Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 08:1 (Fall 2021)
Article: French Huguenots And Scottish Covenanters: Similarities And Dissimilarities During The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries
Author: Thomas G. Reid

RPTJ 8:1 (Fall 2021) p. 52

French Huguenots And Scottish Covenanters: Similarities And Dissimilarities During The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries

Thomas G. Reid

Retired Librarian and Registrar Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

The Protestants of France have long been called “Huguenots”. Before even the word “Protestant” was coined around 1529, French followers of Martin Luther (1483–1546) were called “évangéliques” or “bibliens”.1 French Protestants came under the sway of Jean (or John) Calvin (1509–1564)2 in the late 1530s and the 1540s, identifying increasingly as reformed in theology and presbyterian in polity. The name which these reformed Protestants eventually came to prefer over all other alternatives was “Huguenots”, of uncertain derivation.

Many of the Protestants of Scotland, who became overwhelmingly reformed in theology and presbyterian in polity, were called “Covenanters”. This name refers to their practice of signing a public commitment to King Jesus, called a “covenant” in the style of Josiah’s covenant with God on behalf of the people of Israel.

Then the king [Josiah] stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took their stand for the covenant (2 Kings 23:3 NKJV).

The first such covenant was signed by five Scottish noblemen in 1557, and a first National Covenant was issued in 1580. The practice of covenanting reached its apex in two widely-subscribed covenants, the National Covenant of Scotland of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, between England, Scotland, and Ireland.3

Both the Huguenots and the Covenanters were sorely persecuted over many decades, in the case of the Huguenots, over several centuries. Can a comparison of their similarities and dissimilarities offer guidance to the church in today’s world, as God’s people face unprecedented, widespread, and growing persecution? To do so, the histories of these two movements during the sixteenth

RPTJ 8:1 (Fall 2021) p. 53

and seventeenth centuries will be considered, leaving aside subsequent developments, since the stories of the movements diverged dramatically towards the end of the latter century, as the modern world order emerged from the crucible of the Protestant Reformation ...