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A Huguenot ( or ; , (:yɡəno)) is a member of a French Protestant denomination with origins in the 16th or 17th centuries. Historically, Huguenots were French Protestants inspired by the writings of John Calvin (''Jean Calvin'' in French) in the 1530s, who became known by that originally derisive designation by the end of the 16th century. The majority of Huguenots endorsed the Reformed tradition of Protestantism. Huguenot numbers peaked near an estimated two million by 1562, concentrated mainly in the southern and central parts of France, about one-eighth the number of French Catholics. As Huguenots gained influence and more openly displayed their faith, Catholic hostility grew, in spite of increasingly liberal political concessions and edicts of toleration from the French crown. A series of religious conflicts followed, known as the Wars of Religion, fought intermittently from 1562 to 1598. The wars finally ended with the granting of the Edict of Nantes, which granted the Huguenots substantial religious, political and military autonomy. Renewed religious warfare in the 1620s caused the political and military privileges of the Huguenots to be abolished following their defeat. They retained the religious provisions of the Edict of Nantes until the rule of Louis XIV, who progressively increased persecution of them until he issued the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), which abolished all legal recognition of Protestantism in France, and forced the Huguenots to convert. While nearly three-quarters eventually were killed or submitted, roughly 500,000 Huguenots had fled France by the early 18th century. The bulk of Huguenot émigrés relocated to Protestant European nations such as England, Wales, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the Electorate of Brandenburg and Electorate of the Palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Prussia, the Channel Islands, and Ireland. They also spread beyond the Old World to the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa, the Dutch East Indies, the Caribbean, and several of the English colonies of North America, where they were accepted and allowed to worship freely. Persecution of Protestants diminished in France after the death of Louis XIV in 1715, and officially ended with the Edict of Versailles, commonly called the Edict of Tolerance, signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, Protestants gained equal rights as citizens.〔Aston, ''Religion and Revolution in France, 1780-1804'' (2000) pp 245-50〕 Today, most Huguenots have been assimilated into various societies and cultures, but remnant communities in Alsace and the Cévennes in France and a diaspora of Huguenots in England and French Australians still retain their Huguenot religious tradition. ==Etymology== A term used originally in derision, ''Huguenot'' has unclear origins. Various hypotheses have been promoted. The nickname may have been a combined reference to the Swiss politician Besançon Hugues (died 1532) and the religiously conflicted nature of Swiss republicanism in his time, using a clever derogatory pun on the name ''Hugues'' by way of the Dutch word ''Huisgenoten'' (literally ''housemates''), referring to the connotations of a somewhat related word in German ''Eidgenosse'' (''Confederates'' as in "a citizen of one of the states of the Swiss Confederacy").〔''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 11th ed, Frank Puaux, ''Huguenot''〕 Geneva was John Calvin's adopted home and the centre of the Calvinist movement. In Geneva, Hugues, though Catholic, was a leader of the "Confederate Party", so called because it favoured independence from the Duke of Savoy through an alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. The label ''Huguenot'' was purportedly first applied in France to those conspirators (all of them aristocratic members of the Reformed Church) involved in the Amboise plot of 1560: a foiled attempt to wrest power in France from the influential House of Guise. The move would have had the side effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, ''Hugues'' plus ''Eidgenosse'' by way of ''Huisgenoten'' supposedly became ''Huguenot,'' a nickname associating the Protestant cause with politics unpopular in France. A version of this complex hypothesis is promoted by O.I.A. Roche, who writes in his book, ''The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots'' (1965), that "Huguenot" is: "a combination of a Dutch and a German word. In the Dutch-speaking North of France, Bible students who gathered in each other's houses to study secretly were called ''Huis Genooten'' ('housemates') while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed ''Eid Genossen,'' or 'oath fellows,' that is, persons bound to each other by an oath. Gallicised into 'Huguenot', often used deprecatingly, the word became, during two and a half centuries of terror and triumph, a badge of enduring honour and courage." Some disagree with such double or triple non-French linguistic origins, arguing that for the word to have spread into common use in France, it must have originated in the French language. The "Hugues hypothesis" argues that the name was derived by association with Hugues Capet, king of France, who reigned long before the Reformation. He was regarded by the Gallicans and Protestants as a noble man who respected people's dignity and lives. Janet Gray and other supporters of the hypothesis suggest that the name ''huguenote'' would be roughly equivalent to ''little Hugos'', or ''those who want Hugo''.〔 In this last connection, the name could suggest the derogatory inference of superstitious worship; popular fancy held that ''Huguon,'' the gate of King Hugo, was haunted by the ghost of ''le roi Huguet'' (regarded by Roman Catholics as an infamous scoundrel) and other spirits, who instead of being in Purgatory came back to harm the living at night.〔(Antoine Dégert, "Huguenots" ), ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', 1911〕 It was in this place in Tours that the ''prétendus réformés'' ("these supposedly 'reformed'") habitually gathered at night, both for political purposes, and for prayer and singing psalms.〔("Who Were the Huguenots?" ), The National Huguenot Society〕 Such explanations have been traced to the contemporary, Reguier de la Plancha (d. 1560), who in ''De l'Estat de France'' offered the following account as to the origin of the name, as cited by ''The Cape Monthly'': The origin of the name is curious; it is not from the German ''Eidegenossen'' as has been supposed. Reguier de la Plancha accounts for it as follows: — "The name ''huguenand'' was given to those of the religion during the affair of Amboyse, and they were to retail it ever since. I'll say a word about it to settle the doubts of those who have strayed in seeking its origin. The superstition of our ancestors, to within twenty or thirty years thereabouts, was such that in almost all the towns in the kingdom they had a notion that certain spirits underwent their Purgatory in this world after death, and that they went about the town at night, striking and outraging many people whom they found in the streets. But the light of the Gospel has made them vanish, and teaches us that these spirits were street-strollers and ruffians. In Paris the spirit was called ''le moine bourré''; at Orleans, ''le mulet odet''; at Blois ''le loup garon''; at Tours, ''le Roy Huguet''; and so on in other places. Now, it happens that those whom they called Lutherans were at that time so narrowly watched during the day that they were forced to wait till night to assemble, for the purpose of praying God, for preaching and receiving the Holy Sacrament; so that although they did not frighten nor hurt anybody, the priests, through mockery, made them the successors of those spirits which roam the night; and thus that name being quite common in the mouth of the populace, to designate the evangelical ''huguenands'' in the country of Tourraine and Amboyse, it became in vogue after that enterprise."〔''De l'Estat de France'' 1560, by Reguier de la Plancha, quoted by ''The Cape Monthly'' (February 1877) No. 82 Vol. XIV on page 126|〕 Some have suggested the name was derived, with similar intended scorn, from ''les guenon de Hus'' (the monkeys or apes of Jan Hus).〔''Bibliothèque d'humanisme et Renaissance'', by Association d'humanisme et renaissance, 1958, p 217〕〔William Gilmore Simms, ''The Huguenots in Florida; Or, The Lily and the Totem'', 1854, p. 470〕 While this and the many other theories offer their own measure of plausibility, attesting at least to the wit of later partisans and historians, "no one of the several theories advanced has afforded satisfaction."〔(George Lunt, "Huguenot - The origin and meaning of the name" ), ''New England Historical & Genealogical Register'', Boston, 1908/1911, 241-246〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Huguenot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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