CALVINISM IN FRANCE
France, too, at that
time, was all aglow with the free, bounding, restless spirit of Calvinism. "In
France the Calvinists were called Huguenots. The character of the Huguenots
the world knows. Their moral purity and heroism, whether persecuted at home or
exiled abroad, has been the wonder of both friend and foe."1 "Their
history," says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "is a standing marvel,
illustrating the abiding power of strong religious conviction. The account of
their endurance is amongst the most remarkable and heroic records of religious
history." The Huguenots made up the industrious artisan class of France and to
be "honest as a Huguenot" became a proverb, denoting the highest degree of
integrity.
On St. Bartholomew's
Day, Sunday, August 24, 1572, a great many Protestants were treacherously
murdered in Paris, and for days thereafter the shocking scenes were repeated
in different parts of France. The total number of those who lost their lives
in the St. Bartholomew massacre has been variously estimated at from 10,000 to
50,000. Schaff estimates it at 30,000. These furious persecutions caused
hundreds of thousands of the French Protestants to flee to Holland, Germany,
England, and America. The loss to France was irreparable. Macaulay the English
historian writes as follows of those who settled in England: "The humblest of
the refugees were intellectually and morally above the average of the common
people of any kingdom in Europe." The great historian Lecky, who himself was a
cold-blooded rationalist, wrote: "The destruction of the Huguenots by the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was the destruction of the most solid, the
most modest, the most virtuous, the most generally enlightened element in the
French nation, and it prepared the way for the inevitable degradation of the
national character, and the last serious bulwark was removed that might have
broken the force of that torrent of skepticism and vice which, a century
later, laid prostrate, in merited ruin, both the altar and the throne."2
"If you have read
their history," says Warburton, "you must know how cruel and unjust were the
persecutions instigated against them. The best blood of France deluged the
battlefield, the brightest genius of France was suffered to lie neglected and
starving in prison, and the noblest characters which France ever possessed
were hunted like wild beasts of the forest, and slain with as little pity."
And again, "In every respect they stood immeasurably superior to all the rest
of their fellow-countrymen. The strict sobriety of their lives, the purity of
their moral actions, their industrious habits, and their entire separation
from the foul sensuality which corrupted the whole of the national life of
France at this period, were always effectual means of betraying the principles
which they held, and were so regarded by their enemies."3
The debauchery of the
kings had descended through the aristocracy to the common people; religion had
become a mass of corruption, consistent only with its cruelty; the monasteries
had become breeding places of iniquity; celibacy had proved to be a foul
fountain of unchastity and uncleanness; immorality, licentiousness, despotism
and extortion in State and Church were indescribable; the forgiveness of sins
could be purchased for money, and a shameful traffic in indulgences was
carried on under the pope's sanction; some of the popes were monsters of
iniquity; ignorance was appalling; education was confined to the clergy and
the nobles; many even of the priests were unable to read or write; and society
in general had fallen to pieces.
This is a one-sided,
but not an exaggerated, description. It is true as far as it goes, and needs
only to be supplemented by the brighter side, which was that many honest Roman
Catholics were earnestly working for reform from within the Church. The
Church, however, was in an irreformable condition. Any change, if it was to
come at all, had to come from without. Either there would be no reformation or
it would be in opposition to Rome.
But gradually
Protestant ideas were filtering into France from Germany. Calvin began his
work in Paris and was soon recognized as one of the leaders of the new
movement in France. His zeal aroused the opposition of Church authorities and
it became necessary for him to flee for his life. And although Calvin never
returned to France after his settlement in Geneva, he remained the leader of
the French Reformation and was consulted at every step. He gave the Huguenots
their creed and form of government. Throughout the following period it was,
according to the unanimous testimony of history, the system of faith which we
call Calvinism that inspired the French Protestants in their struggle with the
papacy and its royal supporters.
What the Puritan was
in England, the Covenanter was in Scotland, and the Huguenot was in France.
That Calvinism developed the same type of men in each of these several
countries is a most remarkable proof of its power in the formation of
character.
So rapidly did
Calvinism spread throughout France that Fisher in his History of the
Reformation tells us that in 1561 the Calvinists numbered one-fourth of the
entire population. McFetridge places the number even higher. "In less than
half a century," says he, "this so-called harsh system of belief had
penetrated every part of the land, and had gained to its standards almost
one-half of the population and almost every great mind in the nation. So
numerous and powerful had its adherents become that for a time it appeared as
if the entire nation would be swept over to their views."4 Smiles,
in his "Huguenots in France," writes: "It is curious to speculate on
the influence which the religion of Calvin, himself a Frenchman, might have
exercised on the history of France, as well as on the individual character of
the Frenchman, had the balance of forces carried the nation bodily over to
Protestantism, as was very nearly the case, toward the end of the sixteenth
century," (p. 100). Certainly the history of the nation would have been very
different from that which it has been.
Footnotes:
1Smith,
The Creed of Presbyterians, p. 83.
2Eng. Hist. Eighteenth Century, I., pp. 264, 265.
3Calvinism, pp. 84, 92.
4Calvinism in History, p. 144
