RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Huguenots
2. The Second Period, 1661-1791: Just as in the first,so in the second period of emigration, the refugees settled largely in the Netherlands. On i. The account of the war with the Nether- Nether- lands, there was a lull in both persecu-
lands and tion and emigration during the years
Switzer- 1672-79; but this was only the calm land. before the storm of emigration in the years immediately preceding and following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). Friesland offered (May 1, 1681) a free asylum and full citizenship to all who were driven from their homes by religious persecution, and even freedom from taxation for twelve years. The states of Holland and Amsterdam soon followed this example; and the States General ordered (Dec. 3, 1682) a collection in all provinces for the emigrants. Amsterdam alone had 15,000 Huguenots toward the end of the seventeenth century, while about 60,000 were settled in other cities and provinces. In 1715 the emigrants were granted naturalization. Each class took particular interest in the Protestants of its own class, and assisted them by procuring work, advancing money, etc. In 1688 there were in the army of William of Orange 736 officers of French birth, not to speak of privates in both army and navy. At this time there were in the Netherlands sixty-two French churches. About 3,000 French Protestants accepted the invitation of the Dutch East India Company to settle on the company's possessions on the Cape of Good Hope. Switzerland became a haven of refuge to the Huguenots from the eastern and southern provinces of France. Geneva, the temporary headquarters for most of them, was not able to offer permanent shelter, owing to the threats of Louis XIV. Between 1682 and 1720 the citizens of Geneva distributed 5,143,266 florins among 60,000 refugees. Similarly, Zurich assisted 23,345 emigrants between 1683 and 1689. Other cities acted in the same spirit, although on a smaller scale. About 25,000 Frenchmen are said to have settled permanently on Swiss soil.
England was on the whole well disposed toward
the Huguenots, though James II. did not favor them.
He had to yield, however, to popular
2. England pressure, and a collection taken during and his reign — although by his orders
America, not recommended from the pulpits — amounted to £40,000. Between 60,000 and 70,000 Protestants had settled in England up to 1695, and London and neighborhood had at one time thirty flourishing French churches. William of Orange granted the French Protestants in England £17,200 annually, which was — with intermissions and in a diminishing ratio — continued until 1812, when a last payment of £1,200 was made. But the large number of the emigrants awakened the distrust of the population, and their naturalization was granted and rescinded several times by parliament. The Huguenots were, nevertheless, gradually absorbed by the English people and the English Church. By the close of the seventeenth century thousands of Huguenots had settled in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The largest number of Huguenots settled
in South Carolina; and in Charleston there is still a French church with a pure Calvinistic liturgy. One colony of Huguenots was established at Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (South America), where missionary work was begun among the Indians.
Huguenot refugees to Germany settled chiefly in
Brandenburg. In 1672 the Huguenots in Berlin
(about 100) were granted the right to
3. Germany hold services in French. When the
and Edict of Nantes was revoked Fred- Elsewhere. erick William of Brandenburg openly
espoused the cause of French Protestantism and censured Louis XIV. publicly. He offered the emigrants a free asylum in his country, and extended them numerous privileges with full citizenship. He went even further by publishing an invitation to the Huguenots to come to Brandenburg, and by having his representatives in Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfort, Amsterdam, and elsewhere to look after the emigrants. Although Louis XIV. forbade the publication of this invitation, it soon became known all over France, and about 25,000 Frenchmen accepted it before 1700. The Margrave established a French college in Berlin (1689) and a French professorship at the University of Frankforton-the-Oder. Twelve French societies assisted newly arrived emigrants, and otherwise encouraged the immigration of their countrymen. There were thirty-three colonies at one time in Brandenburg, but most of them became German during the eighteenth century. After the death of Frederick the Great and during the rebirth of Prussia during the Napoleonic wars the last bond was cut which united the emigrants with France. Berlin is the only city in Old Prussia where French services are still held regularly. Other parts of Germany, e.g., Ansbach, Baireuth, Baden, Wiirttemberg, Saxony, and Hesse, extended to the Huguenots many privileges and always a free refuge. Nearly all of them soon became German. Among the free cities, Hamburg has the distinction of still maintaining a French service, in a new church since 1904. The other free cities, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Bremen, and Liibeck, received many transitory emigrants; but they were soon absorbed by the Germans, though at Frankfort a small congregation still exists in connection with the Reformed synod. Denmark has a French Huguenot church in Copenhagen which dates from 1685; Sweden one at Stockholm; Russia two, one in Moscow and the other in St. Petersburg. It is small wonder that the French Protestants were made welcome wherever they went, since they
represented the most intelligent, moral,
4. Influence and industrious portion of the French
of population. They carried with them
Huguenot the arts, scholarship, and knowledge of Refugees, military affairs to various countries. Frederick William of Brandenburg had 600 French officers and thousands of soldiers in his army; French scholars were among the founders of the Prussian Academy of Sciences; mechanics and craftsmen of all kinds assisted in promoting the industries of that country, and the skilled farmers soon turned the sandy plains of Brandenburg into fertile fields. Frederick the Great had seven generals of French descent in his army, and the Prussian
Huguenots
Humanism