DRELINCOURT, drê"lan"cūr', CHARLES: French Reformed pastor; b. at Sédan July 10, 1595; d. in Paris Nov. 3, 1669. He was educated at Sédan and Saumur, and was pastor of the Reformed Church of Charenton, near Paris, from 1620 to his death. He was a prolific writer, and two of his works achieved extraordinary success: Consolations de lâme fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort, reprinted, in more than forty editions, as late as Nîmes, 1819, Eng. transl., The Christian's Defence against the Fears of Death (4th ed., London, 1701; 27th ed., Liverpool, 1810; the sale of the translation is said to have been promoted by Defoe's True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal the Next Day after her Death to one Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury the 8th of September, 1705, London, 1706, in which the dead lady recommended Drelincourt's book. Defoe's work is included in many editions of the translation). Delincourt’s other important work was Visites charitables out consolations chréiennes pour toutes les, personnel affligées (5 vols., Charenton, 1669, and often, translated into six languages). In English the work appeared in five small volumes, each devoted to a visit upon a particular class of afflicted persons (London, 1785).

 

Bibliography: A Memoir is affixed to the ninth and subsequent editions of The Christian's Defence, London, 1719. Consult E. and É. Haag, La France protestante, ed. H. L. Bordier, Paris, 1877-86 (contains imperfect list of his writings); Lichtenberger, ESR, iv. 81-84.