Jean Claude

1619-1687. French Huguenot* preacher. After studying theology at Montauban, he began his work as a pastor at La Treisse. Next he moved to St. Affrique before settling at Nîmes in 1654; here he also lectured in the Protestant Academy. In 1661, the year when a synod over which he presided refused the idea of reunion with Rome, he was prohibited from preaching. He moved to a professorship at Montauban (1662- 66), but again fell foul of the government. Between 1666 and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes* (1685) he was in Charenton, Paris, where as a respected Huguenot leader he engaged in controversy with leading Roman Catholics, the Jansenist Arnauld* and the celebrated J.B. Bossuet,* among others. About 1686 he went to live at The Hague, where he died. He wrote many books; two of them were widely read in English translations: An Account of the Persecutions of the Protestants in France and On the Composition of a Sermon.