RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cameron Camisards
speedy downfall of the papacy, contributed to give shape and direction to this unconscious movement. A girl appeared as prophetess in Dauphin6 in 1688. Other prophets arose in Vivarais. The number increased rapidly, especially in the Cevennes after 1700, where almost a fourth of the population was Protestant. Despite the creation of new bishoprics for their conversion and notwithstanding the military aid given by the State to the ecclesiastical authorities, ecstatic phenomena increased throughout the district, sparing neither old nor young. In the trance, when
Fanatical seized by convulsions, and pouring Disorders, forth words of repentance and admonition, often in pure French instead of the local dialect, those " possessed by the spirit " saw troops from far-off garrisons come marching toward the place, they singled out those among their comrades who should fall in the encounter, they recognized the traitors among them; and these predictions were always accepted with reverence and confidence, and often proved true; although, on the other hand, the power of prophecy later steadily declined. Without this apocalyptic factor, diseased yet sincere, the enthusiasm and obstinacy of the Camisards is unintelligible. Terming themselves " children of God," and their camp the " camp of the Eternal," they relied with absolute trust on divine guidance and aid, while their fanaticism in destroying churches, like their cruelty in killing priests, finds its explanation in the fact that they believed themselves called of God to extirpate " Babylon and Satan," as they designated the Roman Catholic priests and their Church.
Open revolt broke out in 1702, when a priest named Francois de Langlade du Chayla undertook to punish the refractory. In his house at Pont de Montvert, in the present department of Lozere, he built a cell in which he shut up his recalcitrant parishioners, and tortured them. On the night of July 23, hearing a rumor that the abbe intended to put certain prisoners to death, the Camisards assembled at the instigation of the prophets Siguier, Couderc, and Maziel, burned the house, liberated the prisoners, and slew the priest. Baville, the intendant of Languedoc, felt a particular satisfaction in pursuing the guilty. Seguier was caught and burned at the stake Aug. 12; but the rest escaped among the mountains, where they were soon reenforced by new throngs formed by Castanet, Catinat, Roland, and others. In Jean Cavalier (b. at Ribante, department of Gard, Nov. 28, 1681) they found an able leader, The and the war began which was to de-
Camisard populate and devastate the prov- Wars. inces of Languedoc, Vivarais, Gevaudan, and Rouergue. The Camisards never numbered more than five thousand, and they had no military organization. But they fought with brutal fury, even when they marched into battle with psalms on their lips, while the royal troops punished them with torture and imprisonment. In their camps they lived as in a church, preaching, praying, and fasting; and they won brilliant victories, particularly at Sainte-Chatte, II.— 24
Mar. 15, 1704. Baville was unable to make head against them, and in Feb., 1703, Marshal Montreval was sent with a large body of troops. He defeated the Camisards repeatedly (La Jonguiere, Mar. 6; La Tour de Belot, Apr. 29), but the cruelties practised by the troops won new adherents to the Protestant cause, even though he razed all the houses and villages in the upper Cevennes, thus rendering 20,000 homeless. The confusion was increased by a bull of Clement XL (May 1, 1703), proclaiming a crusade against the heretics and creating bands which equaled their opponents in savagery. In Apr., 1704, Montreval was replaced by Marshal Villars. Before Villars began active operation, he surrounded the whole district with a line of strong military posts, thus cutting off all communication between the rebels and the outside world; and then he offered pardon to all who, within a certain time, laid down arms and surrendered. Cavalier, who saw that further resistance was useless, left the country, afterward fought against his countrymen in Holland, Italy, and Spain, and settled finally in England. There he was appointed governor of Jersey, and later governor of the Isle of Wight. He died in Chelsea, London, May 18, 1740. His former comrades branded him as a traitor and continued the hopeless struggle. Roland fell Aug. 14, 1704. Castanet, Catinat, Joanni, and others tied to Geneva. Without leaders, the Camisard army gradually melted away. In 1705 Catinat, Ravanel, and some of their colleagues returned and conspired to raise a new revolt, only to die at the stake or on the wheel. A last attempt, made by Mazel, Coste, and Claris in 1709 in Vivarais was quenched in blood, and the French Reformed Church was definitely blotted out. [In England the Camisards were known as the French Prophets (q.v.).]