COURT, ANTOINE (1696-176o)

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 322 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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COURT, ANTOINE (1696-176o) , French

Protestant

PROTESTANT

divine, was born in the

village

VILLAGE

of Villeneuve-de-Berg, in the province of the Vivarais. He has been designated the "Restorer of Protestantism in France," and was the organizer of the " Church of the Desert." He was eight years old when the Camisard revolt was finally suppressed, and nineteen when on the 8th of March 1715 the edict of Louis XIV. was published, declaring that " he had abolished entirely the exercise of the so-called reformed religion" (" qu'il avait aboli tout exercicedelareligion pretenduereform ee"). Antoine, taken to the

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

meetings of the persecuted Calvinists, began, when onlyseventeen, to speak and exhort in these congregations of " the desert." He came to suspect after a time that many of the so-called " inspired " persons were " dupes of their own zeal and credulity," and decided that it was necessary to organize at once the small communities of believers into properly constituted churches. To the execution of this vast undertaking he devoted his life. On the 21st of August 1715 he summoned all the preachers in the Cevennes and Lower

Languedoc

LANGUEDOC

to a conference or synod near the

village

VILLAGE

of 1\,lonoblet. Here elders were appointed, and the preaching of women, as well as pretended revelations, was condemned. The village of Monoblet " thus seems entitled to the honour of having had the first organized

Protestant

PROTESTANT

church after the revocation of the edict of Nantes " (H. M. Baird). But there were as yet no ordained pastors. Pierre Corteiz was therefore sent to seek ordination. He was ordained at Zurich, and from him Court himself received ordination. The scene of his labours for fifteen years was

Languedoc

LANGUEDOC

, the Vivarais, and Dauphine. His beginnings were very small prayer-meetings in " the desert." Bit the

work

WORK

progressed under his wise direction, and he was able " to be present, in 1744, at meetings of ten thousand souls." In 1724 Louis XV., again
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assuming that there were no Protestants in France, prohibited the most

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

exercise of the Reformed religion, and imposed severe penalties. It was impossible fully to carry out this menace. But persecution raged, especially against the pastors. A price was set on the life of Court; and in 1730 he escaped to Lausanne. He had already, with the aid of some of the Protestant princes, established a theological college (" Seminaire de Lausanne ") there, and during the remaining thirty years of his life he filled the post of director. He had the title of deputy-general of the churches, and was really the pillar of their

hope

HOPE, ANTHONY
HOPE, THOMAS (c. 1770-1831)

. The

Seminary

SEMINARY (Lat. seminarium, from semen, seed)

of Lausanne sent forth all the pastors of the Reformed Church of France till the days of the first French Empire. Court formed the

design

DESIGN (Fr. desiin, drawing; Lat. designare, to mark out)

of writing a history of Protestantism, and made large collections for the purpose, which have been preserved in the Public Library of Geneva; but this he did not live to carry out. He died at Lausanne in 1760. He wrote, amongst other works, a Histoire des troubles des Cevennes ou de to guerre des Camisards (1760). He was the father of the more generally known Antoine Court de Gebelin (q.v.).
For details of his life see

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

Peyrat's Histoire des pasteurs du desert (1842; English translation, 1852); Edmond Hugues, Antoine Court, histoire de to restauration du protestantisme en France au X VIII siecle (2nd ed., 1872), Les Synodes du desert (3 vols., 1885-1886), Memoires d'Antoine Court (1885). E. and E. HHaag, La France protestante, vol. iv. (1884, new edition); H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1895), vol. ii.; cf. Bulletin de to societe de histoire du prolestantisme franrais (1893-1906).

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