BERNARD, James, professor of philosophy and mathematics, and minister of the Walloon church at Leyden, was born on the 1st September 1658, at Nions, in Dauphiné. Having studied at Geneva, he returned to France in 1679, and was chosen minister of Venterol, a village in Dauphiné, whence he was removed some time afterwards to the church of Vinsobres, in the same province. But the persecution raised against the Protestants in France having obliged him to abandon his native country, he retired to Holland, where he was received with great civility, and appointed one of the pensionary ministers of Gauda. In July 1688 he began a political publication entitled Histoire Abrégée de l'Europe, which he continued monthly till December 1688. In 1692 he began his Lettres Historiques, containing an account of the most important transactions in Europe, with suitable reflections; and he carried on this work, which was also published monthly, till the end of the year 1698. It was afterwards continued by other hands, and consists of a great number of volumes. Mr le Clerc having left off his
Bibliothèque Universelle in 1691, Mr Bernard wrote the greater part of the twentieth volume, and carried on the five following volumes to the year 1693. In 1698 he collected and published Actes et Négociations de la Paix de Ryswic, in four volumes 12mo. In 1699 he began the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, which continued till December 1710. Mr Bernard having acquired great reputation by his works, as well as by his sermons at Gauda and the Hague, the congregation of the Walloon church at Leyden became extremely desirous to have him as one of their ministers; and a vacancy happening in 1705, he was unanimously elected to that office. About the same time Mr de Valder, professor of philosophy and mathematics at Leyden, having resigned his situation, Mr Bernard was appointed his successor; and the university presented him with the degrees of doctor in philosophy and master of arts. His public and private lectures occupied the greater part of his time; yet he did not neglect his pastoral function, but composed his sermons with great care, and also wrote two excellent treatises, one on a late repentance, the other on the excellency of religion. In 1716 he published a supplement to Moreri's Dictionary, in two volumes folio. The same year he resumed his Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, and continued it till his death, which happened on the 27th of April 1718, in the sixtieth year of his age.