The Huguenots

by C.J. Chase

Just in time for the beginning of school, here is a history pop quiz. What do the following people have in common? 

George Washington
Paul Revere
Louis Comfort Tiffany
E.I. du Pont
Alexander Hamilton
Davy Crockett
Johnny Depp
Madeleine L’Engle
Henry David Thoreau
John D. Rockefeller
Tom Brokaw
Winston Churchill
Abraham Lincoln

Yes, you’re right. They all had Huguenot ancestors. (You peeked at the title of this post, didn’t you?)

Today, we think of France as a country of primarily Roman Catholic Christians, but that wasn’t always the case. While the country is now only 2% Protestant, at the height of the Reformation in France, approximately one–eighth (12.5%) of the country affiliated with Protestant churches.

Church reform movements such as the Waldensians had flourished in France since the Middle Ages, but a combination of rising literacy and the printing press made the writings of reformers such as Jacques Lefèvre and John Calvin available to the population. By 1560, Huguenots (the term given to French Protestants) had over 2,000 churches in France. Most of the Huguenots came from the middle and upper classes of French society.

But with their growing numbers and influence came growing fear from those in power. 

 

Giorgio Vasari's fresco depicting the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, circa 1573

The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of August, 1572 began as a Parisian political assassination and quickly spread to wholesale slaughter across the entire country. Estimates for the number of Protestant dead range from a low of 5,000 to a high of 100,000 murdered. (Interestingly, even to this day, the widely divergent estimates tend to fall along sectarian lines.)

A time of relative calm followed the ascension of Henry of Navarre to the French throne in 1593. A Protestant, Henry was nearly killed himself during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. (He was in Paris for his wedding to the French Princess Margaret.) Since only a Catholic could inherit the French throne, Henry converted, claiming "Paris is well worth a mass." But unlike his predecessors, King Henry IV promoted tolerance and freedom of conscience among his subjects. The 1598 Edict of Nantes allowed Huguenots their own churches, schools, and courts in Protestant-controlled areas of France. Think of it as a two-state solution, French style.

But persecution began again after Henry IV’s death, culminating in the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes in October of 1685. King Louis XIV instituted a draconian policy of “one king, one law, one faith” that stripped Huguenots of their rights and often their lives. Hundreds of thousands fled for the Netherlands, the German principalities, England, Scotland, Ireland, the British colonies of North America (Protestants were not allowed in French colonies), South Africa, and Switzerland. By 1700, 15% of the population of New York was French Huguenot. In Amsterdam, the figure was an astounding 25%.

John Everett Millais’ Huguenot lovers on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1852

Most of them were from the middle and upper classes—artisans, craftsmen, physicians, lawyers, and 600 of France’s military officers. Their flight created a “brain drain” that hampered the French economy for generations. With the widespread loss of France’s stable, productive middle class, the country was left with a lopsided nobility/peasant dynamic. Many historians suggest this contributed to the grievances that resulted in the French Revolution a century later.

Because of their specialized skills, the Huguenots were welcomed into their new countries. They contributed greatly to their new communities, and they integrated rapidly. Indeed, so thorough was their assimilation, millions of their descendants are unaware they carry French blood in their veins. If you trace your ancestry to Protestants in Western Europe or North America, there is a high likelihood you are one of them. Did you know one-third of all US presidents have Huguenot ancestry? 

Perhaps their greatest contributions were their love of liberty and their beliefs that (1) rulers were subject to the people and (2) the people do not have to obey tyrannical rulers who go against God’s laws. The 1579 treatise Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants) by Huguenot writer Junius Brutus was well-known in Colonial American and influential in developing American political philosophy. Here are a couple of quotes:

“…now we say that the people establish the kings, putteth the scepter into their hands, and which with their suffrages approveth the election. God would have it done in this manner to the end that the kings should acknowledge that, after God, they held their power and sovereignty from the people.”

"Now seeing that the people choose and establish their kings, it followeth that the whole body of the people is above the king…”

Pretty subversive stuff for its day—and not all that different from this famous line from the Declaration of Independence, written 200 years later: “…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” 

Today there is growing persecution of Christians in countries such as Egypt, Syria, and Pakistan. Let us pray that these brothers and sisters will have strength. But even more, we should encourage our elected officials to welcome these refugees onto our shores, for millions of us are descended from people similarly afflicted. "Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.." (Deut. 10:19 ESV)

Have you ever done any research into your family history? Did you find anything that surprised you, like maybe a French ancestor or two?

After leaving the corporate world to stay home with her children, C.J. Chase quickly learned she did not possess the housekeeping gene. She decided writing might provide the perfect excuse for letting the dust bunnies accumulate under the furniture. Her procrastination, er, hard work paid off in 2010 when she won the Golden Heart for Best Inspirational Manuscript and sold the novel to Love Inspired Historicals. Her next book, The Reluctant Earl, will be available  February 5, 2013. You can visit C.J.'s cyber-home (where the floors are always clean) at  www.cjchasebooks.com