigilius,  having  become  pope,  has  to  be 
whitewashed.     Adversaria,  3.    103:  'Diligentiee  plus  semper   tribui 
Baronio,   quam  acuminis.  at    cum   video  qua   dexteritate   concinnet 
metamorphosin  Vigilii    .     .     .    non  possum  quin  exclamem,  si  verum 
non  est,  at  est  ingeniose  inventum.' 

B   b   2 


372  CASA  UBON 

exposing  the  spurious  character  of  the  literary  idol  of 
Borne.  It  was  not  Baronius  he  was  going  to  attack, 
but  Italian  erudition,  the  sham  learning  which  the  old 
impostor  wa§  substituting  for  the  sham  miracles  of  the 
dark  ages. 

This  was  the  spirit  in  which  he  set  about  the  '  Exer- 
citationes/  and  had  been  preparing  the  materials  long 
before  he  came  to  England.  If  we  enquire  what  success 
Casaubon  had  in  his  enterprise,  we  shall  be  compelled 
to  admit  that  it  was  not  a  decisive  triumph. 

The  form  in  which  he  cast  his  matter  was  unfor- 
tunate. The  *  Exercitations '  are  a  collection  of  de- 
tached notes  on  the  '  Annals/  They  follow  the  order 
of  the  '  Annals/  but  have  no  other  connection  than  the 
chronological  sequence.  There  is  no  common  thread  of 
argument  to  give  unity  to-  the  composition.  Such  mis- 
cellaneous common-place  books,  as  Hallam11  has  said 
of  Turnebus'  '  Adversaria/  '  can  only  be  read  in  a 
desultory  manner,  or  consulted  upon  occasion/  But 
when  such  notes  are  not  merely  desultory,  but  in  a 
strain  of  censure,  sometimes  descending  to  mere  fault- 
finding, the  reading  becomes  not  only  distracting,  but 
distasteful.  Casaubon  has  sufficient  respect  for  him- 
self and  his  adversary  not  to  descend  to  the  black- 
guard scurrilities  of  the  pamphleteers  of  the  day,  but 
he  is  too  often  calling  upon  the  reader  to  wonder  at  the 
ignorance  and  fatuity  of  Baronius.  His  criticism  wants 
the  repose  of  immeasurable  superiority,  such  as  charac- 
terises the  greatest  critics,  e.  g.  Lobeck's  Aglaophamus12, 
in  his  treatment  of  Creuzer. 

11  Lit.  of  Europe,  i.  482. 

12  Friedlander,    Gedachtnissrede,   p.    1 1  :    '  Der   Ton    des   Aglao- 
phamus bewahrt  im  Ganzen  die  voile  Ruhe  unendlicher  Ueberlegen- 
heit.' 


ON  BARONIUS.  373 

This  great  disadvantage  in  point  of  form,  viz.  that 
the  '  Exercitations '  are  a  critique  of  another  book  and 
follow  its  arrangement,  has  obscured  the  credit  which 
would  otherwise  have  followed  the  same  material  if 
better  arranged.  As  it  is,  the  book  has  formed  a  mine 
of  references  which  have  been  very  useful  to  the  com- 
pilers of  '  notes '  on  the  New  Testament  for  the  last 
2  50  years13.  Nor  is  it  all  attack.  There  are  incor- 
porated in  the  book  some  dissertations  in  which  Cas- 
aubon  comes  forward  to  instruct  the  reader  directly. 
Such  a  portion  are  the  chapters  on  the  different  names 
by  which  the  Eucharist  was  spoken  of  in  the  early 
ages 14 ;  a  chapter  which  has  furnished  Waterland  15 
with  a  great  part  of  his  references  in  chapter  I.  of  his 
'  Review  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist/ 

A  desultory  critique,  passage  by  passage,  of  another 
man's  book,  prolonged  through  nearly  800  pages  in 
folio,  does  not  constitute  attractive  reading.  What 
would  the  '*  Exercitations'  have  been,  if  Casaubon  had 
lived  to  carry  out  his  design  ?  He  proposed  to  set  over 
against  Baronius'  twelve  folios,  volume  for  volume  of 
his  animadversions18.  Of  this  monster  criticism  the 
volume  which  we  have  is  only  the  first  half  of  the  first 
volume — a  mere  fragment ! 

Besides  the  fault  of  their  original  design,  the  'Exerci- 
tations '  have  a  fault  of  execution. 

There  were  two  points  on  which  Baronius  lay 
entirely  at  Casaubon's  mercy,  i.  His  entire  want  of 
greek,  and  of  classical  learning  of  any  kind.  2.  His 

13  See  Crenius,  Animadvv.  p.  123,  for  instances  of  unacknowledged 
borrowing  from  Casaubou's  '  Exercitationes.' 

14  Exercitt.  pp.  500-586.  ed.  Lond.  1614. 

15  "Works,  vol.  7.  pp.  20-43. 

16  Ep.  782  :  '  Duodecim  tomis  totidein  libros  oppono.' 


374  CASA  UBON 

employment  of  the  apocryphal  literature,  and  production 
of  the  roman  fabulous  history,  as  if  it  were  matter-of- 
fact.  Casaubon  could  have  assured  his  victory,  however 
little  worth  it  might  have  been,  had  he  confined  him- 
self to  exposing  the  blunders  of  one  who  thought  that 
the  word  '  missa '  (the  mass)  was  the  term  in  use  at 
Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  S.  James17,  or  the  credulity 
which  relied  on  the  false  Decretals,  which  even  Bellar- 
mine  had  given  up.  But  Casaubon  has  not  confined 
himself  to  matters  of  language  or  history.  He  has  gone 
in  for  theological  controversy,  thus  forsaking  the 
vantage  ground  of  learning,  and  letting  himself  down 
on  that  of  mere  opinion.  When  he  first  planned  the 
work,  he  had  intended,  of  such  matters,  only  to  touch 
what  bore  on  the  regalian  rights18.  He  was  gradually 
led  on  to  other  controverted  points  of  theology.  In- 
deed, he  did  this  sparingly19,  and,  as  the  english 
bishops  thought,  too  sparingly.  Andrewes,  who  looked 
over  the  sheets  wished  *  he  would  not  spend  so  much 
time  on  mere  questions  of  chronology/  Casaubon  was 
hampered  by  his  position  as  protestant  champion. 
Both  his  public  and  his  patron,  expected  to  see  the 
doctrinal  errors  of  Baronius  refuted.  They  thought 
that  Casaubon's  name  would  carry  the  weight  of  his 
authority  in  the  arena  of  religious  dispute.  His  occa- 
sional descent  into  the  sectarian  controversy  has  only 
the  effect  of  lowering  the  tone,  and  obscuring  the  cha- 
racter, of  the  whole  work.  Even  as  a  polemical  success 
the  blow  dealt  at  the  papal  historian  would  have  told 
more,  if  Casaubon  had  confined  himself  to  his  critical 

17  Exercitt.  p.  582. 

18  Prolegomena  in  Exercitt.  :   '  Ilia  solummodo  attingere  consilium 
erat,  quse  ad  jura  principum  pertinent.' 

19  Ep.  795  :  'Mere  theologies  parce  attingo,' 


ON  BARONIUS.  375 

corrections,  which  were  unanswerable,  and  not  committed 
himself  to  disputation  on  mere  matters  of  opinion. 

Hallam  has  expressed  his  opinion  that  2°'in  mere 
theological  learning,  Casaubon  was  behind  some  eng- 
lish  scholars/  These  general  comparisons  of  degrees 

fof  learning  admit  neither  of  being  proved  nor  refuted. 
Of  Englishmen  living  at  the  same  time  as  Casaubon, 
there  are  but  two  who  could  be  brought  into  competi- 
tion with  him,  Selden  and  Andrewes.  But  Selden  was 
only  thirty  years  old  at  the  date  of  Casaubon' s  death, 
and  his  researches  had  lain  in  a  field  not  the  same  as 
those  of  Casaubon.  The  comparison  with  Andrewes  is 
more  possible.  Casaubon  himself  said  of  Andrewes  21 
'  that  he  was  deeply  versed  in  the  fathers/  and  he  was 
certainly  a  man  of  much  greater  originality  of  mind 
than  Isaac  Casaubon.  Yet  Andrewes  could  no  more 
have  wiitten  the  '  Exercitations/  than  Casaubon  could 
have  composed  one  of  Andrewes'  witty  sermons.  From 
the  brilliant  cut,  thrust,  and  parry  of  Andrewes'  pam- 
phlet fencing,  Casaubon' s  dull  matter-of-fact  style  is  far 
removed ;  but  from  a  single  one  of  the  '  Exercitations ' 
there  is  more  to  be  learned  than  from  the  whole  volume 
of.the  «  Tortura  Torti/ 

The  material  facts  of  the  primitive  history  of  the 
Christian  church  lie  in  small  compass,  and  are  in 
Baronius  and  Casaubon  alike.  The  difference  here  is 
not  in  extent  of  reading,  but  in  the  power  of  using 
the  facts.  Casaubon  possesses  them  as  knowledge,  and 
can  reason  upon  them  for  chronological  and  philo- 
logical purposes.  Baronius  amasses  them  as  a  com- 
piler ;  when  he  attempts  to  reason  upon  them,  he 

:0  Lit.  of  Europe,  2.  311. 

21  Adversaria,  28.  4:  '  Soleo  'observare  singula  dicta  viri  sapientis- 
simi,  et  in  patrum  lectione  exercitatissimi,  D.  episcopi  Eliensis.' 


376  CASA  UBON 

falls  into  ludicrous  misconceptions,  and  yet  miscon- 
ceptions not  of  a  nature  which  admit  of  being  made 
very  palpable  to  the  general  reader.  Where  Casaubon 
had  the  greatest  opportunity,  and  where  he  has  not 
used  it,  is  in  the  legendary  character  of  Baronius'  whole 
construction.  Baronius  has  swept  into  his  repertory 
everything  that  could  be  found,  true  or  false,  probable 
or  absurd.  The  anile  fables,  and  apocryphal  legends, 
which  had  accumulated  round  the  scanty  nucleus  of 
the  early  Christian  story,  are  consecrated  in  the  'Annals' 
as  serious  portions  of  church  history.  He  makes, 
indeed,  some  faint  effort  to  discriminate.  Though  he 
inserts  everything,  yet  he  sometimes  expresses  a  doubt 
of  his  apocryphal  narratives,  e.  g.22  of  the  dialogue 
between  S.  Paul  and  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  at 
Athens.  He  rejects  the  Constantine  endowment,  but 
it  is  on  the  a  priori  ground  that  it  would  be  un- 
worthy of  the  church  to  have  accepted,  as  a  gift  from 
the  emperor,  what  it  already  held  'jure  divino.'  This 
modest  beginning  of  criticism,  like  that  of  Bochary 
who  would  reduce  the  600000  traditions  of  Islam  to 
70000,  was  unacceptable  to  the  high  party.  Baronius 
is  severely  taken  to  task  for  his  doubts  by  the  Spanish 
Jesuit,  a  Castro,  and  the  dominican,  John  de  la  Puente. 
Baronius  is  too  sceptical  for  the  Spanish  taste.  The 
fact  that  Casaubon  has  not  used  his  advantage  in  this 
respect  betrays  his  own  limitation  as  a  historical  critic. 
He  constantly  notices  Baronius'  recourse  to  apocryphal 
authorities,  but  it  was  not  in  him  to  take  his  stand 
on  the  broad  principle  of  historical  investigation,  and 
to  require  that  church  history  should  be  subjected  to 
the  same  rigid  scrutiny  as  all  history.  If  he  expresses 
a  doubt  of23  Hydaspes,  Hermes,  and  the  Sibylline 
22  Annales  eccles.  52.  10.  23.Exercitt.  i.  10. 


ON  BARON  I  US.  377 

•racles,  it  is  not  on  critical  grounds,  but  on  the  a  priori 
improbability  that  God  would  have  allowed  the  Gen- 
liles  to  have  had  fuller  prevision  of  the  gospel  revela- 
tion than  was  granted  to  the  Jews.  The  genuineness 
>f  the  epistles  of  Ignatius  he  is  ready  to  establish 24  by 
new  arguments.  He  knows  the  late  date  of  the 
25<  Areopagitica/  but  then  here  he  had  Valla,  Erasmus, 
and  Scaliger  to  enlighten  him.  Epiphanius  26fis  far 
:oo  ready  to  give  credence  to  trifling  fables/  and  the 
?athers  generally,  both  greek  and  latin,  often  blunder 
in  matters  of  history27.  But  these  same  fathers,  in 
matters  of  doctrine,  become  authorities ;  they  are 
appealed  to  by  Casaubon  as  judges  in  the  last  instance. 
The  appeal  indeed  is  not  to  the  individual  father,  but 
to  him  as  representing  the  belief  of  the  church  of  his 
time.  As  an  argumentum  ad  hominem  against  Baro- 
nius,  who  maintained  that  the  church  had  never  varied 
in  doctrine  or  belief,  and  had  been  throughout  what 
it  now  was,  this  appeal  was  admissible  as  a  contro- 
versial expedient.  But  Casaubon  goes  much  beyond 
ihis,  and  thinks  that  in  ascertaining  the  opinions  of  a 
ather  he  is  not  merely  learning  the  opinion  of  a  given 
period  of  the  church,  but  obtaining  truth  valid  for  all 
ages.  Baronius'  'Annals'  was  a  lengthy  pleading,  a 
Damphlet  in  twelve  volumes  folio,  in  support  of  the 
authority  of  the  existing  church.  Casaubon5  s  *Exer- 
citations '  is  among  the  earliest  of  the  array  of  anglo- 
catholic  attempts  to  set  up  the  authority  of  '  Antiquity/ 
as  the  canon  of  religious  truth. 

If  the  fathers  are,  to  this  extent,  placed  above  the 

24  Exercitt.  16.  150. 

26  Ibid.  16.  43.  p.  565.  26  Ibid.  15.  7. 

27  Exercitt.  1.2:  'In  historia,  et  in  iis,  quse  fidei  non  suut,  graviter 
lallucinari.' 


378  CASA  UBON 

application  of  historical  interpretation,  much  more  are 
the  canonical  books.  In  his  notes  on  the  N.  T.  (1587) 
Isaac  Casaubon  had  shown  a  disposition  to  follow  the 
true  path  of  philological  interpretation.  Taking  given 
words,  what  does  the  language  require  that  they 
should  mean  \  This  principle  of  exegesis  was  not  so 
difficult  of  application  while,  as  an  annotator,  he  was 
dealing  with  each  passage  singly.  Now,  when  he 
has  to  consider  the  collective  effect  of  a  number  of 
collated  passages,  he  allows  it  to  be  overridden  by 
the  theological  principle,  the  so-called  'harmonia  dic- 
torum  biblicorum/  Statements  in  the  gospels  musti 
be  reconciled  'per  fas  atque  nefas.'  Many  pages  e.g. 
are  wasted  over  the  discrepancy  as  to  the  day  on 
which  the  Passover  was  eaten.  Baronius  defends  the 
common  view  which  makes  the  fourth  gospel  conform 
to  the  synoptics  ;  Casaubon  the  opposite,  which  squares 
the  synoptics  by  S.  John.  But  Casaubon,  equally  with 
Baronius,  assumes  that  it  would  be  '  blasphemous '  to 
suppose  discrepancy  in  point  of  fact28. 

It  is  creditable  to  Casaubon  that,  in  a  period  of 
theological  excitation,  when  religious  passion  was  daily 
translating  itself  into  overt  acts  of  violence,  he  treats 
his  opponent,  if  not  with  courtesy,  at  least  with  respect. 
Yet  his  anger  is  occasionally  roused  by  Baronius' 
blundering  misconstruction  of  everything  he  touches; 
and  when  he  has  occasion  to  speak  of  the  fry  of 
pamphleteers,  he  is  not  seldom  savage 29,  and  sinks  into 
the  tone  of  the  railing  divine.  But  though  he  ob- 

28  Exercitt.  p.  466  :  '  Mira  res  et  vix  credenda  de  hominibus  qui 
dici  se  christianos  et  haberi  postularent  ...  (to  say  that)  M atthseum, 
Marcum,  Lucam  in  teniporis  circumstantia  lapses,  ab  Johanne  esse 
correctos.' 

29  See  Exercitt.  p.  513. 


ON  BARONIUS.  379 

ves  the  forms  of  civility  which  the  cardinal's  public 
)osition  and  private  character  imposed,  it  is  clear  that 
Dasaubon's  respect  for  his  opponent  diminished,  instead 
)f  increased,  as  he  subjected  his  work  to  closer  exami- 
lation.  He  came  to  recognise  that  the  demolition  of 
Baronius  was  scarcely  a  work  of  criticism  at  all,  and 
that  Fra  Paolo  had  been  right  in  telling  him  that 
Baronius  was  not  an  antagonist  worthy  of  him.  In 
March  1612,  he  writes  to  Grotius30,  '  I  begin  to  realise 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  I  have  undertaken,  now 
when  it  is  impossible  to  back  out  of  it.  Not  that 
I  have  much  trouble  in  confuting  Baronius'  sing-song, 
mostly  childish  stuff,  the  man  himself  without  learning, 
letters,  or  theology.  What  costs  me  most  effort  is  the 
extra  work  I  have  imposed  on  myself,  viz.  to  set  out, 
under  each  head  of  controversy,  what  was  the  belief 
of  antiquity/ 

The  dissemination  and  permanence  of  books  depends 
on  many  various  causes.  Criticism  goes  for  very  little  ; 
'  habent  sua  fata.'  *  Les  classes  influentes  ne  sont  plus 
celles  qui  lisent,'  writes  de  Tocqueville 31,  '  un  livre, 
quelque  soit  son  succes,  n'ebranle  done  point  1' esprit 
public/  It  would  be  difficult  to  show  that  the  reputa- 
tion of  Baronius  was  sensibly  affected  by  Casaubon's 
review.  The  *  Annals'  sank  under  their  own  defects, 
and  the  change  in  public  taste.  The  hagiological 
temper  in  the  reading  parts  of  Europe,  which  had 
enjoyed  a  forced  reviviscence  during  the  catholic  reac- 
tion, could  not  maintain  itself.  Baronius  was  enter- 
taining reading.  As  such  Scaliger  had  read  the  first 

30  Ep.  779  :  'ISTeque  in  confutandis  nseniis  Baronianis  magnus  mihi 
labor ;  pueriles  ssepe  sunt ;  ipse  indoctus,  apovo-os, 

31  Corresp.  29  juillet,  1856. 


380  CASA  UBON 

eight  volumes  in  one  summer 32 ;  a  feat,  even  of  eye- 
sight, for  a  man  over  sixty 33,  and  occupied  in  his  work- 
ing hours  with  a  laborious  undertaking  of  his  own.  In 
this  respect  the  competition  of  the  secular  romance, 
which  came  in  in  the  ijth  century,  tended  to  throw 
hagiography  into  the  shade.  But  the  decline  of  Baro- 
nius' reputation  for  learning,  which,  we  learn  from  Les- 
toile34,  began  before  Casaubon  wrote,  injured  it  more. 

Because  the  '  Annals '  did  not  sink  out  of  sight  at 
the  touch  of  the  enchanter's  wand,  the  '  Exercitations ' 
were  proclaimed  a  failure  by  exulting  enemies  and 
disappointed  friends.  The  Savile  set  were  happy  to 
think  that  Casaubon  could  not  do  what  he  had  pre- 
vented them  from  doing 35.  Eichard  Montagu  laments36 
that  the  very  learned  Isaac  Casaubon  was  not  a  theo- 
logian ;  that  he  followed  Scaliger  even  in  his  paradoxes ; 
that  he  made  much  of  trifles — critica  titivillitia ;  that 
he  spent  all  his  labour  on  the  volume  of  the  gospel 
history,  and  not  on  the  later  periods ;  that  he  allows 
himself  in  irrelevant  digressions.  These  were  things 
that  could  be  said  at  the  time  by  the  envious  f  friends.' 
He  did  not  please  his  immediate  patrons,  the  bishops, 
who  wished  now  that  Casaubon  had  handled  Baronius 
a  little  more  roughly37.  Like  their  successors  in  the 
1 8th  century,  who  regretted  Butler's  '  want  of  vigour 38,' 
they  had  no  means  of  knowing  which  was  in  the  right, 

32  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  24  :  '  Tota  sestate  octo  ejus  volumina  legi.' 

33  Vol.  8  of  the  '  Annales '  came  out  in  1600. 

34  Registre-journal,  16  Jan.  160*7  :  l  Baronius  depuis  un  peu  a  perdu 
beaucoup  de  sa  reputation.'  35  See  below,  p.  422. 

36  Apparatus  ad  Origines  eccles.  praef.  §  65  seq.,  and  app.  p.  136. 

37  Colonies,  Bibl.  choisie,  p.  151  :  '  Les  eveques  auroient  souhaite' 
que  Casaubon  cut  traite   Baronius  un   peu  plus   rudement  qu'il  ne 
faisoit,  a  quoi  sa  candeur  et  sa  modestie  ne  puvent  jamais  consentir.' 

38  Byrom's  Journal,  March,  1737. 


ON  BARON  I  US.  381 

;ind  thought  want  of  passion  a  sign  of  weakness.  The 
•puritan  party  wished  to  see  Baronius  well  abused,  and 
charged  with  disaffection  the  man  who  would  not  stoop 
:o  do  it 39.  To  take  up  what  Casaubon  left  unachieved, 
has  been  a  favourite  project  with  the  protestant  party. 
Richard  Montagu  went  over  the  same  ground  again, 
to  show  how  Casaubon  ought  to  have  done  it,  but 
could  not,  in  his  '  Analecta  exercitationum  ecclesiasti- 
carum/  Gerard  John  Voss  had  written,  and  was 
encouraged  by  Laud,  then  bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
to  publish  something,  which  never  appeared,  of  the 
kind40.  Nor  is  anything  more  known  of  the  work  of 
Jacques  Godefroy,  which  he  offered  to,  and  which 
was  approved  by,  the  synod  of  Charenton  in  i63i41. 
Blondel,  Magendie,  Flottemanville,  published  critical 
remarks  or  corrections  of  Baronius42. 

Such  was  the  opinion  of  contemporaries.  As  for  the 
judgment  of  posterity,  there  is  none  worth  mentioning 
to  record.  The  '  mot'  on  the  catholic  side,  '  that  Cas- 
aubon had  only  knocked  down  a  few  battlements  of 
Baronius'  building,'  is  worth  as  little  as  that  which 
Almeloveen 43  opposes  to  it,  '  that  if  he  did  not  kill 
Baronius,  he  inflicted  deep  wounds/  The  last  professed 
criticism  is  that  of  Leclerc  written  in  the  year  1 709 44. 

59  Montac.  app.  prsef.  §  75  :  '  Ut  contumeliis  incesserem  et  opprobriis, 
quod  nostri  vellent,  et  non  factum  accusantur  (sic).' 

40  Laud  to  Voss.  ap.  Colomie's,  p.  153;  and  see  Vossii  Epistolse, 
2.  p.  66. 

41  Quick,  Synodicon,  2.  302. 

42  A.  Wood,  Fasti,  1611  :  'James  Martin,  of  Broadgates  Hall,  had 
ended  his  work  against  Baronius,  but  what  that  was  he  tells  us  not, 
neither  in  truth  can   I  tell.'     No  wonder  A.  Wood  could  not  tell. 
Casaubon,  writing  to  Martin,  tells  him  that  he  (Casaubon)  has  nearly 
ended   his   work    on    Baronius.       This    is    the    only   foundation    for 
A.  Wood's  statement. 

43  Vita  Gas.  p.  58.  44  Bibl.  choisie,  19.  229. 


382  CASAUBON 

He    savs    that  Casaubon,    *  in    undertaking   to   refute 
*/  * 

Baronius,  had  undertaken  a  work  above  his  strength. 
i.  He  had  not  sufficiently  meditated  the  first  principles 
of  theology.  2.  He  had  not  sufficient  knowledge  of 
chronology.  3.  He  was  not  sufficiently  read  in  Christian 
antiquity,  but  had  only  got  it  up  for  the  purpose  of 
this  book.'  I  only  cite  this  criticism  because  it  is  that 
which  the  biographies  to  this  day  continue  to  repro- 
duce as  a  judicious  summing  up  of  the  case.  All  that 
it  proves  is,  that  famous  reviewers  in  1709  judged  of 
books  without  reading  them,  and  that  we  copy  their 
judgments. 

No  one  was  less  satisfied  with  his  work  than  the 
author  himself.  It  was  but  a  fragment  of  his  vast 
scheme.  He  designed,  if  he  lived,  a  continuation  of  it, 
but  on  a  more  constructive  plan.  He  proposed45  to 
exhibit  an  impartial  picture  of  the  internal  and  external 
form  of  the  ancient  church.  This  wish  was  never 
fulfilled.  Among  the  Adversaria 46  are  some  very  short 
notes  on  the  later  volumes  of  Baronius,  some  of  which 
are  printed  by  Wolf47.  The  single  volume  of  the 
'  Exercitationes '  is  all  that  was  ever  realised  of  the 
vast  schemes  of  ecclesiastical  history  which  had  been 
conceived  early  in  the  Genevan  period,  and  which  had 
been  postponed,  but  never  given  up.  In  1596,  set.  37, 
rising  fresh  and  confident,  rather  than  exhausted,  from 
his  long  labour  on  Athenaeus,  he  announced  to  Borigars48 
that  he  should  now  proceed  to  Polybius ;  *  after  which, 
if  I  live,  with  God's  aid  I  shall  put  my  hand  to  a 
greater  undertaking.  I  desire  to  set  an  example  to 
men  of  our  side,  how  that  leaving  these  gladiatorial 
fencing-matches,  so  mischievous  to  the  Christian  world, 

48  Ep.  950.  46  Tom.  3.  and  torn.  14. 

47  Casauboniana,  pp.  123-180.  ,48  Ep.  1008. 


ON  BARON1US.  383 

hey  should  turn  themselves  to  the  illustration  of  the 
ioly  fathers,  and  the  affairs  of  the  primitive  church.' 

How  sad  must  have  appeared  to  himself  the  contrast 
jetween  the  promise  and  the  performance  eighteen  years 
tater !  Writers  are  apt  to  flatter  themselves  that  they 
are  not,  like  the  men  of  action,  the  slaves  of  circum- 
stance. They  think  they  can  write  what  and  when 
they  choose.  But  it  is  not  so.  Whatever  we  may 
think  and  scheme,  as  soon  as  we  seek  to  produce  our 
thoughts  or  schemes  to  our  fellow-men,  we  are  involved 
in  the  same  necessities  of  compromise,  the  same  grooves 
of  motion,  the  same  liabilities  to  failure  or  half-measures, 
as  we  are  in  life  and  action.  Compared  with  the  vast 
designs  we  frame  in  youth,  all  production  seems  a  petty 
and  abortive  effort ! 


7. 
LONDON;    ELY;    CAMBRIDGE. 

l6lO — 1614. 

CASAUBON  is  apt  to  complain  of  the  reluctance  be 
finds  in  himself  to  put  pen  to  paper.  When  he  did 
do  so,  his  hand  moved  with  rapidity.  '  Fervet  opus/ 
he  says  of  the  review  of  Baronius  1,  and  it  is 
strictly  true.  He  began  to.  turn  his  attention  to  the 
subject  early  in  the  year  1612,  some  time  about  the 
middle  of  January.  He  was  revolving  the  matter  for 
several  weeks,  and  directing  his  reading  towards 
the  period  comprised  in  Baronius'  first  volume.  But 
in  such  a  wide  field  reading  was  not  yet  become 
search,  and  he  has  freedom  enough  of  mind  to  be 
enjoying  S.  Chrysostom,  in  Savile's  magnificent  edition, 
which  was  then  in  progress2.  On  March  23  he  is 
ready  to  sketch  a  plan  in  outline  of  the  work  he  is 
to  write3.  On  April  27  he  begins  to  compose4.  'After 
long  deliberation,  meditation,  preparation,  I  set  myself 
seriously  to  work  on  my  criticism  of  Baronius,  may 
God  bless  the  undertaking!  Thou,  merciful  Jesus, 
knowest  that  it  is  not  vanity,  or  desire  of  empty  fame, 

1  Ep.  923. 

2  Eph.  p.  926:  'In  Chrysostoino  fui  et  hodie,  legique  multa  illiue, 
prsesertim  quse  scripsit  in  cap.  6.  Johannis.' 

3  Eph.  p.  923.  4  Eph.  p.  928. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  385 

which  moves  me  to  undertake  a  work  of  such  magni- 
tude, but  the  single  purpose  of  defending  truth ! ' 

At  first  he  writes  out  detached  criticisms.  On 
July  27  he  records  the  commencement  of  the  con- 
tinuous text  of  his  book5.  His  progress,  rapid  as  it 
seems  to  us,  was  not  answerable  to  his  own  fervid  im- 
patience. On  August  12,  he  writes6,  'I  never  quit 
my  work,  and  yet  I  do  not  get  on  as  I-  should  like.' 
He  toiled  on,  '  sweating,  more  than  enough '  (sudavi 
plus  satis  per  hos  intensissimos  calores)  through  the 
hot  months,  refusing  the  bishop's  invitation  to  go 
with  him  into  his  diocese,  and  on  the  last  day  of 
the  year  could  congratulate  himself  on  having  reached 
the  40oth  page7.  On  April  20,  1613,  he  announced 
to  de  Thou  that  he  had  arrived  at  the  end  of  so 
much  as  he  meant  to  publish8  as  a  first  instalment, 
— of  the  whole,  that  is,  of  the  book  as  it  now  stands. 
On  May  16  the  rough  draft  has,  by  successive  writ- 
ing and  rewriting  of  parts,  been  brought  to  a  state 
in  which  he  can  begin  copying  it  out  for  press.  He 
now  allows  himself  a  little  holiday,  the  first  since  he 
began  the  work  in  the  January  of  1612.  He  visits 
Oxford,  though,  in  this  visit,  he  has  partly  in  view 
to  make  extracts  from  books  in  the  Bodleian,  not 
to  be  had  in  London.  On  his  return,  on  June  9, 
he  begins  to  write  out  for  press,  and  sends  off  the 

5  Eph.    p.    928  :    'Hodie   observationes   in   Baronium   serio   sum 
aggressus ;  nam  hactenus  magis  paravi  subsidia  ad  scribendum  quam 
scrips! ;  nunc,  deo  duce  ...  ad  opus  manum  admovi.' 

6  Ep.  830:    'Equidem  nullum   tempus  intermitto;  etsi  quantum 
promoveam  me  sane  pceniteret.' 

7  Eph.  p.  958. 

8  Ep.  883  :  '  Perveni,  dei  beneficio,  ad  finem  ejus  partis  quam  nunc 
sum  editurus,  quae  etsi  satis  erit  magna,  ultra  Domini  vitam  tamen 
non  pertinget.' 

C   C 


386  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

copy  to  the  printer  as  fast  as  he  gets  it  done.  On 
June  1 8  printing  begins.  The  compositor  is  not 
lacking  in  industry,  but  does  not  work  up  to  the 
author's  impatience,  and  being  king's  printer,  is  taken 
off  occasionally9.  Casaubon  can  keep  ahead  of  the 
press.  In  August,  the  production  was  at  the  rate  of 
a  *  folio '  =  four  pages  in  folio,  per  day,  at  which  rate 
Casaubon  calculates  it  wiU  require  150  days  to  finish 10. 
He  hoped  it  would  be  out  by  the  new  year.  Gradually 
this  date  receded;  'You  know  what  it  is  to  get  a 
book  through  the  press/  he  writes  to  de  Thou n.  On 
November  18,  he  has  passed  the  5ooth  page,  but 
there  are  220  pp.  more  to  come,  and  the  intro- 
ductory epistle,  etc.  to  write  yet.  On  February  14  he 
finishes  the  epistle  to  the  reader,  and  at  last,  on 
March  23,  the  volume  is  presented  to  the  king.  If 
it  had  not  been  for  the  publisher,  Bill,  the  volume, 
it  seems,  would  not  have  ended  at  page  773.  The 
author  could,  and  would,  have  gone  on  indefinitely, 
but  the  publisher  insisted  upon  getting  it  out  in 
time  for  the  Easter  Frankfort  fair,  and  Casaubon  had 
to  leave  out  part  of  his  long  discussion  on  the  Eu- 
charist. After  all,  the  copies  which  went  to  Frank- 
fort, went  without  the  prolegomena,  which  could  not 
be  printed  off  in  time12. 

The  whole  work,  from  the  first  preparatory  notes  to 
the  day  of  publication,  was   achieved   in    two   years 

9  Ep.  931  :  'Operse,  etsi  illse  quidem  non  cessant,  segnius  tamen 
pergunt  quam  ut  incitatse  cupiditati  mese  faciant  satis/     Eph.  p.  991  : 
'  Operis  inchoati  editio  cessat.' 

10  Ep.  906  :  '  Quotidie  folium  unum  editur  ;  ita  duratura  est  hsec 
editio  dies  fpyao-ipovs  centum  et  quinquaginta  plus  minus.' 

11  Ep.  931  :  'Non  te  fugit  quid  sit  libros  edere.' 

12  Ep.  941. 


LONDON.     1610  — 1614.  387 

ind  two  months.  Casaubon  shrank  from  no  drudgery. 
He  had  written  over  the  whole,  with  his  own  hand, 
two  or  three  times ;  parts  of  it  even  four  times 13, 
adding  much  at  each  revision,  though  also  rejecting 
much  as  unsatisfactory  upon  review 14.  The  indexes 
even  he  must  make  himself15,  a  fact  which  accounts 
for  their  excellence. 

The  mere  clerical  labour  undergone '  was  severe 
for  one  in  broken  health.  In  a  book  depending  so 
largely  on  textual  authorities,  the  mere  reference  in- 
volves great  toil.  Yet  mere  reference  was  the  lightest 
part  of  what  had  to  be  done.  It  is  a  comparatively 
easy  thing  to  accumulate  citation.  Exhaustive  re- 
search is  a  different  process, — a  process,  which,  while 
it  has  much  fatiguing  exertion  of  eye  and  memory, 
derives  its  whole  value  from  the  intelligence  which 
directs  it,  and  is  engaged  in  sifting  the  material. 
It  was  here  a  great  disadvantage  to  him  that  he 
was  without  his  own  copies  of  the  necessary  books, 
copies  in  which  he  knew  his  way  about,  guided  by 
the  finger-posts  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  mark- 
ing in  the  margin  as  aids  to  the  memory,  '  quos  usu 
contrivi.'  Yet  the  citations  actually  made  use  of  in 
the  'Exercitations'  were  only  a  small  part  of  the 
whole  he  had  accumulated 16.  '  I  have  surpassed  the 
most  diligent  in  diligence,'  he  says 17.  *  Erycius 
Puteanus,  who  writes  that  I  am  abandoning  myself 

13  EP.  93i. 

14  Eph.  942  :  <  Qusedam  hodie,  sed  quse  mox  displicuerunt.' 

15  Eph.  1037  :  'Illiberales  istse  curae  de  iudicibus/ 

16  Ep.   931  :   *  Exhaurire   adversaria    mea   si  voluero,   ante   annos 
aliquot  non  possim  manum  de  tabula.' 

7  Epp.  844.  923:  l  Qui  putant  me  rpvfyqv  in  hac  aula,  et  literis 
anoTa^aadai  ut  scribit  Puteanus,  parum  riorunt  serumnas  laboriosissimse 
vitae  raese ! ' 

C    C    2 


388  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

to  the  sloth  and  luxury  of  a  court,  and  have  re- 
nounced letters,  can  have  little  notion  of  the  hard 
and  laborious  life  I  lead!'  Of  this  research  there 
could  be  no  record.  It  is  merged  in  the  recurrent 
formula  of  the  diary,  '  hodie  studia ;  or  ra  eyKVK\ia. 
In  such  enquiries,  how  many  volumes  have  to  be 
gone  through  from  which  nothing  is  reaped !  Weary- 
ing as  his  task-reading  must  have  been,  his  recrea- 
tion was  only  reading  again.  In  September  1612, 
e.  g.  we  find  him  spending  his  *  leisure  hours ' 18  on  a 
MS.  rabbinical  commentary.  At  another  time  he  reads19 
a  pamphlet  sent  him  by  the  king,  'Trois  tres  excel- 
lentes  predications/  etc.,  '  not  worth  spending  a  moment 
on,  but  for  the  passages  in  which  the  preachers  unite 
in  lauding  the  doctrine  of  parricide/ 

It  is  only  occasionally  that  the  name  of  the  book  read 
is  entered  in  the  diary.  From  the  commencement  of 
the  '  Exercitations'  to  the  end,  i.  e.  two  years  arid  a 
half,  the  following  are  all  that  are  chronicled  :  Cyprian ; 
Chrysostom ;  '  many  pieces  of  him  /  (  good  books,  espe- 
cially Chrysostom  /  *  homilies  of  Chrysostom  /  Chrono- 
logy of  Liveley  in  MS.  ;  Jael  Moris,  B.M.  ;  Dionysius 
Areopagita  ;  '  Lutheran  books ; '  Hospinian,  Historia 
sacra ;  Kainolds,  Liber  Prselectionum  ;  (Ecolampadius, 
Dialogue  on  the  Eucharist,  read  with  '  admiration  of  the 
learning  of  the  man,  and  his  acquaintance  with  the 
greek  fathers  ;'  Sermons  of  S.  Augustine  ;  Tostati ;  and 
June  n,  1614,  'much  in  S.  Augustine/  This  is  the  last 
book  mentioned  as  read.  Comparing  this  list  with  the 
'  Exercitations/  we  see  how  far  the  diary  is  from  being 
any  record  of  the  reading  done  at  the  time.  The  '  Ex- 

18  Ep.    832:    '  Quicquid    superest   vacui   temporis,    ejus   magnam 
partem  impendo  lectioni  commentarii  Hebraic!  in  Pirke  Avot.' 

19  Adversaria,  torn.  28. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  389 

'^citations'  quote  nearly  300  different  authors,  reckoning 
^ke  Councils  only  as  one,  and  taking  no  account  of  the 
';exts  of  scripture  quoted.  Though  the  '  Adversaria'  are 
mostly  without  date,  yet  some  of  the  extracts  from 
books  can  be  identified  as  belonging  to  the  last  two 
years,  e.g.  Tostati  is  only  named  on  one  day  in  the 
diary  20.  But  we  find  from  a  note  in  the  Adversaria21, 
that  he  had  gone  through  the  voluminous  commentary 
on  S.  Matthew,  which  could  hardly  be  done  in  a  part  of 
a  day. 

We  have  seen  how  Casaubon  groaned  over  the  self- 
imposed  task  of  editing  Athenaeus 22  and  longed  to 
have  done  with  it.  The  more  serious  labour  of  refuting 
Baronius,  on  which  others  had  engaged  him,  he  held  to 
with  unflagging  zest.  He  only  took  one  holiday  in  the 
two  years  and  two  months,  and  that  was  for  a  short 
visit  to  Oxford.  During  the  whole  of  his  english  resi- 
dence, he  made  in  all  four  country  excursions,  his  atten- 
dances at  court  not  included.  In  Feb.  1611  he  went  to 
Dover  to  meet  and  escort  Madame  Casaubon.  In  April, 
he  paid  a  visit  to  sir  Henry  Savile  at  Eton.  In  August 
he  went  with  the  bishop  of  Ely  into  his  diocese,  and 
resided  with  him  at  Downham  for  two  months. 

It  was  Andrewes'  custom  to  spend  three  months  in  the 
summer  in  his  diocese.  The  air  of  the  fens  did  not  agree 
with  him 23,  but,  had  it  been  otherwise,  his  many  duties 
required  his  presence  in  town  the  greater  part  of  the 

:0  Prid.  kal.  Aug.  1613:  '  Reliquum  diem  in  Tostato  posui  viro 
magno,  ut  illis  teraporibus,  et  pio.' 

21  Advers.  torn.  28  :'  Tostati  obiter  quaedam  observabamus  cum  ejus 
vastum  commentarium  in  Matthaeum  percurreremus.' 

22  See  above,  p.  123. 

23  Isaacson,  Life  and  Death,  etc.,  p.  xxix  :  <  The  air  of  that  place 
not  agreeing  with  the  constitution  of  his  body.' 


390  CAMBRIDGE;   ELY.     1611. 

year 24.  We  have  seen  above25  the  force  of  the  mutual 
attraction  which  brought  these  two  men  together.  On 
November  5,  1610,  in  the  very  first  days  of  Casaubon's 
arrival  in  town,  they  had  a  conversation  of  some  hours, 
in  which  the  knowledge  and  sense  of  Andrewes  greatly 
impressed  Casaubon 26.  On  November  24,  the  bishop, 
who  is  hard  at  work,  the  king  urging  him,  on  his  answer 
to  Bellarmine,  reads  part  of  it  to  Casaubon  and  the  dean, 
that  he  may  have  their  corrections.  From  this  time 
Casaubon  sees  the  bishop  almost  daily27.  It  seemed 
almost  matter  of  course  that  when  Andrewes  quitted 
town  for  his  diocese  he  should  take  Casaubon  with  him. 
They  started  July  26,  (1611),  and  stopt  at  Cam- 
bridge, which  it  took  them  two  days  to  reach.  Here 
they  were  lodged  at  Peterhouse,  of  which  the  bishop  was 
visitor.  Ths  master,  Eichardson,  was  a  man  of  some 
reading;  at  least  he  had  read  in  his  youth,  and  in  a  line 
of  reading  not  very  common — he  knew  something  of 
the  imperialist  chroniclers.  The  dispute  between  the 
emperor  Henry  iv.  and  the  see  of  Rome  was  a  subject 
that  interested  Casaubon  just  now,  and  Eichardson 
obliged  him  with  the  loan  of  books  on  the  subject  and 
others28  toDownham.  Four  years  after  Casaubon's  visit, 
1615,  Richardson  was  promoted  to  the  mastership  of 
Trinity.  Casaubon  *  will  excuse  the  notes  which  he  had 
scribbled  many  years  ago  on  the  margin  of  his  Optatus 
Milevitanus,  and  which  were  only  intended  as  aids  to 

24  It  would  seem  that  the  bishops  of  Ely  were  habitual  non-residents. 
Masters,  Life  of  Baker,  dedic.,  speaks  of  BP.  York's  '  unusual  residence 
in  his  diocese.'  25  See  p.  328. 

26  Eph.  p.  783  :  *  Cum  sapientissimo  et  doctissimo  viro  D.  Episcopo 
Eliensi  aliquot  horas  posui.' 

27  Ep.  754  :  '  Mihi  cum  illo  pnesule  quotidiana  consuetudo  inter- 
cedit.'  28  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  350. 


ELY.     1611.  391 

memory.'  The  next  morning  Casaubon  was  shown 
over  the  colleges  by  his  old  correspondent  Richard 
Thomson,  who,  though  it  was  vacation,  was  to  be  found 
in  Clare  Hall.  After  dining  at  Peterhouse,  the  bishop 
and  Casaubon  went  on  to  Downham,  making  a  call 
upon  the  dean  at  Ely,  by  the  way. 

In  this  summer  retreat  in  the  country,  Casaubon 
enjoyed  forty-eight  days  of  peace  and  leisure,  without 
the  daily  urgency  of  a  literary  task.  These  few  weeks 
were  all  of  english  country  life  he  was  destined  to 
see.  The  flat  fen  of  Donnington  is  not  a  favourable 
specimen  of  our  rural  scenery,  but  Casaubon  thought 
it  beautiful 29,  coming  from  S.  Mary  Axe.  Though  he 
had  lived  at  Montpellier,  he  thought  the  apricots  of 
the  isle  of  Ely  rivalled  those  of  France  in  flavour. 
He  was  struck  with  the  wealthy  appearance  of  the 
country.  He  saw  something  of  provincial  life,  ac- 
companying the  bishop  on  a  progress,  or  visitation, 
which  he  made  to  Wisbech  and  the  neighbourhood. 
Here  Casaubon,  who  was  a  keen  observer  of  anything 
new,  made  acquaintance  with  the  bittern  and  the 
bustard,  with  turf  fires  and  stilts.  He  enquired  into 
the  fattening  of  godwits  for  the  London  market ;  into 
the  manufacture  of  rape  seed ;  the  culture  of  hemp ; 
the  construction  of  the  Ely  '  lantern.'  He  was  pleased 
at  being  able  to  verify,  in  the  isle  of  Ely,  the  descrip- 
tion in  the  '  Panegyrici 30 '  of  the  trembling  bog  in 
the  Low  countries.  The  current  volume  of  the  diary 
was  taken  down  to  Downham,  but  on  this  progress 
Casaubon  allowed  himself  to  be  separated  from  it. 
He  made  the  notes  of  these  six  days  on  a  separate 

29  Eph.  p.  865  :  '  Ipse  ager  Dunnitoniensis  et  re  et  specie  pulcher- 
rimus  est,' 

30  Eumenius  Paneg.  Constant!!,  c.  8. 


392  ELY.     1611. 

sheet  of  paper,  which  is  still  preserved  among  his 
Adversaria,  and  on  his  return  to  Downham  copied 
them  into  the  diary. 

His  greatest  pleasure  in  this  retreat  was  the  conver- 
sation of  the  bishop,  from  whom  he  was  not  willing  to 
be  parted 33.  But  they  could  not  be  together  all  day, 
and  Casaubon  could  not  do  without  books.  It  should 
seem  that  in  bishop  Cox's  spacious  palace,  on  which 
Andre wes  also 34,  during  his  ten  years'  occupancy,  ex- 
pended a  considerable  sum,  there  was  no  library.  The 
bishops  had  no  official  libraries.  Andrewes  had  a  very 
choice  collection  of  his  own,  but  they  were  in  London 35. 
During  his  three  months'  abode  at  Downham  he  de- 
pended on  supplies  from  Cambridge.  The  master  of 
Peterhouse  undertook  to  supply  Casaubon,  but  seems 
to  have  ill-taken  the  measure  of  his  voracious  ap- 
petite36. In  these  days  in  which  he  was  reading,  not 
to  write,  but  simply  for  reading  sake,  he  read  Baronius, 
'  Praescriptiones  adversus  hgereticos  ; '  Camerarius,  '  Vita 
Melanchthonis;'  Id.  'Epistolae;'  Whitaker,  'Contra 
Campianum  ;'  Eunapius;  Optatus  Milevitanus  ;  several 
volumes  of  the  writers  on  the  dispute  between  the 
emperor  and  the  pope,  published  by  G-oldast.  These 
last  were  new  to  him,  being  only  just  published.  The 
others  he  had  read  before,  and  had  not  asked  for. 
They  were  Richardson's  selection  for  him.  But  Casau- 
bon, famished  as  he  was,  was  not  nice  in  his  choice, 


33  Eph.  864  :  '  Libenter  facio  ut  a  tanto  viro  ne  divellar.' 

34  £2440  altogether  on  Ely  House,  Downham,  and  Wisbech  Castle. 
See  Isaacson,  Life  and  Death,  p.  xv. 

35  See  Andrewes,  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  cxiv. 

315  Burney  MSS.  365.  p.  350  :  '  Credo  te  librorum  tibi  cupere  aliorum 
copiam  fieri,  cum  priores  superiore  septimana  missos  longe  ante  hoc 
temporis  totos  evolveris.' 


ELY.     1611.  393 

and  was  not  sorry  to  go  over  old  ground  at  leisure. 
Of  Camerarius'  epistles  he  made  copious  notes.  37 '  Who- 
ever desires  to  make  proficiency  in  the  art  of  living 
piously  should  read  them/  Hadrian  Junius'  'Anim- 
adversiones/  another  offer  of  Richardson's38,  'though 
often  handled  by  me,  yet,  in  the  dearth  of  other  books, 
I  was  not  sorry  to  read  again,  for  the  author  was  really 
a  learned  man.'  Even  on  the  progress,  he  could  not  be 
without  a  book,  and  took  Eunapius  and  Whitaker, 
with  him  for  the  purpose.  At  the  house  of  a  gentleman 
in  Wisbech  he  saw  the  Prophecies  of  Abbot  Joachim 
in  latin  and  italian39.  He  writes  from  Downham  to 
de  Thou  that  ^ '  I  contrive  to  support  myself  by  the 
conversation  of  the  bishop,  and  by  reading  such  books 
as  I  can  get  hold  of  here.' 

But  country  life  without  books  could  not  long  charm 
him.  And  reading  for  reading's  sake  was  now  no 
longer  possible  to  him.  The  furor  of  mere  acquisition 
had  now  come  to  be  the  ambition  to  reproduce,  to 
rebuild.  He  becomes  more  and  more  restless.  He 
worries  himself  because  his  time  is  lying  idle;  because 
he  is  not  grinding  at  the  theological  work  of  which  he 
is  ever  dreaming,  and  which  never  came  to  anything. 
He  loads  the  autumnal  air  of  the  pleasaunce  at  Downham 
with  sighs  and  groans  because  Madame  Casaubon  is  away 
in  France,  and  because  he  does  not  hear  from  her  by 
every  post,  i.  e.  twice  a  week 41.  '  I  am  amazed  at  this 

37  Eph.  p.  862  :  '  Legat  eas  epistolas  qui  vult  in  arte  vitse  hujus 
pie  degendee  proficere.' 

88  Advers.  torn.  25.  p.  121. 
59  Advers.  25.  p.  115. 

10  Ep.  743  :  'SermonibuB  cum  ipso,  et  librorum,  quos  hie  nancisci 
possum,  lectione,  me  sustento.' 

11  Eph.   p.    864  :    '  Ad  hoc  silentium  uxoris  et    meorum  stupeo. 


394  ELY.     1611. 

continued  silence  of  my  wife  and  all  my  people !  What 
can  it  mean  1  It  is  torture  to  me,  torture ! '  He  fixes 
a  day  for  his  departure.  The  bishop  will  not  hear  of 
it ;  detains  him  '  with  the  golden  chains  of  courtesy/ 
Thomson,  who  is  at  Bury  S.  Edmunds,  implores  him 
to  defer  his  departure  till  Friday  42,  when  he  is  coming 
over  to  Dowriham,  that  he  may  have  the  benefit  of 
Casaubon's  powerful  intercession  with  the  bishop,  *  to 
whom  he  entirely  entrusts  himself  and  his  case/ 

There  was  a  cabal,  in  his  own  college,  Clare  Hall, 
to  turn  him  out  of  some  university  office  he  held. 
Some  allegations  could  be  brought  against  his  morals. 
Thomson,  though  of  english  parentage,  was  a  native  of 
Holland,  and  had  perhaps  imbibed  the  taste  of  the 
country.  But,  besides  a  weakness  for  strong  waters,  he 
was  suspected  of  a  much  more  criminal  weakness  for 
Arminianism.  The  archbishop  had  been  made  to  con- 
ceive a  very  bad  opinion  of  him.  '  How  I  am  to  recover 
his  favour,'  writes  Thomson43  to  Casauboii  in  1611,  'I 
have  not  yet  been  able  to  discover  any  channel/  As 
for  the  charge  of  his  enemies  that  he  was  not  qualified 
to  preside  over  the  exercises  in  the  schools,  he  declares 
it  to  be  ridiculous.  Things  must  have  gone  to  a 
great  length,  for  in  August,  1611,  Thomson  is  informed 
that  the  master  of  Clare  is  getting  a  memorial  against 
him  signed  in  the  university.  M  *  What  is  most  grievous 

Deus  bone  quid  est  2  quid  dicam  1  quid  suspicabor  ?  crucior,  crucior 
animi.' 

42  Burney  MSS.  366.  p.  251  :  'Tu,  nisi  incommodum  sit,  in  diem 
Veneris  profectionem  tuam  differ.' 

43  Ibid.  :    *  Hujus   gratiam  quomodo  mihi    conciliem  viam  nullam 
invenire  aut  aperire  hactenus  possum.' 

44  Ibid. :  '  Quod  praecipue  mihi  cordolio  est  etiam  rev.  episcopum 
Eliensem  convenire  ausos  super  moribus  ac  vita  mea,  imo,  quod  ridi- 
culum  prorsus  est,  super  insufficient  iam  regiminis.' 


ELY.     1611.  395 

to  me  is  that  they  have  gone  the  length  of  waiting  on 
the  bishop  of  Ely  to  calumniate  to  him  my  walk  and 
character,  nay,  a  thing  which  is  ludicrous,  to  represent 
that  I  am  unfit  for  my  office.  As  if  I  were  such  a  fool 
and  so  inexperienced  as  not  to  be  qualified  to  preside 
over  the  disputations  in  the  schools.'  This  letter  reached 
Casaubon  while  he  was  staying  with  the  bishop  of  Ely. 
He  seems  to  have  thought  that  the  best  way  to  impress 
Andrewes  favourably  was  to  let  him  see  Thomson. 
Accordingly,  Thomson  was  invited  to  Downham,  and 
the  three  together  passed  an  evening  in  that  talk  which 
alone  compensated  Casaubon  for  being  kept  out  of  his 
study.  The  further  issue  of  Thomson's  affair  is  not 
known  to  me.  This  is  the  last  occasion  on  which  his 
name  occurs  in  conjunction  with  that  of  Casaubon. 
Thomson  endeavoured  to  propitiate  the  bishop  of  Ely 
by  writing  a  pamphlet  in  defence  of  his  '  Tortura 
Torti45.' 

After  many  postponements,  Casaubon's  feverish  im- 
patience to  get  back  to  his  books  tore  him  away  from 
Downham,  in  spite  of  the  bishop's  manifest  displeasure 
at  this  disregard  of  his  hospitality.  He  stopped  again 
at  Cambridge  on  his  way  up,  went  over  the  rest  of  the 
colleges,  and  being  pressed  by  the  master  of  Peterhouse, 
stayed  a  second  night  in  order  to  meet  the  professors  at 
supper  at  the  vice-chancellor's46.  The  literary  character 
of  the  conversation  pleased  him,  and  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Harrison,  who  was  able  to  show  him 
two  books  which  were  new  to  him :  Hugo,  abbot  of 
S.  Victor,  «  On  the  Psalms ; '  and  a  volume  of  the 
numerous  works  of  Dionysius,  called  the  '  Carthusian/ 

45  Elenchus  refutationis  Torturse  Torti  pro  rev.  episcopo   Eliense 
adversus  Martinum  Becanum,  8°.  Lond.  1611. 

46  The  diary,  p.  887,  has  '  Cancellarium.' 


396  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

In  1612,  Casaubon  gave  himself  no  holiday.  The 
bishop  of  Ely  would  gladly  have  taken  him  down  into 
his  diocese  again.  And  there  was  the  more  inducement 
to  Casaubon  to  go,  as  the  heat  of  London  in  that  August 
was  excessive.  '  Plus  sequo  sudavi/  Casaubon  writes  to 
de  Thou.  On  the  vigil  of  S.  Bartholomew,  August  23, 
o.  s.  the  bishop  writes  from  Downham 48 : — 

'  If  you  had  been  here  you  would  have  escaped  heats 
of  all  sorts,  those  of  the  dog-days  inclusive.  At  Downham 
we  never  know  what  heat  is.  It  is  true  I  have  caught 
a  fever,  but  from  cold,  exposing  myself  too  long  to  the 
chill  of  the  evening.  In  the  city  the  radiation  from  so 
many  walls,  against  an  atmosphere  thickened  with  coal 
smoke,  and  fog,  makes  what  is  with  us  a  very  small 
puppy  (of  a  dogstar)  into  a  molossian  hound.  .  .  Come 
to  me,  therefore,  down  here ;  come,  if  you  will,  on  the 
day  you  left  us  last  year,  S.  Augustine's  day  ;  and  may 
the  saint  be  more  propitious  to  your  return  than  he 
was  to  your  departure  last  autumn,  when  he  expressed 
his  displeasure  at  your  leaving  us  by  a  storm  of  rain. 
Come  and  see  a  fair  celebrated  throughout  England 49 ; 
or  if  you  have  no  taste  in  fairs,  you  shall  have  a  hebrew 
S.  Matthew,  which  is  in  Corpus  library. 

'  Do  be  persuaded  to  come.  I  shall  get  well  at  once 
if  I  can  only  see  you.  If  it  is  only  a  few  days7  re- 
laxation it  will  do  you  good.  You  shall  shoot  a  deer, 
and  rest  after  your  three  months'  hard  labour.  We 
will  let  you  go  away  when  you  please.  Be  so  good  as 
to  remember  that  the  hand  which  writes  these  lines 
has  the  ague.  God  keep  you  long  to  be  an  ornament 
to  letters/ 

48  Burney  MSS.  363,  printed  in  Anclrewes'  Works,  Bliss,  i.  xliii. 

49  On  Stourbridge  fair,  see  the  exhaustive  references  of  Mayor,  '  Life 
of  Bonwicke,'  pp.  153  seq. 


8. 


VISIT    TO    OXFORD. 


IN  May,  1613,  having  finished  the  volume  of  'Exer- 
citations/  at  least  in  the  rough  draft,  and  Madame 
Casaubon  being  departed  into  France,  Casaubon  takes 
at  last  a  holiday,  and  an  excursion  out  of  town. 

He  had  long  meditated  a  visit  to  Oxford.  He  had 
announced  this  intention  at  court  some  time  before. 
The  king  took  a  great  interest  in  the  occasion.  lfWhat, 
not  off  to  Oxford  yet ! '  cried  James  in  surprise  at 
seeing  him  again  in  April;  'you  don't  seem  much  in 
earnest  about  going.'  Thinking  the  delay  might  be 
emptiness  of  pocket,  he  removed  this  difficulty  by  a 
present.  At  last,  on  Thursday,  May  17,  having2 
locked  up  his  library  and  taken  the  key  with  him, 
he  left  London,  and  went  to  sir  Henry  Savile's  at 
Eton.  Two  years  before  Savile  had  engaged  him3  to 
make  the  same  tour,  and  Casaubon  had  promised  to 
meet  him  on  August  i  at  Oxford.  The  scheme  had 


1  Ep.  822  :  '  Videris  rem  non  multum  curare.' 

2  Burney  MSS.  366. 


3  Burney  MSS.  366.  p.  55  :  '  De  kal.  Aug.  Oxonii  vide  ne  vadi- 
monium  deseras,  nisi  antea  tibi  commodum  fuerit,  hue  venire,  illudque 
iter  una  conficere.' 


398  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

been  more  than  once  proposed4,  but  had  not  been 
executed.  Savile  supposed  the  difficulty  to  be  want 
of  the  means  of  locomotion,  and,  surprised  to  hear 
that  Casaubon  had  been  many  months  in  London,  and 
yet  not  set  up  a  horse,  placed  his  own  carriage  at 
his  disposal,  and  offered  to  send  it  for  him  any  day 
that  he  would  order5.  Casaubon's  delay  was  due  partly 
to  his  much  occupied  time,  but  partly  also  to  his  little 
inclination  for  Savile  personally.  He  would  have  pre- 
ferred to  have  made  his  appearance  at  Oxford  alone, 
but  it  was  impossible,  when  sir  Henry  made  a  point 
of  himself  doing  the  honours  of  his  university. 

On  Friday,  May  18,  Savile,  who  was  at  the  same 
time  provost  of  Eton  and  warden  of  Merton,  took 
him  in  his  coach6  to  Oxford,  twenty-seven  miles,  as 
Casaubon  is  careful  to  note.  He  must  have  found 
them  long  ones,  as  the  distance  by  the  old  road  was 
over  thirty-seven,  and  as,  notwithstanding  Savile's 
persistent  attention  to  him,  no  cordiality  ever  existed 
between  the  two  men. 

If  common  studies  were  sufficient  to  cement  friend- 
ships, Savile  was  the  one  man  in  England,  in  whose 
society  it  might  have  been  anticipated  that  Casaubon 
would  have  found  himself  at  home.  Their  correspon- 
dence had  begun  by  letter  in  1596,  when  Casaubon, 
at  Thomson's  instigation,  had  written  at  the  same 
time  to  Camden  and  Savile,  as  the  two  Englishmen 
who  interested  themselves  in  greek  learning.  Casaubon 

4  Burney  MSS.  366.  p.  56  :  '  Toties  spem  fallenti.' 

5  Ibid.  p.  52  :  '  Heus  tu,  post  tot  menses  quibus  hseres  Londini,  nee 
nos  invisis,   scribis   te  'nnropoTrjv  non  esse?  hsec  mihi,  qui  ad  diem 
quemvis  a  te  prsestitutum  currum  tibi  meum  prsesto  futurum  receperim  ? 
.     .     .    mone  ad  quern  diem   te  Londini  jubeas  automedonta  meum 
cxpectare.'  6  Epli.  980  :    '  In  rheda  ipsius.' 


OXFORD   VISIT.  399 

had  asked  Savile  for  aid  in  his  Poly  bins ;  Savile 
had  sought,  and  received,  collations,  or  communica- 
tion of  MSS,  for  the  Chrysostom.  Nor  was  theological 
diversity  here  a  bar  to  intimacy,  for  Savile  was  even 
more  anti-puritan  than  Casaubon  himself7.  But  there 
was  an  innate  antagonism  of  character  which  disso- 
ciated them.  Casaubon,  insignificant  in  presence,  the 
most  humble  of  men,  but  intensely  real,  knowing  w^hat 
he  knew  with  fatal  accuracy,  and  keeping  his  utter- 
ance below  his  knowledge.  Sir  Henry,  the  munificent 
patron  of  learning,  and  devoting  his  fortune  to  its 
promotion,  with  a  fine  presence,  polished  manners, 
and  courtly  speech,  was  not  free  from  the  swagger 
and  braggadocio  affected  by  the  courtiers  of  James 
and  Charles.  He  would  enact  the  patron,,  but  he  also 
desired  to  be  accepted  by  the  experts  as  an  expert, 
because  he  patronised  them.  Aubrey  had  heard  Hobbes 
say  8'that  he  (Savile)  would  faine  have  been  thought 
to  have  been  as  great  a  scholar  as  Joseph  Scaliger.' 
To  be  well  with  Savile,  you  must  not  only  accept  his 
patronage,  you  must  admit  his  greek  scholarship.  In 
his  acknowledgments  to  those  who  assisted  him  in  the 
Chrysostom,  Isaac  Casaubon  is  named9  indeed  among 
a  crowd  of  scholars,  but  Savile  will  owe  his  admis- 
sion to  the  royal  library,  or  rather  the  admission  of 
'  our  copyists '  (nostri  librarii),  to  nothing  less  than  to 
the  interposition  of  the  '  ambassador  of  my  sovereign/ 
He  liked  to  have  learned  men  about  him,  not  that 
he  wanted  to  hear  what  they  had  to  say,  but  that 
he  might  show  them.  No  one  but  he  must  exhibit 

7  A.  "Wood,  Hist,  et  Antiq.  i.  1590:  '  (Savilius)  vir  a  supervacaneis 
hisce  catharorum  inventis  alienissimus.' 

8  Aubrey,  Lives,  2.  524. 

9  Chrysost.  Opp.  torn.  i.  lectori. 


400  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

the  lion  of  the  day  to  the  university,  and  he  now 
had  the  glory  of  driving  up  High  Street  in  full  term, 
bringing  in  his  coach  Isaac  Casaubon,  a  little  respected 
as  the  first  greek  scholar  living,  much  envied  as  a 
prime  favourite  of  the  monarch. 

Notwithstanding  their  long  journey,  Casaubon  was 
out  immediately  to  take  a  survey  of  the  colleges  and 
halls, — a  survey  which  he  completed,  with  his  usual 
plodding  thoroughness,  on  Saturday  morning.  The 
splendour  of  the  buildings  filled  him  with  admiration 
of  10<  the  piety  and  magnificence  of  our  ancestors/ 
Above  all  the  then,  as  now,  unfinished  design  of  the 
great  cardinal  struck  him  with  wonder  at  the  grandeur 
of  the  conception.  As  evidence  that  the  sources  of 
founders7  munificence  were  not  dried  up,  he  noticed  that 
much  building  was  going  on  at  Merton,  where  Savile 
was  just  finishing  the  fine  frontage  towards  the  mea- 
dows. Besides  this,  there  was  the  usual  rebuilding 
going  on11,  occasioned  by  the  perishing  of  the  oolitic 
stone.  A  middle-age  building,  says  Michelet,  is  no 
sooner  finished  than  it  requires  to  be  repaired. 

After  dinner  he  was  taken  to  see  the  Saturday  dis- 
pivtation  in  the  divinity  school  at  which  the  regius 
professor  of  theology  moderated.  The  regius  professor 
at  this  time  was  Robert  Abbot,  master  of  Balliol. 
Abbot  was  a  man  of  some  reading,  and,  though  he  had 
a  brother  who  was  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
though  he  had  been  able  to  prove  the  pope  to  be  anti- 
christ, was  not  unworthy  of  the  position  he  held.  Cas- 
aubon was  already  acquainted  with  Abbot,  who  was 

10  Eph.  p.  980 :    '  Nostrorum    majorum    pietatem   et   magnificen- 
tiam.' 

11  Ep.  899  :  '  Qusedam  collegia  a  funclamentis  nova  extruuntur/ 


OXFORD   VISIT.  401 

occasionally  about  the  court.  Now  that  he  came  to  see 
iim  officiate  he  was  highly  satisfied  both  with  the 
ibility  and  the  doctrine  of  the  regius  professor. 
His  conduct  of  the  disputation  was  everything  that 
could  be  desired.  On  the  critical  question  of  '  faith 
and  works/  for  which  all  ears  were  then  highly  sen- 
sitive, he  entirely  satisfied  Casaubon's  judicial  mind. 
He  took,  as  became  his  office,  a  moderate -position,  not 
repudiating  the  Calvinism  of  the  old  school,  and  making 
sufficient  concession  to  the  arminianism  of  the  new 
school.  It  was  well  known  that  his  own  habits  of 
thought  attached  him  to  the  calvinistic  side,  and  that 
he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  new  anglo-catholic  modes 
of  thinking,  which  were  rising  into  consideration,  and 
were  being  pushed  on  by  the  younger  zeal  of  Laud. 
Abbot,  too,  was  a  rising  man,  and  on  his  preferment, 
and  was  accordingly  contributing  his  pamphlet  to  the 
grand  battle  which  was  raging.  His  *  Antilogia '  was 
in12  the  press  at  the  time  of  Casaubon's  visit.  As  he 
was  going  over  in  it,  in  more  detail,  the  same  ground 
which  Casaubon  had  travelled  in  the  *  Epistola  ad 
Frontonem/  and  had  for  the  purpose  the  same  collec- 
tion of  papers  from  the  Tower  records  which  had  been 
in  Casaubon' s  hands13,  this  formed  at  once  a  common 
topic.  Casaubon  saw  that  he  could  not  consult  a  more 
judicious  critic,  and  put  \six  sheets  of  his  *  Exercita- 
tiones '  into  his  hands  with  the  entreaty  that  heVould 
revise  them  in  good  earnest14. 

On  Sunday,  sir  Henry  exhibited  his  guest  at  both 
sermons,   taking  him   to   dine   between   times   at  the 

12  See  above,  section  6,  note  41. 

13  Calendar  of  State  papers,  domestic,  Jas.  I. 

14  Eph.  p.  983  :  '  Meum  opus  D.  Abotio  communicavi,  qui  utinam 
seriam  censuram  exerceat.' 

D  d 


402  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

deanery  at  Christ  Church.  Casaubon  was  furnished  by 
the  archbishop  with  letters  of  introduction  to  the  dean. 
On  Monday,  Savile  left  to  return  to  Eton,  and  the 
dean  insisted18  on  Casaubon  transferring  himself  for 
the  remainder  of  his  stay  to  the  deanery.  The  dean 
was  William  Goodwin,  a  man  of  no  learning,  but  a 
judicious  ecclesiastic,  who  accumulated  the  duties  of  the 
archdeaconry  of  Middlesex  with  those  of  his  deanery— 
'  vir  probus  et  pius '  is  all  Casaubon  can  say  of  him — 
but  who  would  not  fail  in  the  exercise  of  hospitality  to 
a  man  who  came  recommended  by  the  archbishop.  He 
maintained  his  acquaintance  with  Casaubon  and  visited 
him  in  London  afterwards. 

The  usual  honorary  degree  was,  of  course,  offered, 
nay,  pressed  on  him17.  But  Casaubon's  good  sense 
steadily  declined  a  decoration  which,  from  being 
lavished  on  rank  or  political  partisanship,  is  no  proper 
distinction  of  learning  or  letters. 

He  did  not  come  with  any  special  interest  in  the 
working  of  the  academical  system.  But  some  points  in 
Oxford  life,  those  especially  which  contrasted  strongly 
with  the  usages  of  Paris,  impressed  themselves  upon 
his  never  inobservant  eye.  In  Paris,  as  in  the  Jesuit 
colleges,  the  scholars  were  as  schoolboys,  and  as  such 
were  looked  after  by  the  principals  and  the  regents. 
In  Oxford,  on  the  contrary,  the  students  lived  as  young 
gentlemen,  in  their  separate  chambers  apart,  only  meet- 
ing for  the  college  exercises,  and  common  meals.  The 
heads  and  fellows  of  colleges,  though  governing  and 
teaching  the  inmates  of  their  respective  houses,  lived 

16  Eph.  p.  981  :  '  Volentem,  nolentem  in  suas  cedes  introduxit.' 

17  Ep.  885  :  '  Scio  cogitare  illos  titulis  magnificis  me  ornare.'     Ep. 
899  :  '  Omnes  TTfidavdyKat  sunt  ab  iis  adhibitse  ut  me  summis  honoribus  : 
insignirent.' 


OXFORD   VISIT.  403 

for  themselves  and  for  learning ;  or  if  not  for  learning, 
at  least  with  other  than  pedagogic  objects;  an  arrange- 
ment which  approved  itself  to  him  highly18.  The  heads  of 
colleges,  some  of  them,  '  lived  like  noblemen,  splendidly, 
yea,  magnificently,  having  an  income  of  10000  livres 
annual/  Hence,  the  virtue  of  hospitality,  which,  what- 
ever else  has  been  wanting,  has  never  failed  in  Oxford. 
Casaubon's  refusal  of  their  honours  did  not  damp  the 
hearty  welcome  which  the  colleges  were  ambitious  to 
offer  him.  '  It  was  one  succession  of  banquets/  writes 
Casaubon19,  among  which  Magdalen  was  distinguished 
by  its  sumptuosity20.  Abbot,  with  all  his  occupation 
on  his  book,  was  not  behind  the  dean  in  hospitality, 
but  entertained  the  stranger  on  May  28,  with  princely 
magnificence21,  which  *  the  recent  annexation  of  a 
canonry,  and  of  Ewelme,  to  the  professorship  of  divi- 
nity by  James,  enabled  him  to  show.  Casaubon  must 
have  mentally  compared  these  scenes  with  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Paris  school,  its  buildings  ruined,  and  its 
funds  dilapidated  by  civil  war.  He  never  saw  the 
Sorbonne  in  all  its  glory,  such  as  it  became  after  a 
generation  of  peace,  when  Quesnel22  says,  '  Une  licence 
de  theologie  de  Paris  est,  dans  le  genre  des  exercices  de 
litterature,  un  de  plus  beaux  spectacles  qui  se  trouvait 
au  monde/  To  this  wealth  of  the  colleges  Casaubon23 

18  Ep.  899  :  '  Quod  valde  probavi  abest  a  collegiis  Anglorum  ilia, 
quam  vocant  nostri,  psedagogicam  vitse  rationem  ...  res  studiosorum 
et  rationes  separatee  sunt ;  quod  valde  probavi/  These  words  were  not 
understood  by  Hallam,  who  quotes  the  passage,  Lit.  of  Europe,  2. 
231. 

19  Eph.  984  :  'In  perpetuis  conviviis  versamur.' 

20  Eph.  983  :  'Pransi  in  Coll.  Magd.  lautissimo  apparatu.' 

21  Eph.  983  :  '  Regie  apparatu  suos  convivas  excepit/ 
12  Vie  de  M.  Arnauld,  quoted  by  Jourdain. 

23  Ep.  831:    'Est    insitum    huic    nationi,  ut   sua  amet,  alicna  ne 
D    d    2 


404  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

once  ascribed  the  self-conceit  of  Englishmen  ;  forgetting 
that  he  had  had  to  make  the  same  complaint  of  the 
Paris  regents  when  he  first  came  in  contact  with 
them2*.  The  self-complacency  of  the  parisian  academic 
certainly  was  not  due  to  wealth. 

The  passive  victim  of  all  this  feasting,  Casaubon, 
devoted  many  hours  each  clay  of  his  stay  to  reading. 
The  focus  of  his  interests,  and  one  principal  object  of 
his  journey,  was  the  Bodleian.  Only  opened  in  1604, 
this  library,  so  rare  then  were  public  libraries,  had 
already  begun  to  attract  to  Oxford  men  from  foreign 
parts  and  distant  countries.  The  arrangements  were 
favourable  to  work.  It  was  open  for  six  hours  a  day, 
three  in  the  morning,  and  as  many  in  the  afternoon. 
It  was  closed  for  two  hours  at  eleven  or  twelve,  then 
the  hours  of  dinner  in  the  colleges25.  As  the  public 
exercises  were  resumed  in  the  afternoon,  and  common- 
rooms  as  yet  were  not  in  existence,  dinner,  however 
sumptuous,  could  not  last  beyond  one  or  two  o'clock, 
according  to  the  season.  This  system  of  official  punc- 
tuality in  the  service  of  the  library  contrasted  very 
favourably  with  the  usage  of  the  king's  library  at  Paris, 
where  the  librarians  had  no  hours 26,  and  admission  to 
which  was  matter  of  special  request  and  favour. 

From  what  has  been  said  of  Casaubon's  reading,  it 

admittat  quidem  ad  aliquam  comparationem.  Florentissima  enim  et 
ditissima  sua  collegia  ipsis  animos  faciunt  ut  cranes  non  vereantur  prse 
se  contemnere.' 

24  See  above,  p.  188. 

25  These   early  hours   held   their   ground   till   the   middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.     In   1753,  Horace  Walpole,  Walp.  to  Bentley, 
found  '  that  fashion  has  so  far  prevailed  over  custom,  that  they  have 
altered  the  hour  of  dinner  from  12  to  I  / 

26  Cas.  Ep.  ad  Bibran.  ed.  Schultze,  p.  7 :  '  Die  lunse  bibliothecam 
fortasse  adibimus.' 


OXFORD   VISIT.  405 


may  appear  that  he  is  omnivorous,  and  that  nothing 
comes  amiss  to  him.  This  is  almost,  but  not  quite,  so. 
His  aim  was  to  interpret  the  ancients;  and  as  this 
could  only  be  by  themselves,  he  desired  to  read  all  the 
remains  of  the  greek  and  latin  writers.  But  the  want 
of  assorted  libraries,  and  of  the  catalogues  to  which 
such  libraries  have  given  occasion,  made  it  difficult 
to  know  what  texts  had  been  printed  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  art.  Still  more  was  the  coming  across 
an  inedited  MS.  an  affair  of  chance.  Casaubon  is  all  his 
life  through  straitened  in  the  matter  of  books.  '  It 
has  been  one  of  the  heaviest  disadvantages  of  my 
studies/  he  says 27,  '  that  I  have  hitherto  lived  among 
men  who  did  not  care  to  have  even  the  most  necessary 
books.  I  have  therefore  been  obliged  to  supply  myself 
out  of  my  own  purse,  with  almost  all  the  ancient 
authors  whom  I  have  read.  Some  there  are  which  I 
have  never  been  able  to  procure  at  any  price ;  such  as 
Palaephatus,  of  whom  I  once  met  with  a  MS.  at  Orange, 
but  have  never  seen  since.  Here  at  last  (Paris),  by 
divine  favour,  I  got  one  and  read  it  greedily28/  On 
settling  in  Paris  he  came,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life, 
into  comparative  plenty.  The  removal  to  London  was, 
in  this  respect,  a  double  deprivation.  He  had  left  all 
his  own  books  behind,  and  found  nothing  which  could 
replace  to  him  the  libraries  of  the  king,  and  of  de  Thou. 

27  Adversaria,  torn.  7  :  '  Non  minima  studiorum  nostrorum  infe- 
licitas  haec,  quod  hactenus  inter  homines  viximus,  qui  libros  ad  ha^c 
studia  necessarios  non  multum  curarunt.  itaque  quoscunque  fere  legi- 
mus,  veteres  scriptores  sere  nostro  nobis  parare  sumus  coacti/ 

18  It  would  seem  from  this  that  the  Aldine  ^Esop,  1505,  which 
contains  the  greek  text  of  Palsephatus,  '  De  incredibilibus '  etc., 
was  even  then  a  rare  book,  as  it  is  now  among  the  scarcest  of  the 
Alduses. 


406  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

Indeed  Bill,  the  king's  stationer,  had  a  general  order 
to  supply  him  with  the  books  he  required  for  his  work 
on  Baronius.  But  Bill  was  himself  very  poorly  sup- 
plied with  books  from  abroad.  Even  a  book  published 
in  Oxford 29  was  not  procurable  in  the  London  shops, 
so  ill  was  the  book-trade  organized  in  England.  If 
this  was  the  case  with  new  books,  it  was  still  more 
with  old  books.  Thomas  Savile  mentions30  that  he 
could  not  get  a  copy  of  the  '  Notitia '  at  the  booksellers 
either  in  Oxford  or  London.  Casaubon  had  occasional 
access  to  Cotton's  library,  a  collection  rich  in31  chron- 
icles and  antiquarian  books,  but  not  either  classical  or 
patristic.  He  therefore  entered  the  Bodleian,  a  man 
with  a  vigorous  appetite,  who  has  been  for  some  time 
on  short  rations.  He  threw  himself  greedily  upon  the 
stores  thus  opened  to  him,  and  in  the  twelve  days  over 
which  his  visits  to  the  library  extended,  he  made  the 
best  of  his  time. 

His  name  was  entered  upon  the  register  of  readers 
as  of  Christ  Church32,  though  he  had  refused  the  degree 

'  O  O 

which  would  have  entitled  him  to  call  for  any  book  as 
matter  of  right.  He  must  have  read  as  a  stranger,  in- 
troduced by  the  dean  of  Christ  Church.  His  particular 
enquiry  was  for  such  books  as  were  unattainable  in 
London.  We  must  not  think  of  the  Bodleian  then  as 
the  magnificent  collection  which  it  has  since  become, 
but  as  in  its  first  infancy,  before  even  the  Selden  was 
aggregated  to  it.  Of  greek  MSB.  in  which  it  is  now 

'9  Ep.  964  :  '  Nunc  in  urbe  ejus  exemplum  non  inveni  apud  libraries, 
quia  est  editus  Oxonii.' 

30  Camdeni  Epp.  p.  9. 

J1  Ep.  940  :  '  Legi  in  bibliotheca  Cottoniana  ejusdem  libros  De  vita 
abbatura  S.  Albani.' 

32  Registrum  S  de  actis  in  domo  congregations  f°.  440  b. 


OXFORD   VISIT.  407 

rich,  it  possessed,  at  that  time,  very  few.  Yet  few  as 
they  were,  the  demand  for  them  was  less.  Holstenius, 
who  was  there  in  1622,  writes  to  Meursius33,  that  'he 
had  busied  himself  in  the  Oxford  libraries,  turning 
over  greek  and  latin  MSS,  which  no  one  in  those  parts 
thinks  of  troubling/  After  the  wealth  of  greek  to 
which  he  had  been  accustomed  in  the  united  King's 
and  Medicean  libraries  at  Paris,  the  Bodleian  must 
have  seemed  to  Casaubon  poverty  indeed34.  What 
they  had  were  produced  for  him.  As  he  wanted  to 
read,  riot  to  collate,  new  material  was  what  he  looked 
out  for,  and  he  fastened  on  the  Thesaurus  of  Nicetas 
Choniates.  This  was  not  the  valuable  Choniates  which 
we  now  have,  which  was  only  brought  from  Constanti- 
nople by  sir  Thomas  Roe  in  1628,  but  an  abridgment 
or  series  of  extracts  from  the  '  Thesaurus '  which  had 
been  made  for  cardinal  Pole.  The  magnificence  of  the 
paper  and  the  splendour  of  the  calligraphy35,  'the 
largest  folio,  the  thickest  paper  he  ever  saw,'  made  it 
the  show  book  of  the  library.  But  Casaubon  was  not 
content  with  looking  at  it,  he  sate  down  to  read  it,  and 
read  it  through.  And  he  not  only  reads  it  through, 
but  makes  twenty-three  pages  of  extracts,  in  greek,  for 
future  use.  S.  Basil,  Commentary  on  Isaiah,  then 
inedited  ;  Leo  a  Castro,  ditto  ;  Ephrem  Syrus,  in  Gerard 
Voss'  translation ;  Juan  de  la  Puente,  a  book  by  him, 
lately  brought  out  of  Spain,  read,  and  seven  pages  of  ex- 
tracts made,  mostly  in  Spanish.  Euthymius  Zigabenus, 

53  Holstenii  epp.  p.  i  o  :  '  Delitui  in  Oxoniensium  bibliothecis, 
veteres  codices  grsecos  latinosque  sedulo  excutiens,  quibus  nemo  istic 
locorum  negotium  facessit.' 

14  Ep.  899  :  '  Nihil  ad  regias  opes.' 

30  Adversaria,  28.  53:  'In  maxima  et  crassissima  papyro,  quam 
unquam  videre  memini.' 


408  LONDON.     1610  —  1611. 

whom  he  had  read  in  Paris,  but  could  not  get  in 
London,  he  found  in  the  Bodleian ;  also  Suisseth,  '  a  long 
sought  for  book '  (diu  optatum  librum) .  The  two  first 
volumes  of  the  new  edition  of  the  Concilia  38>  though 
three  or  four  years  old,  could  not  be  seen  in  London, 
as  we  may  infer  from  the  pains  taken  to  extract  the 
council  of  Chalcedon,  in  fifteen  pages  of  close  writing. 
A  Euchologion 37,  Osiander,  '  Harmonia  quatuor  evan- 
geliorum ; '  Lipsius  in  Suetonii  tres  posteriores  libros, 
Offenbaci  1610;  Wakefield,  *  Syntagma  de  Hebrseorum 
codicum  interpretatione  ; '  Laurentius  Syslyga,  '  hastily 
looked  over/  but  yielding  nevertheless  thirteen  pages 
of  extract ;  Joh.  Ferus  '  in  Acta  Apostolorum  ;'  another 
anonymous  commentary  on  the  twelve  first  chapters 
of  the  Acts;  Boethius,  'De  rebus  Scotiee;'  Alvianus 
Pelagius, '  De  planctu  ecclesise  ;'  Espencseus,  two  works 
of  his;  Rainolds,  '  De  ecclesise  romanae  idololatria ;'  all 
these  are  noticed  or  extracted  in  the  Adversaria.  But 
there  were  doubtless  other  things  of  which  no  mention 
is  made  either  in  the  diary,  or  in  the  Oxford  memoranda, 
e.  g.  he  says 3S  that  the  tractate  '  De  ccena  domini,' 
which  is  included  among  the  works  of  S.  Cyprian, 
is  not  Cyprian's,  but  the  work  of  some  middle-age 
writer,  '  as  I  read  in  a  MS.  of  the  library  at  Oxford 39.' 
After  six  hours'  reading  and  writing  at  this  pace  in  the 
library,  there  must  be  recreation.  This  he  takes,  on 
his  return  to  the  deanery,  by  more  reading,  but  of  a 
lighter  sort,  such  as  Wake's  'Rex  Platonicus/  or  by 
taking  lessons  in  rabbinical  hebrew  from  a  young  man 
of  that  persuasion. 

36  Romse,  ex  typographic  Vaticana,  torn.  i.  1608,  toni.  2.  1609. 

37  Venet.  1602. 

18  Exerc.  in  Baron,  p.  515. 

w  '  Ut  legi  in  MS.  codice  illustris  bibliothecse  Oxoniensis.' 


T-f     ia    car 


OXFORD   VISIT.  409 


It  is  sad,  but  not  surprising,  to  read  in  the  diary, 
lhat  in  the  second  week  of  this  regime,  as  he  was 
£,scending  the  Bodleian  stairs,  he  was  seized  with 
sudden  giddiness  in  the  head. 

What  with  the  sermons,  and  the  disputations,  and 
all  this  reading  got  through,  there  does  not  seem 
to  be  much  time  left  to  be  given  to  mere  acquaint- 
ance. It  would  seem  that  the  working  .academic  of 
that  day  was  as  much  burdened  with  official  en- 
gagements as  now.  Abbot  writes40  that  he  is  so 
driven  by  the  business  of  commemoration,  that  he 
hardly  has  time  to  draw  breath,  much  less  to  write 
letters.  What  intercourse  Casaubon  had  with  the 
leading  men  of  the  place  had  to  be  got  during  the 
meals.  Men  of  learning,  who  could  venture  to  chal- 
lenge him  to  discourse  of  books,  were  but  few.  Indeed, 
it  is  an  error  to  imagine  that  such  have  been,  at  any 
time  in  our  university  annals,  numerous.  Casaubon 
only  found  three  men  whom  he  distinguishes  as  in 
this  category :  Abbot,  Prideaux,  and  Kilbye.  Of 
Abbot  we  have  already  spoken.  Prideaux  (John) 
was  rector  of  Exeter,  who  afterwards  (1616)  suc- 
ceeded Abbot  as  regius  professor  of  divinity.  He 
had  been  a  highly  successful  tutor,  and  had  made 
Exeter  a  resort  of  the  few  foreign  students  who  still, 
occasionally,  found  their  way  to  Oxford.  He,  like 
Abbot,  inclined  to  the  old  puritan,  or  calvinistic, 
party  in  the  university,  and  was  very  obnoxious  to 
the  young  arminian  set41.  He  had  been  engaged  by 

40  Burney  MSS.   363.  p.    23:    '  Comitialium  jam  negotiorum  sestu 
laborans,  ut  vix  respirandi  tempus  habeam.' 

41  See    Montagu's    flippant  letter,    Cosin,    Correspond.    I.    p.    22  : 
<  Prideaux  hath  threatened  to   write   against   me.     Utinam.     But    I 
think  he  distrusteth  himself  at  his  pen.     For  he  saide  to  my  lord  of 


410  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

the  bishops  to  answer  the  last  libel  of  Eudaemon- 
Joanries,  in  which  Casaubon  was  personally  attacked, 
and  some  correspondence  had  already  passed  between 
the  two  on  this  subject.  The  tendency  of  english 
divines  just  at  this  time  was  to  disuse  latin  in  their 
books,  and  to  adopt  english.  Prideaux  was  one  of 
the  few  who  adhered  to  the  old-fashioned  latin,  and 
owed  his  selection  partly  to  this  circumstance,  as  it 
was  necessary  to  answer  the  Jesuits  in  the  language 
in  which  they  wrote. 

Casaubon  was  enjoying  in  the  fullest  measure  that 
flattering  homage  which  at  either  of  the  english  uni- 
versities is  ever  accorded  to  the  eminent  foreign  scholar. 
How  was  he  shocked,  when  the  rector  of  Exeter  came 
up  to  him,  and  enquired,  with  a  serious  air,  '  If  it 
were  true  that  his  father  had  been  hanged  ? '  Prideaux, 
in  reading  Eudaemon-  Joannes'  '  Answer  to  Casaubon,' 
had  been  puzzled  by  finding  repeated  allusions  to  a 
rope42.  Casaubon  had  had  as  early  as  January  some 
sheets  of  this  pamphlet  sent  him  from  Germany.  He 
had  looked  at  them  hastily,  and  thrown  them  aside43 
as  frivolous.  He  had  not  even  noticed,  careful  reader 
as  he  was,  the  allusions  of  which  Prideaux  spoke44. 
He  could  only  conjecture  what  their  meaning  might 
be.  Afterwards,  by  the  aid  of  an  Antwerp  corre- 

Oxford,  that  though.  I  were  a  good  scholer  at  my  pen,  and  wrote  well, 
yet  he  doubted  not  but  att  an  argument  he  could  plunge  me.  The 
man  thincketh  well  of  himself,  yet  if  k.  James  please,  I  dare  look 
him  in  the  face,  in  his  owne  scholes.' 

12  Resp.  ad  epist.  Is.  Casauboni,  p.  143  :  '  Quodut  tuo  te  fune  stran- 
gules  ipsemet  scribis.' 

13  Eph.  p.  966 :  *  Hodie  vidi  librum  Andrese  Eudsemonos  Johannis 
adversus  me,  futilem  sane.' 

44  Ep.  896  :    '  Antequam  te  convenirem  nihil  ejus  scivi.' 


OXFORD   VISIT.  411 

s  oondent,  Sweertius,  he  traced  to  the  Jesuit  college 
i  i  that  city,  the  head  of  which  was  Scribanius,  the 
author  of  the  '  Amphitheatrum/  a  story  that  his  father, 
Arnold,  had  been  hanged.  The  calumny  was  'ben 
trovato,'  and  wounded  Isaac  to  the  quick.  No  pos- 
session was  more  treasured  by  him  than  his  father's 
good  name,  and  the  memory  of  his  saintly  life  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  the  church,  through  the  days  of  terror. 
He  was  very  solicitous  that  this  lie  should  be  replied 
to,  and  after  his  return  to  London  he  furnished  Pri- 
deaux  with  that  narrative  of  his  father's  last  moments, 
which  has  been  before  quoted45.  But  the  incident 
threw  a  cloud  over  the  bright  days  of  his  reception 
at  Oxford,  which  was  further  dimmed  by  another  ad- 
venture of  a  different  kind. 

Of  the  three  men  whom  we  have  named  as  having 
specially  cultivated  Casaubon  during  his  visit,  Kilbye 
(Eichard)  is  the  least  known.  His  intimacy  with 
Casaubon  was  probably  founded  on  their  common 
hebrew  tastes,  as,  besides  being  rector  of  Lincoln 
(1590),  he  had  also  lately  become  regius  professor  of 
Hebrew  (i6io)46.  Kilbye  had  been  one  of  the  trans- 
lators of  the  bible — Oxford  company,  the  prophets — 
and  had  written,  but  not  published,  a  commentary  on 
Exodus, 47<  the  chief  part  of  which  is  excerpted  from  the 
monuments  of  rabbins  and  Hebrew  interpreters/  He 
also  continued  Jean  Mercier's  commentaries  on  Genesis, 
*  and  would  have  printed  them,  but  was  denied/  Cas- 
aubon was  intimately  lie  with  Josias  Mercier,  the  son 
of  the  author  of  the  book  in  which  Kilbye  took  this 


45  See  above,  p.  28  ;  Prideaux,  Castigatio  cujusdam  circulatoris, 
p.  24. 

16  He  is  said  by  A.  Wood,  Athen.  Oxon.  2.  287,  to  have  been  pre- 
bendary of  the  cathedral  church  of  Lincoln. 

47  A.  Wood,  ibid. 


412  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

interest48,  and  had  himself  a  high  value  for  his  com- 
mentary, which  he  had  selected  in  1599  for  his 
morning  devotional  reading49.  Kilbye's  MSS.  are  lost, 
but  from  five  letters  of  his  to  Casaubon,  and  from  a 
single  printed  sermon,  we  may  gather  thus  much50 ; 
that  he  was  a  man  of  some  reading  beyond  the 
common.  His  citations  are  from  books  not  read  by 
every  one,  and  corrfe  in  aptly,  as  if  supplied  by  memory, 
not  looked  up  for  the  occasion.  The  allusion  to 
Cyprian,  even  in  a  short  letter51,  has  the  same  appear- 
ance of  naturalness.  Further,  that  he  was  pious  and 
retiring ;  that  he  still  continued52 — he  was  fifty- three  at 
the  time  of  Casaubon' s  visit — to  occupy  himself  with 
hebrew  reading,  to  which  occupation  may,  perhaps, 
be  ascribed  the  negligence,  and  even  incorrectness,  of 
his  latin.  At  his  lodgings  Casaubon  saw  an  early 
copy  of  Raphelengius'  Lexicon  Arabicum53,  the  only 
other  copy  in  England  being  the  bishop  of  Ely's54. 
Casaubon  could  not  get  one  for  himself  in  London. 
Kilbye  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  academical  professor  of 

48  Eph.  257  :  '  Magni  Merceri  doctissimus  films.' 

49  Eph.  129:  'Cepi  Merceri  in  Jobum  scripta  legere,  facturus  dein- 
ceps  hoc  matutinum  exordium  studiorum,  donee  omnia  illius  magni 
viri  perlegero.' 

60  The  sermon  is  a  funeral  sermon  on  Dr.  Holland,  regius  professor 
of  divinity,  and  rector  of  Exeter,  preached  at  S.  Mary's,  March  26, 
1612.     A  copy  with  MS.  corrections  in  Kilbye' s  own  hand,  is  in  the 
Bodleian.     The  five  letters  are  in  the  Burney  collection ;  MS.  364. 

61  Burney  MSS.  364.  323  :   '  Deus  namque  provides  non  prsecipites 
amat,  ut  scite  Ciprianus.' 

52  Burney  MSS.  364.  322:  '  Multum  enim  fateor   me  eorum  (i.e. 
Judaeorum)  scientia  delectari.' 

53  Published    1613.     This  copy  is  now  in  the  college  library,  to 
which  Kilbye  left  108  volumes  of  books,  hebrew  and  latin  ;  no  greek. 

54  Ep.  898  :  'Ego  nullum  adhuc  exemplar  illius  lexici  potui  hie 
nancisci.  duo  tantum  hactenus  vidi   exemplaria,  ununi    in   manibui 
Eliensis,  alterum  Oxonii  apud  professorem  bebrseuin.1 


OXFORD   VISIT.  413 

his  time;  with  some  reading,  but  without  learning 
joi  even  the  conception  of  it  as  a  whole  ;-  his  know- 
leilge  and  his  ideas  confined  within  the  narrow  circle 

o 

of  ecclesiastical  interests  and  ecclesiastical  motive. 

It  was  under  the  sanction  of  the  professor  that  a 
young  Hebrew,  who  went  by  the  name  of  Jacob  Bar- 
net,  found  occupation  and  a  livelihood  by  giving  in- 
struction   in    Hebrew   to   the    students.      He   was   in 
(favour   with   the   authorities,   for  Casaubon   met  him 
also  at  the  rector  of  Exeter's.     Getting  into  conver- 
sation with   him,  Casaubon  was   not  only  struck  by 
Ihis  natural  capacity,  but  was  surprised  to  find  so  young 
la  man  not  only  a  thorough  master  of  the   language, 
[but  deeply  read  in  the  books  of  his  nation55.     'The 
[vast  mass   of  talmudic  lore  he  possesses  in  a  measure 
par  beyond  what  I  have  ever  met  with   in   any  jew 
[before ;    and,    rare   thing   in   a  jew,  he   knows   latin.' 
|The  opportunity  was  too  good  to  be  lost,  and  Casaubon 
Immediately  took    him   on   to   read   rabbinical  hebrew 
with  him.     Nor  did  he  stop  here.     When  on  Monday, 
^Tuiie  4,  he  bade  farewell  to  the  university,  he  carried 
bff  Jacob  with  him  to  London  in  his  own  hired  coach, 
,and  installed  him  in  his  house.     Here  he  kept  him  as 
ihis   inmate   for  a  month.      He  found  profit   not   only 
in    his   lessons,   but  in   his   conversation.      Casaubon' s 
close   work,   however,   upon   the    '  Exercitations '    pre- 
vented his  profiting  by  this  domestication  at  any  other 
time  than  at  meals56.     Though  the  Jesuits  afterwards 
pretended  that,  as  he  had  gotten  his  theological  refer- 
ences from  cardinal  Du  Perron,  so  Casaubon  had  his 
lebrew  from  Jacob  the  jew. 
He  soon  found  that  he  could  not  afford  the  burden  of 

65  Ep.  924  :  '  Literis  Judaicis  et  Thalmudicis  supra  fidem  doctus.' 
58  Meric,    Pietas,    p.    101  :     '  Rarissime    eos    collocutos    nisi    inter 
pulas.' 


414  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

an  additional  inmate  57,  and  was  obliged  to  return  him 
to  Oxford.  Jacob  had  for  some  time  past  evinced  dis- 
positions towards  Christianity,  and  now  added  to  the 
interest  excited  by  his  rare  learning,  that  of  catechumen. 
In  this  capacity  Casaubon  sent  him  back,  fortified  with 
letters  of  recommendation  to  his  university  friends,  and 
especially  to  the  regius  professor  of  hebrew,  whose 
special  protege  he  was-  Casaubon  wrote  no  less  than  nine 
letters  in  one  day  on  his  behalf,  and  took  the  earliest 
opportunity  of  speaking  to  the  archbishop,  and  even 
to  the  king  about  him.  Abbot  wrote  himself  from 
Croydon  to  the  vice-chancellor,  and  enjoined  Kilbye  to 
undertake  in  person  the  instruction  of  the  promising 
convert 58.  The  conversion  became  the  topic  of  the  day 
in  the  university.  All  the  details  of  the  baptismal  cere- 
mony were  arranged  beforehand  by  the  authorities  with 
the  most  scrupulous  anxiety.  The  archbishop  ordered 
a  sermon  to  be  preached,  the  vice-chancellor  named  a- 
preacher.  Twisse  of  New  college,  the  preacher,  prepared 
his  sermon.  The  vice-chancellor  was  to  administer  the 
rite.  There  being  then  no  form  of  adult  baptism  in  the 
anglican  ritual,  and  no  precedent  being  known,  Casau- 
bon was  consulted  as  to  what  should  be  done 59,  and  the 
archbishop  aUowed  an  extempore,  or,  at  least,  an  occa- 
sional prayer  to  be  used, — another  offence  to  the  rising 
ritualist  party.  A  keen  debate  arose  in  the  council  of 
doctors,  heads,  and  proctors,  as  to  the  fittest  time  for  the 
ceremony.  Some,  thinking  of  the  bird  in  hand,  wished 

67  Eph.  990  :  '  Nostris  semper  conatibtis  obstat  res  angusta  clomi/ 

58  Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  323;  Kilbye  to  Casaubon,  July  13,  1613; 
'  Illustrissimus  archiepiscopus  hanc  provinciam  milii  dec! it    ut  ilium 
instruam  in  articulis  fidei,  et  misteriis  christianse  religionist 

59  Ibid.  p.  326  :  'Si  aliquem  Judseum  baptisatum  videris,  oro  ut 
cserimonias  quas  vel  ipse  videris,  vel  ab  aliis  intellexeris,  literis  tuis 
denunties.' 


OXFORD    VISIT.  415 

1  o  have  the  public  baptism  as  part  of  the  entertainment 
<f  the  '  Act'  (July  8).  Kilbye  deprecated  haste  and  de- 
manded to  have  the  long  vacation  for  the  decent 
instruction  of  the  neophyte.  The  convert  himself  was 
impatient  to  make  his  confession,  but  Kilbye  moderated 
liis  ardour.  Kilbye's  opinion  finally  prevailed,  and 
Michaelmas  day  was  fixed  for  the  edifying  spectacle. 
In  September,  Kilbye  reported  to  Casaubon  that  all  was 
going  on  well,  that  his  pupil  promised  excellently 60,  and 
that '  he  hoped  he  would  turn  out  a  second  James,  and 
faithful  disciple  of  Christ/ 

Michaelmas  approached,  and  all  was  ready — all  ex- 
cept the  chief  actor.  The  day  before  the  ceremony  was 
30  come  off,  Jacob  had  decamped.  The  heads  were 
furious  at  having  been  duped ;  the  proctors'  emissaries 
were  sent  out,  horse  and  foot,  to  scour  the  country. 
They  succeeded  in  capturing,  without  regard  to  the 
limits  of  their  jurisdiction,  the  fugitive  on  the  road  to 
London.  The  vice-chancellor  committed  him  to  gaol, — 
for  what  offence  is  not  clear— as  even  Casaubon  ven- 
tured61 to  surmise  that  to  decline  baptism  is  not  a 
misdemeanour  by  the  law  of  England.  However,  they 
kept  him  locked  up  in  Bocardo,  a  miserable  hole,  where 
he  was  like  to  have  died  of  filth  and  starvation 62.  The 
rector  of  Lincoln,  who  was  most  compromised,  was  most 
indignant.  He  played  with  his  victim,  as  a  cat  with  its 
mouse,  having  him  out  of  his  hole  every  now  and  then 
to  remonstrate  with  him  on  the  wickedness  of  his 

Burney  MSB.  364.  p.  326  :  '  Optime  spero  de  Jacobo  quod  futurus 
sit  alter  Jacobus  Christ!  discipulus  fidelis.' 

61  Ep.    924:     'Nam   quod   nolit   fieri    christianus,  crimen    legibus 
puniendum,  opinor,  hoc  nou  est;   sed  tantum  quod  simulaverit/ 

Ibid. :  '  Periculum  esse,  ne  homo  infelix  fame  et  peedore  pereat  in 
illo  duro  carcere.' 


416  LONDON.     1610-1614. 

conduct,  but  not  paying  any  attention  to  his  renewed 
offers  of  abjuration63. 

Casaubon  was  also  deeply  mortified  at  the  part  he 
had  been  made  to  play  in  the  comedy.  It  threw  a 
cloud  upon  what  was  otherwise  a  most  gratifying  visit. 
He  was  naturally  very  indignant.  But  when  he  heard 
of  his  suffering  in  his  confinement,  and  that  some  of  the 
doctors  were  bent  upon  having  him  further  punished, 
he  forgot  the  affront Q4>  in  his  sympathy  with  learning, 
and  exerted  himself  both  with  the  archbishop  and  the 
king  to  procure  his  release.  This  was  not  effected  till 
December,  but  Jacob  was  banished  the  university 
precincts.  65 '  It  will  be  long/  writes  Kilbye,  *  before 
another  jew  of  such  attainments  comes  among  us. 
Had  he  but  put  on  Christ,  what  an  aid  he  might  have 
been  to  hebrew  studies  in  this  place !  It  is  quite 
impossible  for  any  one  ever  to  understand  the  hebrew 
doctors  by  his  own  unassisted  efforts,  unless  he  has 
been  first  initiated  by  one  of  that  nation.'  The  only 
one  who  came  well  out  of  the  affair  was  Twisse,  the 
preacher  on  Michaelmas  day.  Finding  his  prepared 
discourse  balked,  he  delivered  one,  at  a  few  hours' 
notice,  on  Jewish  perfidy,  which  was  highly  relished, 
at  least  by  the  calvinistic  party,  to  which  Twisse 
belonged.  Either  for  his  sermons,  or  for  his  germari 
descent66,  he  was  nominated,  in  1614,  chaplain  to  the 
princess  Elisabeth,  and  went  with  her  to  Heidelberg. 

63  Burney  MSS.  364.  327  :  '  Ssepe  famulum  meum  mitto,  ut  ilium  ad 
me  adducat,  et  postea  reducat.' 

64  Ep.  924  :   '  Etsi  detestor  illius  perfidiam,  non  possum  tamen  non 
aliqua   ejus   tangi   commiseratione    propter   excellentem   ipsius   doc- 
trinam.' 

65  Burney  MSS.  364.  322. 

615  A.  W.  Athen.  Oxon.  3.  1*70  :   'Twisse  was  "  natione  Teutonicus, 
fortuna  Batavus,  religione  calvinista."  ' 


OXFORD  VISIT.  417 

The  glimpse  we  get  of  the  interior  of  the  university 
of  Oxford  during  Casaubon's  visit,  transient  as  it  is, 
is  yet  one  of  the  most  intimate  which  chance  has 
transmitted  to  us  from  that  age,  prior  to  the  time  of 
Anthony  Wood.  It  shows  us,  in  clear  relief,  the  old 
and  well-established  features  of  the  place,  a  character 
which  was  imprinted  on  it  before  the  reformation,  and 
which  belongs  to  it  still,  in  spite  of  many  superficial 
changes,  as  it  did  in  the  time  of  James  i.  We  find 
a  school  where  much  activity  prevails  in  the  routine 
instruction,  and  where  the  time  and  force  of  the  resi- 
dent instructors  is  much  consumed  in  the  formalities 
of  official  duty,  and  the  management  of  their  affairs. 
Of  any  special  interest  in  science,  learning,  or  the 
highest  culture,  there  is  no  trace.  The  conception  of 
classical  learning  as  Casaubon  conceived,  and  attempted 
to  realize  it,  was  unknown.  What  science  there  was 
in  England  was  in  an  attitude  of  hostility.  Neither 
Selden  nor  Bacon  were  ever  fellows  of  a  college.  The 
great  marking  fact  of  the  university,  within,  was  the 
antagonism  of  the  two  church  parties — the  puritan- 
calvinistic  party  in  present  possession ;  the  arminian- 
ritualistic  rising  by  aggressive  acts  and  words ;  S.  Mary's 
pulpit  the  arena,  the  sermons  the  event  of  the  week. 
The  ecclesiastical  interest  absorbs  or  overwhelms  every 
other.  Outside,  the  whole  institution  is  regarded  by 
the  government  as  an  instrument  of  party,  to  be  sup- 
ported, and  to  be  used,  against  the  two  oppositions, 
the  catholic,  and  the  puritan.  The  professors  and 
governors  are  all  clerics,  who  look  for  their  provision 
and  promotion  in  the  church,  from  the  government 
and  the  bishops,  and  endeavour  to  qualify  themselves 
for  it  by  writing  pamphlets  and  preaching  against 
popery  and  puritanism.  The  university  thus  shows 

E  e 


418  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

itself  as  an  intimate  member  and  organ  of  the  national 
life ;  taking  its  full  share  in  all  the  party  feeling, 
passion,  prejudice,  religious  sentiment  which  were 
current  in  the  English  nation,  but  wholly  destitute 
of  any  power  to  vivify,  to  correct,  to  instruct,  to 
enlighten. 


9. 


LONDON. 


1610  — 1614. 

ON  Monday,  June  4  (May  24,  o.  s.),  Casaubon, 
taking  Jacob  with  him,  left  Oxford,  and  staying  the 
night  with  sir  Henry  Savile  at  Eton,  reached  London 
on  Tuesday.  He  returned  to  the  work  over  which  he 
was  now  killing  himself,  and  to  cares  and  vexations  l  '  to 
which  I  am  now  no  longer  equal/  he  writes  in  August 
to  Heinsius.  The  2  *  island  of  the  blessed/  as  it  had 
seemed  to  him  at  first,  began  to  disclose  features  com- 
mon to  the  rest  of  the  world. 

The  first  Cause  of  discomfort  grew  out  of  the  work 
on  which  he  was  engaged. 

At  the  end  of  1612,  he  had  written  out  fair  a  speci- 
men section  of  his  '  Exercitationes,'  and  sent  it  to  the 
archbishop  for  revision  or  approval.  Nor  was  the  arch- 
bishop the  only  person  to  whom  he  had  shown  portions. 
One  friend  in  particular,  whom  he  will  not  name 3,  had 
the  sheets  for  correction.  This  friend,  who  was  perhaps 

1  Ep.  913. 

2  Ep.  703  :  '  De  meo  in  hanc  paxdpav  vfjo-ov  adventu,  puto,  audivisti,' 
to  Heinsius,  January,  1611. 

3  Eph.  968  :    '  Chartas  meas  Baronianas  dedi  recensendas  cuidam 
amico,  viro  probo,  optimo  et  longe  doctissimo.' 

E   e    2 


420  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

the  bishop  of  Ely,  neither  returned  them,  nor  yet  read 
them.     Casaubon  repeatedly  asked  to  have  them  back  ; 
sent  Wedderburn  to  fetch  them  ;  in  vain.    He  suspected 
that  they  had  been  lent  by  the  person  in  question  to 
some  one  else,  and  could  not  be  got  back.     This  sus- 
picion was  founded  upon  a  fact  which  had  come  to 
light  a  little  before,  December  1612.     Abraham  Scul- 
tetus,  chaplain  to  the  elector  Palatine,  who  was  now 
residing  in  London,  informed  him  that  a  MS.  had  been 
received,    by  a   London   bookseller,  of  a   critique   on 
Baronius  by  an  english  divine.      It  was  going  to  be 
published  immediately.     Scultetus  was  able  to  get  the 
sheets  for  Casaubon's  inspection.     His  surprise  may  be 
imagined  when  he  recognised,  as  he  believed,  his  own 
plan.      The    arrangement   of  the    Englishman's  book, 
which,  like  his  own,  was  in  latin,  the  order  of  topics, 
were  the  same.      The  same  errors  of  Baronius  were 
corrected,  the    same   passages   of  authors  were  cited. 
He  afterwards  discovered  that  the  friend  whom  he  had 
trusted  had  not  betrayed  him.     The  detention  of  his 
copy  was  due  solely  to  delay  in  reading  it  over.     The 
friend   had  read   it   with   care,  and   returned  it  with 
remarks  evincing  much   knowledge4.      The  copy  had 
never  been  out  of  his  keeping.     But  other  persons  had 
seen  portions,  and  Casaubon  had  talked  unreservedly  of 
the  plan  and  topics  of  the  book  on  which  his  whole 
energy  was  now  expended.     Indeed,  it  was  probable 
that  the  plagiarist  had  profited  by  his  talk,  rather  than 
by  any   furtive  copy.     For  on  closer  inspection,  not- 
withstanding  many   coincidences,    the    details    of  the 
Englishman's  book  were  found  to  differ  widely  from 
those  of  Casaubon' s,  though  the  plan  was  stolen.     Cas- 

4  Eph.    968:     'Optimi   viri      .     .     .      integritatem    cum  summa 
doctrina  perspexi.' 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  421 

aubon  tells  de  Thou 5  that  the  english  author  4  is  really 
learned,  but  my  own  footing,  as  the  older  student,  is 
perhaps  rather  firmer/  A  more  modest  self-appre- 
ciation was  never  uttered.  For  it  can  scarce  be 
doubted,  that  we  have  in  a  book  published  in  London 
ten  years  afterwards,  1622,  'Analecta  ecclesiasticarum 
exercitationum/  the  material  of  the  book  which  Scul- 
tetus  detected,  and  brought  to  Casaubon.  We  have 
therefore  in  our  hands  the  means  of  comparison.  Pro- 
bably no  one  will  ever  care  to  institute  it.  Yet  it  is 
not  uninstructive.  It  gives  us  a  clear  notion  of  the 
wide  difference  between  a  master  of  ancient  learning, 
and  a  clever  university-bred  scholar,  who  holds  a  brief, 
and  can  accumulate  passages  of  ancient  authors  in 
support  of  '  a  view.3 

Casaubon  was  not  long  in  discovering  that  the  writer 
of  the  sheets  was  Richard  Montagu,  a  young  fellow  of 
Eton,  who  was  now  on  his  preferment,  and  was  reading 
the  fathers  accordingly.  It  was  quite  clear,  then,  by 
what  hand  this  stone  had  been  launched.  Montagu 
was  a  protege  of  Savile,  who  had  brought  him  to  Eton 
to  assist  him  upon  the  Chrysostom.  As  Savile  thought 
himself  a  better  man  than  Scaliger,  Montagu  was  at 
least  a  Casaubon.  The  set  were  indignant  that  the 
foreigner  should  reap  the  credit  that  was  to  be  got  by 
refuting  Baronius.  The  native  jealousy  was  piqued  by 
the  expectation  with  which  the  public,  at  home  and 
abroad,  were  looking  for  Casaubon 's  book6.  They 
would  show  that  there  were  learned  men  in  England. 

5  Ep.  848  :  'Est  illequidem  vir  doctus,  sed  nos  annis  graves  fortius 
pedem  figimus.' 

6  Burney  MSS.  366.  p.   164.     In  September,  1613,  Scultetus  writes 
from  Heidelberg,  '  Equidem  confirmo  tibi  a  multis  annis  nullum  opus 
tanta  cum  aviditate  expectatum  fuisse,  quanta  hocce  tuum.' 


422  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

This  was  the  cause  they  alleged  for  the  secrecy  of  their 
manoeuvre ;  the  fear  '  that  those  foreigners  should  steal 
from  the  books  of  Englishmen  V  The  archbishop,  how- 
ever, interfered.  It  would  cause  scandal  to  attempt  to 
forestal  a  book  on  which  Casaubon  had  been  publicly, 
nay  officially,  engaged.  He  compelled  Montagu  to  sup- 
press his  book.  In  1622,  when  Abbot  was  in  disgrace 
and  powerless,  and  Casaubon  had  long  been  dead, 
Montagu  published  his  materials.  He  may  have  be- 
come ashamed  of  his  sharp  practice,  as  he  asserts  in  his 
preface8,  'that  his  collection  had  not  been  made  with 
any  view  to  publication.'  Montagu  was  a  clever  and 
spirited  writer,  and  was  ready  to  answer  anybody  on 
any  subject.  He  undertook  to  *  answer'  Selden's 
*  History  of  Tithes.'  He  wrote  so  well  that  the  high 
church  party,  and  Anthony  Wood,  thought9  he  had 
demolished  Selden,  to  whom  he  stood  in  the  relation 
in  which  Boyle  did  to  Bentley.  But  if  Montagu,  in 
1622,  was  ashamed  of  his  baffled  trick,  he  was  not  the 
less  bitter  against* Casaubon.  The  '  Analecta '  affect  to 
defend  Casaubon  against  his  later  critics,  Rosweyd  and 
Bulenger.  Under  the  cloak  of  deference  to  the  *  vir 
doctissimus/  we  find  a  running  fire  of  carping  correction 
of  Casaubon's  '  Exercitationes '  maintained.  The  animus 
of  the  Savilian  circle  is  still  there,  though  Casaubon  has 
been  dead  eight  years.  Indeed,  Savile  himself  can 

7  Ep.  848  :  '  Ne  isti  peregrin!  ex  Anglorum  scriptis  proficiant,  hsec 
fuere  verba  magni  cujusdam  viri  (i.  e.  Savile).' 

8  Prgef.  in  Analecta  :  '  Non  in  ilium  finem  ut  in  vulgus  aliquando  et 
liominum  conspectum  emanarent.' 

9  A.  W.  Athense  Oxon.  3.  370:  'He  (Selden)  was  so  effectually 
answered  by  Tillesley  of  Oxon,  Richard  Montagu  and  Stephen  Nettles 
of  Cambridge,  that  he  never  came  off  in  any  of  his  undertakings  with 
more  loss  of  credit.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  423 

hardly  speak  of  Casaubon  with  patience.  In  a  letter  to 
sir  Dudley  Carleton10  undated,  but  after  Casaubon's 
death,  he  writes,  '  Among  your  advertisements  from 
Mr.  Stade,  for  all  reall  defalts  in  the  copyes,  he  may 
supply  them  out  of  another  copy  there,  and  upon 
knowledge  had  what  they  are,  they  shal  be  supplyed 
from  here  (for  a  small  tear  in  a  leafe,  hee  is  too  nice). 
The  "  Thesaurus "  he  mentions,  Mr.  Casaubon  tooke 
that  worke  out  of  my  handes  above  two  yeares  before 
his  death.  To  whom,  as  best  able  to  perforate  it,  both 
for  his  learning  and  experience  that  way,  and  for  his 
ability  of  body,  I  yeelded,  and  so  from  him  hee  must 
fetch  it,  I  feare,  yf  hee  will  have  it/  When  the  reader 
comes  presently  to  the  physician's  account  of  Casaubon's 
wasted  appearance  for  some  years  before  his  death,  he 
will  be  able  to  appreciate  the  cruel  sarcasm  of  the 
words  '  for  his  ability  of  body/ 

Nor  was  the  jealousy  of  the  scholars  whose  repu- 
tation was  thrown  into  the  shade  by  Casaubon's 
presence  in  England,  the  only  source  of  ill  will.  He 
began,  after  a  time,  to  meet  with  cold  looks  in  the 
social  circle  even  from  those  whom  he  had  best  right 
to  think  his  friends.  'I  cannot  make  out  these 
English ; '  he  writes  to  de  Thou  in  November  1612, 
*  those  of  them  with  whom  I  was  acquainted  before  my 
coming  over,  seem  now  not  to  know  me.  Not  one 
of  them  ever  speaks  to  me,  or  even  answers  if  I  speak 
to  him.  The  reason  of  it  is  a  mystery  to  me11.' 
Hallam,  commenting  on  this  passage12,  supposes  Cas- 
aubon 'to  have  become  generally  unpopular.'  But 

10  State  paper  office,  Domestic,  James  I,  vol.  92.  no.  95. 

11  Ep.  241  :'  Nemo  illorum  me  vel  verbulo  appellat,  appellatus  silet. 
Hoc  quid  rei  sit,  non  scio.' 

12  Hist,  of  Lit.  2.  311,  n. 


424  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

this  was  by  no  means  the  case.  With  the  king  he 
continued  to  the  last  as  much  a  favourite  as  at  the 
beginning.  He  was  sent  for  as  often,  and  detained 
as  long  in  talk,  which  sometimes  became  very  con- 
fidential. One  of  the  most  notable  instances  in  the 
diary  occurs  as  late  as  June  i,  1614,  little  more 
than  a  fortnight  before  his  death ;  when  he  records : 
'  Whitsunday ;  but  had  to  go  to  the  king,  from  whom 
I  heard  things  which  surprised  me  much,  which  His 
Majesty  communicated  to  me  in  private13.  I  am  re- 
minded of  Juvenal's  "Ad  generum  Cereris,"  etc.,  and 
the  Sicilian  vespers,  but  these  things  must  be  kept 
a  dead  secret/  The  explanation  of  the  mystery  is 
to  be  found  in  Hoskyns'  speech  in  the  House  of 
Commons  a  few  days  before14,  in  which  he  said, 
as  reported  by  Chamberlain ;  '  Hoskyns,  forsooth, 
must  have  his  oar  in  the  boat,  and  tell  them  that  wise 
princes  put  away  strangers,  as  Canute,  when  he  meant 
to  plant  himself  here,  sent  back  his  Danes,  and  the 
Palsgrave  had  lately  dismissed  all  the  English  that 
were  about  the  lady  Elizabeth,  and  withal,  to  what 
purpose  he  knew  best,  put  them  in  mind  of  Ves- 
perse  Sicilians/  The  bishops  continued  throughout 
no  less  friendly.  He  was  as  much  visited  and  invited 
as  he  desired — nay  more  than  suited  with  his  intense 
passion  for  work.  He  is  frequently  receiving  sub- 
stantial presents  from  them,  at  other  times  besides 
Christmas.  In  May  1612,  the  bishop  of  London,  King, 
sends  Madame  Casaubon  '  a  little  remembrance,'  with 
an  apology  for  not  having  called  during  his  being  in 
London,  and  adding  a  hope  that  he  will  '  pay  him  a 

13  Eph.  p.  1063  :  'A  quo  mira  didici  quse  mihi  KCIT  Idlav  Hex  seren- 
issimus  et  optimus  narravit.  meminero  versus  illius,'  etc. 

14  Chamberlain  to  Carleton,  ap.  Birch,  i.  321. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  425 

visit  at  Fulham 15,  four  miles  beyond  Westminster.' 
In  November  of  the  same  year,  the  king  and  the 
archbishop  were  godfathers,  by  proxy,  to  his  english 
son,  James.  The  bishops  of  Bath  (Montagu),  and 
Lichfield  (Overall),  and  lady  Carew,  were  present. 
Morton,  dean  of  Winchester,  sends  him  presents, 
invites  him  to  dine  (April  1613),  and  in  the  words 
of  Morton's  biographer 18,  'this  love  thus  begun 
between  Morton  and  Casaubon  was  never  intermitted 
in  their  lives,  nor  obliterated  by  death.' 

In  the  very  letter17  in  which  Casaubon  makes 
this  complaint  of  the  English,  he  speaks  of  visiting 
Camden  ;  of  sir  Robert  Cotton  '  the  best  of  men,  a 
candid  soul,  a  true  nobleman'  (vir  optimus,  candi- 
dissimus,  et  vere  nobilissimus),  with  whom  he  has 
often  talked  of  de  Thou's  '  History.'  Yet  we  have 
seen18  that  he  did  nob  make  friends  among  the 
antiquarians,  or  the  wits.  He  was  less  likely  to 
make  them  among  the  courtiers.  If  any  class  of 
persons  be  meant  in  his  words  to  de  Thou,  it  must  be 
the  place-hunters  who  infested  James'  court.  He  was 
much  thrown  in  their  way,  and  they  must  have 
envied  his  frequent  closetings  with  James,  opportuni- 
ties which  they  would  have  known  how  to  turn  to 
account.  Unable  to  speak  english,  his  intercourse 
was  necessarily  confined  to  those  who  were  willing 
to  communicate  with  him  in  french  or  latin ;  french, 
which  the  average  Englishman  speaks  indifferently 
and  reluctantly ;  latin,  in  which  the  painful  effort  to 
follow  Casaubon' s  foreign  pronunciation  was  naturally 

15  Burney  MSB.  364.  p.  367. 

16  Barwick,  Life  of  Bp.  Moreton,  p.  72. 

17  Ep.  841.  18  See  above,  p.  325. 


426  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

shirked.  Disinclination  to  talk  to  the  solemn  calvinist, 
whose  dress  and  manners  bore  the  obnoxious  stamp 
of  Geneva,  would  be  strongest  among  the  fashionable 
set,  the  waiters  on  providence,  with  which  the  court 
of  James  I.  was  more  than  ordinarily  beset.  The  pre- 
ferment hunter"  is  always  discontented,  having  no  self- 
respect,  he  has  no  appreciation.  One  of  the  most 
conspicuous  of  this  class  was  one  whom  Casaubon 
might  have  with  reason  expected  to  befriend  him. 
And  it  is  probable  that  though  Casaubon  makes  his 
complaint  a  general  one,  by  the  plural  phrase  19 '  all 
those  I  have  known  before/  he  intends  a  single  in- 
dividual, whose  behaviour  particularly  mortified  him. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  sir  Henry  Wotton,  when 
at  Geneva  in  1 592,  had  lodged  in  Casaubon's  house20, '  to 
his  very  great  contentment.'  Their  friendship,  thus 
begun,  survived  Wotton's  remissness  in  his  money 
transactions,  which  had  given  Casaubon  so  much 
trouble.  Since  then  they  had  corresponded,  and  in 
most  affectionate  terms,  for  some  years.  In  1601, 
Wotton  undertakes  to  write  every  week  from  Florence, 
and  in  greek,  for  which  Casaubon  had  inspired  him 
with  an  enthusiasm21.  He  would  dedicate  to  Isaac 
Casaubon  one  of  the  many  books  which  he  was  always 
going  to  write,  and  never  did  write.  June  20,  1602, 
he  is  back  at  Florence  after  a  long  absence  in  Ger- 
many22. '  He  recalls,  and  would  fain  ask  heaven  to  give 

19  Ep.  841  :  'Quoscunque  habui  notos.' 

20  See  above,  p.  44. 

21  Burney  MSS.  366  :  '  Te  prgelucente  versabor  inter  incorrupti  sevi 
auctores.' 

22  Burney  MSS.  367.  p.  75:  '  Ssepe  repeto  illos  dies  et  reposco  in 
quibus,  ut  tuis  verbis  utar,  solem  una  condebamus.'     This  letter  is  not 
signed,  and  is  ascribed  in  the  catalogue  of  Burney  MSS.  though  with  a 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  427 

him  again,  those  days  in  which  they  watched  the 
setting  sun  together.'  His  book,  which  he  is  going  to 
write,  is  '  On  Fate/  and  is  to  be  in  greek,  and  to  be 
dedicated  to  Casaubon.  Nothing  delays  its  publica- 
tion, but  the  expectation,  which  has  been  raised  by  a 
certain  friend  at  Venice,  of  having  a  complete  Hierocles 
'  On  Fore-knowledge  and  Necessity/  He  knows  the 
excerpts  in  Photius,  but '  in  a  matter  of  such  importance 
he  is  not  satisfied  with  extracts.5  Casaubon23  replies  in 
the  same  tender  tone,  '  Ah  1  what  days  those  were ! 
when  heedless  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour  we  passed 
whole  nights  in  lettered  talk !  I  hanging  on  your 
stories  of  all  you  had  seen  of  many  men  and  many 
lands  ;  you  pleased  to  hear  somewhat  of  my  desultory 
readings !  Oh !  that  was  life  worth  living !  pure 
happiness  !  I  cannot  recall  those  times  without  groaning 
in  spirit/ 

So  wrote  Casaubon  in  1602.  Wotton  forgot  his 
promise  of  the  weekly  greek  letter,  and  did  not  write 
the  book24.  Before  he  left  Italy  a  change  had  come 
over  his  sentiments  towards  Casaubon.  In  1610  he 
writes  to  Hoeschel  at  Augsburg25,  expressing  himself 
as  disgusted  with  the  courtly  strain  of  compliment  in 
the  preface  to  the  Polybius26.  In  February,  1611, 

?,  to  Campanella.  It  is  in  sir  H.  Wotton' s  hand,  and  is  his  reply  to 
Cas.  ep.  1 02 1.  Casaubon's  reply  to  Wotton,  at  Florence,  is  Gas.  ep. 
292,  dat.  Lutet.  12  kal.  Sext.  1602. 

!3  Ep.  292. 

i4  Hannah,  Poems  of  Wotton  and  Raleigh,  p.  xiv  :  '  Though  he 
sometimes  amused  himself  with  looking  after  printers,  he  seldom  com- 
mitted anything  to  press.' 

25  Heumann,  Pcecile,  i.  582  :  '  O  quam  multis  displicet  ilia  nuncu- 
patoria  epistola  !  quse  profecto  non  critici  est  sed  aulici.' 

26  Chamberlain  writes,  March  3,  1614,  Birch,  i.  301:  'Touching the 
Fabricians,  it  skills  not  what  they  say  or  write,  for  they  stand  but 


428  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

Wotton  returned  from  Venice.  Casaubon  expected  to 
welcome  a  friend.  But  he  was  disappointed.  Sir 
Henry,  a  younger  son,  with  no  patrimony  and  expen- 
sive tastes,  had  commenced  the  career  of  place-hunting, 
and  was  now  too  fine  a  gentleman  to  be  seen  talking 
with  an  old  pedant.  Signor  Fabritio  (Wotton's  nick- 
name) swaggered  it  about  the  king  27'  with  his  pictures 
and  projects/  but  was  not  at  home  to  Casaubon,  who 
became  shy  of  paying  visits  which  were  evidently  un- 
acceptable. At  the  request  of  de  Thou,  however, 
Casaubon  wrote  to  Wotton  to  ask  for  a  memoir  on  the 
Venetian  quarrel  which  Fra  Paolo  had  entrusted  to 
Wotton  for  de  Thou's  special  use  in  his  '  History/ 
Wotton  vouchsafed  no  answer.  After  repeated  appli- 
cations, he  at  last  said  28ithat  he  was  writing  on  the 
subject  himself,  and  should  retain  the  memoir  for  his 
own  use/ 

Casaubon  himself  writes  indeed  in  one  place  29,  as  if 
the  bishops  of  Ely  and  Lichfield,  Andre wes  and  Overall, 
were  his  *  only  english  friends/  But  this  must  be  un- 
derstood of  close  and  constant  intimacy.  For  it  is 
evident  that  Morton,  Barclay,  and  others  whose  names 
occur  in  our  narrative,  were  attached  to  him.  And 
intimacy  is  of  slow  growth  for  a  man  of  fifty,  who  is  also 
a  close  student.  Of  acquaintance  less  than  intimate,  he 
had,  as  the  diary  testifies,  more  rather  than  less  than 
we  should  have  expected  from  a  man  of  his  habits,  who 
could  not  speak  the  language  of  the  country.  It  was 
true  that  he  had  taken  his  side  with  a  party,  and  he 

aloof,  and  are  of  the  most  that  know  least  ;  and  surely  their  employ- 
ments go  but  slowly  forward,  and  is  more  but  an  even  wager  whether 
either  of  them  for  all  their  forwardness,  shall  enjoy  the  place  they  pre- 
tend.' 27  Chamberlain  to  Carleton,  Aug.  n,  1612. 
28  Camdeni  Epp.  p.  139.  29  Eph.  p.  916. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  429 

iad  to  take  the  consequences   of  his  position.     In  this 

:espect  emigration  had  been  a  change  for  the  worse. 

hi  Paris  he  had  belonged  to  the  downtrodden  party  of 

the  huguenots,  whose  lives  were  held  on  sufferance  from 

the  street  mob.     But  he  had  enjoyed  the  exceptional 

encouragement  and  protection  of  the  court.     In  coming 

to  England  he  attached  himself  to  the  dominant  party. 

But   government,  even  in  the   time  of  James    i,  was 

government  by  a  party.     Those  who  shared  its  favours 

had  to  share  also  its  unpopularity.       Coming  over  to 

this   country  at    the   invitation  of  the  king   and  the 

bishops,  Casaubon  might  imagine  at  first  that  he  was 

the  adopted  guest  of  the  nation.  He  found  himself  only 

the  favourite   of  the  church  party.     The  zeal  of  the 

puritans  saw  in  Casaubon,  whose  books  they  could  not 

read,  only  the  champion  of  prelacy,  the  deserter  from 

the  calvinistic  camp.      The  wits  of  the  Mermaid  were 

jealous   of  the  foreign   pensioner,  and   the  'prentices 

thought   it  meritorious   to  '  eave  ?alf   a   brick  at  the 

Frenchman  !  His  windows  were  more  than  once  broken 

by  stones.     He  appealed,  not  to  the  city  authorities, 

but  to  the  archbishop,  for  protection.     He  had  lived,  he 

said,  twelve  years  in  Paris,  in  the  most  bigoted  quarter 

of  the  city,  close  to  the  cordeliers,  and  other  furious 

enemies  of  his  church,  without  molestation.     Now  the 

streets  were  not  safe  to  him30,   he  was  pursued  with 

abuse,  or  with  stones,  his  children  were  beaten.     On  one 

occasion  he  appeared  himself  at  Theobald's  with  a  black 

eye.       Some  ruffian  had  hit  him  a  blow  with  his  fist, 

probably  while  the  coach  in  which  he  was  driving,  was 

progressing   slowly  through  the  narrow  and  crowded 

streets  of  the  city.     The  blow  was  so  violent  a  shock 

!0  Ep.  1056:  '  Liberi  ssepe  pulsati  ;  probra  seepe  in  nos  conjecta  ; 
lapidibus  quoticlie  fere  incessimur.' 


430  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

to  his  emaciated  frame,  that  at  first  he  thought  he 
had  lost  his  right  eye 81.'  The  burglary  committed  in 
his  house  on  the  night  of  March  i,  1614,  appeared  to 
Casaubon  a  part  of  the  system  of  annoyance,  but  is 
only  an  instance  of  the  general  insecurity,  and  want 
of  police  in  the  London  of  that  day. 

Hallam  suggests  that  these  outrages  proceeded  from 
'  the  popish  party,'  a  suggestion  still  more  unfortunate 
than  that  lately  mentioned 32.  The  London  street  bullies 
were  not  likely  to  have  heard  of  his  learned  letters  against 
the  Jesuits.  Had  the  catholics  ventured  to  assault 
Casaubon,  he  would  have  been  immediately  taken  under 
the  protection  of  the  '  prentices,  who  were  violent  '  no- 
popery'  boys.  Only  a  few  years  later,  1618,  the  sacred 
person  of  the  Spanish  ambassador  was  hardly  saved 
from  their  violence 33.  If  any  religious  party  instigated 
the  assailants  in  Casaubon' s  case,  they  were  undoubtedly 
the  puritans.  But  there  is  no  evidence  of  religious 
antipathy  against  Casaubon,  whose  arminian  leanings 
were  known  only  to  a  few.  Nor  are  we  to  think,  in 
1614,  of  those  terrors  of  the  night,  the  Hectors,  the 
Muns,  or  the  Tityre  Tus,  a  later  form  of  ruffianism.  It 
is  probable  that  it  was  simply  as  a  foreigner  that  he  was 
obnoxious.  The  worst  attack  was  in  June  1612,  at  the 
moment  when  the  animosity  of  the  London  mob  against 
the  Scotch  was  at  its  height,  so  that  the  Scottishmen 
were  '  bodily  afraid/  and  300  of  them  passed  through 
Ware,  on  their  road  northwards,  within  10  days  34. 
From  Elisabeth's  reign  onwards  we  hear  of  continual 

31  Eph.  936  :  '  Oculum  dextrum  pene  amisimus,  icti  a  nebulone  quo- 
dam  pugno,  cum  in  rheda  veherernur     .     .     .     sine  ulla  plane  causa.' 

32  Above,  note  12. 

33  Chamberlain  to  Carleton,  Aug.  15,  1618,  ap.  Birch. 

34  Nicholls,  Progr.  2.  449. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  431 

3onspiracies  of  the  Londoners  against  the  French  and 
Flemings  who,  driven  to  emigrate  by  religious  per- 
secution, settled  in  London  and  '  ruined  english  trade  3V 
The  british  workman  awkward,  and  indocile  then  as 
now,  could  not  compete  with  the  superior  intelligence 
and  thrift  of  the  French.  There  were  10000  foreigners 
in  London  alone  in  1621.  And  trade  rivalry  apart,  when 
is  the  time  that  a  Frenchman  has  not  been  fair  game  in 
the  streets  of  London  1  In  1584,  Giordano  Bruno37 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  London  cockneys  similar 
insults,  and  says,  '  They  thought  when  they  had  called 
you  "foreigner,"  they  had  established  your  title  to 
receive  any  kind  of  ill  usage/  Nor  was  the  old  bru- 
tality subdued  in  the  following  century,  when  John 
Bull  still  thought  it  becoming  to  express  his  contempt 
for  a  Frenchman  to  his  face  38.  Milton  was  doubtless 
drawing  from  his  own  London  experience,  when  he 
described39  '  The  sons  Of  Belial,  flown  with  insolence 
and  wine,'  wandering  forth  at  night-fall  to  riot,  injury 
and  outrage. 

Friends,  and  kind  ones,  were  not  wanting  to  com- 
pensate him  for  these  annoyances  of  London.  His 
house,  indeed,  was  no  longer  the  rendezvous  of  callers 
or  of  gossips,  as  it  had  been  in  Paris ;  but  by  this  he 

36  See  Stowe's  London,  2.  205,  etc.  Cooper,  Lists  of  Foreign 
protestants,  p.  iv. 

57  Cena  della  cenere,  vol.  i.  p.  146  :  'Una  plebe  irrispettevole, 
incivile,  rozza,  rustica,  selvatica,  e  male  allevata  .  .  .  che  conos- 
cendoti  forastiero,  ti  ghignano  .  .  .  ti  chiamano  cane,  traditore, 
staniero,  e  questo  a  presso  loro  &  un  titulo  ingiuriosissimo,  e  che  rende 
il  supposito  capace  a  ricevere  tutti  i  torti  del  mondo.' 

38  E.  g.  the  Thames'  wherryman,  who  told  Voltaire,  CEuvres,  29. 
393  :  '  Qu'il  aimoit  mieux  6tre  batelier  sur  la  Tamise  qu'archeveque 
en  France.' 

39  P.  L.  i.  498. 


432  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

was  the  gainer.  One  source  of  expenditure  of  time 
was  thus  cut  off,  by  his  ignorance  of  the  language.  In 
other  ways  the  want  of  english  was  felt  by  him  as  a 
severe  trial.  He  was  cut  off  from  knowledge  of  the 
events  of  the  day ;  he  was  only  half  at  home  in  the 
english  church.  He  had  begun,  in  1609,  at  Grigny, 
to  take  lessons  in  english,  chiefly  that  he  might  read 
Rainolds'  books,  and  those  of  other  anglican  writers40. 
His  progress,  at  first,  had  delighted  him.  But  the 
lessons  were  dropt  from  want  of  leisure.  Of  sermons, 
he  could  gather  their  general  drift,  no  more.  An 
english  book  he  could  make  a  shift  to  look  over.  But 
when  he  has  to  use  Garnett's  confessions  for  his  pam- 
phlet41, he  must  have  them  translated  into  latin  for 
him42.  But  he  could  not  understand  what  was  said  to 
him,  and  as  for  speaking  english  himself,  he  thought 
himself  too  old  to  begin  to  learn43.  '  An  old  man  at 
his  ABC  is  an  object  of  just  contempt/  What  he 
suffered  in  consequence  from  english  servants  and 
London  tradesmen  may  be  imagined.  Madame  Casau- 
bon  had  not  even  got  as  far  as  her  husband.  *  Don't 
be  anxious  about  your  wife/  Savile  had  written  to  him 
in  February,  i6n44,  'she  is  a  woman,  and  will  learn 
more  english  in  three  days  than  you  will  in  as  many 
centuries.'  But  she  did  not  try.  She  hated  the  country 

40  Eph.  693  :  'Quod  sciebam  Rainoldum  et  alios  summos  theologos 
in  ea  lingua  multa  exquisita  scripsisse.' 

41  See  above,  p.  401. 

42  Eph.  p.  845  :  '  Ese,  quum  sint  scriptse  anglice,  danda  mihi  opera 
est,  ut  aliena  opera  adjutus,  ipsas  perlegam  et  intelligam.'     His  own 
notes  from  these  papers  are  in  latin.     Advers.  25.  p.  65. 

43  Ep.  704  :  '  Turpis  profecto  res  est  senex  elementarius.' 

44  Burney  MSS.  366.  p.  52  :  '  De  uxore  noli  solicitus  esse ;  ipsa,  ut 
est  ingeiiium  mulierum,  unico  triduo  plus  discet  in  lingua  nostra,  quam 
tu  tribus  seculis.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614. 


433 


and  abominated  the  climate.  In  the  event  of  settling 
in  England  they  had  relied  upon  Philippa,  who  had 
acquired  the  language  in  attendance  on  lady  Carew. 
Madame  Casaubon  could  not  get  on  with  english  ser- 
vants, yet  upon  her  Isaac  was  entirely  dependent  for  the 
conduct  of  the  household,  and  in  her  absence  was  liable 
to  be  terribly  imposed  upon.  When  he  had  been  three 
years  in  the  country  he  had  not  yet  learnt  to  distin- 
guish the  names  or  value  of  the  english  coins.  He  once 
gave45  a  jacobus  by  mistake  to  a  needy  compatriot  who 
was  preying  on  his  simplicity  and  had  asked  the  loan 
of  an  angel.  When  he  had  to  keep  the  household 
accounts,  he  was  astonished  at  the  amount  of  the  out- 
goings46. The  cost  of  a  new  suit  to  appear  at  court  in 
seemed  to  him  ruinous.  The  postage  of  letters47  to  a 
man  who  receives  so  many,  and  to  whom  authors  send 
their  books,  is  a  heavy  tax.  His  own  books  must  be 
presented  to  various  great  persons,  as  to  the  king,  and 
then  they  must  be  bound.  Books  published  abroad 
were  very  costly  in  London48.  Books,  too,  must  be  had 
for  his  own  use,  and  must  be  paid  for  in  cash,  except 
to  Norton,  the  king's  wealthy  publisher,  who  would 
give  credit.  In  May,  1611,  he  was  at  the  bottom  of 
his  purse,  and  resolved,  till  his  wife's  return,  to  spend 
no  more  on  books,  with  a  caveat,  however,  which  a 
book-buyer  will  appreciate,  49c  unless  I  should  meet 


45  Eph.  p.  1007. 

6  Eph.  p.  993  :  'Non  solitus  administrare  pecuniam,  cum  video 
impensas  hujus  domus  obstupefio.'  Epli.  p.  996  :  '  Kationes  cum 
jnultis  composui,  et  miror  impensas  hujus  domus.' 

47  Ep.  757  :  'Immani  pretio  redimendus  fuit  ille  mihi  fasciculus.' 

18  Eph.   p.   812:  '  Regi     .     .     .     dedi  e  meis  libris  quos  hie  potui 
reperire  etsi  auro  contra  caros     .     .     .     omnes  magnifice  compactos.' 

19  Eph.  p.  838  :  '  Excepto  si  quid  occurrat  rarius.' 

P   f 


434  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

with  something  very  scarce/  By  August,  the  account 
at  Bill's — Norton's  successor — had  grown  to  300  livres, 
a  sum  which  he  groaned  over,  but  made  shift  to 
pay.  During  Madame  Casaubon's  long  absence  in 
1613,  the  administration  was  an  interim.  The  house- 
hold got  on  anyhow.  61<My  affairs  are  in  deplorable 
confusion,  but  all  will  be  set  right  when  my  wife 
returns/ 

It  is  somewhat  perplexing  to  find  Casaubon,  after 
his  settlement  in  England,  as  much  hampered  by 
pecuniary  cares  as  ever.  At  one  time  he  says,  'that 
in  London  he  wanted  everything  but  money,  and  of 
that  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  had  no  lack/  This 
may  have  been  a  moment  when  he  found  his  purse 
full.  For  the  general  tone  of  the  diary  is  that  of 
distress.  52<I  am  overwhelmed  with  cares,  business, 
expenses/  He  seems  to  have  been  at  last  driven  to 
such  straits,  that  it  was  requisite  to  make  an  appli- 
cation to  the  king  for  relief53.  Some  vague  promise 
was  made  him 54.  But  a  little  later,  when  it  became 
apparent  that  his  health  was  failing,  a  renewed  promise 
of  further  help  was  sent  him  by  the  king 55.  This  was 
not  till  May  1614,  a  month  before  his  final  illness. 

51  Eph.  p.  998  :  '  Omnia  mea  susque  deque ;  restituentur  in  suum 
locum  si  uxor  venerit.'  Cf.  epli.  p.  988  :  '  Vides,  bone  deus,  dissipa- 
tionem  hujus  donius/ 

62  Eph.  p.  997  :  '  Obruor  sumtibus,  negotiis,  curis.' 

53  Eph.  1046  :  '  Ne  meas  ipse  mihi  spes  praeciderim  scribens  ad 
regem  serenissimum,  quern  alioquin  scio  esse  mei  non  mediocriter 
amantem.' 

64  Eph.  p.  1051 :  '  Ab  episcopo  Bathoniensi  audivi  quani  nihil  insit 
solidi  spei  nuper  excitatse.' 

55  Eph.  p.  1056  :  'Hodie  venit  ad  me  D.  Bathoniensis  jussu  regis 
ut  de  rebus  meis  nieliora  in  posterum  polliceretur.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614. 


435 


re  must  suppose  that  the  necessity  was  urgent  before 
he  could  bring  himself  to  beg.  He  had  long  avoided 
doing  so.  But  he  did  not  escape  the  sarcasms  of  the 
Jesuit  pamphleteers  on  this  head.  That  Casaubon  was 
gone  to  England  to  make  money  out  of  the  british 
Croesus  was  too  obvious  an  imputation  to  be  neglected 56. 
When  these  gibes  were  mentioned  to  James  he  said 
to  Casaubon,  '  Since  your  coming,  you'  never  once 
asked  me  for  anything ;  you  know  you  would  have 
got  it,  if  you  had.'  These  insinuations  of  the  Jesuits 
were  indeed  but  the  echo  of  the  gossip  of  the  english 
court.  Carleton  writes57: — 

'  I  was  the  other  day  with  the  bishop  of  Ely,  and 
among  other  talk  lighted  upon  Casaubon,  who,  it 
seems,  is  scant  contented  with  his  entertainment  of 
£300  a  year,  being  promised  greater  matters  by  the 
late  archbishop,  who  bestowed  .a  prebend  upon  him  at 
Canterbury,  which  he  valued  at  six  score  pounds  a 
year,  and  falls  out  not  worth  the  fourth  part.  But 
his  greatest  emulation  or  envy  is  at  Turquet's  prefer- 
ment, who  hath  £400  pension  of  the  king,  £400  of 
the  queen,  with  a  house  provided  him,  and  many  other 
commodities,  which  he  reckons  at  £1400  a  year.' 

This  gossip  may  not  be  accurate  as  to  the  figures, 
but,  while  it  shows  the  ill-will  of  the  courtiers  towards 
the  pensioner,  it  points  to  what  was  certainly  a  fact, 
that  Casaubon' s  money  difficulties  were  the  talk  of  the 
court.  As  to  the  value  of  the  stall  at  Canterbury, 
we  learn,  from  Carier's  report  to  Casaubon58,  that  it 
amounted,  including  the  rent  of  the  prebendal  house, 

56  See  Eudsemon- Joannes,  Responsio  ad  epist.  pp.  160.  163,  and 
passim. 

17  Birch,  Court  and  Times  of  James  i,  i.  149. 

18  Burney  MSB.  363.  ap.  Russell,  p.  1185. 

P    f   2 


436  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

to  £100  for  the  first  year.  This,  with  the  £300  a 
year  from  the  crown,  and  the  french  pension,  which 
continued  to  be  paid  to  the  last,  was  an  income  which, 
we  should  think,  ought  to  have  raised  Casaubon  above 
want,  if  not  placed  him  in  easy  circumstances.  But, 
it  would  seem  that  with  the  increase  of  his  means, 
the  drain  upon  them  increased.  His  pervert  son,  who 
remained  behind  in  Paris,  was  dependent  upon  him. 
His  nephew,  Isaac  Chabanes,  though  he  had  been 
taken  into  the  service  of  the  dutch  ambassador 59,  had 
to  be  occasionally  assisted.  He  supported  his  sister 
Anna,  who  took  what  he  could  give,  and  abused  him 
for  not  giving  more.  Meric  was  at  Eton,  and  though 
on  the  foundation,  must  have  cost  something.  For 
the  younger  children  he  had  a  tutor  in  the  house, 
James  Wedderburn,  a  tutor  who  was  modest  enough  to 
confess  that  the  salary  which  Casaubon  gave  him  was 
more  than  he  ought  to  have,  relatively  either  to  his 
own  merits  or  to  Casaubon' s  means 60.  Besides  these, 
Madame  Casaubon  had  her  relations,  whom  she  had 
fetched  from  Geneva  and  Lyons  to  live  either  in  the 
house,  or  dependent  upon  it ;  61 '  As  if/  he  says,  '  I  was 
a  prince  and  could  maintain  whole  families  besides  my 
own/  These  were  outlets  for  money,  which  occasional 
presents  from  king  or  bishops  would  go  but  little  way 
to  meet.  And  there  are  repeated  allusions  to  losses 
he  was  sustaining  in  France,  probably  of  his  wife's 

59  Bibl.    nat.  coll.   Dupuy,   708.  p.  86  ;  cf.  Cas.  ep.  902,  and  Is. 
Chabanes  to  Cas.  Burney  MSS.  367.  p.  8. 

60  Burney  MSS.  366.  ap.  Russell :  '  Salarium  mihi  a  te  constitutui 
est,  majus  quidem  illud,  quam  ut  ei  fortune  tuse  vel  merita  m( 
respondeant/ 

Eph.    p.    1000 :    'Quasi  ego  regulus  essem   aliquis,  et  possem 
integras  familias  allenas  alere.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  437 

property.  The  circumstances  are  not  explained  :  but 
it  was  to  see  after  this  business  that  Madame  Casaubon 
returned  to  France  in  1613.  She  cannot  have  been 
altogether  unsuccessful,  as  we  hear  of  a  bill  of  exchange 
for  2300  livres,  coming  over,  with  which,  in  her  ab- 
sence, Casaubon  did  not  know  how  to  deal.  Thus, 
though  his  income  was  more  than  doubled,  pecuniary 
anxiety  weighed  on  his  mind  as  heavily  as  it  had  done 
in  Paris.  July  28,  1612,  he  enters,  '  A  day  of  sadness 
and  vexation.  I  had  my  time  free  for  study,  but  I 
made  no  way,  my  mind  being  distracted  with  divers 
cares/  In  1613-14,  while  engaged  on  Baronius,  it  is 
the  same  cry  of  distress.  November  14,  1613,  'O 
wretched  house  this !  not  a  single  day  passes  without 
heavy  grief  of  both  of  us,  my  wife  and  myself,  from 
the  cause  which  thou,  0  God,  knowest ! '  In  several 
places  of  the  diary  where  this  secret  cause  of  grief  is 
touched  upon,  some  later  hand,  probably  Meric's,  has 
erased  the  material  words62.  It  is  only  a  conjecture 
that  this  unexplained  sorrow  is  the  pressure  of  pecu- 
niary want  which  in  other  places  is  spoken  of  without 
disguise. 

While  thus  suffering  from  straitened  means,  he  had 
to  hear  the  taunts  of  the  catholic  party  writers,  that  he 
had  sold  his  conscience  for  english  gold. 

Till  his  removal  to  England,  Casaubon  had  enjoyed 
almost  entire  immunity  from  the  party  pamphleteers. 
This  exemption,  when  every  other  less  conspicuous 
huguenot  man  of  letters  was  being  bespattered  with 
dirt,  was  due  to  the  full  expectation,  which  was  all 

62  See  e.  g.  Eph.  p.  1027  :  '  Omnium  quse  hoc  anno  prseter  animi 
sententiam  nobis  acciderunt  est  longe  maximum  malum  [an  erasure] 
tibi,  Deus  seterne,  notum  .  .  .  durat  enim,  durat,  et  mine  quam  angit 
me  et  uxorem  meam  tristissima  ilia  cura  et  dirissima  sollicitudo.' 


438  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

along  entertained,  of  his  becoming  one  of  theirs  at  last. 
But  when  he  took  service  under  the  king  of  England, 
this  hope  was  necessarily  abandoned.  The  prohibition 
was  taken  off,  and  Casaubon's  troubles  were  aggravated 
by  a  new  one,  till  now  unknown.  And  when  he  him- 
self became  a  pamphleteer,  and  lowered  himself  to 
answer  Emmanuel  Sa  and  the  '  Amphitheatrum/  he 
ought  to  have  been  prepared  to  take  the  inevitable 
consequence.  His  '  Epistle  to  Fronto '  was  published  in 
October  1 6 1 1 .  It  was  not  likely  that  such  a  challenge 
should  not  be  taken  up.  The  most  conspicuous  pro- 
testant  writer  of  the  day  was  here  stating  the  case  of 
the  most  powerful — of  the  only  considerable — pro- 
testant  sovereign.  The  sectarian  interest  was  stimu- 
lated by  personal  animosity  in  the  recollection  that 
this  champion  of  the  king  of  England  had  come  so 
close  to  them,  and  yet  had  drawn  off  from  them.  The 
*  spretse  injuria  formse '  was  all  the  more  galling, 
because  the  wooing  had  been  long  and  passionate. 

A  concentrated  fire  was  ordered  to  be  directed  upon 
his  position.  The  principal  assailants  were  Eudaemon- 
Joannes  and  Eosweyd,  two  Jesuits,  the  Louvain  pro- 
fessor Erycius  Puteanus,  Bulenger,  and  the  notorious 
Scioppius.  The  incisive  pen  of  Scioppius  made  him 
the  most  telling  and  feared  libeller  of  the  day.  But  no 
party  could  trust  him,  and  the  authorised  (  answerer '  of 
the  Jesuits  was  now  Eudsemon- Joannes,  or  L'Heureux. 
Of  this  voluminous  pamphleteer  I  can  find  no  authentic 
account.  Dr.  Abbot,  the  regius  professor  of  Oxford, 
had  been  told  that  he  was  Fisher,  the  en glish  Jesuit &. 
But  this  was  only  a  guess,  and  a  wrong  one.  L'Heu- 
reux's  own  account  was  that  he  was  a  native  of  Crete, 

63  Aritilogia,  ep.  ad  lectorem. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  439 

educated  in  Italy,  and  that  his  family  name  was 
Eudsemon-Joannes 64.  However  this  may  be,  his  pam- 
phlet against  Casaubon65  shows  an  acquaintance  with 
english  affairs,  and  London  gossip,  which  can  only  be 
explained  by  the  excellence  of  the  secret  intelligence 
which  the  Jesuits  knew  how  to  secure.  His  style,  not 
so  trenchant  as  Scioppius',  is  yet  forcible,  and  his 
management  of  his  topics  adroit.  He  has  the  great 
advantage  over  his  adversary,  that,  though  he  writes  in 
his  own  name,  he  is  covered  by  the  corporate  interest 
of  the  society  of  Jesus,  and  has  the  sympathy  of  the 
great  catholic  party.  In  this  point  of  view  it  is  notice- 
able that  though  Eudaamon- Joannes  does  not  venture 
openly  to  avow  the  gunpowder-plotters,  he  makes  it 
evident  that  the  party  secretly  approved  them.  The- 
gunpowder-treason  wanted  but  success  to  have  been 
inscribed,  like  the  S.  Bartholomew,  on  the  banners  of 
the  catholic  church. 

Two  points  in  the  '  Responsio  ad  epistolam  Is.  Gas- 
auboni,'  may  be  selected  for  notice  as  illustrating  this 
life,  and  the  history  of  letters. 

i.  The  Jesuit  assumes  the  tone  of  superior  learning. 
Eudsemon-Joannes,  notwithstanding  his  Cretan  birth, 
knew  hardly  anything  of  greek66.  He  says  himself67, 
that  greek  books  were  so  scarce  in  Italy  that  '  we  are 
obliged  to  use  latin  translations/  He  has  nothing  that 
can  be  called  learning,  and  no  acquirements,  as  his 

64  Confutatio  Anticottoni,  p.  106;  Respons.  ad  ep.  Is.  Gas.  p.  99  : 
'  Me  a  puero  a  preestantissimis  viris  Orlandino,  Tursellino,  Valtrino, 
Bencio  institutum. 

55  See  above,  p.  410. 

66  Gas.  ep.  ad  Front,  p.  150:  '  Grsecse  linguae  esse  imperitissimum,. 
quse  legi  illius  mihi  dudum  persuaserunt.' 

67  Cappell.  Vindicise,  p.  30. 


440  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

numerous  pamphlets  testify,  beyond  those  of  a  well- 
trained  academical  man.  Yet  he  can  assume,  towards 
the  most  learned  man  then  living,  the  airs  of  super- 
cilious patronage.  This  fact  is  evidence  of  the  high 
reputation  which  the  Jesuit  training,  both  in  their 
colleges  and  in  their  professed  houses,  had  by  this  time 
attained.  Because  Casaubon  has  not  gone  through  the 
curriculum  of  their  colleges,  he  can  be  spoken  of  as 
£  imperfectly  educated  68/  The  first  greek  scholar  of 
the  day  can  be  told  by  a  writer  who  can  barely  read 
the  letters,  that  he  is  '  not  only  not  in  the  second,  but 
barely  in  the  third  class69/  This  prestige  of  their 
training  they  transferred  to  controversy,  and  every 
puny  Jesuit  adopted  the  language  of  contempt  for  his 
opponent's  learning.  So  Knott,  in  i63470,  scorned 
at  the  ignorance  of  the  english  clergy ;  and  Scioppius, 
in  i6i571,  said,  that  '  if  James  were  richer  than  the 
Pici  who  dwell  on  the  golden  mountains,  he  will  not  be 
able  to  get  together  twenty  learned  men  in  England/ 
in  allusion  to  the  Chelsea  college  scheme. 

In  their  assault  upon  Casaubon's  credit,  this  arro- 
gancy  of  the  guild  stood  the  Jesuits  in  good  stead.  It 
was  moreover  combined  with  the  ordinary  professional 
jealousy.  The  clerical  writers  affected  to  treat  Cas- 
aubon as  a  scholar  who  had  presumed  to  encroach  upon 
a  profession  to  which  he  was  not  bred.  Because  he 

68  Respons.  ad  ep.  Is.  Cas.  p.  51  :  '  Hsec  homo  disciplinarum  expers 
non  satis  dijudicat.'     Ibid.  p.  7  :   '  Imperitum  grammaticum.'     Ibid. 
p.  14  :   'Rusticum  dialecticse.'     Ibid.  p.  25  :  '  Qui  ultra  Suetonium  et 
Lampridium  psittaci  more  loquitur/ 

69  Respons.  ad  ep.  p.  179  :  '  Grsecae  linguae,  cujus  te  deum  facis,  viri 
prsestantissimi  in  scriptis  tuis  ita  exiguam  cognitionem  deprehenderunt, 
ut  te  ne  in  secundis  quidem,  vix  etiam  in  tertiis  numerent.' 

70  As  quoted  by  Chillingworth,  Relig.  of  Protest,  Works,  i.  46. 

71  Holofernes  Krigssederus,  quoted  by  Nisard,  Les  Gladiateurs. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  441 

had  read  the  classics  forsooth !  he  thought  himself 
qualified  to  dabble  in  the  high  mysteries  of  theology ! 
The  reciprocal  jealousy  of  professions  dates  from  the 
existence  of  professions,  and  is  not  confined  to  the 
clerical  order.  So  the  lawyers  sneered  at  Saumaise 
when  he  wrote  on  usury.  But  in  the  present  instance, 
in  the  i/th  century  controversy,  a  momentous  fallacy 
was  involved  in  the  assumption  that  philology  was  one 
science,  and  theology  another.  Casaubon's  reply  to  the 
Jesuit  taunt  was  that  he  had  always,  from  his  youth, 
been  a  student  of  theology.  He  ought  to  have  replied 
in  the  memorable  words  of  Scaliger 72,  '  Our  theological 
disputes  all  arise  from  ignorance  of  grammar/  It  was 
a  question  of  interpretation — and  of  the  interpretation 
of  books,  greek  and  latin,  written  at  given  dates.  In 
the  controversy  on  the  claims  of  the  roman  church, 
the  appeal  was  an  appeal  to  antiquity ;  and  of  the 
meaning  of  antiquity,  the  scholars  are  the  judges. 
From  the  Jesuits  the  Savile  party  borrowed  the  taunt, 
and  Montagu  is  perpetually  regretting  that  Casaubon 
was  not ( more  of  the  divine/ 

2.  The  other  point  to  be  noticed  in  Eudaemon- Joan- 
nes is  the  dexterity  with  which  the  Jesuit  controver- 
sialist intermingles  his  personalities.  The  object  being 
to  destroy  the  effect  of  Casaubon's  book,  this  object  is 
more  effectually  served  by  discrediting  the  writer,  than 
by  answering  his  arguments.  The  general  reader  is 
more  attracted  by  personalities  than  by  reasoning. 
Every  topic  is  produced  which  could  lower  Casaubon 
in  the  eyes  of  the  reader  ;  and  the  insinuations  and 
suggestions  are  not  made  at  random,  but  are  founded 
on  fact,  and  have  the  local  colouring.  The  history 

72  Scaligerana  ia.  p.  86  :  'Non  aliunde  dissidia  in  religione  pendent, 
quam  ab  ignoratione  grammaticse.' 


442  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

of  Casaubon's  mind  was  well  enough  known  to  the 
Jesuits,  to  know,  that,  in  his  ultimate  decision  against 
the  roman  claims,  he  had  been  decided  by  the  prepon- 
derance of  evidence  as  it  presented  itself  to  him.  But 
the  circumstances  of  his  life  made  the  charge  of  venality 
plausible,  and  they  urge  it  unceasingly.  He  has  sold 
his  conscience  to  the  king  of  England.  At  his  age,  draw- 
ing towards  the  close  of  a  blameless  life,  he  has  parted 
with  his  integrity  to  purchase  the  short-lived  favour  of 
a  fickle  court,  and  to  bear  the  indignant  murmurs  of 
the  home-born  Englishmen  at  finding  a  foreign  gram- 
marian, a  corrector  from  Stephens'  press,  preferred 
before  them 73.  The  fleshpots  of  Egypt,  the  '  niclor 
Anglicange  culinse,'  were  surely  hardly  worth  the  price 
Casaubon  had  paid  for  them  ! 

Kind  friends  took  care  that  Casaubon  should  see  what 
was  thus  being  said  of  him.  Lingelsheim  sent  him  part 
of  the  sheets  from  Heidelberg  before  the  book  was  out. 
Swert  sent  the  book  itself  from  Antwerp,  and  a  third 
copy  was  given  him  by74  'a  great  man.'  Casaubon  was 
neither  curious  nor  sensitive  about  what  was  written 
of  himself,  and  on  glancing  over  the  sheets  of  Eudaemon- 
Joannes'  effusion,  it  seemed  to  him  so  trivial 75  that  he 
threw  it  aside,  without  reading  it  through.  His  glance 
must  have  been  very  cursory,  for  quick  and  observant 
reader  as  he  was,  he  had  not  noticed  the  allusions, — 
three  at  least — to  the  rope.  Prideaux  pointed  these 
out  to  him  at  Oxford 76.  Isaac,  indifferent  to  abuse  of 
himself,  could  not  bear  a  word  breathed  against  the 
memory  of  his  father.  He  now  became  urgent  that  the 
book  should  be  answered77.  It  was  decided  by  the 

78  Scaligerana  ia.  p.  178.  74  Ep.  875. 

5  Eph.  966  :  *  Librum  futilein  sane.' 
76  See  above,  p.  410.  77  Ep.  871. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  443 


king  and  the  bishops  that  Casaubon  should  not  waste 
any  more  time  on  controversy.  He  should  give  himself, 
without  interruption,  to  the  review  of  Baronius,  and 
the  rector  of  Exeter  should  answer  'the  Cretan78.'  Pri- 
deaux  did  this  in  a  smart  pamphlet,  '  Castigatio  cu- 
jusdam  circulatoris  qui  .  .  .  Eudaemon-Johannem  .  .  . 
seipsum  nuncupat,  Oxon.  1614.'  This  rejoinder  goes 
through  every  topic,  almost  through  every  paragraph, 
of  the  '  E/esponsio  ad  epistolam  Is.  Casauboni,'  retorting 
it  on  the  respondent  in  the  style  of  Andrewes,  but 
hardly  with  Andrewes'  wit.  The  allusions  to  the  '  rope' 
were  left  to  Casaubon  himself  to  answer.  This  he  did 
in  a  long  digression  inserted  in  the  '  Exercitationes  Bar- 
onianaB.'  It  is  that  narrative  from  which  our  knowledge 
of  Arnold  Casaubon' s  life  and  death,  and  of  Isaac's  child- 
hood is  derived.  Prideaux  also  printed  the  interesting 
paragraph  at  length  at  the  end  of  his  own  pamphlet. 
Few  copies  of  Prideaux's  pamphlet  survive,  a  proof  of 
its  small  circulation  at  the  time.  But  the  incorporation 
of  the  autobiographical  fragment  in  the  ' Exercitationes7 
made  it  widely  known  on  the  continent ;  and  its  touch- 
ing sincerity  has  naturally  attracted  the  attention  of  all 
those  who  have  written  of  Isaac  Casaubon. 

L'Heureux,  however,  was  decent  and  rational  com- 
pared to  the  next  assailant.  Encouraged  by  the  success 
of  his  libel  on  Scaliger,  Scioppius  now  attacked  Casau- 
bon with  the  same  weapon — prodigious  lying. 

The  pamphlet  against  Casaubon  comes  about  midway 
in  the  series  of  Scioppian  libels,  a  series,  which  in  its 
extent,  its  savage  licence,  its  ingenuity,  and  audacity  of 
fiction  has  not  its  equal  in  extant  literature.  Having 
scarified  the  king  of  England  sufficiently  in  the  Ecclesias- 

78  Ep.  857  :  c  Non  vult  serenissimus  rex  ut  ego  vel  horulam  unam 
ponam  in  nseniis  illis  confutandis.' 


444  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

ticus,  1611,  and  the  Alexipharmacum,  1612,  Scioppius- 
gave  out  that  he  was  next  going  to  fall  upon  the  king  of 
England's  dog.  It  was  part  of  his  tactic  to  designate  his 
victim,  and  thus  enhance  the  sting  by  the  torture  of  sus- 
pense. The  'Holofernes  Krigssederus  .  .  responsio  ad 
epistolam  Is.  Cazobauni'  was  published  at  Ingoldstadt, 
1615,  but  it  was  written  at  Madrid  more  than  a  year 
before.  Frensied  by  vanity,  spite,  and  disappointed 
ambition,  Scioppius  had  gone  to  Madrid  in  search  of 
notoriety,  and  of  the  reward  of  his  catholic  zeal,  which 
was  incessantly  promised,  and  never  received,  at  Home. 
As  Casaubon  died  in  July,  1614,  he  would  never  have 
seen  the ( Holof ernes/  had  not  Digby,  english  ambassador 
in  Spain,  transmitted  to  his  court  a  MS.  copy — '  stolen' 
said  Scioppius,  but,  no  doubt,  by  his  own  contrivance. 
The  allegations  of  this  libel  are  equally  atrocious,  and 
equally  unfounded  with  the  '  Scaliger  hypobolimaeus,' 
but  they  are  not  equally  well  aimed.  As  long  as  he  is 
rallying  Casaubon  on  his  situation  as  archpsedagogue 
to  the  king  of  England,  when  he  is  portraying  Isaac 
Casaubon  flaunting  it  in  surplice  and  hood,  playing  at 
prelacy,  he  is  piquant,  and  at  least  within  the  bounds 
of  probability.  But  when  he  goes  on  to  charge  upon 
Casaubon  swindling,  lechery,  adultery  and  unnatural 
crime,  and  in  support  of  these  accusations  to  tell 
detailed  stories  which  are  pure  inventions  of  Scioppius' 
malignant  imagination,  the  libel  has  overshot  its  mark, 
and  becomes  flat  stupidity. 

The  character  of  Casaubon  was  too  well-established 
and  too  widely  known  for  any  of  this  dirt  to  be 
credited  outside  the  convents  and  the  Jesuit  colleges. 
Casaubon  had  not,  like  Scaliger,  created  by  criticism 
a  host  of  enemies.  Scioppius,  indeed,  used  to  boast 
that  he  had  killed  Casaubon,  as  he  had  killed  Sea- 


LONDON.     1610—1614. 


445 


liger79.  But  we  find  from  the  diary  that  these 
horrible  calumnies  did  not  affect  him  seriously.  Even 
the  more  plausible  insinuations  of  Eudaem  on- Joannes 
gave  him,  except  so  far  as  his  father  was  touched, 
little  concern80.  The  suggestion  which  came  most 
home  to  him  was  that  he  had  been  bought  by  the 
king  of  England.  This  was  a  suggestion  exactly  cal- 
culated for  the  english  mind,  and  it  took.  The 
*  purse  of  the  english  king/  '  the  scent  of  the  an- 
glican  kitchen,'  were  the  stock  phrases.  Still  these 
were  political  or  religious  opponents,  or  the  native 
party  jealous  of  foreign  pensioners,  whether  french  or 
scotch.  It  gave  him  deeper  pain  when  he  heard  that 
Schott  had  said  of  him  that  'he  had  sold  his  con- 
science for  gold81/ 

Andreas  Schottus  deserves  a  niche  in  the  history 
of  learning  on  more  than  one  account.  His  name  is 
connected  with  the  discovery  of  the  '  monumentum 
Ancyranum/  and  he  was  the  first  editor  of  Diogen- 
ianus,  a  task  for  which  his  knowledge  of  greek,  how- 
ever, was  insufficient.  His  insufficiency  is  almost 
excused  by  his  modesty.  His  love  of  classical  learn- 
ing was  genuine,  and  what  Scaliger  said  of  Marc 
Welser  might  be  applied  to  Schott,  that  'it  was 
only  his  religion  which  prevented  him  from  know- 
ing a  great  deal82/  Schott  was  a  native  of  Ant- 
werp, attracted,  when  young,  into  the  society  of  Jesus, 

79  Graevius,  Prsefat.  in  Eremitam,  De  vita  aulica ;    Meric,  Pietas, 
p.  76. 

80  Ep.  880  to  Lingelsheim :  '  Noli  putare  aliquid  molestiae  ex  illo 
fatuo  libro  me  cepisse.' 

81  Ep.  876. 

82  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  204  :  '  Velserum  superstitio  multa  scire,  et 
plura  quam  scit,  prsepedit.' 


446  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

by  the  hope  of  finding  in  it  the  means  of  satisfying 
his  love  of  reading.  He  was  soon  undeceived,  and 
had  to  spend  the  best  years  of  his  life  regenting 
classes  in  their  various  colleges  in  Spain  and  Italy. 
Forty  years  of  this  mechanical  routine  destroyed  his 
mind,  and  broke  his  will,  but  he  preserved  his  tastes. 
In  1597  he  returned  to  the  college  of  the  society 
in  Antwerp,  and  was  settled  there  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life.  At  seventy-seven,  his  age  when  he  died 
(1629),  he  was  still  teaching  the  rudiments,  but  he 
had  been  released  from  the  worst  drudgery,  and  for 
many  years  was  chiefly  engaged  in  translations,  edi- 
tions, or  collections  of  classical  and  patristic  remains. 
Under  the  pressure  of  the  infirmities  of  old  age, 
especially  that  of  failing  eyesight,  neither  his  in- 
terest nor  his  industry  were  abated.  His  love  of 
letters,  and  the  fact  that  as  a  young  man  he  had 
been  received  into  the  Scaliger  circle  in  Paris,  led 
to  his  correspondence  with  Casaubon  as  early  as  1602. 
It  was  not  approved  among  spiritual  martinets,  that 
a  Jesuit  should  hold  any  intercourse  with  heretics. 
Even  father  Schott,  '  who  often  wrote  to  our  people 8 V 
in  writing  to  Voss  (G.  J.)  abstained  from  signing  his 
name  at  the  end  of  his  letter,  and  subscribes  himself84 

*  the  darkling  who  translated  Photius/     He  sends  Cas- 
aubon his  books  ;  his  *  Tullianao  qusestiones '  in  1 6 1  o,  his 

*  Adagia  grseca '  in  161 1,  with  the  request  that  he  would 
not  spare  criticism'  upon  them  85.     Casaubon  responds. 

83  Colomie's,    Melange   curieux,  p.   833  :    '  Ecrivoit  sou  vent  a  nos 
gens/     Colomie's,  in  this  memorandum,  is  in  error  in  assigning  1636 
as  the  date  of  Schott's  death. 

84  Ibid. :  '  Tenebrio,  qui  Photium  dedit  latine.'    Tenebrio  may  be  an 
allusion  to  his  blindness,  or  to  his  retired  life. 

85  Pietas,  p.  1 08:  'Quo  plura  obelo  fodies     .     .     .     tanto  me  tibi 
cariorem  existimabo.' 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  447 


They  are  on  the  footing  of  '  mi  Schotte/  and  'mi  Cas- 
aubone/  though  they  have  never  seen  each  other.  There 
was  that  in  the  gentle  virtue  of  the  Jesuit  which 
suited  with  Casaubon's  own  disposition 86.  *  When  as  a 
young  man  I  first  read  your  books,  I  conceived  from 
them  an  esteem  for  your  character,  which  has  been 
confirmed  by  what  others  have  since  told  me  of  you/ 

When,  in  1611,  Casaubon  published  his  'Letter  to 
Fronto/  he  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  'Amphithe- 
atrum/ and  he  did  so  with  the  reprobation  with 
which  all  good  men  spoke  of  it.  Now  Schott  was 
not  only  a  Jesuit,  but  was  a  member  of  the  very 
house  at  Antwerp  presided  over  by  the  author  of 
the  '  Amphitheatrum,'  Scribanius.  Schott  remonstrated 
with  Casaubon,  reminding  him  that  the  'Amphithea- 
trum/ though  mentioning  his  name87,  had  abstained 
from  offering  him  any  affront88.  'The  author,  you 
know,  is  my  principal ;  I  am  under  him  in  this 
house.  He  would  gladly  embrace  you  in  the  Lord, 
as  within  the  church,  rather  than  see  you  where  you 
are.  That  you  may  think  of  him  more  favourably, 
he  sends  you  a  volume  he  has  lately  published — 
"  Controversiarum  libri " — you  will  like  it  as  devotional 
reading,  and  be  better  pleased  with  the  style  than 
with  that  of  the  "Amphitheatrum/" 

These  being  the  friendly  relations  of  Casaubon 
with  the  Antwerp  Jesuit,  he  was  deeply  pained  to 
receive,  from  another  correspondent  in  Antwerp, 
a  copy  of  a  letter  or  paper  in  which  Schott  had 
written,  alluding  to  Casaubon :  '  The  unholy  thirst  of 
gold  ought  not  to  be  more  powerful  than  conscience/ 
The  hand  of  a  friend  deals  more  deadly  blows  than 

86  Ep.  364.  87  Epp.  ad  Cas.  ep.  40. 

88  The  name  of  Casaubon  occurs  in  the  Amphith.  p.  144. 


448  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

that  of  an  enemy.  When  Erycius  Puteanus,  the  Lou- 
vain  Jesuit,  had  made  the  same  insinuation  in  his 
'  Stricture,'  1612,  Casaubon  had  not  heeded  it.  But 
Schott's  words  wound  him  to  the  quick.  He  vents 
his  grief  in  expostulation "  :  '  Ah !  my  ancient  friend, 
what  words  are  these  which  have  escaped  the  hedge 
of  thy  teeth  !  That  I  should  prefer  gold  to  piety ! 
That  I  lust  at  all  after  gold!  It  is  not  so,  not  so. 
He  who  has  persuaded  you  of  this  lies  in  a  fashion 
worse  than  Cretan,  and  measures  my  motives  by  his 
own.  Had  I  preferred  gold  to  conscience,  I  should 
not  now  be  in  England.  The  chancellor  of  France 
knows  this ;  the  illustrious  cardinal  (Du  Perron) 
knows  this.  It  is  known  to  the  bishop  of  Paris,  to 
all  those  in  whose  society  I  lived  in  Paris,  men  of 
your  own  confession,  whose  veracity  is  beyond  sus- 
picion. ...  I  pray  you,  illustrious  sir,  as  you  regard 
truth,  as  you  esteem  innocence,  recall  your  sarcasm, 
and  be  on  your  guard  against  believing  a  greek  of 
Crete,  a  patron  of  regicide/  Schott  did  not  respond 
to  this  appeal,  and  their  correspondence  ended  here. 
Abraham  Scultetus,  the  Heidelberg  minister,  on  his 
way  home  from  London,  called  on  Schott  at  Antwerp, 
and  wrote  to  Casaubon 90,  *  If  there  be  such  a  thing 
as  a  good  Jesuit,  Schott  is  surely  the  best  of  the 
good.'  But  the  letter  was  not  received  in  England, 
indeed  was  not  written,  till  Casaubon  was  no  more. 

Schott  survived  Isaac  Casaubon  fifteen  years,  and  thus 
lived  to  see  Meric's  'Pietas,'  in  which  Meric  was  naive 
enough  to  print  three  letters  of  Schott  to  his  father, 
by  way  of  evidence  of  Isaac's  erudition.  The  letters 
are  only  evidence  of  Schott's  modesty  and  amiability. 
In  one  wish  which  Schott  expresses  in  a  letter,  dated 
89  Ep.  876.  90  Burney  MSS.  366. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  449 


Antwerp,  January  1612,  every  friend  of  Isaac  Casau- 
bon's  memory  must  concur 91 :  '  I  have  received  yours, 
most  illustrious  Casaubon,  and  was  very  sorry  to  find 
you  still  lingering  in  Britain.  The  learned,  and  the 
lovers  of  greek,  -had  much  rather  see  you  going  on 
with  Polybius  as  you  had  begun,  and  finishing  the 
commentary  you  have  promised,  than  going  into  a 
quarrel  in  which  you  had  no  concern,  -and  in  which 
you  can  reap  no  credit,  but  will  rather  tarnish  the 
fame  you  have  already  earned  by  your  writings .  You 
know  how  much  the  lustre  of  Joseph  Scaliger's  name 
was  dimmed  in  his  old  age,  in  consequence  of  his 
assailing  some  members  of  our  society,  from  whom  he 
had  never  received  a  single  injurious  word ;  men  ex- 
celling in  every  branch  of  learning,  such  as  Toleto, 
Bellarmin,  Possevin,  Perier,  and  others92.' 

Another  catholic  friend,  Marc  Welser,  of  Augsburg, 
was  offended,  but  not  alienated,  by  Casaubon' s  descent 
into  the  fray.  Welser  was  a  layman,  but  a  great  friend 
and  patron  of  the  Jesuits.  On  their  account  he  had 
broken  with  Scaliger93,  and  Casaubon  was  now  told 
by  Hoeschel94  that  he  must  be  prepared  to  forfeit 
Welser' s  friendship.  But  Welser,  who  perhaps 

91  Epp.  ad  Gas.  ep.  40. 

92  The  notices  relating  to  the  life  of  Andre*  Schott  have  been  col- 
lected by  Prof.  Baguet,  in  a  Memoir  printed  in  torn.  23  of  Me'moiresde 
1'acade'mie  royale  de  Belgique,  pp.  1-49.  The  author  has  looked  at  the 
volume  of  Casauboni  epistolse,  1709,  with  so  little  care  as  to  attribute 
its  publication  to  Meric  Casaubon,  who  died  1671.  Gaisford  reprinted 
the  whole  of  Schott's  notes  on  Diogenianus  in  Parsemiographi  Graeci, 
Oxon.  1836.  Leutsch  and  Schneidewin,  in  Corpus  Parsemiographorum, 
1839,  retained  only  a  small  part,  '  resecta  omni  Schotti  loquacitate  in 
rebus  sexcenties  ingestis.' 

93  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  246  :  'II  sera  fasch£  de  ce  que  j'ai  escrit  centre 
lesj ^suites;  il  ne  m'escrit  plus.'  9*  Ep.  86 1. 

G   g 


450  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

repented  that  he  had  quarrelled  with  Scaliger,  would 
not  give  up  Casaubon.  'What/  he  writes  to  Casau- 
bon,  January  30,  1613,  'you  imagine  .that  I  am  angry 
with  you  because  you  have  muttered  something  against 
the  Jesuits  ?  Not  so,  I  vow  by  all  that  is  sacred  in  our 
friendship.  I  am  not  irritable  by  temperament,  as 
all  my  acquaintance  will  tell  you.  I  confess  that  in 
matters  of  religion  I  am  not  accustomed  to  hide  my 
feelings ;  and  if  I  did,  you  would  not  hold  me  worthy 
of  your  love.  But  in  the  expression  of  my  feeling,  I 
should  never  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  moderation  ; 
being  restrained  by  a  native  instinct,  by  reason,  by 
the  usages  of  my  country,  and  by  the  position  in 
which  my  fellow-citizens  have  been  pleased  to  place 
me/  This  letter  justifies  the  character  which  Scaliger 
at  another  time 95  gave  of  Welser,  *  II  est  honnete  homme, 
et  ne  maintiendra  pas  les  jesuites  centre  un  homme 
docte/ 

Welser,  with  de  Thou  and  the  liberal  catholics, — now 
a  small  band — remained  still  on  friendly  terms  with 
Casaubon.  Du  Perron  wrote  to  him,  in  June,  1612, 
in  that  tone  of  moderation  and  respect  which  the 
cardinal's  own  high  attainments  imposed  on  him 
towards  a  scholar 96.  He  regretted  the  libels  of  which 
Casaubon  had  been  the  object,  and  emphatically  de- 
clared that  he  himself  had  no  part  in  them.  But  the 
zealous  party  represented  by  the  Jesuits,  Schott,  Fronto 
le  Due,  Sirmond,  silently  withdrew  from  the  corres- 
pondence of  one  who  had,  as  they  thought  gratuitously, 
gone  out  of  his  way  to  constitute  himself  the  champion 
of  a  schismatical  church  and  king.  The  whole  politics 
of  western  Europe  at  the  time  turned  on  ecclesiastical 
considerations.  It  was  impossible  that  the  same  feelings 
95  Scaliga.  2a.  p.  247.  9G  Burney  MSS.  367. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  451 


and  interests  should  not  dominate  social  life.  One 
neutral  territory  there  was,  that  of  learning,  and  this 
Casaubon  had  himself  voluntarily  stept  out  of.  He 
had  now  to  abide  the  consequences. 

It  was  not  only  among  the  catholics,  that  he  had 
alienated  friends.  The  calvinists  of  the  continent  were 
aware  that  he  had  left  them,  that  he  neither  shared 
their  doctrinal  notions,  nor  sympathised  with  their 
resistance  to  government.  Cappel  writes  sarcastically 
from  Sedan97  in  1611,  imploring  him  in  his  conduct 
of"  the  controversy  to  spare  the  puritans,  and  the  gallic 
churches,  '  from  which  for  so  many  years  he  had  sucked 
the  milk  of  piety/  He  insinuates  that  Casaubon' s 
leanings  toward  transubstantiatioii  were  a  relic  of 
Du  Perron's  influence,  which  he  had  hoped  that 
Casaubon  might  have  got  rid  of  in  England  ('si  quid 
fuliginis  adhuc  superest  ex  con  vie  tu  cum  Perronio '). 

The  light  in  which  Casaubon  was  now  regarded  by 
his  own  church  is  put  in  such  strong  relief  by  a  letter 
of  Du  Moulin,  that  it  is  necessary  to  give  it  at  length. 
It  is  addressed  to  Montagu,  bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
and  is  written  shortly  after  Casaubon  had  left  Paris 
for  England  in  i6io98: — 

' 1  am  very  loth,  my  lord,  to  intrude  upon  your 
much-occupied  time  by  this  writing,  yet  do  I  hold 
myself  bounden  to  communicate  with  you  on  a  matter 
which  seems  to  me  to  touch  the  common  welfare  of 
your,  and  of  our,  church.  And  there  is  none  other 
with  whom  I  can  better  and  more  safely  lodge  what  I 
have  to  say,  than  with  yourself,  whom  I  know  to  be 
moved  with  zeal  for  God,  and  also  to  have  much 
influence  with  his  serene  majesty. 

97  Burney  MSS.  363. 

98  Colomesii  Opera,  p.  531. 

G  g   2 


452  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

'  The  occasion  of  this  writing  is  Isaac  Casaubon, 
whose  present  departure  from  hence  to  you  inspires 
me  with  no  little  anxiety.  He  is  assuredly  a  man 
of  pith,  pious  and  of  good  principle,  but  liable  to  be 
turned  out  of  the  way  by  his  fears,  and  his  irritable 
temper.  It  is  about  three  years  since  that  he  began 
to  think  amiss  in  religion,  and  to  incline  to  popery. 
Some  few  heads  remained  which  he  could  not  digest, 
e.  g.  the  communion  under  one  kind,  papal  supremacy, 
public  worship  in  an  unknown  tongue,  worship  of 
images,  works  of  supererogation ;  these  things,  in 
which  he  continues  to  think  with  us,  restrained  him 
from  openly  leaving  us.  On  the  other  heads  of  con- 
troversy he  does  not  conceal  his  hatred  of  our  re- 
ligion, which  he  abuses  to  the  catholics,  denouncing 
it  as  a  modern  invention  of  Calvin.  When  I  ad- 
monished him  on  the  subject,  he  would  not  take  it 
from  me,  though  we  are  old  and  intimate  friends. 
The  origin  of  all  this  mischief  is  a  quarrel  with  the 
Genevese,  who,  he  says,  as  parties  in  a  law  suit, 
have  robbed  him  of  his  wife's  portion.  From  that 
day  he  began  to  inveigh  against  our  ministers  in 
general,  and  to  pour  his  venom  -into  the  ear  of  any- 
one who  will  listen.  In  this  state  of  uncontrollable 
passion  cardinal  Perron  attacked  him  with  liis  argu- 
ments, easily  worked  upon  a  character  of  no  steadi- 
ness, and  in  fine  very  nearly  shipwrecked  him.  He 
used  to  have  secret  meetings  with  the  cardinal,  who 
set  him  upon  reading  the  fathers.  Whatever  he  met 
with  in  them  which  seemed  to  go  against  us,  he 
greedily  seized  upon.  For  his  learning  in  philology 
and  languages  is  truly  great,  but  having  cultivated 
his  memory  rather  than  his  judgment,  he  is  deficient 
in  clearsightedness,  and  in  apprehension  of  things, 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  453 

while  his  innate  infirmity  of  purpose  makes  him 
ready  to  yield  to  the  opinions  of  those  with  whom 
he  is  conversing.  That  a  man  of  so  much  learning, 
and  one  whom  I  highly  esteem,  should  thus  go  to  the 
bad,  has  been  a  heavy  affliction  to  me.  I  have  en- 
deavoured what  I  could  to  bring  him  back  to  sounder 
views.  But  I  have  had  no  success,  what  with  his 
animosity  against  the  city  of  Geneva,  and  the  urgent 
instances  of  the  cardinal,  who  knew  how  to  season 
his  arguments  with  promises. 

1  The  invitation  of  the  king  of  England  arriving  at 
this  juncture,  was  therefore  most  opportune.  I  am 
now  not  without  hopes  that  by  converse  with  your 
lordship,  and  the  other  men  of  learning  in  your 
country,  he  may  be  led  back  into  the  right  way. 
Time  and  removal  may  abate  his  passion.  I  pray 
you,  my  lord,  to  help  what  you  can  towards  this  end. 
I  would  venture  to  recommend  as  the  safest  course 
to  pursue  with  him,  that  he  be  engaged  by  some 
decent  preferment  to  write  on  ecclesiastical  history, 
and  in  refutation  of  Baronius.  Towards  this  he  has 
already  made  large  collections,  and  he  is  a  mighty 
opponent  of  the  papal  claims.  Whatever  he  should 
write  on  this  head,  would  tend  to  edification.  Any- 
how I  beg  and  entreat  you  to  secure  him  for  your- 
selves, and  to  keep  him  over  there ;  for  if  he  return 
to  us  his  defection  is  certain.  Certainly  he  did  pledge 
himself  to  the  queen,  at  his  leave-taking,  to  come 
back,  and  this  he  is  bound  to  do.  But  if  he  can 
obtain  a  settled  position  in  England  he  will  only 
return  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  off  his  household 
goods,  and  his  library,  which  is  very  extensive.  He 
will  be  no  small  acquisition  to  England,  being,  as  he 
is,  "facile princeps"  in  the  republic  of  letters ;  we  shall 


454  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

be  released  from  a  perpetual  state  of  alarm  on  his 
account,  and  you  will  have  the  satisfaction  of  having 
saved  a  soul  on  the  verge  of  ruin.' 

If  this  letter  had  been  merely  one  of  theological 
denunciation,  it  would  have  deserved  no  more  attention 
than  is  given  by  men  of  sense  to  such  officious  delators 
in  general.  But  Peter  Du  Moulin  was  no  ordinary 
man,  and  his  letter,  with  all  its  ill  will  towards  him 
who  is  the  subject  of  it,  shows  a  shrewd  appreciation  of 
character  and  situation.  Nor,  indeed,  was  its  object 
that  of  damaging  Casaubon.  Du  Moulin  wanted,  what 
he  says  he  wants,  to  get  Casaubon  out  of  Paris.  But 
for  this  wish  which  he  avows  he  had  private  reasons  of 
his  own,  which  he  probably  did  not  avow  to  himself. 
Du  Moulin  was  a  man  of  distinguished  ability,  and 
powerful  eloquence.  He  was  a  successful  disputant. 
Casaubon,  with  all  his  learning,  had  cut  a  poor  figure 
in  the  Fontainebleau  conference.  Du  Moulin,  with  no 
reading  worth  speaking  of,  had  come  triumphant  out 
of  many  a  set  dispute  with  catholic  doctors.  When  a 
man  of  powerful  intellect  and  no  knowledge  talks  and 
writes  incessantly  on  matters  of  religion  and  morals, 
there  is  but  one  resource  for  him,  that  is,  to  maintain 
that  religion  and  morals  do  not  rest 'upon  knowledge, 
and  can  be  treated  without  it.  This  is  what  Du  Moulin 
did.  His  favourite  doctrine  was,  that  scripture  was 
so  plain  that  it  needed  no  interpreter  but  each  man's 
common  sense  ".  If  he  looked  into  the  writings  of  the 
fathers,  it  was  not  to  use  them,  but  to  find  expressions 
which  he  could  declaim  against,  as  deviating  from  the 
standard  of  genevan  orthoxody.  Knowing,  as  we  do, 

9  Eph.  824 :  '  Et  voce,  et  scripto  et  ex  ambone  declamare  solitus, 
me  audiente,  sacram  scripturam  nullo  habere  opus  interprete,  sed 
omnia  simpliciter,  ut  scripta  sunt,  esse  accipienda.' 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  455 

Casaubon' s  estimate  of  the  grammatical,  critical,  and 
collateral  knowledge  requisite  for  the  interpretation  of 
any  ancient  author,  we  may  imagine  how  he  chafed  at 
sitting  Sunday  after  Sunday  to  hear  these  opinions 
inculcated  with  a]l  the  force  of  Du  Moulin's  eloquence 
from  the  pulpit  at  Charenton,  and  how  indignant  he 
was  when  he  had  to  sit  and  hear  Cyprian  branded  as 
an  '  anabaptist/  It  was  impossible  to  avoid  a  personal 
application  of  these  tirades  to  Isaac  Oasaubon  as  he 
sate  there  with  his  bowed  form  and  pale  face,  bearing 
the  burden  of  all  the  learning  belonging  to  the  hugue- 
not congregation.  Du  Moulin  was  aggravated  by  Cas- 
aubon's  silent  disapproval ;  but  still  more  aggrieved 
when  he  heard  that  Casaubon  had  been  pointing  out 
to  some  friends  the  errors  of  some  of  Du  Moulin's  inter- 
pretations of  texts.  Du  Moulin  too  was  a  great  author. 
He  had  a  ready  pen,  and  writing  in  french,  his  books 
were  highly  appreciated  by  his  flock.  One  of  them,  his 
1  Defense  de  la  foi  catholique,'  had  been  annotated  by 
Casaubon  in  the  way  he  did  with  all  his  books,  and 
many  of  its  errors  pointed  out  on  the  margin.  This 
book,  published  in  1610,  had  been  a  good  deal  talked 
of  in  protest  ant  circles  in,  Paris,  and  Casaubon  had  not 
concealed  his  opinion  of  its  shallowness.  Du  Moulin's 
ministerial  prestige  was  endangered  ;  he  went  to  Cas- 
aubon and  demanded  the  copy.  Casaubon  dared  not 
refuse,  and  gave  it  up,  begging  at  the  same  time  that 
'  he  would  take  the  remarks  in  good  part  V  This  was 
in  October,  and  it  was  smarting  under  this  rebuke  from 
a  member  of  his  own  congregation,  that  the  letter  to 
Montagu  was  written.  It  was  absolutely  necessary 
for  Du  Moulin's  supremacy  over  his  flock,  and  for  his 

1  Eph.  p.  765  :  'Rogavitsibi  dari  librum  Apologise,  etc.  quern  edidit, 
in  quo  ego  multa  notaveram  ipsius  peccata  magna.' 


456  LONDON.     1610  —  1614. 

comfort  in  the  pulpit,  that  Casaubon  should  be  kept 
away  from  Paris 2.  If  Jean  Hotman  is  to  be  believed, 
Du  Moulin  had  formerly,  when  in  England,  professed 
very  different  sentiments,  and  had  wished  that  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church  of  England  could 
be  transplanted  to  France.  He  was  now  restrained, 
adds  Hotman,  from  attacking  Casaubon  by  the  obli- 
gations he  was  under  to  the  king  and  his  ambassadors 3. 
Casaubon  never  knew  of  the  secret  delation  on  the  part 
of  Du  Moulin,  of  which  he  had  been  the  object.  Mon- 
tagu handed  the  letter  to  the  archbishop,  who  discreetly 
kept  it  to  himself.  But  Casaubon  did  not  conceal  how 
much  he  had  disapproved  of  Du  Moulin's  preaching, 
and  opinions.  He  writes  to  Madame  Casaubon 4,  '  I 
have  heard  M.  du  Moulin  maintain  propositions  which 
I  detest,  and  shall  detest,  living  and  dying.  The 
theology  of  the  learned  prelates  in  England  is  quite 
opposed  to  his/ 

Thus  losing,  or  alienating,  those  who  should  have 
been  his  friends,  he  had  to  submit  to  the  unwelcome 
advances  of  others  who  would  be  friends  with  Isaac 
Casaubon,  because  he  was  a  friend  of  the  king  of 
England.  It  is  the  fate  of  all  men  whose  merits 

2  Du  Moulin's  '  Defense  de  la  foi  catholique'    .    .    .   runs  on  to  576 
pages.     There  seemed  no  reason  why  it  should  not  have  run  to  double 
the  number.     But  it  breaks  off  suddenly  at  the  place  his  nimble  pen 
had  reached  at  5  p.m.  on  the  fatal  I4th  of  May  :   '  La  mort  de  nostre 
roy  semblable  a  un  grand  esclat  de  tonnerre  nous  engourdit  la  main 
d'estonnement. ' 

3  Burney  MSS.  367.  p.  23  :  '  Quand  a  nostre  M.  du  M.  (a  later  hand 
has  supplied  the  blank  with  '  Moulin ')  il  est  imprudent,  impudent,  et 
ingrat,  tout  ensemble.     II  a  appris  sa  meilleure  th^ologie  en  Angle- 
terre  et  a  receu  trop  de  bien  de  sa  Majestd  et  de  ses  Ambassadeurs 
qu'il  ose  1'attaquer  en  votre  personne.' 

4  Burney  MSS.  367.  ap.  Kussell,  1147. 


LONDON.     1610  —  1614.  457 

ve*  gained  them  the  notice  of  the  powerful,  that 
e  preferment-hunters  seek  to  use  them  for  their  pur- 
Of  course  Dominicus  Baudius  was  early  in  the 
field.  Having  known  Casaubon  as  a  boy  at  Geneva, 
and  having  occasionally  written  to  him  since,  it  was 
necessary  to  announce  to  his  old  friend  the  fact  of 
his  marriage  (1613).  It  was  also  "evident  that  that 
event  made  it  necessary  that  he  should  be  provided 
for.  Dominic  is  confident  that  his  own 'merits  must 
sufficiently  recommend  him  to  the  king  of  England, 
and  that  he  has  only  to  show  himself  to  be  admitted 
at  once  to  his  intimacy 5.  But  he  thinks  ' his  own 
deserts  and  those  of  his  forefathers'  may  be  backed 
by  Casaubon' s  recommendation.  The  good-natured 
Casaubon  speaks  to  several  of  the  nobles  about  Bau- 
dius ;  among  others  to  Sidney.  It  is  not  enough. 
He  must  speak  to  the  king.  Casaubon  does  speak  to 
the  king.  6<King  has  been  heard  more  than  once  to 
express  himself  in  terms  highly  laudatory  of  Baudius. 
But  there  is  nothing  to  be  had.  It  is  not  the  custom 
of  the  english  to  call  from  other  countries  men  of 
distinguished  erudition.  Dictum  sapienti  sat.'  Even 
this  flat  assertion  might  not  have  stopped  Baudius 
from  coming  to  push  his  fortunes  in  England,  had 
not  delirium  tremens  closed  his  importunity  very  shortly 
after  his  receipt  of  this  reply7. 

Lydius   writes   from   Holland8 :    would   be   glad  of 

5  Baudii  Epp.  p.  45 1  :  '  Mea  et  majorum  meorum  virtute  fretus 
confido   me    futurum   apud   TOV  Kparovvra   inter    intimse   admissionis 
amicos.' 

6  Ep.  853  :   '  Non  est  mos  Anglorum,  ut  viros  eruditione  claros 
aliunde  accersant.' 

7  Baudius,  f  Aug.  24,  1613.  Chabanes  to  Casaubon,  Burney  MSS. 
367.  8.  -8  Ep.  762. 


458  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

anything ;  would  like  to  be  minister  of  the  dutch 
church  in  London.  Lydius  has  to  be  put  off  by  the 
same  assurance  that  '  church  dignities  in  England  are 
never  given  but  to  native  english,  that  the  number 
of  theologians  in  England  is  very  great,  for  all  stu- 
dents at  the  universities  are  theologians.  And  as  for 
the  dutch  church  in  London,  the  king  of  England  has 
no  more  to  do  with  it  than  he  has  with  any  church  in 
Ley  den,  or  the  Hague/ 

Cameron  writes  from  Bordeaux9 :  would  like  an 
appointment  in  his  native  Scotland,  in  the  church,  of 
which  the  king  is,  under  God,  the  head.  '  I  cannot 
doubt  that  you,  who  are  so  high  in  favour  with  him, 
can  easily  get  it  done,  if  you  will  exert  yourself  ever 
so  little.  I  was  known  to  the  king  when  he  was  a 
boy ;  and  only  three  years  ago,  when  I  passed  through 
England,  on  my  way  hither,  I  was  graciously  received 
by  him.  The  princess  Elisabeth  is  not  ill-disposed 
towards  me.  And  it  will  be  very  creditable  to  you, 
a  foreigner,  to  be  recommending  a  countryman  of  the 
king  for  his  favours.' 

Another  'countryman  of  the  king's/ Alexander  Hume, 
wanted  to  have  his  latin  grammar  recommended  to 
James'  notice.  Casaubon  does  not  toss  the  applica- 
tion into  his  waste-basket,  but  answers  it  at  length, 
declining  to  say  anything  in  favour  of  the  grammar, 
because  it  was  founded  on  the  Eamist  system,  which 
he  did  not  approve. 

Theodore  Canter,  who  had  got  himself  into  prison 
in  Holland,  by  his  own  fault,  hoped  Casaubon  would 
move  the  english  ambassador  to  intercede  in  his  behalf. 
For  a  friend  whose  sons  had  been  his  pupils  at  Geneva, 

9  Burney  MSS.  363.  ap.  Kussell,  p.  1179. 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  459 


and  who  had  read  through  all  the  Greek  writers10,  who 
was  now  in  evil  case,  however  much  to  blame,  Cas- 
aubon  is  ready  to  do  what  he  could.  But  before  he 
could  take  up  the  case,  he  must  be  informed  more 
fully  as  to  its  merits. 

Some  sued  in  form  of  a  dedication.  Among  the 
many  who  now  were  anxious  to  inscribe  their  books 
with  the  name  of  Isaac  Casaubon  may  be  mentioned 
Gaspar  Barthius.  '  He  is  mentioned,  not  because  in 
his  dedication  of  his  '  Auctores  Venatici,  Hanovige,  1613,' 
he  is  more  fulsome  in  his  panegyric  than  the  rest,  but 
because  he  naively  avows,  in  concluding,  his  hope  that 
he  may  u'one  day  visit  England,  and  enjoy  the  ad- 
vantage of  Casaubon' s  recommendation  in  the  court 
of  your  serene  prince,  with  whom  we  know  that  you 
can  do  anything/ 

Nor  was  it  foreigners  only  that  he  was  to  help  to 
something.  We  have  seen12  Carier  wanting  him  to 
get  him  the  deanery  of  Eochester,  and  Eichard  Thom- 
son praying  him  to  mollify  the  archbishop  in  his 
favour.  Casaubon  was  too  easily  fretted  by  many 
things ;  but  all  this  importunity  does  not  extort  from 
him  one  harsh  word  against  the  suitors.  No  man  was 
ever  more  indulgent  to  all  the  liberties  which  ac- 
quaintance can  take,  except  when  they  took  from  him 
his  time,  the  only  possession  which  he  would  not  part 
with  for  any  one. 

His  many  anxieties,  superadded  to  the  pull  of  his 
daily  task  on  Baronius,  and  sinking  health,  made  him 
more  and  more  dependent  on  Florence  Casaubon.  The 

10  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  42. 

11  Ep.  Nuncupatoria  :  '  Tu  commendatione  in  aula  serenissimi  mo- 
narchse  tui,  apud  quern  nihil  non  posse  te  scimus/ 

12  See  above,  pp.  311.  394. 


460  LONDON.     1610—1614. 

bond  of  affection  which  had  united  husband  and  wife 
from  the  first,  has  been  drawn  closer  by  time,  and  com- 
mon sorrows.  In  the  closing  years  of  Isaac's  life,  to 
devotion  was  added  dependence.  Next  to  God,  whose 
presence  is  constant,  and  to  whom  his  soul  is  daily 
poured  in  pious  effusion,  his  wife  is  the  thought  of  most 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  pages  of  the  diary.  Younger 
and  stronger  in  his  native  land,  he  had  watched  over, 
nursed  and  protected  her.  Weak,  prematurely  aged,  cast 
away  in  a  barbarous  country,  weighed  down  by  the  daily 
grind  of  learned  research,  the  parts  are  reversed  ;  he  is 
become  dependent  on  her.  Her  long  absences  in  France 
are  severe  trials  to  him.  He  sinks  under  the  weight 
of  the  cares  which  then  crowd  on  him 13.  How  bitter 
is  the  parting !  How  torturing  her  delay  to  return  ! 
He  is  querulous,  then  angry  with  her  for  being  away, 
though  he  sent  her  himself,  and  on  urgent  business  l4. 
He  writes  her  a  letter  full  of  reproaches.  'How  can  she 
stay  away  from  him  so  long,  so  much  longer  than  there 
was  any  necessity  for  !'  Then  he  tears  it  up,  and  dis- 
tresses himself  that  he  was  so  inconsiderate.  The  dis- 
orders in  the  household,  unruly  children,  untrustworthy 
servants,  increase  upon  his  hands  ;  15 '  and  you,  my  wife, 
who  ought  to  be  governing  this  family,  are  away  from  me/ 
Then  comes  the  hot  July  of  1613,  and  he  is  equally 
alarmed  lest  she  should  have  set  off  on  the  journey. 
Then  he  hears  that,  so  far  from  coming  back,  she  was  luxu- 
riating in  the  country  at  Grigny.  '  What  can  she  be 

13  Eph.  p.  987  :  '  Deus   bone,   deficio  sub  onere  curarum,  et  ino- 
lestiarum,  quas  affert  mihi  uxoris  absentia.' 

14  Eph.  p.  97  7  :    '  Urgebant  negotia,  quse  omnino  postulabant  ut 
istud  iter  uxor  susciperet.' 

16  Eph.   p.    996  :    '  Tu   abes,  niea   uxor,  quae  domum  regere  de- 
buisti.' 


LONDON.     1610—1614.  461 

doing  at  Grigriy  when  her  presence  is  so  much  needed 
at  home 16.3  Great  part  of  many  days  is  lost  out  of  pure 
fret  and  heartache,  because  she  doesn't  come  or  doesn't 
write17.  He  sends  his  sons'  tutor,  Wedderburn,  to 
escort  her  over.  He  cannot  endure  the  suspense,  he  is 
fretting  himself  to  death 18.  Then  he  hears  she  is 
coming  by  another  route.  Wedderburn  will  miss  her. 
He  must  go  himself.  But  the  '  Exercitationes'  are  in 
the  press,  and  the  daily  tale  must  be  delivered  to  the 
printer.  August  31,  he  sends  a  servant  to  Dover,  for 
Florence  has  not  learnt  a  word  of  English.  She  had 
already  left  Dover,  and  September  i,  while  he  is  deep 
in  his  writing  he  looks  up,  and  she  is  standing  by  his 
side.  Oh  happy  day.  Little  does  she  know  how  short 
a  time  she  is  to  have  him  !  She  has  just  returned  in 
time  to  save  little  James,  the  english  son,  who  was 
being  starved  by  the  wet  nurse  with  whom  he  had  been 
placed  in  the  country.  They  are  separated  no  more, 
till  all  too  soon  the  day  of  final  parting  takes  him  away 
before  his  time. 

Casaubon  had  come  over  to  this  country  in  October, 
1610.  Florence  did  not  join  him  till  February,  1611. 
She  returned  to  France  April  29,  and  was  absent 
nearly  six  months.  His  instructions  on  this  occasion  are 
characteristic,  containing  not  a  word  relating  to  his 
pecuniary  affairs,  on  account  of  which  Madame  Casaubon 
was  going;  his  anxieties  are  all  for  his  children,  his 
books,  and  especially  his  papers 19.  '  Je  vous  recom- 
mande  nos  enfants  que  en  tout  douceur  les  instruisez  a 

16  Eph.  p.  i oo i. 

17  Eph.  p.  1002  :  'Abstulit  magnam  partem  diei  mcestitia  et  soli- 
citude tristis  de  uxore  tamdiu  absents.' 

18  Eph.  p.  1009  :  '  Desiderio  pio  pise  uxoris  dudum  tabesco.' 

19  Burney  MSS.  367.  ap.  Russell,  1147. 


462  LONDON.     1610—1614.     . 

la  piet6,  et  aux  bonnes  moeurs,  et  si  ne  venez  tost, 
m'envoyer  quelcun. 

'Je  vous  recommande  mes  livres,  que  personne  du 
monde  ne  les  manie,  ni  touche,  que  vous  et  mon 
nepueu.  Faictes  que  au  plustost  je  les  aye  par  voye 
seure,  et  le  tout  par  le  conseil  de  nos  amis,  sur- 
tout  de  M.  le  President  de  Thou,  et  de  M.  Tambas- 
sadeur  4'Angleterre.  Vous  scavez  que  puisque  il  nous 
fault  icy  demeurer  quelque  terns,  il  m'est  impossible 
de  me  passer  d'eux,  et  surtout  de  mon  coffre  ou 
soiit  mes  papiers. 

'  Si  nos  amis  vous  conseillent  de  haster  vostre  retour, 
il  faudra  faire  venir  mes  livres  avec  vos  hardes  par 
navire  expres.  Mais  quant  a  Isaac,  je  desire  qu'il 
vienne  avec  mon  coffre/ 

During  this  absence,  he  writes  to  John,  the  catholic 
son,  entreating,  commanding,  him 20  to  find  his  mother 
out,  and  if  she  is  at  Grigny  to  take  out  his  letters 
to  her  himself.  '  I  have  heard  nothing  from  her  these 
two  months,  and  am  in  tortures  of  suspense  ;  my  life 
is  hardly  bearable!' 

Florence's  second  visit  to  France  was  from  May  3 
to  September  i,  1613.  The  return  to  her  charge  of 
her  who,  through  the  trials  of  eight-and-twenty  years, 
had  grown  to  be  the  guardian  angel  of  the  house, 
protected  Isaac  from  many  vexations,  but  could  not 
save  him  from  the  doom  which  was  now  rapidly 
approaching. 

20  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.  23101. 


10. 

LAST    ILLNESS;    DEATH;    CHARACTERISTIC. 
1614. 


WE  have  observed  that  of  Isaac  Casaubon's  mental 
character  more  is  known  to  us  than  of  most  men  who 
lived  so  long  ago.  It  happens  also,  that  of  his  bodily 
organisation  we  have  a  memoir,  remarkable  for  its 
diagnostic  skill,  from  the  pen  of  Raphael  Thoris1,  his 
physician,  of  whom  Casaubon  justly  thought  most 
highly.  The  language  of  this  memorandum  may  be 
the  language  of  an  imperfect  physiology ;  but  for  all 
purposes  of  elucidation  of  character,  and  mental  history, 
it  is  as  complete  as  if  it  had  been  written  by  a  modern 
pathologist. 

Isaac  Casaubon  was  the  martyr  of  learning.  While 
it  is  not  probable  that  he  would  have  survived  to  a 
great  age,  it  is  clear  that  his  premature  death,  in  his 
fifty-sixth  year,  was  brought  upon  him  by  his  habits 
of  life,  unintermitted  study  and  late  vigils.  Varanda, 

1  Raphaelis  Thorii,  Historia  vesicse  monstrosse  magni  Casauboni, 
and  Epistola  de  Isaac!  Casauboni  morbi  mortisque  causa.  A  Leyden 
printer  published  the  first  piece  in  1619.  Both  are  found  in  Gro- 
novius'  collection,  from  which  Van  Almeloveen  reprinted  them  in 
1709,  adding  an  engraved  representation  of  the  diseased  part. 


464  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

the  medical  professor  at  Montpellier,  had  told  him,  in 
1597,  playfully  but  with  meaning,  that  2'his  career 
would  be  like  that  of  Achilles,  glorious  but  brief.' 
Scaliger,  who  had  never  seen  him,  knew  of  him  as 
3 'tout  courbe  d'etude/  Baudius  had  conjured  him4 
to  have  some  thought  of  his  health.  But  friends  are 
so  apt  to  think  that  any  one,  who  studies  at  all, 
studies  too  much,  that  remonstrances  on  this  head  go 
for  nothing.  When  seriously  urged  to  intermit  his 
application,  and  allow  himself  a  holiday,  Casaubon5 
used  to  say  '  that  he  had  tried  that  remedy,  and.  it 
had  always  done  him  harm ;  that  he  was  never  worse 
than  when  he  was  doing  nothing,  and  so  compelled  to 
think  of  his  ailments.' 

This,  his  own  account,  is  probably  the  true  account 
of  the  case.  The  mind  was  destroying  the  organism, 
yet  the  mental  excitement  or  occupation  was,  at  the 
same  time,  what  kept  the  frame  going  so  long.  He 
could  not  rest.  The  agitation  of  the  spirits  was 
necessary  to  life.  As  positive  disease  established  itself, 
and  his  general  bodily  condition  gradually  sank,  he 
would  have  become  hypochondriac,  had  he  turned  his 
thoughts  towards  himself  and  his  ailments.  Instead 
of  anxiously  guarding  his  own  organic  sensations,  this 
man,  who  was  dying  daily,  was  utterly  careless  of 
himself.  He  not  only  never  complained,  but  never 
nursed  himself,  till  actually  driven  from  his  books  by 
fainting  or  by  fever 6.  The  ever-growing  derangement 

2  Ep.  132.  3  Scaligerana  2a.  p.  45. 

4  Baudii  epp.  p.  116. 

5  Thorii  ep. :  '  Mihi  antehac  imperatum  otium,  a  me  qusesitum,  sed 
conatu  irrito,  imo  pernicioso.' 

6  Ibid.  :  '  Homini  sui  negligent!,  in  studiis  attento,  ne  conquerendi 
quidem  otium  erat.' 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  4G5 

)f  the  functions,  and  degradation  of  tissue,  made  itself 
felt  in  a  growing  mental  depression,  which  however 
turned  outward  rather  than  inward.  This  depression 
had  taken,  from  the  first,  the  direction  of  devotional 
abandonment.  The  lowered  nervous  force  in  the  sen- 
sibilities, combined  with  calvinistic  theory  in  the  under- 
standing, submerge  the  hopes  and  affections  ;  tend  to 
withdraw  them  from  life,  and  fix  them  upon  the  unseen. 
The  active  energies,  being  insufficiently  called  upon, 
become  enfeebled.  He  became,  every  year,  less  able 
to  cope  with  the  worry  of  life.  A  gloom  seemed  to 
be  settling  on  all  external  things.  He  complains 7  that 
wherever  he  looked,  nothing  but  melancholy  objects 
met  his  view.  He  writes  to  Heinsius8  in  1612,  'The 
deaths  of  so  many  of  my  friends,  remind  me  to  think 
of  my  own,  which  I  do  constantly.  Whenever  my 
hour  comes,  I  shall  be  well-pleased  to  leave  a  world  in 
which  iniquity  abounds.  Turn  your  eyes  to  what 
quarter  of  Europe  you  will,  you  will  see  what  must 
needs  fill  you  with  anxiety.  And  nowhere  is  there  any 
prospect  of  better  things,  all  grows  worse  and  worse/ 
The  least  thing,  a  thunder  storm  coming  on  while  he 
is  in  the  cathedral,  throws  him  into  a  state  of  nervous 
anxiety 9.  Walter  Scott  had  the  first  warning  of  his 
own  break-down  in  similar  symptoms.  He  enters  in 
his  diary,  March  13,  i82610:  'I  am  not  free  from  a 
sort  of  gloomy  fits,  with  a  fluttering  of  the  heart  and 
depression  of  spirits,  just  as  if  I  knew  not  what  was 
going  to  befall  me.  I  can  sometimes  resist  this  success- 
fully, but  it  is  better  to  evade  it.'  In  Isaac  Casaubon, 

7  Eph.  p.  954  :  *  Nihil  video  prseter  tristia.'  8  Ep.  846. 

9  Eph.  p.  846  :  '  Cum  essem  in  ecclesia  Paulina,  tempestas  repente 
exorta  me  anxium  habuit.' 

10  Lockhart,  Life  of  Scott. 

H  h 


4t>u  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

the  same  cause,  an  overdriven  brain,  was  now  producing 
the  same  inevitable  results. 

Nature  had  given  him  a  puny  and  infirm  frame. 
Though  not  so  little  as  some  other  celebrated  men  of 
learning,  as,  e.  g.  Pietro  Pomponazzo,  as  Melanchthon  or 
Lobeck, — Casaubon  was  a  man  of11  small  stature,  l  cor- 
pusculum  tanto  ingenio  impar/  says  Thoris.  The  same 
observant  physician,  when  introduced  to  him  in  1610, 
was  astonished  to  see  that 12 '  such  exalted  wisdom  could 
be  lodged  in  such  a  wretched  tenement/  It  did  not 
need  Thoris' s  experienced  eye  to  read  the  sentence  of 
death  in  the  emaciated  frame,  the  sunken  chest,  the 
stooping  shoulders,  the  wasted  features,  the  prominent 
cheek  bone,  the  dark  ring  round  the  eye,  the  hectic 
flush,  the  accumulation  of  phlegm  in  the  air-passages, 
the  hacking  cough.  '  I  foresaw 13  that  his  new  calling 
in  the  service  of  his  majesty,  and  his  own  greediness  of 
work,  would  precipitate  the  catastrophe/  Isaac  became 
Thoris's  patient,  and  the  worse  symptoms  then  disclosed 
to  him,  verified  the  diagnostic  of  his  eye, — the  fevered 
pulse,  the  labouring  heart,  the  sleepless  unrefreshing 
nights,  the  long-standing  of  his  cough. 

It  must  have  been  obvious  to  everyone  that  he  was 
dying.  James  must  have  seen  it,  when  he  was  urging, 
like  a  taskmaster,  the  progress  of  the  *  Exercitationes/ 

11  Clarendon,  Life,  by  himself,  i.  55  :  '  Mr.  Chillingworth  was  of  a 
stature  little  superior  to  Mr.  Hales,  and  it  was  an  age  in  which  there 
were  many  great  and  wonderful  men  of  that  size/     For  noticing  so 
'  trivial '    a    circumstance,    the  historian   is  taken   to  task  by  Isaac 
Disraeli,  Curiosities  of  Literature,  p.  282. 

12  Thorii  ep.  :  *  In  tarn  humili  hospitio  tarn  excelsam  sapientiam 
habitare.' 

13  Ibid. :  '  Veritus,  ne,  ut  accidit,  odio  quietis,  laboris  dulcedine,  in 
novo  studiorum  campo,  in  tanti  regis  oculis,  homo  impiger  exsangue 
corpusculum  cursu  concitato  ad  seternam  quietem  prsecipitaret.' 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  467 

The  worst  however  was  not,  and  could  not,  be  known 
till  the  'post  mortem.'  Some  twelve  months  before 
the  end,  there  appeared  symptoms  which  entirely 
baffled  the  medical  attendants,  Mayerne  and  Thoris. 
The  symptoms  indicated  calculus ;  yet,  on  examination, 
the  existence  of  calculus  could  not  be  established. 
During  the  whole  of  the  time  that  he  was  working 
on  Baronius,  he  was  suffering  tortures  from  a  difficulty 
in  the  urinary  passages.  An  incessant  desire  to  void 
urine  was  accompanied  with  the  impossibility  of  doing 
so.  A  protuberant  swelling  of  the  left  side  made  its 
appearance.  The  doctors,  not  knowing  what  to  order, 
prescribed  the  usual  remedies  for  renal  disease,  riding, 
and  the  Spa  waters.  He  proposed  to  drink  the  waters 
on  the  spot,  but  could  not  endure  the  thought  of  being 
again  in  a  catholic  country,  and  therefore  consults  Gro- 
tius  if  there 14  be  not  some  town  of  the  states  near  Spa, 
where  he  can  reside,  and  have  the  waters  brought  him. 

This  was  in  1612.  Even  in  November  1613,  his 
mental  vigour  deluding  him  as  to  his  physical  powers, 
Casaubon  was  projecting  a  visit  to  Heinsius  at  Ley  den15. 
And  in  June,  1614,  when  the  end  was  imminent,  he 
is  contemplating  a  second  part  of  the  '  Exercitations 16, ' 
1  in  which  I  design  great  things,  viz.  the  assertion  of 
genuine  antiquity/ 

In  this  condition,  on  June  24,  1614,  his  friends, 
thinking  to  benefit  him  by  a  drive  into  the  country, 
took  him  to  Greenwich.  The  party  consisted  of  Isaac, 

4  Bui-maun,  Syll.  2.  433  ;  Grotius  to  Heinsius:  '  Casaubonum  jam 
saepe  ut  ad  nos  transcurrat,  invito,  et  facturum  puto,  eo  magis  quia 
Spadanas  aquas  adire  jubetur  a  medicis.'  Cf.  Cas.  ep.  933. 

15  %  925. 

6  Ep.  927  :  'Si  dabit  Christus  vitam,  magna  moliemur  in  proxima 
parte,  et  veram  antiquitatem  summa  fide  et  diligentia  asseremus.' 
H   h    2 


468  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

the  physician  Thoris,  Barclay,  and  their  three  wives. 
They  went  in  a  coach 17.  The  jolting  over  the  uneven 
pavement  of  the  city,  shook  the  poor  sufferer  cruelly. 
He  constrained  himself,  however,  to  sit  through  the 
meal,  and  himself  proposed  a  walk  through  the  park 
after  it,  during  which  he  was  cheerful  and  instructive 
in  talk  as  ever.  When  he  got  home,  he  thought  he 
felt  better.  But  he  passed  the  night  in  cruel  torture, 
voiding  calculi,  blood,  and  purulent  urine.  When 
Thoris  came  to  see  him  in  the  morning,  Isaac  said, 
'  I  am  like  Theophrastus,  dying  of  a  holiday  ;  when 
Theophrastus  had  passed  his  hundredth  year,  he  went 
to  his  nephew's  wedding,  and  gave  up  a  day's  study 
to  do  it.  But  he  never  studied  more,  he  died  of 
it/  Thoris  and  May  erne  were  in  constant  attend- 
ance. Thoris  wished  to  attend  him  as  a  friend,  and 
refused  his  tendered  fee18.  When  Casaubon  insisted 
lie  took  it,  saying  that  '  he  could  not  stand  in  the  way 
of  a  patient's  wish  to  exercise  the  virtue  of  gratitude/ 
Nothing  could  be  done,  but  to  mitigate  his  sufferings 
by  the  hot  bath  and  bleeding.  He  sustained  the 
combat  with  death  amid  dreadful  torments,  borne  with 
that  entire  resignation  to  the  divine  will,  which  might 
have  been  expected  from  one  whose  life  had  been  one 
prolonged  devotion.  His  one  regret  was,  that  he  must 
leave  his  work  on  church  history  unfinished.  His  words 
latterly  became,  inaudible,  but  it  could  be  perceived 
that  he  was  holding  converse  with  that  God,  whom  he 
had  never  forgotten  for  a  single  hour  of  his  life.  He 
lingered  thus  for  more  than  a  fortnight.  On  Friday, 

17  Thorii    ep.  :    '  Vectus  rheda   per    duras   pavimenti   Londinensis 
salebras,  qua  civitas  longissime  pertenditur.' 

18  Burney  MSS.   367.   p.    137:    '  Ne   videar   velle  tibi  pulcerrimse 
virtutis  (i.  e.  gratitude)  ansam  prseripere,  accipio  auTrjpiov  libenter.' 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614. 


469 


July  12  (July  i,  o.  s.),  he  received  the  eucharist  at 
the  hands  of  the  bishop  of  Ely.  After  the  ceremony, 
he  signified  his  wish  to  have  the  '  Nuiic  dimittis '  read 
aloud,  and  he  accompanied  the  reader  with  failing 
voice.  He  had  his  children  brought  to  his  bedside, 
gave  them  his  blessing,  one  by  one,  and  straitly  charged 
them  not  to  follow  the  example  of  their  elder  brother, 
but  to  continue  in  the  religion  in  which  they  had  been 
brought  up  19.  At  5  p.m.  he  ceased  to  breathe 20. 

After  death  was  discovered,  what  no  diagnosis  could 
have  detected,  a  monstrous  malformation  of  the  vesica. 
The  bladder  itself  was  of  natural  size  and  healthy. 
But  an  opening  in  its  left  side  admitted  into  a  second, 
or  supplementary  bladder.  This  sack  was  at  least  six 
times  as  large  as  the  natural  bladder,  and  was  full  of 
mucous  calculous  matter.  The  malformation  was  con- 
genital, but  had  been  aggravated  by  sedentary  habits, 
and  inattention  to  the  calls  of  nature,  while  the  mind 
of  the  student  was  absorbed  in  study  and  meditation. 

Much  sympathy  was  shown  him  during  his  illness. 
The  king  sent21  him  an  assurance  that  his  pension 
should  be  continued  to  Madame  Casaubon  for  her  life, 
and  that  he  would  provide  for  the  future  of  one  of  his 
sons.  This  part  of  the  promise  received  a  speedy 
performance.  A  royal  missive  had  already,  April  13, 
1614,  been  sent  to  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Christ 
Church,  Oxford,  requiring  them  23<to  admitt  a  sonne 

19  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  91. 

20  Besides  Thoris's  letter,  an  account  of  Isaac  Casaubon's  last  mo- 
ments was  written  by  Andrewes  to  Heinsius.     A  copy  of  the  bishop's 
letter  is  in  Advers.  torn.  9,  from  which  it  was  printed  by  Bliss  in  his 
edition  of  Andrewes'  Works,  n.  xlv. 

21  Birch,  Court  and  Times  of  James  i,  i.  332. 

22  State  paper,  James  i,  docquet. 


470  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

of  Isaak  Casaubon  into  the  rome  of  a  scholler  of  the 
foundation  of  that  house,  that  should  first  become  voide.' 
Accordingly,  on  August  5,  Meric  was  admitted  to  a 
studentship,  which  he  held  for  thirteen  years23. 

As  Isaac  had  designed  to  send  his  son  to  Leyden, 
we  may  perhaps  infer  that  he  was  not  altogether 
satisfied  with  what  he  had  seen  at  Oxford  and 
Cambridge.  But  he  had  acquiesced  in  the  king's  de- 
cision, and  it  had  been  arranged  that  Meric  was  to 
spend  some  time  at  Christ  Church,  before  he  travelled 
abroad  to  continental  universities24. 

Isaac  Casaubou  was  buried  in  the  abbey  ;  25  '  six 
bishops,  two  deans,  and  almost  the  whole  clergy  of 
the  metropolis/  followed  the  body.  The  funeral 
sermon26  was  preached  by  the  bishop  of  Lichfield, 
Overall.  The  grave  where  his  body  was  laid  was  at 
the  entrance  of  S.  Benedict's  chapel.  For  many  years 
there  was  no  monument  to  commemorate  him,  till  one 
was  supplied  by  the  pious  remembrance  of  a  private 
friend,  Thomas  Morton,  then  become  (1632)  bishop  of 
Durham 27. 

The  assertion  of  the  latin  inscription,  that  Casaubon's 
books  will  outlive  the  marble  monument,  is  scarcely 
likely  to  be  true.  The  inscription,  doubtless  composed 


23  Dean's  entrance  book :  '  Admd.  Aug.  5.    Meric  Casaubon,  Gallus, 
Gen.  F.  18.'     Meric  was  born  May  4,  1599,  N.  s.,  and  was  therefore 
just  fifteen,, 

24  Ep.  955  :  '  Filii  mei  missionem  ad  vos  regis  serenissimi  voluntas 
retardavit,  cui  placuit  ut  in  academia  Oxoniensi  aliquamdiu  maneret, 
priusquam  transmarinas  academias  adiret,' 

25  Andrewes  to  Heinsius,  ubi  sup. 

26  I  cannot  find  that  the  sermon  has  been  preserved. 

2r  It  was  by  Stone,  and  cost  £60.     The  receipt  for  the  amount  is 
Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS, 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  471 

by  Morton  himself,  is  in  better  taste  than  many  of 
that  period,  and  the  bishop  is  not  answerable  for 
the  vulgar  x  T  o,  as  his  x~p~o  is  still  visible  beneath, 
as  Mr.  Scrivener28  has  pointed  out.  Fuller  observes 
that  'his  tomb  is  not  in  the  east,  or  poetical,  side, 
where  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Drayton,  are  interred,  but  on 
the  west,  or  historical,  side  of  the  aisle.'  '  Casaubon's 
tomb  was  thus,'  says  dean  Stanley29,  *  the  first  in  a 
new  and  long  succession.  Isaac  Walton,  forty  years 
afterwards,  wandering  through  the  south  transept, 
scratched  his  well-known  monogram  on  the  marble, 
with  the  date  1658,  earliest  of  those  inscriptions  of 
names  of  visitors,  which  have  since  defaced  so  many 
a  sacred  space  in  the  abbey.  O  si  sic  omnia !  We 
forgive  the  greek  soldiers  who  recorded  their  journey 
on  the  foot  of  the  statue  at  Ipsambul;  the  Platonist 
who  has  left  his  name  on  the  tomb  of  Rameses  at 
Thebes ;  the  roman  emperor  who  has  carved  his  attes- 
tation of  Memnon's  music  on  the  colossal  knees  of 
Amenophis.  Let  us  in  like- manner  forgive  the  angler 
for  this  mark  of  himself  in  Poets'  corner/ 

A  few  days  before  his  death  Casaubon  had  made  a 
will*.  He  leaves,  '  of  the  goods  which  the  Lord  hath 
lent  me,'  to  his  wife,  to  choose  between  taking  the  half, 
or  betaking  herself  to  her  contract  of  marriage.  To 
each  of  his  daughters  he  gives  200  crowns,  the  residue 
of  his  estate  being  divided  equally  among  all  his  chil- 
dren, John  excepted,  who  was  provided  for  by  a  con- 
vert's pension.  But  that  this  exclusion  might  not  be 
construed  as  a  penalty,  he  leaves  John  a  cup,  value 


28  Codex  Bezse,  prsef.  p.  43. 

29  Memorials  of  Westminster,  p.  317. 
*  See  it  in  Appendix,  note  A. 


472  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

thirty  crowns.  Mr.  Scaliger's  cup  is  left  to  '  that  son 
who,  walking  in  the  fear  of  God,  shah1  be  fittest  to 
sustain  my  family.'  Florence  is  sole  executrix. 

Florence  Casaubon,  as  soon  as  she  had  settled  her 
affairs,  returned  to  France.  James  acted  most  liberally 
towards  her31,  and,  notwithstanding  her  antipathy  to 
the  country  and  to  our  tongue,  she  returned  to  end 
her  days  in  London.  In  spite  of  the  many  at- 
tempts of  the  doctors  to  kill  her  with  the  lancet33, 
she  survived  her  husband  oiie-and-twenty  years.  She 
was  buried  in  the  cloisters  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
March  j  i,  i63533. 

The  catholic  party  had  continued  to  believe  that  he 
was  at  heart  a  catholic,  and  that  the  death-bed  would 
extort  from  him  the  confession  which  self-interest  had 
suppressed  during  life.  The  french  ambassador  sent 
a  nobleman  to  him  to  put  the  question  directly,  '  In 
what  religion  he  professed  to  die 34  ? '  '  Then  you 
think,  my  lord,'  was  the  answer,  '  that  I  have  been  all 
along  a  dissembler  in  a  matter  of  the  greatest  mo- 
ment,' expressing  at  the  same  time  his  horror  of  such 
deceit. 

The  ministers  of  the  french  church  in  London  were 
in  constant  attendance.  If  Casaubon  received  the 
eucharist  on  the  last  day  from  the  hands  of  an  eriglish 
bishop,  he  could  do  this  without  giving  umbrage  to 
the  french  ministers,  on  the  score  of  the  intimate 

31  Comm.  in  Polyb.  (1617),  prsef.  p.  10:  '  Majestatis  tuse  humani- 
tate  sustentata.' 

32  See  Eph.  pp.  444.  516. 

8:5  Register  of  Westminster  Abbey ;  '  burials  in  church  and  chapels.' 
34  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  91  :  '  Deinde  rem.ipsam  vehementer  detestatufl 

et  aborainatus  est.'    The  words  'rem  ipsam'  are  to  be  understood  only 

of  an  act  of  dissimulation. 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  473 


Headship  which  subsisted  between  himself  and 
A.ndrewes.  And  before  the  rise  of  the  Laudian 
school,  the  english  church  and  the  reformed  churches 
of  the  continent  mutually  recognised  each  other  as 
sisters35. 

Scioppius  boasted  that  he  had  killed  Casaubon  by 
his  f  Holofernes.'  The  wonder  is  that  with  such  an 
organisation  he  should  have  survived  his  fifty-fifth 
birthday.  Thoris,  as  has  been  said,  believed  that  the 
mind  sustained  the  frame.  What  the  muscular  fibre 
was  unequal  to,  the  flow  of  energy  from  the  brain 
supplied36.  He  was  carried  on  by  the  ardour 
and  passion  of  the  work  which  was  consuming  his 
strength. 

It  would  be  more  plausible  to  say  that  Casaubon 
killed  himself  over  the  '  Exercitations  on  Baronius.5 
Mere  intellectual  labour,  not  pushed  beyond  fatigue, 
would  not  appear  to  be  destructive  of  vital  energy. 
What  depresses  the  powers  of  life  is  prolonged  labour 
when  combined  with  anxiety.  And  anxiety  is  insepa- 
rable from  the  effort  of  composition.  Whether  the 
instrument  of  composition  be  a  pen  or  a  brush,  whether 
the  materials  be  facts,  figures,  harmonies,  the  effort  to 
combine  the  whole  on  a  given  point  exercises  an  ex- 
hausting influence,  which  the  mere  accumulation  of  the 

15  During  Elisabeth's  reign  the  English  embassy  in  Paris  had  no 
chaplain,  and  the  ambassador  attended  the  reformed  preche  at  Cha- 
renton.  See  conversation  of  lord  Leicester  with  Laud,  in  Blencowe, 
Sydney  papers,  p.  261. 

39  It  is  possible  that  this  biological  theory  was  popularised  in  medi- 
cine, when  medicine  was  classical,  by  its  being  the  traditional  account 
of  Aristotle's  case.  See  Censorinus,  Dies  nat.  14:  'Naturalem  sto- 
mach iinfirmitatem,  crebrasque  morbidi  corporis  offensiones,  adeo  virtute 
animi  diu  sustentasse  (Aristotelem)  ut  magis  mirum  sit  ad  annos  sexa- 
ginta  tres  vitam  protulisse,  quam  ultra  non  pertulisse.' 


474  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

data  as  they  occur,  does  not.  The  composition  of  the 
'  Exercitations '  made  this  demand  on  Casaubon's  shat- 
tered strength.  There  was  incessant  effort  to  combine 
all  the  extant  textual  data  upon  the  point  in  hand  ;  the 
imperative  necessity  pressing  on  his  mind,  that  his 
criticism,  if  it  were  to  be  worth  anything,  should  ex- 
haust the  authorities.  Casaubon  early  noticed  his  own 
disinclination  to  write37.  While  reading  afforded  him 
the  keenest  pleasure  of  which  he  was  susceptible,  he 
took  pen  in  hand  reluctantly.  As  Burnet38  says  of 
bishop  Lloyd,  '  He  did  not  lay  out  his  learning  with  the 
same  diligence  that  he  laid  it  in.'  The  cerebral  energy, 
exhausted  by  prolonged  attention,  was  seldom  exu- 
berant enough  for  the  higher  effort  of  combination. 

When  he  had  written,  he  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
result39.  His  dissatisfaction  was  not  with  the  manner 
or  the  style,  but  with  the  incompleteness  of  his  work. 
If  he  had  had  more  time,  he  could  have  made  more 
research4**.  '  I  have  the  goodwill,  what  I  have  always 
lacked  is  leisure,  and  freedom  from  anxiety,  defects  of 
which  my  writings  bear  too  manifest  trace.'  Almost  a 
formula  for  the  beginning  of  his  letters  is  4  etsi  negotiis 
obruor,  et  nutat  valetudo.'  One  might  think  he  had 
the  business  of  a  bank,  or  a  public  office,  on  his  shoul- 
ders. Yet  it  was  not  so.  He  had  probably  as  large  a 

37  Epp.    266  :    '  Quotidie  adolescit  in  nobis  OKVOS  scribendi,  et  otii 
desiderium  ad  studia  sapientise  et  philologies.'     Ep.  1 1 1 1  :  '  Nos  in- 
finita  et  aKpar^s  quaedam  aliquid  semper  indies  addiscendi  libido  facit 
in  scribendo  ssepe  omissiores.  segre  impetramus  a  nobis,  ut  scribendis 
iis,  quse  semel  observavimus,  operam  et  tempus  impendamus.' 

38  Own  Times,  i.  345. 

39  Eph.  p.  942  :  'Qusedam  hodie,  sed  quae  mox  displicuerunt.' 

40  Suetonius,  Tib.    65.    comment.:  'Animus  non  deest  ;    voluntas  j 
etiam  superest ;  otium  K<U  TO  a^pip.vov  hactenus  semper  defuerunt,  quod 
n«stra  scripta  produut  nimis.' 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  475 

diare  of  leisure  as  can  be  secured  by  any  man  who 
loes  not  withdraw  into  a  solitary  cell.  But  when  the 
orain  is  preoccupied  by  other  currents,  and  the  energy 
is  drawn  off  into  books,  calls  for  efforts  of  external 
attention,  alarm  and  distress. 

For  Casaubon's  aims  no  leisure  would  have  sufficed. 
Other  effort  has  a  limit,  but  in  research  the  horizon 
recedes  as  we  advance,  and  is  no  nearer  at  sixty 
than  it  was  at  twenty.  As  the  power  of  endurance 
weakens  with  age,  the  urgency  of  the  pursuit  grows 
more  intense.  It  is  in  vain  that  moralists  warn  anti- 
quaries41 to  remember  the  shortness  of  life.  It  is 
better  to  write  nothing  than  to  produce  incomplete 
work.  And  research  is  always  incomplete. 

Casaubon  killed  himself  over  the  '  Exercitations.' 
With  his  mal-organisation,  his  life  could  not  have  been 
long,  but  excessive  labour,  joined  with  mental  anxiety, 
hastened  the  end.  *  Beginning,'  says  Thoris42, '  in  the 
evening  of  life,  and  with  shattered  constitution,  an 
undertaking  vast,  arduous,  and  "  de  longue  haleine,"  he 
pursued  it  with  an  energy  and  an  assiduity  of  toil 
which  younger  men  ought  not  to  venture  to  imitate. 
He  possessed  every  mental  endowment  required  for  the 
performance  ;  he  had  abundant  material  accumulated. 
What  he  wanted  was  time.  He  had  begun,  as 
Crassus  said  to  Deiotarus,  "to  build  at  the  eleventh 
hour."  But  a  man  whose  thoughts  were  on  eternity, 
who  lived  only  in  mental  energy,  Casaubon  reckoned 
not  the  number  of  his  years,  felt  not  the  encroachment 
of  age,  or  the  sap  of  health,  or  the  decay  of  his  body.' 

41  Hearne,  in  the  Rambler,  no.  7 1  :  'It  is  the  business  of  a  good 
antiquary,  as  of  a  good  man,  to  have  mortality  always  before  him.' 

42  Thorii  ep.  :  '  Magnum  opus,  et  longioris  animse,  aggressus  in  vitse 
crepusculo,  et  deliquio  valetudinis  .  .  .' 


476  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

All  men  of  real  science  have  probably  felt  something 
of  what  Newton  has  expressed,  the  painful  contrast  of 
the  infinity  of  nature,  and  the  insignificance  of  any  one 
man's  knowledge  of  it.  But  the  same  is  true  of  lite- 
rature. Wyttenbach  has  described43  the  mirage,  from 
the  illusion  of  which,  no  experience  of  others  can  save 
the  incepting  scholar.  '  From  the  vantage  ground  of 
my  youth,  I  looked  down  over  the  outspread  stretch 
of  life  on  which  I  was  entering,  as  upon  a  limitless 
plain.  The  task  I  had  set  myself  (an  edition  of  Plu- 
tarch) seemed  to  lie  close  before  me,  and  within  my 
grasp.  But  as  age  advanced,  things  assumed  a  different 
aspect.  The  horizon  of  my  span  of  life  drew  nearer, 
that  of  my  task  receded.  Ten  years  passed  away  ;  the 
end  of  my  labour  was  not  even  in  sight.  Five  years 
more  ;  what  remained  to  do  was  still  more  than  what 
was  completed.' 

Thus  it  has  been  the  fate  of  many  men  of  learning 
to  be  crushed  under  the  burden  of  their  own  accumu- 
lations. Like  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  who  was  surprised 
by  death  set.  67,  before  he  had  time  to  reduce  his  piles 
of  MS.  notes  to  order,  Casaubon  must  be  reckoned  among 
those  who  hoarded  more  than  they  could  ever  use. 
But  it  was  not  avarice,  it  was  the  irresistible  instinct 
of  acquisition.  For  what  he  gave  to  the  press  was 
massive ;  and  yet  it  was,  as  he  often  told  Meric M,  '  a 
very  small  instalment  of  his  multitudinous  schemes.' 

He  left  nothing  prepared  for  press  beyond  a  small 
part  of  his  intended  commentary  on  Polybius.  This 
was  printed,  in  Paris  1617,  by  Madame  Casaubon,  and 
amounts  to  no  more  than  21 2  pages  in  1 2mo.  Florence 

43  Plutarchi  Opp.  torn.  i.  prsef.  p.  viii. 

44  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  110:   '  Non  esse   multesimam  partem  suarum 
vigiliarum.' 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  477 

•eligiously  preserved  all  her  husband's  papers45,  and 
carried  them  with  her  when  she  returned  to  Paris 
ifter  Isaac's  death 46.  The  king  and  Andre wes  selected 
a  few  papers  of  a  theological  character  to  retain,  for 
any  others  they  probably  cared  nothing.  The  rest, 
along  with  the  seven  volumes  of  the  '  Ephemerides/ 
remained  in  Paris,  at  first  in  Madame  Casaubon's 
keeping,  but  afterwards  came  into  the  hands  of  John 
Casaubon,  the  eldest  son.  During  this  time  they  were 
lent  freely,  and  were  given  to  any  persons  who  mani- 
fested curiosity  -to  see  them.  In  this  way  the  fourth 
fasciculus  of  the  '  Ephemerides  '  was  lost  irrecoverably. 
It  contained  the  three  years  1604,  5,  6,  and  part  of 
1607,  and  as  it  must  have  contained  many  particulars 
relating  to  persons  still  living,  was  likely  to  be  an 
object  of  great  curiosity  to  the  Parisians  of  Casaubon's 
set.  About  1619-20,  John  Casaubon  entered  the  order 
of  the  capuchins,  and  his  father's  papers  came  again 
into  the  hands  of  Florence,  and  of  the  third  son,  Paul, 
who  was  living  in  Paris.  They  agreed  to  send  them 
over  to  England  to  Meric.  Besides  those  wkich  were 
sent  at  first,  Meric  diligently  collected  any  stray  leaves 
which  he  could  hear  of  in  the  hands  of  friends  of  his 
father.  As  late  as  1638,  he  recovered  in  this  way  a 
volume  of  memoranda,  which  had  turned  up,  and  been 
sent  over  by  Paul 47.  Meric  had  all  these  papers  sorted, 

45  Meric,  Pietas,  p.  1 1 1  :  '  Semper  cavit  sedulo,  ne  de  iis  parum 
sollicita  videretur,  quse  ad  mariti  memoriam  famanupe  pertinerent.' 

48  The  history  of  Isaac  Casaubon's  papers  is  given  with  great 
minuteness  in  a  letter  from  Meric  to  Philibert  de  la  Mare,  dated  Can- 
terbury, 1641.  It  is  printed  below,  Appendix,  note  B,  from  bibl. 
nat.  MSS.  fonds  Moreau,  846. 

47  Adversaria,  torn.  22.  p.  7  :  '  Missa  a  fratre  Paulo  Casaubono 
novembri  mense  anni  1638.' 


478  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEATH, 

and  extracts  made  of  everything  which  appeared  of  an 
original  character ;  critical  remarks,  opinions  on  books 
or  authors,  etc.  While  he  lived  at  Canterbury,  Meric's 
house  being  on  the  high  road  to  London,  was  much 
resorted  to  by  foreign  scholars,  to  whom  he  was  always 
ready  to  show  these  documents.  At  Meric's  death,  he 
left  the  six  volumes  of  the  '  Ephemerides,'  as  we  have 
said,  to48  the  cathedral  in  which  he  had  held  a  pre- 
bendal  stall  more  than  forty  years.  The  rest  of  the 
papers  he  deposited  in  the  Bodleian. 

Here  both  the  originals,  and  the  excerpts  which 
had  been  made  by  Meric's  direction,  remained  for 
many  years  untouched  by,  most  likely  unknown  to, 
any  of  the  300  or  400  resident  recipients  of  the 
endowments  of  the  colleges.  In  1709,  a  german  phi- 
lologian  from  Wittenberg,  studying  in  the  Bodleian, 
unearthed  them,  and  was  allowed  by  Hudson,  the  then 
librarian,  to  take  a  copy 49.  Adding  to  Meric's  excerpts 
other  extracts  made  by  himself,  and  much  extraneous 
matter,  J.  C.  Wolf  published,  on  his  return  to  Germany, 
a  small  volume  under  the  title,  fteCasauboniana,'  Ham- 
burg 1710.  It  was  then  the  heyday  of  Ana,  before  the 
abuse  of  the  title,  for  trading  purposes,  had  brought 
the  species  into  such  dispute,  that  the  abbe  d'Olivet, 
writing  in  1743,  could  speak  of  them  as  'the  disgrace 
of  our  age 50.'  Wolfs  publication  was  not  calculated  to 
raise  the  credit,  either  of  the  class  of  Ana,  or  of  Cas- 

48  Bibl.  nat.  ut  sup.  :  '  Omnem  librariam  supellectilem  libere  promsi, 
non  ut  auferrent  quicquam,  sed  ut  viderent  quod  vellent.' 

9  Wolf,  Casauboniana,  prsef.  p.  48 :  'Ad  Casauboni  imprimis 
schedas,  ut  ad  alia  omnia,  V.  C.  Jo.  Hudsoui  prolixo  in  me  favore, 
aditus  mihi  patuit/ 

60  Hist,  de  1'acaddmie  fran9.  2.  197  :  'Ces  satires  anonymes,  ces 
Ana,  ces  gazettes  littdraires,  dont  le  nombre  se  multiplie  impunement 
tous  les  jours  a  la  honte  de  notre  sie'cle.' 


aubon.     I 


AND  CHARACTERISTIC.     1614.  479 


itibon.  Hitherto  the  termination  had  been  understood 
to  denote  reported  conversation — the  table-talk  of  the 
learned,  the  wise,  or  the  witty.  Such  were  the 
Scaligerana  ia,  1669;  Scaligerana  2a,  1666;  Perro- 
niana,  1666;  Thuana,  1669;  Menagiana,  1693;  Sor- 
beriana,  1691  ;  Chevrseana,  1697.  In  en  titling  his  book 
Casauboniana,Wolf  incurs  the  charge  of  having,  though 
innocently,  allured  purchasers  by  a  false  description  of 
his  wares 61.  Janson  Van  Almeloveen  had  just  pub- 
lished, at  Eotterdain  1 709,  his  splendid  collection  of  the 
Letters  and  Dissertations  of  the  two  Casaubons,  father 
and  son.  Public  attention  was  thus  called  again,  nearly 
a  century  after  Isaac's  death,  upon  the  name.  Those 
who,  as  must  have  been  the  case  with  many,  found  the 
epistles  an  undecipherable  hieroglyphic,  would  gladly 
seize  on  a  book  which  promised  a  short  cut  to  what  a 
giant  in  learning  had  to  tell.  Their  disappointment 
must  have  been  great  when  they  found  nothing  con- 
versational in  the  volume. 

Even  if  Casaubon  had  found  a  Boswell,  it  may  be 
doubted  if  his  talk  could  have  been  effectively  reported. 
We  have  no  account  of  his  style  of  conversation,  but 
we  are  sure  it  had  not  the  pith  and  epigram,  which 
constitute  table-talk  such  as  can  be  carried  away,  and 
reproduced.  Two  mots  indeed  of  Isaac  Casaubon  are 
handed  down.  On  his  first  coming  to  Paris,  and  being 
shown  over  the  Sorbonne 52 — the  old  hall  before  it  was 

61  In  the  course  of  a  few  years  the  termination  ana  received  this 
extension,  and  from  denoting  reported  conversation,  came  to  signify 
memoranda  of  reading.  A  collection  of  such  memoranda,  which  in 
1716  had  borne  tli e  title  of  '  Me*moires  litteYaires/ in  a  2^.  ed.  in  1740, 
came  out  as  Mathanasiana. 

>2  Menagiana,  2.  387  :  'La  premiere  fois  que  Casaubon  vinten  Sor- 
bonne— elle  n'avoit  pas  encore  6t6  rebatie — on  lui  dit ;  Voila  une  sale 
ou  il  y  a  quatre  cens  ans  qu'on  dispute  :  il  dit,  Qu'a-t-on  de'cide'  1 ' 


480  LAST  ILLNESS,  DEA  Til, 

pulled  down — his  guide  said,  '  Voila  une  sale  ou  il  y  a 
quatre  certs  ans  qu'on  dispute/    'Qu'a-t-on  decide  V  was 
the  retort  of  the   huguenot.     The  scene  of  the  other 
saying  was    also  the    Sorbonne53,  where  he  had  sate 
through  a  long  disputation  in  the  barbarous  language 
of  the  schools,  which  was  still  cherished  in  the  con- 
servative university  of  Paris.     Casaubon  remarked,  on 
coming  out,  that  *  he  had  never  heard  so  much  latin 
spoken   without    understanding  it.'      These   repartees, 
collected  in  the  salons  of  Paris  by  Menage,  who  was  a 
year  old  at  Casaubon's  death,  are  the  exceptions  which 
prove  the  rule.      Casaubon  was  an  abundant,  but  not 
an  epigrammatic,  talker.     He  drew  from  his  memory, 
and  not  from  his  mother-wit.     His  a  propos  was  that  of 
facts  and  instances,  not  of  images.     Whatever  comes 
up,  he  can  pour  out  an  inexhaustible  stock,  of  suggested 
parallels.      In  the   preface  to   *  Polybius,'  to  take   one 
example,  he  has  to  speak  of  the  usefulness  of  history  to 
men  of  action51.     There  immediately  rushes  upon  his 
memory  a  crowd  of  instances  in  point,  from  Hannibal 
down  to  the  Turkish  sultans  of  late  times.     And  this 
muster-roll  flows  from  his  pen  so  easily,  that  we  see  it 
is  not  the  laboured  compilation  of  the  desk,  paraded  to 
make  a  show  of  learning,  but  the  lavish  expenditure  of 
a  boundless  wealth.     When  Menage  says55  that  Cas- 
aubon '  ecrivoit  de  source,'  he  does  not  mean  that  he 
drew  upon  his  own  genius  or  invention  in  opposition 
to  books.     He  means  that  he  was  not  an  index  man. 
He  did  not   compile  his  quotations ;    they  suggested 
themselves   by  their   relevancy.      He  thought  of  the 

53  Menagiana,  3.  34. 
64  See  above,  p.  221. 

55  Menagiana,  2.  153  :  *  Je  ne  fais  que  de  themes,  Casaubon  Ecrivoit 
de  source.' 


CHARACTERISTIC. 


481 


object  through-  the  words  of  the  ancients.     The  amass- 
ing of  references  did  not  become  itself  his  object. 

kThis  habit  of  his  mind  is  reflected  in  his  '  Adversaria/ 
hen  Wolf  gave  to  the  world  his  selection  from  Cas- 
bon's  papers,  under  the  title  of '  Casauboniana/  great 
was  the  expectation  of  the  learned,  and  great  their  dis- 
appointment. The  literary  public  unanimously  pro- 
nounced the  collection  devoid  of  anything  which  could 
be  expected  from  the  great  reputation  of  Isaac  Casau- 
bon 56.  The  gossips  found  in  it  no  scandal,  the  curious 
no  autobiography,  the  learned  no  original  criticism.  The 
explanation  is  to  be  found  in  Casaubon's  peculiar  system 
of  work.  He  read  pen  in  hand,  with  a  sheet  of  paper 
by  his  side,  on  which  he  noted  much,  but  wrote  out 
nothing.  What  he  jots  down  is  not  a  remark  of  his 
own  on  what  he  reads,  nor  is  it  even  the  words  he 
has  read ;  it  is  a  mark,  a  key,  a  catchword,  by  which 
the  point  of  what  he  has  read  may  be  recovered  in 
memory.  The  notes  are  not  notes  on  the  book,  but 
memoranda  of  it  for  his  own  use.  When  he  had  accu- 
mulated a  number  of  sheets,  he  tied  them  up  in  a 
packet,  or  stitched  them  up  in  a  book,  and  called  it  '  in- 
digesta  vXy  '  —  materials.  'Casaubon's  way,'  Grotius 
tells 57  Camerarius,  '  was  not  to  write  out  what  he  de- 
signed to  publish,  but  to  trust  to  his  memory,  with  at 
least  a  few  jottings,  partly  on  the  margin  of  his  books, 
partly  on  loose  sheets — true  sibylline  leaves/  The  name 


56  D'Artigny,  Nouveaux  me'moires,  i.  296:  'II  n'y  a  presque  rien 
clans  ce  recueil  qui  r£ponde  a  I'ide'e  qu'on  doit  se  former  d'Isaac  Cas- 
aubon,  1'un  des  plus  S9avans  et  des  plus  honnetes  homines  de  son 
fede.' 

57  Grotii  Epp.  app.  ep.  184  :   'Is  erat  Casaubonus  qui  nihil  parati 
penes  se  liaberet,  nisi  in  memoria,  et  si   forte  in  oris  librorum,  aut 
brevibus  scbedis,  Sibyllse  foliis.' 

I  i 


482  CHARACTERISTIC. 

6  Adversaria'  was  given  to  these  memoranda  by  Isaac 
himself.  But  they  are  of  a  very  different  type  from 
the  Adversaria  of  Turnebus,  or  Barthius,  which,  like 
the  papers  of  Dobree  published  by  his  friends  after  his 
death,  contain  notes  on  classical  writers.  Casaubon's 
notes  are  bare  references,  and  references  not  to  places 
in  books,  but  to  the  thing  or  word  to  which  he  intended 
to  recur.  To  this  vast  mass  of  material  his  own  memory 
was  the  only  key.  The  demand  thus  made  upon  the 
memory  was  prodigious,  and  the  faculty  seemed  to 
respond  to  it.  He  told 58  de  Thou  that  the  mass  of 
citation  in  the  *  Exercitations'  was  in  great  part  drawn 
from  his  memory,  which  supplied  him  with  what  he 
read  ten,  twenty,  nay,  thirty  years  before.  Without  it 
he  could  not  have  produced  what  he  did. 

The  printed  books  which  belonged  to  him  were  used 
by  him  in  the  same  way,  scored  under,  and  marked  any- 
how, to  catch  the  eye  in  turning  over  the  leaves.  The 
blank  pages,  the  title  page,  or  any  page,  serve  to 
hold  a  reference.  Hence,  while  the  scholar  reckons 
among  his  choicest  treasures  a  greek  volume  with  mar- 
ginal corrections  in  Scaliger's  hand,  a  volume  which  has 
belonged  to  Casaubon  is  merely  defaced  by  the  owner's 
marks  and  memoranda.  He  valued  his  books  more 
than  anything  else  that  belonged  to  him.  But  he  valued 
them  only  as  the  tools  he  was  to  work  with.  What 
cripples  him  when  he  is  at  work  on  Baronius  in  London 
is  the  not  having  his  own  books.  Not  only  that  many 
he  wanted  were  not  to  be  got  in  London,  but  that  the 
copies  with  which  Young  supplied  him  could  not  replace 
to  him  his  own,  in  which  he  could  find  anything — (  quos 

18  Ep.  931  :  '  Veniunt  in  memoriam  quotidie  quae  legi  ante  decem, 
viginti,  aut  etiam  triginta  annos.' 


CHA  RA  CTERISTIC.  483 

usu  contrivi/  His  advice  to  students  is59:  cEemember 
ihat  it  is  no  use  to  have  read  a  thing,  unless  you  retain 
it  in  your  memory.  Make  notes  therefore  of  everything 
you  read,  as  aids  to  memory.'  '  Practical  wisdom/  he 
says  again60,  'is  only  the  recollection  of  many  things/ 

The  '  Adversaria,'  then,  are,  for  the  most  part,  mere 
hints  for  his  own  use,  and  which  cannot  be  put  to  use, 
even  when  they  can  be  deciphered,  by  another 61.  Some 
aid  indeed  may  be  derived  from  them  by  the  biographer. 
Casaubon  occasionally  marks  upon  a  sheet  of  such 
scratchings  the  time  and  place  of  reading.  At  least  we 
can  get  from  them  an  insight  into  his  method  of  read- 
ing, and  the  sources  of  his  knowledge.  They  serve,  in 
these  respects,  to  supplement  the  diary.  In  the  '  Cas- 
auboniana'  all  these  personal  indications  are  wanting. 
Wolfs  object  not  being  biographical,  he  retrenched  all 
that  was  individual  and  local,  and  reduced  each  note  to 
its  literary  content.  For  these  reasons  the  '  Casauboni- 
ana'  cannot  rank  with  their  fellows,  and  will  not  be  read 
by  those  readers,  if  any  there  be  now,  who  .take -''delight 
in  the  Ana  of  the  i/th  century.  The  scholar,  however, 
who  may  take  the  pains  to  examine  these  disjointed  frag- 
ments, lying  there  massive  and  helpless,  like  the  boulders 
of  some  abraded  stratification,  will  at  least  recognise  the 
remains  of  a  stupendous  learning.  What  Goethe  said  62 

59  Adversaria,  torn.    16  :    '  Quicquid    legis   in    excerptorurn    libros 
referre   memineris.   haec   unica    ratio  labanti    memoriae    succurrendi. 
scitum  enim  illud  est,  Tantum  quisque  scit,  quantum  memoria  tenet.' 

60  Prsef.  in  Polyb. 

61  Wolf,  Casaubouiana,  p.  273  :  '  In  curis  Polybianis  ampla  seges  ob- 
servationum  exstat  .  .  .  sed  ita  plerumque  congestarum,  ut  nullus  fere 
observetur  ordo,  nonnulla  subindicentur  potius  quam  edisserantur! 

62  Goethe  to  Zelter.      Goethe's  observation  is  so  appropriate  to  the 
case  of  Casaubon,  that  I  give  the  whole  passage  below.  See  Appendix, 
note  D. 

I   i    2 


484  CHARACTERISTIC. 

of  Niebuhr,  is  here  true  of  Casaubon,  '  It  is  not  what  he 
tells  me,  but  how  he  tells  me  it,  that  I  care  for.  It  is 
the  deep  insight,  and  thorough  manner  of  the  man 
that  edifies/ 

Coleridge's  title  pages  would  fill  a  large  volume  ;  and 
'if  Herder's  powers  had  been  commensurate  with  his 
will,  all  other  authors  must  have  been  put  down63/  Of 
the  innumerable  treatises,  which  Casaubon  announces  as 
in  preparation,  few  traces  are  to  be  found  in  his  papers. 
When  some  subject  of  classical  antiquity  comes  up,  and 
he  says  he  is  going  to  publish  a  book  on  it,  and  that  he 
has  the  materials  by  him,  how  much  exists  in  his  memory, 
how  much  in  his  scattered  notes,  he  does  not  himself 
know.  To  accumulate  the  passages,  to  understand  them 
in  their  mutual  light,  to  arrange  them  in  some  sort  of 
order,  all  this  chiefly  in  his  memory — and  then  from  them 
to  write  his  diatribe — this  is  his  literary  method.  His 
schemes  of  this  kind,  unaccomplished,  are  here  enume- 
rated, but  the  list  is,  probably,  far  from  exhaustive  : — 

1.  A  second  volume  of  Exercitations  on  Baronius. 

2.  As   part  of  the   foregoing,    or   as    independent  treatises  : 
(i)  A   disputation   on    transubstantiation.     (2)  On  sacrifice    in 
the  Christian  church.     See  Exercitt.  pp.  503.  554. 

3.  Of  his  commentary  on  Polybius  he  habitually  spoke   as 
if  it  were  complete.     But,  beyond  the  small  fragment  printed 
at  Paris,    1617,  only  very  trifling  notes  towards  it  are  found 
among  his  papers,  from  which  Meric  drew  what  he  contributed 
to  Gronovius'  Polybius,  1670.     Cf.  Exercitt.  p.  564,  'in  laborio- 
sissimis  nostris  (ad  Polybium)  commentariis  accurate   earn   dic- 
tionem  interpretamur.' 

4.  On  the  shows  of  the  amphitheatre,  and  the  games  of  the 
circus. 

5.  De   magistratibus   romanis.      Of  this   project  Adversaria 
29  preserves  a  fragment. 

63  De  Quincey,  Works,  6.  117. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  485 

6.  Liber  de  re  critica.     To   this   project,   frequently  referred 
3  by  Casaubon,  belong  a  few  notes   hardly  to   be  deciphered 
n  Adversaria  23. 

7.  Commentarius    de    re    vestiaria.     This    was    planned    at 
jeneva  when   he  wanted   to   lecture    on   the   De   Pallio.     He 
illudes  to    it  repeatedly   as   finished ;    see  Animadvv.  in   Ath. 
13.  3,  '  qusesivimus  diligentissime  de  poetse  mente  in  nostris  De 
•e  vestiaria  commentariis ;  eo,  te,  lector,  rejicere  fas  et  jus  esto 

nobis.'     But  all  that    remains  of  it  is  some    '  collectanea  '   in 
Advers.  8  and   29.     Nor   is    there    reason   to  think    that   any 
more    was    ever    written   out,    as   Meric   says   he  had  only  a 
rudis  indigestaque  moles '  of  this  and  of  the  De  coloribus. 

8.  De  coloribus.     See  Animadvv.  in  Ath.  i.  47. 

9.  Peripateticse    discussiones.      See  Strab.    vit.    'quod  brevi, 
faciente  D.  O.  M.,  edemus,'  and  also  Diog.  Laert.  not.  5.  2. 

.TO.  Liber  de  proverbiis,  eph.  p.  751,  July  1610:  CI  resolved 
o-day  to  publish  shortly  a  book  on  proverbs,  together  with  a 
century  of  proverbs.' 

11.  On    the   method    of    reading   history.      He   intended   a 
reatise  on  this ;  he  discoursed  on  the  topic  as  preliminary  to  his 
ecture   on    Herodotus    in    1601,    and    notes    of  this    lecture, 
•aken  down  at  the  time,  are  in  Bibl.  nat.  anciens  fonds,  6252, 

and  cf.  Advers.  24. 

12.  Observationum    liber.     In    February   1583,   he   obtained 
a  licence  from  the  petit  conseil  to  print  a  book  under  this  title. 
Geneva  MSS.  registre  du  pet.  cons.  fo.  25.     It  never  appeared, 
[n  1598  he  is  resolving,  eph.  p.  112,  '  seriously  to  begin  to  cast 

what  I  have  observed  on  various  authors  into  a  book  of  "  commen- 
larii  observationum  variarum."  '  Notwithstanding  this  resolve 
duly  recorded  in  the  diary,  the  book  was  never  written. 

13.  An  edition  of  the  LXX.     See  ep.  186. 

14.  A  commentary  on  Homer.      See  Strabo,  comm.  13.  i,  he 
will  be  brief  in  his  notes  on  these  two  books  of  Strabo,  because 
le  is  preparing  shortly  to  publish  his  notes  on  Homer.    Nothing 
of  the  kind  is  found,  nor  is  there  reason  to  think  anything  was 
ever  written. 

15.  An  edition  of  yElianus  Tacticus.      See  Polyb.  prsef.  p.  61  : 
^Elianum   emendatum  et  observationibus    nostris   illustratum, 

deo  propitio,  vulgabimus/ 


486  OH  A  RA  CT ERISTIC. 

16.  A  fuller  edition  of  ^Eneas  Tacticus.     ^En.  Tact.  pref.  the 
present  hasty  edition  is  but  '  pignus  navandae  operse.' 

17.  An  edition  of  Josephus  ;  but  this  time  with  the  proviso, 
'  if  I  were  younger.'     Ep.   848.     He  had  begun,  at  Geneva,  a 
translation  of  the  Hebrew  Josephus  into  latin,  not  knowing,  at 
the  time,  that  it  had  been  already  done  by  Munster,  and  pub- 
lished at  Basel  1541.     He  had  got  into  the  2nd  book  before  dis- 
covering this.     Gronovius,  though  living  in  a  land  of  books,  it 
appears,  from  Burmann,  Syll.  2.  p.  571,  had  never  heard  of  the 
Hebrew  Josephus. 

1 8.  An  edition  of  Stephanus  of  Byzantium.     See  Ep.  4  and 
Colomies  Bibl.  choisie,  p.  66. 

19.  Notes  on  the  tragoedians.     See  Ep.  4:    c  Habeo  in  alios 
scriptores  grsecos,  prsesertim  tragicos,  parata  non  pauca.' 

20.  An  edition  of  Juvenal.     See  Ep.  523  :  '  Eum  poetam  gra- 
vissimum,  si  superi  annuerint,  accurate  recensebimus/ 

2 1 .  An  edition  of  Celsus.     See  Ep.  533  :  *  Concinnanda  editio, 
cujus  neminem  jure  pceniteat.' 

22.  Notes  on  Cicero,  Epistolae  ad  Atticum.     See  Ep.   184: 
'  Audebimus  et  nos  nostras  divinationes  publicare.' 

23.  An  Arabic  lexicon.     See  Eph.  p.  510,  epp.  511.  548. 

24.  Thesaurus.     State  Paper,  Domestic,  Jas.  i.  vol.  92.  no.  95. 
Savile  to  Carleton,  « The  Thesaurus  hee  mentions,  Mr.  Casaubon 
took  that  worke  out  of  my  handes  above  two  yeares  before  his 
death.'     I  find  no  other  allusion  to  any  such  project  by  Casaubon. 
Can  it  have  been  a  lexicon  to  Chrysostomi  Opera  for  which 
Adversaria  28  contains  a  few  notes? 

Of  all  these  schemes,  and  of  others  not  a  few,  hardly 
airy  traces  remain  among  the  papers,  because  hardly 
anything  was  ever  put  on  paper.  He  deceived  himself 
into  thinking  that  he  had  made  progress  in  writing, 
when  the  material  was  heaped  up  only  in  his  memory. 
He  got  at  last  the  habit  of  putting  by  any  topic  as 
it  came  up,  with  the  remark,  64'this  we  have  discussed 

64  See  Greg.  Nyss.  p.  8 1 :  '  De  quibus  alibi  adfatim.'  Scriptt.  hist, 
aug.  prsef.  p.  32.  Notse  in  Diog.  La.  5.  2  :  'De  his  nos  alias.' 


CHAR  A  CTERISTIC,  487 

at  length  elsewhere/  The  distinction  between  what 
he  had  read,  what  he  had  noted  down,  and  what  he 
had  printed,  became  obliterated  in  his  mind. 

Next  to  the  designed,  but  not  performed,  stands  the 
imperfectly  executed.  The  list  of  -Isaac  Casaubon's 
finished  works  contains  twenty-five  distinct  publica- 
tions, not  including  prefaces  to  the  books  of  others, 
or  second  editions  of  his  own  books.  Of  these  twenty- 
five,  however,  not  many  are  productions '  by  which  he 
would  have  chosen  to  be  judged.  Some  were  mere 
'juvenilia,'  others  imperfect  attempts,  which  he  was 
unwilling  to  acknowledge.  Of  the  first  class  were  the 
*  Notes  on  Diogenes  Laertius,'  the  '  Lectiones  Theo- 
criticse,'  even  in  their  enlarged  form  in  Commelin's 
edition  of  1596.  Of  the  Strabo  of  1587  he  says  he 
65 '  was  ashamed  to  own  the  parentage/  For  Aristotle 
he  did  little  more  than  correct  the  press,  for  the 
printers.  It  is  not  till  we  reach  the  Theophrastus, 
1592,  that  we  meet  with  Casaubons  characteristic 
merit — that  we  have  an  interpreter  speaking  from  the 
fulness  of  knowledge. 

Well  done,  or  ill  done,  or  half  done,  however,  Isaac 
Casaubon's  books  are  now  consigned  to  one  common 
oblivion.  They  are  written  in  latin,  and  scholar's 
latin  of  the  renaissance  is  a  peculiar  language,  ac- 
cessible to  a  very  circumscribed  public.  But  this  is 
not  all.  Even  for  this  circumscribed  public  of  scholars 
Casaubon's  books  have  but  a  secondary  value.  Phi- 
lology is  a  science,  not  a  fine  art ;  and  it  is  the  fate  of 
science  that  the  books,  in  which  it  is  consigned,  are 
in  a  constant  state  of  supersession.  A  work  of  liter- 
ature may  be  surpassed,  but  not  superseded.  The 

15  Ep.  1 1  :  '  Illud  opus  non  ut  partus  legitimus  ingenioli  nostri  sed 
ut  (Krp<op.a  eg<ifj.rjvov  liaberi  debet.'  Cf.  ep.  580. 


488  CHARACTERISTIC. 

interpreter  of  the  classics  works  for  his  own  age  only. 
He  is  the  medium  through  which  we  read  an  ancient 
book,  and  the  medium  must  be  in  the  language  and 
mode  of  our  own  day.  It  must  possess  all  the  latest 
improvements.  The  books  of  the  scholars  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  have,  therefore,  for 
us  little  more  than  an  historical  interest.  They 
will  be  visited  only  by  those  curious  enquirers,  who 
may  wish  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  history 
of  learning.  The  biographical  data  will  be  of  more 
interest  than  the  philological  matter.  Yet  as  history 
makes  itself  from  age  to  age,  the  oldest  names  must 
tend  to  recede  from  view.  We  cannot  afford  to  know 
all  about  everybody.  How  many  years  will  elapse 
before  another  reader  will  go  through,  as  the  present 
writer  has  done,  the  bulky  folio  of  Isaac  Casaubon's 
printed  epistles,  or  the  seven  volumes  of  unprinted 
answers  of  his  correspondents  in  the  Burney  collection  1 
The  present  imperfect  memorial  is  the  first  that  has 
ever  been  attempted  in  the  language  of  the  country 
which  adopted  and  endowed  him.  Till  an  abler  hand 
shall  erect  an  enduring  monument  in  a  modern  tongue, 
may  this  essay  be  at  least  'professione  pietatis  ex- 
cusatus ! ' 

But  Casaubon's  books,  whatever  their  worth,  were 
not  the  man.  The  scholar  is  greater  than  his  books. 
The  result  of  his  labours  is  not  so  many  thousand 
pages  in  folio,  but  himself.  The  *  Paradise  Lost'  is 
a  grand  poem,  but  how  much  grander  was  the  living 
soul  that  spoke  it !  Yet  poetry  is  much  more  of  the 
essence  of  the  soul,  is  more  nearly  a  transcript  of  the 
poet's  mind,  than  a  volume  of  'notes'  can  be  of  the 
scholar's  mind.  «it  has  been  often  said  of  philosophy 
that  it  is  not  a  doctrine  but  a  method.  No  philo- 


CHARACTERISTIC.  489 

;;ophical  systems,  as  put  upon  paper,  embody  philosophy. 
Philosophy  perishes  in  the  moment  you  would  teach  it. 
Knowledge  is  not  the  thing  known,  but  the  mental 
labit  which  knows.  So  it  is  with  Learning. 

Learning  is  a  peculiar  compound  of  memory,  imagi- 
nation, scientific  habit,  accurate  observation,  all  con- 
centrated, through  a  prolonged  period,  on  the  analysis 
of  the  remains  of  literature.  The  result  of  this  sus- 
tained mental  endeavour  is  not  a  book,  but  a  man. 
It  cannot  be  embodied  in  print,  it  consists  in  the  living 
word.  Such  was  Scaliger,  as  drawn  to  us  by  Cas- 
aubon66 :  'A  man  who,  by  the  indefatigable  devotion 
of  a  stupendous  genius  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
had  garnered  up  vast  stores  of  uncommon  lore.  And 
his  memory  had  such  a  happy  readiness,  that  whenever 
the  occasion  called  for  it,  whether  it  were  in  conversa- 
tion, or  whether  he  were  consulted  by  letter,  he  was 
ready  to  bestow  with  lavish  hand  what  had  been 
gathered  by  him  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow.'  True 
learning  does  not  consist  in  the  possession  of  a  stock 
of  facts — the  merit  of  a  dictionary — but  in  the  dis- 
cerning spirit,  a  power  of  appreciation,  'judicium'  as 
it  was  called  in  the  sixteenth  century — which  is  the 
result  of  the  possession  of  a  stock  of  facts.  Rare  as 
genius  is,  it  may  be  doubted  if  consummate  learning 
be  not  rarer.  A  few  such  men  there  have  been — 
Wyttenbach,  Ruhnken,  Bentley,  in  the  last  century, 

83  Casauboni  praef.  in  Opuscula  Scaligeri,  Paris,  1610:  'Is  erat 
Scaliger,  qui  stupenda  felicitate  ingenii,  et  assidua  intentione  studii, 
quum  esset  assecutus  ut  ingentes  rarse  doctrinse  opes  in  exprornpta  sua 
memoria,  velut  in  sanctiore  quodarn  serario,  haberet  reconditas  ;  ut 
quseque  sese  occasio  subito  offerebat,  sive  in  communibus  colloquiis, 
sive  ad  qusesita  per  literas  amicis  responderet,  liberali  manu  quicquid 
magno  sudore  qusesiverat,  promeret.' 


490       .  CHARACTERISTIC. 

Lobeck  in  the  present.  Such  a  man  was  Isaac  Cas- 
aubon.  It  is  a  treasure  which  we  can  only  possess  in 
*  earthen  vessels/  There  came  the  death  summons,  and 
at  fifty-six  all  those  stores  which  had  been  painfully 
gathered  by  the  daily  toil  of  forty  years  were  swept 
away,  and  nothing  left  but  some  lifeless  books,  which 
can  do  little  more  than  a  gravestone  can  do,  perpet- 
uate the  name — '  tot  congestos  noctes  diesque  labores 
hauserit  una  dies/ 

But,  besides  his  memory,  the  great  scholar  has  left 
us  his  example.  There  are  books,  and  very  useful 
books,  but  of  which  the  author  is  no  more  to  us,  than 
a  portion  of  the  machinery  which  put  them  into  type. 
The  many  thousand  pages  which  Isaac  Casaubon 
wrote  may  be  all  merged  in  the  undistinguished  mass 
of  classical  commentary,  and  yet  there  would  remain  to 
us  as  a  cherished  inheritance,  the  record  of  a  life  devoted 
to  learning. 

In  what  does  his  example  consist '?  It  is  the  one 
lesson  summed  up  in  the  epigram  that  '  genius  is 
patience/  What  is  often  called  '  genius '  was  wanting 
in  Casaubon.  His  want  of  genius  saved  him  from 
falling,  as  Scaliger  has  sometimes  done,  into  the  tempta- 
tion of  pursuing  the  striking  rather  than  the  true. 
What  Lobeck  has  said  of  himself  may  be  said  of  Casau- 
bon, that 67 '  he  has  never  aimed  at  brilliant  results,  but 
at  an  exposition,  as  nearly  complete  as  he  could  make 
it,  of  the  scattered  material/  Industry  was  Casauboii's 
genius.  Not  the  industry  of  the  pen,  but  the  industry 
of  the  brain. 

It  is  well  that  we  should  be  alive  to  the  price  at 
which  knowledge  must  be  purchased.  Day  by  day, 
night  by  night,  from  the  age  of  twenty  upwards,  Cas- 

67  Friedlander,  Mittheilungen,  p.  23. 


CHA  RACTERISTIC.  49 1 

aubon  is  at  his  books.  He  realised  Boeckh's  ideal  who 
has  told  us  that  in  classical  learning  '  dies  diem  docet, 
ut  perdideris  quam  sine  linea  transmiseris.'  When  he 
is  not  at  his  books,  his  mind  is  in  them.  Reading  is 
not  an  amusement,  filling  the  languid  pauses  between 
the  hours  of  action ;  it  is  the  one  pursuit  engrossing  all 
the  hours  and  the  whole  mind.  The  day,  with  part  of 
the  night  added,  is  not  long  enough. 

His  life,  regarded  from  the  exterior,  seems  adapted  to 
deter,  rather  than  to  invite  imitation.  A  life  of  hard- 
ship, in  circumstances  humble,  almost  sordid,  short  of 
want,  but  pinched  by  poverty  ;  Casaubon  renounced 
action,  pleasure,  ease,  society,  health,  life  itself — killing 
himself  at  fifty-six.  Shall  we  say  that  he  did  this  for 
the  sake  of  fame  ?  Fame  there  was,  but  it  reached  him 
in  but  faint  echoes.  Even  what  there  was,  was  all 
dashed  by  the  loud  slander  of  the  dominant  ecclesias- 
tical party,  and  the  whispered  suspicion  of  the  van- 
quished. At  best,  the  limits  of  such  fame  must  always 
be  circumscribed.  To  the  great,  the  fashionable,  the 
gay,  and  the  busy,  the  grammarian  is  a  poor  pedant, 
and  no  famous  man 68.  The  approbation  of  our  fellows 
may  be  a  powerful  motive  of  conduct.  It  is  powerful 
to  generate  devotion  to  their  service.  It  is  not  power- 
ful enough  to  sustain  a  life  of  research.  No  other  ex- 
trinsic motive  is  so.  The  one  only  motive  which  can 
support  the  daily  energy  called  for  in  the  solitary 
student's  life,  is  the  desire  to  know.  Every  intel- 
ligence, as  such,  contains  a  germ  of  curiosity.  In 

68  Cf.  the  Greville  Memoirs,  2.  8  :  '  At  one  there  was  to  be  a  council 
to  swear  in  privy  councillors  and  lords  lieutenant,  and  receive  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  addresses  ...  I  never  saw  so  full  a  Court,  so 
much  nobility  with  academical  tagrag  and  bobtail.' 


492  CHARACTERISTIC. 

some  few  this  appetence  is  developed  into  a  yearning, 
an  eagerness,  a  passion,  an  exigency,  an  '  inquietude 
poussante,'  to  use  an  expression  of  Leibnitz,  which 
dominates  all  others,  arid  becomes  the  rule  of  life 70. 

The  public  of  a  busy  age  and  an  industrial  com- 
munity has  quite  other  notions  of  a  literary  life.  It  is 
conceived  to  be  a  life  of  ease  ;  it  is  the  resource  of  the 
indolent,  who  would  escape  from  the  penalty  of  labour. 
An  arm  chair  and  slippers  before  a  good  fire,  and 
nothing  to  do  but  to  read  books.  This  is  the  epicurean 
existence,  the  '  nova  Atlantis  of  mediocrity  a  1'engrais,' 
which  we  call  academic  life.  Of  the  self-denial,  the 
unremitting  effort,  the  incessant  mental  tension,  the 
strain  to  touch  the  ever-receding  horizon  of  knowledge, 
the  fortitude  which 

'  Through  enduring  pain, 

Links  month  to  month,  with  long-drawn  chain 
Of  knitted  purport,' 

of  the  devotion  of  a  life,  the  modern  world  of  letters 
knows  nothing.  Our  literature  is  the  expression  of  the 
life  from  which  it  emanates.  It  bears  the  stamp  of 
half  knowledge.  It  is  the  dogmatism  of  the  smatterer. 
It  has  no  groundwork  in  science.  Its  employment  is 
to  enforce  the  chance  opinion  of  the  day  by  epigram 
and  sarcasm.  It  hates  and  ridicules  science.  It  dis- 
believes in  it.  As  Saint-Beuve  says71  of  De  Tocque- 
ville,  '  II  a  commence  a  penser  avant  d' avoir  rien  appris, 

70  Compare   Milton's   account   of    the   origin   of  'Paradise   Lost,' 
'  Reason  of  church,  gov.'  bk.  2;  introd  :  '  I  began  to  assent  to      ... 
divers  of  my  friends,  and  not  less  to  an  inward  prompting  which  now 
grew  daily  upon  me,  that  by  labour  and  intent  study,  which  I  take  to 
be  my  portion  in  this  life,  joined  with  the  strong  propensity  of  nature, 
I  might  perhaps  leave  something  so  written  to  after  times  as  they 
should  not  willingly  let  it  die.' 

71  Causeries,  15.  105,  note. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  493 

ce  qui  fait  qu'il  a  quelquefois  pense*  creux/  Why  is  it 
that  the  modern  man  of  science  stands  on  a  higher 
level,  moral  and  intellectual,  than  the  modern  man  of 
letters  ?  It  is  not  owing  to  any  superior  value  in  the 
>bject  of  knowledge,  but  because  the  physicist  is  pene- 

ited  by  the  spirit  of  thorough  research,  from  which 
our  literature  is  entirely  divorced. 

Schiller  says 72,  '  However  much  may  be  gained  for 
the  world  as  a  whole  by  the  specialisation  of  study,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  individuals  whom  it  befals 
are  cursed  for  the  benefit  of  the  world/  Was  not  this 
Casaubon  s  case  1  The  diary  is  a  complaint,  a  groan, 
a  record  of  unhappiness.  But  more  closely  looked  into, 
it  will  be  found  that  all  this  misery  is  derived  not  from 
the  scholar's  life,  but  from  the  impediments  to  leading- 
it  which  external  circumstances  create.  If  he  could 
only  get  rid  of  cares,  expel  intruders,  shut  the  door  of 
his  study,  and  get  his  time  to  himself! — time,  'cujus 
penuria  laboro  ! '  That  fatal  want  of  time  ;  the  short- 
ness of  each  day !  the  shortness  of  life !  This  is  the 
true  scientific  spirit,  and  was  the  temper  which  tradition 
handed  down  as  the  temper  of  the  greek  philosophy 73. 
We  find  no  complaint  in  the  diary  of  the  weariness  of 
study,  but  much  of  those  unkind  friends  who  broke 
in  upon  study.  It  is  not  the  search  for  truth  which 
exhausts  him,  it  is  the  being  called  off  from  it.  The 
worry  and  irritation  of  which  the  diary  is  the  sad 
record  arises  not  from  the  pursuit  itself,  but  from  the 
impeded  energy.  He  chafes  under  the  inflictions  of 
visitors,  and  the  distractions  of  business.  This  resist- 
ance of  the  invasion  of  his  workshop  was  not  shyness, 

72  ^Esthetische  Briefe,  Br.  6. 

73  Cf.  Zeno's  saying,  Diog.  Laert.  7.  23,  that  'what  men  most  want 
is  time.' 


494  CHARACTERISTIC. 

or  defective  sociability.  Of  course  it  was  ascribed  to 
these  weaknesses.  We  read  in  the  life  of  Wyttenbach 74 
that  he  was  charged  with  misanthropy  by  '  society '  in 
Leyden.  On  hearing  of  this  accusation,  Creuzer  wrote 
to  him  ;  '  I  know  well  what  this  indictment  means.  It 
means  that  you  allow  yourself  only  with  the  learned, 
and  do  not  give  up  your  time  to  the  gossips.  A  man 
cannot  live  with  these  and  with  the  muses  too/ 

When  Casaubon  is  in  his  studies,  and  has  made  his 
orisons,  shut  up  alone  with  God  and  with  his  books, 
then  he  is  in  fruition.  He  tells  Lingelsheim 75,  '  All  my 
joys  and  delights  are  in  my  pursuits  of  literature,  such 
as  they  are.  With  them  I  sweeten  the  bitter  of  life/ 
Writing  is  an  effort,  mixed  with  pain.  Teaching — 
he  did  not,  like  Scaliger,  abhor  it — was  no  pleasure. 
But  of  reading  he  was  insatiable.  The  compiler's  task 
fatigues  Casaubon,  as  it  does  others.  Of  imbibing 
knowledge  he  never  tires.  The  enjoyment  is,  in  part, 
the  intellectual  gratification  of  mere  acquisition;  the 
sense  of  the  widening  horizon,  of  the  mastery  of  a 
given  field,  of  the  entering  into  complete  possession. 
He  writes76,  set.  37,  *  Long  ago,  inflamed  with  the  ardour 
of  learning,  I  eagerly  procured  for  myself  the  scholia 
on  all  the  poets,  on  the  epigrammata,  on  Oppian/  De 
Maistre  contemptuously  describes  his  man  of  science 77, 
as  pale  with  watching,  blotched  with  ink,  his  arms 

74  Mahne,  p.  206  :  '  Quod  nonmilli  mussitant  subinde  "  paucorum  te 
esse  hominum,"  illud  earn  vim  habet,  doctiorum  te  esse,  non  otioso- 
rum,  non  male  feriatorum,  non  vulgi.  quorum  qui  esse  velit,  is  non 
potest  musarum  esse.' 

75  Ep.  408 :  '  In  literulis  nostris  omnes  nobis  posits  sunt  voluptates 
atque  amrenitates  quibus  serumnosse  liujus  vitse  ra  iriKpa  edulcamus.' 

76  Lectiones  Theocriticse,  p.   63.     The  passage  is  one  of  the  large 
additions  to  the  2d.  ed.  of  1596. 

77  Soire'es  de  Sainct  Pe'tersbourg,  i.  95. 


CHAR  A  CTERISTIC.  495 

led  with  books  and  instruments,  dragging  himself 
;ilong  the  highway  of  truth.  De  Maistre  belonged  to  a 
generation,  or  a  class,  to  whom  the  sweetness  that  is 
::bund  in  learning  was  unknown.  Casaubon  had  tasted 
It ;  but  what  was  peculiar  to  him  was  that  he  carried 
on  into  middle  life  the  appetite  of  youth,  the  passionate 
desire  to  exhaust  knowledge. 

But  his  gratification  has  also  another  source.  What 
he  reads  delights  him.  Prosaic  as  Isaac  Casaubon' s 
own  style  is,  he  is  not  wholly  without  a  sense  of 
poetry.  The  twenty-seventh  poem  of  the  Theocritean 
collection  draws  from  him  the  confession  '  mellitissimum 
carmen/  He  derives  pleasure  from  Nonnus.  But  his 
preference  is  for  the  practical  sense  of  such  authors  as 
Strabo  and  Polybius.  Greek  speculation  was  wholly 
closed  to  him.  His  idea  of  philosophy  is  that  political 
philosophy  may  be  learned  from  history,  and  ethical 
from  biography 78.  He  appreciates  maxims  of  common 
life  such  as  were  to  be  met  with  in  the  stoic  school. 
He  believes,  with  his  age,  or  rather  with  the  3rd 
century,  that  Greek  philosophy  was  the  relic  of  a 
primaBval  revelation 79.  Athenseus,  on  which  he  spent 
so  much  time,  he  found  tiresome  owing  to  the  absence 
of  ethical  motive  in  the  book.  Casaubon' s  want  of 
classical  feeling  limited  his  pleasure  in  the  pure  classical 
writers.  The  higher  accents  of  Greek  poetry  and  specula- 
tion he  could  not  catch.  What  stirs  his  soul  is  Christian 
greek,  e.  g.  S.  Chrysostom,  whose  *  Epistola  ad  Stagi- 
rium '  excites  him  to  rapture 80.  Of  the  canonical  books, 
the  hebrew  psalter  is  a  constant  companion,  and  never 


70 


Hist.  Aug.  Scriptores,  praef. 

Exercitt.  in  Bar.  p.  507  :  *  Si  philosophi  quidem,  ex  primsevse 
lucis  reliquiis,  balbutire  de  istis  aliquid  fortasse  potuerunt.' 
80  Eph.  1055  :  '  0  divinos  libros  1  o  pectus  del  plenum  ! ' 


496  CHARA  CT ERISTIC. 

fails  to  move  him.  It  was  the  only  book  he  had81 
brought  with  him  to  England,  having  thrown  it  casually 
into  his  travelling-bag.  He  carried  it  with  him  every- 
where, and  he  records  that  at  Downham,  in  the  thicket, 
he  had  read  over  the  upth  psalm  with  effusion.  He  is 
carried  away  by  the  enthusiasm  of  S.  Paul.  Reading 
2  Cor.  4.  17,  '  Our  light  affliction/  etc.  he  exclaims82, 
*  Divine  words !  Paul  of  all  writers  I  could  think 
wrote  not  with  fingers,  pen  and  ink,  but  with  pure 
emotion,  heart,  bowels!  Take  any  epistle  of  Paul, 
e.  g.  that  to  the  Philippians,  and  dwell  upon  it ;  what 
glorious  passages,  what  glowing  vehemence  of  lan- 
guage !'  With  what  attention  he  had  read  S.  Chryso- 
stom,  voluminous  as  his  writings  are,  may  be  instanced 
in  his  saying83,  '  Unless  my  memory  deceives  me, 
Chrysostom,  in  his  genuine  works,  never  refers  the 
expression  "  daily  bread,"  in  the  Lord's  prayer,  to  the 
eucharist.'  It  is  almost  a  paradox  that  this  most 
successful  and  most  thorough  interpreter  of  the 
classics,  should  have  been  a  man  who  was  totally 
destitute  of  sympathy  for  their  human  and  naturalistic 
element. 

The  habitual  attitude  of  Casaubon's  soul  was  aban- 
donment ;  not  merely  resignation,  but  prostration 
before  the  Unseen.  He  moved,  thought,  and  felt,  as 
in  the  presence  of  God.  His  family  and  friends  lay 
near  to  his  heart,  but  nearer  than  all  is  God.  In  all 
his  thoughts  the  thought  of  God  is  subsumed.  He 

81  Advers.  25.  p.  125:  '  Unicum  fuit  psalterium,  quod  in  peram 
projicerem,  futurum  mihi  assiduum  comitem/ 

82  Advers.  ap.  "Wolf,  p.    135:  'Ille  solus  ex  omnibus  scriptoribus 
non  mihi  videtur  digitis,  calamo,  et  atramento  scripsisse,  verum  ipso 
corde,  ipso  affectu,  et  denudatis  visceribus.' 

83  Exercitt.  in  Bar.  p.  531. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  497 

hardly  puts  pen  to  paper  without  marking  the  sheet 
ffvv  flew84.  A  calvinistic  creed,  and  a  shattered  organ- 
ism, combined  to  foster  this  dejection,  and  to  main- 
tain him  in  a  state  of  habitual  despondency.  Yet  for 
Casaubon,  as  for  the  huguenot  of  that  time  of  re- 
buke and  defeat,  out  of  weakness  came  strength. 
The  confidence,  inspired  by  the  sense  that  he  was 
the  special  care  of  almighty  providence,  balanced 
the  self-abasement  of  the  individual.  The  phy- 
sician Thoris85  remarked  that  the  mind  had  sus- 
tained the  body.  The  sustaining  force  was  in  part 
intellectual  energy,  but  in  part,  also,  the  courage  of 
Christian  faith  and  hope,  which  relies  on  a  power 
above  its  own. 

In  such  a  temperament  superstitious  beliefs  were 
sure  to  lodge.  Yet  Isaac  Casaubon  was  not  more, 
but  rather  less,  superstitious  than  his  age.  He 
swallows  the  alchemical  fiction  of  'potable  gold86,' 
though  his  countryman  Palissy  had  long  before87  ex- 
posed it.  All  belief  is  with  him  a  question  of  autho- 
rity, and  books.  If  a  great  author  has  said  a  thing, 
it  is  so.  He  believes88  that  earth  brought  from  Pales- 

o 

tine  cured  diseases,  and  availed  against  evil  spirits, 
because  S.  Augustine  said  so.  That  women  were 
sometimes  turned  into  men  he  reads89  in  Hippocrates 

84  Greg.  Nyssen.  p.  60,  he  notes  :  '  Mos  ille  piorum  fuit  laude  clig- 
nissimus,  ut  epistolis  suis  domini  nomen  prseponerent.' 

85  See  above,  p.  474. 

86  Eph.  p.  978. 

87  Palissy,  Le  moyen  de  devenir  riche,  p.  186.  ed.  1636. 

88  Exercitt.  in  Bar.  p.   660:   'Hoc,  quia  tantse   pietatis  vir,  non  ut 
ex  incertis  rumoribus  acceptum,  sed  ut  certo  sibi  compertum,  narrat, 
verum  esse  equidem  nullus  dubito.' 

89  Advers.  torn.  4. 

K  k 


498  CHAR  A  CT ERISTIC. 

and  Plinius,  and  has  heard  of  instances  in  our  times90. 
But  stories  equally  well  vouched  by  Gregory  of  Tours, 
or  by  Beda,  he  rejects.  The  authority  is  insufficient. 
Robert  Constantine  wrote  in  a  friend's  album  that  he 
had  then  passed  his  hundredth  year.  Casaubon91  will 
not  believe  it ;  he  is  *  taking  the  old  man's  licence  with 
his  age/  He  hesitates  to  give  his  assent  to  the  efficacy 
of  the  royal  touch92.  It  is  vouched  by  grave  witnesses, 
but  not  by  any  ancient  author.  A  prodigy  well  authen- 
ticated is  related  to  him  *,  as  having  happened  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  he  replies,  very  cautiously,  '  that  if  it  were  so, 
it  would  be  very  marvellous/  He  scorns 93  the  fable  of 
pigmies,  though  their  existence  was  vouched  by  an 
eyewitness.  But  then  here  he  relied  upon  Strabo, 
who  had  in  excellent  greek  pronounced  pigmies  to  be 
poetic  fictions. 

We  have  represented  Casaubon  as  destitute  of  ima- 
gination. He  was  without  what  is  commonly  called  so — 
the  inventive  imagination  of  the  poet,  that  dangerous 
faculty  which  enlivens  fact,  but  too  often  also  super- 
sedes it.  But  his  realistic  habit  of  mind  took  from 
objects  a  vivid  image;  he  was  a  close  and  keen  ob- 
server, always  trying  to  form  an  exact  picture.  He  was 
particularly  attracted  by  the  marvellous  in  nature — 
monstrosities,  deformities,  oddities.  He  had  collected 
out  of  the  ancients  all  the  wonders  he  had  met  with 

90  Bishop    Burnet,  Letters,    etc.    p.   246,  believed  that   the   same 
transformation  had  happened  to  two  nuns  at  Home. 

91  Advers.  torn.  4.  f.  23. 

92  Eph.  p.   790:  'Res  est  visa  dignissima,  et  cujus  effectum  viri 
graves  et  pii  prsedicant.' 

*  See  Appendix,  note  C. 

93  Comm.  in  Strabon,  p.  189  :   '  Legi  Bergsei  cujusdam  Galli  scripta, 
qui  se  vidisse  diceret.  at  non  ego  credulus  illi ;  illi,  inquam,  omnium 
bipedum  mendacissimo.' 


CHARACTERISTIC.  499 

in  the  course  of  his  reading.  Spontaneous  combustion, 
flying,  levitation,  conjuring  tricks,  enter  into  this  cata- 
logue. It  is  quite  in  the  spirit  of  Ulysse  Aldrovandi, 
whose  works,  although  many  of  them  were  already 
in  print,  were  unknown  to  Casaubon ;  and  the  scholar 
is  of  less  easy  credulity  than  the  naturalist  by  pro- 
fession. Casaubon  had  read  with  care  and  extracted94 
Fernelius  '  De  abditis  rerum  causis/  His  copy  of 
Bodin's  '  Theatrum'95  bears  throughout  marks  of  the 
attention  with  which  he  had  read  it.  Among  the 
matters  noted  in  it  are  (p.  391)  the  birth  of  a  child 
after  eighteen  months'  pregnancy ;  (p.  429)  the  breast 
of  an  old  woman  which  yielded  milk  upon  being  per- 
se veringly  sucked.  The  court  and  ecclesiastical  circles 
occupied  themselves  much  with  wonders  such  as  would 
now  be  abandoned  to  the  speculation  of  the  unedu- 
cated. Morton  writes  to  him  that  a  comet  has  risen  in 
France,  portending  evil  to  the  protestants96.  Andre wes 
tells  him97  a  story  of  a  man  in  Lombard  Street  who,  in 
the  year  1563,  had  died  of  the  plague,  came  to  life 
again  sufficiently  to  order  and  eat  a  veal  cutlet,  and  then 
died  for  good.  Another  marvel,  repeated  by  Andrewes, 
had  been  told  him  by  Still,  late  bishop  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  how  that  after  a  thunderstorm  at  Wells,  the 
persons  present  in  the  cathedral,  including  the  bishop 
and  his  wife,  had  found  themselves  marked  in  various 
parts  of  the  body  with  crosses98.  Casaubon  suspends 
his  belief;  he  does  not,  like  Laud,  look  timidly  round 
for  omens,  but  these  things  interest  him.  He  who 


94  Adversaria,  torn.  1 1 . 

95  Now  in  King's  library,  Brit.  Mus. 
86  Burney  MSS.  367.  p.  87. 

97  Advers.  torn.  25.  p.  115.  98  Ibid.  torn.  28.  p.  125. 

K   k    2 


500  CHA  RA  CTEEISTIC. 

pares  down  his  memoranda  to  the  briefest  possible 
jottings,  spares  the  time  to  write  out  these  narratives 
of  prodigies  at  full  length. 

Apart  from  the  marvellous,  he  would  inquire  into  and 
investigate  any  striking  natural  facts.  The  curiosity 
he  exhibited  in  this  direction  is  further  evidence  of  his 
craving  appetite  for  information,  without  reference  to 
any  use  it  might  be  turned  to.  He  examined  a  Polish 
envoy1,  whom  he  met  at  Theobald's,  on  the  natural 
history  of  Poland,  how  a  strong  north  wind  had  once 
covered  the  country  with  flights  of  the  pelican.  He 
makes  a  descriptive  note  of  the  ounce2  which  the 
Savoy  envoy  brought  from  Algiers.  He  had  spoken 
with  the  horned  man  from  the  Cevennes,  who  was 
brought  to  Paris  in  Henri  iv/s  time,  and  learned  his 
history  from  his  own  mouth.  Thus  he  knew3  that 
horned  men  were  possible,  but  men  with  hoofs  (Satyrs) 
were  the  creation  of  the  poets.  He  goes,  of  course, 
to  see  Banks'  horse.  Banks  was  in  Paris  with  his 
horse  in  1601.  From  his  name,  Morocco,  one  would 
conjecture  that  the  horse  was  Arab,  though  Melleray4 
calls  him  *  a  bay  english  gelding/  Casaubon  went  to 
the  Rue  de  la  barre  du  bee  to  see  him,  and  took  much 
pains  to  investigate  the  phaenomenoii.  He  cannot 
doubt  that  'brutes  are  sometimes  inhabited  by  evil 

1  Advers.  torn.  28.  p.  124.     The  word  used  by  Casaubon  Js  <ono- 
crotalus.'     He  means,  I  suppose,  the  common  pelican,  Pelecanus  ono- 
crotalus,  Linn.,  a  species  which,  though  pretty  widely  distributed  over 
eastern  Europe,  hardly  occurs  so  far  north  as  the  Baltic. 

2  ' Cattopardus '    Casaubon   calls    it;    I   suppose    Tigris    uncia   of 
Linnaeus. 

3  De  Satyrica  poesi,  i.  c.  2.  p.  148. 

4  Apuleius,  p.  250:   'Le  cheval  est  de  moyenne  taille,  guilledin 
d'Angleterre.' 


CHARACTERISTIC.  501 

spirits5/  yet  in  this  instance  he  elicited  the  secret 
of  the  horse  from  the  showman's  own  confession. 
The  readiness  with  which  the  scotch  jockey — vir 
honestissimus — parted  with  his  secret  to  Casaubon 
may  have  been  occasioned  by  his  fear  of  being  con- 
demned for  a  wizard  if  he  affected  supernatural 
powers.  And  the  natural  docility  of  the  animal  was 
quite  as  wonderful  as  a  miracle6.  He  is  always 
pleased  when  he  can  illustrate  his  author  with  some 
fact  which  he  has  observed  himself.  So  in  Athenasus, 
Hiero's  tesselated  pavement7  with  scenes  from  the 
Iliad,  reminds  him  of  the  gallery  at  Fontainebleau  which 
Francis  I.  had  painted  with  scenes  from  the  Odyssey. 
Such  illustrations,  of  which  traces  still  appear  in  his 
commentaries,  had  originally  served  to  enliven  an  oral 
lecture.  Apropos  of  a  passage 8  in  Theophrastus,  he  re- 
members that  -the  same  fashion  of  pouring  the  wine 
into  the  water,  and  not  the  water  upon  the  wine,  still 
prevails  in  Languedoc.  He  illustrates  the  '  lapidosa 
cheragra'  of  Persius 9  by  mention  of  a  case,  probably 


5  Adversaria,  ap.  Wolf,  p.  55,  cf.  '  Letter  to  Martin,'  London,  1615. 

6  Eph.  p.  325 :  '  Quod  potuimus  praestitimus  (i.  e.  in  study)  sed  ita 
ut  horam  daremus  spectaculo  illius  equi  Scotici  mirabilis.'     It  is  the 
'dancing-horse'  of  'Love's  Labour's  Lost/  act  i.  sc.  2.     Cf.  Hall, 
Satires,  4.   2  :  'Who  vies   his  pence  to  view  some  trick  Of  strange 
Morocco's  dumb  arithmetic.'     Whitelock's  Zootomia,  p.  143;  Webster, 
Works,  3.  207.     Other  passages  are  collected  by  Douce,  Illustrations 
of  Shakespeare,  p.  131. 

7  Animadverss.  in  Athen.  5.  10,  and  i.  14.   Fifty-eight  paintings  of 
the  adventures  of  Ulysses,  designed  by  Primaticcio,  were  executed  in 
fresco  by  Nicolo  del'  Abate,  right  and  left,  on  the  walls  of  '  la  grande 
galerie.'     This   gallery,  built    and    thus  adorned  by  Francis  i,  was 
pulled  down  by  Louis  xv,  who  could  destroy  what  he  could  not  replace. 
See  d'Argenville,  Vie  des  peintres,  2.  16  (1782). 

8  Animadverss.  in  Ath.  n.  4.  9  Comm.  in  Pers.  p.  392. 


502  CHA  RACTERISTIC. 

familiar  to  the  medical  students,  of  a  gouty  patient 
in  the  neighbourhood,  who  had  discharged  from  his 
joints  more  than  his  own  weight  in  chalk  stones. 
The  use  of  dogs  to  carry  despatches  through  the 
enemy's  lines ;  the  checked  plaids  of  the  swiss  pea- 
santry ;  the  Spanish  almonds  he  had  seen  at  Lyons ; 
the  practice  of  fixing  the  antlers  of  the  deer  over  the 
gates  of  the  chateau — these  are  a  few  among  many 
examples,  which  might  be  culled  from  his  various 
notes,  of  his  general  remark 10  that  every  day  life  is 
constantly  reproducing  its  old  incident. 

When  credulity  is  allowed  scope,  intolerance  is  not 
far  off.  Isaac  Casaubon,  who  differed  from  the  re- 
ligion of  his  contemporaries,  could  not  endure  that  a 
smaller  minority  should  deviate  from  his  own  creed. 
He  takes  credit  with  Du  Perron11  for  James'  inter- 
position in  the  matter  of  Vorstius.  He  thioks  the  Eaco- 
viari  catechism  so  detestable  that  he  would  annihilate 
it 12.  He  would  have  had  Stapleton's  body  dug  up  and 
burnt13,  for  some  extravagant  expressions  about  the 
power  of  the  church.  Worst  of  all,  the  burning  of 
Legatt,  the  feeble  imitation  by  the  english  church  of 
the  great  crime  of  Calvin,  had — would  that  it  had 
*not — Casaubon' s  approval  14. 

Nothing  is  more  common  in   his  later   years   than 

10  ^En.  Tact.  c.    15  :  'Vita  quotidiana  nova    subinde    suggerit,   iis 
quse  olim  acciderunt  plane  gemina.  vidimus  et  nos  Allobrogico  bello,' 
etc. 

11  Resp.  ad  card.  Perron,  p.  5.  12  Eph.  p.  963. 

13  Advers.  ap.  Wolf,  p.  49. 

14  Exercitt.  in  Bar.  ded.  :   '  Arriaimm  in  sua  perfidia  obstinatissi- 
mum,  qui  in  viuculis  diu  detentus,  revocari  ad  sanam  mentem  nulla 
ratione  potuerat,   flammis   ultricibus  tua  majestas,  impatiens  injuries 
factee  domino  nustro  Jesu  Cliristo,  Deo  a/mW<w,  jussit  tradi.' 


CHARACTERISTIC.  503 

the  epithets  e  wicked/  '  impious,'  '  blasphemous,'  be- 
stowed not  on  conduct,  but  on  opinions.  As  the 
ecclesiastical  spirit  gains  on  him,  it  invades  his  judicial 
function  as  an  interpreter.  Once  or  twice  he  shows  a 
disposition  to  twist  the  sense  of  a  passage  in  a  father 
to  make  it  orthodox.  The  theory  of  verbal  inspiration 
comes  across  his  path  on  the  same  ground.  The  hebrew 
and  greek  of  the  canonical  books,  both  words  and 
matter,  are  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  suggested 
to  the  writers  what  they  should  say,  and  in  what 
words 15.  The  word  ^arroXoydv,  though  not  the  actual 
word  employed  by  our  Lord,  who  spoke  syriac,  is  yet 
the  exact  equivalent  supplied  by  the  Holy  Spirit 16.  At 
this  point  the  critic  merges  in  the  religionist,  and  he 
refuses  to  apply  the  knowledge  which  he  possesses  to 
the  purpose  of  interpretation. 

Casaubon's  attitude  towards  the  religious  parties  of 
his  time  has  been  touched  upon  already,  more  than 
once,  in  the  course  of  this  memoir.  What  has  been 
said  may  be  summarised  as  follows. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  his  Paris  period,  he  had  re- 
mained, what  he  had  been  brought  up,  a  pure 
Genevan  calvinist.  This  old  huguenot  party,  thorough 
believers  in  their  own  creed  as  exclusively  true, 
were  for  no  compromise  with  the  papal  anti-christ. 
About  1605  and  thenceforward,  his  exclusiveness 
began  to  give  way.  Commerce  w7ith  the  world  of 
a  capital,  conflict  with  rational  catholics,  and  an  as- 
siduous study  of  antiquity,  could  not  fail  to  enlarge 
his  ideas,  and  necessitate  a  change  of  position.  It  is 
highly  probable  that  while  this  change  of  front  was 
being  effected,  he  '  wavered/  and  thought  of  trans- 
ferring himself  to  the  catholic  church,  of  becoming, 

15  Exercitt.  in  Bar.  13.  18.  1G  Ibid,  14.  8. 


504  CHARACTERISTIC. 

simply  and  purely,  a  convert.  But  after  a  short 
period  of  irresolution,  during  which  he  was  feeling 
his  way,  mentally  and  morally,  he  settled  down  in 
the  attitude  which  we  may  call  fusionist.  This  was 
the  position  of  many  of  the  best  and  most  well-in- 
formed protestants  of  that  period,  Grotius,  Calixtus, 
Jean  Hotman,  Bongars.  Unable  to  acquiesce  in  the 
narrow  dogmatism  of  the  calvinists,  or  to  surrender 
the  world  to  the  domination  of  the  clergy,  these 
men  proposed  a  middle  term,  a  reunion  of  Christen- 
dom on  the  basis  of  a  comprehension.  They  re- 
garded the  Reformation,  not  as  a  new  religion,  but 
as  a  return  to  primitive  Christianity.  They  desired 
to  promote,  not  protestantism,  but  a  religious  revival, 
in  which  all  Christians  should  participate  without 
quitting  the  communion  of  the  church  universal.  The 
politicians,  like  Hotman  and  Bongars,  aimed  at  bring- 
ing this  about  by  diplomatic  means.  They  wanted 
a  general  council.  The  more  learned,  like  Casaubon, 
sought  the  same  end  by  popularising  a  knowledge  of 
antiquity.  All  parties  understood  that  the  edict  of 
Nantes  was  no  settlement,  that  it  was  but  a  truce,  which 
was  being  worked  for  the  benefit  of  the  stronger  party, 
by  the  system  of  gradual  encroachment. 

Such  seem  to  be  the  special  characteristics  of  Isaac 
Casaubon.  Something  remains  to  be  said  to  indicate 
his  position  in  relation  to  the  general  course  of  ancient 
learning  in  modern  Europe. 

De  Quincey17  has  endorsed  the  complaint  that  'the 
great  scholars  were  poor  as  thinkers/  De  Quincey 
wrote  at  a  time  when  'original  thinking'  was  much 

17  Works,  3.  1 68. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  505 

i  repute,  and  was  indeed  himself  one   of  the  genial 
ace  to  whom  al]  is  revealed  in  a  moment,  in  visions 
•f  the   night.     To   break   entirely   with  the   past,  to 
>we   nothing    to   it,    was    then   the    ambition   of   all. 
\.  freshness  and  vigour  characterise   the    english  and 
german     literature    of    the     fifty    years     1780-1830, 
which  are  due  to  this  effort  to  discard  the  lumber  of 
unenlightened'  ages.     The  *  scholars'  of  the  sixteenth 
century   were    engaged   in   an   employment   the   very 
opposite  of  that  of  the  '  genialities/     The  scholars  were 
not  '  poor  as  thinkers,'  because  thinking  was  not  their 
profession.      They   were   busy   interpreting   the   past. 
The  fifteenth  century  had  rediscovered  antiquity,  the 
sixteenth  was   slowly  deciphering  it.     For  this   task, 
memory,  not   invention,  was   the   faculty  in   demand. 
These  two  are18  faculties  which  are  usually  found  in 
nverse  energy  in  an  age  as   in  an  individual.     It  is 
no   more    appropriate    to    require   of  the   interpreters 
;hat  they  should  have  been  thinkers,  than  to  require 
of  the  '  illuminati'  that  they  should  have  been  learned, 
to  a  De  Quincey  the  scholar  is  a  '  poor  thinker,'  to 
a  Wyttenbach19  the  'thinker'  wears  the  appearance  of 
one  who  *  would  disguise,  his  ignorance  of  facts  under 
the  polished  surface  of  philosophical  phraseology.'     Nor 
was  it  only  in  the  age  of  genius  that  it  was  supposed 

18  Cf.  what  Priestley  says  of  himself,  Autobiography,  p.  76:  'My 
defect  in  point  of  recollection,  which  may  be  owing  to  a  want  of  suf- 

icient  coherence  in  the  association  of  ideas  formerly  impressed,  may 
arise  from  a  sort  of  constitution  more  favourable  to  new  associations  ; 
so  that  what  I  have  lost  with  respect  to  memory,  may  have  been  com- 

>ensated  by  what  is  called  invention,  or  new  and  original  combinations 
of  ideas.  This  is  a  subject  that  deserves  attention.' 

19  Wyttenbach,  Philomathia,   2.   145:    '  Nunc  sunt  qui  in  historia 
scribenda  nil  nisi  disserant  ac  ratiocinentur,  et  rerum  gestarum  igno- 
rantiam  philosophando  dissimulent? 


506  CHAR  A  CT ERISTIC. 

desirable  to  be  without  knowledge  of  what  has  been 
said  by  those  who  have  gone  before  us.  M.  Taine20 
has  a  remarkable  chapter  in  which  french  hatred  of 
1  pedantry'  is  erected  into  a  system.  Victor  Cousin 
is  rallied  for  his  taste  for  original  documents,  and  it 
is  made  a  serious  blemish  in  his  fame,  that  he  pre- 
ferred to  write  biography  from  textual  sources,  instead 
of  superseding  the  facts  by  a  statement  of  his  own 
subjective  consciousness. 

Though  it  is  out  of  place  to  complain  of  Casaubon 
for  being  '  a  poor  thinker,'  it  is  proper  to  ask  how  far 
he  was  an  efficient  interpreter. 

'  The  modest  industry  of  Casaubon/  says  Bernhardy31, 
'  was  the  complement  of  the  genius  of  Scaliger.  Cas- 
aubon was  the  first  to  popularise  a  connected  know- 
ledge of  the  life  and  manners  of  the  ancients.'  This 
was  all ;  but  fully  to  apprehend  Bernhardy's  words 
demands  some  acquaintance  with  the  previous  history 
of  classical  study. 

The  Eenaissance  had  dealt  with  antiquity,  not  in 
the  spirit  of  learned  research,  but  in  the  spirit  of  free 
creative  imitation.  In  the  fifteenth  century  was  re- 
vealed to  a  world,  which  had  hitherto  been  trained 
to  logical  analysis,  the  beauty  of  literary  form.  The 
conception  of  style  or  finished  expression  had  died 
out  with  the  pagan  schools  of  rhetoric.  It  was  not 
the  despotic  act  of  Justinian,  in  closing  the  schools  of 
Athens,  which  had  suppressed  it.  The  sense  of  art 
in  language  decayed  from  the  same  general  causes 

20  Philosophes  fran5ois,  ch.  8.  It  is  said  of  Mezeray,  who  wrote 
the  history  of  France  from  Pharamond,  that  he  once  boasted,  and  that 
in  the  presence  of  Du  Gauge,  that  '  he  never  read  any  of  the  monkish 
chronicles.' 

n  Grundriss  d.  romischen  Lit.  p.  120. 


CHA  RA  CT ERISTIC.  507 

had  been  fatal  to  all  artistic  perception. 
Banished  from  the  roman  empire  in  the  sixth 
3entury,  or  earlier,  the  classical  conception  of  beauty 
of  form  re-entered  the  circle  of  ideas  again  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  after  nearly  a  thousand  years  of 
oblivion  and  abeyance.  Cicero  and  Vergil,  Livius 
and  Ovid,  had  been  there  all  along,  but  the  idea  of 
composite  harmony,  on  which  their  works  were  con- 
structed, was  wanting.  The  restored  conception,  as 
if  to  recoup  itself  for  its  long  suppression,  took  entire 
possession  of  the  mind  of  educated  Europe.  The  first 
period  of  the  renaissance  passed  in  adoration  of  the 
awakened  beauty,  and  in  efforts  to  copy  and  mul- 
tiply it. 

But  in  the  fifteenth  century,  '  educated  Europe '  is 
but  a  synonym  for  Italy.  What  literature  there  was 
outside  the  Alps  was  a  derivative  from,  or  dependent  of, 
the  italian  movement.  The  fact  that  the  movement 
originated  in  the  latin  peninsula,  was  decisive  of  the 
character  of  the  first  age  of  classical  learning  (1400- 
1550).  It  was  a  revival  of  latin,  as  opposed  to  greek, 
literature.  It  is  now  well  understood  that  the  fall  of 
Constantinople,  though  an  influential  incident  of  the 
movement,  ranks  for  nothing  among  the  causes  of  the  re- 
naissance. What  was  revived  in  Italy  of  the  fifteenth 
century  was  the  taste  of  the  schools  of  the  early  empire 
— of  the  second  and  third  century.  There  were,  no 
doubt,  differing  characteristics,  for  nothing  in  history  ever 
exactly  repeats  itself.  But  in  one  decisive  feature  the 
literary  sentiment  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  a  repro- 
duction of  that  of  the  empire.  It  was  rhetorical,  not 
scientific.  Latin  literature  as  a  whole  is  rhetorical. 
There  are  exceptional  books,  such  as  the  '  Natural 
history '  of  Plinius,  but,  on  the  whole,  the  idea  of  science 


508  CHARACTERISTIC. 

was  greek,  and  is  alien  to  latin.  To  turn  phrases,  and 
polish  sentences,  was  the  one  aim  of  the  litterateur  of 
the  empire.  This  phraseological  character  of  literary 
effort  is  clearly  marked  in  the  preface  which  Aulus 
Gellius  (circ.  A.D.  150)  prefixed  to  his  '  Attic  evenings  2V 
In  this  he  apologises  to  the  reader  for  the  seemingly 
recondite  nature  of  some  of  his  chapters.  '  This 
profundity/  he  says,  'is  only  such  in  appearance.  I 
have  avoided  pushing  my  investigations  too  deeply, 
and  present  the  reader  only  with  the  elements  of  the 
liberal  arts,  with  such  matters  only  as  it  is  a  disgrace 
to  an  educated  man  not  to  know.'  This  divorce  of  the 
literature  of  knowledge,  and  the  -literature  of  form, 
which  characterised  the  epoch  of  decay  under  the  early 
empire,  characterised  equally  the  epoch  of  revival  in 
the  Italy  of  the  popes.  The  refinements  of  literary 
composition  in  verse  and  prose,  and  a  tact  of  emenda- 
tion founded  on  this  refined  sense,  this  was  the  ideal  of 
the  scholar  of  the  italian  renaissance. 

The  decay  and  extinction  of  the  artistic  enthusiasm 
of  the  Italians  was  gradual,  but  may  be  said  to  have 
been  consummated  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  '  Petrus  Victorias/  (who  died  1584,  set.  90,) 
says  de  Thou 23,  '  longseva  aatate  id  consecutus  est,  ut 
literas  in  Italia  nascentes,  et  pene  extinctas,  viderit.' 
Out  of  the  decaying  sense  of  form  arose,  however,  a 
new  perception,  of  which  the  remains  of  antiquity  were 
equally  the  object.  Composition  is  at  best  an  amuse- 
ment of  the  faculties,  and  could  offer  no  satisfaction  to 

22  Noctes  Atticee,  prsef. :  '  Non  fecimus  altos  minis  et  obscures  in 
his  rebus  qusestionum  sinus;  sed  primitias  quasdam  et  quasi  liba- 
menta  ingenuarum  artium  dedimus,  quse  virum  civiliter  eruditum 
neque  audisse  unquam,  neque  attigisse,  si  non  inutile,  at  certe  inde- 
corum est.'  23  Thuani  Hist.  4.  319. 


CHA  RA  CTERISTIC.  509 


he  awakened  intellect  of  Europe.  As  the  eye,  cap- 
,ivated  at  first  by  charms  of  person,  learns  in  time  to 
see  the  graces  of  the  soul  that  underly  and  shape 
:hem,  so  the  classics,  which  had  attracted  by  their 
3eauty,  gradually  revealed  to  the  modern  world  the 
rich  wisdom  which  that  beauty  enshrined.  The  first 
scholars  of  the  renaissance  enjoyed,  without  labour,  the 
larmonies  of  language,  the  perfection  of  finish,  which 
}he  great  masters  of  latin  style  had  known  how  to  give 
)o  their  work.  Just  when  imitation  had  degenerated 
into  feebleness,  mannerism,  and  affectation,  the  discovery 
was  made  that  these  exterior  beauties  covered  a  world 
of  valuable  knowledge,  even  in  the  latin  writers.  And 
underlying  the  latin  literature,  it  was  perceived,  was 
one  more  valuable  still,  the  greek.  The  interest  of  the 
educated  world  was  transferred  from  the  form  to  the 
matter  of  ancient  literature.  Masses  of  useful  know- 
edge,  natural  or  political,  the  social  experience  of  many 
generations,  were  found  to  have  lain  unnoticed  in 
30oks  which  had  been  all  the  while  in  everyone's  hands. 
The  knowledge  and  wisdom  thus  buried  in  the  greek 
writers  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the  barren 
sophistic,  which  formed  the  curriculum  of  the  schools. 

It  became  the  task  of  the  scholars  of  the  second 
period  of  the  classical  revival  to  disinter  this  know- 
ledge. The  classics,  which  had  been  the  object  of  taste, 
became  the  object  of  science.  Philology  had  meant 
composition,  and  verbal  emendation  ;  it  now  meant  the 
apprehension  of  the  ideas  and  usages  of  the  ancient 
world.  Scholars  had  exerted  themselves  to  write; 
they  now  bent  all  their  effort  to  know.  The  period  of 
youthful  enjoyment  was  at  an  end ;  the  time  of  man- 
hood, and  of  drudgery,  was  entered  upon.  There  came 
now  into  existence,  what  has  ever  since  been  known  as 


510  CHARACTERISTIC. 

'  learning'  in  the  special  sense  of  the  term.  The  first 
period  of  humanism  in  which  the  words  of  the  ancient 
authors  had  been  studied,  was  thus  the  preparatory 
school  for  the  humanism  of  the  second  period,  in  which 
the  matter  was  the  object  of  attention. 

As  Italy  had  been  the  home  of  classical  taste  in  the 
first  period,  France  became  the  home  of  classical  learn- 
ing in  the  second.  Though  single  names  can  be  men- 
tioned— such  as  Victorius  or  Sigonius  in  Italy,  Meur- 
ssius  or  Vulcanius  in  the  Low  Countries,  who  were 
distinguished  representatives  of  '  learning ' — yet  France, 
in  BudsBus,  Turnebus,  Lambinus,  Joseph  Scaliger,  Isaac 
Casaubon,  and  Saumaise,  produced  a  constellation  of 
humanists,  whose  fame  justly  eclipsed  that  of  all  their 
contemporaries.  The  first  period  in  the  history  of 
classical  learning  may  be  styled  the  italian.  The 
second  period  coincides  with  the  french  school.  If  we 
ask  why  Italy  did  not  continue  to  be  the  centre  of  the 
humanist  movement,  which  she  had  so  brilliantly  in- 
augurated, the  answer  is  that  the  intelligence  was 
crushed  by  the  reviviscence  of  ecclesiastical  ideas. 
Learning  is  research  ;  research  must  be  free,  and  cannot 
coexist  with  the  claim  of  the  catholic  clergy  to  be 
superior  to  enquiry.  The  french  school,  it  will  be  ob- 
served, is  wholly  in  fact,  or  in  intention,  protestant. 
As  soon  as  it  was  decided,  as  it  was  before  1600,  that 
France  was  to  be  a  catholic  country,  and  the  university 
of  Paris  a  catholic  university,  learning  was  extinguished 
in  France.  France,  '  noverca  ingeniorum,'  saw  her 
unrivalled  scholars  expatriate  themselves  without  re- 
gret, and  without  repentance.  With  Scaliger  and 
Saumaise  the  seat  of  learning  was  transferred  from 
France  to  Holland.  The  third  period  of  classical 
learning  thus  coincides  with  the  dutch  school.  From 


CHA  RACTERISTIC.  5 1 1 

[593,  the  date  of  Scaliger's  removal  to  Leyden,  the 
mpremacy  in  the  republic  of  learning  was  possessed  by 
:he  Dutch.  In  the  course  of  the  i8th  century  the 
iutch  school  was  gradually  supplanted  by  the  north 
german,  which,  from  that  time  forward,  has  taken,  and 
still  possesses,  the  lead  in  philological  science. 

Of  the  six  names  which  we  have  put  forward  as  the 
coryphaei  of  the  second,  or  french,  school  of  learning — 
Budseus,  Turnebus,  Lambinus,  Scaliger,  Casaubon,  and 
Saumaise — each  has  his  own  individual  character  and 
privileged  faculty. 

We  are  concerned  at  present  only  with  Casaubon. 
And  it  so  happens,  that  it  is  precisely  Casaubon  who 
forms  the  best  and  most  perfect  type  of  the  school  in 
which  he  must  be  classed.  He  owes  this  representative 
character  to  his  deficiency  in  individual  genius,  which 
made  him  receptive  of  the  secular  influences.  While 
the  poetical  principle,  the  creative  impulse,  had  been  v 
the  moving  power  of  the  renaissance,  the  faculty  which 
was  called  for,  in  the  period  which  succeeded  the 
renaissance,  was  the  receptive  and  the  retentive  faculty. 
The  spirit  of  discovery  languished.  It  had  been  found, 
that  there  was  extant  a  vast  body  of  knowledge,  and 
that  to  read  ancient  books  was  the  road  to  it.  The 
self-moved  mind,  '  Das  Selbstbewegen  aus  sich,'  was  no 
longer  the  instrument ;  the  intellectual  object  was  a 
given  object,  as  it  had  been  in  the  isth  century,  so 
again  in  the  i6th.  As,  in  the  isth  century,  this  object 
had  been  the  church  dogmatic  tradition,  now  it  was 
the  classical  tradition,  which  had  been  broken  in  the 
6th  century. 

To  put  together  this  tradition,  to  revive  the  pic- 
ture of  the  ancient  world,  patient  industry,  an 
industry  adequate  to  a  complete  survey  of  the  ex- 


5 1 2  CIIA  RACTERISTIC. 

tant  remains  of  the  lost  world,  was  the  one  quality 
required.  This  was  Casaubon's  aim,  and  inspiring 
ideal.  He  is  not  a  great  grammarian.  His  sense  of 
language  is  not  equal  to  that  which  has  been  pos- 
sessed by  the  great  critics  from  Scaliger  down  to 
Cobet.  Hence  his  metrical  skill  is  small,  and  he  is 
rarely  happy  in  an  emendation  where  metrical  or 
grammatical  tact  come  into  play.  Yet  it  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  this  fact  that  Scaliger  could  say  of 
Casaubon,  that  he  knew  more  greek  than  himself24; 
and  that  Euhnken 25,  more  than  a  century  and  a  half 
later,  could  say,  that,  even  then,  he  had  been  sur- 
passed by  no  one  but  by  Hemsterhusius.  A  very 
moderate  amount  of  scholarship  is  enough  to  enable 
us  to  discern  that  there  are  limitations  to  Casaubon's 
power  over  Greek.  His  own  metrical  composition 
is  abject.  He  is  not  very  successful  in  greek  prose 26. 
Yet  he  had  so  familiarised  himself  with  greek  idiom, 
that  greek  phrases  are  continually  emerging  in  his 
latin  sentences,  as  the.  natural  expression  of  his 
thought.  The  explanation  of  this  seeming  incon- 

24  Scaliga.  2a.  p.  45:    '  C'est  les  plus  grand  homme  que  nous  avons 
en  grec;  je  lui  ce'de.'     Cf.  Seal.  Epp.  p.  221  :  'Et  memoria  avorum 
et  nostri  sseculi  grsece  doctissimum.' 

25  Elogium  Hemsterhusii,   p.   xvi :   '  Complectar  brevi  et  non  ex- 
aggerandae  rei  causa,  sed  simpliciter  ac  vere  hoc  dico,  Hemsterhusium 
graecarurn  scientia  literarum  omnino  orrmes  qui  inde  a  renatis  literis 
excellenter  in  iis  versati  sint,  ipsum  etiam  Isaacum  Casaubonum,  cui 
doctorum  hominum  consensus  primas  deferre  solet,  longo  post  se  inter- 
vallo  reliquisse.' 

26  In  the  printed  volume  of  Casaubon's  epistles,  Rot.  1709,  there 
are  five  addressed  to  Andrew   Downes,  in  greek.     The   answers  of 
Downes  are  preserved,  Brit.  Mus.  Burney  MSS.  vol.  363.    As  far  as  I  am 
able  to  judge  in  such  a  matter,  the  Cambridge  professor  has  the  ad- 
vantage in  point  of  style  and  rhythm,  while  Casaubon  has  a  larger 
vocabulary,  and  more  command  of  idiom. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  513 

sistency  is,  that  he  thought  in  greek  words  and 
phrases,  but  not  in  greek  sentences.  His  memory 
supplied  him  with  a  full  vocabulary,  but  he  had  not 
cultivated,  either  the  logic  or  the  rhythm,  of  the 
greek  sentence. 

M.  Germain,  in  a  memoir  on  Casaubon  at  Mont- 
pellier27,  tells  us  that  Casaubon  'had  an  astonish- 
ing aptitude  in  collating  the  various  MSS.  of  an 
ancient  author  and  eliciting  the  original  reading/ 
Whatever  other  merits  Casaubon' s  editions  may  have 
had  in  their  day,  that  of  a  text  regularly  formed  by 
collation  was  not  one.  A  survey  of  the  existing 
written  tradition,  as  is  now  required  of  any  text 
editor,  was  an  idea  unknown  to  his  age.  But  Cas- 
aubon was  even  behind  his  age  in  this  respect.  He 
never  attempted  collation.  He  did  not  even  construct 
a  text  out  of  the  materials  in  his  hands.  His 
proceeding  was  the  rude  proceeding  which  the  ita- 
lian  humanists  of  a  century  before  had  employed. 
This  was,  in  difficult  passages,  to  look  into  his  MSS, 
and  select  that  reading  which  seemed  to  suit  the 
sense  best.  Though  he  had  at  his  command  the 
treasures  of  the  royal  and  medicean  libraries,  he 
never  used  them  for  the  establishment  of  a  text. 
But  he  made  ample  use  of  them  for  that  which 
was  his  true  vocation — extensive  reading. 

His  available  resources  for  emendation  being  feeble 
and  casual,  he  must  have  recourse  to  conjecture. 
Conjectural  emendation  is  a  practice  in  which  the 
scholar  may  revel  as  exercise,  but  which  the  diplo- 
matist, who  is  constructing  a  text,  ever  regards  with 

27  Acad.  d.  sciences  et  d.  lettres  de  Montpellier,  5.  208  :  '  Une 
etoimante  aptitude  a  conferer  entre  eux  les  MSS.  des  anciens  auteurs 
pour  en  retrouver  la  Ie9on  originale/ 

Ll 


514  CHARACTERISTIC. 

suspicion.  Of  the  merits  of  Casaubon's  conjectures 
I  am  not  competent  to  judge.  Their  character  ap- 
pears to  be  the  suggestions  of  realist  knowledge, 
rather  than  of  tact  of  language.  They  are  numerous, 
but  he  is  helpful,  rather  in  correcting  the  minor 
blunders  of  the  copyist  in  a  tolerably  ascertained 
context,  than  in  those  desperate  and  deeply  seated 
ulcers,  which  are  apt  to  gather  round  an  old  wound. 
The  rights  of  rational  conjecture,  and  the  necessity 
of  sometimes  overruling  both  the  antiquity,  and  the 
consent,  of  MSS,  are  as  peremptorily  asserted  by  Cas- 
aubon  as  by  Cobet*.  But  in  practice,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  this  right  which  he  claims,  he  is  very 
conservative 29.  '  Haec  lectio  non  placet,  placeret  Juni- 
ana,  si  esset  ex  libris30/  '  Torrentius'  conjecture  is 
very  clever;  but  I  cannot  adopt  it  in  the  teeth  of 
all  the  MSS,  from  which  I  can  never  depart,  except 
when  it  is  absolutely  necessary  ;  and  in  this  rule  I 
am  sure  a  man  so  learned  as  Torrentius  will  agree 
with  me/  And  in  the  short  notes  on  Dionysius  of 
Halicarnassus  he  says31,  'What  need  here,  I  ask,  of 
conjecture  1  No  sound  scholar  will  ever  hesitate  to 
reject  a  conjecture,  however  plausible,  when  it  is 
against  MS.  authority/  Eitschl32  almost  repeats  this 
dictum  of  Casaubon,  when  he  says,  '  There  is  hardly 
any  codex,  of  any  classical  author,  so  bad,  that  it  will 
not,  occasionally,  offer  a  good  reading,  which  will 
deserve  more  credit  than  a  conjecture,  even  a  likely 
one/ 

*  See  note  E  in  Appendix.  29  Advers.  torn.  60. 

30  Sueton.  Claud.  24. 

31  Comm.  in  Dionys.  Hal.  p.   182  :  '  Conjecturis  obsecro  quid  hie 
opus  est  ?     quas  nemo  satis  qui  sit  sanus,  non  spernet,  prse  veteribus 
codicibus  quantumvis  blandiantur.'  32  Opuscula,  i.  539. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  515 


The  language  was  to  Casaubon  not  an  end,  but  a 
means.  He  never  speaks  with  unscholarlike  super- 
ciliousness of  the  minutiae  of  grammatical  technic ;  but 
he  never  dwells  on  these  minutiae  with  pedantic  self- 
complacency.  He  would  not  dispense  with  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  language.  But  he  sought  through 
it  to  penetrate  to  a  knowledge  of  the  thoughts  con- 
veyed by  the  language.  Here,  where  the  caU  is  upon 
the  memory  of  an  attentive  and  observant  reader,  is 
his  forte.  He  can  bring  to  bear  upon  any  one  passage 
the  whole  of  the  classics,  ever  present  in  his  memory. 
He  views  the  individual,  to  use  Bacon's  phrase,  '  ad 
naturam  universi.'  As  a  commentator  he  does  not 
overlay  the  difficulty  with  a  crushing  load  of  collateral 
illustration,  but  elucidates  it  with  the  one  apposite 
citation.  A  large  class  of  stumblingblocks  in  the 
classics  can  only  be  cleared  by  finding  some  one  other 
passage,  which  supplies  the  key  to  the  allusion.  This  • 
is  a  gradual  process,  which  is  being  perfected  from  age 
to  age*.  The  school  commentary  of  our  day  contains 
the  result  of  four  centuries  of  research.  What 
one  has  overlooked  another  supplies.  In  the  whole 
long  history  of  interpretation,  can  anyone  be  named, 
who  from  his  single  hand  has  contributed  to  the  com- 
mon fund  so  much  as  Isaac  Casaubon  1 

Casaubon5  s  editions  must  not  be  compared  with 
those  which  issued  from  t  he  great  dutch  manufac- 
tory of  the  Burmanns  and  the  Gronoviuses.  The 
Variorum7  editors  were  collectors  of  what  others  had 
suggested.  Casaubon  draws  at  first  hand  from  his 
own  original  comparison  of  texts.  The  system  of  those 
editors  was  to  form  a  *  Catena/  or  running  commentary 
en  a  text,  by  breaking  up  the  existing  commentaries  into 

*  See  note  F  in  Appendix. 
L    1    2 


516  CHARACTERISTIC. 

short  portions,  preserving  the  words,  and  appending  the 
name  of  each  annotator.  It  was  thus  that  Casaubon's 
notes,  all  of  which  were  written  before  1610,  were  passed 
.on,  intact,  to  the  middle  of  the  i8th  century,  and  formed 
indeed  the  substantial  part  of  all  that  the  '  Variorum' 
editors  had  to  offer  on  many  authors.  The  dutch 
editors  shunned  greek,  to  which  they  were  unequal,  or 
they  only  attempted  it  to  give  evidence  that  greek  was 
a  lost  science.  The  Appian-us  of  Tollius,  1670,  the  Apol- 
lonius  of  Hoelzlin,  1641, — 'hominum,  qui  sunt,  fuerunt, 
et  erunt  futilissimus' — says  Ruhnken 34,  the  Lucianus  of 
Grgevius,  1687,  should  be  examined  if  we  wish  to  know 
how  low  greek  had  sunk  in  the  schools  of  Holland  and 
what  was  the  standard  of  editing  in  the  bookmarket 
of  Europe.  If  Maasvicius  was  able  to  make  a  better 
figure  with  his  Polysenus,  1690,  it  is  because  he 
judiciously  retires  himself  out  of  sight,  and  blazons  on 
his  title  page,  '  Isaaci  Casauboni  notas  adjecit/  The 
trade  demand  for  the  editions  of  the  greek  classics,  was 
met  by  reproducing  the  notes  of  the  scholars  of  the 
1 6th  century.  Even  a  new  latin  version  of  a  greek  text 
was  a  task  to  which  they  were  unequal.  So  Maasvicius 
reproduces  the  latin  Polyasnus  of  Vulteius,  1549,  without 
alteration,  and  even  without,  as  he  honestly  confesses35, 
comparing  it  with  his  greek  text  throughout,  with 
which  it  by  no  means  corresponds.  The  dutch  school, 
till  Hemsterhusius,  was  a  school  of  latinists.  Yet, 
even  in  a  latin  prose  author,  such  as  Suetonius,  it  would 
not  have  been  safe  for  the  workmen  of  the  Burmann 
manufactory  to  have  revised  Casaubon's  notes,  and  they 
were  accordingly  reproduced  in  extenso  down  to  1736. 
After  this  they  sank  out  of  sight,  the  german  school  of 

34  Ep.  ad  Valcken.  p.  18. 

35  Polysenus,  1588,  lectori  :  '  Cum  graecis  ubique  non  comparavi.' 


CHARACTERISTIC. 


517 


Ernesti  and  Wolf  having  power  enough  of  its  own  to 
remodel  annotation  on  Suetonius.  Even  in  1801,  the 
german  Sch  weigh  seuser,  who  ventured  upon  Athenaeus, 
found  that  he  could  not  do  better  than  give  the  whole 
of  Casaubon's  notes.  And,  to  this  hour,  no  one  has 
attempted  (1874)  such  a  commentary  on  Athenaeus,  as 
shall  merge  Casaubon  in  the  way  in  which  his  notes 
on  Persius  have  been  absorbed  in  the  Clarendon  Persius 
of  Conington  and  Nettleship.  As  lately  as  1833,  Cas- 
aubon's notes  on  Persius  were  reprinted  in  Germany 
entire,  in  compliance  with  a  suggestion  of  Passow 36. 
His  commentary  on  Strabo,  of  which  he  was  himself 
ashamed,  has  not  been  superseded,  and  was  reprinted 
in  1818,  in  the  Variorum  ed.  of  Tzschucke37.  The  com- 
mentaries on  Athenaeus  and  Theophrastus  must  still 
be  in  the  hands  of  every  student  of  greek  literature. 

No  other  scholar  of  the  sixteenth  century  can  be 
named,  whose  commentary  on  any  ancient  writer  has 
remained  so  long  as  the  standard  commentary.  All 
have  contributed  something  to  the  common  stock  of 
explanation;  no  other  than  Casaubon  has  left  one 
which  stands  in  its  entirety  unsurpassed.  When  we 
consider  that,  in  the  elucidation  of  an  ancient  text, 
time  is  more  than  genius,  and  a  new  MS.  more  than 
the  keenest  faculty  of  divination,  we  shall  appreciate 
Casaubon's  superiority  over  his  successors,  in  his  com- 
mand of  the  means  and  materials  of  interpretation. 

It  was  not  only  by  industrious  compilation,  and 
the  relevant  application  of  a  complete  classical  reading, 
that  Casaubon's  commentary  is  thus  distinguished.  He 

36  Persius,  ed.  F.  Duebner,  lectori :  '  Ante  hos  viginti  tres  annos 
celeb.  Passovius  significaverat     .     .     .     Casaubonum  edendum   esse 
integrum,  reliquos  excerpendos  esse  omnes.' 

37  The  publication  of  the  edition  was  broken  off  at  the  third  book. 


518  CHARACTERISTIC. 

has  also  the  enviable  gift  of  presenting  the  object  as 
it  is  (Veranschanlichung).  This  was  due  not  to  the 
possession  of  a  poetic  imagination,  but  to  its  absence. 
He  lights  the  object  with  no  subjective  radiance,  and 
decorates  it  with  no  ornament.  His  style  as  an  an- 
notator,  flat  and  prosaic  as  it  is,  is  direct.  He  grasps 
at  the  real  difficulties,  and  tries  to  clear  them  in  the 
shortest  way.  He  had  the  inestimable  advantage, 
denied  to  us,  of  not  acquiring  his  first  conception  at 
second  hand.  We  read  so  much  about  the  ancients, 
in  books  written  about  them  by  moderns,  that  our 
notion  of  antiquity  is  inevitably  coloured  by  this 
modern  medium. 

We  have  learnt  to  prefer  to  have  our  ancient  history 
drugged  with  modern  politics,  by  Droysen,  or  Grote, 
or  Mommsen,  as  the  vitiated  taste  prefers  sherry  to 
the  pure  juice  of  the  grape.  Casaubon  owed  this  ad- 
vantage in  part  to  his  self-education,  of  which  he  was 
always  complaining  as  a  blight  upon  his  development38. 
He  lost  something  by  this,  in  point  of  language,  he 
gained  much  by  it,  in  point  of  precision  of  representa- 
tion. He  went  in  his  nineteenth  year  straight  to  the 
greek  and  latin  authors,  and  read  them  through,  thus 
forming  his  first  impressions  of  the  ancients  directly 
from  what  they  have  said  of  themselves.  It  cost  him 
more  trouble  to  learn,  but  then  he  had  nothing  to  un- 
learn. As  Goethe  somewhere  says,  '  The  difficulty  lies 
not  in  learning  but  in  unlearning/  a  sentiment  which 
Casaubon  himself  had  quoted39  from  an  older  author 
than  Goethe.  Menage40  gave  as  a  reason  for  not 


38  Ep.  995  *    '  o^rifJiaQfts  KOI  oXi'you  5eo>  flireiv 

39  Exercitt.  in   Baron,  p.   485:    'TO   /zeraStSaovcew'  xa^€7r^TaTOV 
alicubi  Chrysostomus.'  40  Menagiana,  i.  84. 


CHARACTERISTIC.  519 

reading  Moreri's  Dictionary,  that  it  contained  errors, 
and  if  he  got  them  into  his  head,  he  should  not  be 
able  to  get  them  out  again. 

This  habit  of  direct  intuition  he  owed  to  his  self- 
education  ;  his  love  of  truth  he  owed  to  his  protestant 
education.  Love  of  truth  is  the  foundation  of  all  re- 
search and  all  learning,  and  is  indeed  only  the  desire 
of  knowledge  under  another  name.  This  mental  habit 
is,  it  may  be  thought,  universally  diffused  among 
mankind.  Upon  it  are  founded  all  the  ordinary  trans- 
actions of  every  day  life,  no  less  than  the  judicial 
procedure  of  the  law  courts,  and  the  experiments  of 
the  laboratory.  Why  should  it  be  singled  out  as  a 
merit  in  Casaubon,  when  it  is  only  shared  by  him  in 
common  with  every  humbler  student  who  has  ever 
attempted  philological  research  ?  Those  only  who  are 
intimately  conversant  with  the  period  of  which  we 
write,  will  know  that  of  that  period  this  assumption 
would  not  be  true.  It  was  by  the  cultivation  of  this 
intellectual  virtue  that  the  protestant  scholars  of  France 
were  distinguished,  and  to  which  they  owe  their  im- 
measurable superiority  over  the  catholic  school  of 
french  Hellenists. 

The  attitude  of  the  orthodox  party  towards  classical 
studies  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century — in 
the  time  of  Erasmus — was  one  of  pure  antipathy. 
This  phase  of  hostility  to  the  'new  learning/  under 
pretence  of  reverence  for  the  old,  has  been  handed 
down  to  us  by  the  broad  and  exaggerated  satire  of  the 
'  Epistola3  obscurorum  virorum.'  We  have  seen  the 
traces  of  this  disposition  lingering  into  the  seventeenth 
century  in  Eudsem on- Joannes'  sneers  at  Casaubon  for 
not  having  had  a  regular  education,  for  being  a  '  gram- 
marian/ and  more  conversant  with  Suetonius  than  with 


520  CHARACTERISTIC. 

logic.  But  notwithstanding  occasional  sallies  of  this 
kind,  the  attitude  of  the  church  party  towards  classical 
learning  had  been  entirely  changed  before  1600.  The 
practised  eye  of  the  Jesuits,  surveying,  from  the  centre 
of  politics,  all  walks  of  human  endeavour,  saw  that 
more  capital  could  be  made  for  Rome  by  espousing 
classics,  than  by  prohibiting  them.  Jesuit  education 
was  formed  upon  a  classical  basis,  in  opposition  to 
the  scholastic  basis  of  the  university.  Grammar  and 
rhetoric  became  leading  subjects  in  their  schools,  in- 
cluding a  large  share  of  greek.  More  than  this, 
Jesuits  who  had  a  turn  for  reading  were  allowed  to 
devote  themselves  to  study,  and  encouraged  and 
assisted  in  the  publication  of  learned  works.  'Learned' 
they  are  entitled  to  be  called  by  courtesy,  for  the 
works  of  Schott,  Sirmond,  and  Petavius,  have  all  the 
attributes  of  learning  but  one, — one,  to  want  which 
leaves  all  learning  but  a  tinkling  cymbal — that  is, 
the  love  of  truth.  The  Jesuit  scholars  introduced  into 
philological  research  the  temper  of  unveracity  which 
had  been  from  of  old  the  literary  habit  of  their  church. 
An  interested  motive  lurks  beneath  each  word ;  the 
motive  of  church  patriotism.  The  same  spirit  which 
produced  the  false  decretals  in  the  seventh  century41, 
reappears  in  the  Jesuit  literature  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. '  Can  we  doubt/  exclaims  Casaubon42,  '  that  the 
disease  of  our  age  is  a  hatred  of  truth  \ '  An  earnest 
love  of  truth,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  characteristic 

41  Du  Perron  repeatedly  told  Casaubon  that  'Gratianus  was  unjustly 
suspected,  there  being  at  most  two  places  doubtful.'     Adversaria,  ap. 
"Wolf.  p.   177  :  'Audivi  Perronum   ssepe  mihi  affirmantem  falso  sus- 
pectam  esse  fidem  Gratiani,'  etc. 

42  Burmann,   Syll.    i.   359:   '  Dubitamus  adhuc  /^to-aX^eta  laborare 
hoc  seculum.' 


CHA  RA  CT ERISTIC, 


521 


D£  the  philological  effort  of  the  protestant  scholars. 
Errors  they  make,  and  plenty.  The  books  of  the 
generation  which  followed  Casaubon  are  largely  sea- 
soned with  corrections  of  his  errata43.  It  may  often 
happen  that  Scaliger  is  wrong,  and  Petavius  right. 
But  single-eyed  devotion  to  truth  is  an  intellectual 
quality,  the  absence  of  which  is  fatal  to  the  value  of  any 
investigation.  Jesuit  learning  is  a  sham  learning  got 
up  with  great  ingenuity  in  imitation  of  'the  genuine, 
in  the  service  of  the  church.  It  is  related  of  the 
Chinese  that  when  they  first,  in  the  war  of  1841,  saw 
the  effect  of  our  steam  vessels,  they  set  up  a  funnel 
and  made  a  smoke  with  straw  on  the  deck  of  one  of 
their  junks  in  imitation,  while  the  paddles  were  turned 
by  men  below.  Such  a  mimicry  of  the  philology  of 
Scaliger  and  Casaubon  was  the  philology  of  the  Jesuit. 
It  was  vitiated  by  its  arriere-pensee.  The  search  of 
truth  was  falsified  by  its  interested  motive,  the  interest 
not  of  an  individual,  but  of  a  party.  It  was  that 
caricature  of  the  good  and  great  and  true,  which  the 
good  and  great  and  true  invariably  calls  into  being 44 ; 
a  phantom  which  sidles  up  against  the  reality,  mouths 
its  favourite  words  as  a  third-rate  actor  does  a  great 
part,  undermimics  its  wisdom,  overacts  its  folly,  is  by 
half  the  world  taken  for  it,  goes  some  way  to  suppress 
it  in  its  own  time,  and  lives  for  it  in  history. 

That  Casaubon's  conception  of  the  antique  world  was 

43  E.g.  Crenius,  Animadv.  phil.  et  hist.  p.  88.  Casaubon  had  affirmed, 
N.  T.  Matth.   23.  15,  that  Judas  Iscariot  is  called,  iu  another  place, 
vlos  o\€0pov.     The  phrase  is  never  used  in  the  N.  T.  ;  it  occurs  in 
Nonnus'   paraphrase    of  John    17.    12.     Henri   Valois,   both   in   the 
'Excerpta   ex  collectaneis,'   1634,  and  in  the  '  Emendationum  libri,' 
1740,  abounds  in  such  corrections. 

44  Friends  in  Council,  I.  67. 


522  CHARACTERISTIC. 

either  pure  or  adequate,  is  not  hereby  meant.  It  was 
very  far  from  being  either.  With  all  his  honesty  of 
purpose,  and  directness  of  aim,  he  was  not  strong 
enough  to  be  uninfluenced  by  the  ecclesiastical  temper 
of  his  age.  We  see  this  in  so  slight  a  matter  as  the 
interpretation  of  the  Triopian  inscription,  discovered 
in  1607  45,  which,  in  his  anxiety  to  get  a  confirmation 
of  gospel  history,  he  applied  to  the  Jewish  Herod, 
instead  of  to  Herodes  Atticus. 

His  limitations  were  many  and  inevitable.  As  an 
interpreter  of  ancient  life  he  could  only  render  so 
much  as  he  apprehended.  No  one  can  apprehend  of  a 
past  age  more  than  he  can  apprehend  of  his  own.  46 '  The 
past  is  reflected  to  us  by  the  present.'  Casaubon  knew 
of  his  own  age  so  much  as  the  average  of  educated 
men  know.  The  private  antiquities  of  Greece  and 

45  See  his  'Inscriptio  vetus  grseca,'  etc.  fol.  s.  1.  et  a.    Velser,  a 
catholic,  at  once  detected  Casaubon' s  error,  and  informed  Hoeschel  of 
it.     Burney  MSS.  364.  p.  288.     Hoeschel  passed  on  the  correction  to 
Casaubon,  who  instantly  acknowledged  it,  and  promised  to  correct  it, 
if  he  should  have  the  opportunity  of  a  second  edition.   Ep.  607.  What 
Casaubon   did   not   do,   Saumaise   did,    in   his    'Inscriptio  Herodis.' 
Crenius,  'Museum  philologicum,'   Lugd.   Bat.    1699,   reprinted  both 
commentaries,  thus  reproducing  error  which  had  been  abandoned  by 
its  author.     See  Thesaurus  epistolicus  La  Crozianus,  3.  40.     On  the 
other  hand,  Casaubon  was  not  deceived,  as  many  Italians  were,  by  the 
inscriptions  in  Poliphilo.     See  Hist.  Aug.  Scriptores. 

46  Arnold,  Lectures,  p.  109  :  'This  is  the  reason  why  scholars  and 
antiquarians  have  written    so  uninstructively  of  the   ancient  world. 
They  could  do  no  otherwise,  for  they  did  not  understand  the  world 
around  them.     How  can  he  comprehend  the  parties  of  other  days,  who 
has  no  clear  notion  of  those  of  his  own  ?     What  sense  can  he  have  of 
the  progress  of  the  great  contest  of  human  affairs  in  its  earlier  stages, 
when  it  rages  around  him  at  this  actual  moment  unnoticed,  or  felt  to 
be  no  more  than  a  mere  indistinct  hubbub  of  sounds,  and  confusion  of 
weapons  ?     What  cause  is  in  the  issue  he  knows  not.' 


CHARACTERISTIC.  523 


rlome  are,  for  this  reason,  open  to  all  men,  for  every 
man  '  must  have  a  full  conception  of  the  coat  he 
wears,  and  the  house  he  lives  in/  In  public  affairs, 
Casaubon  apprehends  the  general  machinery  of  political 
action,  as  it  shows  itself  on  the  surface  of  events,  and 
takes  an  average  view  of  the  springs  of  human  action. 
The  man,  with  whom  Henri  iv.  could  hold  long  con- 
versations on  the  position  of  religious  parties  in  France, 
cannot  have  been  an  uninformed  looker  on  at  the  great 
struggles  of  the  time.  The  greater  political  problems 
he  does  not  approach.  Polybius'  philosophy  of  history 
is  Casaubon' s  philosophy.  Though  he  had  edited 
Aristotle,  and  read  many  of  the  Aristotelian  books 
with  care  47,  he  has  written  nothing  which  throws  any 
light  on  the  course  of  greek  thought.  He  was  not 
master  of  the  contents  of  greek  philosophical  specula- 
tion, nor  even  aware  of  its  importance  as  a  factor  of 
history,  or  of  the  place  it  holds  in  greek  literature. 

Here,  again,  the  limitation  was  not  in  the  man,  but 
in  the  age.  It  needed  two  centuries  more  of  specu- 
lative effort  in  Europe,  before  philologians  could  go 
back  to  greek  philosophy  with  the  key  of  it  in  their 
hands.  It  is  only  indeed  within  the  present  century 
that  learning  has  grown  strong  enough  to  cope  with 
the  exposition  of  Aristotle,  and  an  edition  of  the 
Aristotelic  encyclopaedia  is  still  a  vision  of  the  future*. 

And  as  to  Casaubon's  want  of  political  instruction,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  we  go  to  greek  history  with 
three  centuries  of  additional  experience.  In  1614,  de 

47  Adversaria,  torn.  16,  contains  collections  out  of  Aristotle  and  his 
greek  commentators.  In  Brit.  Mus.  is  an  analysis  of  the  *  Analytics,' 
in  Casaubon's  hand,  such  as  might  be  made  by  a  person  reading  the 
book  for  the  first  time. 

*  See  note  G  in  Appendix. 


524  CHARACTERISTIC. 

Thou's  History  was  the  last  word  of  political  wisdom, 
and  de  Thou's  life  had  been  spent  in  one  uniform 
struggle  —  resistance  to  the  clerical  reaction.  This 
situation  produced  a  simplicity,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  narrowness,  in  the  political  ideas  of  the  age.  All  the 
energies  of  the  statesman,  all  the  wisdom  of  the  poli- 
tician, were  absorbed  in  the  effort  to  stem  the  rising 
tide  of  ecclesiastical  invasion.  We  cannot  wonder  that 
Casaubon  too  should  not  have  seen  beyond  the  emer- 
gency. But  as  he  became  gradually  engaged  with  the 
details  of  the  controversy,  he  became  less  able  as  an 
interpreter  of  the  document.  His  greatest  failure  was 
in  handling  church  antiquity,  because  he  was  searching 
it  as  an  armoury  of  consecrated  precedent,  not  with  the 
analysis  of  the  critical  historian.  His  love  of  truth, 
though  it  did  not  forsake  him,  was  obscured  by  the 
zeal  of  the  partisan.  The  cause  may  have  been  a 
righteous  one ;  the  war  of  resistance  to  clerical  aggres- 
sion may  have  been  a  just  and  necessary  war.  The 
publicist,  the  legist,  the  statesman  who,  at  the  opening 
of  the  1 7th  century,  contended  against  the  church  re- 
vival of  their  day,  have  a  title  to  be  enrolled  in  the 
list  of  worthies  or  benefactors.  But  for  all  this,  it 
remains  true,  that  in  the  intellectual  sphere  grasp  and 
mastery  are  incompatible  with  the  exigencies  of  a 
struggle.  When,  in  the  very  conception  of  the  problem, 
the  intellectual  activity  is  engaged  in  the  service  of  a 
religious  interest,  a  scientific  solution  cannot  be  looked 
for48.  To  search  antiquity  with  a  polemical  object  is 

48  Zeller,  Gesch.  d.  griech.  Philos.  4.  17  :  '  "Wenn  schon  durch  die 
Fassung  der  Aufgabe  die  wissenschaftliche  Thatigkeit  in  den  Dienst 
des  religiosen  Interesses  gezogen  war,  so  musste  es  sich  im  weiteren 
Verlaufe  vollends  heraustellen,  dass  eine  wissenschaftliche  Lbsung 
desselben  unter  den  gegebenen  Voraussetzungen  unmoglich  sei/ 


iestructb 


CHARACTERISTIC. 


525 


,3tructive  of  that  equilibrium  of  the  reason,  the  imagi- 
.ation,  and  the  taste,  that  "even  temper  of  philosophical 
jalm,  that  singleness  of  purpose,  which  are  required  in 
}rder  that  a  past  time  may  mirror  itself  on  the  mind  in 
true  outline  and  proportions. 


APPENDIX  TO  10. 

NOTE  A.  p.  471. 
Casaubon's  Will,  dated  June  21,  1614. 

TRANSLATED  OUT  OF  FRENCHE. 

THERE  being  nothinge  more  certaine  to  man  then  death  and 
nothinge  more  incertaine  then  then  the  houre  thereof  and  desyringe 
to  provide  that  death  surprise  mee  not  before  I  make  my  latter  Will 
havinge  as  yet  by  the  mercie  of  God  the  use  of  all  my  senses  and  of 
my  reason  understandinge  and  judgement  I  have  thought  it  necessary 
shortly  to  declare  myne  estate  and  latter  Will  as  it  folio wes  I  doe 
confesse  and  protest  that  I  Hue  and  dye  in  that  true  and  liuely  fayth 
whereby  the  just  man  Hues  which  is  taught  us  in  Holy  Scripture 
And  that  I  belieue  ye  remission  of  all  my  sinnes  by  the  sheddinge  of 
the  moste  pretious  bloode  of  myne  onely  Savior  Mediate11  and  Advocate 
Jesus  Christ  in  whose  hands  I  doe  giue  over  and  comend  myself 
beseechinge  him  that  he  would  sanctifie  me  throughlie  and  keepe  my 
whole  spirit  soule  and  bodie  w*hout  blemish  vnto  his  last  cominge 
I  leaue  my  body  to  be  buried  in  the  ground  in  a  Christian  manner 
wthout  all  vnnecessarie  pompe  or  shewe  to  be  made  partaker  of  the 
blessed  resurrection  at  the  latter  daye  wch  I  doe  expect  and  belieue 
wth  a  stedfast  fayth  As  for  my  goods  wch  the  Lorde  hath  lent  me 
wch  I  shall  leaue  the  day  of  my  decease  my  will  is  that  my  debtes  which 
shalbe  founde  lawfull  shalbee  payd  Therefter  I  give  to  the  French 
Church  assembled  in  London  five  and  twenty  French  Crownes  And 
to  the  poors  of  this  parish  where  I  dwell  five  French  Crownes  To  the 
Library  of  the  French  Church  in  London  fowre  of  my  greatest  books 
amonge  the  fathers  And  my  Gregory  Nyssen  Manuscript  To  my 
Nephewe  Mr  Chabane  one  of  my  Hippocrates  As  concerninge  all  my 
goodes  whatsoever  present  or  to  come  moueable  or  vnmoueable  I  doe 
appointe  that  my  wyfe  have  it  in  her  choyce  either  to  take  herself  to 
her  contract  of  marriage  wherein  is  to  be  fownde  whatsoever  I  haue 
received  before,  and  since  the  death  of  her  father  Henry  Steuen  of 
happie  memory  or  to  take  herself  to  the  just  halfe  of  all  my  goodes 


APPENDIX  TO  10. 


527 


shall  remaine  behinde  that  beinge  exempted  whereof  mention 
is  made  before  As  for  the  other  halfe  wcl1  shall  remaine  I  willaiot 
it  my  sonne  John  Cassaubon  haue  any  parte  thereof  but  onlye  one 
ip  of  the  value  of  Thirty  Crownes  the  reasons  of  this  my  Will  are 
imowne  unto  him  Item  I  will  and  ordayne  that  each  one  of  my 
daughters  haue  two  hundred  crownes  wch  being  done  my  meaninge  is 
that  the  whole  remnant  bee  equally  divided  amonge  my  sonnes  and 
daughters  except  that  to  that  sonne  who  walkinge  in  the  feare  of  God 
shalbe  fittest  to  sustayne  my  family  I  doe  giue  the  Cup  of  Mr  Scaliger 
of  moste  happie  memory  aboue  and  besides  that  portion  which  shall 
fall  to  him  of  the  foresayd  half  or  remnant  of  my  goodes  the  Cup  of 
thirtie  Crownes  for  my  sonne  John  and  the  two  hundred  crownes  for 
each  one  of  my  daughters  beinge  first  abated  Neverthelesse  if  any  of 
my  children  sonne  or  daughter  presume  to  fynde  fault  wth  or  call  in 
question  this  my  last  Will  or  be  disobeydient  to  my  wife  their  mother 
I  leaue  to  my  wife  all  power  and  authority  to  depriue  such  a  one  of 
soe  muche  of  their  porcion  as  she  shall  thinke  good  being  therevnto 
well  counselled  and  approved  by  the  Overseers  of  this  my  Testament 
that  slialbe  there  where  she  for  the  tyme  shall  remaine  More- 
over if  it  please  God  to  call  to  himselfe  one  or  more  of  my  children 
before  they  be  married  or  come  to  age  I  will  that  their  portion  be 
divided  amonge  the  rest  that  doe  surviue  by  equall  portions  my  sonne 
John  excepted  And  to  the  intent  that  this  my  Testament  may  be  put 
in  execution  I  leaue  and  ordayne  my  wife  the  onely  Executrix  thereof 
intreatinge  my  trusty  freinds  Mr  Theodore  Turquet  de  Maierne 
Raphaell  Torris  and  Phillippe  Bourlamarqui  to  ayde  her  as  Curators 
in  those  things  which  be  on  this  side  of  the  Sea  And  my  trusty 
frends  Mr  Josias  Mercere  Sqr  des  Bordes  Desier  Herauet  Advocate  and 
Mr  Arbant  Doctor  of  Phisick  for  those  affaires  that  be  beyond  Seas 
In  witnesse  whereof  and  of  that  wch  is  before  set  downe  I  haue 
subsigned  wth  my  hand  and  sealed  wth  my  scale  this  my  latter  Will 
in  presence  of  them  that  be  after  named  this  Tewsday  the  one  and 
twentieth  of  June  the  yeare  of  or  Lorde  one  thousand  sixe  hundred 
and  fowerteene — Isaack  Cassaubon — Signed  sealed  and  delivered  in 
the  presence  of  us — Aron  Cappell  David  Codelongue — William  Jane — 
et  me — Thomam  Elam  Scrivener. 


PKOBATUM  fuit  Testamentum  suprascriptum  apud  London  coram 
Magro  Edmundo  Pope  legum  Doctore  Surrogate  Venerabilis  viri  Dnj 
Johnis  Benet  milits  legum  etiam  Doctors  Curie  Prerogative  Cant 


528  APPENDIX  TO  10. 

Magrj  Custodis  slve  Commissarij  Itime  constitut  Tricesimo  die  Mensis 
Julij  Ano  Dominj  Millesimo  sexcentesimo  Decimo  quarto  Juramento 
Florentiae  Cassaubon  relae  dictj  defunct!  et  executrics  in  eodem 
testamento  nominat  Cuj  comissa  fuit  administraco  omniu  et  singulor 
bonore  jurium  et  creditorum  dictj  defunctj  De  bene  et  fideliter 
administrand  eadem  Ad  sancta  Dej  Evangelia  in  debita  juris  forma 
jurat. 


NOTE  B.    p.  477. 
The  History  of  Isaac  Casaubon's  Papers. 

For  the  transcript  of  the  following  letter,  and  remarks  upon  it,  I 
am  indebted  to  M.  Charles  Thurot,  through  the  mediation  of  Mr. 
Thursfield,  of  Jesus  College. 

Bibl.  Nat.  fonds  Moreau,  t.  846.  fo.  56. 

Clariss.  doctissimoque  viro,  Dno  Philiberto  De  la  mare,  Mericus 
Casaubonus,  Is.  F.  S.  P.  D.  Quod  quaeris,  vir  clarissime,  an  Jacobi 
Gruhonj,  rerum  apud  JEduos  capitalium  quaesitoris,  aliquid  seu  prosa, 
seu  versu  scriptum,  inter  cimelia  b.  m.  parentis  repertum  servem,  in 
promptu  responsio,  simplex,  aperta,  brevis,  quae  veritati  conveniat, 
quae  conscientiae  meae,  cuius  praecipua  apud  me  semper  erit  ratio, 
abunde  satisfaciat ;  Non  habeo.  Sed  quia  dum  tenorem  tuarum 
literarum  attentius  considero,  vix  spero  me  tarn  accuratae  scrip tioni 
nisi  accuratd  responsione  satisfacturum,  dabo  hoc  communibus  studiis 
(quae  si  non  semper,  alia  professus,  excolui,  nunquam  tamen  non  sancte 
colui :)  tuoque  de  literis  bene  merendi  studio,  qubd  pluribus,  ut  de 
propria  non  tantum  conscientid,  sed  et  tua  opinione  sollicitus,  respon- 
deam.  Narro  igitur  tibi,  vir  doctissime,  patre  in  Anglia  defuncto, 
omnia  eius  Adversaria,  et  msta.  cuiuscunque  generis,  (paucis  quibusdam 
Theologicis  exceptis,  quae  Kegis  Seren.  iussu,  Lanceloto  Andreae, 
summo  viro,  Episcopo  turn  Eliensi,  sunt  in  manus  tradita :)  Lutetian 
translata  esse,  ubi  cum  per  aliquot  annos  in  custodia  piae  matris,  aut 
quibus  mater  coinmiteret,  (ou  commiseret,)  fuissent,  tandem  in  manus 
fratris  natu  maioris  (qui  postea  Capuchinum  professus  obiit)  perve- 
nisse.  Ilium  pro  arbitrio  de  quibusdam  disposuisse,  et  non  uni  grati- 
ficatum  esse,  certb  scio.  Quinto  demum  vel  sexto  post  obitum  patris 
anno,  cum  ille  meus  charissimus  frater  mundo  curisque  saecularibus 
renuntiasset,  et  ego  ad  aliquam  maturitatem  pervenissem  (ut  qui 
annum  turn  agerem  nonum  supra  decimum)  quod  erat  reliquorum 


APPENDIX  TO  10.  529 

libri  edit,  paucissimi  supererant)  matre  ita  statuente, 
it  fratre  non  nolente,  mihi  cessit.  Quare  an  pater  olim  aliquid  tale, 
|uale  conjicis  et  requiris,  habuerit,  meum  non  est  pronuntiare.  Sed 
}ub  magis  tibi  liqueat,  me  certe  tale  nihil  aut  habere  aut  habuisse, 
implius  te  moneo,  quicquid  erat  Patris  in  isto  genere,  postquam  ope 
imicorum  adiutus  et  quanta"  maxima  potui  sedulitate  usus  conquisi- 
vissem,  mihique  comparassem,  id  omne  in  accuratissimum  syllabum 
redegi,  qui  quid  quisque  liber  contineret,  (ne  sparsis  et  solutis  quidem 
chartulis  omissis)  indicaret.  Eum  postea  syllabum  haud  paucis  pro  re 
nata,  communicavi,  nee  defuere  qui  exempla  eius  a  me  postularent,  et 
obtinerent.  Praeterea,  quicunque  me  (quod  non  pauci  fecerunt,) 
viri  docti  seu  Galli,  seu  Belgae,  aliive  in  transcursu  Cantuariam  prae- 
tereuntes  inviserunt,  eis  ego  omnem  librarian!  suppellectilem  liberfc 
prompsi,  non  ut  auferrent  quicquam,  sed  ut  viderent  quod  vellent,  et 
praesentes,  pro  sui  quisque  otii  et  negotii  ratione,  legerent.  Omnium 
istorum,  ubicunque  sunt,  fidem  appello,  an  quicquam  Jacobi  Guiioni, 
vel  in  syllabo,  vel  inter  ipsa  cimelia  repererint.  At,  inquis,  Guiionio 
arctissima  cum  parente  meo  consuetudo  intercedebat.  Pace  tua  dixe- 
rim,  vir  clarissime,  hoc  tibi  gratis  credam  necesse  est.  Epistolarum 
patris  ad  diversos  magnum  volumen  nuper  prodiit  Amstelodami ;  inter 
illas,  nulla  ad  Jac.  Guiionium  comparet.  Praeter  editas,  habeo  alias 
non  paucas  ;  sed  nee  inter  illas,  ulla.  Praeterea,  cum  doctorum  ex  omni, 
quam  late  patet  eruditio,  Europa,  ad  patrem  Epistolas  plurimas  ha- 
beam,  ne  inter  illas  quidem  ulla  Guiionii  ad  patrem;  quare  etiam  atque 
etiam  te  rogo  ut  huius  familiaritatis  argumenta  quae  tibi  sint  amplius 
expendas.  Quod  si  ita  res  habet,  neque  falsus  es ;  mihi  tamen,  quaeso, 
ne  imputa,  si  expectatione  tua  frustratus  es.  Haec  si  tibi  satisfaciunt, 
valde  gaudeo,  sin  aliter,  superest  ut  in  propriae  conscientiae  testimonio, 
et  in  officij  non  neglecti  (responsionem  intelligo  quam  potui  accuratiss.) 
conscientia  acquiescam.  Vale,  vir  clarissime,  et  meliores  literas  opera 
tua  et  eruditione  promovere  perge.  Cantuariae,  postrid.  Non.  Decemb. 
(stylo  Anglic,  seu  veteri.)  cio  10  CXLI. 

L'adresse  de  la  lettre,  qui  porte  encore  le  cachet  en  cire  rouge1, 
est  ainsi  con£ue  : — 

Clariss.  doctissimoque  viro,  Philiberto  De  la  Mare,  in 
supremo  Burgundiae  senatu,  comitiario. 

Divione. 

1  Ce  cachet  reprdsente  un   lion   avec   une   barre  en  abime   chargee  de  trois 
etoiles.     Le  fond  n'est  pas  indiqud. 

M  m 


530  APPENDIX  TO  10. 

J'ai  reproduit  exactement  1'orthographe  et  la  ponctuation.  L'^criture 
est  tres  bonne.  II  y  a  des  ine'galite's,  ainsi  il  n'y  a  pas  de  point  sur 
le  second  i  de  Guiionius  d'abord ;  ensuite  il  est  mis.  J'ai  reproduit 
cette  ine'galite'. 

Un  mot  seul  me  laisse  des  doutes.  Voici  le  passage  exactement 
reproduit 

aut  quibus  Mater  commiseret 

cum  a  6t6  d'abord  e'crit,  puis  barrd  et  remplac£  par  com  (ainsi  que 
c'est  indiqu^  ici).  Dans  ce  qui  suit  aucune  lettre  ne  peut  faire  de 
doute  except^  celle  qui  est  entre  Ve  et  Vi,  ni  Vs  ni  le  t,  ni  font  faits 
de  cette  fa9on  dans  le  reste  de  la  lettre.  D'ailleurs  commiteret  est  une 
faute  d'orthographe,  et  commiseret  n'a  pas  de  sens.  Peut-etre  a-t-il 
vouler  £crire  commiserit.  Du  reste,  Ten  tete  de  la  lettre,  1'adresse,  la 
date,  et  les  corrections  faites  dans  le  corps  meme  de  la  lettre  sont  d'une 
autre  main,  probablement  de  la  main  de  Casaubon  lui  menie  qui  aura 
fait  £crire  la  lettre  par  un  copiste. 


NOTE  C.  p.  483. 

Goethe  to  Zelter,  Briefwechsel,  6.  616  :  'Eigentlich  ist  es  nicht  mein 
Bestreben,  in  den  diistern  Regionen  der  Geschiclite  bis  auf  einen 
gewissen  Grad  deutlicher  zu  selin ;  aber  um  des  Mamies  willen,  nach 
dem  ich  sein  Verfahren,  seine  Absichten,  seine  Studien  erkannte,wurden 
seine  Interessen  aucli  die  meinigen.  Niebuhr  war  es  eigentlich,  und 
nicht  die  romische  Geschichte,  was  mich  beschaftigte.  So  eines  Mannes 
tiefer  Sinn  und  enisige  Weise  ist  eige  tlich  das  was  uns  auferbaut.  Die 
sammtlichen  Ackergesetze  gehn  mich  eigentlich  gar  nichts  an,  aber 
die  Art,  wie  er  sie  aufklart,  wie  er  mir  die  complicirten  Verhaltnisse 
deutlich  macht,  das  ist's  was  mich  fordert,  was  mir  die  Pflicht  auferlegt, 
in  den  Geschaften,  die  ich  iibernehme,  auf  gleiche  gewissenhafte  Weise 
zu  verfahren.' 


NOTE  D.  p.  498. 

The  Cambridge  miracle  was  reported  to  Casaubon  by  James  Martin, 
whose  letter  has  not  been  preserved.  But  the  substance  of  it  is 
repeated  by  Martin,  in  a  letter  to  Camden,  without  date,  but  probably 
1615.  It  is  printed  in  Camdeni  Epistolse,  1691.  I  give  an  extract  : — 

'All  the  particulars  of  my  letter   to   him    (Casaubon)    I    cannot 


APPENDIX  TO  10.  531 

ecount.     The  sum  is  this.     In  Cambridgeshire,  about  twelve  years 

ince,  there  bapning  a  great  fire  in  Gambinga,  a  little  child  being  left 

n  the  cradle,  was  uery  strangely  conveyed  out  of  the  house  being  all 

n  a  flame,  into  the  middle  of  the  street ;  the  linnen-apron  being  all 

Dowdered  with  crosses ;  an  unknown  boy  telling  the  maid,  that  wept 

md  thought  the  child  was  burnt,  to  this  .effect,  viz.  I  have  thought 

on  the  child,  and  have  delivered  it,  but  go  and  look  for  it.     Now 

about  a  year  or  two  before  this  accident,  there  was  seen  over  the  house 

n  the  night  a  shining  cross  in  the  air,  and  since  that  time  for  these 

twelve  or  thirteen  years  together,  there  have  at  divers  times  fallen 

divers  crosses  upon  the  linnen  of  the  mother  and  sisters  of  this  child, 

now  deceased,  which  sometimes  vanish  of  themselves,  and  sometimes 

are  washed  away.     Some  of  these  myself  have  seen;  they  are  of  a 

)rownish  colour,  and  of  this  form  >J«    .    .    .     This  being  the  principal 

though  other  accessaries  there  are,  which  partly  of  my  own  knowledge, 

and  partly  on  the  relation  of  others   ...  I  related  to  Mr.  Casaubone, 

!  make  bold  to  impart  to  yourself,  wishing,  if  it  might  be,  that  we 

might  come  to  some  certain  resolution  whence  the  crosses  are,  and 

whether  they  would.' 

As  Casaubon  is  selected  to  have  this  tale,  not  then  recent,  written 
;o  him  by  one  who   was  a  stranger  to  him,  we  may  infer  that  his 
curiosity  for  marvels  was  matter  of  notoriety.  His  reply  is  cautious  : — 
'  I  received  lately  two  letters  from  you.     The  first  transformed  me 
wholly  into  wonder:    without  doubt  the  thing  you  write  of  is  mi- 
raculous ;   but  whence,  I  cannot  affirme.     They  may  best  conjecture 
:hat  were  eye  witnesses,  or  of  their  neerest  acquaintance,  and  they  that 
lave  the  spirit  of  discerning.     In  which  regard  I  leave  the  discussing 
hereof  to  the  most  excellent  divines  of  your  illustrious  university,' 
i.  e.  Oxford.) 


NOTE  E.  p.  514. 

Casaubon's  principles  of  emendation  are  fully  stated  in  his  Prsef.  in 
Athenaeum  :  '  Cum  emendandi  veteres  auctores  duplex  sit  via,  e  libris, 
et  ex  ingenio,  utramque  nos  viam  in  corrigendo  Athenseo  institimus.  .  .  . 
^riore  ilia  opera  vulgatas  editiones  e  veteribus  libris  auximus  et 
emendavimus ;  posteriore  hac  et  vulgatorum  et  manu  etiam  scriptorum 
codicum  lectionem  ad  rectse  rationis  obrussam  exegimus.  Nam  in 
criptis  exemplaribus  vel  antiquissimse  manus  TroXXa  p,ev  c<rff\a  ?roXXa  8e 
Itaque  in  illis  tractandis  judicio  magno  opus,  magna  eruditione, 

M  m  2 


532  APPENDIX  TO  10. 

nee  mediocri  usu.'  He  then  refers  those  who  think  that  antiquity, 
and  consent  of  MSS,  alone  must  determine  the  reading,  to  the  well- 
known  passage  of  Galen.  If  at  other  times  Casaubon  expresses  him- 
self as  fearful  to  alter  without  MS.  authority,  it  is  from  a  dread  of  that 
reckless  spirit  of  alteration,  which  leads  the  rash  and  inexperienced 
to  tamper  with  every  passage  which  presents  difficulty,  e.  g.  Cas. 
Advers.  torn.  60  :  '  Hsec  lectio  non  placet,  placeret  Juniana  si  esset  ex 
libris.'  Ibid. :  *  Sequentia  sine  libris  non  ausim  attingere/  This 
caution  is  no  less  in  the  spirit  of  Cobet,  cf.  Varise  Lectt.  p.  xii : 
'  Tertium  est  vitii  genus,  in  quod  ssepe  juniores  implicari  video,  qui 
locum  vitiosum  nacti,  levibus  et  temerariis  correctiunculis  vexare 
malunt,  quam  intactum  relinquere,  et  saepe  vitiosis  vitiosiora  sub- 
stituunt/ 

The  passage  of  Ritschl's  Opuscula  referred  to  in  the  text,  p.  514,  is 
as  follows,  i.  539  :  '  Propemodum  nullus  liber  est  ullius  scriptoris, 
e  quo  non  aliquando,  quanquam  rarissimis  plerumque  exemplis,  bona 
scriptura  peti  possit,  non  majorem  fidem  quam  probabilis  conjecturse 
habens/ 


NOTE  F.  p.  515. 

On  the  slow  process  by  which  the  full  sense  of  an  ancient  classic  is 
reached,  and  a  commentary  is  perfected,  Reiske  says,  Theocritus, 
Viennse  1765,  prsef.  p.  37  :  '  Stupet  animus  meus  et  psene  cohorrescit, 
cum  cogitat  post  tantam,  tot  hominum,  navorum  hercle  atque  doc- 
torum,  contentionem,  post  tot  annorum  decursum,  in  hoc  uno  tarn 
parum  voluminoso,  tarn  levi,  qui  videatur  quibusdam,  nugacique  poeta 
(i.  e.  Theocritus)  multum  tamen  nos  adhucduin  a  perfectione  abesse, 
quse  ei  impertiri  possit.  Sed  hoc  iter  naturae  est.  Sensim  et  pede- 
tentim,  per  gradus  minutos,  ad  culmen  arcis  ascenditur.' 


NOTE  G.  p.  523. 

The  magnitude  of  what  he  undertakes,  who  aims  to  be  a  classical 
scholar,  was  understood  at  least  as  early  as  Erasmus.  Vita  Orig. 
Erasmi  Opp.  8.  426:  'Si  quis  dicat  grammatices  professionem  nihil 
habere  memorabile,  cum  hodie  scholasticorum  collegia  pueris  abundent 
grammaticani  profitentibus,  sciat  olim  senile  et  arduum  fuisse  nego- 
tium.  Nee  enim  a  doctore  expectabatur  declinationum,  conjugationum 


APPENDIX  TO  10. 


533 


;t  constructionum  ratio ;  sed  prseter  sermonis  elegantiam,  prseter 
durimorum  auctorum  lectionem,  prseter  antiquitatis,  et  omnium 
'.listoriarum  notitiam  requirebatur  poetices,  rhetorices,  dialectices, 
arithmetices  et  cosmographise  musicesque  cognitio.  Minore  negotio 
tres  Juris  doctores  absolveris  quam  unum  grammaticum,  qualis  fuit 
Aristarclms  apud  Grsecos,  apud  Latinos  Servius  et  Donatus.' 


NOTE. 

Some  explanation  may  be  called  for  of  the  mode  of  writing  proper 
names  adopted  in  these  pages.  It  may  be  objected  to  the  author  that 
he  ought  to  have  adhered  to  one  or  the  other  nomenclature,  i.  e.  either 
the  latinised  or  the  vernacular  form.  Upon  trial,  however,  this  was 
found  to  be  impossible.  Some  names  being  of  more  frequent  occurrence 
than  others,  have  so  established  themselves  in  the  latinised  form,  that 
it  is  now  impossible  to  depart  from  it.  We  must  write  Scaliger 
Beza,  Grotius,  Lipsius,  Vulcanius,  Scriverius,  Canisius,  and  cannot 
without  affectation  substitute  de  L'escale,  de  Bbze,  van  Groot,  Lips, 
Smidt,  Schryver,  de  Hondt.  On  the  other  hand,  wherever  usage 
seemed  sufficient  to  warrant  me,  I  have  chosen  the  vernacular  name. 
I  have  said  Estienne,  and  not  Stephanus  (except  when  speaking  of  the 
'  Thesaurus  '),  Saumaise,  and  not  Salmasius,  de  Thou,  and  not  Thuanus, 
Labbe',  and  not  Labbseus. 

Though  I  have  said  Fra  Paolo,  and  not  Father  Paul,  I  have  written 
Bellarmine  and  not  Bellarmino.  This  practice  is  quite  indefensible  on 
any  ground  of  principle.  The  only  object  of  this  note  is  to  show  that 
these  anomalies  are  not  errors  of  carelessness. 


11. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OP  WORKS  BY 
ISAAC  CASAUBON. 

1583- 

ISAACI  HORTIBONI  Notse  ad  Diogenis  Laertii  libros  dc  vitis 
dictis  et  decretis  principum  philosophorum.  Morgiis,  venun- 
dantur  in  officina  typographica  Joannis  le  Preux,  Illust.  D. 
Bern.  Typog.  1583, 


1584. 

Vetustissimorum  authorum  Georgica,  Bucolica,  et  Gnomica 
poemata  quse  supersunt,  accessit  huic  edition!  Is.  Hortiboni 
Theocriticarum  lectionum  libellus  .  .  .  irapa  E.  Oviyv&vi  aty'irS. 
I2mo. 

Casaubon  had  no  hand  in  this  book  beyond  contributing  the 
'  lectiones  Theocriticse,'  pp.  361-410. 

1587. 

1.  Strabonis  rerum  geographicarum  Libri  xvii,  Isaacus  Cas- 
aubonus  recensuit,  summoque    studio   et   diligentia,  ope    etiam 
veterum  codicum  emendavit,  ac  commentariis  illustravit  .... 
(s.  1.),  excudebat  Eustathius  Vignon,  Atrebat.  1587,  fol. 

2.  Novi  Testament!  Libri  omnes  recens  nunc  editi  cum  notis 
Isaaci  Casauboni.     Adjectse  sunt  varise   lectiones   omnes  ;    cum 
diligent!  similium  locorum  collatione  .  .  (s.L),  apud  Eustathium 
Vignon,  1587,  I2mo. 

With  ded.  by  I.  Casaubon  to  Canaye  de  Fresne. 

1588. 

Isaaci  Casauboni  animadversiones  in  Dionysii  Haliqarnassei 
antiquitatum  romanarum  libros.  (s.a.  et  1.),  fol. 

Is.  Casaubon  'to  reader'  is  dated  '  nonis  augusti,  1588.' 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS.  535 

1589. 

1.  nOATATNOT  2TPATHFHMATHN  BIBAOI  OKTO.    Po- 
lyaeni   stratagematum   libri  octo.      Is.  Casaubonus  grsece  nunc 
primum  edidit,  emendavit,  et  notis  illustravit,  adjecta  est  etiam 
Justi  Vulteii  latina  versio,  cnm  indicibus  necessariis,  1589,  apud 
Jean.     Tornaesium,  Typ.  Reg.  Lugdunensem,  I2mo. 

2.  In  Dicaearchi  eclogen  notse  Isaac!  Casauboni.    (7  pages,  not 
numbered,  following  p.  128  of)  Dicaearchi  Geographica  qusedam 
.    .    .    cum  lat.  interpretatione   atque   annot.  Henri  Stephani, 
excudebat  Henr.  Stephanus,  1589,  ismo. 

1590. 

Operum  Aristotelis  Stagiritse  philosophorum  omnium  longe 
principis  nova  editio,  graece  et  latine,  graecus  contextus  quam 
emendatissime  prater  omnes  omnium  editionum  est  editus;  ad- 
scriptis  ad  oram  libri  et  interpretum  veterum  recentiorumque 
et  aliorum  doctorum  virorurn  emendationibus  :  in  quibus  plu- 
rimse  nunc  primum  in  lucem  prodeunt,  ex  bibliotheca  Isaaci 
Casauboni  .  .  .  (oliva  Stephani),  Lugduni,  apud  Guillelmum 
Lsemarium,  1590,  fol.,  2  voll. 


C.  Plinii  Csec.  Sec.  Epist.  Lib.  ix.  ejusdem  et  Trajani  epist. 
amcebsese.  ejusdem  PI.  et  Pacati,  Mamertini,  Nazarii  Panegyrici, 
item  Claudiani  Panegyrici,  praeter  multos  locos  in  hac  posteriori 
editione  emendatos,  adjuncts  sunt  Isaaci  Casauboni  notaa  in 
epistolas,  excud.  Henr.  Steph.,  anno  1591. 

With  this  book,  which  is  a  reprint  of  Henri  Estienne's  Plinius 
of  1581,  Casaubon  had  nothing  to  do,  beyond  supplying  a  few 
corrections  and  explanations.  These  are  printed  at  the  end  of 
the  volume,  occupying  15  leaves,  unpaged. 

1592. 

Theophrastus,  Characteres  ethici,  sive  descriptiones  morum 
graece.  Is.  Casaubonus  recensuit,  in  latinum  sermonem  vertit, 
et  libro  commentario  illustravit,  Lugduni/  apud  Franciscum  Le 
Preux,  1592,  8vo. 


536  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS 


Diogenes  Laertius,  De  vitis  dogm.  et  apophth.  clarorum 
philosophorum  libri  x.  Hesychii  ill.  de  iisdem  philos.  et  de 
aliis  scriptoribus  liber.  Pythagor.  philosophorum  fragmenta, 
omnia  grace  et  lat.  ex  editione  ii.  Is.  Casauboni  notse  ad  lib. 
Diogenis  multo  auetiores  et  emendationes,  excud.  Henr.  Steph., 
anno  I593»  (oliva  Stephani),  (other  copies,  1594,)  I3mo. 

1595- 

Suetonius,  De  xii  Caesaribus  Libri  viii.  Is.  Casaubonus  re- 
censuit  et  animadv.  libros  adjecit  .  .  .  ap.  Ja.  Chouet,  1595,  4-to. 

1596. 

Theocritus,  Idyllia  et  epigrammata,  cum  mss.  Palat.  collata 
.  .  .  Is.  Casauboni  Theocriticarum  lectionum  libellus,  editio 
altera  uberior  et  melior,  ex  typographeo  Hier.  Commelini, 
1596, 


1597. 

Deipnosophistarum  libri  xv.  cura  et  studio  Isaaci 
Casauboni,  bibliothecse  Palatinse,  Vaticana3,  aliarumque  ope  aueti- 
ores emendatioresque  editi  .  .  .  apud  Hieronymum  Comme- 
linum,  anno  1597,  fol. 

1600. 

Athenaeus,  Isaaci  Casauboni  animadversionum  in  Athenaei 
Deipnosophistas  Libri  xv.  .  .  .  Lugduni,  ap.  Ant.  de  Harsy, 
1600,  fol. 

1601. 

Coppie  d'une  lettre  de  M.  Isaac  Casaubon  au  synode  a  Ger- 
geau_,  avec  la  reponse  du  diet  synode,  Gen.  1601,  I2mo. 
See  p.  187  and  note. 

1603. 

Historia3  Augustas  scriptores  vi.  .  .  .  Is.  Casaubonus  ex 
veter.  libr.  recensuit  idemque  librum  adjecit  emendationum  ac 
notarum,  Paris,  Drouart,  1603,  4to. 


BY  ISAAC  CASAUBON.  537 

1604. 

Dio  Chrysostomus,  Orationes  Ixxx.  .  .  .  Fed.  Morelli, 
Prof,  regii  opera,  cum  Is.  Casauboni  Diatriba  et  ejusdem  Morelli 
fccholiis,  Lutet.  1604,  fol. 

With  this  ed.  Casaubon  had  nothing  to  do  beyond  contributing 
the  Diatriba,  which  occupies  pp.  1-106,  separately  paged,  at  end. 

JBurmann,  Sylloge,  1.359,  '  rogatu  Morelli  nostri  Diatribam  in 
D.  C.  edimus  opus  avroo-^biov  nee  magnse  rei/ 

1605. 

1.  Persius,  Satirarum  liber.     Is.  Casaubonus  recensuit  et  com- 
mentario  libro  illustravit,  Paris,  Drouart,  1605,  ismo. 

2.  De  satyrica  Grsecorum   poesi  et  Romanorum  satira  libri 
duo,  Paris,  Drouart,  1605,  ismo. 

1605. 

Notse  in  Gregorii  Thaumaturgi  orationem.  Meric,  Pietas, 
p.  101,  did  not  know  where  these  notes  were  to  be  found.  They 
occupy  pp.  497-506  of 

Origenes  contra  Celsum  Libri  viii,  a  D.  Hoeschelio,  Aug. 
Vindel.  1605,  4to. 

Of  these  Casaubon  says,  '  Paucas  hodie  impendi  horas  lectioni 
chartarum  quas  ante  triduum  abs  te  accepi ;  .  .  .  .  quse 
percurrenti  mihi  orationes  in  mentem  venerunt  paucis  accipe  et 
boni  consule.' 

1606. 

Gregorius  Nyssen,  Ad  Eustathiam  Ambrosiam  et  Basilissam 
epistola.  Is.  Casaubonus  nunc  primum  publicavit,  latine  vertit 
et  illustravit  notis  (oliva  Stephani),  Lutetise,  ex  typographia 
Roberti  Stephani,  1606,  i2mo. 

1607. 

i .  De  libertate  ecclesiastica  liber  singularis. 

Printed  at  Paris  in  this  year,  but  suppressed,  by  order  of  the  go- 
vernment, before  publication.  First  published  in  Melchior  Goldasti, 
Monarchia  S.  Komani  imperii,  Hanov.  1612,  vol.  T.pp.  674-716. 

It  was  translated  into  English  by  Hilkiah  Bedford,  a  transla- 
tion which  was  inserted  in  Hickes'  '  Two  Treatises  of  the 
Christian  priesthood,  &c.,  Lond.  1711,'  pp.  cxv-ccxciii. 


538  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS 

2.  Inscriptio  vetus  Grseca,  nuper  ad  urbem  in  via  Appia  effossa  : 
dedicationem  fundi  continens  ab  Herode  rege  factam.  Isaacus 
Casaubonus  recensuit  et  notis  illustravit,  fol.  pp.  10,  s.  1.  et  a. 

This  sheet  of  TO  pp.  is  undated.  Casaubon  says  the  copy  of 
the  inscription  had  been  sent  '  nuper'  by  Christophe  Dupuy  to 
Jacques  Gillot,  and  he  quotes  Scaliger's  Eusebius  as  published 
'  nuper.'  The  Eusebius  came  out  in  August,  1606.  A  copy  of 
the  *  Inscriptio'  by  Casaubon  had  been  sent  to  Hoesehel  before 
September,  1607.  See  Ep.  568. 

1609. 

Polybius,  Historiarum  libri  qui  supersunt.  Is.  Casaubonus  ex 
antiquis  libris  emendavit  latine  vertit  et  commentariis  illus- 
travit. ^Enea3  vetustissimi  Tactici  commentarius  de  toleranda 
obsidione.  Is.  Casaubonus  primus  vulgavit  latinam  interpreta- 
tionem  et  notas  adjecit  .  .  .  Paris,  Drouart,  1609,  fol. 

Other  copies  have  '  apud  Claudium  Marnium  et  ha3redes 
Johannis  Aubrii/  A  certain  number  of  copies  were  taken  by  the 
Frankfort  publisher  on  condition  of  being  allowed  to  issue  them 
with  his  own  title  page.  The  book  was  printed  in  Paris,  on 
French  paper. 

1610. 

1.  Jos.  Justi  Scaligeri  Julii  Csesaris  a  Burden  filii  opuscula 
varia  antehac  non  edita,  Paris,  Beys,  1610,  4to. 

Ed.  by  Casaubon  with  preface,  13  leaves,  unpaged. 

2.  Suetonius  .  I  .  Editio  altera,  ab  auctore  emendata  et  locis 
quamplurimis  aucta  .  .  .  Paris,  apud  Hadrianum  Beys,  1610,  fol. 

1611. 

Is.  Casauboni  ad  Frontonem  Ducseum  S.  J.  Theologum  epis- 
tola,  Londini,  Norton,  1611,  4to. 

1612. 

i.  Is.  Casauboni  ad  epistolam  illustr.  et  reverendiss.  Cardinalis 
Perronii  responsio,  Londini,  Norton,  1612,  4to. 

The  date  at  the  end  of  this  'Reply'  is  5  eid.  novemb.  1612. 
But,  as  observed  by  Bliss,  Andrewes' Works,  u.  6,  note,  this 
must  be  an  error  for  1611.  See  eph.  897,  898.  The  king  had  the 


'    BY  ISAAC  CASAU30N.  539 

»is.  and  kept  it  for  some  months  ;  see  ep.  760.    It  was  finally  put 
nto  the  printer's  hands  in  April,  1612.     See  eph.  924. 

2.  Athenaeus. 

In  this  year  the  text  and  latin  version  of  Athenseus  were  re- 
printed at  Lyons ;  Lugduni,  apud  viduam  Antonii  de  Harsy,  ad 
insigne  scuti  Coloniensis,  1612,  fol. 

In  this  pref.  the  '  typographus'  tells  the  reader  that  Isaac 
Casaubon  '  nobis  notarum  loco  lectiones  quasdam  varias  et  con- 
jecturas  suppeditavit.' 

I  have  not  examined  this  edition.  But  I  suspect  that  Casau- 
bon had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  that  the  '  various  readings' 
and  '  conjectures'  were  taken  by  Madame  de  Harsy^s  editor  from 
the  volume  of  '  Animadversiones'  published  by  Casaubon  in  1600. 

1614. 

De  rebus  sacris  et  ecclesiasticis  exercitationes  xvi  ad  Baronii 
annales,  Londini,  1614,  fol. 

1615. 

A  letter  of  Mr.  Casaubon,  with  a  memorial  of  Mris.  Elizabeth 
Martin,  late  deceased.  .  .  .  8vo.,  London,  printed  by  Nicholas 
Okes,  for  George  Norton,  1615. 

The  title  page  is  separate,  but  the  letter  forms  an  appendix  to 
'  The  King's  Way  to  Heaven/  by  James  Martin,  Master  of  Arts, 
1615,  8vo. 

1617. 

Isaaci  Casauboni  ad  Polybii  historiarum  librurn  primum  com- 
mentarii,  ad  Jacobum  i,  Magnse  Britannise  regem  serenissimum5 
(oliva  Stephani),  Parisiis,  apud  Antonium  Stephanum,  typogra- 
phum  regium,  1617,  8vo. 

1621. 

Is.  Casauboni  Animadversionum  in  Athensei  deipnosophistas 
libri  xv.  .  .  .  secunda  editio  postrema  authoris  cura  diligenter 
recognita,  et  ubique  doctissimis  additionibus  aucta  .  .  .  Lug- 
duni,  ap.  viduam  Ant.  de  Harsy  et  Petrum  Ravaud,  in  vico 
Mercuriali,  ad  insigne  S.  Petri,  1621,  fol. 

The  '  diligenter  recognita '  of  this  title  page  is  certainly  frau- 
dulent. As  to  the  'additions/  Meric,  or  Florence,  Casaubon 


540  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS 

may  have  communicated  some  of  Isaac's  '  secundse  curee,'  but  I 
have  not  collated  the  edition,  with  a  view  to  ascertain  this. 

1637. 

Isaaci  Casauboni  epistolse  quotquot  reperiri  potuerunt  mine 
primum  junctim  editse,  Hagse  Comitis,  ex  officina  Theodori 
Maire,  1637,  4to. 

1656. 

Isaaci  Casauboni  Epistolse  editio  secunda  Ixxxii  epistolis 
auctior  et  juxta  seriem  tempomm  digesta,  curante  Johanne 
Georgio  Grsevio,  Magdeburgi  et  Helmstadi,  sumptibus  Christiani 
Gerlachi  et  Simonis  Beckensteini,  Brunsvigse,  excudit  Andreas 
Dunckerus,  1656,  4to. 

1684. 

M.  Tullii  Ciceronis  Epistolarum  Libri  xvi  ad  T.  Pomponium 
Atticum  ex  recensione  Joannis  Georgii  Grsevii  cum  ejusdem 
animadversionibus,  et  notis  integris  Petri  Victorii,  Paulli 
Manutii,  Leonardi  Malhespinse,  D.  Lambing  Fulvii  Ursini,  Sim. 
Bosii,  Fr.  Junii,  Aus.  Popmse,  nee  non  selectis  Sebast.  Corradi, 
Is.  Casauboni,  Joan.  Fred.  Gronovii  et  aliorum,  Amstelodami, 
sumptibus  Blaviorum,  et  Henrici  Wetstenii,  1684,  3  vols.  8vo. 

Casaubon's  notes  extend  over  the  first  seventeen  epistles  of 
Book  i.  only.  The  papers  from  which  they  were  printed  were 
supplied  to  James  Gronovius  by  Meric  shortly  before  his 
death  in  1671.  They  represented  one  of  Isaac's  courses  of 
lectures  at  Geneva.  See  Cas.  ep.  986. 

From  these  papers  Grsevius  selected  'quse  cseterorum  inter- 
pretum  studium  et  sollertiam  fugerant.' 

1709. 

Isaaci  Casauboni  Epistolse  insertis  ad  easdem  responsionibus 
....  accedunt  huic  tertise  editioni  prseter  trecentas  ineditas 
epistolas,  Isaaci  Casauboni  vita ;  ejusdem  dedicationes,  prsefa- 
tiones,  prolegomena,  poemata,  fragmentum  de  libertate  eccle- 
siastica,  item  Merici  Casauboni  I.  F.  epistolse,  dedicationes, 
prsefationes,  prolegomena,  et  tractatus  quidarn  rariores,  curante 


BY  ISAAC  CASAUBON.  541 

Theodore   Janson   ab  Almeloveen,  Roterodami,  typis   Casparis 
Fritsch  et  Michaelis  Bohm,  1709,  fol. 

1710. 

Casauboniana,  sive  Isaac!  Casauboni  varia  de  scriptoribus 
librisque  judicia  ...  ex  varii  (sic)  Casauboni  MSS.  in  bibliotheca 
bodleiana  reconditis  nunc  primum  erutse  a  Jo.  Christophoro 
Wolfio,  prof.  publ.  philosoph.  extraordinario  in  academ.  Witte- 
berg.  .  .  .  Hamburg!,  sumptibus  Christian!  •  Libezeit,  typis 
Philippi  Ludovici  Stromeri,  anno  1710,  I2mo. 

1710. 

In  Kuster's  Aristophanes,  published  in  this  year  at  Amster- 
dam, 2  vols.  fol.,  were  printed  '  Isaaci  Casauboni  Notse  in 
Equites.'  They  are  in  torn.  2.  pp.  76—103.  Kuster  says  of 
them,  prsef.  ad  lectorem,  'Notae  Casauboni  licet  non  seque 
elaborate  sint  ac  alia,  quse  habemus,  eruditissimi  illius  viri 
opera,  prajlectiones  enim  potius  fuisse  videntur,  in  tironum 
usum  conscriptae,  plurima  tamen  in  illis  occurrunt  ex  in- 
terioribus  literis  deprompta,  subtiliterque  et  ingeniose  ex- 
cogitata,  neque  auctoris  sui  nomine  indigna.' 

The  MS.  from  which  Kuster  had  them  copied  is  now  in  the 
Bibl.  nat.  These  notes  on  the  *  Equites '  are  not  the  same 
as  the  'in  Aristophanem  observata,'  contained  in  Advers.  torn. 
23,  in  the  Bodleian,  which  are  very  slight  memoranda  jotted 
down  when  reading  through  the  whole  of  Aristophanes,  at 
Strassburg,  in  January,  1593. 

1827. 

Epistolse  virorum  doctorum  ineditse  quas  e  codice  autographo 
bibliothecae  academicse  Lignicensis  transscripsit  Dr.  Fridericus 
Schultze  academise  equestris  professor  et  bibliothecse  prsefectus, 
Lignitii,  1827,  4to. 

Contains  16  letters  of  Is.  Casaubon  to  Abraham  de  Bibran. 


542  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS 


PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 

1.  Is.  Casauboni  corona  regia  id  est  Panegyric!  cujusdam  vere 
aurei  quern  Jacobo  I   magnse  Britannise  etc.,  regi  fidei  defensori 
delinearat  fragmenta   ab    Euphormione  inter   schedas  TOV  /xa/c- 
apirov    inventa,  collecta    et    in   lucem   edita    1615  pro  officina 
regia  Jo.  Bill,  Londini,  I2mo.  pp.  128. 

A  mock  panegyric  of  James  i,  fathered  upon  Casaubon  by 
its  author,  Scioppius,  to  give  effect  to  the  satire.  A  reward 
was  offered  for  the  discovery  of  the  author,  which  was  claimed, 
as  late  as  1639,  by  Jean  de  Perriet,  a  Brussels  bookseller.  See 
Calendar  of  Clar.  State  Papers,  i.  195. 

2.  Misoponeri  Satyricon,  cum  notis  aliquot  ad  obscuriora  prosa3 
loca  et  grsecorum  interpretatione,  Lugduni  Batavorum,  apud  Se- 
bastianum  Wolzium,  1617,  I2mo.  pp.  143. 

This  is  attributed  by  Placcius  to  Isaac  Casaubon,  and  Placcius 
was  copied  by  Querard.  The  error  has  not  been  corrected  in 
the  new  edition  of  Querard  by  M.  Gustave  Brunet. 

3.  The  originall  of  idolatries  :  or  The  birth  of  heresies  :  a  true, 
sincere,  and  exact  description  of  all  such  sacred  signes,  sacrifices, 
and  sacraments  as  have  been  instituted  and  ordained  of  God 
since  Adam,  with  the  true  source  and  lively  anatomy  of  the 
sacrifice  of  the  masse.     First  faithfully  gathered  out  of  sundry 
greeke  and  latine  authors,  as  also  out  of  divers  learned  fathers  ; 
by  that   famous   and   learned  ISAAC    CASAUBON,   and    by 
him  published  in  French,  for  the  good  of  God's  church  :  and 
now  translated  into  English  for  the  benefit  of  this  monarchy  ;  by 
Abraham  Darcy,  London,  printed  by  authoritie  for  Nathaniel 
Butter,  anno  dom.  1624,  4to.  pp.  108. 

4.  Phrynicus,  Epitome  dictionum  atticarum  libri  iii  .  .  .  Aug. 
Vindel.  typis  Michaelis  Mangeri,   1601,  4to. 

At  the  end  of  the  volume,  in  some  copies,  and  following  '  Index 
auctorum/  are  '  ad  Phrynicum  et  ejus  interpretem  viri  illustris 


BY  ISAAC  CASAUBON.  543 

notse,  a  Davide  Hoeschelio  Augustano  editse  .  .  .  Aug.  Vindel. 
4to. 

Of  these  brief  notes.  Menage,  Antibaillet,  i.  161,  says,  *  I  have 
leard  M.  Mentel  say  that  Casaubon  was  the  author.'  No  one, 
however,  can  doubt  that  they  are  by  Scaliger,  and,  as  Scaliger's, 
they  were  reprinted  by  de  Pauw,  and  by  Lobeck,  the  latter 
adding,  '  nam  Scaligeri  quidem  nullam  unam  literam  perire  fas 
duco/  See  Bernays,  '  J.  J.  Scaliger,'  p.  183. 


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PA  85  .C3  P3  1875  SMC 

Pattison,  Mark, 

Isaac  Casaubon,  1559-1614