did Father Coton, the king's favourite confessor, and the Bishop of Evreux (Du Perron), assail him. But Casaubon had alienated his protestant friends, who thought that he ought to have stood by the protestant champion whether right or wrong, while he did not in the least conciliate his Romanist enemies. In 1601 a patent was issued appointing him to the office of librarian to the king, but with the proviso that the then holder of the office (one Gosselin) should not be disturbed. The jesuits did their utmost to prevent his appointment; but through the influence of his constant friend, De Thou, he succeeded Gosselin, who died in 1604, as ‘garde de la librairie du roi.’ But he was still perpetually worried about his religion. It is highly probable that Du Perron did produce a considerable effect upon him. In their disputes Casaubon gave up much ground which the Calvinists held. Pierre du Moulin, minister of the church at Charenton where he worshipped, looked coldly upon him. In 1607 he lost his mother, whom, in spite of his straitened circumstances, he had helped with true filial piety; in 1608 his favourite daughter Philippa, and in 1609 Joseph Scaliger, died. This last loss affected him most of all. Madame Casaubon was perpetually ailing, and Isaac, who grudged every moment of his time diverted from his studies and devotions, did not grudge hours spent in attendance upon her. His children were constantly laid by with sickness. His cup of misery overflowed when the ‘convertisseurs,’ who had been unsuccessful with him, succeeded in making a worthless convert of his eldest son John, who, to his father's great grief, was admitted into the Roman catholic church in August 1610.
Casaubon desired to leave Paris, and he had many invitations to do so. His old friend Lect was anxious to have him back at Geneva, but with his present religious views Calvinistic Geneva was no place for Casaubon. Overtures were made to him from Heidelberg and Nîmes; he thought of retiring to Sedan; of visiting Venice, where he had an illustrious correspondent, Fra Paolo; and he seemed to be the natural successor to Scaliger at Leyden. England was at last selected. He had already held communications with the king while yet only James VI of Scotland, who could appreciate him as Henry IV certainly could not. But the sovereign was not his chief attraction. He could not submit to the papacy, but he had learned to respect the authority of the fathers. The Huguenot ministers scouted antiquity, but with the Anglo-catholics he was thoroughly in accord. The church of England realised in a great measure the ideal he had formed from the study of catholic antiquity; but he could not leave his post without the consent of the king. After Henry's death, however (14 May 1610), he was no longer bound either by gratitude or interest to remain in France—in fact, he would not have been safe there. Before he left Du Perron made one more effort; he pressed him upon the subject of the eucharist, on which his Huguenot friends considered him unsound. Casaubon agreed neither with Du Perron nor with Du Moulin, but, if he could once cross the Channel, he would find numbers with whom he would agree thoroughly. On 20 July 1610 an official invitation came to him from the Archbishop of Canterbury (Bancroft). A prebend of Canterbury 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; or, if he preferred it, he might throw himself upon the generosity of King James. After two months' delay, Casaubon set off in the suite of Lord Wotton of Marley. Archbishop Bancroft lived just long enough to see the eminent stranger, who was hospitably received by the Dean of St. Paul's (Overall), and spent the first year of his residence in England at the deanery. All the bishops received him with enthusiasm, but his special friend was Lancelot Andrewes, then bishop of Ely. Andrewes, more than any other man, had been instrumental in bringing him to England. ‘The only two men,’ he writes, ‘with whom I lived on intimate terms in London were the Bishop of Ely and the Dean of St. Paul's.’ Perhaps the happiest days he ever spent were in the bishop's company. ‘We spend,’ he writes, ‘whole days in talk of letters, sacred especially, and no words can express what true piety, what uprightness of judgment, I find in him.’ James I took to him at once, was perpetually sending for him, and kept him talking for hours, always on theology. He granted him a pension of 300l. a year from his own purse, in addition to the prebend at Canterbury, and invariably treated him with the utmost kindness. But Casaubon had a penalty to pay; he had to follow the court to Theobalds, Royston, Greenwich, Hampton Court, Holdenby, and Newmarket. King James was worth talking to, and a good talker himself. Casaubon ought also to have been relieved from the pressure of poverty, for besides his English income he still retained his French pension; but he was one of those men who would always be in money difficulties. He determined to make England his permanent home, took out letters of naturalisation,
