HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L Archives

From: "Robert W Fay" <>
Subject: Re: [HWE] Earliest Huguenots in France?
Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 08:12:25 -0500
In-Reply-To: <15f.1550a7d8.2ad4ea9c@cs.com>

On 8 Oct 2002 at 22:12, wrote:
<snip>
> I am sure that someone will find an earlier mention of "Protestant "
> activity in France and I should be interested to see how early that
> would be.

Well, it depends on whether you define Protestant to be a particular
theological doctrine or whether you define Protestant to be a
Christian person that protests various elements of the RC faith,
particularily the intertwined nature of feudal government and
religion, ie "the King of France rules by Divine right", that
originated with Charlemagne in the 8th and 9th centuries. Charlemagne
found it easier to rule a large territory of diverse religious
beliefs, by insisting on one religion for all people in his realm.
Although generally viewed in a positive manner by historians, he did
behead 7500 Saxons one afternoon partly for religious beliefs. The
Pope was in dire military straits during Charlemagne's rule, and
Charlemgne saved his city a couple of times. In return for the favor,
a deal was struck wherein Charlemagne was elevated from King of the
Franks (pre-France), to Holy Roman Emporeor by the Pope, and the
"divine right" concept was born and institutionalized.

If it's the later definition of Protestant, then you go back at least
to 1209, and the extermination of the Cathars as heretics. O'Shea has
a pretty good book on it called "The Perfect Heresy". More or less
the suppression of "heretics" continued into the the days of the
Huguenots. But the key difference is that the Huguenots had
sufficient numbers that they couldn't be exterminated, and instead
France, in particular, was plunged into civil wars over religion..

Here's a couple of websites
http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/forgottendreams/Papal.html
http://www.ordotempli.org/inquisitor_statement_on_the_cathar.htm

I have seen various other brief statements suggesting there were
various other religious views held by small numbers of people but,
due to suppression, they never grew to the significance of the
Cathars...and later the Huguenots.

Its fair to say that I see the Huguents on a
political/religous/economic continuum going back centuries, rather
than an isolated religous event of the Reformation.

Bob Fay
>
> Chris

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