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Elie Benoist, Historian of the Edict of Nantes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Charles Johnston
Charles Johnston
Affiliation:
Mr. Johnston is professor emeritus of church history at Saint Andrew's College, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
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Extract

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 resulted in the immediate exile of all ministers of the French Reformed churches not amenable to conversion, the illegal flight of several hundred thousand of their fellow-believers to neighboring Protestant lands, and the nominal conversion under duress of the rest of the Roman Catholic church. It also precipitated a literary polemic in which Protestant writers protested vigorously the injustice of revoking an “irrevocable” edict—and the cruel and oppressive measures preceding and accompanying it. Catholic counterparts asserted that, on the contrary, the Edict had been a temporary expedient to end civil strife, extorted forcibly by a naturally rebellious and turbulent minority.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 468 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1986

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References

1. Benoist, Elie, Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes, contenant les choses les plus remarquables qui se sont passées en France avant (doubt) après sa publication, à l'occasion de la diversité des Religions: Et principalement les Contraventions, Inexécutions, Chicanes, Artifices, Violences, (doubt) autres Injustices, que les Réformez se plaignent d'y avoir souffertes, jusques à l'Edit de Révocation, en Octobre, 1685. Avec ce qui a suivi ce nouvel Edit jusques à présent, 5 vols. (Deift, vols. 1–2, 1693; vols. 3–5, 1695), Ann Arbor University Microfilms, 1969Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Histoire).

2. The most important sources for biographical information about Benoist are as follows: Chauffepié, Jacques-George de, Nouveau Dictionnnaire Historique et Critique pour servir de supplément ou de continuation au Dictionnaire Historique et Critique de Mr. Pierre Bayle, 4 vols. (Amsterdam, 1750), 1: 228–242;Google ScholarEugéne, and Haag, Emile, La France Protestante, 10 vols. (Paris, 1879), vol. 2,Google Scholar cols. 269–276; Pascal, Paul, Elie Benoist et l'Eglise Réformée d'Alençon (Paris, 1892)Google Scholar. In addition, there are the consistory records in the Municipal Archives in Deift, the records of the Synod of the Walloon church in the Municipal Archives in Leyden, and a number of Benoist's unpublished manuscripts, mémoires, and letters in the Antoine Court Collection in the Archives of the University of Geneva; some are also to be found in the library of the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français in Paris.

3. Chauffepié, , Nouveau Dictionnaire, 1: 228.Google Scholar

4. Histoire, 4: 335–338.

5. Ibid., 4: 465–466.

6. Archives Nationales, series TT3, carton 230, document 17 (9–19); compare Pascal, , Elie Benoist, pp. 164–178.Google Scholar

7. Archives Nationales, TT3, 230: 17 (52); Histoire, 4: 550.

8. Archives Nationales, TT3, 230: 17 (53, 54); compare Pascal, , Elie Benoist, pp. 189–195.Google Scholar

9. In a considerable variety of published works, and in his unpublished papers, Benoist takes up the cudgels against reunion schemes, theological conjectures, Socinianism, Cartesianism, Spinozism, the assumed superiority of Moderns over Ancients. Yet he can speculate rather freely, indeed with some eccentricity, in biblical interpretation. These works are quoted or summarized by Chauffepié, , Nouveau Dictionnaire, 1: 228–242.Google Scholar

10. Benoist, Elie, Lettre d'un pasteur banni de son pays à une église qui n'a pasfait son devoir dans la dernzère perséution (Delft, 1686).Google Scholar

11. Municipal Archives of Delft: Register of the Consistory of the Walloon Church, pp. 48, 52, 60, 61.

12. Histoire et apologie de la retraite des pasteurs à cause de la persécution de France (Frankfort, 1687);Google ScholarDéfense de l'apologie pour les Pasteurs de France, Contre le livre intitulé Sentimens Désintéressez sur la Retraite des Pasteurs etc. (Frankfort, 1688).Google Scholar The Sentimens was the work of d'Artis, minister in Berlin.

13. Puaux, Frank, “Un Dessein des Pasteurs Exilés en Hollande,” Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français (hereafter cited as Bulletin) 61 (1912): 425–434.Google Scholar The spy's name was Pierre-Louis de Pons, Seigneur de Tillière et Desforges: his treachery went undiscovered for three years. Benoist states that de Pons was killed at the time of his arrest; Benoist, Elie, “Suite de l'Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes,” Archives of the University of Geneva, Court Collection, vol. 50, bk. 3, p. 28–35.Google Scholar

14. Benoist sets out his purpose in detail in the Preface, General, Histoire, 1: a–g.Google Scholar

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16. Benoist, , “Suite de l'Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes,” p. 7.Google Scholar

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19. Histoire, Préface Général, 1: d3b.

20. Benoist pays tribute especially to the integrity and fairness of the Catholic historians, Thou, Jacques-Auguste de, author of Historia sui temporis (Paris, 1604–1620),Google Scholar and de Mézeray, François Eudes, author of Histoire de France depuis Faramond jusqu' à Louis le Juste (Paris, 1685).Google Scholar

21. Histoire, Préf. Gén., 1: d3, e3; 3: Préf., ***2 and 2b; 4: 313.

22. Ibid., Préf. Gén., 1: e2b.

23. “Une lettre inédite d'Elie Benoist,” Bulletin 38 (1889): 411.Google Scholar

24. “Appel d'un Historien du XVIIe Siècle,” Bulletin 7 (1859): 274–290.Google Scholar

25. Histoire, 1: 226–240; documents, 1: 62–98. Benoist also mentions but does not reprint a third brevet by which the king divided 23,000 crowns among certain individuals in recognition of their past services.

26. Ibid., 1: 240.

27. For example, a decree of the Parlement of Toulouse, 4 September 1681, that all illegitimate or foundling children must be raised as Catholics; followed on 31 January 1682 by a royal declaration ordering that all foundlings or those of illegitimate birth of whatever age (that is, even octogenarians) must be instructed and raised as Catholics: ministers, elders, and consistories being subject to a fine of 4,000 pounds for resistance to this command. Histoire 4: 507, 536–537; documents, 5: 126.

28. Ibid., 1: 224.

29. Ibid., I: 273–278; 298; 362–366, 378–384, 392, 411.

30. Ibid., 2: 3–70.

31. Ibid., 2: 23, 34; 179–180, 331, 389–390; 188–206, 208–223, 230–232; 486.

32. Ibid., 2: Préf., d-d2.

33. Ibid., 2: 274–286; documents, 2: 49–53; 2: 287–298.

34. Ibid., 2: 58–60; compare 1: 126–129; 2: 353–355; 359–408.

35. Ibid., 3: 158; documents, 3: 6; “Religion Prétendue Réformée” had been the official designation for the Reformed since the 1570s, an instance occurring as early as 1562; Bulletin 88 (1939): 357.Google Scholar

36. Histoire, 2: 413–414, 577.

37. Ibid., 3: 203–208, 212–213; 340–342; 367–392; documents, 3: 40.

38. Filleau, Jean, Décisions catholiques, ou Recueil général des arrests rendus en toutes les cours souveraines de France en exécution ou interprétation des édits qui concernent l'exercise de la religion prétendue réforinée, etc., (Poitiers, 1668);Google ScholarMeynier, Bernard S.J., De l'Exécution de l'Edit de Nantes (1662), Véritez (1665), De l'Edit de Nantes exécuté selon les intentions de Henry le Grand etc. (Paris, 1670);Google ScholarPierre, Bernard, Maximes à observer au jugement des partages faits par Messieurs les Commissaires exécuteurs de l'Edit de Nantes (1664);Google ScholarExplication de l'Edit de Nantes par les autres édits de pacification et arréts de ràglement (1666).

39. Histoire, 3: 573–574; documents, 3: 13, Maxime, 10; 4: 197.Google Scholar

40. Ibid., 4: 26, 100–108, 296–297, 445.

41. Ibid., 5: 794.

42. Ibid., 1: 12.

43. Ibid., 4: 550–553; documents, 5: 143.

44. Ibid., 5: 729–744, and passim.

45. Ibid., 4: 472–503; 5: 831–865.

46. Ibid., 5: 946–957, 962–984.

47. Ibid., 5: 979–988.

48. “Mémoire touchant le traittement fait en France cydevant aux Réformez et celui qu'on devroit leur faire à l'avenir,” Court Collection, vol. 48, no. 30.Google Scholar

49. Histoire, 5: 957–1014; 1: Préf. Gén. Among contemporaries Vauban, and Saint-Simon, perceived this clearly; see “Pour le rappel des Huguenots,” Bulletin 38 (1889): 194–209.Google Scholar

50. Labrousse, Elisabeth, “Une foi, une loi, un roi?”: La Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes (Geneva, 1985), pp. 25–26.Google Scholar

51. Garrisson, Janine, L'Edit de Nantes et Sa Révocation: Histoire d'une Intolérance (Paris, 1985), p. 167.Google Scholar

52. Labrousse, , “Une foi,” pp. 81–91;Google ScholarQuéniart, Jean, La Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes: Protestants et catholiques français de 1598 à 1685 (Paris, 1985), pp. 69–71.Google Scholar Compare Histoire 5: 909–910.

53. Strowski, F., Pascal et son temps (Paris, 1907), 1: 1,Google Scholar cited in Léonard, Emile G., Le Protestant Français (Paris, 1955), p. 33.Google Scholar Labrousse endorses this view (p. 33), as does Lovy, René-J., La Révocation: Trois siècles de souffrances des Protestants français sous l'Ancien Régime, 2d ed. (Champigny, 1985), p. 85.Google Scholar Compare Histoire, 1: 361–362.

54. Leonard, Emile G., Histoire Général du Protestantisme, 3 vols. (Paris, 1961–1964), 2:317–319, 350–351.Google Scholar

55. Quéniart, , La Révocation, p. 27.Google Scholar

56. Lavisse, Ernest, Histoire de France, 9 vols. (Paris, 1906),Google Scholar 7.2.43; Labrousse, , “Unefoi”, p.28;Google ScholarViénot, John, Histoire de la Réforme Française, 2 vols. (Paris, 1926, 1934), 1: 453;Google ScholarBaird, Henry M., The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre, 2 vols. (New York, 1886), 2: 429–430;Google ScholarLéonard, , Le Protestant Français, p. 34.Google Scholar

57. deWitt, Cornelius, Au Service de la Cause, 1621 (Paris, 1922), p. 30;Google ScholarGarde, Henri de la, Le Duc de Rohan et les Protestants sons Louis XIII (Paris, 1884), p. 4.Google Scholar

58. Léonard, , Le Protestant Français, p. 34.Google Scholar

59. Labrousse, , “Unefoi,” pp. 39–41.Google Scholar

60. Perry, Elisabeth I., From Theology to History: French Religious Controversy and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, International Archives of the History of Ideas 67 (The Hague, 1973), pp. 192, 195;Google ScholarHistoire, 1: f4.

61. Orcibal, Jean, Louis XIV et les Protestants (Paris, 1951), p. 91–110;Google ScholarLabrousse, , “Une foi,” p. 108.Google Scholar

62. Labrousse, , “Une foi”, pp. 92, 99–101, 122;Google ScholarQuéniart, , La Révocation, p. 106.Google Scholar

63. Labrousse, , “Une foi”, pp. 206, 208–209;Google ScholarQuéniart, , La Révocation, pp. 126, 128.Google Scholar

64. Garrisson, , L'Edit de Nantes, pp. 265, 276.Google Scholar

65. Histoire 5: 1019.

66. “Dificultez [sic] qui font voir que la proposition de présenter une Requete au Roy de France pour le rétablissement des Eglises n'est pas recevable,” Court Collection, vol. 15, folios 211–212.

67. “Mémoire sur le sujet du rétablissement de Eglises,” Court Collection, vol. 48, no. 16.

68. Jurieu, Pierre, Relation de tout ce qui s'est fait dans les Affaires de la Religion Réformée, (doubt) pour ses intéréts, depuis le commencement des Négotiations de la Paix de Reswick [sic] (Rotterdam, 1698), p. 10–11.Google Scholar

69. “Mémoire sur la demande du rétablissement de l'Edit de Names,” Court Collection, vol. 48, no. 32.Google Scholar

70. Fonbrune-Berbinau, P., “La Libération des Forçats pour la Foi en 1713 et 1714,” Bulletin 38 (1889): 225–239.Google Scholar