Person: Saurin, Joseph

Joseph Saurin was a French mathematician who made contributions to the calculus.

Pierre Saurin was the only tutor for all three of his sons and he wanted them all to enter the ministry.
Saurin entered the Calvinist ministry as a curate in Eure in 1684 but was soon in trouble for his outspoken views which he delivered in sermons from the pulpit.
Saurin, always someone with strong opinions of his own, did not accept the doctrine of predestination as presented in the Consensus.
This now put Saurin in a very difficult position, unable to return to France as a Protestant minister.
Saurin now, however, found himself in difficulties since in October 1688 a French army marched into the Palatinate and a war had begun.
He appealed to the Académie Royal des Sciences but, although Saurin was correct, they had no wish to come out against Rolle who was a member.
Perhaps to be diplomatic, Saurin was elected to the Académie Royal des Sciences in 1707.
Saurin made contributions to the calculus, wrote on Jacob Bernoulli's problem of quickest descent and Huygens' theory of the pendulum.
Other contributions by Saurin include Manière aisée de démontrer l'égalité des temps dans les chutes d'un corps tombant par une cycloude ...
It is clear from the biographical details that we have related above that Saurin fell out with many people around him.

Born 1 September 1659, Courthézon, Vaucluse, France. Died 29 December 1737, Paris, France.

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O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive