11572021 Cases of Conscience Concerning Jeanne a'Alret
Cases of Conscience Concerning Jeanne d'Albret
Luther Quest Discussion Group: General Discussions: Cases of Conscience
Concerning Jeanne d'Albret
Posted by Juan Jeanniton (Casusconscientiae) on Monday, March 15, 2021 - 1:55
pm:
Introduction (CONTINUED) - The Huguenots were the group of French
Protestants who beginning in the mid 16th century, i.e. around the time of
Luther, embraced the Calvinist REFORMED branch of Protestantism.
https: //www, huguenotsociety.org,uk/history, htm!:
quote:
Huguenot History
Who were the Huguenots? The origin of the word is obscure, but it
was the name given in the 16th century to the Protestants in France,
particularly by their enemies.
The impact of the Protestant Reformation was felt throughout Europe
in the early 16th Century. Its greatest protagonists were the German
Martin Luther and the Frenchman Jean Calvin. In France Calvinism
penetrated all ranks of society, especially those of the literate
craftsmen in the towns and of the nobility, There were eight civil wars
in France between 1562 and 1598 - the Wars of Religion.
The charter of Edward VI (1547-53) enabled the first French
Protestant church to be set up in England. Descended from this
church is the one in Soho Square, London. In 1589 the Protestant
Henri de Bourbon, King of Navarre, inherited the French throne after
the deaths of his three Valois cousins, sons of Catherine de Médicis.
Civil war continued, so in 1593, in the spirit of ‘Paris is worth a Mass',
Henri converted to Catholicism. Five years later the civil wars ended
and Henri issued the Edict of Nantes which gave the Huguenots, his
former co-religionists and comrades in arms, considerable privileges,
including widespread religious liberty. Over time Huguenots became
loyal subjects of the French crown.
However, their position became increasingly insecure as King Louis
XIV, grandson of Henri IV, listened more and more to those who
advised him that the existence of this sizeable religious minority was
a threat to the absolute authority of the monarch. Gradually the
Huguenots’ privileges were eroded, In the 1680s Protestants in
certain parts of France were deliberately terrorised by the billeting of
unruly troops in their homes ['the Dragonnades']. Finally, in 1685
Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, while exiling all Protestant pastors
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Cases of Conscience Concerning Jeanne a'Alret
and at the same time forbidding the laity to leave France. To the
considerable surprise of the government many did leave, often at
great risk to themselves. Men who were caught, if not executed,
were sent as galley slaves to the French fleet in the Mediterranean.
Women were imprisoned and their children sent to convents.
About 200,000 Huguenots left France, settling in non-Catholic Europe
- the Netherlands, Germany, especially Prussia, Switzerland,
Scandinavia, and even as far as Russia where Huguenot craftsmen
could find customers at the court of the Czars. The Dutch East India
Company sent a few hundred to the Cape to develop the vineyards in
southern Africa, About 50,000 came to England, perhaps about
10,000 moving on to Ireland. So there are many inhabitants of these
islands who have Huguenot blood in their veins, whether or not they
still bear one of the hundreds of French names of those who took
refuge here - thus bringing the word 'refugee' into the English
language.
Because of the political climate of the time, in a Britain strongly
suspicious of the aims of Louis XIV's France, and in fact about to
begin a series of wars to curb those ambitions, the Huguenots were
on the whole welcomed here.
However, as the pamphlet literature of the time shows, they could
not entirely escape the accusations levelled at immigrants from time
immemorial -that their presence threatened jobs, standards of
housing, public order, morality and hygiene and even that they ate
strange foods! For at least half a century the Huguenots remained a
recognisable minority, making their presence felt in banking,
commerce, industry, the book trade, the arts and the army, on the
stage and in teaching. Although many retained their Calvinist
organisation and worship - treated more generously by government
than home-grown nonconformity - by about 1760 they had ceased to
stand out as foreign, even following the path of Anglican conformity
in religion which some had taken from the very beginning.
And such were the Huguenots. TO BE CONTINUED
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