Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/594

 HUGUENOTS

534

HUGUENOTS

religion should not be disturbed in the practice of their worship, and ordered the reopening of some of their temples which had been closed. Thus the Protestant minister Jurieu could write that the years between the Rising of the Fronde and the Peace of the Pyrenees were among the happiest within the mem- ory of his creed.

In proportion as Louis XIV got the reins of gov- ernment into his own hands, the position of the Huguenots became increasingly unfavourable. After 1660 they were forbidden to hold national synods. At that time they counted 623 churches served by 723 pastors, who ministered to about 1,200,000 mem- bers. A commission, established in 1661 to inquire into the titles on which their places of worship were held, brought about the demolition of more than 100 churches, for which no warrant could be found in the provisions of the Edict of Nantes. A royal order of 1663 deprived relapsed persons — i. e. those who had returned to Protestantism after having abjured it — of the benefit of the Edict of Nantes, and condemned them to perpetual banishment. A year later, it is true, this order was suspended, and proceedings under it were arrested. Then, by another ordinance, parish priests were authorized to present themselves with a magistrate at the domicile of any sick person and to ask whether such person wished to die in heresy or to be converted to the true religion; the children of Protestants were declared competent to embrace Catholicism at the age of seven, their parents being obliged to make an allowance for their separate sup- port conformably with their station in life. The Prot- estants soon saw themselves excluded from public office; the chambers in which the parties were equally represented were suppressed. Huguenot preaching was restrained and emigration was forbidden under pain of confiscation of property.

These measures and others of less importance were taken chiefly in response to demands made by the Assemblies of the Clergy or by public opinion. Their efficacy was augmented by the controversial works, those of Bossuet, "Exposition de la doctrine cath- olique", " Avertissement aux Protestants", "His- toire des variations des Eglises protestantes ", being conspicuously brilliant, to which the ministers — Claude, Jurieu, Pajon — replied but feebly. Mean- while the commissioners {i ittendantx) were working with all their might to bring about conversions of Protestants, to which end some of them made as much use of dragoons as they did of missionaries, so that their system of making converts by force rather than by conviction came to be branded with the name of dragonnade.

(3) From the Revocation of the Edict of Xantes to the Revolution. — Trusting in the number and sincerity of these conversions, Louis XIV thought it no longer necessary to observe half measures with the Hu- guenots, and consequently revoked the Edict of Nantes on IS October, 16S5. Thenceforward the exercise of public worship was forbidden to the Prot- estants; their churches were to be demolished; they were prohibited from assembling for the practice of their religion in private houses. Protestant ministers who would not be converted were ordered to leave the kingdom within fifteen days. Parents were for- bidden to instruct their children in Protestantism, and ordered to have them Imptized by priests and sent to Catholic schools. Four months' grace was granted the fugitive Protestants to return to France and recover their property; after the lapse of this period the said property would be definitively con- fiscated. Emigration was forbidden for men under pain of the galleys, and for women under pain of imprisonment. Subject to these conditions Prot- estants might live within the realm, carry on com- merce, and enjoy their property without being molested on account of their religion. This measure,

which was regrettable from many points of view, evoked in France unanimous applause from Cath- olics of all classes. With the exception of Vauban and Saint-Simon, all the great men of that period highly approved of the revocation. This attitude is explained by the ideas of the time. Tolerance was almost unknown in the sixteenth and .seventeenth centuries, and, in those countries where they had the ascendancy, the Protestants had been long inflicting upon Catholics a treatment harder than they them- selves underwent in France. At Geneva and in Holland Catholic worship was absolutely forbidden; in Germany, after the Peace of Augsburg, all subjects were bound to take the religion of their prince, in accordance with the adage: Cujus regio ejus religio. England, which even forced those who dissented from the Established Church to seek religious lilierty in America, treated Catholics more harshly than did Turkey; all priests were banished from the country; should one of them return and be caught in the exer- cise of his functions, he was condemned to death; a heavy tribute was imposed upon Papists, as though they were slaves.

The Revocation did not produce the effect intended by its author. Scarcely had it been published when, in spite of all prohibitions, a mighty movement of emigration developed in the provinces adjacent to the frontiers. Vauban had to write that the "Revoca- tion brought about the desertion of 100,000 French- men, the exportation of 60,000,000 livres (S12,000,- 000), the ruin of commerce; enemies' fleets were rein- forced by 9000 sailors, the best in the kingdom, and foreign armies by 600 officers and 1200 men, more inured to war than their own." Those who remained took advantage of the last article of the Revocation to dispense with attendance at church and the recep- tion of the sacraments at the hour of death. The king in his embarrassment consulted the bishops and the intendants, and their replies inclined him to relax the execution of the edict of revocation somewhat, with- out changing anything in its letter. On the other hand, a few preachers remained in spite of the Revo- cation, and clandestinely organized their worship in the fields and in remote places, or, as the Protestant historians express it, "in the desert". Of this num- ber were Brousson, Corteiz, and Regnart. In the Vivarais the management of the churches passed into the hands of the illumines — fanatical preachers, peas- ants, and young girls — who stirred up the population with prophesies of the approaching triumph of their cause. Three armies and three marshals of France had to march against these insurgents (the Cami- sards), who were reduced to order only after a struggle of five or six years' duration (1702-170S).

From that time the churches lived only as secret associations, without religious worship and without regular gatherings. The ministers were himteii into hiding, those who were caught being mercilessly put to death. Still, some of them were not afraid to risk their lives; the best known of these, Antoine Court (1696-1760), spent nearly twenty years in this secret lal>our, travelling through the South, and dis- tributing propagandist or polemical tracts, holding numerous meetings "in the desert", and even organ- izing semblances of provincial sjTiods in 1715, and national synods in 1726. Retirmg to Lausanne in 1729, he founded there a seminary for the education of pastors for the Protestant ministry in France. This con<lition of official persecution and hidden vitality lasted until after the middle of the eighteenth centurj'. The authorities continued to hang min- isters and destroy churches until 1762; but ideas of toleration had for some time been gradually finding their way into the mind of the nation; prosecutions for religious off'ences became unpopular, especially after the Calas affair. A Protestant of that name at Toulouse was charged with having killed one of his