Claude Brousson (1647-1698)

Claude Brousson was born in Nîmes and obtained a doctorate in law. A lawyer by profession, he devoted himself chiefly to the defence of the Reformed Churches. In 1683, he unsuccessfully attempted to oppose the restrictive regulations governing Reformed worship and the destruction of churches. He then resolved to flee to Geneva, and subsequently to Lausanne. From there, he urged pastors to return to France, despite the prohibition forbidding them to exercise their ministry.

In 1689, he himself decided to return to France and, in defiance of the ban, to work as a “preacher” in the Cévennes and Lower Languedoc.

There he pursued an incessant activity: he preached, distributed his writings, chiefly sermons, organised nocturnal gatherings, and supported and structured the life of the “Church under the Cross”.

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The coalition formed against France through the League of Augsburg consisted principally of Protestant states and was strengthened by the accession of William of Orange to the throne of England. Consequently, in 1689 France faced the threat of a Protestant uprising, both in Languedoc and in the Cévennes.

Although Brousson may have briefly considered the idea of outside intervention, in the hope that such a threat might induce the king to seek a compromise, he remained steadfast in his commitment to non-violence.

When Count Friedrich-Armand von Schomberg, in the service of William of Orange, invaded France at the head of the coalition armies, the Huguenots refused to take up arms against their king.

On 31 December 1692, Brousson once more addressed King Louis XIV:

“God has commanded us to assemble in the name of His Son, and yet Your Majesty forbids us to do so. God wills it, and Your Majesty does not will it. Whom then must we obey? Let Your Majesty judge for himself, if such be his good pleasure.”

Threatened with imprisonment (the intendant Basville had set a price of five hundred louis d’or upon his head), Brousson once again travelled to Lausanne in 1693, and then to Holland. Defying considerable dangers, he returned to northern France, first to Sedan and then to Normandy, where he presided over numerous secret assemblies. Recognised and pursued in Burgundy, he fled once more to Switzerland.

In 1697, he spent a year in Holland and from there, on the day following the Peace of Ryswick (1697), he departed once again for France.

He crossed the Dauphiné and the Vivarais before travelling to Béarn. There he was arrested. He was taken to Montpellier, where the intendant Basville demanded that he be brought to trial.

He was executed upon the wheel on 4 November 1698.

• The Condition of the Reformed in France (L’état des réformés de France), The Hague, 1685
• Letters from the French Protestants to All the Other Protestants of Europe (Lettres des protestants de France à tous les autres protestants de l’Europe), Berlin, 1686
• The Mystical Manna of the Church of the Desert, or Sermons Delivered in France in the Wilderness and in Caves during the Darkness of Night and Affliction in the Years 1689–1693 (La Manne mystique du Désert, ou Sermons prononcés en France dans les déserts et dans les cavernes durant les ténèbres de la nuit et de l’affliction pendant les années 1689–1693), Amsterdam, 1695
• Letters and Minor Works (Lettres et opuscules), Utrecht, 1701
• Reasoned Confession of Those Who Preach in the Desert, 1695. This text had been sent to the king in 1689 in order to refute the accusation that Brousson was preaching rebellion.