Reformed in France

Tobias Sarx

Reformed Protestantism in France has always been a minority religion. Several wars of religion during the sixteenth century, the severe persecu- tion under the reign of Louis XIV, and other traumatic experiences have had a sustainable impact on the work of Reformed theologians in France. Compared to Reformed Orthodoxy abroad, the long-lasting suppression of the Reformed faith spawned different topics, even as the French Protes- tant pastors and theologians tried to connect to international theological debates. Modern scholarship has focused mainly on the course of events. Many studies can be found on the lives and fates of Protestant believers in France from the sixteenth until the eighteenth century,1 but there is a dearth of studies about the progress of doctrinal teaching within French Protestantism. Several works focus on single doctrinal conflicts or on single French theologians, but it is regrettable that there are still many gaps in research, especially concerning the Protestant academies. The recent studies of Jean-Paul Pittion and Karin Maag are useful to get an overview of the development of Huguenot higher education,2 but there is little information on the theological debates that took place at these important institutions.3

1 See for instance Denis Crouzet, La genèse de la Réforme française 1520–1562 (, 1997); Didier Boisson and Hugues Daussy, Les protestants dans la France modern (Paris, 2006); Mark Greengrass, The French (Oxford, 1987); Robert M. Kingdon, Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement 1564–1572 (Geneva, 1967); Mack P. Holt, The (Cambridge, 2005); Philip Benedict, The Faith and Fortunes of France’s (Aldershot, 2001); Strayer, Huguenots and Camisards as Aliens in France 1598–1789 (Lewiston, 2001). 2 Jean-Paul Pittion, “Les académies réformées de l’Édit de Nantes à la Révocation,” in La Révocation de l’Édit de Nantes et le protestantisme français en 1685, ed. Roger Zuber and Laurent Theis (Paris, 1986), 187–207; Karin Maag, “The Huguenot Academies,” in Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559–1685, ed. Raymond A. Mentzer and Andrew Spicer (Cambridge, 2002), 139–56. The most useful general work about the Protestant academies still remains Pierre-Daniel Bourchenin, Etude sur les Académies Protestantes en France au XVIe et au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1882). For more literature see Simonne Guenée, Bibliographie de l’histoire des universities françasis (Paris, 1978). 3 In the four volumes of Muller, PRRD, mention is made of several debates that took place at French Protestant academies; however, his focus is not France but the develop- ment of Reformed dogmatics throughout Europe. 228 tobias sarx

The main sources for research into the theological development of French Protestantism are the records of the national synods4 and the published books of French theologians who influenced Reformed Protes- tantism significantly. Unfortunately, archival material has not been made wholly accessible. Topics like the evolutionary history of the Confession de foy or the life and work of Moyse Amyraut have been well researched,5 but there is still much work to do until a solid description of the development of French Reformed theology is possible. The following paragraphs will give an overview of the current state of research.

Confessio Gallicana (1559)

The era of Reformed Orthodoxy in France begins with the year 1559. A time of consolidation came to an end, in which divergent groups had sought for a commonly accepted doctrinal and disciplinary foundation. The French Protestant Church had started as a humanistic movement in the second decade of the sixteenth century. Even if the Sorbonne had condemned the writings of Reformers like Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Martin Luther as heretical in 1521, King Francis I did not agree to the forceful persecution of this movement, often called évangélisme,6 because his sister was involved in it. After the Affair of the Placards the climate changed swiftly and radically for religious reformers in 1534.7 Sev- eral groups disappeared because of severe persecution; others looked for a solid structure to survive. The refugee churches in London under John à Lasco and in Strasbourg under the general direction of Martin Bucer gave

4 Jean Aymon, Actes ecclesiastiques et civils de tous les synodes nationaux des Eglises réformées de France (The Hague, 1710). An English translation of national syods is in John Quick, Synodicon in Gallia reformata (London, 1692). 5 Hannelore Jahr, Studien zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der Confession de foi von 1559 (Paris, 1872); Roger Nicole, Moyse Amyraut. A Bibliography (New York, 1981); Brian G. Arm- strong, Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy (Madison, 1969). 6 Pierre Imbart de la Tour, Les origins de la réforme (Paris, 1905–35), 552–53. Since 1520, the writings of Martin Luther were read in an increasing number of these groups, but books of Reformers like Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam were also held in high esteem. Boisson and Daussy, Les protestants, 15–29; Crouzet, La genèse. 7 One night in October 1534, some anti-Catholic posters were distributed or posted on walls in Paris and several other cities. One appeared even in front of the king’s own bed- chamber. Crouzet, La genèse, 216–39; Mack P. Holt, French Wars of Religion (Cambridge, 2005), 15–21; Glenn S. Sunshine, Reforming French Protestantism (Kirksville, Mo., 2003), 14–16.