Sharing Reformed Christian Resources Around The World
The
Huguenots in France and New France
Rev. G.Ph. Van Popta
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Sharing Reformed Christian Resources Around The World
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The
Huguenots in France and New France
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Rev. G.Ph. Van Popta
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Included in "FOCUS ON THE REFORMED CHURCH OF QUÉBEC" you will find two articles by Rev. P. Bedard and Rev. J. Van Popta introducing l'Église Réformée du Québec (ERQ), the Reformed Church of Quebec. Although the brothers and sisters in these congregations are largely converts from Roman Catholicism or atheism, they are the spiritual children of the Huguenots [1] (French Reformed believers) who settled in New France in the 1500s.
A little known aspect of Quebec history is the importance of the Huguenot presence. Many of the founding fathers of the colony of New France, established in 1534, were members of the Reformed Church in France. The first governor, Jean-Frangois de la Rocque, sieur de Roberval, was a Reformed man. So were seven of the ten succeeding governors in the 16th and 17th centuries. The official Roman Catholic history has "forgotten" this.
To learn something about the Huguenots, we need to go back to the France of the early 1500s. In 1512, Jacques Lefèvre a professor of theology at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, published in Latin a Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, in which he denied that good works can earn salvation. He taught that man is justified by faith. He said: "It is God who saves by grace alone." He wanted the people to know the Bible, and so he translated most of the New Testament into French. He said that the church must reach-the common people and that it must do so by preaching Christ in a simple way. Other theologians branded him a heretic on the questions of transubstantiation, justification, and the merit of good works.
Lefèvre's Commentary on Romans and an earlier work on the Psalms (1509) had some influence on Luther. [2] In turn, Luther's hammer pounding on the door of the church in Wittenberg was heard in France. The truths of God's Word were rediscovered: Churches were changed. Christ was proclaimed. As in all lands, the Roman church opposed reform fiercely. Lefèvre's and Luther's writings were condemned in 1525.
In 1533, Nicolas Cop, rector of the University of Paris, held a speech which sounded like the ideas of Luther. Rumour had it that Cop had written it with the help of a young man named John Calvin. Both Cop and Calvin had to flee for their lives. John Calvin escaped through a back window of his lodgings while friends talked to the bailiffs at the front door.
In the year that Lefèvre died, 1536, John Calvin, a refugee in Basel, published the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. This work is the best exposition of gospel truth produced by the Reformation. He dedicated it to Francis I, king of France. King Francis and the Roman Church were persecuting the Huguenots. Between 1533 and 1536, Calvin had wandered through France under assumed names visiting and teaching small groups of Reformed believers. About this time, a new torture was invented, a device to lift the victim in and out of the fire, roasting him slowly instead of burning him all at once.[3] Calvin had seen this brutality. He sought, by way of the Institutes, to show the king that the people he was persecuting were not radicals or revolutionaries, but believers in the Bible. He begged the king to consider his work as proof that his fellow believers were not worthy of torture and death.
The king was not convinced; however, with the publication of the Institutes, Calvin became the recognized leader of the Reformation in France. From Geneva, Calvin organized the French Reformed churches. He gave a clear statement of doctrine, a form of public worship, and a system of church government.[4] He kept very close contact with his French brothers and sisters.
The Reformed faith as taught by Calvin spread throughout France. By 1559, there were many Protestant churches in the land. Although the believers had to meet in secret because of persecution, even many of the leading citizens of France embraced the Reformed faith. In 1559, the churches held a synod in Paris. This synod approved a creed prepared by Calvin and his pupil, de Chandieu, known as the Gallic Confessions. [5] Around this time the Calvinistic Reformed believers came to be called Huguenots. [6]
The persecution of the Huguenots continued under King Henry II who succeeded Francis I. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ continued to gather, defend and preserve for Himself a church in France. He used many missionaries who came from Calvin's Academy in Geneva. France came to be divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Huguenots formed a strong party. Many of the merchant class and of the nobility became Reformed.
The Huguenots were led by the Bourbon and Coligny families while the Roman Catholic party was led by the Guise family. Both parties had armies. In 1562, civil war broke out. The Huguenots were in the minority, but defended themselves well. Much blood was shed. Then in 1570, the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots signed a peace accord. The accord was to be sealed by a wedding between the Huguenot, Henry of Navarre of the Bourbon family, and the Roman Catholic sister of King Charles IX, Margaret. Charles was a weak king but he, and his sister Margaret, had a powerful mother-Catherine de Medici.
The wedding was announced as a "Feast of Reconciliation." It took place on August 18, 1572. However, it was a work of terrible deception. Many Huguenots were still in Paris for the wedding festivities. But then in the early morning of August 24, St. Bartholomew's Day, the bells were rung. That was Catherine's signal for the Roman Catholics to begin slaughtering the Huguenots. For three days and nights the massacre went on. About 3,000 were murdered in Paris and another 10,000 throughout the country. [7]
The Huguenot Henry of Navarre, the unhappy bridegroom, escaped. The massacre did not end the civil war; rather, it gave it new impetus. It continued during the reign of Henry III, who succeeded his brother Charles. Henry of Navarre de Bourbon was the leader of the Huguenots.
In 1589, the childless King Henry III was assassinated. This, unbelievably, gave his Huguenot brother-in-law Henry of Navarre clear title to the throne. France, still predominantly Roman Catholic, would not tolerate a Huguenot king. In order to gain the throne, Henry of Navarre declared himself a Roman Catholic in 1593 and became King Henry IV of France. The Protestant prince became the Roman Catholic king. This Henry has been immortalized for saying: "Paris is well worth a mass."
Although Henry had renounced the Reformed faith, he did not forget his former friends. In 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes. This edict gave the Huguenots freedom of private worship, civil rights, and the right to public worship in 200 towns and 3,000 castles. [8] The respite was brief, however. In 1610 Henry IV was murdered, and France was again torn to pieces by warring factions. Many Huguenots left France for other countries in Europe and for the New World, including Canada.
In 1629, the Roman Catholics captured La Rochelle, the last Huguenot stronghold. The political power of the Huguenots was broken. During the reign of the next two kings, Louis XIII
(1610-43) and Louis XIV (1643-1715), the persecution of the Huguenots intensified. Louis XIV was fanatically Roman Catholic. He hated the Reformed faith like few other kings hated it. His mission was to stamp out the last Huguenot in France. In 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes. It was open season on the Huguenots. He closed 600 Reformed churches. Thousands were murdered. Hundreds of thousands left France. Many went to the Netherlands. Others went to New France
As noted above, many of the early settlers in New France were Huguenots. They came here because they were largely merchants and traders. The Edict of Nantes gave the Huguenots of New France freedom of religion as well. The Roman Catholic settlers and the Huguenot settlers tried to work together. In one town there were two Roman Catholic priests and a Huguenot minister. The clergymen were seen to argue frequently, to the chagrin of the colonists. When the minister and one of the priests died from scurvy at almost the same time, the colonists - at least so the story goes buried them together in a single grave with the expressed hope that they would now at last rest peacefully together.[9]
As noted earlier, most of the first governors were Huguenots. This was an offense to the Jesuits and upholders of counter-reform. In 1624 the ruthless Cardinal Richelieu was made head of the royal council in France. From 1625 on, he orchestrated a steady and persistent campaign to "free" New France from the Huguenot presence and political influence. In 1627, Richelieu reorganized the company in charge of New France in favour of the Roman Catholics, and he revoked the application of the Edict of Nantes in the French colonies (fiftyeight years before it would be revoked in France itself). [10] Huguenots had to renounce the Reformed faith in order to enter New France. It became illegal for the psalmsinging British fishermen of Newfoundland to sing the psalms of David in the port of Quebec. [11] Attendance at mass became obligatory. Only the priest could solemnize marriages. Over the next hundred years, the Huguenot influence waned and the Roman Catholic Church gained control of every aspect of life in New France.
After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, many still sought to escape the religious oppression of Louis XIV by fleeing to New France. Unfortunately, the cruel arms of the king and the cardinal extended to the New World and the persecution continued here. It was not until Louis XIV died in 1715 that the worst era was over for Reformed believers. A measure of tolerance spread throughout France and to her colonies. Yet, many restrictions still applied; e.g., Huguenots in New France were denied the right to practice medicine, to be pharmacists, midwives, lawyers, notaries, judges and civil servants. They could not become citizens. That was the sole privilege of those of Roman faith. Their children had to attend Roman Catholic schools. No Reformed worship services were allowed.[12] In spite of explicit decrees boycotting them and the insistent opposition of the clergy, the Huguenot presence remained significant. However, it was not until New France fell to Britain in 1759 that they were given full freedom of religion. The remaining French Reformed believers began to attend the English Protestant services. This led to the loss of a French Reformed Church in Quebec.
While valiant attempts were made to establish a truly French Reformed Church in Quebec, the attempts met with little success. In Quebec, to be French was to be Roman Catholic; to be English was to be Protestant. But then on November 6th l988, the Lord did an amazing thing: He organized some believers and Reformed missionaries into l'Église Reformée du Quebec, a truly French Reformed Church. They are small; they are weak. They have a big job to do. They face a society which has largely rejected the Roman Catholic traditions but considers the "miserable Protestant" faith to be an English religion and so is seeking some comfort in secularism or eastern cults. And yet, the Lord is doing something. He is gathering in a people in Quebec, spiritual children of the Huguenots. Let us not despise the day of small beginnings.
[1] The French Calvinists were called "Huguenots." The origin of the nickname is uncertain. It may be a corruption of the German Eidgenossen, "confederates." Dirk Jellema, The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1978 ed., s.v. "Huguenots," 489.
[2] So Lefèvre was protesting (i.e., speaking for that which is attested to or proven [pro testatus]: in favour of the truth ) several years before Luther.
[3] B.K. Kuiper, The Church in History (1951; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 191.
[4] Kuiper, p. 212.
[5] Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3 (1877; reprint, New York: Harper & Bros., 1919), 357-382. This confession, also called The French Confession of Faith, was adopted by the Synod of La Rochelle, 1571; hence, it is also called the Confession of La Rochelle. It is strikingly similar to the Belgic Confession, 1561, of Guido de Bres.
[6] See note 1 .
[7] When news of the massacre reached Rome, Pope Gregory XIII celebrated it with Te Deums and thanksgiving services as a victory for the church over infidelity. J.N.D. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 270.
[8] Kuiper, p. 241.
[9] Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 22.
[10] Noll, ibid.
[11] Douglas J. Wilson, The Church Grows in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Council of Churches, 1966), 16.
[12] Eglise Réformée du Quebec, The Reformed Church of Quebec (n.d.), 5.