COQUEREL, AγhanaseJosuè (1820-1875), son of A. L. C. Coquerel, noticed below, a minister of the French Protestant Church, was born at Amsterdam in 1820. At an early age he succeeded his father as editor of Le Lien, and he held this post till 1852. In that year he took part in establishing the Nouvelle Revue de Théologie, which had the distinction of being the first periodical organ of scientific theology published in France. Meanwhile he had gained a high reputation as an eloquent and earnest preacher, and especially as the advocate of religious freedom in opposition to the imposition of tests. Advancing beyond his father’s doctrinal position, his teaching became more and more offensive to the old orthodox party; and on the appearance (1864) of his article on Renan’s Vie de Jésus in the Nouvelle Revue de Théologie, the storm of suspicion and dislike which had long been gathering burst on his head, and he was forbidden by the Paris Consistory to continue his ministerial functions. He received an address of regretful sympathy from the consistory of Anduze, and a provision was voted for him by the Protestant Liberal Union, to enable him to continue his preaching. This he did with much earnestness and success till within a few weeks of his death. Coquerel received the cross of the Legion of Honour in 1862. He died at Paris, July 25, 1875.
CoquereΓs principal writings are — Jean Calas et sa famille (1858); Des Beaux-Arts en Italie, (of which an English translation was published in 1859); La Saint Barthélemy (1860); Précis de s' église réformée (1862); Le Catholicisme et le Protestantisme con-lidérée dans leur origine et leur développement (1864); Libres études, and La conscience et la foi (1867)....
COQUEREL, Athanase Laurent Charles (1795- 1868), French Protestant divine, president of the Presbyterian Council of Paris, was born in that city, August 27, 1795. He received his early education from his aunt, Helen Maria Williams, an Englishwoman, who at the close of the 18th century made herself a reputation by various translations and by her Letters from. France. He completed his theological studies at the Protestant faculty of Montauban, and in 1816 was ordained pastor. During the following twelve years he resided in Holland, and preached with acceptance before Calvinistic congregations at Amsterdam, Leyden, and Utrecht. In 1830, at the suggestion of Cuvier, who then filled the office of minister of Protestant worship, Coquerel was called to Paris; and there he spent the rest of his life. Ardently attached to liberal ideas, he was not content with advocating them from the pulpit, but resolved to speak also through the press. In the first year of his Paris life he therefore established a periodical entitled Le Protestant, which was continued till December 1833. In the course of this year he was chosen a member of the consistory. In January 1834 appeared the first number of the Libre Examen, under the jointeditorship of Coquerel and Artaud, which was carried on till July 1836. Coquerel rapidly acquired the reputation of a great pulpit orator, and the liberal views which he announced with fearless freedom brought him more and more into antagonism with the rigid Calvinists. He took a warm interest in all matters of education, and distinguished himself so much by his defence of the university of Paris against a sharp attack, that in 1835 he was chosen a member of the Legion of Honour. Pained by the doctrinaldivergencieswhich separated the Protestants of France, and longing to bring about a real union, he originated, in 1841, a periodical entitled Le Lien, of which such union was the avowed object. The same year appeared his Réponse to the Leben Jesu of Strauss. After the revolution of February 1848, Coquerel was elected a member of the National Assembly, where he sat as a moderate republican, subsequently becoming a member of the Legislative Assembly. He supported the first ministry of Louis Napoleon, and gave his vote in favour of the expedition to Rome and the restoration of the temporal power of the Pope. After the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851, he confined himself to the duties of his pastorate, which he had not ceased to discharge. He was one of the most prolific of French sermon-writers, as well as one of the most famous orators of his day, and retained his popularity to the last. He died at Paris, January 10, 1868.
A large collection of his sermons was published in 8 vols, between 1819 and 1852. And in addition to the works already named, he was author of Biographic sacrée (1825-1826); Histoire sainte et analyse de la Bible (1839); Orthodoxie moderne (1842); Christo logie (1858), &c. These works have had a large circulation, and most of them have been translated into English, German, and Dutch.
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