Huguenot
/ˈhjuːɡənəʊ
/ /ˈhjuːɡənɒt/noun
A French Protestant of the 16th and 17th centuries. Largely Calvinist, the Huguenots suffered severe persecution at the hands of the Catholic majority, and many thousands emigrated from France.The first Huguenot ministers arrived in France in 1553....
- During the 1750s French Huguenots suffered the last great wave of state-sponsored persecution, and Jansenists within the Gallican Church fared little better.
- By 1561 there were 2000 Calvinist churches in France and the Huguenots had become a political faction that seemed to threaten the state.
Origin
French, alteration (by association with the name of a Geneva burgomaster, Besançon Hugues) of eiguenot, from Dutch eedgenot, from Swiss German Eidgenoss 'confederate', from Eid 'oath' + Genoss 'associate'.