Honest as a Huguenot

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, p. 283:

"Honest as a Huguenot" was as proverbial in the seventeenth century as the respect for law of the Dutch which Sir. W. Temple admired, and, a century later, that of the English as compared with those Continental peoples that had not been through this ethical schooling.

Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 376:

The Huguenots made up the industrious artisan class of France and to be "honest as a Huguenot" became a proverb, denoting the highest degree of integrity.

Nathaniel MacFetridge, Calvinism in History, p. 123:

Outside of the circle of the Huguenots there was indeed but little that deserved the name of morality in France. Their honesty was so remarkable that even among their bitterest enemies it was proverbial. To be "honest as a Huguenot" was deemed the highest degree of integrity. And while they were stigmatized by the Roman Catholics as "heretics," "atheists," "blasphemers," "monsters vomited forth of hell," and the like, not one accusation was brought against the morality and integrity of their character. "The silence of their enemies on this head is," says Smiles, "perhaps the most eloquent testimony in their favor."

Samuel Smiles, The Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland, pp. 134-135:

The Huguenot's word was as good as his bond, and to "honest as a Huguenot" passed into a proverb. This quality of integrity -- which is essential in the merchant who deals with foreigners whom he never sees -- so characterized the business transactions of the Huguenots, that the foreign trade of the country fell almost entirely into their hands.

William Maxwell Blackburn, Admiral Coligny, and the Rise of the Huguenots, p. 189:

"Honest as a Huguenot" was the proverb coined in his honour, and made current through long generations. As a neighbour, he was just and truthful; as a civilian, rare in his integrity and observance of law; as an artisan or a tradesman, he attended to his own affairs, and his goods had their value upon their very face; as an official he could be trusted with untold gold, and happy was the Pharoah who had such a Joseph at court. When Romanist noble or king wished for an honest man, to whom he could entrust life and property, he drew into his service a Huguenot. Even Charles IX. retained, to the last hour of his life, the old Huguenot nurse who had rocked his cradle, and he would have no other physician than Ambrose Pare, the chosen surgeon of his grandfather. Among all the Italian poisoners, Catherine knew that her children were safe when such a man dealt out the medicines. And she, too, must have her Huguenot ladies to succeed the trustworthy Madame de Chatillon and Madame de Roye. She long felt safest when Coligny was at the court. This compliment to Huguenot integrity was paid everywhere, down to the latest times.

Cast Your Anchor In Heaven

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; (Heb. 6.19)

John Calvin, Letters of Jean Calvin, Vol. 4, p. 193 (Letter 595 to Admiral Coligny, May 1561):

It is true, that to fortify yourself to serve him constantly, you must look higher than the world, as the Apostle also exhorts us to cast our anchor in the heaven.

John Calvin, Letters of Jean Calvin, Vol. 4, p. 222 (Letter 619 to Admiral Coligny, September 24, 1561):

But it is a good lesson for you, Monseigneur, when there is neither shore nor bottom in those that tossed by the vanity of the world, to fix the deeper your anchor in heaven, as we are exhorted to do by the Apostle.

John Calvin, Letters of Jean Calvin, Vol. 4, p. 267 (Letter 627 to the Queen of Navarre, March 22, 1562):

Therefore, should the whole world be turned upside down, if our anchor is cast in heaven, however tossed we may be, most assuredly we shall arrive in safety at the harbour.

John Calvin, Letters of Jean Calvin, Vol. 4, p. 429 (Letter by Jean Macar (1520-1560, Genevan missionary to France who married Calvin's neice, undated, c. 1558, Library of Geneva, Vol. 112, to John Calvin):

The king multiplies his threats, and declares that he will not give himself any rest till he has extirpated from his kingdom the very last heretic. As for us, who have our anchor fixed in heaven, we sail amidst storms, as if we were in a quiet haven.

John Calvin, Commentary on Gen. 27.42:

And as he did not attempt to purchase temporal peace with his brother by the loss of the grace received; so must we beware lest any carnal advantage or any allurements of the world should draw us aside from the course of our vocation: let us rather bear with magnanimity losses of all kinds, so that the anchor of our hope nay remain fixed in heaven.

John Calvin, Commentary on Ps. 119.89:

As we see nothing constant or of long continuance upon earth, he elevates our minds to heaven, that they may fix their anchor there.

John Calvin, Commentary on John 20.29:

Faith has, indeed, its own sight but one which does not confine its view to the world, and to earthly objects. For this reason it is called a demonstration of things invisible or not seen, (Hebrews 11:1;) and Paul contrasts it with sight, (2 Corinthians 5:7,) meaning, that it does not rest satisfied with looking at the condition of present object, and does not cast its eye in all directions to those things which are visible in the world, but depends on the mouth of God, and, relying on His word, rises above the whole world, so as to fix its anchor in heaven.

J.K. Reid, Calvin: Theological Treatises, p. 330:

...we are joined to Christ only if our minds rise above the world. Accordingly the bond of our union with Christ is faith, which raises us upwards and casts its anchor in heaven, so that, instead of subjecting Christ to the fictions of our reason, we seek him above in his glory.

Doctor Who's Massacre

And now for something completely different...Fans of science fiction and church history may be interested in an old storyline from Doctor Who, a series of four episodes collectively titled, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, which originally aired in 1966. The original BBC video footage has been lost or destroyed, but a draft form of the storyline by John Lucarotti is available in book form, the final scripts are available online, and a BBC audio recording is also available. In the time machine TARDIS, Steven Taylor and the First Doctor appear in 1572 Paris and get mixed up in the intrigue surrounding the infamous massacre, with part of the plot taking place in the catacombs of Paris. As one can tell from the title (the massacre happened on St Bartholomew's Day, rather than the Eve before), complete historical accuracy is not to be expected, but the story is a good read (or listen). The Doctor tells us that he cannot and dare not change history, and yet, when all is said and done, as in all time travel stories, the presence of Dodo Chaplet in 1966 and beyond, and a certain woodcut pictorial representation of the attempted assassination of the Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny, raise questions that show this principle to be less than ironclad and can only be answered within the context of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief."

Defenestration

Those who have seen the movie Braveheart will remember when Edward Longshanks threw his son's councilor out the window. Throughout history, even church history, such acts have been common, notably in Prague (site of four notable defenestrations). There is even a children's song about throwing people out the window. The act itself is known as defenestration. Some notable examples include:

• Jezebel was thrown out the window by her servants at the direction of Jehu (2 Kings 9.33).

• The First Defenestration of Prague occurred on July 30, 1419, when a crowd of Hussites, protesting the treatment of Hussite prisoners, became enraged after being assaulted, and threw several council members out the window. These events led to the Hussite Wars.

• On August 22, 1572, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny was shot by a would-be assassin. Coligny was recovering at his house in Paris when, on the night of August 23-24, soldiers entered his house at the direction of Catherine de Medici and her son, King Charles X, and seized him, ran him threw with a sword, and threw him out the window. This act triggered the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

• The Second Defenestration of Prague occurred on May 23, 1618, at the Prague Castle. Roman Catholic officials had banned construction of certain Protestant chapels on land claimed by the Catholic Church. Protestants viewed this as a violation of the 1609 Letter of Majesty which declared religious freedom for Protestants and feared the threat posed by this precedent. A Protestant assembly declared the land in question was not church-owned but but royal property, and that two Imperial governors and their scribe were found guilty of violating the religious freedom of Protestants, and sentenced to be thrown out the window. When the sentence was carried out, providentially, the three men landed in a pile of manure and survived. Catholic propagandists attributed their amazing survival to the care of angels who floated them to safety. Protestant pamphleteers attributed their survival to landing in a pile of manure. This event was a trigger for the Thirty Years' War, one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts.

Bartholomew's Day Remembrance

In the history of the Christian Church, one of the darkest days on the calendar is August 24, known to some as St. Bartholomew's Day.

On August 24, 1572, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, began in Paris and spread throughout France, led to the slaughter of thousands (perhaps as many as 100,000) French Huguenots. Among the slain were some of the crème de la crème of France, including:

• Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, statesman, military leader, visionary, who organized the first Protestant colonies in the New World, and whose murder triggered the massacre;
• Claude Goudimel, composer who contributed to the widespread success of the Genevan Psalter; and
  
• Pierre de la Ramée (Petrus Ramus), French scholar and educational reformer, whose "Ramist" methodology of rhetoric, logic and pedagogy influenced Puritan preaching.
  
  

On August 24, 1662, the Act of Uniformity went into effect mandating that all ministers in the Church of England submit to the Episcopal liturgy prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer or be deprived of office, resulting the Great Ejection of over 2,000 English nonconformist (mainly Presbyterian) ministers (another four hundred or so ministers were ejected from their pulpits in Scotland by the 1662 Act of Glasgow). Besides those ministers ejected, thousands were imprisoned for nonconformity, others were hunted, and many families suffered hunger and other deprivation. Those who would not conform were barred from all civil and ecclesiastical office within the kingdom. And so many were willing to sacrifice all for the sake of a pure conscience towards God that England, like France, almost a century before, lost a part of its soul that day. Besides the many farewell sermons recorded and not, Richard Baxter's poem The Resolution (found in his Poetical Fragments), which he says was "[w]ritten when I was silenced and cast out," tells of the pathos of that day, particularly in this one extract:

Must I be driven from my books?
From house, and goods, and dearest friends?
One of thy sweet and gracious looks,
For more than this will make amends.
The world's thy book: there I can read
Thy power, wisdom, and thy love;
And thence ascend by faith, and feed
Upon the better things above.

Philip Henry was among the ejected ministers and his journal records that he kept fast days on this sad anniversary in later years. Besides suffering persecution for righteousness' sake (Matt. 5.10-12), he did have another cause to rejoice soon after his ejection - on October 18, 1662, a son was born by the name of Matthew Henry, whose ministry to the world is still beloved today by many, particularly in the form of his commentary on the Bible.

Florida's French Huguenots

French Huguenots, not unlike the Jews of the Diaspora, have left their religious, cultural and historical footprint around the world. In La Florida, two separate French Huguenot colonies were established almost exactly 200 years apart, one before the French Huguenot Diaspora (which commenced in 1685, following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes), and one after.

In April 1562, Jean Ribault, under orders by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, first landed on Florida's east coast and soon, after friendly interaction with the native Timucua Indians, claimed territory for the French King, by leaving a statue near what would become Jacksonville, Florida. He sailed north through Georgia waters to establish the first Protestant colony in the United States at Port Royal, South Carolina, before returning to France. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, however, before he reached home. Thus, when Admiral Coligny was ready to send more ships to La Florida, it was Ribault's second-in-command, Lieutenant René Goulaine de Laudonnière, who led the 1564 expedition. Laudonnière established Fort Caroline where Ribault's first statue was built. The first Protestant thanksgiving service in America was held here on June 30, 1564. Laudonnière wrote of the occasion: "We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please His Grace to continue His accustomed goodness toward us."

The full story of this colony, although it only lasted for less than two years, is too long to tell in this brief blog post. It ended effectively when the Spanish founded St. Augustine and massacred the French at Fort Caroline and also, soon after, on the shores of Matanzas. The U.S. National Park Service has established national parks to commemorate both sites, the only U.S. National Parks dedicated to the remembrance of French Huguenot colonists and martyrs.

In 1765, French Huguenot refugees in England petitioned authorities for land in west Florida in which to grow grapes and silkworms (each employed in two industries for which French Huguenots were especially known). Their plans were aided by Monfort Browne, who later became governor of West Florida and served as a high-ranking British officer in the American War of Independence a decade later. A group of around 48 colonists, including Rev. Peter Levrier who served them as pastor and schoolmaster, arrived at Pensacola in January 1766 and soon after established Campbell Town. By 1770, the colony had fizzled out because the land they settled was not fertile, and malaria or yellow fever had likely taken its toll.

Fort Caroline and Campbell Town represent two important, though short-lived, efforts by French Huguenots to settle Florida. Both ended in sadness and disappointment. Therefore, it is not surprising to read the words of a carpenter, Nicolas Le Challeux, who accompanied Jean Ribault on a 1565 expedition and survived the Fort Caroline massacre, returning to France after a brutal voyage home, in a poem he wrote which was first translated into English by Charles E. Bennett (who was the primary influence in the creation of the Fort Caroline National Memorial), Laudonnière & Fort Caroline: History and Documents, p. 164:

OCTET

(By the author when he arrived famished in his home in the town of Dieppe)

Who wants to go to Florida?
Let him go where I have been,
Returning gaunt and empty,
Collapsing from weakness,
The only benefit I have brought back,
Is one good white stick in my hand,
But I am safe and sound, not disheartened,
Let's eat: I'm starving.

First Protestant Colony in America

It wasn't Jamestown, Virginia or Plymouth, Massachusetts. While the first Protestant colony in the Western Hemisphere was the 1555-1567 French Huguenot settlement at France Antarctique at what is now modern-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first Protestant colony in North America was another (1562-1563) French Huguenot settlement, Charlesfort, located on Parris Island, South Carolina.

The first European flag to fly over South Carolina shores was the French flag of Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who landed at Cape Fear, North Carolina, in 1524, and sailed south before turning north again towards New York and Newfoundland. South Carolina was visited by Spanish explorers Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526 and Hernando de Soto in 1540.

But it was not until 1562 that French Huguenot explorer Jean Ribault, sent by Gaspard de Coligny (who organized the France Antarctque expedition), arrived first near Jacksonville, Florida, and then sailed north to discover christen Port Royal Sound, established the first Protestant colony in America on what is now Parris Island. He not only named the colony after his king, Charles IX of France, but also the territory (the Carolinas take their name from Charles IX of France as well as Charles I and Charles II of England). He left 30 men there before returning to France. After troubles with Indians and starvation, the surviving colonists abandoned the settlement in 1563 and sailed home, finally being rescued off the coast of England, surviving after a notable case of cannibalism. Spanish explorer Hernando Manrique de Rojas arrived at the site in the spring of 1564 and supposedly wiped out any trace of the French settlement. Ribault, meanwhile, had been imprisoned in England, and was unable to attempt a resupply of Charlesfort, but his lieutenant, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, lead a new expedition at nearly the same time that de Rojas was returning to Cuba, that settled Fort Caroline, near Jacksonville, whereupon he learned about the events at Charlesfort.

Fort Caroline was destroyed by the Spanish in 1565, led by Adelantado Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, founder of St. Augustine, Florida. Menéndez then established a new colony at the site of Charlesfort, which he called Santa Elena. From this fort, the settlements in North Carolina (Fort San Juan, near Morganton, NC, 1566-1568, which preceded the Roanoke Island settlements of Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Walter Raleigh by several years) and Virginia (the Jesuit Ajacán Mission thought to be located near the York River, 1570-1572) were established. Indians destroyed Santa Elena in 1576. A French ship, Le Prince, sank at near Charlesfort/Santa Elena in 1577, and later that year, the Spanish returned to occupy the site again until 1587, at which time it was completely abandoned, although French Huguenots returned to nearby Beaufort, South Carolina in the 17th century.

In the 1990s, French artifacts found on Parris Island confirmed the location of Charlesfort. Scientists continue to learn more about the first Protestant colony in America, an important chapter in our history of which much more needs to be told.

First Protestant Confession of Faith in the New World

The first Protestant colony in the New World was known as La France Antarctique, at the site of what is now known as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was settled by French Huguenots under the direction of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny in 1555 and came to an end when destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567. The colony itself was led by Nicholas Durand de Villegaignon, who for his treachery against the Reformed later came to be known as the "Cain of America." Jean de Léry wrote a fascinating account of his interactions with the local Tupinamba Indians, entitled History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil. In 1559, pastors were sent to minister to the colony by John Calvin. But by this time, Villegaignon was beginning to show his true colors. The persecution suffered by the Huguenots, including Jean du Bourdel, Matthieu Verneuil, Pierre Bourdon and André la Fon, gave rise to a 1559 Confession of Faith, written by the aforementioned in response to queries from Villegaignon, known as the Guanabara Confession, or Martyrs' Confession, that was the first Protestant Confession of Faith written in the New World. Within 12 hours after it was written, its authors were executed by Villegaignon. The Confession was recorded by de Léry, brought back to Europe and published by Jean Crespin. The Guanabara Confession is due to be included in the forthcoming second volume of James T. Dennison, Jr.'s series of Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation.