Larroque, Matthieu De

Larroque, Matthieu de a distinguished French Protestant theologian, was born at Lairac, near Agen, in 1619. He studied theology at Montauban, and in 1643 became pastor of the Church at Poujoh. The next year he went in the same capacity to Vitre, where he remained twenty-six years. In 1669 he was proposed as minister to the Church of Charenton, but the government opposed his nomination; similar reasons prevented his accepting a call as pastor and professor to Saumur. He shortly after went to Rouen, where he died, Jan. 31, 1684. Larroque was a man of eminent natural talents, extensive learning, and great activity. He wrote a large number of works, mostly polemical, the principal of which are, Histoire de l'Eucharistie (Amst. 1669, 4to; 2d ed. 1671, 8vo); a very scholarly work, by far his best, and of itself enough to make his name immortal: — Dissertatio duplex de Photino haeretico et de Liberio pontifice Romano (Geneva, 1670, 8vo): Observationes in Ignatianas Personii vindicias et in annotationes Beveregii in (Canones Apostolorum (Rouen, 1674, 8vo): a defense of Daille's work on the epistles of Ignatius against Pearson and Beveridge; Riponse au livre de M. l'veque de Meaux, De la Communion sous les deux especes (Rotterdam, 1683,12mo): — Nouveau Traiti de la Regale (Rotterdam, 1685, 12mo), in defense of the king's right to appoint ministers to the vacant churches in France: — Adversariorum sacrorum Libri iii (Leyden, 1688, 8vo), being part of an ecclesiastical history which he left incomplete. See Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, March, 1684, art. 5; Bayle, Dictionnaire Historique; Niceron, Memoires, volume 21; Histoire des Ouvrages des Savants, April, 1688; Haag, La France Protestante; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 29:697. (J.N.P.)