Abstract
Based on a close and detailed investigation of local and strangely neglected municipal sources, combined with the meticulous scrutiny of documents conserved in the Russian archives for the period 1559-1562, and a focus on institutional history, I demonstrate how the early Calvinistic consistories cleverly manipulated the particular municipal organization (the consulates) of Midi communities and managed to take them over with relative ease. In many of these communities, which greatly varied in size, we find that the consistories were turned into “political councils”; this subsequently enabled them to control the election of magistrates (consuls) and, even before the beginning of the wars of Religion, to ensure that they controlled the municipalities, though the Protestants were very much a minority. This is a major factor towards explaining the famous “Protestant crescent” that characterizes the South of France with its tones of civil religion.
Highlights
RESUMEN: Violencia Institucional: La toma de control de los municipios por los protestantes en el sur de Francia (1560-1562).- Este artículo tiene como objetivo demostrar cómo los consistorios calvinistas, en su primera época, supieron manipular de manera inteligente una forma concreta de organización municipal de los pueblos del sur de Francia, los consulados, lo que les permitió hacerse con el poder municipal con relativa facilidad
The religious conflict got closer to the cities of Flanders, Germany and Switzerland, and the movement went beyond the urban space and extended to burgs and villages
Bèze and Viret were present in these two regions, which constitute more than 40% of the localities that were contacting Geneva to obtain a pastor and build a church
Summary
This is the well-known word used to characterize the way Protestants acted. In the South of France, voices rose to alert the French court about secret dealings against royal edicts. He considers them consecutive to the request that has been made by Théodore de Bèze and reformed deputies, a few months earlier, to solicit places of worship This chronology cannot be applied to the South of France where, the year before, Protestants took over churches and organized a first coordinated hire of soldiers. When the war broke out, four large synodic provinces were already subdivided in 23 symposiums or classes: Guyenne, Haut-Languedoc-Quercy-Rouergue-Pays de Foix, BasLanguedoc and Dauphiné-Lyonnais, confirming the meridional precocity and preponderance In this tense atmosphere, it seemed obvious that Théodore de Bèze, the ministers and Protestant deputies mandated by provincial synods, which were at the French court, took the initiative of taking a census of churches and evaluating their military potential. The resources of churches are taken and guarded attentively by municipalities passed under the control of consistories
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