Huguenots

Before we begin with an account of the Leignes family as a refugee family fleeing religious persecution we need to provide the context of their desperate plight which forced them to abandon France – the country of their birth and long-standing ancestry – leaving behind their home and all their possessions to begin a new life in the Netherlands.

Huguenots (‘les Huguenots Calvinistes’) was the name given to French Protestants who were followers of Jean Calvin (1509-1564), a French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. Breaking with the Roman Catholic Church around 1530, he was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism.

In its opposition to the Roman Catholic Church, Calvinism gained significant popularity particularly among the middle and upper classes of French society. In short, Calvinism was highly critical of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, accusing it of corruption and abuse of church practices, and the Pope of having made a mockery of its sacred mission in the name of Christianity. Not surprisingly, this led to significant hostility on the Catholic side, culminating into the French Wars of Religion between 1562–98 that were primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants.

This period was also earmarked by a number of massacres in which thousands of French Protestants and their families were brutally killed. The most notorious has been referred to as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 24 August – 3 October 1572, which led to as a many as 25,000 Protestants being killed in Paris. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following, with nearly 3,000 Protestants slaughtered in Toulouse alone.

Edict of Nantes – 1598
As with most religious disputes, this touched on all areas of society and extended well into the political realm, and included the power struggle between the aristocratic families of France such as the House of Bourbon and the House of Guise. Eventually, peace was introduced in 1598 by Henry IV (1553–1610) from the House of Bourbon through the enactment of the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed a range of religious freedoms to the Protestants. This didn’t necessarily stop all the hostility towards the Huguenots, and Henry IV – a former Protestant himself – would eventually pay for his efforts to legitimize the Protestant religion when he was assassinated in 1610 by François Ravaillac, a religious fanatic on the Catholic side.

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes – 1685
However, less than a hundred years after its enactment, the Edit of Nantes was revoked in October 1685 by Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, and the Huguenot community would once again become the target of religious persecution. The revocation forbade Protestant services, required education of children as Catholics, and prohibited emigration.

As well, they were forced to recant their protestant faith during mass ceremonies, usually at the local parish church, and sign a statement to that effect, and of which we have the following example:

L`an 1685, dans l`église de Revel et devant Jean Fresquet, curé de Revel, les ici nommés ont renoncé à la Religion Prétendue Réformée qu’ils avaient professée jusqu`alors et ont fait profession de la Religion Catholique, Apostolique et Romaine dans la forme prescrite par l`Eglise et ont promis d`y persister inviolablement toute leur vie et de la faire tenir et garder par ceux qui sont ou seront en leur charge et généralement ont renoncé à toutes leurs erreurs, contraires à la religion catholique.

Translation:

In the year 1685, in the church of Revel and before Jean Fresquet, parish priest of Revel, the nominees present here have renounced the so-called Reformed Religion that they had until recently adhered to and have now made a commitment to join the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Religion in the manner prescribed by the Church, and have promised not to violate this commitment for the remainder of their lives, and to maintain this with those who are or will be in their charge, and they have generally renounced all their errors contrary to the Catholic religion.

These religious conflicts proved disastrous for the Huguenots and costly for France. It precipitated civil bloodshed, ruined commerce, and while exact numbers are hard to come by –and vary wildly – it has been estimated that perhaps as many as 500,000 Huguenots were forced to leave France since the mid 1500’s to avoid religious persecution.

While the majority of French Protestant refugees fled to other European countries where they were free to practice their religion, other significant Huguenot communities were successfully settled as far away as North and South America, and South Africa.

Because the vast majority of Huguenots were professionals or trained tradesman, their skills were usually very much demand and allowed them to become quickly integrated into the social and economic life of the communities that had welcomed them.