The tragedy of the present day Migrant Crisis caused by the Syrian Civil War has an earlier precedent which occurred in the late seventeenth century when the King of France – Louis XIV (the Sun King) revoked the Edict of Nantes (a law protecting religious tolerance). It was on the 22nd October 1685 that the King formally outlawed the Protestant religion in France, however, prior to that date the Huguenots (French Calvinists) had been persecuted rather like the Jews were in pre-war NAZI Germany. The King’s aim was to end the schism between Catholics and Protestants and bring back into the Papal fold people considered to be Heretics. Many Protestants were converted to Catholicism at the point of the sword, but the King’s repression did not destroy the faith and large numbers decided to flee France even though it was made illegal to do so.
Even before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many Protestant families had immigrated to the United Provinces of the Netherlands where they met with greater religious open-mindedness and where they found gainful employment. The Revocation turned the flow of refugees from a trickle into a flood and it was soon realised that the Netherlands could not absorb all those fleeing France. Fortunately for the Huguenots they were welcomed by other Protestant countries in Northern Europe, as they were known to be hard working and skilled and thus would be an asset to those countries.
It is reckoned of the Huguenot Exodus of 210 000 people...
