MARETS, Samuel de, one of the most celebrated divines of the reformed church, was born in Picardy, VOL. XII. Part II.
in 1599. In 1620, he was settled in the church of Laon; but, in 1624, accepted a call to that of Sedan, to succeed James Cappel in the office of pastor and professor of divinity. Having soon after obtained leave of absence from his flock, he visited Holland, where he was admitted to the degree of doctor of divinity at Leyden, in 1625. From Holland he took a voyage to England, and after a short stay in that country he returned to Sedan, where he commenced his labours in the divinity chair. These he continued for about seven years with reputation to himself, but not without being sometimes involved in troubles, which he bore with a commendable resolution.
In 1631 he was made chaplain to the army of the duke de Bouillon in Holland; but that nobleman having married a Roman Catholic lady, M. de Marets advised him to adhere steadily to the Protestant faith, on which account he incurred the displeasure of the duchess. Thus circumstanced, he received in 1636, an invitation to become pastor to the church of Boësseduc, with which he complied, and in the following year he was appointed professor of the schola illustris of the same city. The duties of this office he discharged with such diligence and success, that in 1640, the curators of the university of Franeker sent him the offer of a professorship, which he declined; but two years after he accepted a similar offer from the university of Groningen, to which his services were devoted for upwards of thirty years. In 1652 he was made sole minister of the Walloon church at Groningen, where till that time he had gratuitously preached once every Sunday, to assist the pastor. Influenced by the fame of his extraordinary merits, the magistrates of Berne in 1661 offered him the chair of professor of divinity at Lausanne, with considerable emoluments, but he declined this offer; and his death happened before he took possession of a similar charge at Leyden, of which he had accepted. His System of Divinity was found to be so methodical, that it was made use of at other academies; and at the end of it may be found a chronological table of all his works. Their number is prodigious; and their variety shows the extent of his genius. He was moreover engaged in many disputes and controversies, and died in 1673.