Huguenots en boîtes de nuit

Abstract

The church localized in Charenton is the only authorized sacred place for the Parisian Protestants during the Edict of Nantes (1598 – 1685). This place had important functions for local but also for all the European Huguenot that were coming in Paris from 1606 until its destruction in 1685. Above all, the main criticisms performed by the Huguenots to the Roman Catholic Church, concern the mortuary rituals. They consider the Catholic manner focused too much on the dead and the corpse with the worship of icons, saints and pilgrimages. According to the Reform, at death, the soul is detached from the corpse which is no more the defunct. The opposition is clearly ennonced but the interdiction of practising the Huguenot cult that came with the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, led to the destruction of all the reformed places, churches and cemeteries. We thus have very few links with the Huguenot burial ritual during the XVIIth century.Preventive excavation in Charenton carried out by Inrap, provided unique data to put in light this peculiar period of Huguenot History. We now can characterize the funeral and biological aspects with the digging and study of the eastern boundary of the cemetery.The funerary gestures carried out during the 80 years of use of this cemetery, are systematized: the deceased is wrapped in a shroud, then lengthened on the back in a coffin made of coniferous tree. The excavation of two Protestant cemeteries at Saint-Maurice and La Rochelle lay the fundations for an archaeology of the Reformation in France.

Keywords

• huguenot
• church
• cemetery
• ritual
• Charenton