The anti-Reform policy (1661-1685)
In order to implement his policy of restricting the “allegedly Reformed religion”, King Louis XIV first resorted to legal, peaceful means and then to force.
Repression and persecution of the Reformed Church (1685-1700)
After the Edict of Nantes (1685), the recalcitrant Protestants were severely repressed.
Henri de Rohan (1574-1638)
Henri de Rohan, a protestant from Brittany, had the privilege of being protected by Henri IV, and at the king’s death he became the leader of the reformed protestants in...
The sentences imposed on Protestants
The Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) and various decrees of 1686 imposed penalties on Protestants.
Sentenced to the galleys
Roughly 550 galley-rowers spent up to thirty years of their life in galleys for refusing to renounce their faith.
The prison sentence
Women and children that were too young to serve as galley-rowers were sent to prison. However, many men were kept in prison for long periods of time, some before they...
The Lausanne Theological Seminary (1726-1812)
The seminary in Lausanne was started at the instigation of Antoine Court. Its purpose was to train those called to the ministry in France during the “Desert” period.
Religious practices
Communal religious practices of the Reformed Church took place in church buildings. The worshippers would go to hear the “sermon”, to celebrate the sacraments and for catechism. Individual or family-based...
Prophetic Movement
In the years following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, a Prophetic Movement, quite alien to the Reformed tradition, stirred up Protestant peasants from the South of France and...
The theological controversies
The seventeenth century was the period when Catholics and Protestants were involved in great arguments (“controversy”) with each other, both oral and written, obviously fuelled by the theologians.
The Pastors
About 700 Reformed pastors were in charge of the towns and cities designated as places of worship by the Edict of Nantes, and lived there with their families.
The organisation of the Reformed Church
The Reformed Churches were organised according to the order of 1559, as had been the case in the sixteenth century. They were ruled by a series of bodies at local,...
The period of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1661-1700)
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 led to the suppression of the Reformed Church in France and forced Protestants into exile or hiding. As...
The new converts
When the Edict of Nantes was revoked, nearly all the Protestants who had decided to stay in France had renounced Protestantism : these were the “new converts”. Their attendance at Catholic...
The Edict of Fontainebleau or the Revocation (1685)
In October 1685, Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau which repealed the Edict of Nantes. It banned Protestant worship and the emigration of Protestants. Pastors were banished.
The Scandinavian embassies in Paris
Two Lutheran communities thrived in Paris until the Revolution thanks to the Swedish and Danish embassies. The pastors continued their ministry during the Revolution and even during the Terror.
The Lutherans in Paris
It is largely due to the kings of Sweden and their ambassadors as well as to the loyalty of the Swedish pastors, that the constitution of 1679 for the Lutheran...
The geography of Protestantism (1660)
The reformed Protestants were found essentially in the provinces bordering the Atlantic as well as in the South of France, and not so much in the North of the country.
The sixteen synodal provinces (1660)
The Reformed Churches were grouped together according to the geographical framework of the kingdom’s provinces. Most reformed communities were based in urban areas, but there were also large rural groups...