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Isaac de Beausobre, born in Niort (Western France), was a French preacher who studied theology in France, followed by a short period as a preacher in Châtillion-sur-Indres. When the Edict of Nantes, which assured toleration of protestant activities and organization, was revoked in 1685, De Beausobre fled to Rotterdam together with his family.
Once in the Lowlands, De Beausobre was appointed preacher by the Synod of Delft. But he was apparently not satisfied with his position, or longed for greater prestige, as he moved again only a year later. He became court preacher at the court of the Prince of Anhalt Desau. De Beausobre ended up moving again some years later, when, after the death of the prince, he travelled to Berlin in order to be appointed to a French church there.
De Beausobre has become most famous for his writings on the Manichaeans, notably his two-volume work Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme (vol. 1 in 1734, vol. 2 in 1739). In these volumes, De Beausobre clarified how this late-ancient ‘sect’ can be seen as the precursors to the eventual Reformation. Unsurprisingly, and also according to De Beausobre’s own expectations, such views were rejected firmly by more conservative critics as “an unwarrantable defamation of the fathers of the early church and commendation of the arch-heretic Mani.”
One of De Beausobre’s greatest achievements was the uncovering of the fact that the Acta Archelai — a document supposedly written by Archelaeus, a Christian polemic against Manichaeans in the fourth century AD — was a falsification.
Link to the two volumes by De Beausobre in the Catalogue ➤
Beausobre, Isaac De. Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme (Amsterdam: J. Frederic Bernard, 1734-1739).
Blok, P.J. and P.C. Molhuysen. Nieuw Nederlands biografisch woordenboek, deel 3 (Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff’s Uitgevers-Maatschappij, 1914).
Ries, J. Introduction aux études manichéennes (Louvain and Paris, 1957)
