The main Protestant guy

   The Reformation movement in France is mostly due to Jean Calvin. He studied in Paris and later went into Law. As he studied the sovereignty of God, he became convinced that God knows all and controls all. It is not man who looks for God, but God calls man and saves him. This doctrine came to be called predestination.

    Calvin took charge of the protestant movement in France but directed it from Geneva. Many French refugees, persecuted protestants , pastors and students joined him in Geneva. From 1520 the ideas of Luther came to France and a Bible was published in French, the language of the people.  Other literature spread throughout the country and soon the middle class, the artisans and the writers were interessed.  Some of the French nobility joined later for political reasons. Calvin unified and directed from Geneva. In 1561 there were more than 670 reformed churches in France and the French protestants were called "Huguenots".

    Because of persecution from the Catholics, the new movement had to get organized. A national synod was established and the local churches elected their pastors. The pastor preached and presided over communion and baptism.

    Repression began with the king, François I and became harder under Henri II. The Edict of Compiègne in 1557 said that any protestant that was fleeing or in revolt against the king could be beaten. Certains nobles were given permission to search for heretics in their territories. Anne du Bourg, a government magistrate, was burned for his protestant beliefs. 

     But the Reformation kept growing. After the death of Henri II, Catherine de Médicis and Michel de L'Hospital tried to unify the Catholic church with the protestant movement. They were not successful.

      The kings viewed protestantism as a rebellion against their authority. They wanted to crush it. However, this movement of the people could not be stopped. This led to the Wars of Religion in the second half of the 16th centuty.

Plans so far

      We will all be flying into Marseille on July 1st and then spending 4 days getting ready for VBS.  A kind friend is lending us  Chateau le Solier  where we will stay together. We will use the curriculum of Gospel Light entitled "Kingdom of the Son". The theme is Safari.  This was published years ago so maybe your church has already used it and we could borrow the materials??? We hope to spend the month of June for translating the stories and songs into French. ( Needless to say, VBS is a new idea in France and there are no materials already published there.)

     The first week we will stay at a Vaubanfort. For the actual VBS, the children will be divided into groups and taken from activity center to activity center. A man from the Viriginia group and my dad, Dr. Fred, will lead the Science class. I will tell the Bible stories. We are hoping to have a craft center,  a sports time and to show the Jesus film. We will keep the children occupied from 9 am to 3 pm. Although the VBS is in English, we need to have a French translator with each class. 

    My students will be helpers and translators and , as you can see, there is lots to do! We would also like to put on a concert. This means learning some hymns and choruses in French. That will take practice. Thankfully, my students are musical!

    For the second week we will stay at a Catholic retreat center and do the same VBS in the village of  St. Paul de Vence.

Main players

   When the protest movement got going, it came to be called the Protestant Reformation. The main players were:

John Wyclif - He translated the gospel into English at the end of the 14th century. He introduced the idea that God is Sovereign and everyone must bow to Him - even the Pope.

John Hus - He translated the Bible into czech and encouraged everyone to read the Bible for themselves. He was ex communicated from the church and burned as a heretic.

Martin Luther - He started out as a monk and found in Romans that the just shall live by faith.

In 1515 Luther posted his 95 theses. Léon X condemned his ideas and burned his writings. Luther was ex communicated, but the idea of Reform spread throughout Germany.

Ulrich Zwingli worked in Switerland.  He was more interested in Predestination, than justification by faith.

Martin Bucer was in Strasbourg, France. He found a compromise between the Swiss and the German Lutherans. 

John Calvin studied in paris and then went into Law. In 1536 , he formed the doctrine of predestination, believing that if God knows all and controls all, then He calls men to Himself.

Calvin took charge of the Reformation and directed from Geneva. Many French refugees and persecuted protestants came to study with him.

The need for change

    Over the years, Christianity became solidified in the Catholic church. The church was a religious force, but also a political force. During the Middle Ages, the system became more and more corrupt. The wealthy people could "buy" a seat in Heaven by purchasing "les reliques" or indulgences. For example, l'électeur de Saxe, Frédéric le Sage owned 17, 443 reliques which were supposed to spare him  128, 000 years in purgatory. The poor did not have these means.  They had to pay taxes to the government and taxes to the church. When the Plague swept through Europe, it  left many questioning about life after death. 

    People wanted to turn to the Bible for answers. But there was no Bible in the common language of the people .  With the invention of the printing press in the 1400's, more Bibles were printed in French for the people to read for themselves.  This led to a personal faith.

    On the political side, the individual kings and princes wanted more control over their territories. Grégoire VII proclaimed the universal authority of the Pope in 1075. The Pope could make decisions, raise taxes and gather an army from the entire Catholic world. The individual leaders wanted more independence.

     Everyone was a ready for a change. The religious people, the poor and the powerful began to protest.

History of religion

Since we can't get the group together to prepare for this mission, I thought I would share a little about the history of religion in France.  When Charlemagne was crowned in 800 ad as the empereur of the Holy Roman Empire, he wanted all his subjects to be Christians. Christianity became the national religion. 

  Over the years, Christianity became organized into Catholicism with leaders ( the Pope, cardinals and bishops) and rules.  Around 1000 AD, the Pope asked the kings of Europe to help him win the Holy Land back from the Turks ( the Muslims). So the kings of France made several Crusades to the Holy Land. The lost the battle, but they bought "les reliques" while they were there. These holy objects were things like....a piece of the Cross, the Crown of Thorns, the head of John the Baptist, etc.  When the kings of France brought them back to France, they built cathedrales to house them. The people wanted their cathedrales to soar to the heavens and praise God. We will see some of these in southern France.

Preparations

We have 10 students and some parents who have signed up. The job now is to raise support. This is so different from an educational trip where you just pay and go. We look to God for guidance on each detail. It is His trip.