Reformed Church of France

Like many Protestant Christian churches, the Reformed Church of France can trace its origins to the Reformation in Europe during the sixteenth century.

Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses challenging the practices of the Roman Catholic Church led to decades of debate, discussion, and division among Christians over concerns about how churches should be organized, and religious doctrine should be established. Some of these protestors against the Catholic Church—commonly called Protestants—were influenced by John Calvin.

Calvin was a French theologian who spent much of his life in Switzerland. Like the other Protestant reformers, he felt the powerful Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England had strayed too far from the principles of the first-century apostles and the earliest Christians. He proposed some religious ideas that differed greatly from those of the established churches, including the concept of predestination. Calvin believed that people were predestined to go to heaven or hell before they were born and that nothing they did could change that. These beliefs were also espoused by John Knox, a Scottish preacher who would form the Presbyterian Church.

The Reformed Church of France was organized along the lines of the Presbyterian Church and was led by elders selected from within the congregation. Although its membership was always overshadowed by the much larger Roman Catholic presence in France, by the twenty-first century the church had a membership of about three hundred thousand. In 2013, it merged with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France and became the United Protestant Church of France, with a total membership of about four hundred thousand. In the mid-2020s, the church had 1,100 places of worship in over 480 parishes.

History

At the end of the sixteenth century, French Protestants inspired by Calvin's writings were known as Huguenots. The Huguenots were a growing annoyance to the Catholics, even though the Catholics outnumbered them by about eight to one. Between 1562 and 1598, a series of conflicts known as the Wars of Religion were fought. Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, was unable to ease the tensions even after arranging a marriage between her daughter, Marguerite de Valois, and Henri of Navarre, a Huguenot leader, in 1572. Days after the wedding, violence broke out between the Catholics and the Huguenots. French officials, concerned about a Protestant uprising, responded with force. More than three thousand Protestants were killed in Paris, and thousands more perished across the country in the following weeks. The killings became known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

Henri of Navarre eventually became King Henri IV of France in 1589 and established the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which provided the Huguenots with more freedoms and put an end to the Wars of Religion. Although subsequent monarchs with strong Catholic ties pared down the provisions of the edict, relations between the two religious groups remained stable for a time.

This peace did not last, however. By 1620, the two factions were fighting again. In 1685, King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. This made Protestantism illegal in France and required all non-Catholics to convert. Many Protestants did convert, but it is estimated that thousands left the country in the years that followed. Some Protestants converted but continued to worship their original faith in secret. Finally, in 1787, Louis XVI issued the Edict of Versailles, which ended the prohibitions against non-Catholics.

Trouble continued for French Protestants during the nineteenth century, this time caused by divisions within the group spawned by new ideas brought about by religious revival movements. The Reformed Church was split into four parts and was not restored to unity until 1938 when it formally became known as the Reformed Church of France. The move toward greater unity among the Protestant denominations in France continued with the merger of the sect’s two largest groups, the Reformed Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in 2013.

Beliefs

Members of the Reformed Church of France adopted a more liberal practice than those who more closely followed John Calvin's principles. Emphasis was placed on the emotional and personal aspects of devotion. Congregants followed Methodist principles as established by and developed by his brother Charles Wesley and George Whitefield.

The creeds of the ancient Christian churches were important to members of the Reformed Church, and great emphasis was placed on faith and God's grace. Members turned to the messages in the Bible for salvation. The Reformed Church also taught a principle known as universal priesthood. This is the concept that all baptized believers are equal in both rights and responsibilities in the church and that clergy are qualified to lead not because they are better or holier but because they have studied theology.

These principles of the Reformed Church remained important to the members who merged with the Evangelical Lutheran Church to create the United Protestant Church of France in 2013.

Organization

Following the Presbyterian tradition, the Reformed Church was governed by leaders elected from within each congregation. Before the church merged with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 2013, there were more than three hundred pastors serving the denomination’s congregants. Following the merger, there were five hundred. The church allowed women to serve as pastors, and before the merger, 30 percent of all pastors were women. Most of the church’s pastors, about 85 percent, were married. Elected representatives from various parishes met yearly in synods to determine policy and doctrine for the church.

The church was also a member of the French Protestant Federation and part of the International Reformed Alliance. Following the merger with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the newly formed United Protestant Church of France remained involved with the French Protestant Federation.

Bibliography

"French Reformed Church." Musée Protestant, www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/french-reformed-church. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin Books, 2009.

"United Protestant Church of France." World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/united-protestant-church-of-france. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

"The United Protestant Church of France– Lutheran and Reformed Communion." Musée Protestant, museeprotestant.org/en/notice/leglise-protestante-unie-de-france-communion-lutherienne-et-reformee. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.