The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-06-13

tried to seize Charles TX. by surprise
thus preoipitating the second civil war
the Venetian Ambassador expressed aston
ishment at the perfection Of the Huguenot
organization.
We see then that in its economic aspect
the French Reformation was an urban
and industrial rather than a rural and
agrarian movement until the over
whelming ambition OF the Guises created
an opposition to them among the old
French nobility. and so identified the
Huguenots with the interests Of the land
owning ar~istocracy. Professionalism found
it's chief support in France among the
lower bourgeois class in the towns. Lyons
partly from it's proximity to Geneva
but more because Of it's strong CONNER
oisi position and it's great manufacturing
interests, among which the silk industry
was chief, vas the greatest Huguenot
city In France. Where Professionalism
Is found prevailing In feudal districts it
is largely to be ascribed to the influence
OF Protestant gentlemen farmers. often
retired bourgeois who had purchased the
country estates OF the older nobility. The
stron gholds OF French Professionalism were
the river towns or towns on the highways
OF trade or seaports like Rouen and La
Rochelle. -Dauphine. which fattened
on the commerce out Of Italy through the
Alpine passes. and Provence, which
bordered on the Mediterranean, both
OF which cleared through Lyons; Lower
Poitou, in which La Rochelle was situa-
ted, and Normandie on the Channel were
the chief Protestant provinces OF France
Normandie indeed IA probably the
m ost Protestant province OF all, for here
Calvinism not only obtained in the ports
and good towns but in the country
areas as we'll" There are evidences OF
the penetration OF Professionalism into
some country districts elsewhere, but in
general the French peasantry were
strongly Catholic.
Prof. Thompson follows Hauser in
assigning for this fact a social reason.
While the economic revolution of the hf-
teenth and sixteenth centuries had been
ruinous for the artisan, 1t was profitable
to the peasant. -The rent paid to the
landlord, immutably fixed in the twelfth
or thirteenth centuries, represented under
the new values Of money a very light
burden, while the fall in the price Of silver
considerably raised the nominal worth
Of the products OF the soil when the vii
lein sold them. The price OF land was
falling rapidly at the very time when the
French gentry, ceasing to be an aristoc-
racy Of gentlemen farmers and becoming
a court nobility, were compelled to sell
their estates to meet their expenses and,
es the saying went, to put their mills and
meadows on their shoulders On the
other hand when a lord wished to sell at
any price a part Of his estates there was
always in the parish a countryman h
had been, so to speak, saving money for
centuries and who. realizing at last the
dream Of bygone generations, was ready
and eager to buy land. Thus in many
cases did the French villein become g
land owner.
Prof. Thompson names on the h
hand some easons for the growth OF the
Huguenot movement. Their ministers
for instance preached in the French
language and avoided the use Of Latin
which tended to mystery and ~obscurity.
Then again after the sermon was over
the service was confined with prayer and
the singing Of psalms in French rhyme, in
which the congregation Joined. II Is to
be noted that in church polity the Prot
estants in France had carried changes
further than had their coreligionists else
where in Europe. In Germany and Eng
land the Reformation still adhered to
many institutions Of the medieval Church,
retaining the e~piscopate and such sub
ordinate clergy as deans, archdeacons,
canons, ourates and d%eacons, together
with yesturee, c~anonical habits and the
use Of ornaments.
Prof. Thompson Is convinced that no
trustworthy estimate can be made OF the
proportion between Catholics and Hugue-
nots in the sixteenth century, A remon-
STRANGE addressed to the Pope in 1882
declared that %one-fourth OF France was
separate from the communion Of Rome.
In 1857 the Venetian Ambassador thought
hardly a third part Of the people hereti-
In the same year the Echevins Of
Amiens asserted that three-quarters of
the inhabitants Of that town were Profess
Charles TX. In a remonstrance
addressed to Plus w. asserted that
Professionals constituted a fourth Of the
French population. Montluc estimated in
1851 that not more than a tenth of the in
habitants Of Guienne were Protestant.
II the same proportion wal applicable to
at large the Huguenots would have
numbered at the date named something
like l.eOo, 900. Personally Prof. Thomp-
believes even this estimate TO be too