Huguenots

French Protestants of the 16^th and 17^th century were called Huguenots. They were responsible for many religious wars with the French Catholics and there by the process of colonization was delayed. This term was first used to refer to the members of the reformed church who tried to take over the House of Guise there by supporting the Swiss domination in France. The Huguenots vehemently criticized the doctrines and the rituals of the French Catholic Churches. They felt all their practices did not lead people to redemption. They believed in lading a simple life that would require belief in the faith of god for salvation rather than following the sacraments and rituals of the French Catholic Church. They were unhappy with the institute of the Pope and felt that Catholic Churches required cleansing from within. Many a times, the Huguenots destroyed French catholic monuments and forcibly capture Catholic churches .All this resulted in the Huguenots iconoclasm. Civil wars in the name of religion became common during the period 1562 and 1598.With the House of Bourbon and Guise, people held different religious views and this reflected on the claim to the French throne which was on the side of the Catholics .This stirred up a lot of agitation which resulted in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre on 1572, and the Huguenots fleeing to other countries of safety.. After the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Henry IV ascended the throne of France. He favored Roman Catholicism as a state religion by the Edict of Nantes. However, Protestantism was given an equal footing with Catholicism under the throne but disallowed the establishment of Protestant churches in the Catholic dominated religion. However, during the time of Louis XIV, the edit was forgotten and the Protestants were prosecuted from the country and the population of the Huguenots dropped drastically. In the refugee country, in spite of being a minority they considered themselves as privileged sect and maintained the superiority of their language and culture.