Huguenot Origin Of The Name Religious Beliefs Wars Of Religion

Originally a term of derision, the origin remains uncertain. It may have derived from the personal name of Besançon Hugues , the leader of the "Confederate Party" in Geneva, in combination with a Frankish corruption of the German word for conspirator or confederate: eidgenosse. Hugues' party was called "the confederates", because they favored an alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. This theory of origin has support from the fact that the label Huguenot first applied in France to the 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, which would have had the side-effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, Hugues plus eidgenot becomes Huguenot, with the intention of associating the Protestant cause with some very unpopular politics.

O.I.A. Roche, in his book The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots, writes that "Huguenots" is

2 Religious beliefs

Huguenot predecessors included the pro-reform and Gallican Catholics, like Jacques Lefevre. Later, Huguenots followed the Lutheran movement, and finally, Calvinism. They shared John Calvin's fierce reformation beliefs which decried the priesthoodA priesthood is a body of priests, shamans, or oracles who are thought to have special religious authority or function. The term also refers to the office, dignity, authority, or character of a priest. See also Clergy Priest Priesthood (Mormonism) Priesth, sacraments and doctrines of the Catholic ChurchThe Roman Catholic Church (often called simply the Catholic Church, but see Catholicism for other meanings of the term "Catholic Church") is a worldwide body of Christians in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and subscribing to the beliefs. They believed in salvation as an act of God as much as in creation as an act of God, and thus that only God's predestinedPredestination is a religious idea, under which the relationship between the beginning of things and the destiny of things is discussed. Its religious nature distinguishes it from other ideas concerning determinism and free will, and related concepts. mercy toward the elect made them fit for salvation. Some see this dual emphasis on creation and on salvation, and God's sovereignty over both, as a cornerstone principle for Huguenot developments in architecture, textiles and other merchandise.

Above all, Huguenots became known for their fiery criticisms of worship as performed in the Roman Catholic Church. They believed the ritualA ritual is a formalised, predetermined set of symbolic actions generally performed in a particular environment at a regular, recurring interval. The set of actions that comprise a ritual often include, but are not limited to, such things as recitation, s, images, saintIn general, the term saint is used to refer to someone thought to be especially virtuous and holy. This person may or may not be canonized, recognized or venerated by a religion. The word "saint" comes from the Latin word sanctus which means "holy. Various, pilgrimages, prayers, and hierarchy of the Catholic Church did not help anyone toward redemption. They saw the Christian faith as something to live out in a strict and godly life, in obedience to biblical laws, out of gratitude for God's mercy - not as performing rituals and as obsession with death and the dead. As other Protestants also believed at the time, they thought 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 more fierce as events unfolded, and stirred up the hostility of the Catholic establishment.

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 them: he stepped away from restraining persecution of the movement . Still, 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, "Reformed". They organized their first national synod in 1558, in Paris. By 1562 they had a total membership estimated at at least a million, especially numerous in the south and central parts of the country. The Huguenots in France never numbered more than just over two million, compared to approximately sixteen million Catholics during the same period.

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 apart. Bourges, Montauban and Orleans suffered particularly.

3 Wars of Religion

In reaction to the growing Huguenot influence, and the famous excesses 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. These bonds of peace became the knots of war; when violence unleashed them, the divisions became all the more irreconcilable.

Tensions led to eight civil wars, interrupted by periods of relative calm, between 1562 and 1598. With each break in peace, the Reformed trust in the Catholic throne diminished, and the violence became more severe, and Protestant demands became more grand, until a lasting cessation of open hostility finally occurred in 1598.

The French Wars of Religion began with a massacre of 30 Huguenots at Vassy (some sympathetic sources say 1000 or more), and the wounding of about 200, on March 1, 1562. The Huguenots transformed themselves into a definitely political movement. 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 constantly threatened the Catholic crown, and Paris, during the French Wars of Religion.

In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August - 17 September 1572 Catholics killed many Huguenots in Paris; similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following, with an estimated total death toll of 70,000. An amnesty granted in 1573 justified those who had killed. The 5th holy war against the Huguenots began on February 23, 1574, and 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, which granted the Protestants equality with Catholics under the throne, and religious freedom within their domains. The Edict simultaneously protected Catholic interests by discouraging the founding of new Protestant churches in the Catholic-controlled regions.

4 Flight

Louis XIV (reigned 1643 - 1715) began persecuting Protestants again and using his soldiers to inflict dragonnades, making life so intolerable that many fled. He finally revoked the "irrevocable" Edict of Nantes in 1685 and declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau. After this, many Huguenots fled to surrounding Protestant countries: England, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Prussia -- whose Calvinist Great Elector Frederick William welcomed them to help rebuild his war-ravaged and underpopulated country. On December 31, 1687 a band of Huguenots set sail from France to the colony at the Cape of Good Hope.

Many Huguenots fled to the 13 colonies of Great Britain in North America, among them a silversmith called 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 leading Huguenot theologian and writer who led the exiled Huguenot community in London, Andre Lortie (or Andrew Lortie ), became known for articulating Huguenot criticism of the Holy See and transubstantiation.

Huguenot refugees flocked to Shoreditch, London in large numbers. They established a major weaving industry in and around Spitalfields, and in Wandsworth. The Truman Brewery , then known as the Black Eagle Brewery, appeared in 1724. Huguenot refugees fled Tours, France virtually wiping out the great silk mills they had built. Some of them brought their skills to Northern Ireland and assisted in the founding of the Irish linen industry.

A third of American Presidents have some proven Huguenot ancestry, as do Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and other leading statesmen, and (according to often repeated belief) one quarter or more of all Englishmen.

5 Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

During the Second World War, the primarily Huguenot population of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in southern France hid and sheltered between 3,000 to 5,000 Jews from the Nazis. Pastor André Trocmé lead the community in this effort. Israel's Holocaust Memorial Museum Yad Vashem recognised Trocmé and thirty-four other residents of the area as "Righteous Among the Nations."

6 External link

Huguenot Society of America
Huguenot Society of London

Protestantism

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1 Origin of the Name