Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
a noted French religious author, was born at Nimes, October 4, 1787, being the descendant of a family of Huguenot pastors. He was educated at Geneva, and studied law at Paris. During the literary period of his life (1812-30), he was successively professor of history at the Sorbonne, secretary-generai of the interior, journalist, etc. To this period belong his Du Gouvernement Representatif et de l'Etat Actuel de la France (1816): — Des Conspirations et de la Justice Politique (1821): — Des Moyens de Gouvernement et d'Opposition (eod.): — De le Peme de Morten Matiere Politique (1822): — Essais sur l'Histoire de France (1823): — L'Histoire de la Revolutioin d'Angleterre (1827, 1828, 2 volumes): — L'Histoire de la Civilisation Depuis l'Etablissement du Christianisme (1829). With the year 1830 Guizot's political career commenced, and it was mainly due to his efforts as minister of public instruction that a reform of the educational system of France took place. In the year 1816 Guizot published his Essai sur l'Histoire et sur l'Etat Actuel de Instruction Publique, in which he insisted that the state had the right of managing and controlling the public instruction. This idea he now developed, and introduced many improvements, especially in the primary and higher schools. In ecclesiastical respects, Guizot was the main support of orthodoxy in the Reformed Church of France. In 1852 he was chosen president of the consistory. He was opposed to liberalism of any kind in religious matters. He was orthodox, and clung to the Credo of his Church. In 1872 he was obliged, on account of feeble health, to retire from the presidency of the synod. He died at Val de Bocher, September 12, 1874. Of his religious works, we mention, L'Eglise et la Societe Chretienne (1861): — Meditations sur l'Essence de la Religion Chretienne (1864; Engl. translation, N.Y. 1865): — Meditations sur la Religion Chretienne dans ses Rapports avec l'Etat Actuel des Societes (1865-68, 3 volumes): — Les Vies de Quatre Grands Chretiens Franqais (1868; Engl. translation, and 1868): Meimoires pour Servir a l'Histoire de mon Temps (1858-68, 9 volumes). He was one of the founders of the Societe Biblique in 1826, of the Societe pour Encouragement de l'Instruction Primaire in 1833, and of the Societe l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais in 1857. When, in 1861, Guizot had to make a reply to the address of the new academician, Pere Lacordaire, he defended and justified the papacy and the worldly power of the pope, whereas the Dominican praised Protestant America. This address of Guizot made a great stir. The Catholic papers, especially the Univers, rejoiced, and hoped soon to see Gutizot return to the Church of Rome. But in spite of this Guizot remained in his Church, and from his words in his testament, "I die in the bosom of the Reformed Christian, Church of France, in which I was born, and to have been born in which I rejoice," which have been quoted in full, we see that Guizot made all allowance to the Church of Rome, without becoming one of her members. See Mazade, Portrait d'Histoire Morale et Politique du. Temps Jacquemont Guizot, etc. (Paris, 1875); Madame de Witt. nee Guizot, Monsieur Guizot dans sa Famille Et Avec Ses Amnis (ibid. 1880; English transl. Lond. and Boston); Lichtenberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religienses, s.v.; Plitt Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v. (B.P.)
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
A celebrated French historian and statesman, born at Nîmes; his boyhood was spent at Geneva, and in 1805 he came to Paris to study law, but he soon took to writing, and in his twenty-fourth year had published several works and translated Gibbon's great history; in 1812 he was appointed to the chair of History in the Sorbonne; on the second restoration became Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Interior; the return of Napoleon drove him from office, but on the downfall of the Corsican he received the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Justice; in 1830 he threw in his lot with Louis Philippe, became Minister of Public Instruction, Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister; his political career practically closed with the downfall of Louis Philippe; his voluminous historical works, executed between his terms of office and in his closing years, display wide learning and a great faculty of generalisation; the best known are "The History of the English Revolution" and "The History of Civilisation"; as a statesman he was honest, patriotic, but short-sighted (1787-1874).
