Chapter 11 Huguenot
The fortunes of the Roman Catholic Church in France are very interesting history. It is hard to believe that the same country produced Voltaire and St. Teresa of Lisieux; Bastille Day and Lourdes. France is a good study if you want to understand the difference between the Roman Catholic concept of "The City of God" and Christ's concept of a spiritual kingdom.
In the earthly "City of God" being constructed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, one sees flashes of brilliant saintliness in a society that is not at all touched by the spirituality of the saints that appear sporadically. However, the concept is that in some way the "Barque of Peter" is supposed to be making a difference, yet even the popes of pre-Reformation times displayed rare outbursts of saintliness and many fits of distemper. Nothing lasting is being produced, and no real changes are manifested.
Christ's Kingdom, however doesn't even consider the earthly status of the realm, but is slowly and surely building a structure not made with hands that will last forever.
While the pope was quarreling for centuries with Europe's monarchs, the King of Kings was still calling out a people for His name, and it seemed not to matter to Him that they were among the world's despised and rejected.
One of the causes for French Protestantism, according to a Catholic writer, was French nationalism. The growth of this was certainly not restricted to France, but it was a factor in the weakening power of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. France's part in The Great Schism (the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy to Avignon in France for seventy years) certainly weakened their devotion to an Italian papacy.
The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges issued by Charles VII of France in 1438, is also said to have had an adverse effect on Roman Catholic popularity in France. This decree accepted much of the reforming decrees of the council of Basle, which, according to Catholic theologians, was not an authorized council. Although for centuries political powers in Europe had been in constant conflict with the pope with varying success, most theologians loyal to the pope were distressed that Charles VII should meddle in what they felt was strictly a theological matter.
The Holy League had been formed to bolster Roman Catholicism in France, but Pope Julius II opposed it. It was, however, later supported by Pope Gregory XIII. The New Catholic Dictionary cites the Holy League as a reason for France's discontent, which discontent, they say, weakened the Faith. So we see a country in which the Roman Catholic faith was already weakened before the Huguenots came on the scene.
Priest Markoe says the Huguenots owe their origin to a great extent to William Farel, a nobleman who was a friend of John Calvin and contacted the Waldenses, who "infected him with erroneous ideas." The doctrinal "errors" of the Huguenots included denial of the supremacy of the pope, salvation by good works, purgatory, the sacraments and forgiveness of sin.
It is fairly easy to see that they were an extension of the Albingensian truth that had prospered in France and was so cruelly persecuted. Protestantism, now refueled by the recent Reformation, was again showing great virility and power in France. Those who embraced this faith were called Huguenots (from Besancon Hugues, a Protestant leader) and this name, to most Christians, is synonymous with the infamous St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre in Paris in 1572. Theologically, they were sons of John Calvin.
Papal forces were dedicated to the complete downfall of Protestant Christianity, and the king of France started what was to be one of the most dreadful days of history by the proposition of marriage between his daughter and Coligny, Prince of Navarre, one of the chief Protestants.
After four days of dining with the bishop (who performed the marriage) and the king of France, the prince was shot at and wounded. He said to his pastor, "O my brother, I do now perceive that I am indeed beloved of my God, since for His most holy sake I am wounded." He was advised to flee Paris, but he chose to remain and shortly thereafter was killed.
On a pre-arranged signal, the soldiers burst upon the Protestant citizens and began a calculated murder of them. The corpse of Prince of Navarre was thrown out of a window to the people, who beheaded it and sent the head to the pope, cutting his body limb from limb and finally hanging his body by the heels. The savage Catholic mobs indiscriminately murdered all who claimed the name of Christ, until the number reached at least 10,000. The bodies were thrown into the river, which became reddened with the martyrs' blood. From Paris the persecution spread over the countryside.
Atrocities, almost too horrible for print, were visited upon many dear servants of God who joined the martyrs of Hebrews 11 and remain a testimony of the faithfulness of the servants of God, and His faithfulness to see them to Heaven even though it had been with great suffering.
When news of the extent of this massacre reached Rome, the pope had a medal struck for the occasion, and a solemn Te Deum (Praise to God) was ordered to be sung. It looked like the powers of their papacy had again prevailed.
Louis de Wohl, in Founded On A Rock, excuses this action of the pope. He admits that the massacre occurred, and calls the event "shocking", but adds, "The French court reported it to the Pope as the defeat of a Protestant conspiracy by a timely counterattack, and Pope Gregory, misled into the belief that Catholicism had gained a legitimate victory, ordered a solemn Te Deum. Anti-Catholic sources made use of the incident to accuse the pope of having solemnized mass murder". It is hard to believe that the pope was so ill-informed as to the things that had been happening in France for some months that were all harbingers of this massacre.
Some other insights from the Protestant Women's League Winter 88/89 newsletter into the life of this pope, Gregory XIII, will be helpful in determining the truth of de Wohl's defense. Remembering how the writings of Luther had lessened the power of the popes, Gregory caused all Luther's books that could be found to be burned, and declared that if anyone should have any of Luther's books in his possession, he was worthy of death.
It was the same pope who sanctioned the proposed murder of Queen Elizabeth I in 1580. Actions speak louder than words. "By their fruits ye shall know them."
This Huguenot persecution lasted for over twenty years until finally, in 1598, an Edict of Toleration was given to the Protestant subjects in France.
By the Edict of Nantes, Henry IV guaranteed to his Protestant subjects liberty of conscience and of worship, absolute security to person and property, and equal rights and privileges before the law. The Edict continued in force for nearly 90 years, though its stipulations were often violated, and, under one pretence or another, the Protestants suffered frequent persecutions. It was, however, a period of relative peace.
On October 22, 1685, this Edict was revoked by Louis XIV. Reformed pastors were commanded to leave the kingdom within fifteen days, or go to the galleys as punishment (The galleys were the boats of the navy that were propelled by slave labor manning the oars on a lower deck. Not only was it rigorous and dangerous work, there was practically no chance for one confined to the galleys ever to gain his freedom. It was life imprisonment at hard labor with no chance of parole.)
All Protestant worship was forbidden, both public and private, and Protestant church buildings were ordered to be razed to the ground. Protestant schools were immediately closed, and all children born after 1685 were supposed to be baptized by the parish priests and raised Catholic. Many Protestants who attempted to flee were captured and sentenced to the galleys.
Nevertheless, many Huguenots chose to endeavor to escape. The French government made every effort to guard the frontier, because the official policy was to keep those of Protestant faith in the Kingdom "until it shall please God to enlighten them." Multitudes escaped and reached England, Switzerland, Holland, South Africa or Germany. The number of fugitives will never be known. Probably they number at least a quarter of a million who found liberty in foreign lands.
The fugitives were from every class of society, and adopted every variety of disguise - pilgrims, cattle-drovers, soldiers, footmen, beggars. Some bribed the guards who lined the frontiers, some crept along by-ways and through forests under cover of night. Others who could afford it paid guides to conduct them by intricate and unwatched passes. Some near the coast concealed themselves on ships, sometimes with the connivance of merchants and sailors, and were hidden among bales of goods or in empty casks.
Some ventured out to sea in open boats, in the desperate hope of reaching England, or to be picked up by some passing vessel. Many never reached their destination. The Count and Countess de Marance, with forty companions (including several aged folks and pregnant women), embarked in a small fishing boat. Driven off course by a violent storm, they nearly perished with hunger. For some days they kept themselves alive by subsisting upon melted snow, and at last they reached the English coast more dead than alive.
Many of their most eminent men in France - men of the first rank of nobility - vainly implored permission to quit the country. The Marquis de Ruvigny and Marshall Schomberg were almost the only exceptions. Admiral Duquesne, the founder of the French navy, was urged by the monarch to change his religion. The veteran, now eighty years of age, pointed to his hoary hairs, and replied, "For sixty years I have rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesars; let me still render to God the things that are God's." As a special favor he was allowed to remain without molestation.
While many succeeded in making their escape from the kingdom, many less fortunate ones were seized and sent to the galleys. Among these was David de Caumont, sixty-five years of age at the time of his arrest. One of the King's Council, Louis de Marroles, was imprisoned for months
at Chateau de la Tournelle, and then was marched to Marseilles, with a great chain of slaves, where he died in 1692.
Within a year of the revocation of the edict, well over one thousand Protestants were in the galleys. "On all the roads of the kingdom" says Benoit, "these miserable wretches might be seen, marching in large gangs, burdened by heavy chains, often weighing more than fifty pounds, and so fixed as to give the greatest amount of discomfort. When they sank down from exhaustion, the guards compelled them to rise and resume their journey by beating them. Their food was coarse and unwholesome, and insufficient in quantity, for the guards put into their own pockets half of the amount allowed for expenses. When they halted they were lodged in foul dungeons, or in barns where they lay upon the bare earth, without covering, and weighed down by their chains."
But it would weary the reader to narrate in detail the cruelties of the persecutors, and the sufferings of the oppressed. Abundant illustrations will be found in the histories of the period. Special reference may be made to the History Of The French Protestant Refugees From The Revocation Of The Edict Of Nantes, by Charles Weiss (Blackwood and Sons, 1854.) (from The Reformer, Protestant Alliance, London).
If this life were all, these martyrs for the faith might seem to be "of all men most miserable." But they are a part of the noble army of those who stood in days when it cost something to stand, and will one day rejoice in God's New Heaven and New Earth, when He Himself "shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
The Huguenots do owe a great deal to the Waldenses, and also appear to be doctrinally very much in the same league. The standard Bible of the Huguenots for hundreds of years was the translation of the Scriptures by the Waldensian scholar, Robert the Olivetan at the Collegium del Barba in Pra del Torno. Robert translated into French because, at that time and even extending to the present, this was largely the language of the Waldensian people, probably because of the assimilation of Albigenses and followers of Peter Waldo, all French; their proximity to France (their borders run together) and the hostility of the Italian people, nobility and clergy to these Christians.