Jacques Lenfant: Difference between revisions

[[File:Portret van Jacques Lenfant, RP-P-1910-4425.jpg|thumb|Jacques Lenfant]]

'''Jacques L'enfantLenfant''' (13 April 13, 1661, [[Bazoches-en-Dunois]], [[Beauce|La, France|Beauce]] - August 7, August 1728, [[Berlin]]), [[France|French]] [[Protestant]] divine, was born at [[Bazoches-en-Dunois]] in 1661, son of Paul L'enfantLenfant, Protestant pastor at Bazoche and afterwards at [[Châtillon-sur-Loing]] until the revocation of the [[edict of Nantes]], when he removedmoved to [[CasselMarburg]] in the [[Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel]].<ref>{{cite web|author1=Société archéologique et historique de l'Orléanais|title=Mémoires de la Société archéologique de l'Orléanais - CONCOURS DE 1880. - OUVRAGES COURONNES - TOME DIX-NEUVIÈME|date=1883 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57181016/f330|publisher=ORLÉANS, IMPRIMERIE DE GEORGES JACOB, CLOÎTRE SAINT-ETIENNE, 4|location=Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Collections numérisées, 2008-278668|page=262|language=French}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author1=Société archéologique et historique de l'Orléanais|title=Mémoires de la Société archéologique de l'Orléanais - CONCOURS DE 1880. - OUVRAGES COURONNES - TOME DIX-NEUVIÈME|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rnRnnc0s_WsC&pg=PA262|publisher=ORLÉANS, IMPRIMERIE DE GEORGES JACOB, CLOÎTRE SAINT-ETIENNE, 4|location=Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Collections numérisées, 2008-278668|page=262|language=French}}</ref>

After studying at [[Saumur]] and [[Geneva]], L'enfantLenfant completed his [[Theology|theological]] course at [[Heidelberg]], where in 1684 he was ordained minister of the French Protestant church, and appointed chaplain to the dowager electress palatine. When the French invaded the [[ElectoralElectorate of the Palatinate|Palatinate]] in 1688 L'enfantLenfant withdrew to [[Berlin]], as in a recent book he had vigorously attacked the [[Jesuits]]. Here in 1689 he was again appointed one of the ministers of the French Protestant church; this office he continued to hold until his death, ultimately adding to it that of chaplain to the king, with the dignity of [[Consistorialrath]]. He visited [[Netherlands|Holland]] and [[England]] in 1707, preached before [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], and, it is said, was invited to become one of her chaplains. He was the author of many works, chiefly on church history. In search of materials he visited [[Helmstedt]] in 1712, and [[Leipzig]] in 1715 and 1725. He died at Berlin on 7 August 1728.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

An exhaustive catalogue of his publications, thirty-two in all, will be found in J. G. de Chauffepié's ''Dictionnaire''. See also Eugène and Émile Haags' ''La France Protestante''. He is now best known by his ''Histoire du [[Council of Constance|Concile de Constance]]'' ([[Amsterdam]], 1714; 2nd ed., 1728; [[English language|English]] trans., 1730). It is of course largely dependent upon the laborious work of [[Hermann von der Hardt]] (1660-1746), but has literary merits peculiar to itself, and has been praised on all sides for its fairness. It was followed by ''Histoire du Concile de Pise'' (1724), and (posthumously) by ''Histoire de la guerre des Hussites et du Concile de Basle'' (Amsterdam, 1731; [[German language|German]] translation, [[Vienna]], 1783-1784). L'enfantLenfant was one of the chief promoters of the Bibliothèque Germanique, begun in 1720; and he was associated with [[Isaac de Beausobre]] (1659-1738) in the preparation of the new [[French language|French]] translation of the [[New Testament]] with original notes, published at [[Amsterdam]] in 1718.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}