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.

Hops, Reformation, Bays, and Beer

A 13th-century law in the city of Augsburg, Germany stated that:

The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.

There are interesting ties between the appreciation of beer in England and Germany, and the Reformations in both of those countries. I don't wish to make too strong a connection between beer and Reformation, but the history, while fuzzy, is worth pondering over a pint.

It was in 1516, that the Reinheitsgebot, the German or Bavarian Beer Purity Law, which required that beer be made only with water, barley and hops, was promulgated. A year later, Martin Luther, by the grace of God, initiated the Reformation at Wittenberg.

Although some reference this rhyme to events in 1520 (and it is to be conceded that hops had been in use in England for quite some time prior), this saying is generally identified with events in the year 1524:

Hops, reformation, bays, and beer, / Came into England all in one year.

Henry Buttes, Dyets Dry Dinner (1599):

Heresie and beere came hopping into England both in a yeere.

Sir Richard Baker (author of meditations upon select psalms), Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans' Government unto the Death of King James (1643), p. 298:

About his [Henry VIII's] fifteenth year [1524] it happen'd that diverse things were newly brought into England, whereupon this rhime was made: Turkeys, Carps, Hopps, Piccarel, and Beer, Came into England all in one year.

Daniel Defoe, A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (1724-1726, 1768 ed.), Letter 2, Part 1, p. 34:

Here [Maidstone, England] likewise, and in the country adjacent, are great quantities of hops planted, and this is call'd the Mother of Hop Grounds in England; being the first place in England where hops were planted in any quantity, and long before any were planted at Canterbury, tho' that be now supposed to be the chief place in England, as shall be observ'd in its place: These were the hops, I suppose, which were planted at the beginning of the Reformation, and which gave occasion to that old distich:

Hops, Reformation, bays, and beer,
Came into England all in a year.

Samuel Smiles, The Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland (1868), p. 94:

It is also supposed, though it cannot be exactly ascertained, that the Protestant Walloons [French-speaking Huguenots from Flanders] introduced the cultivation of the hop in Kent, bringing slips of the plant with them from Artois. The old distich --

"Hops, Reformation, Bays, and Beer,
Came into England all in one year" --

marks the period (about 1524) when the first English hops were planted.

Moreover, the White Horse Tavern in Cambridge, England is generally considered to the birthplace of the Cambridge wing of English Puritanism.

Samuel T. Logan, Jr., The Pilgrims and Puritans: Total Reformation for the Glory of God:

By 1526, regular (rather subversive) theological discussions were being conducted in the White Horse Tavern in Cambridge. Participants included such future luminaries as Thomas Bilney, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer. Every one of the four was later martyred.