Protestant resistance in Southern France, 1545-1945

Protestant resistance

The Huguenot tradition in southern France

Strategically located between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, the South of France has always been a melting pot of people and ideas... No wonder then that as soon as the Reformation started, it received and enthusiastic welcome in many of the town and villages and soon swept most of the Southern half of France. In many of these villages, the descendants of the Cathars and the Vaudois had been living quietly and were among the first to join the new churches.

But challenging the spiritual, and in some cases the secular, power of Rome wasn't without danger ; soon the « heretics » were being persecuted, harassed and burned with their seditious books. As the French Kings (with the notable exception of Henry IV), sided with the Pope, a culture of resistance developed and has remained to these days.