page_title: History of Protestantism
section_title: France
hierarchical_section_title: History of Protestantism / Protestant Reformation / France
caption_attribution_description: La topographie, manipulée, est adaptée au désir de montrer ensemble les lieux principaux de cette tragédie. On reconnaît à gauche l'église du couvent des Grands-Augustins (aujourd’hui disparue) où sonna le tocsin qui déclencha les tueries, la Seine et le pont des Meuniers. Au centre à l'arrière-plan, le Louvre et, devant le bâtiment, Catherine de Médicis la veuve noire, principale instigatrice des massacres. Au centre au second plan, l'hôtel particulier dans lequel l’amiral de Coligny, chef du parti protestant, est tué avant d’être défenestré, décapité et émasculé. Réunis autour de son cadavre, les chefs du parti catholique, les ducs de Guise et d’Aumale et le chevalier d’Angoulême. À droite à l'arrière-plan, la porte Saint-Honoré et, sur la colline de La Villette, le gibet de Montfaucon, où le corps de l'amiral sera pendu par les pieds. Rassemblant plus de 150 figures, l’œuvre est un véritable catalogue de la cruauté en période de guerre civile. Femme enceinte éventrée (à droite du tableau au second plan), enfants traînant un nourrisson au bout d’une corde (au second plan au centre, à droite du pont des Meuniers), femme embrochée sur une pique de rôtisseur (juste derrière les enfants traînant le nourrisson), cadavres dénudés et empilés (notamment aux pieds de Catherine de Médicis), maisons pillées (derrière les chefs catholiques). Le roi Charles IX tire à l’arquebuse sur ses propres sujets depuis une fenêtre du Louvre (probablement de la tour de gauche du bâtiment). Ce tableau est tout à fait exceptionnel en raison de la qualité de son exécution, mais aussi parce que les représentations contemporaines des massacres de la Saint-Barthélemy sont très rares. Il porte la signature du peintre François Dubois, protestant d’Amiens réfugié à Genève après les massacres.
context_page_description: Protestantism originated from the Protestation at Speyer in 1529, where the nobility protested against enforcement of the Edict of Worms which subjected advocates of Lutheranism to forfeiture of all of their property. However, the theological underpinnings go back much further, as Protestant theologians of the time cited both Church Fathers and the Apostles to justify their choices and formulations. The earliest origin of Protestantism is controversial; with some Protestants today claiming origin back to groups in the early church deemed heretical such as the Montanists.
  Since the 16th century, major factors affecting Protestantism have been the Catholic Counter-Reformation which opposed it successfully especially in France, Spain and Italy. Then came an era of confessionalization followed by Rationalism, Pietism, and the Great Awakenings. Major movements today include Evangelicalism, mainline denominations, and Pentecostalism.
context_section_description: Protestantism also spread into France, where the Protestants came to be known as "Huguenots."
  Though not personally interested in religious reform, Francis I (reigned 1515–1547) initially maintained an attitude of tolerance, in accordance with his interest in the humanist movement. This changed in 1534 with the Affair of the Placards. In this act, Protestants denounced the Catholic Mass in placards that appeared across France, even reaching the royal apartments. During this time as the issue of religious faith entered into the arena of politics, Francis came to view the movement as a threat to the kingdom's stability.
  Following the Affair of the Placards, culprits were rounded up, at least a dozen heretics were put to death, and the persecution of Protestants increased. One of those who fled France at that time was John Calvin, who emigrated to Basel in 1535 before eventually settling in Geneva in 1536. Beyond the reach of the French kings in Geneva, Calvin continued to take an interest in the religious affairs of his native land including the training of ministers for congregations in France.
  As the number of Protestants in France increased, the number of heretics in prisons awaiting trial also grew. As an experimental approach to reduce the caseload in Normandy, a special court just for the trial of heretics was established in 1545 in the Parlement de Rouen. When Henry II took the throne in 1547, the persecution of Protestants grew and special courts for the trial of heretics were also established in the Parlement de Paris. These courts came to known as "La Chambre Ardente" ("the fiery chamber") because of their reputation of meting out death penalties on burning gallows.
  Despite heavy persecution by Henry II, the Reformed Church of France, largely Calvinist in direction, made steady progress across large sections of the nation, in the urban bourgeoisie and parts of the aristocracy, appealing to people alienated by the obduracy and the complacency of the Catholic establishment.
  French Protestantism, though its appeal increased under persecution, came to acquire a distinctly political character, made all the more obvious by the noble conversions of the 1550s.  This had the effect of creating the preconditions for a series of destructive and intermittent conflicts, known as the Wars of Religion.  The civil wars were helped along by the sudden death of Henry II in 1559, which saw the beginning of a prolonged period of weakness for the French crown. Atrocity and outrage became the defining characteristic of the time, illustrated at its most intense in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of August 1572, when the Catholic Church annihilated between 30,000 and 100,000 Huguenots across France.  The wars only concluded when Henry IV, himself a former Huguenot, issued the Edict of Nantes, promising official toleration of the Protestant minority, but under highly restricted conditions. Catholicism remained the official state religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants gradually declined over the next century, culminating in Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau—which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Catholicism the sole legal religion of France. In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau, Frederick William of Brandenburg declared the Edict of Potsdam, giving free passage to French Huguenot refugees, and tax-free status to them for 10 years.
caption: St. Bartholomew's Day massacre 1572, Painting by François Dubois (1529–1584)
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