tion, and by all who had the pleasure of being acquainted with him. He possessed considerable abilities, was distinguished for his good sense and sound judgment, and had (we are informed) so retentive a memory that it might be said he never forgot anything of what he saw, read, or heard. He understood ecclesiastical history perfectly well, and might always be consulted upon that subject with safety; for he would at any time name the persons, and even the most minute circumstances of time and place, relating to the events upon which he was consulted. He was a very eloquent preacher, though it is intimated that there was somewhat unfavourable in his appearance. Two volumes of his sermons have been printed in French; the first volume was published in 1712; it was reprinted at Amsterdam in 1730, two sermons being then added to the volume. The second volume was published then also.”
To the above, I add that, in 1735, a third volume of Mr. Bertheau’s sermons was published, containing Expository Discourses on several detached sections of Calvin’s Catechism. All the three volumes abound with solid instruction, imparted with affectionate earnestness, and in a very decided yet candid tone. The Gentleman’s Magazine announces: — “Died, 25th Dec, 1732, Rev. Charles Bertheau, a native of Montpelier, and late minister of the French Church in Threadneedle Street, to the poor of which he has left £400, and £1000 to his nephew.”
III. Rev. James Cappel.
The name of Cappel has many monuments in masterly writings on Biblical interpretation and sacred philology, and especially that imposing line of folio tomes, the Critici Sacri. A prince among the great scholars of his race was Louis Cappel, who is regarded as the father of Protestant sacred criticism. In 1609, being twenty-four years of age, and still thirsting for more knowledge, he commenced a two years’ residence in the University of Oxford. He died a Professor of Theology at Saumur. By his wife, Susanne, daughter of Benjamin Launoy, Sieur de Gravier and Pasteur at Chilleurs, he was the father of six children.
James Capel (as we called him), his third son, who was born 13th August 1639, was a refugee in England after the Revocation. His distinguished talents had obtained for him the professorship of Hebrew in the University of Saumur at the age of nineteen. We first meet him in London on 6th June 1689 in the Diary of John Evelyn, who says, “I din’d with the Bishop of Asaph [Lloyd]; Monsieur Capellus, the learned son of the most learned Ludovicus, presented to him his father’s works not publish’d till now.” From this memorandum it would appear that the learned refugee conversed with Bishop Lloyd in Latin. He was also a correspondent of Dr. Thomas Gale, Dean of York.[1] He became in 1699 the tutor of Martin Folkes, the younger (afterwards eminent as a scholar and antiquary, and man of science), then only nine years of age. This connection continued for seven years, and Mr. Cappel wrote to M. Le Clerc from Hillington Hall, February 1707 (n.s.), that his pupil was “a choice youth, of penetrating genius, and master of the beauties of the best Roman and Greek writers.”
A memoir of the life of the pre-eminent Louis Cappel may be found in Quick’s[2] MS. entitled “Icones Sacrae Gallicanae et Anglicanae,” in Dr Williams’ Library. The refugee son is there mentioned as a Professor of the Oriential Languages in London, “a gentleman far above my praises.” In 1708 he accepted a Chair in the Dissenters' College, called Hoxton Square Academy, which was vacant by the death of the Rev. John Spademan, where he was associated with the Rev. Joshua Oldfield, D.D., and the Rev. William Lorimer, M.A. There he taught “the oriental languages with the critical application of them in the study of the Sacred Scriptures.” The venerable refugee died in 1722, in his eighty-third year. Mr. Lorimer died in the same year, aged eighty. And Dr Oldfield, who was sixty-five, seems to have retired; for the Academy was extinct before his decease. The institution, according to Bogue and Bennett, was “in high repute.” “Here,” says Dr. Harris, in a funeral sermon on Dr Oldfield (1729), “many were educated of great worth, and who now make a considerable figure in the world, in the ministry, and other learned professions, both in the Establishment and out of it.”
One of the letters in Des Maizeaux’s volumes is from Monsieur Cappel, and is one of the best of the whole correspondence; there is also a note from his son. From these we learn that the old scholar’s wife was alive in 1706, and himself and his son in 1716.
- ↑ On 1st February 1698 the Dean stood in Le Quarré French Church as godfather to Thomas Desgalenière, son of a refugee pasteur.
- ↑ On 1st June 1687, Rev. John Quick was entered in the register of Threadneedle Street as a witness to the baptism of Marie Gershomith Vialas, grand-daughter of Antoine Pérès, late professor at Montauban.
