Bible Encyclopedias
Monod, Frederic, D.D.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Monod, Adolphe

Next Entry
Monod, Horace

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

brother of the above, and, like him, celebrated for his great attainments as a divine, was born at Monnaz, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, May 17, 1794. He entered the ministry in 1820, and was a pastor of the Reformed Church in Paris until 1849. In 1824 he began the publication of the Archives du Christianisme, a leading organ of the evangelical portion of French Protestantism, and he remained its editor while he lived. At the time of the French Revolution, in 1848, Frederic Monod was the leader of a movement which resulted in the establishment of the union of free evangelical churches. The original intention of the movement was to restore the synodical constitution of the Reformed State Church, and to readopt a rule of faith which would exclude the Rationalists. When this attempt failed, Monod, count de Gasparin, and some of their friends, left the state Church (1849) and organized independent congregations, which soon after formed the "Union of Evangelical Free Churches." (See FRANCE).

Monod was constantly reelected president of the different synods, and always remained one of the leading spirits of this new denomination, which, although small in comparison with the two Protestant state churches (the Lutheran and the Reformed), contains some of the best and most influential men of French Protestantism as count de Gasparin, E. de Pressense, and pastor Fisch, who attended the last general session of the Evangelical Alliance held in New York City in 1873. The hope of bringing over the majority of the French Protestants to the evangelical free churches was not realized but the existence, spirituality, and prosperity of the Free Church greatly strengthened the evangelical party in the state Church, which has since steadily gained in influence, and appears to be at present in undisputed ascendency. (Comp. Zeitschrift fur historische Theologie [1851], No. III.) Monod, like all the members of the free evangelical churches, was an ardent admirer of American institutions. He, with his friends, pointed to the separation of Church and State as it exists here, and to the great amount of civil liberty which Americans are enjoying, as model institutions which the people of Europe, and especially of France, would do well to follow as much as lies in their power. The favorable opinion which he had always held of the United States was greatly strengthened by a journey he made through this country about 1855. After the outbreak of the American rebellion, he showed himself one of the warmest European friends of the Northern cause. He took a prominent part in all the demonstrations which the Protestant clergy made in favor of the Union, and in which they manifested a greater unanimity than the Protestant clergy of any other country in the world. Monod was himself one of the originators of the address — signed by the great majority of Protestant French ministers, and objected to by not a single one — in which Protestant France, through her clergy, recorded her opinion that "the triumph of the rebellion would throw back for a century the progress of Christian civilization and of humanity, would cause angels in heaven to weep, and would rejoice daemons in. hell; would throughout the world probably raise the hopes of the favorers of slavery and the slave-trade, quite ready to come forth at the first signal, in Asia, in Africa, and even in our refined cities of Europe; would give a sad blow to the work of evangelical missions; and what a terrible responsibility,would it impose upon the Church which should remain mute while witnessing the accomplishment of this triumph." The address is noted for the change of opinion it wrought, not only in France, but also in England. Frederic Monod died December 30, 1863, mourned not only by his own country, but by the Protestant world, which recognised in him a zealous champion of the evangelical cause the world over. He was so busy with his pen for all humanity that he found but little time for extensive composition. Most of his writings are embodied in the Archives which he edited. He published, besides, a few pamphlets and several of his sermons. See Archives du Christianisme, January 1864; and Dr. M'Clintock in the N.Y. Methodist, January 30, 1864. (J.H.W.)