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From the 16th to the 18th century the name 'Huguenot' was applied to a member of the
Protestant Reformed Church of
France, historically known as the French
Calvinists.
Etymology
Used originally as a term of derision, the derivation of the name ''Huguenot'' remains uncertain. It may have been a French corruption of the German word
Eidgenosse, meaning ''a Confederate'', perhaps in combination with a reference to the name Besançon Hugues (d 1532). Geneva was
John Calvin's adopted home and the center of the Calvinist movement. In
Geneva, Hugues was the leader of the "Confederate Party," so called because it favored an
alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the
Swiss Confederation. This theory of origin has support from the alleged fact that the label ''Huguenot'' was first applied in France to those conspirators (all of them aristocratic members of the Reformed Church) involved in the
Amboise plot of 1560: a foiled attempt to usurp
power in France from the influential
House of Guise, a move which would have had the side-effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, ''Hugues'' plus ''Eidgenosse'' becomes ''Huguenot,'' with the intention of associating the
Protestant cause with some very unpopular politics.
[1]
Like the first hypothesis, several others account for the name as being derived from German as well as French. O.I.A. Roche writes in his book ''The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots'' that "Huguenot" is
Some discredit dual linguistic origins, arguing that for the word to have spread into common use in France, it must have originated in the French language. The "Hugues hypothesis" argues that the name can be accounted for by connection with
Hugues Capet king of France,
[2] who reigned long before the Reform times, but was regarded by the Gallicans and Protestants as a noble man who respected people's dignity and lives. Frank Puaux suggests, with similar connotations, a clever pun on the old French word for a ''covenanter'' (a signatory to a contract).
[3] Janet Gray and other supporters of the theory suggest that the name ''huguenote'' would be roughly equivalent to ''little Hugos'', or ''those who want Hugo''.
2
In this last connection, the name could suggest the derogatory inference of superstitious worship; because, ignorant people believed that Huguon, the gate of King Hugo, was haunted by the ghost of Count Hugon (regarded by Catholics as an infamous scoundrel),
[4] and it was in this place in
Tours that the ''prétendus réformés'' ("these supposedly 'reformed'") habitually gathered at night, both for political purposes, and for prayer and to sing the
psalms.
[5] Similarly, some even suggest, ''les guenon de Hus'' (the monkeys or apes of
Jan Hus)
[6][7] While this and the many other theories offer their own measure of plausibility, attesting at least to the wit of later partisans and historians, if not of the French people at the time of this term's origin, "no one of the several theories advanced has afforded satisfaction".
[8]
Since the eighteenth century they have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists, or Calvinists, as being disciples of Calvin.
Early history and beliefs
The availability of the Bible in local language was important to the spread of the Protestant movement and the development of the Reformed church in France; and the country had a long history of struggles with the papacy, by the time the Protestant Reformation finally arrived. The first known French language translation of the Bible had been prepared by the
12th century religious radical, Pierre de Vaux (
Peter Waldo). It is not known whether his followers had preserved this earliest known French translation. Long after the sect was suppressed by the
Roman Catholic Church, the remaining
Waldensians sought to join
William Farel and the Protestant Reformation, but those who emerged from secrecy were eradicated by
Francis I in
1545. Around
1294, a French version of the Scriptures was prepared by the Catholic priest,
Guyard de Moulin. A two-volume folio version of this translation appeared in Paris, in
1488.
Other predecessors of the Reformed church included the pro-reform and
Gallican Roman Catholics, like
Jacques Lefevre. The Gallicans briefly achieved independence for the French church, on the principle that the religion of France could not be controlled by the Bishop of Rome, a foreign power.
[9] In the time of the
Protestant Reformation, Lefevre, a professor at the
University of Paris, prepared the way for the rapid dissemination of
Lutheran ideas in France with the publication of his French translation of the New Testament in
1523, followed by the whole Bible in the French language, in
1528.
William Farel was a student of Lefevre who went on to become a leader of the Swiss Reformation, establishing a Protestant government in Geneva.
Jean Cauvin (John Calvin), another student at the University of Paris, also converted to Protestantism. The French Confession of 1559 shows a decidedly
Calvinistic influence.
[10] Sometime between 1550 and 1580, members of the Reformed church in France came to be commonly known as ''Huguenots''
Criticisms of Roman Catholic Church
Above all, Huguenots became known for their fiery criticisms of worship as performed in the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the focus on ritual and what seemed an obsession with death and the dead. They believed the
ritual, images,
saints,
pilgrimages,
prayers, and
hierarchy of the Catholic Church did not help anyone toward
redemption. They saw Christian faith as something to be expressed in a strict and godly life, in obedience to Biblical laws, out of gratitude for God's mercy.
Like other Protestants of the time, they felt that the Roman church needed radical cleansing of its impurities, and that the
Pope represented a worldly kingdom, which sat in mocking tyranny over the things of God, and was ultimately doomed. Rhetoric like this became fiercer as events unfolded, and stirred up the hostility of the Catholic establishment.
Violently opposed to the Catholic Church, the Huguenots attacked images,
monasticism, and church buildings. Most of the cities in which the Huguenots gained a hold saw
iconoclast attacks, in which altars and images in churches, and sometimes the buildings themselves were torn down. The cities of
Bourges,
Montauban and
Orleans saw substantial activity in this regard.
Reform and growth
Huguenots faced periodic persecution from the outset of the Reformation; but
Francis I (reigned 1515–1547) initially protected them from
Parlementary measures designed for their extermination. The
Affair of the Placards of 1534 changed the king's posture toward the Huguenots: he stepped away from restraining persecution of the movement.
Huguenot numbers grew rapidly between 1555 and 1562, chiefly amongst the nobles and city-dwellers. During this time, their opponents first dubbed the Protestants ''Huguenots''; but they called themselves ''reformés,'' or "Reformed." They organized their first national synod in 1558, in Paris.
By 1562, they had a total membership estimated at least a million, especially numerous in the southern and central parts of the country. The Huguenots in France likely peaked in number at approximately two million, compared to approximately sixteen million Catholics during the same period.
Wars of religion
Main articles: French Wars of Religion
In reaction to the growing Huguenot influence, and the aforementioned instances of Protestant zeal, Catholic violence against them grew, at the same time that concessions and edicts of toleration became more liberal.
In 1561, the Edict of Orléans, for example, declared an end to the persecution; and the
Edict of Saint-Germain recognized them for the first time (
January 17,
1562); but these measures disguised the growing strain of relations between Protestant and Catholic.
Civil wars
Tensions led to eight
civil wars, interrupted by periods of relative calm, between 1562 and 1598. With each break in peace, the Huguenots' trust in the Catholic throne diminished, and the violence became more severe, and Protestant demands became grander, until a lasting cessation of open hostility finally occurred in 1598.
The wars gradually took on a dynastic character, developing into an extended feud between the Houses of
Bourbon and
Guise, both of which — in addition to holding rival religious views — staked a claim to the French throne. The crown, occupied by the House of
Valois, generally supported the Catholic side, but on occasion switched over to the Protestant cause when politically expedient.
The French Wars of Religion
Millais' painting, ''A Huguenot'' and his Catholic lover on the eve of St. Bartholomew's day
''
The
French Wars of Religion began with a massacre at
Vassy on
March 1,
1562, when 23
4(some sympathetic sources say hundreds
[11]) of the Huguenots were killed, and about 200 were wounded.
The Huguenots transformed themselves into a definitive political movement thereafter. Protestant preachers rallied a considerable army and a formidable cavalry, which came under the leadership of Admiral
Gaspard de Coligny.
Henry of Navarre and the House of Bourbon allied themselves to the Huguenots, adding wealth and holdings to the Protestant strength, which at its height grew to sixty fortified cities, and posed a serious threat to the Catholic crown and Paris over the next three decades.
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
''An Eyewitness Account of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre'' by
François Dubois (1790 - 1871).
In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of
24 August –
17 September,
1572, Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following, with death toll estimates again ranging wildly, from thousands to as high as 110,000. An amnesty granted in 1573 pardoned the perpetrators.
Edict of Nantes
The fifth
holy war against the Huguenots began on
February 23,
1574. The conflict continued periodically until 1598, when Henry of Navarre, having converted to Catholicism and become King of France as
Henry IV, issued the
Edict of Nantes. The Edict granted the Protestants equality with Catholics under the throne and a degree of religious and political freedom within their domains. The Edict simultaneously protected Catholic interests by discouraging the founding of new Protestant churches in the Catholic-controlled regions.
With the proclamation of the Edict of Nantes, and the subsequent protection of Huguenot rights, pressures to leave France abated, as did further attempts at colonization. However, under King
Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), chief minister
Cardinal Mazarin (who held real power during the king's minority up to his death in 1661) resumed persecution of the Protestants using soldiers to inflict
dragonnades that made life so intolerable that many fled.
Edict of Fontainebleau
The king revoked the "irrevocable"
Edict of Nantes in 1685 and declared Protestantism illegal with the
Edict of Fontainebleau. After this, huge numbers of Huguenots (with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 1,000,000
) fled to surrounding Protestant countries:
England, the
Netherlands,
Switzerland,
Norway,
Denmark and
Prussia — whose Calvinist Great Elector
Frederick William welcomed them to help rebuild his war-ravaged and underpopulated country. The Huguenot population of France had dropped to 856,000 by the mid 1660s, of which a plurality was rural. The greatest populations of surviving Huguenots resided in the regions of Basse-Guyenne, Saintonge-Aunis-Angoumois and Poitou.
[12]
Huguenot exodus from France
Early emigration
Etching of Fort Caroline.
The first Huguenots to leave France seeking freedom from persecution had done so years earlier under the leadership of
Jean Ribault in 1562. The group ended up establishing the small colony of
Fort Caroline in 1564, on the banks of the
St. Johns River, in what is today
Jacksonville, Florida.
The colony was the first attempt at any permanent European settlement in the present-day
United States, but the group survived only a short time. In September 1565, an attack against the new Spanish colony at
St. Augustine backfired, and the Spanish wiped out the
Fort Caroline garrison.
Settlement in South Africa
On
December 31,
1687 a band of Huguenots set sail from France to the Dutch East India Company post at the
Cape of Good Hope,
South Africa. Individual Huguenots settled at the Cape of Good Hope from as early as 1671 with the arrival of Francois Villion (Viljoen) and an organized, large scale emigration of Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope took place during 1688 and 1689. A notable example of this is the emigration of Huguenots from
La Motte d'Aigues in
Provence,
France.
Many of these settlers chose as their home an area called
Franschhoek,
Dutch for French Corner, in the present day
Western Cape province of South Africa. A large monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 7 April 1948 at
Franschhoek.
Many of the farms in the Western Cape province in South Africa still bear French names and there are many families, today mostly
Afrikaans speaking, whose surnames bear witness to their French Huguenot ancestry. Examples of these are: Blignaut, de Klerk (Le Clercq),
de Villiers,Visagie (Visage), du Plessis, du Toit, Fourie, Fouche, Giliomee (Guilliaume), Hugo,
Joubert, and Labuschagne (la Buscagne),
le Roux,
Malan,
Malherbe, Marais,
Theron, Jordaan (Jurdan) and Viljoen amongst others, which are all common surnames in present day South Africa.
[13]
The wine industry in South Africa owed a significant debt to the Huguenots, many of whom had
vineyards in France.
Settlement in North America
Main articles: The Huguenot Society of America
Barred from settling in
New France, many Huguenots moved instead to the Dutch colony
New Netherland later incorporated into New York and New Jersey and the
13 colonies of Great Britain in
North America, the first in 1624.
Huguenot immigrants founded
New Paltz, New York, where is now located
the oldest street in the current United States of America with the original stone houses,
New Rochelle, New York (named after
La Rochelle in France). Chretien du Bois was one of the original Huguenot settlers in this area. A Huguenot settlement on the
south shore of
Staten Island, New York was founded by
Daniel Perrin in
1692. The present day neighborhood of
Huguenot was named after Perrin and these early settlers.
Some of the settlers chose the
Virginia Colony, and formed communities in present-day
Chesterfield County and at
Manakintown, an abandoned
Monacan village now located in
Powhatan County about 20 miles west of downtown
Richmond, Virginia, where their descendants continue to reside. On May 12, 1705, the
Virginia General Assembly passed an act to naturalize the 148 Huguenots resident at Manakintown.
[14]
The
Huguenot Memorial Bridge across the
James River and Huguenot Road was named in their honor, as were many local features including several schools, including
Huguenot High School.
Many Huguenots also settled in the area around the current site of
Charleston, South Carolina. In 1685, Rev. Elie Prioleau from the town of Pons in France settled in what was then called Charlestown. He became pastor of the first Huguenot church in North America in that city. The
French Huguenot Church of Charleston, which remains independent, is the oldest continuously active Huguenot congregation in the United States today.
Most of the Huguenot congregations in North America merged or affiliated with other Protestant denominations, such the
Presbyterian Church (USA),
United Church of Christ,
Reformed Churches, and the
Reformed Baptists.
American Huguenots readily married outside their immediate French Huguenot communities, leading to rapid assimilation. They made an enormous contribution to American economic life, especially as merchants and artisans in the late Colonial and early Federal periods. One outstanding contribution was the establishment of the
Brandywine powder mills by
E.I. du Pont, a former student of
Lavoisier.
Asylum in Britain and Ireland
An estimated 50,000 Protestant Walloons and Huguenots fled to England, with about 10,000 moving on to Ireland. A leading Huguenot theologian and writer who led the exiled community in London,
Andrew Lortie (born André Lortie), became known for articulating Huguenot criticism of the
Holy See and
transubstantiation.
Of these refugees, upon landing on the Kent coast, many gravitated towards Canterbury, then the county's hub, where many Walloon & Huguenot families were granted asylum.
Edward VI granted them the whole of the Western crypt of
Canterbury Cathedral for worship. This privilege in 1825 shrank to the south aisle and in 1895 to the former
chantry chapel of the
Black Prince, where services are still held in French according to the reformed tradition every Sunday at 3pm. Other evidence of the Walloons and Huguenots in Canterbury includes a block of houses in Turnagain Lane where weavers' windows survive on the top floor, and 'the Weavers', a half-timbered house by the river (now a restaurant). The house derives its name from a weaving school which was moved there in the last years of the 19th century, resurrecting the use to which it had been put between the 16th century and about 1830. Many of the refugee community were weavers, but naturally some practiced other occupations necessary to sustain the community distinct from the indigenous population, this separation being a condition of their initial acceptance in the City
[1]. They also settled elsewhere in Kent, particularly
Tenterden.
Huguenot refugees flocked to
Shoreditch,
London in large numbers. They established a major weaving industry in and around
Spitalfields (see
Petticoat Lane and the
Tenterground), and in
Wandsworth. The
Old Truman Brewery, then known as the Black Eagle Brewery, appeared in 1724. The fleeing of Huguenot refugees from
Tours,
France had virtually wiped out the great
silk mills they had built.
Many Huguenots settled in Ireland during the
Plantations of Ireland. Huguenot regiments fought for
William of Orange in the
Williamite war in Ireland, for which they were rewarded with land grants and titles, many settling in
Dublin[15]. Some of them took their skills to
Ulster and assisted in the founding of the Irish
linen industry.
The only two remaining Huguenot cemeteries in Europe are in Ireland.
One of the most famous Huguenots in America's history was Paul Revere. Revere was noted for widely spreading his beliefs of Calvinism.
Asylum in Germany and Scandinavia
Huguenots refugees found a safe haven in the Lutheran and Reformed states in Germany and Scandinavia. Nearly 44,000 Huguenots established themselves in Germany, and particularly in
Prussia where many of their descendents rose to positions of prominence. Several congregations were founded, such as the
Fredericia (Denmark),
Berlin,
Stockholm,
Hamburg,
Frankfurt,
Emden. Around 1700, a significant proportion of Berlin's population was of French mother tongue and the Berlin Huguenots preserved the French language in their service for nearly a century. They ultimately decided to switch to German in protest against the occupation of Prussia by
Napoleon in 1806/07.
Effects
The exodus of Huguenots from France created a kind of
brain drain from which the kingdom did not fully recover for years. The French crown's refusal to allow Protestants to settle in New France was a factor behind that colony's slow population growth, which ultimately led to its conquest by the British. By the time of the
French and Indian War, there may have been more people of French ancestry living in Britain's
American colonies than there were in New France.
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg invited Huguenots to settle in his realms, and a number of their descendants rose to positions of prominence in Prussia. The last Prime Minister of the (East)
German Democratic Republic,
Lothar de Maizière, is a scion of a Huguenot family.
The persecution and flight of the Huguenots greatly damaged the reputation of Louis XIV abroad, particularly in England; the two kingdoms, which had enjoyed peaceful relations prior to 1685, became bitter enemies and fought against each other in a series of wars from 1689 onward.
End of persecution and restoration of French Citizenship
Persecution of Protestants continued in France after 1724, but ended in 1764 and the
French Revolution of 1789 finally made them full-fledged citizens.
The December 15, 1790 Law stated that : "All persons born in a foreign country and descending in any degree of a French man or woman expatriated for religious reason are declared French nationals (''naturels français'') and will benefit to rights attached to that quality if they come back to France, establish their domicile there and take the civic oath." This might have been, historically, the first law recognising a
Right of Return.
Article 4 of the June 26, 1889 Nationality Law stated that: "Descendants of families proscribed by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes will continue to benefit from the benefit of the December 15, 1790 Law, but on the condition that a nominal decree should be issued for every petitioner. That decree will only produce its effects for the future."
Foreign descendants of Huguenots lost the automatic right to French citizenship in 1945 (by force of the ''ordonnance du 19 octobre 1945'', revoking the 1889 Nationality Law).
In the 1920s and 1930s, members of the extreme-right
Action Française movement expressed strong animus against the
Protestants, as against the
Jews, and the
Freemasons - all three being regarded as groups supporting the French Republic which Action Française sought to overthrow.
During the occupation of France in the
Second World War, a significant number of Protestants - not persecuted themselves - were active in hiding and saving Jews. Up to the present, many French Protestants, due to their history, feel a special sympathy for and tendency to support "The
Underdog" in various situations and conflicts.
Protestants in France today number about 1 million, or about 2% of the population
[2] [3]. They are most concentrated in the
Cévennes region in the south.
Legacy
French
A number of French churches are descended from the Huguenots, including:
★
Reformed Church of France
American
★ Eight
American Presidents (George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Lyndon Johnson) had significant proven Huguenot
ancestry, as did
Alexander Hamilton,
John Jay, and
Paul Revere. Twelve other U.S. Presidents had credible but unproven claims to Huguenot ancestors.
[16]
★ In 1924 a commemorative half dollar, known as the
Huguenot-Walloon Half Dollar[17], was coined in the
United States to celebrate the 300th anniversary of their initial settlement in what is now the United States. One Huguenot colonist was a silversmith named Apollos Rivoire, who would later anglicize his name to Paul Revere. He would, still later, give his name and his profession to his son,
Paul Revere, the famous
United States revolutionary.
★ A neighborhood in
New York City's borough of
Staten Island is named ''
Huguenot'', and the City of
New Rochelle, New York is named after
La Rochelle, a former Huguenot stronghold in France.
★ One of the leading chemical companies in the world today,
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, was founded by the scientist E. I. du Pont, who immigrated directly from France in 1799.
Other
★ According to an oft-repeated belief one quarter or more of all Englishmen have some proven Huguenot ancestry.
★ Huguenot refugees in
Prussia are thought to have contributed significantly to the development of the
textile industry in that state.
Symbol
The Huguenot Cross
The
Huguenot cross is the distinctive emblem of the Huguenots (''
croix huguenote''). It is now an official symbol of the ''Eglise des Protestants reformé'' (French Protestant church) and Huguenot descendants are proud to display this piece of jewelery as a sign of ''reconnaissance'' (recognition) between them.
See also
★
List of Huguenots
Notes
1. History: ''The origin of the name ''Huguenot'' The Huguenot Society of America
2. Janet G. Gray, "The Origin of the Word Huguenot", Sixteenth Century Journal 14 (1983), 349-359
3. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed, Frank Puaux, ''Huguenot''
4. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Antoine Dégert, 1911, ''Huguenots''
5. Who Were the Huguenots? The National Huguenot Society
6. Bibliothèque d'humanisme et Renaissance , by Association d'humanisme et renaissance, 1958, p217
7. The Huguenots in Florida; Or, The Lily and the Totem, by William Gilmore Simms, 1854, p470
8. George Lunt, ''Huguenot - The origin and meaning of the name'' New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Boston, 1908/1911, 241-246
9. The Word Made Flesh: A History of Christian Thought, Margaret Ruth Miles, 2005, Blackwell Publishing, pg 381
10. The French Confession of Faith of 1559
11. A History of the Reformation, by Thomas Martin Lindsay, 1907, p190 "six or seven hundred Protestants were slain"
12. The Huguenot Population of France, 1600-1685: The Demographic Fate and Customs of a Religious Minority, , Philip, Benedict, The American Philosphical Society, 1991,
13. Ces Francais Qui Ont Fait L'Afrique Du Sud. Translation: The French People Who Made South Africa. Bernard Lugan. January 1996. ISBN 2841000869'
14.
15. The Irish Pensioners of William III's Huguenot Regiments
16. http://www.austintxgensoc.org/pastfiles/huguenots.php
17. http://www.commem.com/prod08hug.htm
Baird, Charles W "History of the Huguenot Emigration to America" Genealogical Publishing Company, Published: 1885, Reprinted: 1998, ISBN 9780806305547
Charles Burgess(later, Cathal Brugha)- Irish freedom fighter
External links
★
Huguenot Historical Society
★
Huguenot Historical Society Digital Collections
★
The National Huguenot Society
★
The Huguenot Society of America
★
Huguenot Fellowship
★
The Huguenots, the Jews, and Me, essay by Armand Laferrere in Azure magazine.
★
Reassessing what we collect website – Huguenot London History of Huguenot London with objects and images
★
Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland
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