Posted on 06/19/2009 3:54:08 PM PDT by alpha-8-25-02
Who were the Huguenots?
John Calvin (1509 - 1564), religious reformer. The Huguenots were French Protestants who were members of the Reformed Church which was established in 1550 by John Calvin. The origin of the name Huguenot is uncertain, but dates from approximately 1550 when it was used in court cases against "heretics" (dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church). There is a theory that it is derived from the personal name of Besançon Hugues, the leader of the "Confederate Party" in Geneva, in combination with a Frankish corruption of the German word for conspirator or confederate: eidgenosse. Thus, Hugues plus eidgenot becomes Huguenot, with the intention of associating the Protestant cause with some very unpopular politics. O.I.A. Roche, in his book The Days of the Upright, a History of the Huguenots, writes 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 Huisgenooten, or "house fellows," while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed Eidgenossen, 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." As nickname and even abusive name it's use was banned in the regulations of the Edict of Nantes which Henry IV (Henry of Navarre, who himself earlier was a Huguenot) issued in 1598. The French Protestants themselves preferred to refer to themselves as "réformees" (reformers) rather than "Huguenots". It was much later that the name "Huguenot" became an honorary one of which their descendants are proud
A general edict which encouraged the extermination of the Huguenots was issued on January 29th, 1536 in France. On March 1st, 1562 some 1200 Huguenots were slain at Vassy, France. This ignited the the Wars of Religion which would rip apart, devastate, and bankrupt France for the next three decades.
St. Batholomew massacre, 1572 Click on image above for an enlarged view
During the infamous St Bartholomew Massacre of the night of 23/24 August, 1572 more than 8 000 Huguenots, including Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, Governor of Picardy and leader and spokesman of the Huguenots, were murdered in Paris. It happened during the wedding of Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, to Marguerite de Valois (daughter of Catherine de Medici), when thousands of Huguenots converged on Paris for the wedding celebrations. Catherine de Medici It was Catherine de Medici who persuaded her weakling son Charles IX to order the mass murder, which lasted three days and spread to the countryside. On Sunday morning August 24th, 1572 she personally walked through the streets of Paris to inspect the carnage. Henry of Navarre's life was spared when he pretended to support the Roman Catholic faith. In 1593 he made his "perilous leap"and abjured his faith in July 1593, and 5 years later he was the undisputed monarch as King Henry IV (le bon Henri, the good Henry) of France. When the first rumours of the massacre reached the Vatican in Rome on 2 September 1572, pope Gregory XIII was jubilant and wanted bonfires to be lit in Rome. He was persuaded to wait for the official communication. The very morning of the day that he received the confirmed news, the pope held a consistory and announced that "God had been pleased to be merciful". Then with all the cardinals he repaired to the Church of St. Mark for the Te Deum, and prayed and ordered prayers that the Most Christian King might rid and purge his entire kingdom (of France) of the Huguenot plague. Pope Gregory XIII
On 8 September 1572 a procession of thanksgiving took place in Rome, and the pope, in a prayer after mass, thanked God for having "granted the Catholic people a glorious triumph over a perfidious race" (gloriosam de perfidis gentibus populo catholico loetitiam tribuisti).
Gregory XIII engaged Vasari to paint scenes in one of the Vatican apartments of the triumph of the Most Christian King over the Huguenots. He had a medal struck representing an exterminating angel smiting the Huguenots with his sword, the inscription reading: Hugonottorium strages (Huguenot conspirators). In France itself, the French magistracy ordered the admiral to be burned in effigy and prayers and processions of thanksgiving on each recurring 24th August, out of gratitude to God for the victory over the Huguenots.
Henry IV, himself a former Huguenot (as Henry of Navarre) The Edict of Nantes was signed by Henry IV on April 13th, 1598, which brought an end to the Wars of Religion. The Huguenots were allowed to practice their faith in 20 specified French "free" cities. France became united and a decade of peace followed. After Henry IV was murdered in 1610, however, the persecution of the "dissenters" resumed in all earnestness under the guidance of Cardinal Richelieu, whose favourite project was the extermination of the Huguenots.
Richelieu, who relentlessly persecuted the Huguenots. Henry IV's weakling sun, Louis the Thirteenth, refused them the privileges which had been granted to them by the Edict of Nantes; and, when reminded of the claims they had, if the promises of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth were to be regarded, he answered that "the first-named monarch feared them, and the latter loved them; but I neither fear nor love them." The Huguenot free cities were lost one after the other after they were conquered by the forces of Cardinal Richelieu, and the last and most important stronghold, La Rochelle, fell in 1629 after a siege lasting a month.
Louis XIV Louis XIV (the Sun King, 1643-1715) began to apply his motto l'état c'est moi ("I am the state") and introduced the infamous Dragonnades - the billeting of dragoons in Huguenot households. He began with a policy of une foi, un loi, un roi (one faith, one law, one king) and revoked the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685. The large scale persecution of the Huguenots resumed. Protestant churches and the houses of "obstinates" were burned and destroyed, and their bibles and hymn books burned. Emigration was declared illegal. Many Huguenots were burned at the stake. Many Huguenots who did not find their death in local prisons or execution on the wheel of torture, were shipped to sea to serve their sentences as galley slaves, either on French galley ships, or sold to Turkey as galley slaves. A vivid account of the life of galley-slaves in France is given in Jean Marteilhes's Memoirs of a Protestant, translated by Oliver Goldsmith, which describes the experiences of one of the Huguenots who suffered after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Every Huguenot place of worship was to be destroyed; every minister who refused to conform was to be sent to the Hôpitaux de Forçats at Marseilles and at Valance. If he had been noted for his zeal he was to be considered "obstinate," and sent to slavery for life in such of the West-Indian islands as belonged to the French. The children of Huguenot parents were to be taken from them by force, and educated by the Roman Catholic monks or nuns.
Scenes like these were common during the persecution of the Huguenots in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Click on picture above for enlargement. At least 250 000 French Huguenots fled to countries such as Switzerland, Germany, England, America, the Netherlands, Poland and South Africa, where they could enjoy religious freedom. As many were killed in France itself. Between 1618 and 1725 between 5 000 and 7 000 Huguenots reached the shores of America. Those who came from the French speaking south of Belgium, an area known as Wallonia, are generally known as Walloons (as opposed to Huguenots) in the United States.
The organised large scale emigration of Hugenots to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa occurred during 1688 - 1689. However, even before this large sscale emigration individual Huguenots such as François Villion (1671) and the brothers François and Guillaume du Toit (1686) fled to the Cape of Good Hope. In 1692 a total of 201 French Huguenots had settled at the Cape of Good Hope. Most of them settled in an area now known as Franschhoek ("French Corner"), some 70 km outside Cape Town, where many farms still bear their original French names.
A century later the promulgation of the Edict of Toleration on 28 November 1787 partially restored the civil and religious rights of the Huguenots in France.
Huguenot ping
Yes, France was once a great nation, a leader in science, the center of European civilization for much of history. But running through its history was an absolutist, intolerant, tendency caused, in large part, by the alliance of a corrupt, anti-Biblical, materialistic church with a grasping central monarchy. Britain avoided that by embracing Reformation culture, which ultimately led to freedom and advancement of the masses of people, without the class warfare and anti-clericalism seen in Catholic countries.
They’re all Europeans. I think you attributed unsubstantiatable motives to them. They’ve rarely needed a reason to do things.
You are certainly correct about that.
"The Family" is still around, and fairly well assimilated into normal life. They continue to exhibit greater than average abilities.
Believe it or not there are hundreds of people at work, on their own, unpaid, voluntarily digging through a millenium of European records trying to tie together a complete genealogy for them.
You wrote:
“Conquest of the New World by Catholic powers like Spain was rapacious exploitation of the native people by warlords who were little better than pirates.”
Oh, and the Protestant Dutch and English had no pirates and never took advantage of natives? ROFLMAO! You never heard of Edward Teach or Henry Morgan?
“That’s why Latin America is incapable of political stability, free economies, and limited government, much like its European parent nations.”
So there’s no corruption in the UK? Are you serious?
“As for Islam and Turkey, you seem to share Hussein 0bama’s nitwit ideas.”
No, I’m just reporting the facts. Can you refute them?
“The Turks were central Asian nomads known for nothing but extreme cruelty and violence.”
Yep. Then again, that’s how some people probably felt about the Dutch and English 300 years ago. And extreme cruelty and violence in no way means a nation will not accomplish economic, military or scientific success. Holding on to those things might be a different matter, however.
“Islam was a parasitic culture whose so-called achievements were actually due to the residual cultures of the dhimmis of the once-great cultures they defeated militarily (Byzantium, Persia, Egypt, India).”
That might be so. Then again, the British were parasites and so were the Dutch. They raided Spanish ships and became rich (off treasure the Spanish mined or stole from South America). Britain became rich - or thought it had - through it’s mercantile policies and conquering of overseas colonies (including US until 1775/1776).
“Merely attaining power by military force, plunder, and enslavement is not admirable.”
Tell that to the Brits. And how do you think the Dutch did not get rich by conquest of overseas colonies and the looting of entire nations?
“Heck, the Soviet Union and Communist China would be great societies by your criteria.”
And they weren’t in terms of power and influence? How much of our debt does China now own? Oh, and yeah, and what’s their population again? Four times that of the USA? Yeah, China is a great power. I would not want to live there. I would not want to live in a 16th century Britian either, however.
“What I am saying, and it is indisputable, is that free societies, capitalism, and limited government are unique outgrowths of Reformation culture, esp. that of Great Britain and its colonies.”
That may be - although someone could make a very good case that capitalism existed already in 14th century Florence. Then again, it is indisputable that ideas like individualism, individual rights, natural law rights are all products of the Middle Ages. See Brian Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights.
And by the way, there is no system of government on earth more oriented toward limited government than feudalism - and that was very medieval. Our modern society today is much more centralized, in fact.
You wrote:
“Part, all of him ~ makes little difference. He was eaten (in part), but cooked (as a whole). The Hurons were not completely savage!”
He was not cooked. The Hurons poured boiling water over him to mock baptism.
The Danish King had murdered a bunch of Swedish nobles. The Vassa King (I believe he was called) had to create a new nobility to get his country back in business. He brought in wealthy, intelligent, highly trained or ruthless men from other countries.
Within a short time he became the King of The North with the takeover of Finland. He extended Sweden into Litnuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the German States, Denmark, Scandia, etc.
By the time the Danish Phase of the Thirty Years War came around he and his successors had secured a permanent alliance with France.
There was little persecution of Catholics in the Scandinavian lands ~ mostly because there weren't enough Catholics to bother with, and where there were lots of Catholics the Swedish church simply didn't attempt the Lutheran alternative.
Kind of a shorthand reason about why Poles are Catholics.
Personally I always thought traditional Vietnamese noodle dishes sucked.
I like Chinese food much more. More flavor.
Dont know...
Why dont you trace some of the families...
The Knights Templar were hated and hunted...
The family name was Poythress. It is said by some in the family that they fled to Holland and took a ship from Holland and eventually went to Scotland by way of the North Sea. From there they went to Ireland. When they came to America, they settled in VA. Some in the family said that they were Scots-Irish.
You know, I'm not real happy to hear about how my Catholic ancestors suffered for their faith under the likes of Cromwell or William of Orange. But, it's time to move away from that stuff, not wallow in it.
We're in the 21st Century, and Christianity is under attack. If people can't see how dredging up old animosities is not playing in to the hands of satan himself, then we are doomed.
I’ve also heard I’m descended from one line of French Huguenots that escaped the “unpleasantness”, but haven’t been able to fully research the line.
Now that there's funny, I don't care who you are.
TN: It would appear that he is referencing the burning at the stake of a masonic knight Jacques DeMolay and some of his fellow Knights Templar in response and compliance with a papal request. Phillip the Fair of France was an outstanding monarch. His daughter Isabella married Longshanks’ lavender son Edward II in an attempt at uniting dynasties which turned out disastrously because of Edward II’s faggotry. Isabella went back to France became involved with a French knight and then returned to dismember Edward II alive. You can bet that it was the French knight who sired Edward III by Isabella and not lavender Edward II. If so, Edward III was guilty of patricide for ordering the execution of that knight after Edward III attained the age when he could be crowned king.
The system of government was a theocracy which encouraged the mortification of the flesh, celebrated death and depopulated most of occitania. Marriage was considered immoral. Weaving cloth was promoted as the highest form of existence and the material culture (think farming, manufacturing, and craftsmanship) was considered part of the "bad" side of life.
The cathars worshiped a duality that mortified the physical body as evil and elevated the spiritual principles to the extent that monastic life was the pinnacle of human existence. The family was considered just plain wrong. Children were left to die and were seen as manifestations of the evil of the physical world.
It was generally considered by the rest of the european western world that the several hundred years of Cathar culture had resulted in a kernel of insanity that could destroy Christianity.
The Cathar culture was developed over several hundred years, under the nose of the catholic church and is believed to have been imported from Malta - home of the Knights Templar who also had found their way into a deviant Christian culture. (They could afford the lifestyle)
Even Raymond of Toulouse, when by the pope asked to intervene and militarily take over the province declined the first time he was asked on the grounds that it wasn't his fight and why should he spend money doing work that wasn't going to enrich him?
Eventually he went into the Cathar region and slaughtered every man woman and child on the premise that 'God will know his own' or 'kill them all, god will sort them out. Cathar culture could not be stopped otherwise.
The Cathar church had become very rich and their monasteries were loaded with booty by the time Raymond made his move. He was the only local noble willing and able to 'take back' occitania for western civilization.
The 'Islamic revolution' and spread of anti-christian culture has nothing on the Cathar civilization. The extent of the depopulation of the area is still felt today. Southeastern france is a curiosity. French tourists bus around Languedoc and visit historical sites like we go to civil war re-enactments.
There is nothing in western culture remotely close to the Cathar culture for us to see and experience in order to understand why they were a 'heresy'. But the facts speak for themselves and the Cathar world was a cancer that was metastasizing itself on the body of western tradition.
I only knew because the name survived through many males down to my g-grandmother..
Plus we had my g-g-grandfather’s Bible with his history...
Plus the name is one of the most famous amongest the Loyalists...
and not because of Laura Ingersolll Secord...
(Laura was married to the brother of my Stephen..)
(I tossed that in because obscue people want to be related to her..LOL)
Anyhoo there were many Secords who were Loyalists...
James, John and Peter were 3 brothers and many of their sons were also...
(I know it sounds like the Mount of transfiguration...but that was their names..
Except James had been baptised Jacques as a baby...)
“The Secords of Canada”
and many Loyalists came from Huguenot families...
They are wrongly called “French Canadian”...
THe families did not start out that way...
They were born in the US...
They came originally from France helped mainly by England...
They swore alliegencew to the English Crown...
They taught their children and childrens children to be loyal to the country that saved them...
The US was English for about 100 years...
In my family the grandson and g-grandson of the originals and his sons became Loyalists...
If you have some Loyalist blood in your lines, that may be a Huguenot family...
However tens of thousands of Americans went north ...
Can you ask the person you heard it from for more info ???
Accoding to the movie Brave Heart, it was William Wallace who sired Edwaqrd III...
and Edward Wallace who was dismembered...
But I know a little of the Knights Templar...
From what I’ve read they were the good guys...
I doubt if Ed III would have known it was his father...
Isabella would never have told...
And his name was? My direct ancestor, Peter Anderson, (b. before 1620 in the Gotenburg area) arrived in New Sweden on the Kalmar Nykel (sp.?) and became the skipper of the Governor's boat that he used to access his house on an island near what is now Philadelphia. He sailed back to Amsterdam to collect his wages, returned to Sweden to collect a bride, and brought her back to New Sweden where they settled to establish a farm and raise their family in Kingsessing. He and his family were among the founders of Gloria Dei (Swedish) Church and are listed on the roll.
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