Newton and the French Prophets: New Evidence

Manuel Frank E. , The religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford, 1974), appendices A and B; Jacob Margaret C. , The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689–1720 (Hassocks, Sussex, 1976), 100–1, 133–6, 154–5. The most relevant MSS can be found in the Babson College Library, Massachusetts, the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, and microfilms of the Jerusalem MSS as well as others of equal importance are deposited at the University Library, Cambridge. Research for this essay was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Pocock J. G. A. , The Machiavellian moment. Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition (Princeton, 1975), 338–48.

Mss Gregory , University Library, Edinburgh, Folio DC. I. 61, f.707. I first discussed this evidence in November 1977, at a seminar held by the History and Philosophy of Science faculty at the University of Leeds, and I am grateful to them for their comments on that occasion.

Jacob M. C. , The Newtonians, 255–6.

Manuel F. E. , A portrait of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), 205.

Ibid., 192.

Manuel F. E. , Isaac Newton historian (Cambridge, 1963), 156.

Ibid., 146, 288n.

Jacob J. R. , Robert Boyle and the English Revolution (New York, 1977), 120–9, 157–9, 177; for Evelyn see Jacob M. C. , The Newtonians, 120–4; Lamont William , “Richard Baxter, the Apocalypse and the Mad Major”, Past and present, no. 55 (1972), 68–90; Pocock J. G. A. , “Time, history and eschatology in the thought of Thomas Hobbes”, in Elliott J. H. Koenigsberger H. G. , eds, The diversity of history (Ithaca, N.Y., 1970), 149–98.

Manuel , The religion of Isaac Newton, 7. Cf. Kubrin David , “Newton and the cyclical cosmos: Providence and the mechanical philosophy”. Journal of the history of ideas, xxviii (1967), 325–46; Trengove L. , “Newton's theological views”. Annals of science, xxii (1966), 277–94. For another view, emphasizing Newton's intellectual debt to Fatio, see Walker D. P. , The Ancient Theology (London, 1972), 260–1.

Jacob M. C. , The Newtonians, ch. 3.

See the fine Ph. D. dissertation by Schwartz Hillel , “The French Prophets in England: A social history of a millenarian group in the early eighteenth century” (Yale University, 1974). Cf. Domson C. A. , “Nicolas Fatio de Duillier and the Prophets of London: An essay in the historical interaction of natural philosophy and millennial belief in the age of Newton” (Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1972).

There is a large and growing bibliography on the Camisards. Most recent is Joutard Philippe , La légende des Camisards. Une sensibilité au passé (Paris, 1977). Cf. Ascoli Georges , “L'Affaire des prophètes français”, Revue du dix-huitième siècle, iii (1916), 85–109; Almeras C. , La révolte des Camisards (Paris, 1959); Joutard P. (ed.), Journaux Camisards (1700–1715) (Paris, 1965); Leonard E. G. , Histoire générale du Protestantisme (Paris, 1964), iii, 12–22; and Jacob M. C. , The Newtonians, ch. 7.

Turnbull H. W. , ed., The correspondence of Isaac Newton, iii (Cambridge, 1961), 45, 245, 263, 391. It is my understanding that the last volume of correspondence, now in press, will contain a few Fatio letters to Newton.

For example see Français MS , 603, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève; MSS 28, 33–34, Dr Williams' Library, London.

The Royal Society, Gregory MS 247, f. 63.

Jacob M. C. , The Newtonians, 124–34.

Français MS , 603, alphabetized list, with tribe designations, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève.

Bost Charles , ed., Mémoires inedits d'Abraham Mazel et d'Elie Marion sur la guerre des Cévennes 1701–08. Publications de la Societé huguenote de Londres, xxxiv (Paris, 1931), 158.

Marion Elie , Prophetic writings of Elias Marion, heretofore one of the commanders of the Protestants, that had taken arms in the Cevennes (London, 1707), 10–11.

Spence Joseph , Anecdotes, observations and characters of books and men. Collected from the conversation of Mr. Pope, and other eminent persons of his time (London, 1820), 56–57, 72.

Marion E. , Prophetical warnings, 22, 105, 175.

Mss Sharp , Borthwick Institute microfilm, York, 3/0.