Walloon church
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A Walloon church (French: Église Wallonne; Dutch: Waalse kerk) describes any Calvinist church building in the Netherlands and its former colonies whose members originally came from the Southern Netherlands and France and whose native language is French. Members of these churches belong to the Walloon Reformed Church (French: Réformé wallon; Dutch: Waals Hervormd or, from 1815, Waals Gereformeerd), long-distinguished from the Low German or Dutch-speaking Dutch Reformed Church.
The French Calvinists, known also as Huguenots (Hu'-ge-no), were persecuted in France by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1598, King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, which was to relieve the persecution and allow rights to freely worship. Later in 1685, His Grandson Louis XIV issued a revocation of the edict of Nantes, and persecution returned. Most fled France to other countries offering safe harbor. Many of these would later settle in Ulster Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and the in New World in the colonies of the Carolina's, New York and Pennsylvania. Many of the technical skilled workers of the silk weaving industry left France with little or nothing, resestablishing there trades elsewhere. Many of these who left where also of French Nobility, and it is said that little of the industry of France remained after this period.
