Huguenots
Bernard Bresson, in his extensive historical study of Medieval Pentecost, cites sources indicating Calvin’s reformation experiences were a product of his association with the Huguenots who repeatedly manifested the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their meetings.12 When Calvin was at last well-established in Geneva, he secretly supported in every way those persecuted Protestant Huguenots in France.13
Thus, the Huguenots became an important link in the chain of events that awakened the whole Protestant movement to larger vistas of New Testament doctrine. So while Luther’s revival in Germany was progressing, similar convictions began to appear in France. This occurred, at least in part, because of the widespread circulation in France of Luther’s writings, even influencing — as has been cited above — John Calvin’s sudden conversion. Officially, of course, France was a Catholic stronghold, and the royals — the monarchs of that nation — were ever under pressure from Rome to keep it Catholic, at any cost.
Once Protestantism was introduced into France, it grew by leaps and bounds, to the great alarm of both Rome and the Catholic royal families. By 1559, the Huguenots were strong enough to declare their first Protestant Council (Synod) in spite of the objections from the Catholic authorities. Indeed, by that time, Marguerite of Navarre, a sister of the king, had become a follower of Huguenot teachings. Many others of the ruling noblemen of France had also become believers, among them Admiral Coligny and Henry of Navarre.
In 1561, the Cardinal of Sainte-Croix, greatly alarmed, wrote to the Pope, complaining that “The kingdom [of France] is already half Huguenot.” At the same time, Micheli, the ambassador from Venice, wrote back to his government that no province in France was free from Protestants.14 As a consequence, the Catholics, imagining themselves seriously threatened by the Huguenots, contemplated ominous countermeasures.
The Huguenots were willing to coexist with the Catholics. Through the years several compromises had been worked out. But neither the Pope nor the Catholic clerics could endure for very long the prickly presence of, or the aggressive evangelizing by, the Huguenots. Hundreds of nominally Catholic adherents were turning Protestant.
King Philip II of Spain felt it was his holy calling to exterminate Protestants wherever they were found — and by whatever means available. As a consequence, his shadowy influence was felt in France as it had been in England and other European countries. Since Protestants were usually considered as vermin to be destroyed, Catholic factions easily ignored agreements. Murder was often considered a viable option.
Thus, although the Catholic leadership initially resorted to harassment, it soon evolved into martyring undesirable Protestants. This in turn exploded into outright massacring of the hated Huguenots. The first Huguenot was burned at the stake in 1523. And amazingly, the Huguenots’ religious freedom was not fully restored until after the French revolution in 1789, after 266 years of persecution with only occasional intermissions.15 Brave believers, indeed.
One example of these deceptive intermissions occurred on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572. As the day approached, circumstances between the Protestants and the Catholics seemed relatively peaceful. Many Huguenot nobles had gathered in Paris for the festive occasion. In fact, an important wedding was planned for a leading Huguenot nobleman, Henry of Navarre, and Marguerite of Valois, Charles IX’s sister.16 But Catherine de Medici, the mother of the youthful king, had been in connivance with other Catholic leaders to take advantage of the unsuspecting Huguenots gathering in Paris for the occasion.
The Catholics initiated a nighttime attack that ultimately massacred 8,000 of the visitors to the capital. Admiral Coligny, a reputable leader of the Huguenots and a respected politician, was among those assassinated by the Catholic deception.
During the days that followed this surprise attack, Catholics systematically exterminated thousands more Huguenots throughout the provinces of France. Catholics declared open season everywhere on the Protestant Huguenots. It has been conservatively estimated that over 70,000 were unconscionably martyred. And ironically, the Pope, now convinced that all the Catholics who were involved had at last accomplished the will of God, “sent congratulations to Catherine and both thought they were done with the Huguenots.”17
Many Huguenots, however, lived on, perhaps to die yet another day — but alive, nonetheless, and still committed to their strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In spite of the supposed demise of the Huguenots, there were survivors of that terrible massacre. These survivors fled to the Alpine region of the Cevennes mountains, where the troubled remnant cried out to God for grace to endure. A loving Heavenly Father answered by pouring out His Spirit, thereby comforting those harassed believers.
The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre was the origin of the now famous Cevennes prophets, to which John Wesley later referred. God strengthened these survivors with Pentecostal experiences by the Holy Spirit, the heavenly “Comforter” Jesus had promised His believers. In his text, The Life and Letters of St. Paul, author David Smith observes that during this time of severe persecution in 1685, as the Huguenots earnestly sought the Lord for consolation “the spiritual gifts of the Apostolic Church reappeared — miracles of healing, prophecy, and talking in tongues.”18 By 1689, Pentecostal experiences were quite common among the Huguenots of the Cevennes.
James Hastings, in his Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, provides further valuable information about these retiring, godly outcasts: “An infectious ecstasy seized people of all ages and of both sexes. They heard supernatural voices. They spoke with tongues. … uneducated persons gave utterance, when ‘seized by the spirit,’ to prophecies in the purest French, when all they knew was the patois Romanesque language of the Cevennes.”19
Some historians claim that all of their leaders were prophets and that [the gift of] prophecy was what held them together for 200 years.”20 Bresson’s research further claims that when under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Huguenots would quote “long passages of Scripture correctly, talked in tongues, prophesied coming events which were to occur a long distance from them and afterward the event(s) happened as foretold.”21
Through the years of persecution, many Huguenots, including members of the French Prophets of the Cevennes, fled to England, America, and other countries, carrying with them the good news of salvation and of the ministry of the Holy Comforter and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For example, referring to these French Prophets in England, M’Clintock and Strong call attention to their charismatic and Pentecostal-like activities: “[These ‘French Prophets’] came over to England about 1706, and brought with them the ‘gift of prophecy.’ They soon made converts in England [many from the upper classes of English society]. The great subject of their predictions was the speedy establishment of Messiah’s kingdom. Their message was (and they were to proclaim it as heralds to every nation under heaven) that the grand jubilee “the acceptable year of the Lord,” the accomplishments of those numerous Scriptures concerning the new heavens and the new earth, the kingdom of the Messiah, the marriage of the Lamb, the first resurrection, and the New Jerusalem … was now even at the door.”22
Further in this report, these Encyclopedists make it clear that these French Huguenots anticipated having a part in the fulfillment of their end-time prophecies. They expected this to be accomplished by means of the “inspiration of the mighty Gift of the Spirit,” and that this mission would also be “witnessed to by signs and wonders from heaven”23 Many certainly recognize these pronouncements of the Pentecostal-like French Prophets as similar to the present-day preachments of modern charismatics, particularly Pentecostals.
Near the end of their article, M’Clintock and Strong offer some personal evaluations that reveal their unfortunate inclinations to scandalize the manifestations of miracles in modern times. They base these, it seems, on the same philosophy that prompted Dr. Middleton’s assertion that the miraculous no longer occurs, since the apostles are dead. We see this bias in the following passage of M’Clintock and Strongs’s report on the French Prophets. “These prophets also pretended [?] to the gift of languages [tongues], of miracles, of … discerning the secrets of the heart; the power of conferring the same spirit on others by the laying on of hands, and the gift of healing. To prove they were really inspired by the Holy Ghost, they alleged [?] the complete joy and satisfaction they experienced, the spirit of prayer which was poured forth upon them, and the answer of their prayers by the Most High.”24
Pretended? Alleged? Could not their own documented report of 18th-century prophets just as easily have been describing events that occurred in the Book of Acts. Their theological prejudices — obviously present in their report — do not mean the events they describe did not really happen, although they seem anxious to imply these Pentecostal experiences were imagined. In fact, the M’Clintock and Strong report indicates that some sort of unusual spiritual experiences were happening, evidenced by the fact people were being changed for the better — even the numerous prominent upper-class believers who became Huguenots. These theological doubters — like those of Jerusalem in Acts 2 — offered rationalistic criticisms, which turned out to be totally false.
The deception employed on Saint Bartholomew’s Day was not the first — nor was it to be the last — of the premeditated and persistently planned extermination of the Protestants. Although the Huguenots were pacifists theologically, they soon learned that the only possibility of survival was to resort to armed resistance when negotiations failed. The reason? The Huguenots were willing to arrange coexistence, but the Catholics would never comply.
Because of the Romanist’s repeated efforts to expurgate the Protestants from the kingdom, at least eight major civil wars took place from 1559 through the late 1700s.25 After further harassing the Huguenots, “In 1715 King Louis XIV announced that he had [at last] ended all exercise of the Protestant religion in France.”26.
During that time, however, thousands upon thousands of Huguenots had fled the tribulations of France for the relative security of other countries. But the massive emigration of Huguenot artisans and nobility seriously impacted the French national economy. By the mid-1700s the general population of France had grown increasingly weary of the meaningless, murderous mayhem caused by the personal prejudices of their rulers. As a result, the French Revolution of 1789 ensued, and the ironic results were the complete restoration of religious freedoms for the Huguenots.
