Claude Brousson

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Claude Brousson (* 1647 in Nîmes , † November 4, 1698 in Montpellier ; pseudonym: Paul Beausocle ) was a French Protestant theologian and martyr .

Life

Claude Brousson was born in Nîmes in 1647. He became a lawyer in Castres and later in Castelnaudary and worked at the parliament in Toulouse from 1679 . He stood up for the Huguenots , whose rights were increasingly restricted. Because of his work Brousson was to be imprisoned in 1663, but fled to the Cevennes . From there he went to Lausanne and stayed there for some time.

In 1685, the Huguenots in France were finally deprived of all rights, their churches and schools were destroyed, they were banned from worshiping in private and they had to accept the Catholic faith. Brousson first traveled to Berlin and finally to Amsterdam in order to get Protestants from other countries to stand up against the oppression of the French Huguenots.

Finally, he returned to France in July 1689 and preached despite all the dangers, although all Huguenot preachers were to be expelled from the country. He kept hiding in caves or forests, sometimes for several months, because a bounty of 5000 livres had been placed on him . Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz described Brousson's situation as follows: " [...] [he] was not secure for an hour of his life [...] ".

Brousson was able to travel to Lausanne in December 1693 and received his ordination there in March of the next year . He then traveled to the Netherlands and London to support Huguenots from other countries. In September 1695 he returned to France and continued his work there. In September 1696, however, he was again forced to flee and fled from Franche-Comté (Free County of Burgundy) to Switzerland.

In the following year he tried to legalize Protestantism in France again through appropriate clauses in the Peace of Rijswijk , but his action was unsuccessful. He then returned to France in August 1697, but was betrayed and arrested on October 18, 1698 in Béarn . On November 4, 1698, he was publicly executed in Montpellier by being strangled .

At the same place, on the esplanade , other Protestant clergymen were to be executed, including Matthias Desubas .

Works

  • L'Etat des réformés en France (three parts; The Hague 1685)
  • La Manne mystique du désert ou Sermons prononcés en France dans les déserts pendant les années 1689-1693 (Amsterdam 1695)
  • Lettres pastorales sur le cantique des cantiques à l'épouse de Jésus-Christ qui est sous la croix (The Hague 1697)
  • Lettres et Opuscules (Utrecht 1701)

Remembrance day

November 4th in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claude Brousson in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data
SURNAME Brousson, Claude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beausocle, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French evangelical theologian and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH 1647
PLACE OF BIRTH Nîmes
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1698
Place of death Montpellier