French, "William. D.D., a distinguished divine and m'athematieian, was educated at Cains College, Cambridge, and became second wrangler in 1811. He
soon after became fellow and tutor of Pembroke Col- lege, was made M.A. in 1814, master of Jesus College in 1820, and D.D. in 1821. He was successively ap- pointed vice-chancellor in 1821 and 1834, rector of Moor-Monkton, Yorkshire, in 1827, and canon of Ely in 1832. He died in 1849. He published A new translation of the Book of Psalms from the original He- brew (new ed. Lond. 1842, 8vo) : — A new translation of the Proverbs of Solomon from the oriffinal/Iebrew, with Notes by W. French and G. Skinner (Lond. 1831, 8vo). — Darling, C/jcliip. Bibliog. s. v.
French Confession {Confessio Gallicana). See Gallican Confession.
French Littheran Church. See France.
French Reformed Church. See France, and Refcirmation.
French Roman Catholic Church. See France, and Gallican Church.
French Prophets, the name given in England to a sect formed by the Camisards, who came over to Eng- land about 170G, and who brought with them the "gift of prophec3',"and soon made converts in England. The great subject of their predictions was the speedy estab- lishment of Messiah's kingdom. " Their message was (and they were to proclaim it as heralds to every nation under heaven), that the grand jubilee, 'the acceptable j'ear of the Lord,' the accomplishment of those numer- ous scriptures concerning the 7>eiv heavens and the neiv eartk, the lingdom of the Messiah, the marriage of the Lamb, thefrst resurrection, or the new Jerusalem de- scending from above, was noiv even at the door; that this great operation was to be eflTected bj' spiritual arms onh^, proceeding from the mouths of those who should by inspiration, or the mighty gift of the Spirit, be sent forth in great numbers to labor in the viiie>- yard; that this mission of God's servants should be witnessed to by signs and wonders from heaven, by a deluge of judgments on the wicked universally throughout the world, as fiunine, pestilence, earth- quakes, wars, etc. ; that the exterminating angels should root out the tares, and there shall remain upon earth only good corn ; and the works of men being thrown down, there shall be but one Lord, one faith, one heart, and one voice among mankind. And they declared that all the great things they had spoken of would be manifest over the whole earth within the term of three years. These prophets also pretended to the gift of languages, of miracles, of discerning, etc. : discerning the secrets of the heart ; the power of con- ferring the same spirit on others by the laying on of hands, and the gift of healing. To prove they were really inspired by the Holy Ghost, they alleged the complete joy and satisfaction they experienced, the spirit of prayer which was poured forth upon them, and the answer of their prayers by the ]\Iost High. These pretensions, however, laid the foundation of their detection and complete overthrow. They went so far as to pretend to raise the dead, and fixed upon one of their own number for the experiment, who was to rise on a particular day. But Dr. Emes did not rise" (Adams, Vieto of all ReUgions). Thej' obtained, for some time, considerable success in Great Britain, having their admiring followers not onlj' in London, but also in the chief provincial towns. They were even joined by some parties of infiuenee, such as Sir Richard Bulkely, Lady Jane Forbes, John Lacey, Esq., and others. Mr. Lacey, who was originally a member of Dr. Calamy's congregation, entered, we are told, " into all their absurdities, except that of a community of goods, to which he strongly objected, having an in- come of £2000 per annum." Tiie influence of the prophets sjieedily declined ; but their proceedings left a stigma for a time upon the reputation of the Hugue- not refugees settled in Britain. See Hughson, A Co- pious Account of the French and English Prophets, etc. (London, 1814). A curious tract, entitled A Brand
FRENCH VERSIONS
662
FRENCH VERSIONS
snalched from the Burning, by Samuel Keimer, who ■was one of the sect, and afterwards became a Quaker and came to America, professes to give an account of the French prophets " bj' one of themselves." The claims of the French prophets resemble, in some re- spects, those of the modern Irvingites (see English lie- tieic, ix, 22 sq.).
French Versions of the Holy Scriptures.— I. AVe mav gather from the conciliar edicts prohibit- ing the use of translations of the sacred books in the vulgar tongue that such existed as earl}' as tlie begin- ning of the 13th centurj' (Ada Concil. Tolas, c. 14, ap. ]\Iansi, xxiii, 197 ; comp. those also of the S^-nod of Tarragona in 1234, and Ceziers in 124G), and even as early as 1199, Pope Innocent III had heard that " evan- gclia, epistolas Pauli, moralia Job, et plures alios libros in Gallico sermone," were in use among the Albigenses (^JJpisf.ed. Baluze, i, 432) ; but we are very much in tlie dark as to the character of these translations, or the source wlience they emanated. Writers on the Wal- densian Churcli assert the existence of translations in the Romance dialect possessed by that church anterior to the 12th century (Wonastier, History of the Vuudois, p. 73; Henderson, The Vuudois, p. 248 ; Gillj', The lio- maunt Version of the GospelofSt.John, etc., Lond. 1848); but the evidence on wliich this is advanced does not stand the test of a thorough scrutiny. In the Nohla Letjezon, which contains the religious belief of that church, there are several citations of Scripture, but there is no evidence that these are made from any ex- tant version ; and, at an^' rate, this work cannot be jilaced earlier than the end of the 12th or beginning of the loth century (Hallam, Jli»t. of Lheruture, i, 26). ■\A'alter de Mapes sa^-s that, during the pontiticate of Alexander III (1159-1181), he was present at a synod at Rome where certain AValdensians presented to the pope a book written in the Gallic tongue, "in quo textus et glossa Psalterii iilurimorumque legia utrius- que librorum continebatur" {De Nvgis Cvrial. p. G4, Camden Society ed. ; Usher, De Chr. Ecclcs. Success. in Cy^^^.ed.Elrington, ii, 244); but it is doubtful wheth- er any part of this was in the vernacular except the gloss, -which in a translation would be of little use. That Peter Valdo himself possessed a vernacular trans- lation of the Scri])tures has been asserted; but, wlien examined, tliis tradition resolves itself into the fact that he retpiested a grammarian, Stephanus de Ansa, to supply him with a translation of the Gospels and other books of the Bible, '' et auctoritates sanctorum ;" but whether it was a "textus cum glossa," or "sen- tentias per titulos congregatas," the witnesses leave uncertain. From what Reiner saj'S (ap. Usher, I. c), "Cum esset [Valdus] aliquantulum literatus, Novi Testamenti textum docuit cos vulgariter," the pre- sumption is that no vernacular version existed, but that Valdo in preaching translated for his hearers, i. e., probably gave them the glosses which Stephanus had collected for him. Trithemius, however, expressly says, " Libros sacrte scriptura; maxime Novi Testa- menti sil)i in linguam Gallicam fecit transferri" {Ann. JIlrsdNgiens. ann. IIGO, i, 442). The MSS. of tlie Wal- densian versions preserved at Zurich, Grenoble, Dub- lin, and Paris are not of an earlier date than the IHth century, nor can the version thej' present claim any liigh anti(|uit3'. That vernacular versions of the N. T., and jiortions of the Old, existed among the so-call- ed Sectaries of the south of France from an earlj- pe- riod docs not admit of doubt, but wo are not in cir- cumstances to say anything definite concerning them. Dr. Gilly (p. xxii) lias called attention to tlie curious fact that an English ecclesiastic in 1345 disposed by will of a copy of tlie Romance Bible, " Ribulaui (Bibli- am ?) in Romanam linguam translatani" {Puhlicutions ofSurices Soc. for 1836, ii, 10). In the library of the Academie des Arts at Lj-ons there is a Codex contain- ing the N. T. in Romance, to wliich is appended the liturgy of the Cathari, indicating its origin among