Cranmer Memorial Bible College and Seminary Thesis Proposal Research into Huguenots History and Theology: The Huguenots fight for religious liberty in France from 1555 to 1789 and, Calvin theological legacy. Presented to the Faculty By Mr. Tiowa Diarra October 2003 Chapter I. Introducing the problem: In 1998, the French people celebrated the 4th centennial of the Edict of Nantes, signed by Henry IV on April 13, 1598. This was a significant event to remember the great combat fought centuries ago by the Huguenot people for religious liberty in France. The promulgation of the Edict was a major step in religious freedom. It ended the thirty years of religious war and brought the reformed worship into legality in many part of the Kingdom at that time. However, Ludwig XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes on October 22, 1685 nearly a century later, delaying the religious liberty process. Recently, a celebration held in Basel, Switzerland has remarkably shown the importance of the Huguenots’ contribution in that city. A lecturer pointed out the outcome of the Huguenots contribution to the cities where they reached out as refugees like this: This city shows how much the fleeing of brains can be profitable. We can find some in history; thus, when Ludwig XIV, the Sun-King, revoked the edict of Nantes, the French Protestants did not have another choice than to convert or leave the country. Many among them were the best in arts, in science and, in business. Their escape as refugees in Switzerland, in hospitable cities such as Geneva, Zurich, Berne or Basel. These forced immigrants contributed to the taking off of Geneva banks, developed the horology and, the erection of the Swiss industry fleuron, raised the level of the Swiss know-how to the point that, after that, Basle was going to become the world-wide center of chemistry. (Address of the Confederacy President Pascal Couchepin to the occasion of the opening ceremony 11th European Congress of Biotechnologies, Basel, August 24, 2003) The contribution did not make people forget the battle, which brought to such brilliant result. Reformation did not take place smoothly everywhere. People within the Catholic Church, the monarchy, and their subjects did not accept the new religious ideas born in Germany and France. This is a complex historical phenomenon in the earlier modern period of history, because it involved political, theological, social and ecclesial issues as pictured in the following presentation of the protestant man by Janine Garrisou-Estebe : Once he has chosen the reformation theses, the Protestant is regarded as a politic and religious hors-la -loi. Not only a heretic but, a seditious 'disturber of the public order', which one is established on a powerful king that support the religion and the Catholic hierarchy. Then begins the hunt to the 'poorly-feeling of the faith', then begins the big book of the reformed martyr loge, then open themselves the ways of the exile and Diaspora. Nevertheless, despite the pursuits, the trials and, the woodsheds,the 'heretic vermin' stems out. The small communities organize themselves in the cities and in the towns that trained pastors in the pure doctrine come secretly from Geneva to encourage and discipline. (Janine Garrisou-Estebe, L’Homme Protestant (Paris: Hachette,1980), p.12. The Huguenots’ story is relevant for many reasons. First, it raises the question of the church persecution and related subjects such as religious toleration, minority freedom of worship, and the subtle link between Church and State. Second, the story tells the case of Calvinistic ideas’ implementation in another European context that is not Switzerland. Thesis Proposal, CMBC & Seminary, UK. October 03 1 Third, and this is not the least, Huguenots history is the demonstration of the Reformation response to the Catholic political and religious supremacy. Thesis statement: Despite the determination of the Roman Church and the French monarchy to extinguish what was called at that time a heresy, why did the Huguenots reached religious liberty in France? The thesis attempts to explore the history of the Huguenots, the reasons that led to the establishment of the Reformed Church religious liberty in France, despite the absolute opposition of the Roman Church and the Monarchy as the tried to exterminate it. The periods that the analysis will cover are the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries. Hypothesis: Although the determination of the Roman Church and the French Monarchy to put out what was called at that time a heresy; the Huguenots have reached religious freedom in France, because: -The French Reformed received assistance from the Reformed Church leaders in Geneva who trained their pastors, sent advisors, and enabled them to organize the Church. The Geneva backbone ran along the perturbed story of the Huguenots movement at its birth, its development, its shaking and finally its religious freedom. (Ecclesiastical issue) -They used a political arm to free themselves from the power of the Monarchy close to the Roman Church. They had a penchant for republican doctrine and, protestant state under the political thinking of Calvin. (Political issue) -The French Huguenots were committed to the teachings of the reformers, precisely Calvin, and his disciples. So, the Huguenots have written the reformed Church discipline and faith confession, adopted creeds and apologies to support their ideas against the Roman Catholic Church and its Theology. (Theological issue) The Thesis will attempt to answer the following questions: 1.What were the main purposes and trends of the Huguenots movement at its birth? 2. Why the edict of Nantes was promulgated? 3. Why the edict of Nantes was revoked? 4. How was religious toleration brought out in 1789? 5. Should we talk rightly about the Huguenots’ forerunners? 6.What is the Huguenots’ legacy to the Christendom? 7. What is the importance of edicts in the process of Huguenot religious freedom? 8. Why are there many dates for the starting of the Huguenot Church in France? 9. How did the Huguenot movement survive the destruction attempted by the Catholic Church? 10. Is toleration the effect of the enlightenment thought or the outcome of the Huguenots combat? 11. What were the effects of the counter-reformation on the Huguenots movement? Thesis Proposal, CMBC & Seminary, UK. October 03 2 12. Should we talk about a genuine Huguenot theology? -Justification of the Chronological limits: To set up the chronological limits one must look at the major dates of the Reformed Church in France. Four main dates are at stake when historians are talking about the starting of the Huguenots Church in France. Some indicate the dates 1545, 1550 or 1555 (the birth of the clandestine reformed congregation in Paris) and others show the date 1559 (the first synod held in Paris to establish the Confession of faith and the Constitution of the Reformed Church in France). Anyway, we have chosen the earliest dates of the possible beginning of the Huguenots movement and 1789 to highlight the outcome of the combat for religious freedom through the Edict of Toleration. It is obvious that the Huguenots history did not end at the later date and religious freedom has been threaten over again, but by other causes. Defining key terms Huguenots: The etymology of the word is uncertain as asserted by many historians. Some believe that it is a popular corruption of the German word Eidgenossen (conspirators, confederates), which was used at Geneva to designate the champions of liberty and of union with the Swiss Confederation, as distinguished from those who were in favour of submission to the Duke of Savoy. Others found that it is the form eigenots (or aignots), which became Huguenots under the influence of Hugues, Bezanson Hugues being one of their chiefs. Some others think that the word might come from Hugon, a Count of Tours. Anyway, the term came to be applied to a precise group in France that are the French Protestant influenced by the teaching of the Reformer John Calvin. See the development of the question in Catholic Encyclopedia and also Emile G Leonard, Histoire Générale du Protestantisme en France, ( PUF: Paris, 1961) p. 97. Sect: This is a synonym of heretic somehow as it describes people separated from a larger group especially a religious one: “ perhaps deriving from the past participle either of secare, “to cut, to separate,” or of sequi, “to follow”)…The sect’s identity is further derived from its principal leader or from a distinctive teaching or practice. The term has regularly been applied to groups that break away from existing religious bodies, such as the early Christians who separated from Judaism or the Protestants who separated from the Roman Catholicism.” H.K. GALLATIN , “Sect, Sectarianism” in Walter A. Elwell, Ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, (Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, 1985), p.995. Thesis Proposal, CMBC & Seminary, UK. October 03 3 Heresy: The French Protestants were mainly accused of heresy against the Catholic Government and the established religion of France. “From the original Greek word ‘hairesis’ that means ‘party’ the word came to be used to mean a separation or split resulting from a false faith. It designated a doctrine or the doctrine holding the doctrine, a doctrine that was sufficiently intolerable to destroy the unity of the Christian Church”. (Harold O.J. Brown, Heresies (Hendrickson Publisher: Peabody, 1988), p.2 Reformation: Reformation is the vast large movement, which happened in 1517 after Martin Luther a German Monk posted 95 theses on the door of the Church of Wittenberg. Since, the movement spread in Europe. The purpose of the Reformation as the word indicates, is a renewal of the Church life and teaching. The Reformation is mainly characterized by the doctrine of justification by faith. ”Historically, reformation refers to the renewal of the Church in the sixteenth century by revitalization from its source in the word.” A.