RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Saturninus Savage
history. The narrative is supported by contemporary songs like those given or suggested in I Sam. xviii. 7; II Sam. i. 17sqq., and it is a misapprehension of its realistic character to assert ( Winckler) that the name Saul is not the name of a man but of a moongod. Cheyne's fantastic assertion {EB., iv. 4305) that Saul was a Jerahmeelite is just as unfounded. Saul's reign began promisingly and remained powerful to the end. He secured Hebrew independence and fought victoriously against Philistines, Amalekites. Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Aram Zoba. He also did good service in rooting out heathen practises (I Sam. xxviii. 3). His downfall was due to the loss of that humility with which he began his reign and to his growing self-will. His degeneration can be traced step by step, although he was not wanting in greatness of soul even to the end. (C. von Okelli.)
Bibliography : The commentaries and other works on I Samuel; the literature under David; and the works on that period of Hebrew history cited under Ahae ; Israel, History op; and Samuel. Consult further: J. A. Miller, Saul the First King of Israel, London, 1866; W. J. Deane, Samuel and Saul, ib. 1888; T. K. Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, pp. 1-126, ib. 1892; F. Schwally, Semitische Kriegsaltertilmer, Leipsic, 1901; H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, chap, vii., New York, 1903; G. Beer, Saul, David, Solomon, Tubingen, 1906; S. A. Cook, Critical Notes on O. T. History; the Traditions of Saul and David, London, 1907; DB, iv. 412-415; EB, iv. 4302-14 (elaborate); JB, xi. 74-78; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, fasc. xxxv. 1500-07.
SAUM, KONRAD. See Sam.
SAUMUR, so'mur: A town of France (155 m. s.w. of Paris) on the Loire, famous as the seat of the Protestant academy founded in 1598 by the national synod of Montpellier, and suppressed by royal edict Jan. 8, 1685. The academy, which developed the first fertile school of criticism in modern theology, owed to a certain extent both its existence and its scientific character to Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, the governor of the place, who watched the young institution with great tenderness (see Du Plessis- Mornay, Philippe, § 5). The Scotchman John Cameron (q.v.) became one of its first prof essors, and brought with him that spirit of free and independent research which afterward characterized the academy. Three of his disciples became professors there nearly at the same time, Mo'ise Amyraut (q.v.), Josue de la Place (see Placeus), and Louis Cappel (see Cappel, 3). The theological significance of the school is in large part due to the theory of hypothetical universalism connected with the name of Amyraut, and the Biblical researches of Cappel. Bibliography: A. Schweizer, Die protestantische Central-
dogmen in ihrer Entwicklung innerhalb der reformirten
Kirche, ii. 439-563, Zurich, 1856; Schaff, Creeds, i. 478
sqq.; Lichtenberger, ESR, xi. 467-472.
SAUR, CHRISTOPH. See Sower.
SAURIN, so-ran', JACQUES: The greatest pulpit orator of French Protestantism; b. at Nlmes Jan. 6, 1677; d. at The Hague Dec. 30, 1730. He was educated at Geneva, to which he had been taken as a child on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and in 1701 was ordained to the ministry. He immediately went to England, and for four years was pastor of the Walloon congregation in London, until a
position was especially created for him at The Hague in 1705, which he filled until his death. Through all these years his fame as a preacher steadily increased, and multitudes listened to his sermons, attracted not only by the diction, logic, and delivery of his addresses, but even more by the deep religious conviction and adherence to the Gospel which pervaded him. Apart from his sermons, his two chief works were his Discours historiques, critiques, theologiques et moraux sur les evenements les plus mi-movables du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament (4 vols., with 7 vols, of continuations by P. Roques and C. S. de Beausobre, Amsterdam, 1720-39; Eng. transl. of vol. i., on the Pentateuch, by I. Chamberlayne, London, 1723) and L'Etat du Christianisme en France (part i., The Hague, 1725-27). By far his most important productions, however, were his sermons, of which he himself published five volumes, and his son, Philippe Saurin, seven (best ed., The Hague, 1749; Eng. transl. by R. Robinson, H. Hunter, and J. Sutcliffe, 7 vols., Blackburn and London, 1800-06, and by S. Burder, 6 vols., London, 1824). These addresses, many of which have also been published individually and in selections, both in the original and in translation, range over the most diverse themes, from dogmatic theology to Christian social life. The underlying spirit in them all is essentially that of the French Reformed type of Biblical Christianity, though with a strongly ethical and practical, even a subjective and mystical, strain, while the apologetic element is also often present. The sermons are of great length, many of them doubtless requiring two hours to deliver; yet they are so compact that even their minutest subdivisions would frequently furnish material for a large number of sermons of ordinary preachers. On the other hand, both style and diction are often careless and hasty, and his sermons share the common fault of the time in the display of learning which burdens them, especially in the opening portions. In the exposition, however, and still more in the peroration, Saurin's genius reaches its climax, but in form and taste he is inferior to Bossuet, in delicacy and depth he falls below Bourdaloue, and in pathos he can not compare with Massillon. His worst fault, however, was lack of sympathy, despite his loftiness, his intellectuality, and his earnestness, and it was due to this deficiency that he never became popular and that he is now little read. (C. Pfender.)
Bibliography: Biographies are by: J. J. van Oosterzee, Brussels, 1856; J. P. Gaberel and Des Hours-Farel, Geneva, 1864. Consult further: C. A. Coquerel, Hist, des iglises du desert, i. 241 sqq., Paris, 1841; P. A. Sayous, Hist, de la litterature francaise, ii. 106 sqq., Paris, 1853; C. Weiss, Hist, des refugees protestantes de France, ii. 63 sqq., Paris, 1853; A. R. Vinet, Hist, de la predication parmi les reformes de France au 17. siecle, pp. 597-714, Paris, 1860; E. A. Berthault, Saurin et la predication protestante, Paris, 1875; E. Lambert, Essai homiletique sur la predication de Saurin, Montauban, 1892; Lichtenberger, ESR, xi. 472-475.