The minute huguenoteThe th century is a particularly hay period in religious terms. The Protestant reform interferes in the south-east of the Deux-Sèvres. A large part of the population adheres to new ideas. The Wars of Religion will, of course, not save the region suffering the incessant struggles between «parpaillots» and «papists». However, following the edict of tolerance signed by Henri IV in 1598, the Protestants of the Mellois organize themselves. In the 1672 th century Protestantism was strengthened, as evidenced by the appointment in of a pastor in Aigonnay… in the Catholic parish Saint-Pierre, which was the seat of an important Benedictine priory! The village of Mougon becomes the place of the Protestant church. But Louis XIV's personal and absolutist reign (1661-1715) sounded the death knell of huguenotes hopes. The Sun King wants only one religion in his kingdom: he revokes the Edit de Nantes in 1685. Persecution against Protestants begins well before this fateful date. A Protestant teacher, a certain Jean Migault (born in 1644), tells in his memoirs the persecutions his family suffered from 1681 in the vicinity of the Glass. Like many other believers who do not want to renounce their faith, he leaves France. He died in exile in Holland in 1707. Houses of exiled Protestants are plundered, burned by the King's dragons, these soldiers who are responsible for making them renounce by all means… But all Protestants are not leaving. Those who remain without renounce must suffer the violence and outrages of the dragonnades. In 1685, the temple of Mougon was destroyed. All the temples will in fact be destroyed in the th to be erected again only in the th. In 1688, the dragons attacked the farm of Grand-Ry towards Aigonnay, where many huguenots were gathered. Men are killed in the battle, others hanged or sent down after it, women are flogged. Nowadays, the country mellois is much calmer, so far away from all religious conflicts… but temples, family cemeteries (reported by cypress trees) and «piniers» (umbrella pines planted to indicate friendly homes) still bear witness to the lasting trace left in the region by the reformed religion and its turbulent history.

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