THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
synod of June 18, 1744. On Oct. 2 he returned to Lausanne. In that year the Reformed Church contained thirty-three pastors; Normandy had seventeen parishes, Poitou thirty, and Dauphin^ sixty; and in Nimes there were 20,000 believers. In 17 50 the number of clergy was forty-eight, in addition to eighteen candidates and fifteen students; and in 1763 there were sixty-two ministers, thirty-five candidates, and fifteen students. Despite e.xecutions, imprisonments, fines, dragonades, and the reenforcement of all the old restrictions, it became evident that such measures could not overthrow the church, and a period of tacit toleration prevailed from 1754 to 1760. The final years of Court's life were passed in quiet retirement, far from this scene of struggle. Though he was a prolific writer, the library of Geneva containing 116 volumes of his manuscripts, his only published work of value was his Histoire des troubles des Ccvennes, ou de la guerre des Camisards (Villefranche, 1760).
2. Antoine Court de Gebelin, the only son of the preceding, was born at Nimes Jan. 25, 1725, and died at Paris ^lay 10, 1784. After completing his education at Lausanne and Geneva, he was ordained in the former city (1754), but never held a regular charge. He acted as secretary and assistant to his father, and on the death of the latter became his informal successor. His life was devoted partly to the duties of his office and partly to scientific studies. The Galas affair in 1762, which created great excitement among the Protestants of France (see Rabaut, Paul), inspired Court to publish his Les Toulousaines, ou leltres historiques et apologcii(iuc.'i en faveur de la religion riformce (Edinburgh, 1763), but Voltaire, who had been a leader in the agitation, disapproved of the work, and Court in anger left Lausanne. After a tour of southern France, he settled in Paris, where he soon gained great popularity and in 1765 was appointed general deputy by the Protestants. About 1780 he was made royal censor, and availed himself of his double position to ameliorate the miseries of the Protestants. His fame as a scholar was established in 1773 by the first volume of his Le Monde primitif analyst': et compare aver le monde moderne (9 vols., Paris, 1773-84), a learned but capricious attempt to discover the original language and alphabet, and to give an allegorical interpretation of mythology, as well as of Greek and French etymologies, and the like. He also wrote Lfttre sur le magnitisme animal (1784) and the posthumous Devoirs du prince et du citoycn (1789), an<l collaborated on the Affaires d'Angleterre et de I'Amt'rique, a magazine edited by Benjamin Franklin and others (Antwerp, 1776 sqq.).
(ThEODOR ScHOTTf.)
Bibliography: E. Hugues, Anton Court, Histoire de la retlauration du protestantiame en France au xviiic. sihle, 2 vols., Paris, 1872 (the chief work); idem, M t moires d'Anioine Court, Toulouse, 1885 (autobiography); A. Coquerel, Histoire des rglises du desert, 2 vols., Paris, 181 1 (still of value); P. Rabaut, Les lettres d, A. Court, cd. A. Picherol-Dardier and C. Dardier, ib. 1885; ib. Les Itltn s h divers, ed. C. Dardier, ib. 1W»1; T. Schott, Die Kirche </, r WuaU, Halle, 1893; H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and the Relocation of the Edict of Nantes, vol. ii., New York, 1895 (from the newest sources); E. Combe, Anton Court et ses
sermons, Lausanne, 189G. The Bulletin de la societe de I'histoire du protestantisme frangais contains many notices of Court and his times.
Concerning Cortris consult J. G. Baum, M''moires de Pierre Carriire dit Corteis, Strasburg, 1871. On Roger, D. Benoit, Un martyr du desert, Jacques Roger, Toulouse, 1895. On Court de Gebelin consult C. Dardier, Court de Gebelin, Nimes, 1896 (an acute study).
COUSIN, cu"zah', VICTOR: Philosopher; b. in Paris Nov. 28, 1792; d. at Cannes Jan. 14, 1867. He studied at the '^colc Normale in Paris, and began to lecture on philosophy there and at the Sorbonne 1815. In 1821 he was removed for pohtical reasons, and during the next seven years gave himself to study, and produced the first volume of his Fragmens philosophiques (1826), his editions of Proclus (6 vols., 1820-27; 2d ed., 1864) and Descartes (11 vols., 1824-26), and began his translation of Plato (13 vols., 1822-40). In 1828 he was reinstated and for three years lectured to large audiences. After the Revolution of 1830 he became councilor of state, peer of France, director of the Ecole Normale, member of the Academy, member of the council of public instruction, and minister of public instruction in the cabinet of Thiers in 1840. He was the real head of the university, and for nearly twenty years dominated the teaching of philosophy in France; he also reorganized the French primary school system. The downfall of Louis Philippe in 1848 made an end of his political career, and the remainder of his life was spent in quiet, devoted to study and the collection of a remarkable library, which he left at his death to the professors of the university.
Cousin's direct influence on Christian theology was not great, but indirectly his activity was of consequence. He changed the character of French philosophy, and led its students from the materialism of the eighteenth century to the idealism of the Scotch school. Furthermore, he made an end of the dogmatic method of the French and Scotch philosophy and introduced the dialectic method of German philosophy. Fie was an eclectic and did not produce a complete system, but his eclecticism was not a mere mosaic. The vigorous understanding and vivid representation of the various philosophical systems which he gives are everywhere permeated by a spirit of idealism, which, in the latter part of his life, drew him and his pupils nearer and nearer to Christianity.
His literary activity was great. His writings on philosophy appeared in many editions with extensive changes; the following works and editions are named as important for the study of his system: Fragmens philosophiques (4 vols., 1847-48); L'histoire generate de la phihsophie (1861); Du vrai, du beau et du hien (1867); Cours de I'histoire de la philosophie moderne (8 vols., 1866). He edited the works of Abelard {Ouvrages inidits d'Ahtlard, 1836; Petri Abelardi opera, 2 xoh., 1S49- 1859). In the latter period of his life he published several studies of the li\'es of women of the sevent('(!nth century and their time (Jacqueline Pascal, IS 14; Mnie. de Longueville, 1853; Mme. de Hautefort, 1856; La Socirlr franraixe <iu xvii. sihic, 2 vols., 1S58; and others), which have much historical and literary value. Certain writings con-