A is for Abjuration – Some do it twice

A contribution to the #AtoZchallenge 2024

Abjuration? What a strange word that is. It means a solemn repudiation upon oath of some right or privilege. In the context of the religious strife in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, it referred to a formal renunciation one’s faith and adoption of a different one.

Even before King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, many Protestants recanted their faith in order to avoid punishment, and promised to attend Mass in the Catholic Church. The procedure was that the priest wrote a two-page document, which the repentant Huguenot was required to sign in the presence of four witnesses.

A sample document

This extract a fine example of such an abjuration. It is not easy to read, as if the curé¹ were nervous. Dated April 1706, it refers to a farmwife named Anne, aged about 31 years. After a great deal of teaching from the Catholic church, she has agreed to reject those beliefs that the church consider heretical.

Placing her hands between those of the curé, she stated “As God is my helper, on the Sainted Evangelists I swear to live and die in the Catholic belief.” She thus became what was known as a Nouvelle Catholique.

But such abjurations were often insincere. The Huguenot believers still often met secretly in barns or woods to celebrate their culte². If they were caught, they could be beaten or have their property confiscated. Men were frequently condemned to lifelong slavery on the galleys. Women might be imprisoned, perhaps in the notorious Tour de Constance in Aigues-Mortes. Some were even tortured to death on the breaking wheel or hanged.

Many people abjured a second time

If they managed to flee France – which was forbidden – and arrived in a secure country or refuge³ like Jersey, they generally denounced their pseudo-conversion and re-converted to their former Protestant faith. This second abjuration was not to be taken light-heartedly. It often involved a civil statement before an Ecclesiastical Court, followed by a public confession during a church service:

Jacob Hemery and Louise Tancrel his wife, of the Bishopric of Bayeux, voluntarily present themselves to recognize the sins they have committed and the offence they have given in forsaking the Protestant religion and participating in the superstitions of the Roman church, because of the violence of the persecution. For this sin, they humbly ask forgiveness from God and forsake all the errors, superstitions and idolatries of the said Roman church.

They are obliged to give notice of this abjuration in the Parish Church of St. Lawrence, when they are called by the Rector, to be received into the peace of the church. In the year 1713, the 25th day of March, before the official and commissaire of the Dean of this Isle (Jersey) assisted by the Rectors of Saint Helier, St Peters, Trinity and St Lawrence.

Jerripedia

After such a second abjuration, repentant defectors were again welcomed into the full fellowship of the Protestant church, allowing them to partake of Holy Communion, get married, have their children baptised, and enjoy a church burial, etc.

The book ‘Greet Suzon for me’ tells of a Huguenot family, pressured to abjure their faith, who make a perilous escape from France to Jersey. It will be published in 2024.

1. Catholic priest ↩︎
2. For Huguenots, a time of public or private prayer, Bible reading, worship or preaching. ↩︎
3. Any country that welcomed Huguenots who fled France as a result of persecution. ↩︎

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