Isaac Casaubon - Paris

Paris

Casaubon remained in Paris till 1610. These ten years were the brightest period of his life. He had attained the reputation of being, after Scaliger, the most learned man of the age, in an age in which learning formed the sole standard of literary merit. He had money, the ability to worship as a Huguenot (though he had to travel to Hablon or Charenton to worship), and the society of men of letters, both domestic and foreign. Above all, he had ample facilities for using Greek books, both printed and in manuscript, the want of which he had felt painfully at Geneva and Montpellier, and which only Paris could supply at that time.

Despite all these advantages, Casaubon considered many schemes for leaving Paris and settling elsewhere. Offers came to him from various quarters, including Nîmes, Heidelberg and Sedan, France. His friends Lect and Giovanni Diodati wished, rather than hoped, to get him back to Geneva. In Paris, Casaubon was still uneasy about his religion: the life of a Parisian Huguenot was always insecure, for the police were likely not strong enough to protect them against a sudden mob uprising. Since the Fontainebleau Conference, an impression prevailed that Casaubon was wavering. The Catholics told him he could gain a professorship only if he renounced Protestantism. When it became clear that Casaubon could not be bought, Henry IV, who liked Casaubon personally, took it upon himself to try to convert him. (Henry himself had converted to Catholicism in order to rule France.) The king's cardinal Duperron, in his capacity of aumonier, argued with Casaubon in the king's library. On the other hand, the Huguenot theologians, especially Pierre du Moulin, chief pastor of the church of Paris, accused Casaubon of conceding too much, and of having departed already from the lines of strict Calvinistic orthodoxy.