Benoit, Elias

, the son of a Calvinist, who was keeper of the hotel de laTremouille, was born in 1640. In his youth he appears not to have been exempt from dissipation, but the love of study predominated, and after the regular course he was chosen minister of Alenc.on. While there, he had a dispute with father Larue, a Jesuit, on the pretended falsifications in the Geneva translation of the Bible, and the celebrated Huet took his part so far as to blame the intemperance of this Jesuit. The letters which passed on this occasion may be seen in the first volume of a collection published by the abbe Tilladet. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes, Benoit went to Delft, and became minister of the Walloon church, in which situation he remained until his death in 1728. Much of this long life was embittered by his marrying a woman of a mean, sordid, and irritable temper, and some part of it was | disturbed by controversy. Besides the dispute already mentioned, he had another with Jacquelot, respecting the union of the two churches; one likewise with Le Clerc, on the first chapter of the gospel of St. John, and one with Van der Honert, on the style of the New Testament. His principal works were, 1. “Histoire de Pedit de Nantes,Delft, 1693 95, 5 vols. 4to. 2. “Histoire et Apologie de la retraite des pasteurs a cause de la persecution,” Francfort, 1687, 12mo. 3. “Defense” of this apology against d’Artis, ibid. 1688, 12mo. 4. “Melanges de remarques critiques, historiques, philosophiques, et theologiques,” against some of Toland’s writings, Delft, 1712, 8vo. 5. “Sermons et des Lettres.1

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Biog. Universelle.—Saxii Onomasticon, in Benedict; but a more full account from materials drawn up by himself is in —Chaufepie.