HUGUENOTS

The nickname given to the French Protestants who followed the teachings of John calvin. During the wars of religion the term referred to a militant political party. The Huguenots were the most revolutionary of 16th-century Protestants.

Origin of the Term. The official name given to the Huguenots before the French Revolution was the "pseudo-reformed" (les prétendus réformés ); after the revolution it was "French Protestants" or "Calvinists." The etymology of the term "Huguenot" is hazy. According to one view it may derive from the German Eidgenossen (confederates, conspirators), which in Geneva became eiguenotz —a popular term for those rebelling against authority. By coincidence the Genevan conspirators who revolted (c. 1520–24) against the Duke of Savoy and advocated union with the Swiss confederation were called "huguenots," after one of their leaders, Hugues Besançon, or Bezanson. According to another view the word hugonot was a local term, which in 1552 was used at Tours with reference to adherents of the reformed religion who gathered at night near the tower named after the legendary King Hugon. Still another legend has it that "King Hugon" was a nocturnal spirit in whose existence the inhabitants of Tours believed. Mockingly they called the Calvinists the disciples of Hugon or huguenaux. The term was in common use after the Conspiracy of Amboise, which occurred in 1560.

Doctrine and Organization . Both the doctrine and the organizational structure of Calvinism matured between 1510 and 1559. The pioneer brain of French reform was Jacques lefÈvre d'Étaples, the author of Quincuplex Psalterium … (1509) and of a Latin version of the Epistles of St. Paul (1512). In his commentary on the latter Lefèvre stated that the Scriptures are the chief authority in religious matters. After 1520 the writings of Luther gave the French reform movement a strong impulse. In 1535 appeared a revised version of Lefèvre's Bible by Pierre olivÉtan; and in March 1536, Calvin's Institutio Christianae Religionis (see institutes of cal vin), the most systematic exposition of Protestant doctrine. The book taught glorification of and obedience to God as the chief ends of man. It served as a declaration of faith, a justification for the new doctrine, and a program for the new Protestant adherents. The Institutes won Calvin many followers and helped to establish his leadership of the reform at Geneva, when he went to live there in the same year. His reform program soon proved too extreme for the Genevans and he and his associate William Farel were expelled from the city in 1538. Despite these fits and starts, Calvin and Farel returned to Geneva in 1540 and began to mold the city into a disciplined outpost of their reformed teaching. Throughout the 1540s and 1550s they were able to wrest important powers from the town council, despite the frequent vocal opposition of some of the town's most prominent families. By the 1550s, most of the components of Geneva's theocracy were in place: Christian ministers and magistrates shared power in a consistory that met regularly to discipline moral infractions and to insure purity of teaching and uniformity of belief and practice. At the same time Geneva became an important missionary training ground for the movement. The town's population doubled, swelled by students, disciples, and Protestant refugees from throughout Europe. Eventually these missionaries would carry Calvinist teaching back to their homelands.

Persecution. From the onset of his work as a reformer, Calvin had longed for the conversion of France and his missionary efforts at Geneva cannot be understood outside of his attempt to establish a Protestant Church in his native land. As the movement grew in France, so did the monarchy's desire to destroy heresy. Francis I (1515–47), who at first assumed an ambivalent attitude, decided in favor of persecution and passed a series of edicts to that end (1539, 1540, 1542, 1543). In 1545 the Sorbonne published a list of 65 condemned books, which included the works of Calvin, Luther, and Melanchton. Toward the end of Francis' reign persecution was encouraged by both the king and the Paris parlement (the chief organ of justice). Between 1544 and 1547 many were martyred in Toulouse, Rouen, Grenoble, Bordeaux, and Paris. Provence became the scene of a large-scale massacre of the Vaudois Protestants in which 3,000 died. The effort of Henry II (1547–59) to systematize persecution consisted of appointing a special commission of the Paris parlement (chambre ardente ) in 1547 to try heretics and of codifying in 1551 (Edict of Chateaubriand) all the previous enactments against them. But persecution proved ineffective. By 1555 Paris had its first Reformed church. In 1559 the first national synod, representing 72 churches, met at Saint-Germain and organized a National Evangelical Church. A confession of faith and disciplinary rules, as prescribed by Calvin, were drawn up (see confessions of faith protestant). Furthermore Calvin's compact organizational structure was adopted for the Church. The constitution prescribed the method of appointment of ministers and lay elders (grouped in the consistory), by whom each congregation was governed. Consistories were linked by the colloquy, or district assembly. Higher up the scale was the provincial synod; still higher was the national synod, conisting of two ministers and two elders for each province (see reformed churches).

Political Influence. After 1559 Calvinism came into the open, and for 70 years the Reformed Church played an important political role. Individual churches sought the protection of the nobility. The military and political organization of the party took shape. The leadership of the Huguenot organization was assumed by a president, known as the protector of the churches; the Huguenot system of laws extended to administration, justice, commerce, finance, and war. Military and ecclesiastical organization were closely related to each other. Thus, to conform with the military organization established in November, 1561 in the Provinces of Bordeaux and Toulouse, the congregation had its captain, the colloquy had its colonel, and the province had its general. After 1572 the religious elements in the Huguenot camp were dominated by the military and political factions; significantly, its religious organization was conducive to political separation. The final organizational structure did not come into being until 1611 (Assembly of Saumur).

During the short reign of Francis II (1559–60) persecution of the Huguenots was intensified by the Dukes of guise. Chambres ardentes were established under the local parlements; heresy was punishable by death, banishment, and confiscation. But the Huguenot ranks were strengthened by many nobles, like Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and the Dukes of Bourbon and condÉ, who became the party leader. (The Huguenot party remained mainly aristocratic until the end of the 16th century; then the character of its membership changed to include more "popular" elements, particularly middle-class towns-people.) The conspiracy of Amboise (1560), initiated by Louis I, Prince of Condé, against the Guises, ended in failure. Under Charles IX (1560–74) and the regency of the Queen Mother catherine de mÉdicis, a policy of compromise and concession was sought (inspired by Chancellor Michel de l'Hôpital). At the States-General of the same year Coligny tried to promote a program including a national council under the king to settle religious matters. The results were the suspension of persecution and the convening of a special religious conference of all beliefs in 1561 (see poissy, conference of). The chief spokesmen for the Catholics were Louis II de Guise, Cardinal de Lorraine, and for the Huguenots, Theodore beza. Other main participants included peter martyr vermigli and the Jesuit Diego laÍnez. No agreement resulted from the debates. The next step was taken by the government: the edict of January 1562, was a measure of toleration introduced by de l'Hôpital. Its intention was to grant the Huguenots civic status and the right to worship outside the towns; the Huguenot nobles were given the privilege of organizing religious rites on their own estates. But the attempts of de l'Hôpital and Catherine to bring peace were ineffective. The Guises strongly opposed the policy of conciliation, and both sides prepared for war. The massacre of Vassy (March 1, 1562) began the thirty years' war.

Wars of Religion. In the next two decades there were seven wars and the Massacre of st. bartholo mew's day (1572). Among the many leading Huguenots killed were Anthony de Navarre (first war), Louis I Condé (third war), and Coligny (St. Bartholomew); victims on the Catholic side were Marshal de St. André (first war), Francis, Duke of Guise (first war), and Constable Anne de Montmorency (second war). During the second decade the Huguenot organization was so strengthened and unified that it resembled a state within the state. Wherever they held power, the Huguenots imposed a rigid rule, which demanded obedience to their code and included censorship and severe penalties. They cultivated their own way of life and educational institutions (e.g., five academies: Montauban, Saumur, Nîmes, Montpellier, Sedan). The Holy league, which emerged in 1576 to meet the need for an alliance outside the monarchy and to make the counter reformation more effective, took the Huguenot organization as its pattern.

The Huguenots participated in the battle of ideas that accompanied the wars of religion; they were noted for vigorous political pamphleteering. Among the outstanding Huguenot books were: François Hotman's Franco-Gallia (1573), a defense of limited popular monarchy; Vindiciae contra tyrannos (1579), a classical work of the Huguenot monarchomach theory that justified the right to rebel against a tyrant; and Mémoires de l'Estat de France, edited by Simon Goulart (1576), a massive collection of materials relating to political theory.

The wars of religion were marked by an abundance of short-lived treaties and ineffective edicts. The socalled intervals of "peace" (Amboise, 1563; Longjumeau, 1568; Saint-Germain, 1570) were no more than truces. Measures intended to bring peace and order alternated with enactments revoking rights and privileges. The only measure of note (introduced before the Edict of nantes) was the Edict of Beaulieu, or of "Monsieur"(1576), which was revived the following year, after the Peace of Bergerac, as the Edict of Poitiers. Although it brought no essential change, it implied broad religious liberty—a remarkable achievement but a compendium of edicts previously passed.

Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes did not result from a true spirit of tolerance but from a number of political factors. These included the decline of the Guises; the rise to power of Henry de Navarre (a Huguenot who, upon the death of Francis, Duke of Alençon, Catherine's youngest son, became heir to the throne in 1854); and the growing influence of the politiques (include Navarre), who were anxious to end hostilities and put a stop to foreign influence.

Unlike its predecessors, the Edict of Nantes was to remain in effect, at least nominally, for 87 years. From the beginning, however, its fate was precarious. Despite genuine efforts to carry out its provisions, it was never applied in its entirely because French society was not ready to adopt its principles and was therefore unwilling to aid their application.

The relative sense of security enjoyed by the Huguenots ended with the assassination of henry iv in 1610. The reign of his son, Louis XIII (1610–43), saw the end of their political hopes. The Huguenot organization reached its peak at the Assembly of Saumur (1611), where final form was given to the representative system. In the religious sphere the existence of consistories, colloquies, and provincial and national synods was confirmed. In the political sphere, corresponding provincial councils, circles assemblies, and general assemblies were provided. The provincial councils, although known before Saumur, did not meet regularly before 1611; it was then that their continuous history began, to be interrupted after the fall of La Rochelle in 1629. Although not all the decisions made at Saumur were carried into full effect, the problem of extending political activities was taken up at La Rochelle in 1621. A provisional Protestant republic was then created, following the manifesto Ordre et Réglement Général, which gave a pattern for an autonomous organization. France was subdivided into eight departments, each to be headed by a governor general (chef général ) concerned with justice, finances, and the militia. La Rochelle was given a supreme court with the powers of an emergency tribunal.

In 1615 three Huguenot provinces—Languedoc, Guigenne, and Poitou—rose under the leadership of Henry de Condé (the party's spokesman, although not a Huguenot) against the Regent Marie de' Médicis as a protest against her pro-Spanish policy. Henry, Duke of Rohan, the official protector of the Huguenots, also took up arms. Hostilities ended with the Treaty of Loudun (May 3, 1616), which extended for six years the use by the Huguenots of their strongholds ("places of surety").

In 1620 another rising took place following restitution to the Catholic bishops of their property in Béarn after absorption of the latter by France. (Catholic worship was reintroduced to Béarn by Henry IV when he abjured Protestantism.) The revolt was led by Rohan and his brother Soubise. It ended with the Peace of Montpellier (Oct. 18, 1622), which confirmed the Edict of Nantes but forbade political assemblies without royal authorization and left the Huguenots only two "places of surety": La Rochelle and Montauban. Hostilities were started again in 1625 by Soubise, who first seized the Isle of Ré and then Oléron. Cardinal richelieu brought the war to a temporary end in February 1626. He needed internal peace in order to set out on an expedition to deal with the Mantuan succession and undertook no action until 1627.

Policy of Richelieu. In 1627, in accordance with his design to destroy the Huguenot party—a matter of raison d'état since the Huguenots constituted a threat to the central government—Richelieu launched a full-scale assault against La Rochelle, defended by Jean Guiton who was ineffectively aided by the English. (There were abortive attempts by the fleet of George Villiers, the duke of Buckingham, to support the beseiged city.) Richelieu entered La Rochelle on Oct. 30, 1628; he then led his forces against Rohan, took Privas, and beseiged Alais. Rohan capitulated, and Richelieu dictated the terms of the Peace of Alais (June 1629). The Huguenots lost their "places of surety" and became politically subservient to the state. Although the Edict of Nantes was reaffirmed in the sense that their liberty of conscience was preserved, the Huguenot party was in reality doomed.

Until his death in 1643 Richelieu refrained from active oppression of the Huguenots and created a fairly strong impression of being tolerant—an impression that persisted during his lifetime because events moved against his proselytizing plans (comprised in the Plan Codur). Richelieu accepted toleration of the Huguenots as a temporary political expedient, even as he ultimately aimed to eliminate the Huguenot minority. Richelieu had destroyed the Huguenots politically, not in order to assure their survival in the religious sphere but in order to make their religious practice at a later stage difficult and, much later, impossible. His political will was executed with great accuracy. Jules mazarin entirely, and louis xiv to a large degree, continued his policy. (The revocation of the Edict of Nantes probably reflected Richelieu's intentions quite accurately.)

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Persecution was begun again by Louis XIV (1661–1715) after Cardinal Mazarin's death (1661). The rights enjoyed by the Huguenots were gradually withdrawn; after 1680 the government resorted to brutal dragonnades, or quartering troops in Huguenot households, in order to force conversions. On Oct. 18, 1685, the Edict of Nantes was revoked, causing massive Huguenot emigration (between 200,000 and 300,000 left France). During Louis XIV's War of the Spanish Succession there was a Huguenot uprising in the Cevennes by the camisards (1702–04), led by Jean Cavalier. In 1724 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was confirmed. The situation did not change until 1787, when by the Edict of Toleration partial equality of rights was reestablished (except the right to hold public office) and marriages and baptisms in the Protestant faith were declared valid. The Calvinists were granted full equality by the Napoleonic code.

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[w. j. stankiewicz]