Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné

He was profoundly influenced by Robert Haldane,[1] the Scottish missionary and preacher who visited Geneva and became a leading light in Le Réveil, a conservative Protestant evangelical movement.

It was in small extra-curricular groups led by Haldane, that Merle d'Aubigné and his peers studied the Bible; according to church historian John Carrick, no classes were offered in the Christian scriptures at the school at that time, their having been replaced by the ancient Greek scholars.

[2] When Merle d'Aubigné went abroad to further his education in 1817, Germany was about to celebrate the tercentenary of the Reformation; and thus early he conceived the ambition to write the history of that great epoch.

[5] During the Belgian revolution of 1830, Merle d'Aubigné thought it advisable to undertake pastoral work at home in Switzerland rather than accept an educational post in the family of the Dutch king.

"[2] Among minor treatises authored by Merle d'Aubigné, the most important are his vindication of the character and the aims of Oliver Cromwell, and his sketch of the trendings[clarification needed] of the Church of Scotland.