Protestantism was generally proscribed in France between 1685 (Edict of Fontainebleau) and 1787 (Edict of Versailles). During that period Roman Catholicism was the state religion. The French Revolution began a process of dechristianisation that lasted from 1792 until the Concordat of 1801, an agreement between the French state and the Papacy (which lasted until 1905). The French general and statesman responsible for the concordat, Napoleon Bonaparte, had a generally favourable attitude towards Protestants, and the concordat did not make Catholicism the state religion again.[1]
In April 1802, Bonaparte unilaterally promulgated the Organic Articles, a law designed to implement the terms of the concordat. It formally recognised the Lutheran and Reformed churches in France, provided for their ministers to be paid by the state and granted them several previously Catholic churches as compensation for Protestant churches destroyed during the persecutions of the reign of King Louis XIV. The articles were not negotiated with either Catholics or Protestants and were not informed by actual Protestant ecclesiology. For the first time, Protestant ministers took part in public ceremonies as paid agents of the state.[1] The first Reformed church was legally established in Paris in 1802, and by 1804 there were 120 Reformed ministers on the state payroll. There had been only forty-eight ministers in France in 1750, all practising underground because it was a capital offence to preach in a Protestant church. The presidents of twenty-seven Reformed consistories were present when Bonaparte was crowned emperor in 1804. By the end of his reign, Napoleon had 137 Reformed pastors in his pay.[2] With the expansion of the French Empire and the direct incorporation of the Netherlands, as well as western and northwestern German regions, France was now in possession of vast Protestant majority areas.
As a result of Napoleon's actions, French Protestants generally considered themselves emancipated and integrated into national life in the period from 1802 until Napoleon's defeat and exile in 1814. The Charter of 1814, the constitution introduced by King Louis XVIII, maintained the freedom of Protestants as it had been under Napoleon while restoring Catholicism as the state religion. Nevertheless, there was widespread violence against Protestants in 1815.[1]
^ abcAndré Encrevé, "French Protestants",in Rainer Liedtke and Stephan Wendehorst (eds.), The Emancipation of Catholics, Jews and Protestants: Minorities and the Nation-State in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 56–82.
^Steven C. Hause, "French Protestants, Secularism, and the Separation of Church and State, 1802–1905", in Kathleen Long (ed.), Religious Differences in France: Past and Present (Truman State University Press, 2006), pp. 141–59, at 143.
and 27 Related for: Napoleon and Protestants information
Christiane Guttinger, Les protestants et Napoléon, Les Amitiés Huguenotes Internationales. Patrick Cabanel, Napoléon et les protestants: l'institutionnalisation...
survey, Protestants made up 3% of the French population. A renewed interest in Protestantism has been brought by numerous Evangelical Protestants, while...
Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the first president of France from 1848 to 1852, and the last monarch...
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French emperor and military...
intolerant and had established religious Inquisitions, sanctioning Jews andProtestants. In the tolerant Protestant-ruled Dutch Republic, Jews and Catholics...
Alsace-Moselle). Grand Sanhedrin Infamous Decree NapoleonandProtestantsNapoleonand the Catholic Church Napoleonand the Jews Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)...
French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) has a highly polarized legacy—Napoleon is typically loved or hated with few nuances. The large and steadily expanding...
Napoleonic Wars and the Independence of Spanish America). France lost its superpower status after Napoleon's defeat against the British, Prussians and Russians...
was an Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third French Republics. The period...
France en 2017" (1): qui sont les protestants?" [Survey "Protestants in France in 2017" (1): Who are the Protestants?]. Reforme.net (in French). 26 October...
Richelieu forced Protestants to disarm their army and fortresses. This conflict ended in the Siege of La Rochelle (1627–28), in which Protestantsand their English...
for social welfare and relief programs among Protestants. Through the 19th century Protestant churches in Germany were reactionary and conservative politically...
reluctantly joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in the German Campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat, he took part in the Congress of Vienna...
The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905...
views of the early Protestant leaders themselves. Coupled with this was a general cultural Hebraising among more radical Protestants, as they saw the veneration...
Baden and Hesse-Kassel became the fourth, fifth and sixth Protestant electors, giving the Protestants a majority for the first time in history and raising...
Historian Philip Dwyer claims Napoleon faced between 20 and 30 assassination plots during his reign over France. According to Napoleon; I offered myself to the...
[yɡ(ə)no]) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from...
Government of Ireland Act 1914 andProtestants in Ulster mobilised to oppose it by force. Ulster Protestants began to arm themselves and form militias ready to...
his candidacy and another ally of Napoleon, Bishop Maury, took his place until Napoleon's downfall in 1814. The number of Protestants in Paris under...
Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon's defeat, Leopold moved...
This volume centers on Napoleon I of France and his times. Full title: The Story of Civilization ~ 11 ~ The Age of Napoleon ~ A History of European Civilization...
of France and under Louis XIII, and then became a Protestant Church under Napoleon I in 1811. It is now a member of the United Protestant Church of France...
grandson (and descendants) and proclaimed the Second French Republic. Bonapartist claimants to the throne of France: descendants of Napoleon I and his brothers...
of the German states aside from Austria and Switzerland under Prussian hegemony due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871...
intolerance which drove most Protestants from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 was not applied in Strasbourg and in Alsace, because both...
Calvinist Protestant) activity among the nobility and bourgeoisie. The Protestants were discriminated against and brutally attacked during the French Wars of...
Global Information