514 HISTORY OP 



bruised and beaten by this pugnacious spirit, all of which added to horribi* 

 sounds and uneaithl}- noises in tho immediate vicinity of its walks, so 

 alarmed the inhabitants as to induce liiem to keep closely housed, whenever 

 the liour for its appearance drew near. Hence, Hugo and ghost came to be 

 synonymous; and as has been already shown, the social worship of night- 

 meetings of the Reformers being so widely different from tlie nnposing cere- 

 mony of the Romish church, and requiring them consequently to be out 

 more after night than the latter, each individual of the former was called a 

 Iluao, the whole JIugiunnts. Thus much for this derivation, and the tale 

 that thereby hangs. 



The next supposed derivation, is that it was a term voluntarily assumed 

 by themselves as a party name, when their religion was attacked and they 

 were forced to take arms against the government in self-defence. As they 

 were rigid Calvinists, ot great sanctity of character and purity of moral.", 

 Ca.=ieneuve has pretended to have discovered the original in the Flemish 

 word llcghenon or Huguenon, which means Cathari or Puritan; but this 

 is not very probable, inasmuch as it is not likely, that having a word in their 

 own vocabulary, so expressive as "Puritan," they would be disposed to bor- 

 row from a language no more known than the Flemish. 



Another author has attempted to trace its origin to Hiisriifnole, a name 

 given to a;i iron or earlhtn pot for cooking, by connecting it with the persecu- 

 tions to which the Reformed were subjected in France; and basing it upon 

 the hypothesis, that some of their number may have been roasted or tortured 

 and exposed to the flames like a vessel used for culinary purposes. 



These are all, however, but mere sumdses, un.'^^upported and unsustained 

 by any thing at all calculated to give them a proper title to serious consider- 

 eratioi). The only etvinology then, which in our humble ojinion remains, 

 is undoubtedly the true one— this we shall briefly attempt to prove by the 

 history of the times and the people. 



Euls'-noHS is a German compounded word, in the Paxon and Dutch dial- 

 ects redsii-ni.tlfii ; of which the singular i.s Euli:tvofS, or Ecds'Tiol.'* It is 

 formed from Bid an oath, and Genofs a confederate or partaken of the oath; 

 ■and was the original designation of the three Swiss patriots WiUiam Tell, 

 Walter Fuerst and Arnold of Me'cthal.-j- on the nii;lit of the 7th Nov. 1307, 

 met at Ruetii on tlie lake of Luzerne and there bound themselves by a solemn 

 oath, to shake off the yoke of their Austrian oppressors, and to re-eslabli&h 

 the lil)crlies of their country. 'J'he conspiracy thus f )rmed was embraced 

 with delight by all to whom it was communicated, each member of which 

 was called an Eidjimoss and afterwards, January 7, \. D. 13(18, when the 

 people of the Waldstetter, compoi-.ed of the Cantons Appenzcll, Claris and 

 Uri, met in solemn council and took the oath of peri.etual alliance, they were 

 designated as the Eiluennossfnschaft, I e. Confederation. Through suc- 

 cessive senerations they were thus known, and when in aftertinies, the peo- 

 ple of Ceneva which had now been included in the Swiss confederation, em- 

 braced the doctrines of John Calvin; they threw off the allcgimee of the 

 Duke i:f Savoy ; and in order to maintain their indi-pendence, formed a con- 

 federacy after the example of the Waldstetter with the ("antons of Bern and 

 Freibourcr, whi h was also confirmed by an oalh of all the contracting par- 

 ties. Like the ori;;inal |!atriots, they in turn were called Fidi^rrKSsm. This 

 movement being half temporal and half ecclesiastical or spiritual, related to 



*Li!u is Mayer. 1). D. See liis letter, Oct. 11, 1B43, 

 f Davenport, article Fuerst. 



