1885: French Protestantism and Huguenot Identity in Victorian Britain (original) (raw)

God's House Chapel, the French Church and Remembering Southampton's 'Huguenot' Past

Building on the Past, BAR B662

The commemoration of the bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1885 focused attention on the Huguenot diaspora and the communities they established in southern England. At Southampton, exiles from the southern Netherlands had formed a community in 1567 and services continued to be held in St Julien’s chapel at God’s House Hospital. Academic and popular publications recounted the foundation and early history of the community, with particular reference to the French church’s register. By 1885, the congregation used a French translation of the Anglican prayer book rather than the Reformed liturgy of the Huguenots. Services were attended by Channel Islanders and French-speaking people passing through the port rather than Huguenot descendants. Pastors focused on the religious needs of French-speaking residents as well as Southampton’s seamen. Even the French congregation’s use of God’s House chapel was questioned during the nineteenth century and when the building was restored, it was primarily to serve the residents of God’s House Hospital. While traces of Southampton’s ‘Huguenot’ history survived, the French church did not memorialise its past.

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.

Parishes Under Pressure: The Church Of England In South Buckinghamshire 1913–1939

Secularisation, or the reducing social significance of religion in the twentieth century, has been widely researched in terms of “demand” factors, but less so on the “supply-side,” considering the contributory effects of the strategies and actions of religious organisations themselves. This article explores these strategies in a group of Anglican churches in South Buckinghamshire in the period leading up to the Second World War, as industrial and population development shifted proportionally to the southeast. This rapid growth and accompanying demographic change posed major challenges to the Church of England, subjecting the parish system to severe pressure. The availability, allocation, and suitability of clergy were a constant concern. The very basis of the Church of England’s “offer” to the average citizen — of being the established, national church, there for everyone — seemed under threat: in some places, there was simply no church to “belong” to. Money was in short supply — perhaps both a cause and a symptom of other problems. A general issue was how to reach young people, but a specific concern was the funding of church schools. More widely, the church seemed to be losing touch with the changing cultural and moral landscape in which it operated.