pastors in the service of 751 churches; in 1802 there were only
121 pastors and 171 churches; in Paris there was only a single
church with a single pastor. The church had no faculty of
theology, no schools, no Bible societies, no asylums, no orphanages,
no religious literature. Everything had to be created
afresh, and this work was pursued during the 19th century with
the energy and the earnest faith which is characteristic of the
Huguenot character.
At the fall of the Empire (1815) the reaction of the White Terror once more exposed the Protestants to outrage, and once more a number fled from persecution and sought safety in foreign countries. Peace having been established, attention was once more focussed on religious questions, and the period was marked in Protestantism by a remarkable awakening. On all sides churches were built and schools opened. It was an epoch of the greatest importance, for the church concentrated itself more and more on its real mission. During this period were founded the great religious societies:—Société biblique (1819), Société de l’instruction primaire (1829), Société des traités (1821), Société des missions (1822). The influence of English thought on the development of religious life was remarkable, and theology drew its inspiration from the writings of Paley, David Bogue, Chalmers, Ebenezer Erskine, Robert and James Alexander Haldane, which were translated into French. Later on German theology and the works of Kant, Neander and Schleiermacher produced a far-reaching effect. This was due to the period of persecution which had checked that development of religious thought which had been so remarkable a feature of French Protestantism of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Slowly Protestantism once more took its place in the national life. The greatest names in its history are those of Guizot and Cuvier; Adolf Monod, with Athanase Coquerel, stand in the front rank of pulpit orators. The Protestants associated themselves with all the great philanthropic works—Baron Jules Delessert founded savings banks, Baron de Staël condemned slavery, and all France united to honour the pastor, Jean Frédéric Oberlin. But the reformers, if they had no longer to fear persecution, had still to fight in order to win respect for religious liberty, which was unceasingly threatened by their adversaries. Numerous were the cases tried at this epoch in order to obtain justice. On the other hand the old union of the reformed churches had ceased to exist since the revolution of July. Ecclesiastical strife broke out and has never entirely ceased. A schism occurred first in 1848, owing to the refusal of the synod to draw up a profession of faith, the comte de Gasparin and the pastor Frédéric Monod seceding and founding the Union des Églises Évangéliques de France, separated from the state, of which later on E. de Pressensé was to become the most famous pastor. Under the Second Empire (1852–1870) the divisions between the orthodox and the liberal thinkers were accentuated; they resulted in a separation which followed on the reassembly of the national synod, authorized in 1872 by the government of the Third Republic. The old Huguenot church was thus separated into two parts, having no other link than that of the Concordat of 1802 and each possessing its own peculiar organization.
The descendants of the Huguenots, however, remained faithful to the traditions of their ancestors, and extolled the great past of the French reform movement. Moreover, in 1859 were held the magnificent religious festivals to celebrate the third centenary of the convocation of their first national synod; and when on the 18th of October 1885 they recalled the 200th anniversary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they were able to assert that the Huguenots had been the first defenders of religious liberties in France. In the early days of the 20th century the work of restoring French Protestantism, which had been pursued with steady perseverance for more than one hundred years, showed great results. This church, which in 1802 had scarcely 100 pastors has seen this number increased to 1000; it possesses more than 900 churches or chapels and 180 presbyteries. In contrast with the poverty of religious life under the First Empire it presented a striking array of Bible societies, missionary societies, and others for evangelical, educational, pastoral and charitable work, which bear witness to a church risen from its ruins. French Protestantism in the course of the 19th century reckoned among its members such eminent theologians as Timothée Colani (1824–1888), who together with Edmond Scherer founded the celebrated Revue de théologie de Strasbourg (1850); Edmond de Pressensé, editor of the Revue chrétienne, Charles Bois and Michel Nicolas, professors of theology at Montauban, Auguste Sabatier, professor of theology at the university of Paris, Albert Réville, professor at the Collège de France, Félix Pécaut, &c.; well-known preachers such as Eugène Bersier, Ernest Dhombres, Ariste Viguré, Numa Recolin, Auguste de Coppet, and missionaries, for example Eugène Casalis and Coillard; Jean Bost, who founded the hospitals at Laforce; historians like Napoléon Peyrat, the brothers Haag, who wrote La France protestante, François Puaux, Charles Coquerel, Onesime Douen, Henri Bordier, Edouard Sayous, de Félice, Théophile Rollez; Jean Pédézert, Léon Pilatte and others, who were journalists; such statesmen as Guizot, Léon Say, Waddington; such scholars as Cuvier, Broca, Wurtz, Friedel de Quatrefages; such illustrious soldiers and sailors as Rapp, Admirals Baudin, Jauréguiberry, Colonel Denfert-Rochereau. But the population of Protestant France does not exceed 750,000 souls, without counting the Lutherans, who are attached to the Confession of Augsburg, numbering about 75,000. Their chief centres are in the departments of Gard, Ardèche, Drôme, Lozère, the Deux Sèvres and the Seine.
The law of the 9th of December 1905, which separated the church from the state, has been accepted by the great majority of Protestants as a legitimate consequence of the reform principles. Nor has its application given rise to any difficulty with the state. They used their influence only in the direction of rendering the law more liberal and immediately devoted themselves to the organization of their churches under the new régime. If the two great parties, orthodox and liberal, have each their particular constitution, nevertheless a third party has been formed with the object of effecting a reconciliation of all the Protestant churches and of thus reconstituting the old Huguenot church.
Bibliography.—A complete list of works is impossible. The following are the most important:—
General Authorities.—Bulletin de la société de l’histoire du protestantisme français (54 vols.), a most valuable collection, indispensable as a work of reference; Haag, La France protestante, lives of French Protestants (10 vols., 1846; 2nd ed., Henri Bordier, 6 vols., 1887); F. Puaux, Histoire de la Réformation française (7 vols., 1858) and articles “Calvin” and “France protestante” in Encyclopédie des sciences religieuses of Lichtenberger; Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (3 vols., London, 1832); Browning, History of the Huguenots (1 vol., 1840); G. A. de Félice, Histoire des protestants de France (1874).
Special Periods. The 16th Century.—H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (2 vols., New York, 1886), and History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France (New York, 1879); A. W. Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny (London, 1904); J. W. Thompson, The Wars of Religion in France, 1559–1576 (1909); Th. Beza, Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées au royaume de France (3 vols., Antwerp, 1580; new edition by G. Baum et Cunitz, 1883); Crespin, Histoire des martyrs persécutés et mis à mort pour la vérité de l’évangile (2 vols. in fol., Geneva, 1619; abridged translation by Rev. A. Maddock, London, 1780); Pierre de la Place, Commentaires sur l’état de la religion et de la république (1565); Florimond de Raemond, L’Histoire de la naissance, progrès et décadence de l’hérésie du siècle (1610); De Thou, Histoire universelle (16 vols.); Th. Agrippa D’Aubigné, Histoire universelle (3 vols., Geneva, 1626); Hermingard, Correspondance des réformateurs dans les pays de la langue française (8 vols., 1866), a scholarly work and the most trustworthy source for the history of the origin of French reform. “Calvini opera” in the Corpus reformatorum, edited by Reuss, Baum and Cunitz, particularly the correspondence, vols. x. to xxii.; Doumergue, Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps (3 vols., 1899); G. von Polenz, Geschichte des französischen Calvinismus (5 vols., 1857); Étienne A. Laval, Compendious history of the reformation in France and of the reformed Church in that Kingdom from the first beginning of the Reformation to the Repealing of the Edict of Nantes (7 vols., London, 1737–1741); Soldan, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Frankreich bis zum Tode Karls IX. (2 vols., 1855); Merle D’Aubigné, Histoire de la réformation en Europe au temps de Calvin (5 vols., 1863).
17th Century.—Élie Benoit, Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes (5 vols., Delft, 1693), a work of the first rank; Aymon, Tous les synodes
