Huguenot

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Huguenot :: Huguenots

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, or historically as the French Calvinists.

Origin of the name

Used originally as a term of derision, the derivation of the name Huguenot remains uncertain. It may have been based on the name Besançon Hugues, or a French corruption of the German word Eidgenosse, meaning a Swiss person - Geneva, Switzerland was John Calvin's adopted home and the center of the Calvinist movement. In Geneva, Hugues was the leader of the "Confederate Party," so called because it favored an alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. This theory of origin has support from the fact that the label Huguenot was first applied in France to those conspirators (all of them aristocratic members of the Reformed Church) involved in the Amboise plot of 1560: a foiled attempt to usurp power in France from the influential House of Guise, a move which would have had the side-effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, Hugues plus eidgenot becomes Huguenot, with the intention of associating the Protestant cause with some very unpopular politics.

Another theory is offered by O.I.A. Roche, who writes in his book The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots that "Huguenot" is

"a combination of a Flemish and a German word. In the Flemish corner of France, Bible students who gathered in each other's houses to study secretly were called Huis Genooten, or 'house fellows,' while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed Eid Genossen, or 'oath fellows,' that is, persons bound to each other by an oath. Gallicized into 'Huguenot,' often used deprecatingly, the word became, during two and a half centuries of terror and triumph, a badge of enduring honor and courage."

Early History and Beliefs

Huguenot predecessors included the pro-reform and Gallican Roman Catholics, like Jacques Lefevre. Later, Huguenots followed the Lutheran movement, and finally, Calvinism.

They shared John Calvin's fierce reformation beliefs which decried the priesthood, sacramental theology, and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. They believed in salvation as an act of God as much as in creation as an act of God, and thus that only God's predestined mercy toward the elect made them fit for salvation.

Some see this dual emphasis on creation and on salvation, and God's sovereignty over both, as a cornerstone principle for Huguenot developments in architecture and textiles and other merchandise.

Criticisms of Roman Catholic Church

Above all, Huguenots became known for their fiery criticisms of worship as performed in the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the focus on ritual and what seemed an obsession with death and the dead. They believed the ritual, images, saints, pilgrimages, prayers, and hierarchy of the Catholic Church did not help anyone toward redemption. They saw Christian faith as something to be expressed in a strict and godly life, in obedience to Biblical laws, out of gratitude for God's mercy.

Like other Protestants of the time, they felt that the Roman church needed radical cleansing of its impurities, and that the Pope represented a worldly kingdom, which sat in mocking tyranny over the things of God, and was ultimately doomed. Rhetoric like this became more fierce as events unfolded, and stirred up the hostility of the Catholic establishment.

Violently opposed to the Catholic Church, the Huguenots attacked images, monasticism, and church buildings. Most of the cities in which the Huguenots gained a hold saw iconoclast attacks, in which altars and images in churches, and sometimes the buildings themselves were torn down. Bourges, Montauban and Orleans suffered particularly.

Reform and Growth

Huguenots faced periodic persecution from the outset of the Reformation; but Francis I (reigned 1515–1547) initially protected them from Parlementary measures designed for their extermination. The Affair of the Placards of 1534 changed the king's posture toward the Huguenots: he stepped away from restraining persecution of the movement.

Huguenot numbers grew rapidly between 1555 and 1562, chiefly amongst the nobles and city-dwellers. During this time, their opponents first dubbed the Protestants Huguenots; but they called themselves reformés, "Reformed". They organized their first national synod in 1558, in Paris.

By 1562, they had a total membership estimated at least a million, especially numerous in the southern and central parts of the country. The Huguenots in France likely peaked in number at approximately two million, compared to approximately sixteen million Catholics during the same period.

Wars of religion

In reaction to the growing Huguenot influence, and the aforementioned excesses of Protestant zeal, Catholic violence against them grew, at the same time that concessions and edicts of toleration became more liberal.

In 1561, the Edict of Orléans, for example, declared an end to the persecution; and the Edict of Saint-Germain recognized them for the first time (January 17, 1562); but these measures disguised the growing strain of relations between Protestant and Catholic.

Civil Wars

Tensions led to eight civil wars, interrupted by periods of relative calm, between 1562 and 1598. With each break in peace, the Huguenots' trust in the Catholic throne diminished, and the violence became more severe, and Protestant demands became more grand, until a lasting cessation of open hostility finally occurred in 1598.

The wars gradually took on a dynastic character, developing into an extended feud between the Houses of Bourbon and Guise, which — in addition to holding rival religious views — both staked a claim to the French throne. The crown, occupied by the House of Valois, generally supported the Catholic side, but on occasion switched over to the Protestant cause when politically expedient.

The French Wars of Religion

The French Wars of Religion began with a massacre at Wassy on March 1, 1562, in which at least 30 (some sympathetic sources say 1000 or more) Huguenots were killed, and about 200 were wounded.

The Huguenots transformed themselves into a definitive political movement thereafter. Protestant preachers rallied a considerable army and a formidable cavalry, which came under the leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Henry of Navarre and the House of Bourbon allied themselves to the Huguenots, adding wealth and holdings to the Protestant strength, which at its height grew to sixty fortified cities, and posed a serious threat to the Catholic crown and Paris over the next three decades.

St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August – 17 September, 1572, Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris who had been burning stores and provoking the police. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following, with an estimated total death toll of 110,000. An amnesty granted in 1573 pardoned the perpetrators.

Edict of Nantes

The fifth holy war against the Huguenots began on February 23, 1574. The conflict continued periodically until 1598, when Henry of Navarre, having converted to Catholicism and become King of France as Henry IV, issued the Edict of Nantes. The Edict granted the Protestants equality with Catholics under the throne and a degree of religious and political freedom within their domains. The Edict simultaneously protected Catholic interests by discouraging the founding of new Protestant churches in the Catholic-controlled regions.

With the proclamation of the Edict of Nantes, and the subsequent protection of Huguenot rights, pressures to leave France abated, as did further attempts at colonization. However, under King Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), chief minister Cardinal Mazarin (who held real power during the king's minority up to his death in 1661) resumed persecution of the Protestants using soldiers to inflict dragonnades that made life so intolerable that many fled.

Edict of Fontainebleau

The king revoked the "irrevocable" Edict of Nantes in 1685 and declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau. After this, huge numbers of Huguenots (with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 500,000) fled to surrounding Protestant countries: England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Prussia — whose Calvinist Great Elector Frederick William welcomed them to help rebuild his war-ravaged and underpopulated country.

Huguenot Exodus from France

Earlier Flight from France

The first Huguenots to leave France seeking freedom from prosecution had done so years earlier under the leadership of Jean Ribault in 1562. The group ended up establishing the small colony of Ft. Caroline, on the banks of the St. Johns River, in what is today Jacksonville, Florida.

This settlement was the first attempt at any permanent European settlement in the present-day United States. However, the group survived only a short time; a Spanish colony established shortly thereafter at St. Augustine wiped out the French in 1565.

Settlement in South Africa

On December 31, 1687 a band of Huguenots set sail from France to the colony at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Individual Huguenots settled at the Cape of Good Hope from as early as 1671 and an organized, large scale emigration of Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope took place during 1688 and 1689.

Many of these settlers chose as their home an area called Franschhoek, Dutch for French Corner, in the present day Western Cape provice of South Africa. A large monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 7 April 1948 at Franschhoek.

Many of the farms in the Western Cape province in South Africa still bear French names and there are many families, today mostly Afrikaans speaking, whose surnames bear witness to their French Huguenot ancestry. Examples of these are Joubert, du Toit, de Villiers, Theron, du Plessis and Labuschagne amongst others, which are all common surnames in present day South Africa.

Settlement in North America

Barred from settling in New France, many Huguenots moved instead to the Dutch colony New Netherland later incorporated into New York and New Jersey and the 13 colonies of Great Britain in North America, the first in 1624.

Huguenot immigrants founded New Paltz, New York, where is now located the oldest street in America with the original stone houses, New Rochelle, New York (named after La Rochelle in France).

Some of the settlers chose the Virginia Colony, and formed communities in present-day Chesterfield County and Powhatan County just west of Richmond, Virginia, where their descendants continue to reside. The Huguenot Memorial Bridge across the James River was named in their honor, as were many local features including several schools.

Many Huguenots also settled in the area around the current site of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1685, Rev. Elie Prioleau from the town of Pons in France settled in what was then called Charlestown. He became pastor of the first Huguenot church in North America in that city. The French Protestant (Huguenot) Church of Charleston, which remains independent, is the oldest continuously active Huguenot congregation in the United States today.

Most of the Huguentot congregations in North America merged or affiliated with other Protestant denominations, such the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, Reformed Churches, and the Reformed Baptists.

Asylum in Britain

An estimated 50,000 Huguenots fled to Britain. A leading Huguenot theologian and writer who led the exiled community in London, Andre Lortie (or Andrew Lortie), became known for articulating Huguenot criticism of the Holy See and transubstantiation.

Of these refugees, upon landing on the Kent coast, many gravitated towards the (then) hub of the county: Canterbury. To this day there is still a Huguenot Chapel to be found in Canterbury Cathedral, where many Huguenot families were granted asylum. Access can now be gained should your name be derived from any of the French names featured on a tapestry placed on the chapel's outer door.

Huguenot refugees flocked to Shoreditch, London in large numbers. They established a major weaving industry in and around Spitalfields (see Petticoat Lane and the Tenterground), and in Wandsworth. The Old Truman Brewery, then known as the Black Eagle Brewery, appeared in 1724. The fleeing of Huguenot refugees Tours, France had virtually wiped out the great silk mills they had built.

Many Huguenots settled in Ireland during the Plantations of Ireland. Some of them fought against the troops of Louis XIV in the Williamite war in Ireland, for which they were rewarded with land grants and titles. Some of them took their skills to Ulster and assisted in the founding of the Irish linen industry.

Effects

The exodus of Huguenots from France created a kind of brain drain from which the kingdom would not fully recover for years. The French crown's refusal to allow Protestants to settle in New France was a factor behind that colony's slow population growth, which ultimately led to its conquest by the British. By the time of the French and Indian War, there may have been more people of French ancestry living in Britain's American colonies than there were in New France.

A third of American Presidents have some proven Huguenot ancestry, as do Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and other leading statesmen, and (according to an oft-repeated belief) one quarter or more of all Englishmen.

Frederick the Great of Prussia, a strong believer in religious tolerance, invited Huguenots to settle in his realms, and a number of their descendants rose to positions of prominence in Prussia. The last Prime Minister of the (East) German Democratic Republic, Lothar de Maizière, was a scion of a Huguenot family.

End of Persecution

Persecution of Protestants ended in 1764, and the French Revolution of 1789 finally made them full-fledged citizens.

Protestants in France today number about 1 million, or about 2% of the population [http://www.ambafrance-rsa.org/HTML/ThisIsFrance/Population/PO_Religion_Body.htm. They are most concentrated in the Cévennes region in the south.

Legacy

In 1924 a commemorative half dollar, known as the Huguenot-Walloon Half Dollar, was coined in the United States to celebrate the 300th anniversary of this settlement), among them a silversmith called Apollos Rivoire, who would later anglicize his name to Paul Revere. He would, still later, give his name and his profession to his son, Paul Revere, the famous United States revolutionary.

A neighborhood in New York City's borough of Staten Island was named "Huguenot".

Political Vocabulary

French Protestants considered themselves to practice a "reformed" religion (religion réformée) — which implied that the Catholic religion was in need of reforms. In opposition, French Catholics, when talking in polite terms, called the Protestant religion the "allegedly reformed religion" (religion prétendue réformée, or RPR) — with an obvious pejorative undertone of "pretense".

Other

The word refugee came into use in the English language to describe the early French protestants seeking Refuge. They subsequently became known as the Refugees by the locals. French réfugié, from past participle of réfugier, to take refuge, from Old French, from refuge.

Symbol

The sign of the Huguenot is the croix huguenote. It is now an official symbol of the Eglise des protestants reformé (French Protestant church) and the Huguenot descendents are proud to display this piece of jewellery like a sign of reconnaissance (recognition) between them.

Famous people with Huguenot ancestry

John Andre, British Officer and spy
Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy, artist and sculptor
Florence Bascom, American geologist
Henry Bidleman Bascom, U.S. Congressional Chaplain, Methodist Bishop
Bryant Brooks, Governor of Wyoming
Francis Beaufort, Hydrographer of the British Admiralty
William Byrd I, Virginia settler
Sarel Cilliers, Boer Voortrekker
Joan Crawford, American Actress
Davy Crockett, American folk hero
Hansie Cronje South African cricketer
Frederik Willem de Klerk President of the Republic of South Africa serving from September 1989 to May 1994
James DeLancey, Governor of New York
Abraham De Peyster, Mayor of New York
Abraham De Peyster, Loyalist
Arent Schuyler De Peyster, Loyalist
Johannes De Peyster, Mayor of Albany
G.E.M de Ste. Croix, writer & historian
Julia Dale, Hugus
Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian jeweller
Gustav Fabergé, Russian jeweller
Theodor Fontane, German novelist and poet
Philip Freneau, American Poet
Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe General and WW2 fighter ace
Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Austrian conductor
Alexander Hamilton, American Secretary of the Treasury
^*Peter Horry , S.C. Revolutionary War General {Reference only}
Benjamin Huger, American General {Confederate}
Daniel E. Huger, American politician
John Jay, American diplomat
Gideon Joubert, Afrikaans science non-fiction author
Petrus Jacobus Joubert Boer commandant-general of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900
Gustaf de Laval, Swedish engineer and inventor
Henry Laurens, American politician
John Laurens, American War hero
Simon Le Bon, English musician
Eugène Terre'Blanche ,South African political activist
Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish writer
Daniel Myron LeFever, American gunmaker
D F Malan South African Prime Minister elected on Apartheid platform
Lothar de Maizière, German politician
Thomas de Maizière, German politician
Seigried Marseille, Luftwaffe General
Hans-Joachim Marseille, Luftwaffe ace
Arthur Middleton Manigault, American General {Confederate}
Francis Marion, American War Hero
Charles Manigault Morris, American Navy officer{Confederate}
Gouverneur Morris, American Diplomat
Beyers Naudé Afrikaner anti Apartheid cleric.
Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere Highest scoring Uboat commander of World War I
Francois Pienaar Captain of the Springboks from 26 June 1993 until 10 August 1996
Frederic Remington, American artist and sculptor
Piet Retief, Boer Voortrekkers
Paul Revere, American Silversmith, famous for "Paul Revere's Ride" at the outbreak of the American War of Independence.
John Richbourg, American radio announcer
John D. Rockefeller, American capitalist
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
Sara Roosevelt, mother of FDR
Friedrich Karl von Savigny, German jurist
Jedediah Smith, American explorer
Charlize Theron, South African actress
Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut, German jurist
Constand Viljoen Former leader of the Freedom Front (1994 - 2001) and SADF general
Peter Griffin , self described fictitious Hugoneot

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