13: The French Reformation that Wasn't

INTRODUCTION

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On August 18, 1572, a wedding took place in Paris. Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de’ Medici and King Henri II, married Henri of Navarre.

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But the match was fraught with Shakespearean peril because Marguerite was Roman Catholic and Henri was Protestant - a Huguenot - and France was a very Roman Catholic country.

However, Protestantism had been making inroads there and because of the wedding, Paris was full of Huguenot nobility from across France, among them perhaps France’s most prominent Protestant, Admiral of the French Navy, Gaspard de Coligny.

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Six days later, on August 24, Admiral Coligny would be dead at the age of 53.

In the early morning hours of August 24, a bell began to toll from The Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, a Roman Catholic church directly across from the king’s palace, the Louvre. This was a signal to begin a Protestant slaughter which became known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Admiral Coligny was shot in the street but not killed, he was later murdered in his hotel bedroom by solders under command of Henri, Duke of Guise:

Christian History Magazine—Issue 71: The French Huguenots and the Wars of Religion The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (Scott M. Manetsch)

They threw the body from the window to the ground below, where angry crowds later mutilated it, cutting off the head and hands, and dragged it through the streets of Paris. As Guise walked away from Coligny’s lodging

It is said that Guise wiped the blood off the Admiral’s face to be sure it was him and uttered “Lie there poisonous serpent; you shall shed your venom no more.” (1)

What ensued was a bloodbath.Historians estimate 3,000 Protestants were murdered in Paris and, as the carnage spread to other towns over the next few days, many thousands more were were martyred. A Swiss diplomat wrote at the time:

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Christian History Magazine—Issue 71: The French Huguenots and the Wars of Religion The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (Scott M. Manetsch)

“The whole of France is bathed in the blood of innocent people and covered with dead bodies. The air is filled with the cries and groans of nobles and commoners, women and children, slaughtered by the hundreds without mercy.”

When it was all over, Pope Gregory XIII held a worship service of thanks in Rome and had a medal struck to celebrate the event. France had been saved from the Protestants.

Slide - Medal

We’re going to look this morning at the events of the Reformation in France. As we do so, I think this is an occasion to think on the providence of God in the affairs of men, particularly with regard to his chosen method of advancing his Kingdom. Because sometimes what looks like setbacks to us is God advancing the kingdom in the way he’s sovereignly chosen to maximize his glory. In fact, I would say always what look like setbacks to us is God advancing his kingdom in ways we don’t understand.

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Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”

If you want to make an impact for God in a particular area, let’s say Europe in the sixteenth century, where would you concentrate your efforts? Thinking purely in human terms, the answer to that question is France.

France during this period was the premiere nation in Europe. It’s population was 16,000,000 as compared with the 3,000,000 people in England. Paris was the second largest city in Europe (250,000 people) after Constantinople.(1a)

So, whether or not the Reformation succeeded was a big deal because of the impact it would have had on Europe. If we could just convert the French royal family and turn France Protestant, think what that would mean.

But, as is often the case, God often chooses the lesser things rather than the things that seem most important to work out his will. The reformation succeeding in Europe’s most important and populous country was not to be - at least if you define success the way we normally do.

As with England last week, we’ll look at the events of this time across the reigns of several kings.

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The attempts to reform France and move her from Roman Catholicism to the embrace of the Protestant faith essentially carried through the reigns of eight French kings and two different French royal families. across more than 150 years.

Many of you are probably familiar with the most famous of the French kinds, the Louis’s. Louis XIV, the Sun King, Louis XV, etc. They were from the Bourbon family. But at the beginning of the period we’re looking at this morning, the French royal family was the Valois family. We’ll see how the transition to the Bourbons happened.

How the Reformation Began in France

FRANCIS I - 1515-1547 (Valois)

Translation of the NT into French, 1525

Conversion of John Calvin, 1533

The Affair of the Placards, 1534

Calvin leaves France for Geneva, 1536

Calvin’s Institutes, 1536

We begin during the reign of Francis I.

If you remember our discussion about the influence of “humanism” on the Reformation, we said:

In the early 16th century “humanism” simply meant having to do with the humanities and it signified not a philosophy so much as a method of study. The method was to return to the classical sources for learning. As you may recall, the fall of Constantinople caused many classical texts, especially in Greek, to be available to the western world for the first time as Christians fled Constantinople after it was overrun by Muslims. The goal of the Renaissance humanists was, rather than to read ABOUT the classical world to read the source documents in the original languages - and that included the scriptures.

In France this was particularly applied to the legal system. During the reign of Francis I (1515 - 1547), he set out to reform the laws of France (John Calvin was trained as a lawyer in France during this time). The way they set out to do that was to return to the Roman law codes of antiquity and the way they set out to do that was to go back to the original sources in the original languages.

In France, perhaps more so than any other place in Europe, humanism was transforming society but would it transform the Catholic church?

In the city of Meaux, a group supported by Margaret of Angouleme began to meet and discuss theology. Significantly, Margaret was the sister of the king. The group was led by the Bishop of Meaux, a man named Guillaume Briconnet. Some of the ideas they taught were:

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The Bible should be accessible to all in their native language.

The church should be reformed to return to biblical principles

The art of preaching should be cultivated among the clergy.

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One of the men in France influenced by this group was Jacques Lefrevre (1455 - 1536). In 1525, Lefrevre completed a translation of the New Testament into French from the Latin Vulgate. (2)

So, we see the pattern continue.

As with the Reformation other places, it was the Word of God being available to people in their own language that was the catalyst.

Also as with other places, the initial desire was to reform the existing church - not to replace the church with a new church. A group also formed around Lefevre who wished to reform the Roman Catholic Church so its practices would be aligned with the teachings of scripture. (3)

Also as with other places, the Church was resistant to this.

One of the other reasons many were calling for reform was because of the moral condition of the Catholic Church in France. According to historian Will Durant, a common French saying during these years was to call someone “as avaricious or lecherous as a priest or monk.” So the church didn’t have a stellar reputation in France.

King Francis I (1494 - 1547) became alarmed at the rising influence of the Protestants , who had among their adherents many of the upper middle-class merchants in France, people with some influence and some money, and began to use force to suppress them. As a result, in 1525, the group that had formed around Lefrevre was scattered and many fled the country. (4) This is also the time during which John Calvin fled to Geneva.

However, for the time, Francis I was a moderate king and not a super draconian Catholic monarch like, say, Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain.

Part of the reason for this was because of his sister Margaret, who though she never officially left he Catholic Church did hold Protestant beliefs and used her influence with her brother to lobby on behalf of Protestants and try to protect them from official persecution.

Unfortunately, any sympathy Francis had for the Protestants ended in 1534.

The Affair of the Placards

As sometimes happens, the Protestants themselves, or a small subset of them, caused this.

Francis was initially tolerant of the French Protestants but an event in October 1534 changed that - by the way, this is one year after John Calvin was converted. This event came to be known as the “Affair of the Placards” and I think it’s a lesson in how not to engage with the civil government on behalf of Christianity.

A group of Protestants, not satisfied with the speed at which reformation was happening in France, decided to take, what we’d call today a direct action.

Christian History Magazine—Issue 12: John Calvin: Reformer, Pastor, Theologian Francis I [1515–1547]

In the early morning hours of October 18, 1534, Protestants distributed throughout Paris leaflets denouncing the Roman mass. One was even placed on the King’s bedroom door. Francis dramatized his anger by accompanying a solemn religious procession to the Cathedral of Notre Dame to symbolically purify Paris from the abomination. His anger did not stop with ceremonies. A policy of persecuting Protestants was inaugurated and would remain in effect until the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Hundreds of Protestants were imprisoned by Francis and 35 were burned at the stake, including several close friends of Calvin. The Institutes were written with the French martyrs on his mind

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Here’s some of what the placard said:

History of the Rise of the Huguenots, Vol. I The Placard against the Mass

“I invoke heaven and earth in testimony of the truth, against that proud and pompous papal mass, through which (if God remedy not speedily the evil) the world will be wholly desolated, destroyed, and ruined. For therein is our Lord so outrageously blasphemed and the people so blinded and seduced, that it ought no longer to be suffered or endured.”

History of the Rise of the Huguenots, Vol. I The Placard against the Mass

After citing from the book of Hebrews some passages to establish the sufficiency of Christ, the writer addresses his opponents: “I demand then of all sacrificing priests, whether their sacrifice be perfect or imperfect? If imperfect, why do they deceive the poor people? If perfect, why need it be repeated? Come forward, priests, and reply if you can!”

This, by the way, was posted anonymously. The main target of the placard was the so-called real presence of Christ in the host blessed by the priest in the Mass.

What do you think about that approach to civil engagement?

The placards were very inflammatory. Whereas Luther’s posted theses called for a debate, it was clear in these posting that debate was not on the table. Here’s how Luther began his “post:”

“Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.” (Luther 1517)

These people wanted the Catholic church and particularly the Mass ended immediately.

As you can imagine, a Roman Catholic king, supported by the Catholic Church and the papacy, didn’t take kindly to this and the fact that someone sneaked into the palace and put one on his bedchamber door was seen as an act of treason. It was almost a “we know where you live” kind of thing.

Francis saw it as much a condemnation of him and his rule as of the Roman Catholic Church. There was, in the minds of most people of the day, no separation of the two.

Interestingly, the common people of France tended to be loyal to the king were incensed by this as well and it served to harden the populace against the Protestant faith as much as it did the king. So, when it comes time to start killing Protestants, this is fuel for the fire. Which is a lesson to us that our methods of persuasion and of sharing truth are important.

We should not be needlessly inflammatory or offensive. Our message itself is often going to bring enough offense. Did this anonymous placarding of Paris heed or hinder the restoration of the true faith in France? Many would argue that it hindered it despite agreeing that the underlying sentiment expressed was true.

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

We must be wise. Is this going to help or hurt what I’m trying to accomplish?

Ecclesiastes 10:20 “Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.”

Colossians 4:5–6 “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

The response of Francis was to go on the hunt for anyone even remotely connected to the writing or distribution of these pamphlets. He commanded parliament to leave no stone unturned in finding the culprits and when found they were treated without mercy.

Henry Baird in his book on the history of the French Huguenots describes it like this:

Among the first to be committed to the flames was a young man, Barthélemi Milon, whom paralysis had deprived of the use of the lower half of his body.1

His unpardonable offence was that copies of the placard against the mass had been found in his possession. A wealthy draper, Jean du Bourg, had been guilty of the still more heinous crime of having posted some of the bills on the walls. For this he was compelled before execution to go through that solemn mockery of penitence, the amende honorable, in front of the church of Notre Dame, with but a shirt to conceal his nakedness, and holding a lighted taper in his hand; afterward to be conducted to the Fontaine des Innocents, and there have the hand that had done the impious deed cut off at the wrist, in token of the public detestation of his “high treason against God and the king.”

Henry M. Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880), 1:172.

Despite all this, remember “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” when Francis died in 1547 and the crown passed to Henri II, there were still approximately 400,000 Protestants in France - many of which were from the upper middle classes and the trades, shop owners, lawyers, doctors, even the French military.

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HENRI II - 1547 - 1559 (Valois) - Marguerite’s father

Approximately 400,000 Protestants in France

Marguerite de Valois is his daughter - Important later.

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FRANCIS II - 1558 - 1560 (Valois)

First national Protestant synod adopts the Gallican Confession of Faith, 1559

In 1558, Henri II’s fifteen-year-old son Francis assumed the throne as Francis II.

In 1559 the French protestants held a national synod and adopted a confession of faith, the Gallic Confession, the first draft of which was written by John Calvin (6)

Per the Encyclopedia Britannica:

“The Gallican Confession consisted of 35 articles divided into four sections concerning God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the church. It affirmed that the Bible is the only rule of faith. It also included an exposition on predestination, the doctrine that God elects or chooses who will be saved, and stated Calvin’s doctrine of the Eucharist...The Gallican Confession has often been printed in French Bibles, and it remained the authoritative statement of faith for the French Reformed Church into the 19th century.”

Here are some excerpts:

“Christ is our only Advocate before the Father. We therefore reject the intercession of saints, and all other devices which detract from the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ, as purgatory, monastic vows, pilgrimages, auricular confession, indulgences. We reject them not only on account of the false idea of merit attached to them, but also because they impose a yoke upon the conscience (23, 24).”

“We reject the papacy for its many superstitions, idolatries, and corruptions of the Word and Sacraments...The true Church should be governed by pastors, elders, and deacons. All true pastors have the same authority and power under one head, the only sovereign and universal bishop, Jesus Christ; and consequently no Church shall claim any authority or dominion over the other (25-33)”

This is an interesting one given the placards incident:

“God has instituted kingdoms, republics, and other forms of government, whether hereditary or elective, for the order and peace of society. He has given the sword to the magistrate for the punishment of sin and crime, and the transgressions of the first as well as the second table of the Decalogue. [951] We must therefore obey the magistrate, pay tribute and taxes with a good and free will, even if the rulers are unbelievers. We therefore detest those who would resist authority, establish community of goods, and overthrow the order of justice (39, 40).”

It was also during this time that they became known as Huguenots, though the origin of the term is debated.

The Huguenots became so powerful and so well organized that they formed a kingdom within a kingdom. Kind of like we saw with Switzerland a couple weeks back with some areas of the country being mostly Protestant and others being mostly Roman Catholic, France was becoming a nation divided by religion. And because there was no concept at that time of multiple Christian belief systems coexisting within one political entity, that was becoming a problem.

Realization of this situation by the government brought a transition from the government’s policy of steady, lower key persecution to a policy of all out religious war to restore France to the bosom of Rome. (7) This began to happen during the reign of Charles IX and was driven by the powerful Guise family.

Unfortunately, Frances II was a sickly boy and died after only two years on the throne. He was succeeded by...

CHARLES IX - 1560 - 1574 (Valois)

French Protestants become known as “Huguenots”

Colloquy of Poissy, 1561

Massacre of Vassy, 1562

Founding of Ft. Caroline in Florida, 1564

Admiral Coligny befriends Charles IX, 1570

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572

Charles IX was son of the late king Henri II and brother to Frances II and Marguerite Valois.

One year into his reign, in 1561, a meeting was held between French Catholics and French Protestants to attempt to come to some kind of understanding where the two sides could live with one another within France. This is known as the Colloquy of Poissy.

The spokesman for the Protestant side was Theodore Beza who became Cavlin’s successor a Geneva. His explanation of the Reformed view of the Eucharist caused quite a stir among the Catholic attendees and it eventually became clear that the Catholic Church had no interest in coming to an agreement with the Protestants. In the end, no agreement was reached.

An event the next year, 1562 made it even less likely things would be resolved peacefully.

At the forefront of the opposition to the Protestants was the powerful and very Catholic, Guise family. If you remember on the front end of the lesson, it was the Duke of Guise who had Admiral Coligny murdered and kicked off the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. That wasn’t the first rodeo, as they say, of the family Guise in their violent opposition to Protestantism.

On March 1, 1562 while in the town of Vassy, Francis, Duke of Guise, came upon a group of Protestants worshipping in a barn.

According to Carol Stuart in her book “Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe”:

Heading towards the church, Guise was further incensed to find that the location of the Protestant meeting house was both so close to the town church and in the Castle district which constituted his property. He entered the church, convening with the town's leading opponents of Protestantism, the priest and provost, who urged him to act and disperse the assembly. Heading out towards the meeting house he sent Gaston de la Brosse out ahead of him with two pages to announce his arrival. Inside the barn 500 worshippers sang psalms. Gaston attempted to gain entry to the barn but was resisted by those at the door; overpowering them he began to kill those nearest. The rest of Guise's company now rushed forward, trumpets blaring for the attack, with Guise himself either unwilling or unable to stop what had begun. Many worshippers fled through the hole in the roof, some others escaping were picked off by sharpshooters, those who fled down the streets were met by arquebusiers (gunmen) stationed at the cemetery. The pastor Morel was wounded and captured. After an hour the massacre ceased. Of the 500 parishioners, 50 lay dead, of whom 5 were women and 1 a child.

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On the heels of this, on April 12, in the town of Sens, 100 Protestants were murdered and their bodies thrown into the the river. Things began to spiral towards civil war with massacres soon taking place on both sides.

This culminated in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre we talked about on the front end which kicked off a period known as the French Wars of Religion.

This persecution of the Protestant Church went on throughout the reigns of Charles IX and Henri III, the next two kings.

Interestingly during the reign of Charles IX, French Protestants were the first Europeans to settle in North America in search of religious freedom. They founded Fort Caroline in 1564, over fifty years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, in what is now Jacksonville Florida. Sadly, after only about a year they were massacred by the Spanish military who didn’t take kindly to a French settlement in what they considered Spanish territory.

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I’m always in awe of our ancestors who found loyalty to Christ more important than personal comfort and were willing to travel hundreds of miles under very difficult conditions just to worship the Lord the way they wanted to.

Christian History Magazine—Issue 71: The French Huguenots and the Wars of Religion The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (Scott M. Manetsch)

In the decades following Saint Bartholomew’s Day, the Huguenots never again trusted the Valois kings. France was shaken by four more religious wars. Reformed churches struggled for survival in a climate of repression, political instability, and social unrest.

The Edict of Nantes

However, in 1593, things apparently began looking up for the Protestants in France.

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In 1593, when Henri III died without an heir, Henri of Navarre, the king’s nephew, became the first Bourbon king of France as King Henri IV. As you’ll remember, Henri of Navarre was a Protestant.

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Now, at long last, would France have a Protestant king who could consolidate the Reformation, kind of like Elizabeth I did in England.

Well, to but it bluntly, no.

It was made pretty clear to Henri that if he wanted to be the king, he had to also be a Catholic. So, in the end, he converted to Roman Catholicism.

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When commenting on this change, he supposedly said: “Paris is worth at least a Mass.” In other words, if he couldn’t be king unless he was Catholic, he’d be Catholic. Having the throne was what was most important. Ironically he was assassinated in 1610 by a Roman Catholic zealot who thought he wasn’t Catholic enough. So, after he’d given up the Protestant faith to be King, he was killed by a Catholic.

However, to his credit, he took steps to end the bloody religious wars and to grant Protestants religious freedom.

In 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes which allowed Protestants to worship freely and to keep control of about 200 towns where they were the majority.

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This remained in place until the reign of his grandson Louis XIV, the Sun King, who revoked it in 1685 out of a desire to have a nation united around one faith similar to the sentiments of Elizabeth I we talked about last week. As an aside, this shows the problem with rule by fiat or, we might say, rule by executive order. In the absence of an overarching authority like a constitution, rights tend to be at the whim of the ruler.

SLIDE (Louis XIV)

It was at this point that Huguenots began to leave France in large numbers in search of religious freedom elsewhere. Despite laws against emigration, over 250,000 Huguenots fled to other countries, including Germany, Holland, England, Switzerland, and America. And remember, these were the professional classes.

This became a serious drain on France’s professional and merchant classes as many Protestants were among them.

Many fled to London where their skilled labor, particularly in the areas of silk weaving and watch making and silver smithing, transformed Britain's industries and economy. There’s something to be said about the doctrine of vocation and the Protestant work ethic in its transformation of society.

It’s not unusual to find evidence of Huguenot immigrants all over the western world.

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There’s an historic Huguenot church in Charleston, SC.

In the end, Protestantism never got a foothold in France and still remains a small minority of those who claim to be Christian.

The French Catholic church and monarchy who so ruthlessly drove the Reformation from their land would find the shoe on the other foot a hundred years later as the “Reign of Terror” during the French Revolution did the same to them. One can only imagine how things may have been different for France had Bible believing Christianity been allowed to flourish there.

I think that’s a cautionary tale for our day. When you drive Christianity out of a land, you won’t like what comes after it.

When commenting on the horrors of the Russian Revolution, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said the root cause of the terror was:

“Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

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In 1985, on the 300th anniversary of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, French President Francois Mitterrand formally apologized for the treatment of the Huguenots and France issued a commemorative postage stamp saying “Home of the Huguenots.”

In 2017 approximately 3% of the French population identified as Protestant with still about 60% saying they were Roman Catholic.

(1) Lives of Eminent Christians by John Frost, p. 109

(1a) The Reformation by Will Durant, p. 493

(2) Christianity Through the Centuries by Earle E. Cairns, p. 315

(3) ibid

(4) ibid, p. 316

(5) Sketches from Church History by S.M. Houghton, p. 104

(6) Cairns, p. 316

(7) ibid