PARIS AND MEMORIES OF THE HUGUENOTS.
THE HAGUE, _October 21, 1902_.
The English Channel is one of the oldest ferries in the world. For two
thousand years and more, men have been crossing it in all sorts of
craft, but they have never yet found a way to do it comfortably when
the water is rough, as it generally is. Our experience made us doubt
whether the modern steamers that ply between New Haven and Dieppe are
a whit more comfortable than the galleys of Julius Cæsar. Our boat was
mercilessly buffeted by the winds. She rolled and plunged in every
direction. It seemed to us that her propeller was out of the water
half the time. If seasickness really is good for people, this Channel
should be called a health resort. All the members of our party were
violently sick except myself. We felt sure we had discovered one of
the reasons why the shore to which we looked so wistfully is called
"the pleasant land of France." Any land would seem pleasant after that
dreadful Channel. At last we reached it, pale and wretched. As we
entered the mouth of the river at Dieppe the huge crucifix overhanging
the harbor reminded us that we were now in a Roman Catholic country.
And a "pleasant land" it is in many respects. Our railroad journey to
Paris through the fair and fertile Valley of the Seine made that quite
evident.
[Sidenote: The External Beauty of the French Capital.]
We secured quiet and comfortable quarters close to the lovely Madeleine
Church and only two blocks from the Place de la Concorde, the finest
square in Europe, with the Seine on one side, the Tuileries Gardens
on another, the Champs Élysées leading from it in one direction, and
the Rue de Rivoli in the other. London, as we have seen, is a dingy
congeries of dingy towns built mostly of dingy bricks. Paris is
sunny and bright, the streets are wide and clean, and the houses are
uniformly handsome, being built of a light stone that gives the whole
city an air of elegance. No doubt it is the most beautiful city in the
world, it has a glitter and sparkle unmatched elsewhere,--but, gay as
it seems, it has more suicides than any other city.
[Sidenote: What we did not like about Paris.]
We submitted to it, but could not enjoy the French custom of taking our
morning rolls and coffee in bed. There are many other French customs
constantly in evidence in Paris, but not to be described here, to which
I trust our English and American people will never become accustomed.
Modesty is not prominent among the virtues of the French, though of
course there must be many good people among them. Vice flaunts itself
more in Paris than in any city I have ever seen. There is a certain
brazen shamelessness even in French art that one does not see in New
York or London. But the collection in the Louvre is one of the richest
aggregations of antiquarian and artistic objects in the world, and
surely no museum was ever so splendidly housed. The Moabite Stone, the
oldest extant Hebrew inscription, was one of the things that we made a
point of seeing. As we passed to another part of the great building,
we had the pleasure of seeing the celebrated DeWet and the other Boer
generals who were visiting Paris at that time.
In the rear of the Louvre stands the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois.
It was from the bell-tower of this church that the signal was given
for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. On the other side of the Rue de
Rivoli, and in plain view of this fateful tower, stands the pure white
marble statue of Admiral Coligni, the most illustrious victim of that
fearful massacre. What France needs to-day is the influence of that
Huguenot element which she slaughtered and expelled at that time.
[Sidenote: The Huguenot Name and the Huguenot Character.]
Several names which are now among the most illustrious in the history
of the world were originally used as terms of reproach. When Abram
left his home in Chaldea and crossed the great boundary stream between
the East and the West and settled in Palestine, the Canaanites
dubbed him "the Hebrew," that is, the man who crossed over the
Euphrates--intruder, interloper. But for ages "Hebrew" has been the
honored designation of one of the most gifted and enterprising of the
races of mankind. It is not unlikely that the name "Christian" was
first applied in a contemptuous sense to the disciples of our Lord
at Antioch. It is well known that the name of "Methodist," which is
now the honored designation of a large, active and devoted body of
the people of God, was at first given to the followers of Wesley in a
spirit of ridicule and derision. In like manner, the name "Huguenot,"
according to its most probable derivation from a French word meaning
a kind of hobgoblin of darkness, a night-wanderer, was given to the
Protestants of that country, because there were times in their early
history when, for fear of persecution, they dared not meet except under
cover of darkness. But this term of reproach has gathered about itself
all the glory that belongs to genius and skill in the useful arts, to
industry, thrift and purity in the home, to patriotic valor on the
field of battle, and to unpurchasable and unconquerable devotion to
principle, and is now a name that is venerated by every clear-headed
and sound-hearted and well-informed and unprejudiced person in the
world. It is a name which will wear forever the red halo of martyrdom.
By the Massacre of St. Bartholomew alone thirty-five thousand names
were added to the church's crimson roll of martyrs, with that of the
great Admiral Coligni leading the list. By the Revocation of the Edict
of Nantes, and the refusal of Louis XIV. to tolerate any exercise of
the Protestant religion in France, while at the same time punishing
inexorably all who attempted to escape from France, nearly half a
million Huguenots were driven into exile, sacrificing their homes,
their property and their country rather than renounce their religion;
and Sismondi estimates that some four hundred thousand others perished
in prison, on the scaffold, at the galleys, and in their attempts to
escape.
[Sidenote: Palissy, the Potter.]
On our visit to the celebrated Porcelain Works at Sevres, a few miles
below Paris on the Seine, our interest centered less in any of the
works of art shown inside than in the fine bronze figure in front of
the building which represents Bernard Palissy, natural philosopher,
chemist, geologist, artist, political economist, Christian hero and
author, of whom Lamartine himself said, "This potter was one of the
greatest writers of the French tongue. Montaigne does not excel him
in freedom, Rousseau in vigor, La Fontaine in grace, Bossuet in
lyric energy." He was the inventor of enamelled pottery. For fifteen
years he pursued his search for the secret of his art, scorned as a
visionary, suspected of being a counterfeiter, reproached by his wife
for the scanty living he provided for his family, sitting by his fire
for six successive days and nights without changing his clothes, and,
in his last desperate experiment, when fuel began to run short and
still the enamel did not melt, rushing into the house, breaking up his
furniture and hurling that into the furnace to keep up the heat--his
long and furious search being rewarded at last by the appearance of
the beautiful white glaze which has made him famous. His transcendant
merits as an artist were then fully recognized, and the Duke of
Montmorency and Catherine de Medici became his patrons, the latter
appointing him to decorate the gardens of the palace of the Tuileries.
But in the meantime he had founded the Reformed Church at Saintes, and
had revolutionized the morals of the community. He was seized, dragged
from his home, and hurried off by night to be punished as a heretic.
And the most brilliant genius of France would certainly have been
burnt, as hundreds of others were, but for the accidental circumstance
that the Duke of Montmorency was in urgent need of enamelled tiles for
his castle floor, and Palissy was the only man in the world capable of
executing them.
Few scenes in history can match that in the Bastile when this aged and
gifted man lay chained to the floor, and Henry III., standing over him,
and referring to the forty-five years of faithful and splendid service
which Palissy had rendered, said, "I am now compelled to leave you to
your enemies, and to-morrow you will be burnt unless you become a Roman
Catholic." Then the fearless answer: "Sire, you have often said you
pity me. I now pity you. 'Compelled!' It is not spoken like a king.
These girls, my companions, and I, who have a portion in the kingdom
of heaven, will teach you royal language. _I cannot be compelled to do
wrong._ Neither you nor the Guises will know how to compel a potter to
bow the knee to images."
[Sidenote: Other Huguenot Heroes and Heroines.]
French Protestantism is rich also in memories of heroic women. There is
the record, for example, of Charlotte de Laval, sitting by her husband,
Admiral Coligni, on the balcony of their castle, and asking, "Husband,
why do you not openly avow your faith, as your brother Andelot has
done?" "Sound your own soul," was his reply; "are you prepared to be
chased into exile with your children, and to see your husband hunted
to the death? I will give you three weeks to consider, and then I will
take your advice." She looked at him a moment through her tears, and
said, "Husband, the three weeks are ended; do your duty, and leave us
to God." The world knows well the sequel.
Surely no right-minded person can refuse to honor such sacrifices for
principle, such loyalty to conscience, such devotion to Christ. The
Huguenots could have remained peaceful and prosperous in their own
country had they but been willing to conform to the Romish religion.
The views I am expressing are not determined merely by my Protestant
birth and training. In proof of this, let me quote to you the words of
the Duke of Saint Simon, himself a Roman Catholic and a courtier of
Louis XIV.: "The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ... as well as the
various proscriptions that followed, were the fruits of that horrible
conspiracy which depopulated a fourth part of the kingdom, ruined its
trade, weakened it throughout, surrendered it for so long a time to
open and avowed pillage by the dragoons, and authorized the torments
and sufferings by means of which they procured the death of so many
persons of both sexes and by thousands together.... A plot that caused
our manufactures to pass over into the hands of foreigners, made their
states to flourish and grow populous at the expense of our own, and
enabled them to build new cities. A plot that presented to the nations
the spectacle of so vast a multitude of people, who had committed no
crime, proscribed, denuded, fleeing, wandering, seeking an asylum afar
from their country. A plot that consigned the noble, the wealthy, the
aged, those highly esteemed for their piety, their learning, their
virtue, those accustomed to a life of ease, frail, delicate, to hard
labor in the galleys, under the driver's lash, and for no reason save
that of their religion."
Such are the blistering words of this eminent Roman Catholic nobleman
in regard to the policy of the church of which he was a member. If a
fair-minded member of that communion can thus condemn these horrible
iniquities and thus extol the persecuted Huguenots as the best
people in France, surely no Protestant should ever hesitate about
recognizing clearly the world's debt to this pure and heroic people.
And no well-informed Protestant ever does. The Rev. Dr. Croly, of the
Church of England, late rector of St. Stephens, in London, expresses
the opinion of all who know the facts when he says: "The Protestant
Church of France was for half a century unquestionably one of the most
illustrious churches in Europe. It held the gospel in singular purity.
Its preachers were apostolic. Its people the purest, most intellectual
and most illustrious of France."
[Sidenote: France's Loss the World's Gain.]
Now that is the church which was all but stamped out of existence by
the fierce persecutions of the papacy two hundred years ago. And it is
the remnant of that glorious church which now calls on all Christians
to help it to give once more the pure gospel to priest-ridden, infidel
France, and to deliver the nation from that fearful succession of
bloody revolutions and Panama scandals and Dreyfus outrages and
shameless immoralities which have so largely constituted the history
of that unhappy land since it butchered and banished the only class of
its people who would have effectually kept its conscience true, its
morality pure, and its institutions stable and sound.
Do we owe the Huguenots anything? Yes, the whole world is indebted to
them. What France lost the other nations gained. The emigration of
the Huguenots gave a death-blow to several great branches of French
industry. The population of Nantes was reduced from eighty thousand
to forty thousand, a blow to its prosperity from which it has not
recovered to this day. Of twelve thousand artisans engaged in the
manufacture of silk at Lyons, nine thousand went to Switzerland. The
most skilled artisans, the wealthiest merchants, the bravest sailors
and soldiers, the most eminent scholars and scientists went by
thousands to Germany, Holland, England, enriching those lands in money
and morals beyond computation.
The cause of civil and religious liberty is deeply indebted to the
Huguenots. It was Oliver Cromwell, "the greatest prince that ever ruled
England," who raised Britain to her present position of power and
gave her the dominion of the seas. But it was William of Orange who
completed Cromwell's work after the temporary reaction in favor of Rome
and the Stuarts. It was the battle of the Boyne which finally decided
that Great Britain and America were to be Protestant countries and not
Romish. And do you know who it was that won the day for William on the
banks of the Boyne? It was the three regiments of Huguenot infantry
and the squadron of Huguenot cavalry hurled upon the Papists at the
critical moment by the Huguenot, Marshal Schomberg. That is a part of
your debt to the Huguenots for the civil and religious liberty which
you enjoy to-day.
In the Franco-German War of 1870, many of the officers of the
victorious army of invasion were descendants of the Huguenots whom
Louis XIV. expatriated.
"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding
small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he
all."
The King of England himself is of Huguenot blood, George I. having
married Dorothea, granddaughter of the Marquis d'Olbreuse, who was one
of the Huguenot refugees to Brandenburg after the Revocation. Time
would fail me to tell of all the scholars, scientists and noblemen of
England who have sprung from the same great stock, such as Grote, the
historian of Greece, Sydney Smith, the Martineaus, Garrick the actor,
and a great number of gifted clergymen of the Church of England.
Many of the French churches established in London and other parts of
England by the exiles have contributed for centuries to the vigorous
religious life of Britain. For three hundred and fifty years the
Presbyterian Huguenots and the Episcopal Englishmen have worshipped
in different portions of Canterbury Cathedral, and to this day the
Huguenot Church at Canterbury continues to conduct its worship in the
cathedral in French, singing the psalms to the old Huguenot tunes. But
for the most part, the exiles have become merged with the English,
and their names have been Anglicised. In every way Britain has been
enriched and blessed by the infusion of Huguenot blood and genius.
[Sidenote: Huguenot Strain in America.]
What America owes to Huguenot immigration you know. Had the Huguenots
given us only Hugh Swinton Legare, John Jay, Francis Marion, and
Commodore Maury, "the pathfinder of the seas," we should have owed
them an everlasting debt of gratitude. But when we remember what they
have been in Virginia itself--the Maurys, Maryes, Michauxs, Flournoys,
Dupuys, Fontaines, Moncures, Fauntleroys, Latanes, Mauzys, Lacys,
Venables, Dabneys, and many others--we cannot fail to see that we
are under great and lasting obligation to that heroic race, whose
banishment, while it resulted in the moral ruin of France, resulted in
the moral enrichment of America. And we should count it a privilege
to do what we can to retrieve the religious ruin of misguided France
by giving her once more the pure Huguenot gospel. From a statement
published by the Rev. J. E. Knatz, B. D., Delegate of the Huguenot
Churches of France to America, I take the following facts:
[Sidenote: The Huguenot Revival in France.]
The population of France is composed of six hundred thousand
Protestants and nearly thirty-nine million Catholics. The former
are mostly descendants of the Huguenots. In spite of centuries of
persecution, which reduced them to a mere handful, they have not only
kept their ground, but made important advance. They are the strongest
bulwark of republican institutions. In the Dreyfus trial, they were
foremost in forming a better public opinion, fighting the hardest for
the triumph of truth and justice. Lately a Catholic paper had to admit,
reluctantly, that for the last twenty-five years the war waged against
intemperance, immorality and other social evils, had been the work of
the Protestants.
Outside of France the Huguenots carry on a great missionary work in
the French colonies, which are many and extensive. The religious
reorganization of Madagascar alone cost them two hundred thousand
dollars.
In France they have to care for the spiritual welfare of an
ever-increasing number of non-Protestant communities. The movement
toward Protestantism is making great progress in the rural districts,
the population of which, all Catholics, had been hitherto indifferent
or bigoted. New Huguenot churches are springing up on all sides, often
in places where Protestant worship had been abolished for over two
hundred years.
The tears and blood our fathers shed, the torments they suffered on
scaffolds and stakes, are bringing forth fruit after many years, and
"the harvest is truly plenteous." In two departments of Central France
alone, forty-five villages have, within a single year, besought our
societies for regular Protestant services. To this church extension
work alone the French Protestants contribute one hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars annually.
Congregations of two hundred members (not one of whom was brought up in
the evangelical faith), Sunday-schools of fifty children (none of whom
a year before had ever heard of the Bible), are common results of our
work.
Other missionary enterprises have to devise means of attracting
audiences. With us there is no such difficulty, crowds gather wherever
we are able to send ministers.
Where in the whole world could be found so promising a mission
field--one ready to yield such rich returns? Where could be found
people so eager to listen to the preaching of the gospel, and to have
their children taught its lessons?
As well as a most promising, France is a most important mission field.
The conversion, within the next few years, of some thousands of French
people, would be of incalculable value to the religious and moral
welfare of the world, for France exerts a mighty influence throughout
the world. Moreover, the outlay would be comparatively small.
There are men willing to bring the Bread of Life to the hungering
crowds for a mere pittance, prompted, not by any worldly motive, but by
the Spirit of God.
The salary of a minister is only four hundred dollars. This amount will
send one more to some of the many localities from which urgent appeals
have come; it will open a new district to the permanent influence of
the gospel.
No movement of such size and promise has been witnessed in France since
the time of the Reformation. It is the old light, the eternal light
from above, dawning again on France, illuminating the approach of a new
century and bringing hope for the future.
Let the Christians of America help the Huguenot Church of France in
this great work of hers.
* * * * *
At the American Church in Paris, whose pastor, the Rev. Dr. Thurber,
showed us many courtesies, we had the pleasure, a few days ago, of
hearing a very striking address by the Rev. Merle D'Aubigné, son of the
well-known historian of the Reformation, which abounded with equally
awakening facts as to the present religious condition of France.
Paris is not only one of the most brilliant, but one of the most
interesting cities in the world, from almost every point of view, and
we revelled in its museums and monuments; but its memories of the
Huguenots had more interest for us than anything else, and we have
thought it best to devote our space to that subject rather than to the
Louvre, the tomb of Napoleon, Notre Dame, Versailles, Fontainebleau,
and the scores of other fascinating places and subjects that appeal to
one's interest in this ancient, gay, and terrible city.
We had a rainy day at Brussels and a cold one on the battlefield of
Waterloo, but were not deterred from seeing them by these conditions of
the weather. Then, with a comfortable feeling, almost like the feeling
one has on coming home after journeying in strange lands, we crossed
from Roman Catholic France and Belgium into Protestant Holland.