Paul Rabaut

Paul Rabaut (born Jan. 29, 1718, Bédarieux, France—died Sept. 25, 1794, Nîmes) was a Protestant minister and Reformer who succeeded Antoine Court (1696–1760) as the leader of the Huguenots (French Protestants).

At age 16 Rabaut met Jean Bétrine, an itinerant preacher of the French Reformed Church, who was highly unpopular with the Roman Catholic government. It was Bétrine who influenced Rabaut to study theology. Rabaut’s consequent theological training, which led to his certification as a preacher in 1738, was augmented by studies begun in Lausanne, Switz., in 1740. Four years later Rabaut became vice president of the synod of his church at Nîmes. In 1745 the government renewed its persecution of the Huguenots, and Rabaut went into hiding. During this period he sought to encourage the Protestants in his vast correspondence but tried to prevent their armed rebellion. Following Court’s death, Rabaut inherited his position as leader of the group.

Failing to persuade Rabaut to leave France, the government slowly yielded to public opinion to reduce persecution. The outrage caused by the Calas affair (1762), an incident in which Jean Calas, a Huguenot cloth merchant, was condemned and executed on a false charge of having killed his son because the boy wished to become a Catholic, was a turning point in alleviating the Huguenots’ suffering. In November 1787, Louis XVI signed an edict of toleration, and Rabaut celebrated the culmination of his work by dedicating the new church at Nîmes in 1792.