I 



CHAPTER IV 

 SUFFERING FOR THE FAITH 



Pers"cution^ T "^ ^^ commonly thought that the history of the 

 Huguenots in France ends with the Revocation of 

 the Edict of Nantes, and that the record of blood 

 and fii-e conchides with the great emigration of 1685. But 

 for a hundred years thereafter the spirit of intolerance 

 and persecution held its deadly sway. If nearly half a 

 million Protestants left France at the Revocation, there 

 were fiilly twice as many who remained in their native 

 land, and of these only a small minority abjured their 

 faith. Their churches had been destroyed, their pastors 

 banished, and themselves forced to wear an outward 

 dress of Roman Catholicism ; but in their hearts they 

 were Huguenots still, and whenever a leader was raised 

 up for them they rallied round him and showed that the 

 light of the Christian truth still burned within staunch 

 French hearts. 



In the Cevennes the peasants retreated into the moun- 

 tain fastnesses and held the persecutor at bay for years. 

 But numbers finally overcame them, and open resistance 

 ceased when the last of those heroic peasants lay dripping 

 in his own blood. Then came the "Church of the 

 desert" with its midnight assemblies, its pastors hiding 

 in holes and caves, its glorious martyrs. 



At this time the saviour of French Protestantism was 



Antoine Court Autoiue Court, bom 1696, two years before the illustri- 

 ous Claude Brousson sealed his faith with his life at 

 Montpelier. At seventeen Court resolved to give his life 

 to the restoration of French Protestantism. He began 

 to preach, gathering together a little audience of eight 



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