1. See Ligou, Daniel, “L'Eglise Réformée du Désert, fait économique et social,” Revue d'Histoire Economique et Sociale 32 (1954): 146–167Google Scholar; Lüthy, Herbert, La Banque Protestante en France de la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes à la Révolution, 2 vols. (Paris, 1961).Google Scholar

2. Traité sur la tolérance (1763).

3. Contrat social (1762).

4. Esprit des lois, Bk. 25 Chap. 10 (1748).

5. “Tolérance,” Encyclopédie (1757).

6. Cassirer, Ernst, La philosophie des lumières (Paris, 1932), p. 178.Google Scholar

7. See Diderot, Denis, De la suffisance de la religion naturelle (1747; published, 1770).Google Scholar

8. See his Letter on Tolerance (1689).

9. Consult, for example, Voltaire, Letter 6, Lettres philosophiques.

10. During the decade 1750–1759, Voltaire experienced a whole series of disappointments ranging from his broils with Frederick II in Prussia to his hassles with the liberal Protestant clergy of Geneva who suspected his hand in d'Alembert's, article about their town, “Genève,” Encyclopédie (1757)Google Scholar. For Rousseau the decade was marked by his rise to fame and by his break with the philosophes, a break which distressed him terribly. For the Encyclopédistes (more than 200 contributors in, toto) the same decade was characterized by prodigious creative activity in the face of formidable obstacles. They were hobbled by attacks from the devout and, by squabbles in the very leadership of the Encyolopédie.

11. The most consequential quarrel concerned Roussean. With the publication of the article “Genève” in the Encyclopédie (1757) and De l'Esprit (1759) by Helvétius, Reusseau was ready to break with the philosophes. Finally he became the arch-heretic of the “philosophic” movement.

12. Bestermann, Théodore, ed., La correspondance de Voltaire (Geneva, 1953-1965), 48:178, Letter 9596.Google Scholar

13. In his Histoire générale, Chap. 134, Voltaire critiqued Calvin severely for his attitude towards Servetus. See also Voltaire, , “Dogme,” Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)Google Scholar where he scored Calvin.

14. Bien, David, The Calas Affair (Princeton, 1960), p. 166.Google Scholar

15. Cited in Champendal, Edouard “Voltaire et les protestants de France” (Thèse, Bachelier en théologie, Faculté de Théologie de l'Université de Genève, 1919), p. 35.Google Scholar

16. Voltaire, , The Age of Louis XIV, ed. Rhys, Ernest (London, 1926), p. 416.Google Scholar

17. Montesquieu, , Esprit des lois (Vol. 5 Bk. 25 Chap. 9) in the Oeuvres complètes de Montesquieu, ed. Laboulaye, Edouard (Paris, 1877), p. 174.Google Scholar

18. Pt. 6, Letter 11.

19. Rousseau made few comments in the 1750s about the French Protestants.

20. “J. -J. Rousseau à Monsieur R.,” Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme fançais (hereafter cited as BSHPF) 2 (1854): 364Google Scholar; see also Benoit, Daniel, “Ribaute Charon, Voltaire et Rousseau,” Recueil de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Tarn-et-Garonne 21 (1905; published 1906): 41–56.Google Scholar

21. Cited in Burgelin, Pierre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau et la religion de Genève (Paris, 1962), p. 11Google Scholar. Rousseau evidently suppressed a page of the Contrat social where he criticized the anti-Protestant legislation; see Ritter, Eugène, “Une page de Jean-Jacques Rousseau sur les protestants,” BSHPF 45 (1896): 656.Google Scholar

22. Burgelin, p. 11.

23. On the contrary, the fact that Rousseau proposed two exceptions to freedom of expression—intolerant sects and men who do not believe in the existence of God and in the immortality of the soul—does not explain his reluctance to aid the Protestants in a more direct fashion. For the Protestants, even of this epoch, did not seek to destroy the Catholic church but to establish their own; moreover, they were certainly believers. See the discussion of Condorcet in his Recueil de Pièces sur l'Etat des Protestants en France (London, 1781), pp. 184–185.Google Scholar

24. Stephan, Raoul, Histoire du protestantisme français (Paris, 1961), p. 197.Google Scholar

25. Dedieu, Abbé, Histoire politique des protestants français 1715–1794 (Paris, 1925), 1:193Google Scholar; Hugues, Camille, “La grande peur des protestants en 1750–51 dans de pays nîmois,” Annales Inst. Et. Occitanes, ser. 4, no. 1 (1965), pp.137–147.Google Scholar

26. Dedieu, 1:227.

27. National archives TT 440 doc. 129: “Mémoire abrégé, concernant l'état où se trouvent les Protestans, en France, dans le mois de juin mil sept-cens cinquante deux”; see also national archives TT 440 doc. 41.

28. Antoine Court tried to organize a plan of emigration for the Protestants during this period of stress.

29. Pastors François Bénézet and Molines, called Fléchier, were arrested; after admitting that he was a pastor, Bénézet was executed on March 27, 1752, at Montpellier; for his part, Molines abjured the Reformed faith and was transferred to a Catholic seminary in Viviers. Pastor Teissier was executed on August 17, 1754 at Montpellier. Consult the remarkable collection of documents at the departmental archives of Hérault about these cases; for Bénézet, C232; for Molines, C233; for Teissier, C236.

30. For biographical details on the life of Soulier Puechmille, see Hugues, J. P., Histoire de l'Eglise Réformée d'Anduze depuis son origine jusqu' à la Révolution Française (Montpellier, 1864), p. 813Google Scholar; concerning Puechmille's work as an informer, consult national archives TT 440 doc. 2, doc. 7, doc. 8; national archives TT 442 doc. 186.

31. Dedieu, 1:228.

32. Ibid., p. 243.

33. Pastors Coste and Vesenobre were openly charged by the Bishop of Uzès with the murder of three priests in August of 1752: national archives TT 440 doc. 143, Letter of the Bishop of Uzès to Saint-Florentin (August 18, 1752); see also national archives TT 440 doc. 146; national library manuscript room, Fonds français 7047.

34. National archives TT 441 doc. 216.

35. Moreover, Mirepoix arranged for one of his representatives, M. Caveirac, to discuss those problems which were troubling the Protestants with the Reformed pastors of Languedoc (Pastor Rabaut and others). But his policy was not without its critics as witnesses the remark of a sub-delegate to Saint-Florentin: “I think like you that M.de Mirepoix is letting himself be put to sleep by the protestants and pays too much attention to the pretty words of the ministers. He will be the dupe from it. Beautiful discourses and negotiations will never do any good for these people. Fear alone will crush their bad will.” National archives TT 441 doc. 268 p. 1 (letter of July 1, 1757).

36. The correspondence of the intendant, Saint Priest, demonstrates that the Protestants had begun to construct churches in several places in 1756 (Montaren and St. Geniès). See national archives TT 441 doc. 261 p. 4; and documents 264, 265, 266, 267 272, 273.

37. On the persecution of 1757 the Protestants wrote numerous petitions to the king: national archives TT 441 doc. 276—Provence; doc. 284 and doc. 288—Guyenne; doc.287—Basses-Cévennes; doc. 290—Normandie, Bretagne, Maine, Proche; doc. 293—Haute-Normandie; doc. 285—Saintonge and Rochelle; doc. 282—Dauphiné.

38. “Les protestants sous Louis XV,” BSHPF 18 (1869): 429.Google Scholar

39. National archives TT 442 doc. 133, Letter of June 7, 1759; see also national archives TT 442, Letter of Thomond to Saint-Florentin of February 28, 1759: “I do not know if in the general circumstances where we are, and in the particular position where we find ourselves in these areas in relationship to the few troops which we have, that this arrest [of Paul Rabut] could be done without causing unrest.…”

40. Robert, Daniel, “La fin du ‘Désert-héroique’—Pourquoi Jean-Louis Gibert a-t-il émigré (1761–1763)?,” BSHPF 98 (07-09 1951): 246.Google Scholar

41. National archives TT 442 doc. 203, Letter of Lagarde (Puechmille) to Monseigneur Thomond (June 3, 1761).

42. National archives TT 442 doc. 197 p. 3.

43. Pouthas, Charles H., “Guizot et la tradition du Désert,” La Revue Historique 169 (01-06 1932): 45–81.Google Scholar

44. Ros, Raymond, “De quelques arrêts, ordonnances et jugements concernant la répression exercée contre les protestants an XVIIIe siècle en Languedoc,” 38s Congrés Fédration historique du Languedoc Méditerranéen et du Roussillon (Limoux-Nimes) (1964–1965) (Nîmes, 1965; published 1966), pp. 195–197Google Scholar; Waksman, Pierre, “Surveillance des religionnaires du Languedoc et des provinces voisines sous Louis XV,” 88e Congrès Soc. Savantes (Clermont-Ferrand, 1963; published, 1964), pp. 65–75.Google Scholar

45. Picheral-Dardier, A., ed., Paul Rabaut Ses lettres à Antoine Court 1739–1755. Dix-sept ans de la vie d'un apôtre du désert (Paris, n.d.) 2:319 n. 1.Google Scholar

46. According to their Confession of La Rochelle, the pastors adhered to the principle of submission to the authorities of the State (Article 39); see also Article 40 of the Confession of La Rochelle and the Institutes of Calvin, Bk. 4 Chap. 20. They also followed the advice of Pierre Bayle in this regard.

47. National archives TT 440 doc. 29. The pastors affirmed the fidelity of the Protestants to the king: “…you have no subjects more faithful and more submissive than the protestants! …”

48. National archives TT 441 doc. 284. One was alluding to the attack of Damiens on Louis XV (1757).

49. Hugues, Edmond, Antoine Court, Histoire de la restauration du Protestantisme en France … (Paris, 1872), 2:109Google Scholar; Devic, and Vaissette, , Histoire générale du Languedoc (Toulouse, 1878), 13:1079–1080Google Scholar. The pastors of Haut-Languedoc made this offer on November 1, 1746.

50. In the 1750s, as in previous times, the pastors were very careful to destroy their sermons after using them. They feared that sermons might be used as evidence against them. Consequently few sermons remain from that decade. However a few were confiscated from Pastors Bénézet, Moliness and Teissier. See departmental archives of Hérault C232, C233, C236.

51. At this epoch some pastors and laity tried to buy toleration with money by either making a loan or giving a “free donation” to Louis XV; but this plan failed. Hugues, Camille, “Le pasteur Pierre Encontre de 1750 à 1794,” 38e Congrès Fédération historique du Languedoc Méditerranéen et du Roussillon (Limoux-Nîmes) (1964–1965) (Nîmes, 1965; published 1966), p. 204.Google Scholar

52. Consult the correspondence of Madame de Pompadour (National library, manuscript room: collection 1799) where this matter is discussed.

53. Robert, Daniel, “Le rôle historique de Paul Rabaut,” Foi ei Vie (01-02 1952), p. 27.Google Scholar

54. This issue would trouble some pastors even until the 1780s. See Desmont, Pastor Olivier, Disours moraux ou sermons sur Divers Textes de l'Ecriture Sainte (A La Haie: 1781), pp. 5–6Google Scholar. Pastor Desmont of Bordeaux had formerly served the Reformed church of Anduze in the Languedoc.

55. Picheral-Dardier, ed., 2:133.

56. Letter of Pastor Paul Rabaut to Pastor Moultou of Geneva (October 24, 1755) cited in Coquerel, Charles, Histoire des églises du désert chez les protestants de France … (Geneva, 1841), 2:197.Google Scholar

57. See, for example, Lettre de M. l'Evêque d'Agen à M. Le Contrôleur Général Contre la Tolérance des Huguenots (1751).

58. It must be noted that Court had already launched an attack against Montesquieu and Voltaire for the same reason in Le patriote français et impartial ou réponse à la lettre de M. l'Evêque d'Agen à M. Le Contrôleur Général Contre la Telérance des Huguenots, en datte du 1. mai 1751. But these criticisms of the philosophes were not as severe in this volume as in his Lettre d'un patriote sur la tolérance civile des Protestants de France. (1756).

59. de Gébelin, Court, Les Toulousaines ou lettres historiques et apologétiques en faveur de la Religion Réformée … (Edimbourg [Lausanne], 1763), p. 283.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., p. 329: “…do not have people believe that religion is nothing, it hopes chimerical; its consolations vain and frivolous…”; the expression of admiration for the philosophes, ibid., p. 441. Gébelin was of another generation than his father. Generally speaking, his change of attitude towards the philosophes corresponds to a change of generation.

61. Bien, p. 25.

62. Dardier, Charles, “Voltaire agissant en faveur des protestants en 1754,” BSHPF 32 (1883): 528–529.Google Scholar

63. Ibid. One finds a description of this incident in a letter of December 22, 1754 from Etienne Chiron to Antoine Court.

64. Consult the correspondence of Ribotte Charon with Voltaire and Rousseau in Benoît, pp. 41–56; in his response of October 27, 1761 to Ribotte-Charon concerning the Pastor Rochette Affair, Voltaire did not seem to be a partisan of public worship: “You are permitted to do in your houses all that makes you happy; that is honest. Jesus Christ said that he would be found among two of three persons gathered in his name, but when they are three or four thousand, it is the devil who is found there”, Ibid., p. 49. Even at this date the philosophe probably had some reservations about the political ideas of the Reformed.

65. Voltaire had doubts that Marc-Antoine, a vigorous young man, would let himself be hung by his aged father; see Bestermann, ed., 48: 210, Letter 9622. His conversations with Donat, the youngest Calas boy, also convinced him of the family's innocence.

66. Ibid., 49: 81 Letter 9758.

67. Nixon, Edna, Voltaire and the Calas Case (New York, 1961), p. 193.Google Scholar

68. Benoît, pp. 43–44 (letter of September 30, 1761).

69. Ibid., p. 45 (letter of Ocotber 24, 1761).

70. Dufour, Théophile, ed., Correspondance générale de J. J. Rousseau (Paris, 1930), 12:166.Google Scholar

71. “Correspondance inédite de J. J. Rousseau Au sujet des protestants de France persécutés, 1764,” BSHPF 3 (1855): 326Google Scholar. Once, in 1765, Rousseau did engage himself overtly on behalf of some Protestants. He wrote a letter of introduction to Malesherbes for a certain Protestant, Peyraube, who sought to win liberty of cult for some foreign businessmen established at Bordeaux, , “Peyraube à Jean-Jacques au sujet des protestants de Bordeaux (1764–1765),” BSHPF 47 (1898): 543Google Scholar. But when M. Eyman, the son of a rich businessman of Marseille, sent a letter to Rousseau in which he asked for aid concerning two Protestant men condemned to the galleys, Eyman, M. received no response to the letter, “Les deux derniers Galériens Protestants délivrés en 1774,” BSHPF 1 (1853): 178.Google Scholar

72. Dupront, A., Les lettres, les sciences, la religion et les arts dans la Société Française de la deuxième moitié du dix-huitième siècle (“Les Cours de Sorbonne”: Paris, 1963), Fascicule 2, p. 113Google Scholar. But the enthusiasm of Diderot was only of short duration.

73. Bestermann, ed., 49: 102, Letter 9772; Ibid., p. 156, Letter 9813.

74. It should be recalled that Rousseau would not have liked the name philosophe in the 1760s. Yet, in the public mind there is little doubt that he was associated with the “philosophic” party.

75. These two Protestant laymen were frank admirers of the “philosophic” writings.

76. Nonetheless, it is possible that Swiss pastors, already in 1755, had asked Voltaire to intervene on behalf of the French Protestants.

77. National library, manuscript room, Fonds français 7047 (549) “Lettre à M. L. B. de B. Ministre … Secrétaire d'Etat,” p. 27; see Ligou, Daniel, “Un franc-maçon inattendu: Jean-Jacques Lefranc de Pompignan (1709–1784),” Humanisme 54 (1965): 64–72.Google Scholar

78. See “Affaire de Calas: Une lettre inédite de Voltaire,” BSHPF 17 (1868): 399Google Scholar; Bestermann, ed., 48:171, Letter 9590; 48:174, Letter 9592; 48:241, Letter 9646.

79. Concerning these affairs, see, for the Sirven Affair, Champendal, pp. 53–57, and Rabaud, Camille, Sirven, Etude historique d'après les documents originaux et la correspondance de Voltaire (Mazamet, 1858), pp. 1–176Google Scholar; for the case of Claude Chaumont, Champendal, pp. 60–61, and Dardier, Charles, ed., Paul Rabaut, Ses lettres à divers (1744–1794) (Paris, 1892), 1:370Google Scholar; for the case of the Métayer brothers, Champendal, pp. 62–63; for the case of Protestants of Mauvezin, Champendal, p. 63.

80. Bibliothèque de la Société de l’ Histoire du Protestantisme français (hereafter cited as BSHPF), Fonds Chiron 358/3 Letter 149: “Lettre du secrétaire de Voltaire à Chiron” (April 11, 1775).

81. Consult Grosclaude, Pierre, “Comment MALESHERBES élabore sa doctrine sur le problème des Protestants,” BSHPF 103 (07-09 1957), pp. 149–172Google Scholar; Grosclaude, Pierre, Malesherbes témoin et interprête de son temps (Paris, 1963)Google Scholar; Turgot, , Le Conoiliateur ou Lettres d'un écclésiastique à un magistrat sur les affaires présentes (1788), pp. 1–51Google Scholar—the first edition had appeared in 1754; Turgot, , “Mémoire au Roi sur la tolérance,” Oeuvres de Turgot, ed. Daire, Eugène (Paris, 1844), 2:492–502.Google Scholar

82. A study on Target's participation in the “alliance” has recently appeared, Hudault, Joseph, Guy-Jean-Baptiste Target et sa contribution à la préparation de l'édit de novembre 1787 sur l'état oivil des protestants (Paris, 1966).Google Scholar

83. Besides a desire for religious tolerance in general, Rulhières forsaw the establishment of an “Eglise réformée gallicane” which would have “philosophic” principles at its base: “…it will suffice to recognize the existence of God, penalties and recompenses after death, and submission to the four articles mentioned above, in order to be a member of the Eglise réformée gallicane … (BSHPF Collection 1085: “Lettre Philosophique sur la religion Protestante”).”

84. Rabaut Saint-Etienne complained about this opposition in the 1780s: “Nothing remains from the philosophical school to whose writings one owes the little tolerance which exists in France. Reason has not advanced.” Dardier, Charles, ed., Paul Rabaut, Ses lettres à divers …, 2:409–410.Google Scholar

85. In his Mémoire sur le mariage des Protestants (1785), Malesherbes argued that Louis XIV never meant to render all Protestants without civil liberties by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Rather his intentions had been diverted by the tactics of his overzealous advisors—his Jesuit confessor, Père Le Tellier, and his military strategist, Louvois. However problematical the argument may have been, there is little doubt that Louis XVI was influenced by it. Publications belonging to the press campaign mustered by the “alliance” include the following: Malesherbes, , Mémoire sur les mariage des Protestants (1785)Google Scholar; Malesherbes, , Second Mémoire sur les mariages des Protestants (1787)Google Scholar; Rulhières, Mémoire sur le mariage des protestants; Rulhières, Rapport général sur la situation des oalvinistes en France …; Rabaut Saint-Etienne, Le vieux Cévenal ou Aneodotes de la vie d'Ambroise Borely … et al; for a listing of other works, consult Lods, Armand, “Bibliographie: Les partisans et les adversaires de l'Edit de Tolérance—Etude bibliographique et juridique 1750–1789,” BSHPF 36 (1887): 551–565.Google Scholar

86. At Paris pastor Rabaut-Saint-Etienne worked with his partners in a very close fashion. For example, Rulhières thanked him for his help on the Eclaircissemens historiques sur la révocation de l'Edit de Nantes …: “ I will never forget, Sir, the very great service which you gave me for this work. It is to you that I owe the fact that I have conserved my opinion as a philosophe on tolerance, independence of expression…”, BSHPF Collection Coquerel 337 doc. 237: Letter of Rulhières to Rabaut Saint-Etienne, of June 16, 1788. Rabaut Saint-Etienne's own “philosophic” dispositions allowed him to have such good rapports with the “Magistrats-Philosophes.” He described the Protestant “alliance” with them in these terms: “However good minds are taking care to establish the great truths: true ideas on tolerance, on the liberty of the press, on the abuse of arbitrary power. I have sought to and I have succeeded in forming relations with disverse writers who are concerned about these objects; in enlightening their fellow citizens, they will indirectly aid our affair, their means should concur with our own …”, Dardier, Charles, ed., Paul Rabaut, Ses lettres à divers …, 2:409–410Google Scholar, Lettre an Comité de Bordeaux, Feb. 12, 1788.

87. “Mélanges—Les cinq dernières lettres de Paul Rabaut, 1788–1792,” BSHPF 40 (1891): 489 n. 2.Google Scholar

88. However it would not be until the French Revolution that pastor Rabaut Saint-Etienne led the movement in the Constituent Assembly which brought the Reformed church all the rights of French citizenship. The Edict of Toleration (1787) did not prove to be totally satisfactory in this regard.

89. Consult, for example, Woodbridge, John, “L'influence des philosophes français sur les pasteurs réformés du Languedoc pendant la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle” (Thèse de 3* cycle, Fraculté des Lettres de l'Université de Toulouse, 1969), pp. 291–371.Google Scholar