He is number 54 in the de Treytorrens genealogy. He seems to have had two wives, his son Othonet apparently by Reymonde de Cronay, and his son Uldriod by a different mother. In 1395, this Uldriod had two brothers, Othonet and Jean, so it is likely the third son, father of Jean de Treytorrens of Moudon, was himself called Jean.
The story of Nicolas Samuel de Treytorrens is a strange, and to some extent a pathetic one. Henri Vuilleumier (Histoire de l'�glise r�form�e du Pays de Vaud sous le r�gime bernois, Lausanne: Editions La Concorde, 1927-1933, 4 volumes) devotes
50 pages to it (vol. 4, pp. 471-521).
The picture that emerges is that of a pathetic and very depressed man whose life is mainly known from his encounters with the governing authorities of his day—of the rest of his life, there is almost no information at all. However, to form a
complete picture of the man, it would be necessary to study the "Lettre Missive escrite � Leurs Excellences de Berne en Suisse" (1717) in great detail. This would not be an easy task: from the long quotations given by Vuilleumier, we would have to
agree, it is a work of signal obscurity, made worse by poor writing and editing.
For a shorter appreciation, let us quote the summary of his life that appears in the index to the Histoire, compiled by the editor, Frank Olivier. (Vuilleumier died in 1925, and his great Histoire was prepared for publication by a
committee under the auspices of the University of Lausanne.) The volume and page references are included to assist the reader who requires more information.
"Nicolas-Samuel de Treytorrens, sixi�me des sept enfants de B�n�dict, baptis� en 1671 � Montet, perd son p�re � sept ans, a peut-�tre �t� au coll�ge de Payerne, tr�s probablement � celui de Neuch�tel, o� sa famille avait de la parent�; ne fait pas
d'autres �tudes; en a, semble-t-il, �prouv� quelque regret. Excerce d�s vingt-six ans la mayorie h�r�ditaire. N'est pas sollicit� par sa famille ni par son entourage � un pi�t� personnelle vivante ou sp�ciale; a peut-�tre subi des influences
neuch�teloises. Se convertit on ne sait comment, se refuse � prendre la sainte c�ne, est d�nonc� par son pasteur et traduit devant l'Illustre Chambre de religion, avant 1705; s'en tire pour cette premi�re fois avec un avertissement et une menace.
"Se r�sout alors � s'exiler volontairement, plut�t que de r�pudier tout commerce avec les personnes qu'on repr�sentait suspectes de pi�tisme, et renonce � ses biens: III, 471-481. De cette nouvelle p�riode, soit douze ans au moins, nous ne savons
pour ainsi dire rien. Doit s'�tre rendu en Hollande et en Allemagne, o� il a men� une vie retir�e, sans doute dans les privations, et sans vouloir du mariage. On ne peut que lui supposer des relations avec certains pi�tistes; il ne dit pas de quel
auteur il s'est nourri, bien qu'il se soit manifestement inspir� de la litt�rature pi�tiste, d'Arnold et de Tennhardt incontestablement. En vient � un �tat d'esprit presque pathologique, mais sans pratiquer ni pr�cher le s�paratisme.
"On ne sait combien de temps il a v�cu � l'�tranger; en 1715-1716, passe quelque temps � Berne, allant et venant par son pays, recherchant le commerce des saintes �mes et prenant le parti des anabaptistes traqu�s par Berne; est renvoy� devant la
Chambre de religion, mis au cachot, banni � perp�tuit� des terres de Berne; prend cong� de sa famille, se rend � Neuch�tel puis gagne l'Allemagne, o� il aura mis la derni�re main � sa 'Lettre missive': III, 481-491. A partir de sa publication, rentre
pour nous dans l'ombre et le silence. En 1723 nous le savons � B�le, o� il a �t� traduit devant la Chambre de religion; semble �tre d�j� devenu plus mod�r�, mais est quand m�me invit� � quitter la ville. On ne sait o� il alla; en 1731, il est �
Yverdon. Mort o� et quant? On l'ignore. Peut-�tre avant 1738: III, 519-521.
"...Ame sinc�rement religieuse, homme de conviction respectable, mais esprit �troit et born� et voyant volontiers tout en noir: III, 472; pi�tiste la�que faisant fi de la science humaine et la condamnant contraire au christianisme: III, 497."
We have the impression is that he seized on the idea that his inate unhappiness was due to the material and sensory preoccupations of humanity (and to the extent that he believed his unhappiness was due to the corruption of other people, he is
engaging also in magical thinking), and so he would have made a fine hermit in a desert—but there were no deserts nearby, so he was simply unhappy. His contemporaries said that he eventually mistook the fantasies of his own mind for authentic
prophecy, and thus, if he were among us today, the word "misguided" might be applied.
Exactly why he conceived the idea of intervening on behalf of the anabaptists is not entirely clear. What is clear, however, is that he, like so many others before and since, had absolutely no concept of how to manipulate the Bernese bureaucracy to
achieve his ends. He had thought he could simply ask for their endorsement of his idea to travel to Italy to request the release of the anabaptists (or at least, their better treatment), and that Their Excellencies, responding to everyday logic, would
then send him on his way. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was so simple under Their Excellencies of Bern. He was, therefore, exceptionally na�ve as well as misguided.
Who, I ask rhetorically, was equally ill-informed during the history of the Pays de Vaud? The example of Major Davel springs immediately to mind, and it occurs to me they had much in common—a tendency to believe that the simple ideas they found
in their minds would really work, would really make sense to the rest of the world. (Davel also had pietist roots.) We meet such characters frequently in the history of the Pays de Vaud. They seem to have believed that Their Excellencies were good
men, as pious and charitable as their pronouncements were designed to make them appear, but misinformed by the bureaucrats. All that would be necessary, they thought, was to talk to them directly, man to man. They were mistaken, of course, but their
spectacular failures helped to prepare the way for the re-awakening of the Pays de Vaud in 1798.
He is number 302 in the de Treytorrens genealogy. Among his children was Guillauma, who married Guillerme de Pontheys of Grandson. They had at least one son, Nicolas de Pontheys alias Tretorens, who died before 1554. This suggests strongly that the next generation of de Treytorrens at Grandson might have inherited their surname through their mother, rather than their father. No other evidence for the parentage of the next generation, Fran�ois de Treytorrens, notary at Grandson who died before 1595, has come to light.
He is number 325 in the de Treytorrens genealogy. Minister at Yverdon 1620-1628, where he died caring for victims of the plague. He was at the University of Heidelberg in December, 1603 and at Leiden 28 feb 1606, age 21 (age evidently in error!), and at the Acad�mie de Lausanne, 1610 (Livre du Recteur).
Habitant of Moudon, 1323. Most of the information on this family is taken from Vuilleumier, Auguste, and Reymond Maxime, "Treytorrens", in Recueil des G�n�alogies Vaudoises, I (2), 189-242, 690-691 (Lausanne, 1914), which appears to be thorough and authoritative. Uldric is number 50 in this genealogy, and probably the brother of the chevalier Pierre, number 12.
