LANCASTER COUNTY. 513 



C. p. f/J. 



TnK II LT;f KNOTS. — ThiH torm, HOW 80 vvcll uridf-rstood as an honorable, 

 rather than a dishonorable desiijnation of those who professed the Re- 

 formed religion in France, during the persecutions and civil wars in that 

 kingdom, is involved in some obscurity. Whether it was originally confer- 

 upoii them, by the adherents of the so styled "Mother (Jhurcb" as a term 

 of reproach, or voluntarily assumed by themselves as a party name, or 

 whether it is a derivation from some other word, having an analogous sound, 

 and introduced from some foreign language, is equally uncertain. Many 

 and various are the sources to which the learned and the curious have en- 

 deavored to trace the etymrlogy of this word ; but like every thing else 

 founded upon conjecture, we are left as much in the dark as ever. 



Some have assserted that the term was originally applied to the nifrnbers 

 of the Rcf<;rmed by the dignitaries of the Romish Church, as one of reproach. 

 To sustain this posiiion, it is argued that when the new doctrine was first 

 preached in France, a number of the inhabitants of the city of Tours — 

 which afterwards, and next to the city of Rochelle, ranked as the strongest 

 hold of the Reformed party — embraced the same. Unlike the Romanists* 

 their worship was conducted in the evening as well as in the day. Culti- 

 vating a spirit of genuine piety, they met after night in each others houses 

 for social [irayer. In this, they imitated the example of primitive christians, 

 and like them, they became the subjects of a persecution almost as relent- 

 less. Going from house to house as the place of meeting might chance to 

 be, after the labors of the day were over, to attend to this pious duty, and 

 returning therefrom al a later hour, their enemies, the papists, endeavored to 

 prevent the extension of their doctrines, by reporting at first that they were 

 engaged in some foul conspiracy against the government, and aflcrwardg 

 against the people. Failing in their attempts to affect them in this way, 

 and finding that the fallow ground was being broken up daily, with the Tpry 

 misc of a rich return, and that the seed of the true faith which was sown in 

 confidence, was germinating and yielding an abundant harvest, despite their 

 efforts, to the contrary-, they next changed their mode of warfare, and en- 

 deavored to effect their object by bringing them into ridicule and contempt 

 For this purpose, they seized upon the fact of their meeting after night, and 

 connected with it a story, then current, concerning the city of Tours. One 

 of the gates of the city, it seems, was called Hugo, and according to a popu- 

 lar tradition from Hugo, comte Tours, who it seems according to the same 

 tradition, was eminent in life only for his crimes, oppression and cruelty. — 

 After his death — so runs the story — his spirit incapable of repose, haunted 

 immediately after nightfall, the scene, which was the neighborhood of the 

 gate in question, of its cruelty and crimes, when embodied in the flesh. — 

 Many and strange pranks were played, and many a hapless wight was 



