In the sixteenth century, the Reformation reached Auvergne, but failed to take root
In the Puy-de-Dôme, as early as 1537, a suspicious book was burned at Clermont-Ferrand. In 1547, at Issoire, Jean Bruguière was burned alive as a heretic. Between 1549 and 1559, a small number of inhabitants of Auvergne emigrated to Geneva.
Maringues, whose community was 75 per cent Protestant, possessed a temple and two pastors.
In 1554, at Le Puy, a significant proportion of artisans, stocking-makers and cutlerscelebrated the Reformed worship.
Before 1555, several inhabitants there were executed as heretics. The plateau of Haute-Loire was won over to the Reformation as early as 1560. At Saint-Voy, the parish priest, who also served Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, adopted the Reformed faith after a stay in Geneva.
At Issoire, the Wars of Religion left irreparable marks: seized in 1575 by the Huguenot captain Merle, the town was subsequently ravaged by the Catholic troops of the Duke of Anjou upon its recapture.
The Edict of Nantes granted the Reformed a temple at Paillat; at Parentignat, a place of worship was authorised for Protestant families of the Issoire region within a private house.
At La Gazelle, in Haute-Auvergne, another place of worship received the faithful scattered between Aurillac and Brioude.
In Haute-Loire, the application of the Edict of Nantes was not favourable to Protestants. In the seventeenth century, only the communities of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and Mazet-Saint-Voy survived. Apart from these, the total of these small communities amounted to some 4,000 Protestants. A certain modus vivendi prevailed until around 1660. Yet, from 1683 onwards, even before the Revocation, passive resistance among the population, following the injunction of Claude Brousson, was organised. Preaching took place upon the “ruins of the temples” when these had been demolished.
At the Revocation, Protestants abjured en masse. Thereafter, religious life was gradually reconstituted, and the secret assemblies of the Desert were held around Le Chambon. Even before the Edict of Toleration of 1787, Reformed Protestants were tolerated and able to assemble. In 1802, there were 2,200 Protestants at Saint-Voy and 1,984 at Le Chambon; yet in the whole of Auvergne scarcely more than a hundred Protestants remained, almost all settled at Clermont-Ferrand.
