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On Calvin’s secret missionary agents

Sunday, 18 September, 2005

I forgot to mention this and it didn't really have a big role to play in my essay so I didn't explore it further, but the main reason why I wanted to do the essay on Calvin was because I was interested in his secret missionary agents. In the lecture Mike gave us, he talked about how Calvin would train up French refugees to send them back into France to establish underground churches. They had to take an oath of silence and promise never to reveal the identities of other agents. Their meetings were usually held in secret at night in barns and homes with blackout curtains. People's identities were checked as they came in. They took on assumed names, disguised their appearances and created elaborate hiding places and escape routes in their homes should be forced to flee. They were also instructed in the use of bribes and threats which were employed to influence local magistrates to ignore their activities or, if they were imprisoned, to let them out. They were also trained at winning over the nobility to their cause because if those in power were Protestant, they were more likely to tolerate Protestant activity in their region.

By 1562, 20% of the population of France were Calvinist. In 1685 Louis XIV ordered them to leave France or convert to Catholicism. A quarter of a million of them left and went to Holland, England, Prussia and America. The Protestant church was decimated and has never recovered since.

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