Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/351

339 339 being so modified as to show less and less favour to the Calvinists, who were little satisfied with it. They had dreamed of dominance, had hoped for equality, and were now put off with tolerance. For whatever Henry IV. might feel about their faith, he was determined, as he once told Sully, &quot;to reduce to nothing the Huguenot faction,&quot; to destroy their political independence, and by closing up the civil strife to secure the solid establishment of the central monarchy. The edict allows public exercise of the Huguenot faith in the houses of nobles and gentry, and in a few named towns ; it gave the sectaries full civil rights, and made them eligible to all civil offices ; in several par liaments mixed chambers were established ; the education of their children was left in their own hands. We find that about 1590 the Huguenots had exercise of their worship in about 3500 chateaux, and in about 200 towns 01 bourgs, chiefly in the south and west. In most parts of the north, except Paris and round Rouen and Amiens, they had one place for worship in each bailliage or senechaussee. In 1598 we have a list of about 150 places granted by Henry IV. to the Huguenots for their safety, the chief groups being in the generalities of Bor deaux and Montpellier, and in Poitou ; these were either free towns, like La Rochelle, Nimes, Montauban, or towns belonging to private gentlemen, or towns belonging to the king, which had fallen into Huguenot hands during the wars. Throughout the next quarter of a century we trace their history in a series of outbursts, indicating noble impa tience and Calvinistic dissatisfaction. The siege and fall of La Rochelle (1627-1628) brought this period to an end. During this time their number seems to have increased ; at the accession of Louis XIII. they had about 500 churches ; in 1622 and 1628 we have lists of 688 ; in 1637 no less than 720 are enumerated, though of these 49 were either vacant or suspended. Richelieu and Mazarin treated them with statesman-like prudence ; their synods were dis couraged, their grumblings ceased; they grew in piety and purity as the political arena was closed to them, and the noble houses one by one deserted them. This was the time of their material prosperity, and of their important contribution to the welfare of France which Louis XIV. so rudely cast away. As that king got hold of his power, the tranquillity of the Huguenots waned. In 1657 they were forbidden to hold colloquies, lest perchance they should take to politics ; in 1659 they were practically told to hold no more synods. Soon the court went further : conversions were undertaken. Wherever a pastor could be bribed, won over, or got rid of, his &quot;temple&quot; was at once torn down; the Huguenot wor ship became almost impossible in towns, and lingered on in a few castles, whereby it fell still more under the royal displeasure. As his conscience grew morbid, under Madame de Maintenon s direction, Louis XIV. became more eager to expiate his own crimes by punishing the heretics. Be tween 1657 and 1685 520 churches were rooted up; Anquetil declares that 700 had been destroyed before 1685. All through this period, while thousands yielded to oppression or bribery, thousands also fled the land ; the emigration began in 1666 and went on for fifty years. It is probuble that in 1660 there were over two millions of Huguenots, the best and thriftiest citizens in the land ; it is said, though no figures can be trusted, that in all fully a million of French subjects escaped from their inhospitable fatherland. At last in 1685, thinking that the Huguenots were as good as suppressed, Louis XIV. revoked the edict of Nantes (see FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 579). The revocation was the sentence of civil death on all Huguenots; it crushed more than half the commercial and manufacturing industry of the kingdom. It is said that at the time of it there were 1000 Huguenot pastors; of these over 600 escaped from France, 100 were slain or sent to the galleys, the remainder conformed or disappeared. The war of 1689 called attention away from the perse cuted remnant of the Huguenots, and they had a breathing space in Languedoc, the Cevennes, and Dauphine ; but directly the peace of Ryswick was signed, repression began again, and consequently, when the Spanish succession war commenced, the Huguenots of the &quot; Desert,&quot; that is, of the country about Nimes, broke out after endless provocations into open war, which lasted two years, and for a while de fied all the efforts of the court. Marshal Villars was at last sent down, and by mingled gentleness and severity he both secured the submission of the gallant Cavalier, the chief leader of the Huguenots, and the defeat of the more deter mined of the mountaineers. Throughout the rest of the century the down-trodden Protestantism of France was kept alive chiefly by the exertions of Antoine Court, the apostle of the Desert, who never lost faith in the cause, and who reorganized the dying churches, breathing into them fresh life. Though under the influence of oppiession. and excitement, the Huguenot story is here and there disfigured by fanatical outbursts of the prophets &quot; and &quot; prophetesses,&quot; still on the whole the account of their endurance is among the most remarkable and heroic records of religious history. After the interference of Voltaire in behalf of Calas, their sufferings came almost to an end ; the general change of opinion, the steady weakening of the Catholics, the in dolence or good nature of the sovereign, forbade the scan dals of the past, until at last in 1787, under Necker s influence, Louis XVI. signed a memorable edict which restored, after 102 years deprivation, their civil status to the Huguenots. The Revolution of 1789 carried justice a stage further ; among the many titles of the Revolution to the gratitude of posterity none is more marked than the complete restoration of the non-Catholic elements of French society to their rights. From that moment to the present time the descendants of the Huguenots have had peace. There are now about half a million Calvinist&amp;lt; in France ; by the census of 1872 they numbered 467,531 souls, of whom a,bout 100,000 were in the north, and the rest mostly in their old quarters in the south ; in the Card, the ancient Desert, nearly a quarter of the whole body still abide. Of late years the Protestant Church in Fiance has shown a tendency to division into two parties, that of the more rigid Calvinistic opinions, and that of a more liberal and less orthodox theology. In either case they form a group of loyal citizens, on whom French politicians now look with favour. The old reproach that &quot;the Huguenots are all republicans &quot; has at last turned to their credit. The persecutions which checked all wholesome develop ments at home, whether religious, literary, or commercial, were favourable to their growth abroad; and we consequently find that in literary and artistic excellence the Huguenots have taken their full share. Their first attention was naturally called to theology, in which the names of Calvin and Farel, Beza, Daille, the Drelincourts, the learned S. Desmarets, Jortin, P. Jurieu, Labadie the mystic, the Le- clercs, the great Hebraist Mercier, Mestrezat the preacher, the old hero Duplessis Mornay, Salmasius, J. Saurin, first of Protestant orators, and a crowd of lesser men testify to their activity in this branch. Add to these the dictionary of Bayle, the works of the Basnages, Morin the Orientalist, Pithou, the Daciers, Etienne Dolet, Ramus, Le Fevre of Etaples, above all Scaliger, as leaders in learning ; in history, Benoft, Bongars, Palma Cayet, Hubert Languet, Beroalde, and Rapin-Thoyras ; and with them the j&amp;gt;olitical writer Hotman. Of lawyers they claim Baudouin, Cujas, Coras, Doneau, Hdrault, and Godefroy, famed as the most