CAVALIER

cavalier, jean). the huguenots seemed to be finally conquered. on the 8th of march 1715 louis xiv. announced that he had put an end to all exercise of the protestant religion; but in this very year, on the 21st of august, while the king was dying at versailles, there assembled together at monoblet in languedoc, under the presidency of a young man twenty years of age, antoine court, a number of preachers, as the pastors were then called, with the object of raising the church from its ruins. this was the first synod of the desert. to re-establish the abandoned worship, to unite the churches in the struggle for liberty of conscience, such was the work to which court devoted his life, and which earned for him the name of the "restorer of protestantism" (see court, antoine). in spite of persecution the protestants continued their assemblies; the fear of death and of the galleys were alike powerless to break their resistance. on the demand of the clergy all marriages celebrated by their pastors were declared null and void, and the children born of these unions were regarded as bastards. protestantism, which persecution seemed to have driven from france, drew new life from this very persecution. outlawed, exiles in their own country, deprived of all civil existence, the huguenots showed an invincible heroism. the history of their church during the period of the desert is the history of a church which refused to die. amongst its famous defenders was paul rabaut, the successor of antoine court. year by year the churches became more numerous. in 1756 there were already 40 pastors; several years later, in 1763, the date of the last synod of the desert, their number had increased to 65. the question of protestant marriages roused public opinion which could not tolerate the idea that frenchmen, whose sole crime was their religious belief, should be condemned to civil death. the torture of jean calas, who was condemned on a false charge of having killed his son because he desired to become a catholic, caused general indignation, of which voltaire became the eloquent mouthpiece. ideas of tolerance, of which bayle had been the earliest advocate, became victorious, and owing to the devotion of rabaut saint-etienne, son of paul rabaut, and the zeal of lafayette, the edict of november 1787, in spite of the fierce opposition of the clergy, renewed the civil rights of the huguenots by recognizing the validity of their marriages. victories even greater were in store; two years later liberty of conscience was won. on the 22nd of august 1789 the pastor rabaut saint-etienne, deputy for the _senechaussee_ of nimes to the states general, cried out, "it is not tolerance which i demand, it is liberty, that my country should accord it equally without distinction of rank, of birth or of religion." the declaration of the rights of man affirmed the liberty of religion; the huguenots had not suffered in vain, for the cause for which their ancestors and themselves had suffered so much was triumphant, and it was the nation itself which proclaimed the victory. but religious passions were always active, and at montauban as at nimes (1790) catholics and protestants came to blows. the huguenots, having endured the persecutions of successive monarchs, had to endure those of the terror; their churches were shut, their pastors dispersed and some died upon the scaffold. on the 3rd of ventose, year ii. (february 21, 1795), the church was divorced from the state and the protestants devoted themselves to reorganization. some years later bonaparte, having signed the concordat of the 15th of july 1801, promulgated the law of the 18th of germinal, year x., which recognized the legal standing of the protestant church, but took from it the character of free church which it had always claimed. so great was the contrast between a past which recalled to protestants nothing but persecution, and a present in which they enjoyed liberty of conscience, that they accepted with a profound gratitude a regime of which the ecclesiastical standpoint was so alien to their traditions. with enthusiasm they repeated the words with which napoleon had received the pastors at the tuileries on the 16th of frimaire, year xii.: "the empire of the law ends where the undefined empire of conscience begins; law and prince are powerless against this liberty." the protestants, on the day on which liberty of conscience was restored, could measure the full extent of the misery which they had endured. of this people, which in the 16th century formed more than one-tenth of the population of france, there survived only a few hundred thousands; migration and persecution had more than decimated them. in 1626 there were 809 pastors in the service of 751 churches; in 1802 there were only 121 pastors and 171 churches; in paris there was only a single church with a single pastor. the church had no faculty of theology, no schools, no bible societies, no asylums, no orphanages, no religious literature. everything had to be created afresh, and this work was pursued during the 19th century with the energy and the earnest faith which is characteristic of the huguenot character. at the fall of the empire (1815) the reaction of the white terror once more exposed the protestants to outrage, and once more a number fled from persecution and sought safety in foreign countries. peace having been established, attention was once more focussed on religious questions, and the period was marked in protestantism by a remarkable awakening. on all sides churches were built and schools opened. it was an epoch of the greatest importance, for the church concentrated itself more and more on its real mission. during this period were founded the great religious societies:--societe biblique (1819), societe de l'instruction primaire (1829), societe des traites (1821), societe des missions (1822). the influence of english thought on the development of religious life was remarkable, and theology drew its inspiration from the writings of paley, david bogue, chalmers, ebenezer erskine, robert and james alexander haldane, which were translated into french. later on german theology and the works of kant, neander and schleiermacher produced a far-reaching effect. this was due to the period of persecution which had checked that development of religious thought which had been so remarkable a feature of french protestantism of the 16th and 17th centuries. slowly protestantism once more took its place in the national life. the greatest names in its history are those of guizot and cuvier; adolf monod, with athanase coquerel, stand in the front rank of pulpit orators. the protestants associated themselves with all the great philanthropic works--baron jules delessert founded savings banks, baron de stael condemned slavery, and all france united to honour the pastor, jean frederic oberlin. but the reformers, if they had no longer to fear persecution, had still to fight in order to win respect for religious liberty, which was unceasingly threatened by their adversaries. numerous were the cases tried at this epoch in order to obtain justice. on the other hand the old union of the reformed churches had ceased to exist since the revolution of july. ecclesiastical strife broke out and has never entirely ceased. a schism occurred first in 1848, owing to the refusal of the synod to draw up a profession of faith, the comte de gasparin and the pastor frederic monod seceding and founding the union des eglises evangeliques de france, separated from the state, of which later on e. de pressense was to become the most famous pastor. under the second empire (1852-1870) the divisions between the orthodox and the liberal thinkers were accentuated; they resulted in a separation which followed on the reassembly of the national synod, authorized in 1872 by the government of the third republic. the old huguenot church was thus separated into two parts, having no other link than that of the concordat of 1802 and each possessing its own peculiar organization. the descendants of the huguenots, however, remained faithful to the traditions of their ancestors, and extolled the great past of the french reform movement. moreover, in 1859 were held the magnificent religious festivals to celebrate the third centenary of the convocation of their first national synod; and when on the 18th of october 1885 they recalled the 200th anniversary of the revocation of the edict of nantes, they were able to assert that the huguenots had been the first defenders of religious liberties in france. in the early days of the 20th century the work of restoring french protestantism, which had been pursued with steady perseverance for more than one hundred years, showed great results. this church, which in 1802 had scarcely 100 pastors has seen this number increased to 1000; it possesses more than 900 churches or chapels and 180 presbyteries. in contrast with the poverty of religious life under the first empire it presented a striking array of bible societies, missionary societies, and others for evangelical, educational, pastoral and charitable work, which bear witness to a church risen from its ruins. french protestantism in the course of the 19th century reckoned among its members such eminent theologians as timothee colani (1824-1888), who together with edmond scherer founded the celebrated _revue de theologie de strasbourg_ (1850); edmond de pressense, editor of the _revue chretienne_, charles bois and michel nicolas, professors of theology at montauban, auguste sabatier, professor of theology at the university of paris, albert reville, professor at the college de france, felix pecaut, &c.; well-known preachers such as eugene bersier, ernest dhornbres, ariste vigure, numa recolin, auguste de coppet, and missionaries, for example eugene casalis and coillard; jean bost, who founded the hospitals at laforce; historians like napoleon peyrat, the brothers haag, who wrote _la france protestante_, francois puaux, charles coquerel, onesime douen, henri bordier, edouard sayous, de felice, theophile rollez; jean pedezert, leon pilatte and others, who were journalists; such statesmen as guizot, leon say, waddington; such scholars as cuvier, broca, wurtz, friedel de quatrefages; such illustrious soldiers and sailors as rapp, admirals baudin, jaureguiberry, colonel denfert-rochereau. but the population of protestant france does not exceed 750,000 souls, without counting the lutherans, who are attached to the confession of augsburg, numbering about 75,000. their chief centres are in the departments of gard, ardeche, drome, lozere, the deux sevres and the seine. the law of the 9th of december 1905, which separated the church from the state, has been accepted by the great majority of protestants as a legitimate consequence of the reform principles. nor has its application given rise to any difficulty with the state. they used their influence only in the direction of rendering the law more liberal and immediately devoted themselves to the organization of their churches under the new regime. if the two great parties, orthodox and liberal, have each their particular constitution, nevertheless a third party has been formed with the object of effecting a reconciliation of all the protestant churches and of thus reconstituting the old huguenot church. bibliography.--a complete list of works is impossible. the following are the most important:-- general authorities.--_bulletin de la societe de l'histoire du protestantisme francais_ (54 vols.), a most valuable collection, indispensable as a work of reference; haag, _la france protestante_, lives of french protestants (10 vols., 1846; 2nd ed., henri bordier, 6 vols., 1887); f. puaux, _histoire de la reformation francaise_ (7 vols., 1858) and articles "calvin" and "france protestante" in _encyclopedie des sciences religieuses_ of lichtenberger; smedley, _history of the reformed religion in france_ (3 vols., london, 1832); browning, _history of the huguenots_ (1 vol., 1840); g. a. de felice, _histoire des protestants de france_ (1874). special periods. the 16th century.--h. m. baird, _the huguenots and henry of navarre_ (2 vols., new york, 1886), and _history of the rise of the huguenots of france_ (new york, 1879); a. w. whitehead, _gaspard de coligny_ (london, 1904); j. w. thompson, _the wars of religion in france_, 1559-1576 (1909); th. beza, _histoire ecclesiastique des eglises reformees au royaume de france_ (3 vols., antwerp, 1580; new edition by g. baum et cunitz, 1883); crespin, _histoire des martyrs persecutes et mis a mort pour la verite de l'evangile_ (2 vols. in fol., geneva, 1619; abridged translation by rev. a. maddock, london, 1780); pierre de la place, _commentaires sur l'etat de la religion et de la republique_ (1565); florimond de raemond, _l'histoire de la naissance, progres et decadence de l'heresie du siecle_ (1610); de thou, _histoire universelle_ (16 vols.); th. agrippa d'aubigne, _histoire universelle_ (3 vols., geneva, 1626); hermingard, _correspondance des reformateurs dans les pays de la langue francaise_ (8 vols., 1866), a scholarly work and the most trustworthy source for the history of the origin of french reform. "calvini opera" in the _corpus reformatorum_, edited by reuss, baum and cunitz, particularly the correspondence, vols. x. to xxii.; doumergue, _jean calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps_ (3 vols., 1899); g. von polenz, _geschichte des franzosischen calvinismus_ (5 vols., 1857); etienne a. laval, _compendious history of the reformation in france and of the reformed church in that kingdom from the first beginning of the reformation to the repealing of the edict of nantes_ (7 vols., london, 1737-1741); soldan, _geschichte des protestantismus in frankreich bis zum tode karls ix._ (2 vols., 1855); merle d'aubigne, _histoire de la reformation en europe au temps de calvin_ (5 vols., 1863). 17th century.--elie benoit, _histoire de l'edit de nantes_ (5 vols., delft, 1693), a work of the first rank; aymon, _tous les synodes_ _nationaux des eglises reformees de france_ (2 vols.); j. quick, _synodicon_ (2 vols., london, 1692), important for the ecclesiastical history of french protestantism; d'huisseau, _la discipline des eglises reformees de france_ (amsterdam, 1710); h. de rohan, _memoires ... jusqu'en 1629_ (amsterdam, 1644); jean claude, _les plaintes des protestans de france_ (cologne, 1686, new edition with notes by frank puaux, paris, 1885); pierre jurieu, _lettres pastorales_ (3 vols., rotterdam, 1688); brousson, _etat des reformes de france_ (3 vols., the hague, 1685); anquez, _histoire des assemblees politiques des reformes de france_ (1 vol., paris, 1859); pilatte, _edits et arrets concernant la religion pretendue reformee, 1662-1711_ (1889); douen, _les premiers pasteurs du desert_ (2 vols., 1879); h. m. baird, _the huguenots and the revocation of the edict of nantes_ (2 vols., new york). 18th century.--peyrat, _histoire des pasteurs du desert_ (2 vols., 1842); ch. coquerel, _histoire des eglises du desert_ (2 vols., 1841); e. hugues, antoine court, _histoire de la restauration du protestantisme en france_ (2 vols., 1872); _les synodes du desert_ (3 vols., 1875); a. coquerel, _jean calas_ (1869); court de gebelin, _les toulousaines_ (1763). 19th century.--_die protestantische kirche frankreichs_ (2 vols., 1848); _annuaire_ de rabaut 1807, de soulier 1827, de de prat 1862, (1878); _agenda protestant_ de frank puaux (1880-1894); _agenda annuaire protestant_ de gambier (1895-1907); bersier, _histoire du synode de 1872_ (2 vols.); frank puaux, _les oeuvres du protestantisme francais au xix^e siecle_. see also camisards, calvin, edict of nantes. (f. px.)