THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
interests of the Dutch church. With the prince's other chaplain, De Villiers, he presided at the Walloon synods, and also represented the Walloon interests in the synods of the Dutch churches at Dort in 1574 and 157S, and in Middelburg in 1581. The Antwerp synod decreed in 1578 (art. 3): " Inasmuch as the court is in residence where there is a French church, the town church and that of the court shall become one church: the court chaplains combining with the other preachers to serve the united church as ministers of the same. Messieurs De Villiers and Taffin shall accordingly be considered ministers of Antwerp, and shall minister to the court, and should the court absent itself, the church of this town shall be obliged to provide it with one of these two, or some other chaplain, until the next synod." Taffin thus became preacher to the Walloon congregation. Owing to his French sympathies, the prince was obliged to leave Antwerp in July, and when the town was yielded to Parma by treaty, in 1585, Taffin also left and went to Emden, but the following year became preacher to the Walloon congregation in Haarlem until 1590, when he went to Amsterdam and preached there till his death.
Taffin was noted for his probity and eminent piety. He showed his moderation and forbearance in the controversy regarding Arminius, and in so doing roused suspicion of his own orthodoxy; though as a Calvinist he opposed the views of Arminius. Of hu earlier writings nothing is known, although he is mentioned in the Antwerp Index of 1570 among " authors of the first rank." He was prominent as a practical theologian. A little work entitled Des marques des enfans de Dieu et des consolations en leurs afflictions went through more than nine editions (1606, etc.; Dutch transl., 1593, etc.; Eng. transl., The Markes of the Children of God, London, 1590). He issued also four pamphlets bound in one, entitled Instruction contre les erreurs des Anabaptistes (Haarlem, 1589); an instructive treatise Vermaninghe tot liefde ende aehnoese ende van de schuldige plicht ende troost der armen (1591); the Trails de V amendement de vie (1594), is his best-known work, and was translated into Dutch in 1595 with fresh editions in 1628 and 1659; published in Latin in Geneva in 1602; and in Eng. transl., The Amendment of Life, London, 1595.
(S. D. Van Veen.)
Bibliogkaphy: C. Rahlenbeck, in Bulletin de la commission des eglises wallones, vol. ii., The Hague, 1887; C. Sepp, Drie Evangeliedienaren uit den tijd der Hervorming, pp. 1—80, Leyden, 1879; idem, Polemische und irenische The~ ologie, pp. 81-94, ib. 1881; H. Heppe, Geschichte des Pie' tismus und der Mystik in der reformirten Kirche, namentlich der Niederlande, pp. 95 sqq., ib. 1879.
TAGG, FRANCIS THOMAS: Methodist Protestant; b. at Union Mills, Md., June 2, 1845. He was educated in Carroll Academy, in his native town, where he was a teacher and principal until 1870, when he became a Methodist Protestant minister. After holding various pastorates in Maryland and Washington until 1884, he was chosen missionary secretary of his denomination, and organized its mission work in Japan. Since 1892 he has been editor of the Methodist Protestant. He was president of the general conference of the Methodist Protestants in
1904, and has been a delegate to such bodies as the Ecumenical Conference of Methodism, London, 1901, the Church Federation Conference, New York,
1905, and the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, Philadelphia, 1907
TAGGERT, ROBERT BREWSTER: United Presbyterian; b. at East Palestine, O., Sept. 16, 1842. He was educated at Westminster College (B.A., 1865) and at Xenia United Presbyterian Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1868. He began preaching as a missionary in New York City, and later held pastorates in North Kortright, N. Y., Washington, la., Mount Pleasant, Pa., Clinton, Pa., and Harriman, Tenn. He was one of the founders of Temperance (later American) University, Harriman, Tenn., where he was professor of ancient languages. He likewise taught in Ruskin College, Trenton, Mo., and in 1884-86 was professor of Greek in Westminster College. Theologically he describes himself as " independent, Judeo-Christian, with the Bible and sanctified reason as basis."
TAGORE, DEVENDRANATH: Hindu theist; b. in May, 1817; d. Jan. 19, 1905. His father, Dwarkanath Tagore, was a distinguished and wealthy Bengal lawyer and a merchant, a friend of Raja Rammohan Roy (see Rammohan Roy), and a colaborer with him in the religious reform movements of that day. The eldest son Devendranath grew up under the special instruction of his father's mother, who was a devout believer in idolatry. He attended the school founded by Raja Rammohan Roy, gaining a knowledge of Sanskrit, Persian, and English, besides his vernacular Bengali. In his autobiography he recognizes the temptations that wealth brought hin-.., leading him to forget his higher duties in the pleasure of the moment. At the age of eighteen, however, his mind passed through a change. While watching by his dying grandmother at the river bank, a strange sense of the unreality of all things entered his mind and he was filled with the ecstasy of the feeling of God's presence, followed, however, for a time by sadness and despair. At the age of twenty-one he picked up a torn leaf of a Sanskrit book which proved to be a verse from the Ishopanishad, and through it he was induced to make a deeper study of the Upanishads. He became absorbed in these studies, and decided to become a religious teacher. In order to make known his views to sympathetic friends, he established a society called the Tatwabodhini Sabha, to which finally even elderly and influential men were attracted. In 1842 he was first brought into contact with the Brahmo Somaj, which had been founded by Rammohan Roy, but since the death of its founder, in 1833, had 'been languishing. Devendranath's religious devotion, his talents, and wealth gave new life to the society. " Henceforth," says his biographer, Mr. Muzoomdar, " he was not only the leader, but the absolute all of the society; the committee was his making; he ruled it; the bulk of the expenses he paid; the monthly journal he controlled." The Tatwabodhini Sabha and the Brahma Somaj were amalgamated. Devendranath, perceiving that the members had not absolutely given up idolatry,