God's House Chapel, the French Church and Remembering Southampton's 'Huguenot' Past (original) (raw)
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Religious Persecution in Eighteenth-Century France
Leidschrift, 2023
Throughout the early modern period, Europe remained haunted by the religious tensions that had erupted from the Reformation. Despite the Peace of Augsburg (1555), the Edict of Nantes (1598) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which put an end to decades of religious wars, violence and persecution persisted well beyond. The Enlightenment and the spread of tolerationist ideas in the eighteenth century should not be regarded as the end of religious violence, but instead as a reminder that religious violence remained very much a reality in this period. Among the best-known examples of religious persecution in the eighteenth century are the Camisards, the Waldensians, the ‘Poor Palatines’, the Salzburgers, the Moravians, the Gordon and Priestley riots, to name just a few. In France, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 revived religious tensions in the Protestant provinces of Languedoc and Dauphiné after nearly a century of tolerance. Beside causing the exile of some 200,000 French Protestants towards northern Europe, the Revocation opened a century-long era of clandestinity and discrimination that would last until the French Revolution. Historians generally distinguish between three phases in this period, even though the intensity of the persecution varied between provinces. The years 1685-1715 were the most violent, marked by forced conversions, brutal persecution and the Camisards’ revolt. The second phase, from 1715 to the early 1760s, corresponds to the organised revival of the French Protestant Church through clandestine assemblies and synods and the gradual decline of state persecution; and the third phase, from the early 1760s to the French Revolution, a return to a de facto religious tolerance. This paper surveys the plight of French Protestants from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the French Revolution. It nuances the grand narrative of a steady path towards religious toleration by highlighting regional disparities and integrating foreign – mostly Dutch – sources. It argues overall that, despite the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and the role of the Calas affair in changing public opinion, anti-Calvinist sentiments and discriminations remained vivid in southern France until the French Revolution.
Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, c. 1559–1685
The Huguenots were a religious minority in France who fought during the second half of the sixteenth century for their Protestant (Calvinist) beliefs, and to whom concessions were granted by the crown with the Edict of Nantes in 1598. The Huguenots continued to enjoy their privileged status until the Edict was revoked in 1685. This collection of essays explores the character and identity of the Huguenot movement by examining their institutions, patterns of belief and worship, and interaction with French state and society.
Evidences of Huguenot Worship in America
Sixty miles north of New York City on Huguenot Street in New Paltz, New York there is a remarkable series of stone buildings built approximately 300 years ago, making it " one of the oldest streets in America with its original houses. " 1 I am particularly interested in considering the one stone building located there which is not an original construction from 300 years ago, but rather a replica built approximately 40 years ago. It is the Huguenot place of worship which is located in the French cemetery where many of the original settlers are buried. One might ask why we should examine the only inauthentic building on Huguenot Street, New Paltz, New York? The answer lies in what this little church can teach us about the beliefs and lives of the French settlers who built its predecessor. Since these settlers were religious refugees fleeing fierce persecution in France, we may find here clues to the distinctives of the faith for which abandoned their homes and economic well-being for this American wilderness. The Reformation in the early 16th century initially received strong support in France through the scholarly Biblical studies of Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples, the evangelical preaching of Guillaume Farel, Gérard Roussel, Bishop Briçonnet and others, and the personal devotion and support of Marguerite of Navarre, sister to King Francis I. Francis himself was initially receptive, as he viewed himself a supporter of the new humanist scholarship which was enlivening the arts and learning across Europe and also improving Biblical exegesis and the translation of the Bible into the vernacular tongues, hallmarks of the growing Reformation movement. His initial open attitude towards the Reformation, however, turned wary after Nicolas Cop, rector to the University of Paris, brought issues to a head with his outspoken address in support of the Reformation on 1 November 1533 and an ensuing "placard incident" which attacked " the Mass. " Cop, his young friend John Calvin, and other French reformers were forced to flee the country, but committed themselves to nurturing the nascent French Reformed church from abroad. Through these efforts and God's grace, Reformed teaching took hold in France particularly amongst a growing bourgeoisie of educated, artistic, and entrepreneurial citizens and civic leaders. They sought to apply their Biblical faith to all aspects of their lives. However, tensions between these new French Reformed believers, dubbed Huguenots by their critics, and the conservative Catholic leaders of the University of Paris and the Parliament led to a demoralizing 40-year civil war in the second half of the sixteenth century. The reign of Henry IV, the would-be Protestant king, brought a too-brief respite from the religious wars. Though he converted to Catholicism in order to gain the throne, he enacted the Edict of Nantes which allowed modest protections for the rights of Protestants to worship and receive more equitable hearings in the courts.
In France in 1905, after the separation of the church and the state, all religious buildings became property of state and local governments, while the latter stopped funding religious groups all together. This fundamentally questioned the role of architecture in the exercise and maintenance of the long tradition of religious institutionalised power and authority. Yet, the aftermath of World War II also contributed to new changes. In this trial of meaningfulness and reconstruction, steps for partial reconciliation with the churches were more present, even more so in the heavily destroyed areas of France such as along its west coast. Looking specifically at one department of the west coast – Loire Atlantique – the purpose of this paper is to use the case of the reconstruction of the Nantes church to show how the role of architecture has shifted and impacted the reconceptualisation of Protestant institutions.