FERRY, PAUL: French Protestant; b. at Metz Feb. 24, 1591; d. there July 28, 1669. He was educated at the seminary of Montauban and became pastor of the Reformed Congregation at Metz in 1612. Here he labored, as preacher and author, for fifty-seven years. He was a very prolific writer; but most of his works still remain in manuscript. His principal work is the Catéchisme général de la Reformation de la Religion (Sedan, 1654), in which he showed that the Reformation was a necessary result of the corruption of the Church. This book called forth a refutation from Bossuet, then canon and archdeacon of Metz. The disputation thus begun led to mutual esteem between the contestants, and in 1666 Ferry carried on a lengthy correspondence with Bossuet in the interest of a fusion of Protestantism and Catholicism, which was then being considered by the French government. He had already labored in vain to secure a union of the various branches of Protestantism, and had even induced John Durie (q.v.) to come to Metz in 1662 to discuss the subject with him. His Lettre aux ministres de Genéve (in Bibliothéque anglaise, vol. ii.), in defense of a poor lunatic who was burned at Geneva for blasphemies against the Trinity in 1632, has been called his best piece of writing. Ferry was an eloquent preacher, a man of learning, and had great influence among both Protestants and Roman Catholics.