Boquin (or Bouquin), Pierre

Boquin (Or Bouquin), Pierre, a French Protestant theologian, was born at the beginning of the 16th century in the province of Guienne. He studied at Bourges, and received his degree as doctor of theology April 23, 1539. He joined the order of the Carmelites, and was appointed prior. Having embraced the views of the Reformation, he left France in 1541, and went to Basle, Wittenberg, and Strasburg. In the last-named place he occupied the chair formerly held by Calvin, and commenced his lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians. But the love for his own country brought him back again to Bourges, where he lectured on Hebrew and exegesis, protected by the queen of Navarre, to whom he dedicated his treatise De Necessitate et Usu Sacrarum Literarium. In 1555 he was again obliged to leave the country, and went to Strasburg, where he acted for some time as preacher of the French Church. When in 1557 the university of Heidelberg was reformed, he was appointed professor there. He took an active part in the religious controversies of his time, and was present at the colloquy at Maulbronn. In 1574 he was obliged to give up his chair with the rest of the Calvinistic professors, since he would not subscribe to the Lutheran dogma of the ubiquity of Christ, and went as professor to Lausanne, where he died in 1582. His writings, which mainly treat of the controversy between the Lutherans and Catholics, are given in Haag, La France Protestante, 2, 404. See Hundeshagen, in Herzog's Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Lichtenberger, Encyclopedie des Sciences Religienses, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v. (B. P.)