Mathieu Majal Désubas – A Young Huguenot Martyr

Mathieu Majal Désubas – A Young Huguenot Martyr

Huguenots in 18th-century France were well-aware of the dangers they faced by attending Protestant services. Many had been Protestants since birth, children or grandchildren of a generation that had enjoyed some freedoms allowed by the 1598 Edict of Nantes.

But things had changed, In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and launched a fierce campaign against Protestants. In spite of restricting their worship to private homes or hidden outside spaces, many Huguenot congregations were discovered and punished, with their pastors imprisoned or exiled. Those who insisted on preaching were executed. About 700 churches were destroyed, and Protestants who refused to convert to Roman Catholicism were imprisoned.

While initially some Huguenots (known as Camisards) fought back, most of them realized that violence was not the answer. In 1715, taking advantage of the death of Louis XIV, a group of French pastors met at the Synod of Montèzes, deliberating to free the church from acts of violence and claims of prophetic revelations, and to return to the orderly discipline exercised by Huguenot churches before 1685. Pastors were encouraged to study in Switzerland to be better prepared to care for their flocks.

Désubas, Pastor and Apologist

This is what Mathieu Majal, nicknamed Désubas (“from Ubas”), did when he became aware of God’s calling. Born on 28 February 1720, he grew up in his native Ubas, near Vernoux-en-Vivarais (by the Ardeche mountains in southern France). His calling as a preacher was confirmed at the synod of 30 April 1738, where he received a recommendation to study at the seminary in Lausanne, Switzerland.

His seminary education lasted three years, from 1740 to 1743, when he was ordained as a pastor. He then returned to France where he served as pastor and itinerant preacher in his native region of Vivarais, often traveling further south to Languedoc. On some occasions, as many as 5000 people gathered to hear him preach.

With other pastors, he also labored to fight rumors and calumnies about the Huguenots. In a letter written in 1744, he chided the parish priest of Le Gua, in southwest France, for attributing to the Huguenots a seditious document that had been circulating around the region.

“Put yourself for a moment in other people’s shoes. Suppose there was a paper full of heresies and impiety, contrary to your true beliefs, entitled, ‘Letter of the priests of Vivarais,’ and that you all were on its account prosecuted as heretics. How would you defend yourself? Wouldn’t you quite obviously ask for evidences and witnesses, and wouldn’t you consider it injust for someone to condemn you on the basis on simple prejudices, without listening to your explanations?”

If the priest’s prejudices were based on the accounts of the Camisards’ wars, Désubas said, he should remember the present pastors had done everything in their power to combat such fanaticism. “Any suspicion that we are rebels simply because a small number of seers, whom we have always condemned, to the point of depriving them of the Lord’s Supper, have in the past caused some tumult, is baseless.”

“If the religion we profess authorizes rebellion and revolt, you would have some reason to be suspicious and to attribute to us writings and actions leading to sedition. But have we ever believed or taught anything like it? Don’t we profess to believe that we must obey those who rule over us and submit to them in anything that does not violate the conscience? In the time when our ministries have been serving in Vivarais, have you ever seen uprisings and rebellions? Haven’t we suffered every mistreatment with great patience? ... You may say that assembling against the edits of our ruler is a rebellion. But we ask you: do kings have a right to the conscience of their subjects? We don’t believe you feel this way. Do you believe the first Christians, who assemblied against the edicts of their emperors, even in the capital of the empire, were rebels? You wouldn’t dare say so. If you did, you would condemn those you consider martyrs and saints. Are we then guilty of gathering to publicly profess a religion that has nothing against the laws of the state? Did any of the people who attended our meetings ever saw us armed?”[1]

Since no one did, and no insurrection had occurred, Désubas wondered if the priest had chosen to emulate Don Quixote, who chased enemies who turned out to be windmills.

Désubas’s Arrest and Execution

In spite of these explanations, the Roman Catholic Church and the French government continued their campaign against Protestants. On 12 December 1745, while Désubas was staying at a friend’s house in the course of a preaching tour, he was betrayed for 3000 pounds and arrested by royal guards. He was then escorted to Vernoux and imprisoned while waiting to be tried.

Désubas was well-loved by Huguenots. When one of them, Etienne Gourdol, saw him tied up between guards, he alerted other believers. Soon, a group of protesters marched towards the guards to intercede for their pastor. Their lack of weapons didn’t stop the guards from firing their bayonets. Gourdol and four other men were killed, one was wounded, and three were arrested.

In Vernoux, Désubas was imprisoned while awaiting trial. By this time, the news of his arrest had circulated and four hundred people, including women and children, traveled to the city to petition for his release. Once again, the authorities fired, killing thirty people and wounding two hundred. (The number of casualties probably grew after the attack). The event became known as “the Massacre of Vernoux.”

Désubas knew he had to stop his followers. From his cell, he sent them a written message: “Messeurs, I beg you to retreat. The king’s people are here in great number. Too much blood has already been spilled. I am very peaceful and totally resigned to God’s will.”[2]

To prevent further violence, when Désubas was moved first to Nîmes and then to Montpellier, the capital of Languedoc, the government sent 800 guards to escort him. In Montpellier, Désubas was questioned and found guilty – although his nobility of spirit impressed even some of his judges. He was hung on 2 February 1746, at only 25 years of age, in the same plain where well-known preachers like Claude Brousson and Pierre Durand had met the same end.

Désubas’s last letter to his parents is one of the most moving documents in Protestant history. Here is my translation from the original French:

My dearest father and my dearest mother,

Knowing that undoubtedly your tenderness toward me has caused you the most heart-felt and sharp pains anyone could imagine for what Divine Providence has allowed in my case, I am forcing myself to write these few words – something I can’t do without pouring out a torrent of tears, if I think of the love you feel for me and your condition since the time of my detention. In spite of this pain, I am moved to write to you by the filial love that is deeply ingrained in my heart and by my fervent desire to console you and encourage you to revere with me God’s judgments. Allow me then, my dearest father and dearest mother, to urge you not to uselessly vex or distress yourselves because of me.

            We do not know why God has allowed what happened to me, but we must be convinced that he had good motive to do it. You are losing a beloved son whose love for you has no end but you will reunite with him one day in heaven. We must hope in God’s mercy, as long as we are faithful to him to the end. Let us then submit to his will here on earth and humbly acquiesce to his commands, being assured that he everything he does is in accordance with his wisdom. Hey! How honored you are to have a son who suffers for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ our Savior, for following him and for teaching others his will! These are the only crimes men can attribute to your son. And what they consider a crime, he considers true glory. Yes, my dear father and mother, I glory in my sufferings for the name of Christ. I rejoice and am glad that he has chosen me to confess him before men, to follow in his footsteps and those of many illustrious and glorious martyrs who have constantly suffered, for the same cause, all sorts of evils. They have come to the heavenly joy I hope our good Savior will grant me too, after I have suffered, for his sake, every injury I may receive from men.

            My dear father and mother, think seriously about these things and find comfort in the Lord. This is the grace your son is asking of you – your son who embraces you with his whole heart and who will carry his memories of you to his grave, asking God to bless you, preserve you, and protect you for the rest of your earthly life, until you come to possess his heaven where we’ll enjoy our reunion forever. May this great God give you this grace! Amen.

            30 January 1746[3]

            Désubas is remembered on February 3 by the Lutheran Church. He has been the subject of several ballades, and his name is imprinted on a plaque standing in the Plain of Montpellier in remembrance of the Huguenot pastors who have lost their lives for their faith.