ere married, and afterwards to those who were single. In either case
the pay was very small, scarcely sufficient to keep the wolf from the
door.

The students for the ministry were at first educated by Court and
trained to preach, while he was on his dangerous journeys from one
assembly in the Desert to another. Nor was the supply of preachers
sufficient to visit the congregations already organized. Court had
long determined, so soon as the opportunity offered, of starting a
school for the special education of preachers and pastors, so that the
work he was engaged in might be more efficiently carried on. He at
first corresponded with influential French refugees in England and
Holland with reference to the subject. He wrote to Basnage and Saurin,
but they received his propositions coolly. He wrote to William Wake,
then Archbishop of Canterbury, who promised his assistance. At last
Court resolved to proceed into Switzerland, to stir up the French
refugees disposed to help him in his labours.

Arrived at Geneva, Court sought out M. Pictet, to whom he explained
the state of affairs in France. It had been rumoured amongst the
foreign Protestants that fanaticism and "inspiration" were now in the
ascendant among the Protestants of France. Court showed that this was
entirely a mistake, and that all which the proscribed Huguenots in
France wanted, was a supply of properly educated pastors. The friends
of true religion, and the enemies of fanaticism, ought therefore to
come to their help and supply them with that of which they stood most
in need. If they would find teachers, Court would undertake to supply
them with congregations. And Huguenot congregations were rapidly
increasing, not only in Languedoc and Dauphiny, but in Normandy,
Picardy, Poitou, Saintonge, Bearn, and the other provinces.

At length the subject became matured. It was not found desirable to
establish the proposed school at Geneva, that city being closely
watched by France, and frequently under the censure of its government
for giving shelter to refugee Frenchmen. It was eventually determined
that the college for the education of preachers should begin at
Lausanne. It was accordingly commenced in the year 1726, and
established under the superintendence of M. Duplan.

A committee of refugees called the "Society of Help for the Afflicted
Faithful," was formed at Lausanne to collect subscriptions for the
maintenance of the preachers, the pastors, and the semin