History of the Protestants of France, from the commencement of the Reformation to the present time

by G. de Félice

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The reason of the translation of this book, is the same that actuated the Author of the original work,—not the glorification of a particular creed, but the inculcation of a lesson from the pages of history, whereby the reader may learn the expediency, as well as wisdom and justness, of the great maxim, that the fullest religious liberty is the right of all men. The illustration of this principle, so little truly recognised, yet happens in the present case, to bear against the members of the Roman Catholic Church: but all creeds and every sect may usefully perpend the moral of the narrative. To preach the duty of toleration to the members of the Reformed communions, whose chief dogma is the right of private judgment, might seem a supererogatory labour, did we not know how, in time, the best of causes may become corrupted by the mingling of the passions, until the fair tree is stifled under the baneful embrace of the insidious parasite. The necessity, then, of a frequent recurrence to first principles is obvious; and in no case can this necessity be so strong as in religious matters. To dissent from a dominant creed, has been hitherto to draw down persecution; and persecution will assuredly kindle a retaliative spirit of dogmatical oppression in the persecuted, unless these last continually bear in mind that the very ground of their difference was, in the outset, the privilege of thinking for themselves. Let us, then, guard ourselves against this error, still more deserving of reprobation in Protestants than in Romanists; and let these finally convince themselves how futile it is to struggle against the onward progress of the human mind, daily absorbing more essentially the Christian spirit, and thereby strengthening to the task of social improvement under the advancing banner of mental independence.

If history is philosophy teaching by examples, a work that shall contribute in any degree to elucidate our views respecting the men and manners of past ages, will certainly be received as a desirable contribution to the general stock of knowledge. But at a period when Europe is yet throbbing with the repressed, not extinguished, throes of an almost universal convulsion, a narrative of the events of an often deeply-disturbed period, frequently offering somewhat similar features, must prove more than ordinarily acceptable. It is true, that a hasty glance at the passing history of European politics fills us with only a confused sentiment of conflicting forces, that seem to attract and repel the special atoms hither and thither with restless disorder; yet an attentive examination will not fail to show us that, influencing each vortex, and dominating over every other power, are the two antagonists that since the time of Luther have found a more equal battle-field,—the spirit of Reform, and the spirit of the Papacy. The nature of the struggle, in which the human race is engaged, is in the main the same now as when the Augustine monk of Wittenberg first reared the standard of the Reformation. In the organic revolts of every community of men, the actual principle contended for is that of freedom of thought, and the real foes are the partisans of priestly domination. Through all ages the sacerdotal order have ever been the avowed or hidden opponents of all authority that does not originate with themselves, and the inveterate obstinacy the Roman hierarchy has displayed in promoting and establishing the supremacy of the Papal Church springs, as the unbroken tale of the Holy See demonstrates, from the determination to grasp at the most absolute temporal power. Claiming to be “lords over God’s heritage,” they deny all right of self-action, and only tolerate kings themselves as the tools of the universal despotism, to which they aspire. Even the enlightened and excellent men in their own ranks have been the foremost persecuted, and perhaps the most striking condemnation of the governmental system of the Papal Church is, that nearly all the great ecclesiastical reformers have been originally Romish priests themselves. If the bishop of Rome were only a spiritual head of a simple church organization, who can doubt that the great mass of the (Roman) Catholic clergy would gain immensely by the change, both in outward moral authority and internal discipline?

Nowhere is this arrogant assumption of a right to sole rule better seen than in this History of Protestantism in France; and nowhere has the resolution to attain the end been more unrelentingly pursued. To what extent a bigoted system will lead its followers, the early persecutions of the old Albigenses will show; but the renewal of the slaughter upon the inoffensive and industrious Vaudois for their adhesion to the cause of the Reformation, marks what little progress the Vatican, at whose instance it was perpetrated, had made in those Christian principles, of which it assumes to be the only veritable exponent: while the persecutions inflicted upon the Protestants of France, in order to force them back into the Romish Church, continued in one form or another down to this very day, amply prove how vain it is to expect that the Church of Rome will ever abandon the notion of universal empire, that has always been its dream and aspiration.

But although the incarnation of ambitious priestcraft is to be found in the prince-prelates of the Holy See, the ministry of nearly every religious community is obnoxious to the charge in a greater or less degree as its constitution liberates it from the control of the laity. That this was the conviction of the early leaders of the Reformation is evident from the organization of their respective churches; and that the leaven has tainted the majority of the Protestant clergy of France is shown by their preference to be salaried by the State rather than to be free to recur to the independence of the admirable scheme of connexional union propounded by Calvin. The ultimate right and equality of the People, who form the brotherhood of Christians, is an essential principle of a Reformed Church, and the contrary practice has more retarded the spread of Protestantism than any other cause. To use the expression of M. Félice respecting the Reformed Churches of France, it would be unjust to lay the whole blame of the disasters of religion upon the enemies of the Reformation; the Protestants themselves must bear their due proportion. Like the Established Church of England and like the Wesleyan Connexion, the Reformed communion of France is most threatened with loss from this quarter, and if one or the other fail in that energy and earnestness, which respectively characterized them in the beginning, it is to be attributable to their departure from the administrative institutions of the primitive Christians. The modern French Protestants may well deplore the sincere faith and fervid zeal of the early Calvinists, which re-acting upon their whole nature, rendered them as remarkable for their superiority in secular matters as in religious piety. If one were disposed to speculate upon the probable destinies of nations, and had certain events not happened, our imagination might picture a very different France in the present era; thus, had Henri-Quatre not apostatized, it is possible that the Huguenot party might have triumphed in the end; had the last siege of La Rochelle been delayed for two or three years, until a less doubtful friend of the new faith than our Charles I. wielded the power of England, the whole history of France for the last two centuries might have been changed; the principle of local self-government and strong political action, engendered by the efforts of the Huguenots to protect their liberties, would most probably have made France one of the freeëst nations of the world, have saved it from all its ruinous Revolutions, and possibly have given a wholly different aspect to the face of southern Europe.

Such was not, however, destined to be the fate of the Reformation in France, and far from being the arbiters of the fortunes of their native land, and the regenerators of Italy and Spain, the Reformed people have been reduced to become humble suitors to the State for an eleemosynary pittance to support their pastors. We cannot doubt that their condition will ultimately improve; for to hesitate to believe this, would be to fear for the progress of the human mind; but the present aspect of affairs is not promising. The establishment of the Empire, and the alliance of its chief with the Vatican, have, indeed, no semblance of fixity; yet the connection between absolutism and the parti prêtre is so intimate, that it is to be dreaded serious discouragement will be offered to the Protestants. The law respecting political assemblies affords a convenient pretext for preventing the institution of new churches, and even for closing old ones, which might be made available against the Reformed congregations throughout the whole breadth of the land.

The principles of the Reformation have, in reality, raised a terror in the minds of the advocates of irresponsible government that will not be allayed, and we ought to awaken to the fact, that the causes of political and religious liberty are identical on the continent as in this country. Nevertheless, the present anomalous position of the Vatican cannot endure; but whether the support of popedom by the soldiery of Louis Napoleon be of short or long continuance, the effects must still be disastrous to the cause of the Papacy. The prestige of the Church of Rome daily wanes under such a sinister influence, and even the most zealous of her followers must question the propriety of an empire that cannot subsist without the aid of foreign bayonets, and has so little succeeded, even with all the authority of a paternal rule, often exercised by those whom she honours as saints, in gaining the affections of the people, that were it not for the sovereigns of the worst-governed nations in Europe,—Austria, the Sicilies, Spain, and France,—they would rise en masse against it. It is in Italy, therefore, that the great blow will be struck against the mental enslavement of the human race; and not until the bishop of Rome shall be reduced to his mere spiritual office, and himself and his court of cardinals be shorn of that mundane supremacy, which Jesus expressly denied to the disciples, saying, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you,”—not until then will the consummation so devoutly to be wished for arrive.

That the late heroic rebellion of the Romans against the ecclesiastical tyranny under which they groan failed, although narrowly, of success, is to be regretted as a just revolt against an usurpation opposed alike to the injunctions of the Christian religion and to the dearest liberties of mankind. It is a consolation to believe that even as the fall of the Papacy was stayed by the hand of the most unscrupulous of mock believers, whom yet Pius IX. styles the very dear son of the Church (carissimus in Christo filius noster), it is only the brute power of material force that retains the pontiff on his tottering throne. The saying of the ancient king, that “Rome is to be fought in Rome,” has already had its purport illustrated. It is our blame that, sanctioning for worldly motives the interference of one people with another, when an open declaration that we will not suffer to be exercised on other nations that oppression we would repel, if attempted upon ourselves, would have averted and might still in other cases prevent the occasion altogether,—yes, it is a reproach to us that we have shared in the crime of having prolonged the despotism that darkens the lot of the fairest portion of the continent and millions of our fellow-beings, for whom may yet be in store,—and perchance also for ourselves,—the renewal of the worst crimes of spiritual despotism which this book records, and another instance of the great fact that Rome, in its intents and purposes, is, and ever will be, to the hour of its accomplished doom—Semper eadem!