The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-11-30
Incidents in the History Of the
Huguenots.


to 1859, during the reigns Of Francis |
and Henry ii the history Of French Prot.
estantism offers nothing to the eye Of the
general historian but series of attempts
to crush it by violence. We scarcely
wonder, therefore, Mignet should have
said that the religious revolution pro.
claimed forty years before by Luther on
the banks Of the Elbe, by Zuingius on
the lake side Of Zurich was not seriously
entered on in France till about the year
1860. Nevertheless the forty previous
years are as full of interest to our eyes as
any equal period Of the entire history oi
French Professionalism. They form it;
age Of martyrdom. In no country, the
Netherlands alone excepted, did Protest
antism furnish so large and so noble an
army of martyrs as in France In Scot,
land and England martyrs of the dis.
tinctivcly Reformation. period were Sc
few that we can stand by every stake, and
grave the name of every Que who perished
in the flames upon our memory. In the
pages of Crespin and elsewhere are de.
scrlbed at large the death scenes of many
hundreds burned alive iu France during
that forty years.
Besides being ftly described as its age
of persecution, these first years Of Prot.
estantism in France may also fitly be de.
scribed as its age Of purity. The Re.
formed had as yet no organization, civil
or ecclesiastical they had no church, no
creed, no fixed form Of worship. They
had entered into no political alliance with
any party in The state 1t was a quiet
hidden movement 10 the hearts Of men,
thirsting for religious truth. for peace Of
conscience, for purity of heart and life.
They sought each other out, and met to
help each other on. But it was in small
bands, in closets with closed doors, in the
muiky lanes Of the city, in the lonely hut
by the wayside, in the gorge of the noun.
tain, in the heart of the forest, that they
met to study the Scriptures together, to
praise and pray. They did so at the
peril of their lives, and the greatness of
the peril guarded the purity of the mo.
tive, Ordinarily they had no educated
minister. Those who-as Luther and
Melancthon in Germany, Knox and
others in Scotland, Zuinglius in Swetzer.
lapd-might have formed the nucleus of
new clerical institute. were either, like
I.efevre, Farel, Calvin, forced into exile,
or, like Chatelain, Pavanes and Wolfgang
Schuch, burnt at the stake Left for q
time without such guidance the Reform.
ers had 20 provide for religious instruc.
ton and for the administration of ordi.
nances among thom as best they could
Bernard Palissy who was one Of them,
tells US in his own quaint and simple
style how they did in his own town of
Santies. There was in this town." he
says, "a certain artisan marvelously poor
fit is thus he describes himself |, who had
so great desire for advancement of the
ovspei .uau ne demonstrated 1t, day BY
day, to another as poor ns himself and
with as little learning-for they both
knew scarcely anything. Nevertheless,
the first urged upon the other that if he
would employ himself in the making Of
some kind Of exhortation it would be pro.
ductive Of great good. The man address,
ed thus, one Sabbath morning assembled
nine or ten persons and read to them
some passages from the Old and New
Testaments, which he had put down in
writing. He explained them, saying that
as each one had received from God he
ought to distribute to others. They
agreed that six of them should exhort,
each once in the six weeks, on the Sun.
days only, That was the beginning Of
the Reformed Church of Santies; !" that,
we have to add, was the beginning Of
maay other churches all over France, and
that was the way in which they were of.
ten served. In France the Reformation
began in the University, The lettered
classes were the first to hail the new
their wars with one another we're now
prohibited-gave their leisure hours in
their country castles to the reading Of the
bible and of Lutheran tracts. But it was
among men like Palissy, the skilled arti
sans of the towns and villages of France
that the Reformation made the greatest
and purest progress. "Above ALL" sayi
Catholic historian, painters, watch
makers, sculptors, goldsmiths, printers
and others, who, from their calling, have
some mental superiority. were among thu
first taken in"
To provide all who could read will
the Scriptures, and religious books ant
tracts--the writings especially of Calvi'
and of Luther-a prodigious activity wa
employed. The piinting-presses of Gen
eva, Lausanne, Neutchatel, teemed will
such productions nor was there wanting
brave men who took and bore them al
through France, not few Of whom pal,
the forfeit of their lives for doing SC
Under this simple regime, and amid al
difficulties and disadvantages, the Re
formation made such extraordinary pre-
gress that at the death of Francis I, whic
took place in 1547, it largely leavene
seventeen provinces and thirty. three c
the principal towns in France--those VIII
had embraced it forming about a sixth {
r tine entire population of the country
, From Hanna's Wars fthe Huguenots,
published By Garter Bros.