Prochain point : lat="49.0906928" lon="1.8746314"
Calvinism
Protestant thinking in the Vexin
John Calvin (1509 – 1564)...
After studying philosophy and law, Calvin broke with the Roman Catholic Church around 1533 to become a theologian, preacher and polemicist. He fled to Switzerland to escape the persecution against Protestants in France. In Basel, in 1536, he published a first edition of his foremost work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, in which he defended his faith and expounded the doctrines of the Reformation. Keen to establish the Reform in France, he supported the building of churches and trained pastors. Legend has it that Calvin stayed in the châteaux of Hazeville and Gadancourt, at which time he may have converted several of the region's overlords. The hamlet of Enfer ('Hell' in French), in Wy-dit-Joli-Village, is said to have been named thus as a reminder of Calvin's sermon against purgatory and hell.
...and the Reform in Avernes
The Reformed Faith took root in Avernes around 1563. The church built in the early seventeenth century is thought to have been one of the oldest in France. Probably modest in size, it was located in the heart of the village in the Rue du Château. At the time, its proximity to the Catholic church led to rivalries and discontent. The place called 'Le Cimetière aux Huguenots' ('The Huguenot Cemetery') harks back to the appearance of the religion here. In 1685, the church was destroyed, just five days after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which granted Protestants religious, civil and political rights, as well as places of refuge. Several hundred Huguenots from Vexin and Mantois left France after the edict was revoked.
