Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/350

338 338 France, each little church striving only to fulfil the simplest ideal of Christian faith and practice, happiest when least observed, purest when least developed. Three influences had hitherto acted on French religious feeling : that of the Lutherans, that of the ancient Vaudois churches of south eastern France, represented by Faber, and lastly that of Calvin of Noyon, the Picard exile settled at Geneva. Now a fourth element came in : resistance had elicited organization, organization demanded leadership ; and, un happily for France and the Huguenots, the movement fell too much into tho hands of secular chiefs, great lords who used it for their own political and selfish purposes. In 1559 the churches of the Huguenots met in a first synod at Paris, eleven sending representatives. This body drew up a confession of faith, which bears throughout the mark of Calvin s hand, in its scrupulous orthodoxy, strong statements as to God s election of some to eternal life, and careful definitions of the nature and structure of the church ; the synod also issued a scheme of discipline to which the churches were all to conform. No church should take lordship over any other (a church being a single community under one pastor). Each &quot; colloque &quot; or synod should have a freely-elected president ; every pastor should come to the colloque, bringing each at least one elder or deacon from his church ; this body was to meet at least twice a year ; new pastors were to be appointed by it to vacant churches, on presentation by the elders and deacons; minute rules were laid down for church discipline ; it was ordered that provincial synods should be held in each province, and finally that there should be from time to time a general or national synod of representatives of the whole body. Two years later the civil war broke out (see FRANCE, Tol. ix. pp. 560-564), and lasted over thirty years. At the beginning of this period we have some data as to the Huguenot strength : Beza tells us that in 1558 there were 400,000 of them ; a list presented by Conde to Catherine de Medici is said to have contained the names of 2150 (some say 2500) churches; and it is probable that the number of their open adherents had increased rapidly. John Correro, Venetian envoy in 1569, says that only one-thirtieth of the common folk, but one-third of the nobles, were Huguenots, for the strength of the movement had undoubtedly come to lie in the noblesse. The list of the Huguenot churches given by Haag (La France Protestante, vol. i., Pieces justificatives,&quot; No. xviii. p. 52) provides us with data as to their distribution in France. The two centres were Lan- guedoc in the south, and the Orleanais in the middle of the country ; and a line drawn north-west to south-east through a point halfway between Paris and Orleans would nearly give the northern limit of Huguenot success. Normandy, thanks to the Chatillon influence, had many churches; in Orleans and Burgundy they were well represented. In Guyenne and throughout western France they had numerous com munities. The little independent principality of Beam, through the influence of Jeanne d Albret, Henry IV. s mother, was entirely Huguenot. On the other hand, though there were some churches in the lie de France and Champagne, they had little hold there ; and Picardy was from the first profoundly hostile to them, while Paris became the headquarters of the Catholic League. Their churches sprang up with wonderful quickness at this time ; thus we see that all the 76 congregations in Languedoc named by Haag were established between 1558 and 1562. All were characterized by a like aptitude for organization ; their constitution, simple and popular, is a proof that under better auspices the French people might have well exercised the privileges of constitutional liberty ; the Huguenots had a popular representation and frequent deliberative assemblies. Between 1559 and 1598 they held fifteen general church synods, and from 1573 to 1622 many political assemblies, in which all questions bearing on the interests of the &quot; cause&quot; were debated and decided. The subordination of the religious to the political interests of the Huguenots became inevitable after the massacre of St Bartholomew s day, 1572 ; while at the same time their organization assumed a more decidedly republican tone. The horror they felt at the violent action of Charles IX. seemed to free them from all allegiance to him ; they looked to England and Germany for help, to Switzerland and the United Provinces for encouragement and political example. They at once drew up an independent constitu tion, democratic and federative, framed chiefly after the Swiss pattern. Like all other attempts at a republican form of government, it had an aristocratic and a demo cratic side, the latter for the time seeming to be the stronger. For the centre of their power was now pass ing from the aristocracy to the burghers, from country chateaux to provincial towns. In the towns the only dis tinction recognized was that of pastor and elders, and these might be, and mostly were, men of the people, chosen by the people. The great nobles who sided with them, the &quot; Poli- tique &quot; princes, like Alen9on or Damville-Montmorency, winked for a time at this new &quot; state within the state,&quot; the germ of that Huguenot organization which later on hampered Itichelieu s path. Their system was based on the towns in their hands. In each an independent government was elected by popular suffrage, and was composed of a mayor, a council of twenty-four, and an elective chamber of seventy- five citizens, making up in all a hundred rulers. This body was a court of justice, with some amount of sovereignty. Thus, the twenty-four with the mayor had control over war, police, and &quot; things of highest importance,&quot; though without the seventy-five they could neither pass nor abrogate laws, as to coin, taxation, truces, or terms of peace. The mayors and privy councils of the confederate towns were charged with the election of a general, a kind of Roman dictator, who was to have both a council to advise him and also five lieutenants to help and succeed him, if need were. Lastly, provision was made for a strict moral discipline. Soon after this the Huguenots established a system of &quot; generalities &quot; or districts, each with its own local estates, and over these provincial councils and a states-general, thus materially strengthening their independent organiza tion. This system continued throughout the League- wars (1574-1589), during which the religious movement was controlled by a knot of selfish political leaders, and in the course of which their point of view completely changed : for, while in the beginning they had passion ately called for popular institutions and the convocation of the states-general of France, in the end they became the followers of Henry of Navarre, as heir to the French crown, representative throughout of the anti-popular temper of the Bourbon house. Under him the discontented Huguenots again reorganized themselves into nine great circles, over each of which was a council of from five to seven members, elected by delegates from the churches, and having the duty of laying their independent taxation, of levying, commanding, and paying their own troops. There was also a general assembly for all the circles (after the pattern of the United Provinces) sitting in three estates pastors, nobles, burghers ; the whole polity being represen tative as an aristocratic republic. This general assembly sat frequently, sent embassies to foreign powers, sometimes acting as an independent body politic. The discontent of the Huguenots at last extorted from Henry IV. the famous edict of Nantes (2d May 1598), a ! document which in the main only reproduced the more as helpful for Catholics as for Protestants ; it was always
 * favourable of the earlier edicts. Its provisions were at least