Note 1089 — Chapter XIII

It has always been surmised that Bodin, though not a Jew by nativity, was such by conviction. This is strongly confirmed by his Republic, wherein he quotes the Old Testament continually, and with great deference, but seldom or never the New. Several passages might be alleged in proof, but I have not noted them all down. In one place, lib. i. c. 6, he says, Paulus, Christianorum sæculi sui facile princeps, which is at least a singular mode of expression. In another he mentions the test of true religion so as to exclude all but the Mosaic. An unpublished work of Bodin, called the Heptaplomeres, is said to exist in many manuscripts, both in France and Germany; in which, after debating different religions in a series of dialogues, he gives the advantage to Deism or Judaism, for those who have seen it seem not to have determined which. No one has thought it worth while to print this production. Jugler, Hist. Literaria, p. 1740. Biogr. Univ. Niceron, xvii. 264.