The Reformation found Languedoc orthodox. Persecution had succeeded. The Inquisition had had no victims since 1340, and the cities which had been centres of heresy were now strongly orthodox. Toulouse was one of the most fanatically orthodox cities in Europe, and remained so in Voltaire’s day. But Calvinism gained ground rapidly in the other parts of Languedoc, and by 1560 the majority of the population was Protestant. It was, however, partly a political protest against the misrule of the Guises. The open conflict came in 1561, and from that until the edict of Nantes (1598) there was intermittent civil war, accompanied with iconoclasm on the one hand, massacres on the other and ravages on both.
The main figure in this period is that of Henri de Montmorency, seigneur de Damville, later duc de Montmorency, governor of the province from 1563, who was, at first, hostile to the Protestants, then from 1574 to 1577, as leader of the “Politiques,” an advocate of compromise. But peace was hardly ever established, although there was a yearly truce for the ploughing. By the edict of Nantes, the Protestants were given ten places of safety in Languedoc; but civil strife did not come to an end, even under Henry IV. In 1620 the Protestants in Languedoc rose under Henri, duc de Rohan (1579-1638), who for two years defied the power of Louis XIII. When Louis took Montpellier in 1622, he attempted to reconcile the Calvinists by bribes of money and office, and left Montauban as a city of refuge. Richelieu’s extinction of Huguenotism is less the history of Languedoc than of the Huguenots (q.v.). By 1629 Protestantism was crushed in the Midi as a political force. Then followed the tragic episode of the rebellion of Henri II., duc de Montmorency, son of the old governor of Languedoc. As a result, Languedoc lost its old provincial privilege of self-assessment until 1649, and was placed under the governorship of Marshal Schomberg. During Louis XIV.’s reign Languedoc prospered until the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Industries and agriculture were encouraged, roads and bridges were built, and the great canal giving a water route from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean increased the trade of its cities. Colbert especially encouraged its manufactures. The religious persecutions which accompanied the revocation of the edict of Nantes bore hardest on Languedoc, and resulted in a guerilla warfare known as the rebellion of the Camisards (q.v.). On the eve of the Revolution some of the brightest scenes of contentment and prosperity which surprised Arthur Young, the English traveller in France, were those of the grape harvests in Languedoc vineyards.
In 1790 Languedoc disappeared from the map of France, with the other old provinces; and the departments mentioned took its place. But the peculiar characteristics of the men of the Midi remain as clearly distinct from those of the north as the Scottish type is distinct from the English. The “peaceful insurrection” of the Languedoc vine-growers in the summer of 1907 revealed to the astonished Parisians the same spirit of independence as had underlain the resistance to Simon de Montfort and Richelieu.
The one monumental history of Languedoc is that of the Benedictines, Dom Claude Devic and Dom J. J. Vaissete, Histoire générale de la province de Languedoc (5 vols., Paris, 1730-1745). This has been re-edited, and continued and increased by the addition of important monographs, to 15 volumes (Toulouse, 1872-1892). It is the great library of sources, critical apparatus and bibliographies concerning Languedoc, and carries the history up to 1790. The fine article “Languedoc” in La Grande Encyclopédie is by A. Molinier, perhaps the greatest modern authority on Languedoc.
(J. T. S.*)
LANGUET, HUBERT (1518-1581), French Huguenot writer and diplomat, was born at Vitteaux in Burgundy, of which town his father was governor. He received his early education from a distinguished Hellenist, Jean Perelle, and displayed remarkable ability in Greek and Latin. He studied law, theology and science at the university of Poitiers from 1536 to 1539; then, after some travel, attended the universities of Bologna and Padua, receiving the doctorate from the latter in 1548. At Bologna he read Melanchthon’s Loci communes theologiae and was so impressed by it that in 1549 he went to Wittenberg to see the author, and shortly afterwards became a Protestant. He made his headquarters at Wittenberg until the death of Melanchthon in 1560, although during that period, as well as throughout the rest of his life, he travelled extensively in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and even Finland and Lapland. In 1557 he declined the invitation of Gustavus I. to enter the service of Sweden, but two years later accepted a similar invitation of Augustus I., elector of Saxony. He showed great ability in diplomacy, particularly in organizing the Protestants. He represented the elector at the French court from 1561 to 1572 except when the religious and political troubles in France occasionally compelled him temporarily to withdraw. He performed many minor diplomatic missions for the elector, and in 1567 accompanied him to the siege of Gotha. He delivered a violent harangue before Charles IX. of France in 1570 on behalf of the Protestant princes, and escaped death on St Bartholomew’s Day (1572) only through the intervention of Jean de Morvilliers, the moderate and influential bishop of Orleans. He represented the elector of Saxony at the imperial court from 1573 to 1577. Financial embarrassment and disgust at the Protestant controversies in which he was forced to participate caused him to seek recall from the imperial court. His request being granted, Languet spent the last years of his life mainly in the Low Countries, and though nominally still in the service of the elector, he undertook a mission to England for John Casimir of Bavaria and was a valuable adviser to William the Silent, prince of Orange. Languet died at Antwerp on the 30th of September 1581.
His correspondence is important for the history of the 16th century. Three hundred and twenty-nine letters to Augustus of Saxony dating from the 17th of November 1565 to the 8th of September 1581, and one hundred and eleven letters to the chancellor Mordeisen dating from November 1559 to the summer of 1565, are preserved in MS. in the Saxon archives, and were published by Ludovicus at Halle in 1699 under the title Arcana seculi decimi sexti. One hundred and eight letters to Camerarius were published at Groningen in 1646 under the title Langueti Epistolae ad Joach. Camerarium, patrem et filium; and ninety-six to his great friend Sir Philip Sidney, dating from the 22nd of April 1573 to the 28th of October 1580, appeared at Frankfort in 1633 and have been translated into English by S. A. Pears (London, 1845). The Historica Descriptio of the siege and capture of Gotha appeared in 1568 and has been translated into French and German. The authorship of the work by which Languet is best known has been disputed. It is entitled Vindiciae contra tyrannos, sive de principis in populum populique in principem legitima potestate, Stephano Junio Bruto Celta auctore, and is thought to have been published at Basel (1579) although it bears the imprint of Edinburgh. It has been attributed to Beza, Hotman, Casaubon and Duplessis-Mornay, by divers writers on various grounds—to the last-named on the very respectable authority of Grotius. The authorship of Languet was supported by Peter Bayle (for reasons stated in the form of a supplement to the Dictionnaire) and confirmed by practically all later writers. The work has been frequently reprinted, the Leipzig edition (1846) containing a life of Languet by Treitschke. A French translation appeared in 1581 and an English translation in 1689. The work upholds the doctrine of resistance, but affirms that resistance must come from properly constituted authorities and objects to anything which savours of anabaptism or other extreme views. The Apologie ou défence du très illustre Prince Guillaume contre le ban et l’édit du roi d’Espagne (Leiden, 1581) is sometimes attributed to Languet. There seems little doubt, however, that it was really the work of the prince himself, with the help either of Languet (Groen van Prinsterer, Archives) or of Pierre de Villiers (Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic; and Blok, History of the People of the Netherlands).
See Ph. de la Mare, Vie d’Hubert Languet (Halle, 1700); E. and E. Haag, La France protestante; H. Chevreul, Hubert Languet (Paris, 1852); J. Blasel, Hubert Languet (Breslau, 1872); O. Scholz, Hubert Languet als kursächsischer Berichterstatter u. Gesandter in Frankreich während 1560-1572 (Halle, 1875); G. Touchard, De politica Huberti Langueti (Paris, 1898). There is a good article on Languet by P. Tschackert in Hauck’s Real-Encyklopädie, 3rd ed., xi. 274-280.