DUBOSC, dü"bosc' (DU BOSC), PIERRE THOMINES: French Protestant preacher; b. at Bayeux (17 m, w.n.w. of Caen) Feb. 21,1623; d. at Rotterdam Jan. 2, 1692. He was educated at Montauban and Saumur, and at the age of twenty-three became pastor of the Reformed congregation of Caen. He was one of the first preachers of his Church to discard dogmatic sermons in favor of appeals to the imagination and feelings of his hearers, and the majority of addresses contained in his two collections of sermons (2 vols., Rotterdam, 1692; 4 vols., 1701) are practical applications of Biblical facts and concepts. In 1663 he presided over the Synod of Rouen, but having incurred the hostility of the Roman Catholics, he was banished to Châlons, though he was soon allowed to return. In the persecutions which increased in severity after 1665 he rendered valuable aid to his Church by his courage and skill in his negotiations with the court, where he won the favor of Louis XIV. On June 6, 1685, however, a decree of the Parliament of Rouen forbade him to exercise his office in France, and he accordingly went to Holland, where the prince of Orange received him with great honor. His biography, together with a valuable collection of addresses, maxims, and sermons, was published by his son-in-law, Philippe Legendre, under the title La Vie de Pierre Thomines, sieur du Bosc, ministre de Caen (Rotterdam, 1694; enlarged ed., 1716). A series of his sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians was translated into English by J. B. Law, together with an introductory essay and a biographical sketch (London, 1853).

(C. PFENDER.)