3. France, during the Middle Ages, had often taken a
leading part in opposing the claims ofthe papacy, and
iii assert ing i lie superiority of general councils over the pope; but ii had shown no sympathy with a thorough reform of doctrine. When Luther's views became known in Prance. I h.y were condemned ( 1521 I by t he Sorboune.
One of the French bishops, Guillaume Briconnet, took, however, an active interest in the reformation of the Church, lb- called to his aid men like Lefevre, Farel (who was at that time regent ofthe college of cardinal LeMoine at Paris), Roussel, and others; but when the charge of heresy was raised against him. lie cut loose from his Reformed friends, and in 1628 pronounced
against Luther. When Parliament was appealed to for the suppression of Protestantism, it lent at once its arm to the clergy for bloody persecution. In 1524 -lean le Gere, of 'Meaux. the tirst martyr of the Reformation, was • secuted in Met/.. In L529 a great sensation was aroused by the hanging and burning of Louis de lier- quin, a royal councillor and zealous adherent of the Reformation, whose writings and translations had pre- viously | 1523 I been condemned by the Sorboune. Pran- . i~ I was an admirer >-\' Erasmus, and by nature averse to any decisive attitude in religious affairs; he was, moreover, quick in detecting tin- advantages which an alliance between the Protestant princes of Germany and the ruler of Prance against the < !atholic ( mperor <>f < ,. r- many might have for him and for Prance. On the Other hand, he was afraid of disturbing the religious unity of France, and desirous of securing the pope's aid in his war against the German emperor. Thus his course jn the progress ofthe religious controv* rsies was wavering and undecided. At his court, and even in his family, both parties were represented, the chief patron ..('the Reformation being his sister Margaret, queen of Navarre. While the persecution ofthe Lutherans went forward, and, in January. 1535, several of the I. were executed in Paris in a barbarous way. Prancis as- sured the Protestant princes of Germany that he was really in favor of a religious r. formation, and that only some fanatics were punished m France. Of considera- ble interest are the negotiations which took place be- tween Francis and Melancthon. The king became ac- quainted with Melancthon in consequence oi a memorial which the latter addressed in 1531 to Guillaume Bellay, and in which he explained the essential points ofthe Reformation, and how they might be reconciled with the Catholic doctrine. Melancthon's Loci Communes pleased the king much. In 1535 John Sturm, then pro- fessor in Paris, invited Melancthon to France. Melanc- thon answered cordially, and was then formally invited by the king himself, by cardinal Bellay, Sturm, and Guillaume Bellay. Luther was in favor of accepting the invitation, but the elector sharply refused to give
him permission. Melancthon therefore did not go, but in August ofthe same year his Consilium, with many
alterations, was presented to the Sorboune for their de- cision, in the form of a confession of faith, and it was declared by them to be thoroughly objectionable. The king, nevertheless, announced in December to the Prot- estanl princes assembled at Smalkaldthal he had formed a favorable ..pinion ofthe articles of Melancthon. Soon, however, the king, chiefly through the influence of cardinal Tournon, ceased to manifest any sympathy with the cause ofthe Reformation. With it the con- nection of Frenchmen with the Lutheran Reformation seems to have come t.. an end. until, at a later period, the conquest of German territories gave to Prance a considerable number of Lutheran congregations.
The friends whom bishop Briconnet had called to Meaux to assisl him in his reformatory work remained mostly, like himself, within the old Church, contenting
themselves with diffusing spiritual and evangelical feel- ings among Catholics. Lefevre (Faber Stapulensis),
after having tied to Strasburg on account of the charges
of heresy brought against him, was recalled by Francis I, appointed librarian at Blois, where he translated the Old
Testament, and spent the end of hi- lite at tie- court of
Margaret of Navarre. Gerald Roussel, who tied with Lefevre to Strasburg, became subsequently bishop of Oleron, where be introduced important reforms, but never ceased to be suspected of h« Te-\ . L\ en Marga- ret of Navarre, the zealous pan- fall friends ofthe
Reformation, who reformed all the churches of her little state according to evangelical principles, never regarded it necessary to separate externally from the Catholic Church. Her course was disapproved by Calvin, but
her work was continued by her daughter Jeanne d'Al-
bret, the wife of Antoine of Bourbon, and in 1569 the
Reformation was fully carried through in liearn.
REFORMATION
995
REFORMATION
The main reformatory movement of France, which has played a conspicuous part in its ecclesiastical as well as political history, attaches itself to the name of John Calvin. He was a native of France, and became thor- oughly imbued with reformatory ideas while studying at Bourges and Paris. He had to flee in 1533, spent a short time at the court of the queen of Navarre, re- turned to Paris, but had to flee again to Switzerland in 1534, when he wrote his Institutes, in the preface of which he exposes the injustice of the king. From Basle he went to Geneva, where, with the exception of a few years which he spent in Strasburg, which was then a German city, he remained until the end of his life, as the author and recognised leader of one of the two great divisions of the Reformation of the 16th century. Though he was not allowed to return to France, Geneva became the hearth and home from which the Reforma- tion in France itself was constantly receiving new food. In the latter years of the reign of Francis the perse- cution of the Reformed increased in severity ; and es- pecially the Waldenses in Merindol and Cabrieres, in Provence, suffered from a most horrible persecution, which in 1545 ended in a general massacre. Notwith- standing the persecution, the number of the Reformed grew steadily; it was very large even at the death of Francis I, in 1547, and rapidly increased during the reign of Henry II. Regular congregations began to be formed in the large cities in 1555, and in 1559 a general syn- od held at Paris agreed upon a confession of faith and a Church order. (For the further history of the Re- formed Church, see France.) The subsequent histo- ry of the Reformed, to whom soon the name of Hugue- nots was generally applied, is closely connected with the political history of France. They were forced in self-defence to act no less as a political than an ecclesi- astical party. While the Catholics adhered to the fa- natical Guises, the Protestants looked for protection to the Bourbons. In 1570 they received in the Peace of St. Germain equal rights, and several fortresses as a guarantee of the peace; but two years later (1572), St. Bartholomew's Eve was the beginning of the most ter- rible ordeal through which they passed in their entire history, more than 30,000 of them being massacred during one month. King Henry HI was driven by the arrogance of the Guises into the ranks of the Hugue- nots, and was soon after assassinated by the Dominican Clement. Then the first Protestant, Henry of Navarre, ascended the French throne. To save the Protestant cause, he submitted externally to the Catholic Church ; but to his former coreligionists he preserved his sym- pathy and secured equal rights in the Edict of Nantes. During the reigns of the following kings the Huguenots again passed through a series of severe persecutions : under Louis XIV the Edict of Nantes was revoked, and a large number of families compelled to emigrate, and to settle in foreign countries. The French Revolution at last began for them the sera of religious freedom.