Jean Graverol

Jean Graverol (* around 1637 in Nîmes , † 1718 in London ), pseudonym or Latinized Johannes Rolegravius , was a French Protestant theologian . He strongly represented the Huguenot religion and emigrated from France after the edict of Nantes was repealed (1685) to avoid religious persecution. First he lived briefly in Amsterdam and then in London. He was friends with the scholars Pierre Bayle and Jacob Spon .

Life

Jean Graverol was a younger brother of the French legal scholar and archaeologist François Graverol . According to his parents' wishes, he devoted himself to theology and, after completing his studies in Geneva , was appointed preacher in Pradelles (in what is now the Haute-Loire department ) in 1671 . In the following year he got a pastor's position in Lyon because he proved himself to be a thorough expert and defender of their doctrine among his co-religionists.

In his first polemical attempt De religionum conciliatoribus (Lausanne 1674), which he published under the pseudonym J. Rolegravius , an anagram of his Latinized name, Graverol vehemently denied the reformed preacher Isaac d'Huisseau's proposal at Saumur to unite all Christian denominations as a foolish and unfeasible fantasy. He also spoke with reference in the writings Réponse d'un theologies à un de ses amis sur quelques points de la discipline ecclésiastique (Lausanne 1679) and L'église protestante justifiée par l'église romaine sur quelques points de controverse (Geneva 1682) on the history of Christian customs decided in favor of its denomination. But in these two works, although he published the latter anonymously, he always observed the considerations owed to the opponent and stayed on the path given by scientific research. He did not abandon this in the justification of the famous reformer Théodore de Bèze ( De juvenilibus Theodori Bezae poematiis, epistola ad NC, qua Mainburgius aliique Bezae nominis obtrectatores accurate confutantur , Amsterdam 1683), as his memory from the Jesuit Louis Maimbourg because of his epigram De sua was vilified in Caudidam et Audebertum benevolentia .

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), Graverol fled to the Netherlands like many other Protestants . He stayed for some time in Amsterdam , where he issued his warning to those who had fallen away from Protestantism ( Instructions pour les Nicodémites, où, après avoir convaincu ceux qui sont tombés, de la grandeur de leur crime, on fait voir qu'aucune violence ne peut dispenser les hommes de l'obligation de professer la vérité , Amsterdam 1687). In this work he urged the Protestants who had involuntarily converted to the Catholic denomination during the persecution to leave France and move to a Protestant country. This pamphlet, which affects France's interests closely and was printed anonymously, was later seen under a slightly different title ( Instructions pour les Nicodémites, ou pour ceux qui feignent d'être d'une religion dont ils ne sont pas, et qui cachent leurs véritables sentiments , Amsterdam 1700 ) a second edition wrongly attributed to J. Gagnier.

From Amsterdam, Graverol went to London , where he was appointed head of a French Protestant church. He led this to the satisfaction of his community without giving up his writing activity. Here he wrote a religious manual for his co-religionists ( Des points fondamentaux de la religion chrétienne , Amsterdam 1697). He also tried to unite the various Protestant denominations of England by a representation of the task of the Reformation in general ( Projet de réunion entre les Protestants de la Grande-Bretagne , London 1689), which was unsuccessful. To achieve his goal he fought the exaggerations of all parties and the dangerous fruitful fanaticism. In particular, he was a relentless opponent of expanding prophethood and, in a pamphlet consisting of three letters ( Réflexions désintéressées sur certains prétendus inspirés, qui depuis quelque temps se mêlent de prophétiser dans Londres , London 1707), campaigned against the so-called prophets of the Cevennes , among them the mathematician and astronomer Nicolas Fatio de Duillier played a prominent role.

Title page of the Histoire abregée de la ville de Nîmes published in 1703

On the other hand, Graverol was just as firmly against the attacks of freer thinkers on the traditions of the Bible . He tried to refute the view of the creation of the world that the English theologian Thomas Burnet in the Archaeologia philosophica (1692) and based on geological research, that Genesis should be regarded as an allegory , in a counter scripture ( Moses vindicatus, sive asserta historiae creationis mundi aliarumque quales a Mose narrantur, veritas, adversus Th. Burnetii archaeologias philosophicas , Amsterdam 1694). But while Burnet's theory continued to be debated, Graverol's refutation was quickly forgotten.

Of the smaller writings of Graverol, we should also mention the biography of Thomas Sprat , the Bishop of Rochester , before the French translation of his observations on Sorbiere's journey ( Observations on M. Sorbiere voyage in to England ): Réponse aux faussetés et invectives de la relation de M. Sorbiere (Amsterdam 1675). Graverol also published an eulogy for Jacob Spon in the Nouvelles de la république des lettres by Pierre Bayle (February and June 1696) as well as several other articles in this journal. He also wrote a pamphlet intended to provide the Protestant refugees from Nîmes and their children with a souvenir of their former hometown ( Histoire abregée de la ville de Nîmes, où il est parlé de son origine, des beaux monuments de l'antiquité qui s' y voient, des hommes illustres qu'elle a produits, de ses martyrs… , London 1703).

Graverol, who was friends with the scholars Bayle and Spon, died in London in 1718.

Two of his works were put on the index by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith : Tractatus de religionum conciliatoribus (by decree of August 11, 1710) and L 'Église protestante justifiée par l'Église romaine (by decree of September 20, 1734).

literature

• Philipp H. Külb : Graverol (Jean) . In: Johann Samuelersch , Johann Gottfried Gruber (Ed.): General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 1st section, vol. 88 (1868), p. 277 f.

Remarks

1. ↑ Jean Graverol on data.bnf.fr
2. ↑ Jesús Martínez de Bujanda , Marcella Richter: Index des livres interdits: Index librorum prohibitorum 1600–1966 . Médiaspaul, Montréal 2002, ISBN 2-89420-522-8 , pp. 402 (French, Google digitized version ).