...PROTESTANTS SHATTER THEM

ARTISANS, SHOPKEEPERS, ENTREPRENEURS 
-- THAT IS, EMERGING CAPITALISTS --
MAKE PROTESTANTISM A MASS MOVEMENT
IN FRANCE

Nobles obtain most of the attention.
But their faith is linked to clan rivalries,
and a major massacre decapitates their movement.
(In 1572)

 • A middle-class faith

° A list of victims of that calamity shows that they were
"shoemakers, bookbinders, hatmakers, weavers,
pin-makers, armor-makers, barrelmakers,
watchmakers, goldsmiths, furniture makers,
gilders, button-makers, hardware makers etc."

-- The 16th century by Jules Michelet, 1833
Modern historians have not taken up that fundamental remark
as far as I know.

° Training, habits and self-interest

 predispose them to accept the new faith, 
in a way that is "sincere and based on calculation."

-- Balzac, The Calvinist martyr

Moral and intellectual rigor, the Church's corruption, political factors, regional traditions of heresy, local issues and pastors' personal impact let Protestantism cross class lines, but businesspeople were at its core.

° By the middle of the 17th century,

Protestants in France control
 the production of most textiles
-- which is fundamental --

of buttons, ribbons, gold and silver lace and other luxuries

 and of metal objects, including weapons and tools.  

-- God's enraged ("Les enragés de Dieu") by Georges Blond, 1970, p. 286  

• At the heart of Protestant doctrine: 

Salvation is one's personal responsibility.

That belief leads to a serious view of life
and to the "Protestant ethic"

of honesty, work and austerity 

American Gothic by Grant Wood, 1930, Art Institute of Chicago

Sixteenth-century French Protestants would have appreciated this couple.

° Those values help launch businesses,

and material success becomes a sign of salvation. 

° It follows that poverty 

is due to laziness and hedonism,

 and a sign of damnation

These famous studies explore the connection. Calvin himself disavowed that use of his doctrine: "The rich," he said, "are servants of the poor." 

• Austerity encourages plowing gains

back into business. 

That favors...   

 ° Arts of costless grandeur 

Most Protestant churches are visually insignificant and services usually skip elaborate ceremonial. Exceptions come from the environment (the minimalist wooden churches of North America) or history (Henry VIII adapts the Catholic ritual when he splits with the Pope).

Majesty appears in other ways: in England the King James Bible and the epic poetry of John Milton; in France, psaulms by which ordinary people praise God directly so powerfully that Catherine de Medici and Charles IX attend services to listen.

No money is spent.

 ° It shows superiority.
Wearing dark clothes without ornamentation
and avoiding the theater, taverns and community fetes 
states that one belongs to God's righteous, separate elect.

Nobles begin to glorify superhuman figures and valor 
at exactly the same time. 

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