One of the great historians of the 19th century was the Swiss Protestant minister Jean-Henri Merle D'Aubigné, who authored a History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century originally in five volumes and a History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin originally in eight volumes, as well as other works. These Histories became D'Aubigné's magnum opus.
In America, the family of Robert Baird and his sons Charles and Henry Baird all took a great interest in the history of the Huguenots, publishing multiple studies of the French and Swiss Reformations. In 1843, Robert Baird wrote a biographical sketch of D'Aubigné, introducing his writings to the American public. Many of D'Aubigné's essays were later translated into English from the original French by Charles Washington Baird in 1846. (At least one was translated by Thomas Smith Grimké, uncle of Francis James Grimké, author of a forthcoming book by Log College Press.)
More recently, in 2001, Sprinkle Publications in Harrisonburg, Virginia, has republished the Histories of D'Aubigné in multiple volumes. The first volume of the Sprinkle edition includes Robert Baird's Life of D'Aubigné, as well as the essays of D'Aubigné translated by Charles Baird. Thus, the biographical sketch and translation work of the Bairds has done much to introduce Americans of the 19th to the 21st centuries to this great Swiss pastor and historian.
Happy birthday to Henry Martyn Baird!
Henry Martyn Baird (January 17, 1832 - November 11, 1906) was a member of the notable Baird family, including his father Robert (1798 - 1863) and his brother Charles (1828 - 1887), all of whom contributed significantly to the American Presbyterian church of the nineteenth century by their ministry and writings. Like his brother Charles, Henry was an highly regarded historian of the French Huguenots (Robert too wrote of the "Waldensian Huguenots"). He lectured before the Huguenot Society of America, he wrote one of the premier biographies of Theodore Beza, and his volumes of histories on the Huguenots in France (his brother specialized in the history of the Huguenot diaspora), and he took a special interest in the 1598 Edict of Nantes, which granted certain liberties to the Huguenots, and its 1685 Revocation. He also wrote his father's biography and a volume on his travels and experiences in Greece. Although born in Philadelphia, with their father both Henry and Charles spent many years in Europe and were more widely-traveled than most Americans. Their experiences aboard led them to focus on European history for an American audience. If it is true that one can travel the world by means of a book in hand (or downloaded), so may one traverse the centuries. There is still much to be gleaned in the 21st century from these works for lovers of church history in the homeland of John Calvin.