 |
In 1559, Cranmer's [revised] Book of Common Prayer became the law of English liturgy. In 1559, delegates from 66 Protestant churches in France met at Paris in a national synod which drew up a confession of faith and a book of discipline. Thus was organized the first national Protestant church of France. Its members were thereafter commonly known as Huguenots. Queen Elizabeth established the Protestant religion in England. These years saw the end of the Renaissance, the outcome of the Reformation, and the beginning of the Age of Reason. England, because of its placement on an island, maintained its isolationist policies, at least in regard to other countries in Europe with the exception of France. |
In France, the Protestant persecution reached a height in 1572 at the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day and an estimated twenty to 110,000 people perished during that short time. The Warsaw Confederation (January 28, 1573), an important development in the history of Poland and Lithuania, did make the Commonwealth a much safer and more tolerant place than most of contemporaneous Europe, especially during the subsequent Thirty Years' War. The Protestants were eventually led by Henry of Navarre, who became Henry IV, King, the first Bourbon ruler of France, after the assassination of the last Valois King in 1589. Although the new King converted to Catholicism to ease the transition, he granted full Protestant tolerance by the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Henry III of Navarre sought foreign aid from the German princes and Elizabeth I of England.
|
The Edict of Nantes was issued on April 13, 1598 by Henry IV of France to grant French Calvinists (Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. The main concern was civil unity, and the Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics and heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance. The Edict granted the Protestants fifty places of safety (places de sureté), which were military strongholds such as La Rochelle to be maintained at the Huguenots' own expense. The Edict aimed primarily to end the long-running, disruptive French Wars of Religion. In offering general freedom of conscience to individuals, the edict offered many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the State and to bring grievances directly to the king. In addition to the religious elements, they involved a struggle for influence over the ruling of the country between the powerful House of Guise (Lorraine) and the Catholic League, on the one hand, and the House of Bourbon on the other hand. Lutheranism was introduced in France after about 1520. |  |
The impact of the Protestant Reformation was felt throughout Europe in the early 16th Century. The greatest protagonists were the German Martin Luther and the Frenchman Jean Calvin. The Calvinists could, without any petition to superiors, print their books in all places where their religion was permitted some parts of the kingdom were, in deference to particular treaties, exempted from the edict. What was most important, Protestants were made competent for any office or dignity in the state. The first non-Catholic congregation in French territory, was Lutheran, organized in 1546 in Meaux. There were eight civil wars in France between 1562 and 1598 - the Wars of Religion.
In 1589 the Protestant Henri de Bourbon, King of Navarre, inherited the French throne after the deaths of his three Valois cousins, sons of Catherine De Medici. Finally, in 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, while exiling all Protestant pastors and at the same time forbidding the laity to leave France. About 200,000 Huguenots left France, settling in non-Catholic Europe - the Netherlands, Germany, especially Prussia, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and even as far as Russia. Dutch East India Company sent a few hundred to the Cape to develop the vineyards in southern Africa. About 50,000 came to England, perhaps about 10,000 moving on to Ireland.
The English and the French would fight a series of Wars that began in the late 1600's and ended in the mid 1700's with the Seven Years' War. These wars resulted with the French peasantry pressed to pay taxes to support Louis XIV' desire for glory. Following the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots in France at first enjoyed considerable freedom under Henry IV. But as time went on, the later rulers of France began to realize that the Huguenots stood in the way of absolutism, and persecution of the Protestants steadily increased. Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) opposed them, and during the later persecutions of Louis XIV (1638-16-5) many thousands of Huguenots fled to other countries in Europe and to the North American colonies.
In 1618 and 1619, the Dutch Reformed Church held a synod at Dordt to settle the argument with the Remonstrants. Representatives came from Switzerland, Bremen, Hesse, the Palatinate and England. The synod condemned Arminianism and reaffirmed the Belgic Confession.
In 1629 the Huguenots came to an end as a political party, although the name persisted. Protestantism suffered greatly during the revolutionary period, after which the Protestants were granted equality and the name Huguenots ceased to be used. However, with the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in October, 1685, near the same time of Joseph Schaitberger's exile from Salzburg, the persecution of Huguenots began anew, and hundreds of thousands of Huguenots left France. Many of then went into the German regions. On-off periods of persecutions followed until the Huguenots lost full power, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV in 1685, a few years after LaSalle visited Louisiana. Over 250,000 of France's best citizens left. Historians estimate that 9,000 sailors, 12,000 veteran soldiers, 600 top officers and thousands of the best craftsmen left the country.
Protestant worship was forbidden; preachers were expelled from the country; and houses of worship were destroyed. Under the threat of heavy punishment, between 200,000 and 300,000 Huguenots fled France, joining others who had left much earlier. Many more were killed. Then followed the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-1697) which was precipitated by Louis XIV when in 1688 his armies marched into the Palatinate.