Bible and the French Revolution
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Rome was not slow to inflame their jealous fears. Said the pope to
the regent of France in 1525: “This mania [Protestantism] will not only
confound and destroy religion, but all principalities, nobility, laws,
orders, and ranks besides.”—G. de Felice, History of the Protestants
of France, b. 1, ch. 2, par. 8. A few years later a papal nuncio warned
the king: “Sire, be not deceived. The Protestants will upset all civil
as well as religious order.... The throne is in as much danger as the
altar.... The introduction of a new religion must necessarily introduce a
new government.”—D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe
in the Time of Calvin, b. 2, ch. 36. And theologians appealed to
the prejudices of the people by declaring that the Protestant doctrine
“entices men away to novelties and folly; it robs the king of the devoted
affection of his subjects, and devastates both church and state.” Thus
Rome succeeded in arraying France against the Reformation. “It was
to uphold the throne, preserve the nobles, and maintain the laws, that
the sword of persecution was first unsheathed in France.”—Wylie, b.
13, ch. 4.
Little did the rulers of the land foresee the results of that fateful
policy. The teaching of the Bible would have implanted in the minds
and hearts of the people those principles of justice, temperance, truth,
equity, and benevolence which are the very cornerstone of a nation’s
prosperity. “Righteousness exalteth a nation.” Thereby “the throne
is established.”
Proverbs 14:34
;
16:12
. “The work of righteousness
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shall be peace;” and the effect, “quietness and assurance forever.”
Isaiah 32:17
. He who obeys the divine law will most truly respect
and obey the laws of his country. He who fears God will honor the
king in the exercise of all just and legitimate authority. But unhappy
France prohibited the Bible and banned its disciples. Century after
century, men of principle and integrity, men of intellectual acuteness
and moral strength, who had the courage to avow their convictions
and the faith to suffer for the truth—for centuries these men toiled as
slaves in the galleys, perished at the stake, or rotted in dungeon cells.
Thousands upon thousands found safety in flight; and this continued
for two hundred and fifty years after the opening of the Reformation.
“Scarcely was there a generation of Frenchmen during the long
period that did not witness the disciples of the gospel fleeing before the
insane fury of the persecutor, and carrying with them the intelligence,
the arts, the industry, the order, in which, as a rule, they pre-eminently