The Huguenots and French Opinion, 1685-1787: The Enlightenment Debate on Toleration

Leonard Adams is a professor of French Studies at the University of
Guelph.

The sense of triumph felt by Catholic theologians and the dismay of
Protestants in France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in
1685 have been the subject of many scholarly investigations. The
granting of civil and religious liberties to Protestants in 1787 and its
impact on Protestants are well known. The evolution of events that
separate these two historical landmarks is less familiar to students of
Enlightenment thought.

In this book, Adams attempts, first of all, to explode the “negative
myths” that led to the Revocation, and, secondly, to trace the
evolution of attitudes among French thinkers that brought about the 1787
toleration statutes. The task is daunting, given the enormous amount of
supporting documentation involved and the selection and collation
required to create a meaningful picture representing more than a century
of pleas and counterpleas in Catholic and Protestant thought and
practice.

The period begins with the rationalization of intolerance supported by
arguments based not only on documented cases of intolerance on the part
of Protestants, but also on their health and politically incorrect
preference for democracy. Louis XIV’s anti-Protestant campaign was
widely hailed even by the majority of Jansenist intellectuals. Through
it all, Huguenots, by and large, chose to establish the “Йglise du
Désert” rather than abjure their faith. Many who fled their native
land found open arms and even pursued distinguished careers under the
Protestant regimes to the west, north, and east of France.

The struggle of the “émigrés” to end systematic intolerance at
home never ceased, but, as Adams shows, the main thrust toward
reinstatement of civil, religious, and political rights for Protestants
continued on French soil. Despite their differing opinions about the
legal status of Huguenots and about overt manifestations of their
worship and public behavior, Voltaire, Marmontel, Montesquieu, Rousseau,
Diderot, and D’Alembert among the philosophes, and Malesherbes,
Turgot, and Necker among the government officials, as well as Antoine
Court and an array of Protestant apologists, worked, though not always
in concert, to press the Protestant claim to their rightful place as
French citizens.

Adams skilfully documents this movement, as it gathers momentum during
the 1760s and 1770s, in the context of the subtle changes in mentalities
by bringing to bear on his thesis little-known yet significant facts.
Detail does not diminish the importance of the role played by the
champions of Protestant claims to acceptance against the intransigence
of the Catholic hierarchy. The result is a convincing argument and a
comprehensive study for which we should be deeply grateful.