A step back in time

In my last blog I told you that we would be visiting Provence in the south of France and in particular a little town nestled just north of the Petit  Luberon called La Coste, where I think that Leen Arie's Huguenot ancestors De La Coste originally came from.
Visiting the places were our ancestors lived is a great help in family history work as it gives you a first hand feel to the geography and setting of the places which you can't get from a map.
Our first campsite in Provence was close to a small town called Curcuron, which lies at the southern foothills of the Luberon mountains. On our first day, after visiting the lovely little town of Curcuron in the morning we headed off to the slightly larger town of Lourmarin were there was a road which took us through a ravine inbetween the Petit and Grand Luberon. After arriving in the beautiful town of Bonnieux, situated on top of a hill we descended into a valley filled with winegards and  cherry orchards. A short distance from Bonnieux is another, smaller hill top town topped by a castle ruin,  this is La Coste.

 We parked our car outside the town and took a step back into history. The narrow steep streets are cobbled, the houses are whitewashed and not much has changed since Leen Arie's ancestors were living there in the 16th century.
Not far from La Coste there is an old Roman bridge the Pont Julien, this bridge was built in 300 BC, it was built on the Via Domitia , an important Roman road  which connected Italy to the Roman territories in France. I am sure that Leen Arie's ancestors must have crossed this bridge many times.
Whilst visiting a church in the lovely Ochre coloured town of Roussillon I talked to a young man who told me that there was indeed a large population of Protestants in the towns and villages of the Luberon and that they were originally Vaudois or Waldensians.
Vaudois or Waldenses were the common names of a Christian reform movement, initially based out of Lyon in the 1170s. Peter Waldo or Valdo, a prosperous Lyonnais merchant, sold his belongings and began preaching the benefits of a focus on core Christian beliefs. The foundation for this association was a return to a lifestyle of simplistic needs and devotion to God as outlined in the Gospel of the New Testament.
The Vaudois gained advocates in Provence, in an era that coincided with the rise of the Catholic Church’s power in France. Threatened – the Catholic Church declared the Vaudois heretics in 1215.  Between 1309 and 1378, there were seven powerful Catholic Popes residing in Avignon, this Vaudois reform movement was at best an annoyance.
Tensions rose between the two spiritual tangents driving the Vaudois to veil their activities and seek cover in fortified towns of the Luberon valley. On November 18th 1540, the influential Parliament of Provence located in Aix-en-Provence issued the “Arrêt de Mérindol” (Stop Mérindol). Despite numerous appeals King Francis I confirmed the judgment in 1545, and in April of that same year the Vaudois were attacked.
The aggressive incursions were led by Baron Jean Maynier d’Oppède (President of the parliament of Provence) and Antoine Escalin des Aimars (military commander). At least 23 villages were reduced to rubble; deliberate fires engulfed homes, and lives were shredded as callous troops ravaged everything in their path. A senseless slaughter, it is believed that thousands of Vaudois died, and any survivors were tortured by horrific means.
In my following Blog I want to copy some pages from an old book that I found on Google Books - Monsieur de Thou's History of His Own Time which describes the terrible persecutions that the Vaudois suffered, also those living in La Coste.
In 1570 La Rochelle became one of four cities designated as Protestant strongholds in France, after so many troubles in the Provence area the De La Coste family probably decided around this time to move to the safety of this city, a distance of about 800km.