HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED TO ESCAPE REPRESSION TO WORSHIP GOD?

Today's promise: God will fight for you

Have You Ever Needed to Escape Repression to Worship God?

The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say, "Let my people go, so they can worship me in the wilderness."

Exodus 7:16 NLT

Stop the presses!

King Francis I had been very tolerant of those "Lutherans," as the Protestants in France were called in the early 1520's. Known as the "Father of Letters," Francis wished to be seen as a supporter of the Renaissance.

Protestant literature was everywhere in France and winning many converts. Finally, on January 13, 1535, the king sent an edict to the Parliament of Paris forbidding the printing of books of any kind.

After six weeks the king, perhaps remembering he was the "Father of Letters," had second thoughts about outlawing printing and opted for censorship instead. He set up a board of twelve censors that had to approve all books printed. In addition, books could only be printed in Paris.

Things went downhill from there for followers of the Reformation in France. In January 1535 six Protestants were burned to death, beginning the persecution of the Lutherans, later known as Huguenots. In June 1540 the Edict of Fontainbleau gave parliament control of determining what heresy was. In 1542 the Faculty of Theology of Paris issued an Index of Prohibited Books.

In spite of the king's opposition to the propagation of "heretical books" the publication of Christian literature and Bibles marched on, moving outside of Paris and Lyon, to Monbéliard, and also to Switzerland. Bibles were distributed throughout the countryside of France, providing the people with eye-opening access to Scripture until at one point France had become half Protestant.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), pp 26-7

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House