, some time a minister of the church of England, and afterwards reconciled
, some time a minister of the church of
England, and afterwards reconciled to that of Rome, was
the author of some pieces which made a great noise in the
seventeenth century. From an account of his life, published by himself, it appears that he was born at Blois in
1657, and descended from a family of the reformed religion. He passed through his studies in divinity at Geneva. That university was then divided into two parties
upon the subject of grace, called “particularists
” and
“universalists,
” of which the former were the most numerous and the most powerful. The universalists desired nothing more than a toleration; an J M. Claude
wrote a letter to M. Turretin, the chief of the predominant party, exhorting him earnestly to grant that favour. But Turretin gave little heed to it; and M. de
Maratiz, professor at Groningen, who had disputed the
point warmly against Mr. Daille, opposed it zealously;
and supported his opinion by the authority of those synods
who had determined against such toleration. There
happened also another dispute upon the same subject,
which occasioned Papin to make several reflections. M.
Pajon, who was his uncle, admitted the doctrine of efficacious grace, but explained it in a different manner from
the reformed in general, and Juneu in particular; and
though the synod of Anjou in 1667, after many long debates upon the matter, dismissed Pajon, with leave to
continue his lectures at Saumur, yet as his inU rest there
was not great, his nephew, who was a student in that university in 1633, was pressed to con iemn the doctrine,
which was branded with the appellation of Pajonism.
Papin declared, that his conscience would not allow him
to subscribe to the condemnation of either party; on which
the university refused to give him a testimonial in the
usual form. All these disagreeable incidents put him out
of humour with the authors of them, and brought him to
view the Roman catholic religion w;th less dislike than before. In this disposition he wrote a treatise, entitled “The
Faith reduced to its just hounds;
” in which he maintained,
that, as the papists professed that they embraced the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, they ought to be tolerate' I by
the most zealous protestants. He also wrote several letters
to the reformed of Bourdeaux, to persuade them that they
might be saved in the Romish church, if they would be
reconciled to it,