The religious war

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> A Short History of Aveyron

The Religious Wars

The tension had been rising since 1550. An estimated number of about 2,000,000 protestants asserted themselves in the south of France notably among the urban elite. In 1560, religious crosses in Millau were damaged.
Two years later, the massacre in Champagne of a hundred protestants, meeting in a barn, by men of the Duke of Guise became the catalyst for the troubles to come.
Papists and Huguenots argued in southern Rouergue, especially when the men of Count Antoine de Vezins murdered about one hundred protestants.

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The Duke of Arpajon beheaded Calvinists who cannot be envied with this chapter of horrors. The hatred was repeatedly inflamed by both sides and was fuelled by treason. The whole of the Saint Affrique region was affected. The Convent of Notre-Dame-d¹Orient was burned out (Above, a painting of the St. Bartholomew's Day Slaughter in Paris, a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots).
The edict of Nantes by Henri IV calmed the situation down and under the good reign of Louis XIII the problems were finally resolved. The fighting actually did not cease until 1629. Notwithstanding the Edict of Nantes, a number of Protestants were converted to Catholicism purely for the sake of appearances.

It was because of the Protestants that Millau experienced economic prosperity in the XVIII century with the development of the manufacture of leather and skin. Centres of tension. Saint-Severe-du-Moustier, a catholic bastion and priory seat influenced by the Abbey of Vabres was converted to Protestantism during the reformation in 1586 under the power of prior Jacques de Goudon. However, the village resisted for only three days, when confronted by the army of Conde.

They took refuge in the church and were spared by Conde. Saint-Severe-du-Moustier again embraced Catholicism and Rome destroying their fortifications.
Villefranche-de-Panat was plundered twice during the religious wars between 1563 and 1586. In 1586 Saint-Rome-du-Tarn was attacked by the protestant Baudinel. Cornus embraced protestantism at a very early stage.
After the dismissal of the Edict of Nantes many believers renounced protestantism. A core resisted and were careful not to intervene at the time of the revolt of the Camisards. This revolution consolidated the remaining Protestants who were disappointed by the outcome.

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