Isaac Casaubon - Travels and Tribulations

Travels and Tribulations

In 1598 Casaubon was at Lyon, overseeing the printing of his Athenaeus. Here he lived in the house of Méric de Vicq, surintendant de la justice (Superintendent of Justice), a liberal-minded Catholic. Accompanied by de Vicq, Casaubon briefly visited Paris, where he was presented to King Henry IV of France. The king said something about employing Casaubon's services in the "restoration" of the fallen University of Paris. In January 1599, he received a summons to return to Paris, but the terms of the letter were so vague that Casaubon hesitated to act on it. However, he resigned his chair at Montpellier. He stayed another year at Lyon with de Vicq, where he hoped to meet the king, who was expected to visit the south. Nothing more was heard about the professorship, but instead De Vicq summoned him to Paris for important business: the Fontainebleau Conference. Casaubon was persuaded to sit as a referee on the challenge sent to Du Plessis Mornay by Cardinal Duperron. By so doing he placed himself in a false position, as Joseph Scaliger said:

"Non debebat Casaubon interesse colloquio Plessiaeano; erat asinus inter simias, doctus inter imperitos" (Scaligerana 2).

The issue was contrived that the Protestant party (Du Plessis Mornay) could not fail to lose. By concurring with this decision, Casaubon confirmed the Protestants' suspicions that, like his friend and patron, Canaye du Fresne, he was contemplating abjuration. From then on, he became the object of the hopes and fears of the two religions; the Catholics lavishing promises and plying him with arguments; the Protestant ministers insinuating that he was preparing to forsake a losing cause, and only haggling about his price. Neither side could understand that Casaubon's reading of the church fathers led him to adopt an intermediate position between Genevan Calvinism and Ultramontanism.

Meanwhile, the king repeated his invitation to Casaubon to settle in Paris, and gave him a pension. No more was said about the university. The recent reform of the University of Paris closed its doors to all but Catholics; and though the chairs of the Collège de France were not governed by the statutes of the university, public opinion ran so violently against Protestants, that Henry IV dared not appoint a Calvinist to that position. When the king's sub-librarian Jean Gosselin died of extreme old age in 1604, Casaubon succeeded him, with a salary of 400 livres in addition to his pension.