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Antoine Court (1695–1760)
History of the Restoration of French Protestantism in the Eighteenth Century
The first biography in English of the man who rebuilt French Protestantism after the Revocation
Antoine Court (1695–1760) was barely twenty when he began riding the back roads of the Vivarais to gather outlawed Protestants for worship. Thirty years after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes had stripped French Calvinism of its pastors, its synods, and its right to assemble, Court set about rebuilding it—convening clandestine synods, restoring church discipline, confronting the Camisard “prophets” and their claims to extrabiblical revelation, and founding the Seminary of Lausanne to train a generation of pastors, many of whom died for their faith. Stephen M. Davis, drawing on thousands of pages of French sources largely untouched by English-speaking scholars, offers the first biography in English of the man his own countrymen called the Restaurateur of French Protestantism. With a foreword by Michael A. G. Azad Haykin, Antoine Court (1695–1760) opens a neglected chapter of the “Forgotten Reformation”—a story of courage, sacrifice, and patient institution-building under persecution.
Paperback | 145 pages | 6×9 | Published August 20, 2026 | ISBN-10 1-949716-95-3 | ISBN-13 978-1-949716-95-5 If you are interested in a bulk order, please contact [email protected].
$24.95 $18.95 Limited time launch price!
Publication Details
- Publisher: Davenant Press
- ISBN: 978-1-949716-95-5
- Publication Date: August 20, 2026
- Pages: 145
- Author: Stephen M. Davis
Endorsements
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The story of Antoine Court has all the hallmarks of an epic thriller: hunted, impoverished, and exiled, he set about rebuilding French Protestantism after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Through clandestine synods, discipleship, church discipline, and a new Seminary at Lausanne, he followed Calvin’s vision by training a generation of new preachers willing to die for their faith. Many did. In this lively, yet academic, biography, Stephen Davis brings this largely unknown chapter of the “Forgotten Reformation” to an English readership. Accessible, engaging, and captivating, this is a story of extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and faith, told by one of the foremost historians of the French Reformation!
— TK Dunn, Associate Professor of History and Theology, Columbia International University
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Through the work of such scholars as Stephen Davis, the French Reformation and post-Reformation eras are finally receiving more attention in Reformed historical-theological scholarship. With the release of this groundbreaking monograph, this trend is also true of eighteenth-century French church history, long overshadowed by two significant historical “bookends”—the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) and the French Revolution (1789). In these pages, you will learn about the life and writings of a much-neglected theologian (Antoine Court) who ministered in a much-neglected era of French Reformed history (post-Revocation, pre-Revolution France). Court’s story and ideas have been unleashed through the scholarly work of Dr. Davis, who has scoured thousands of pages of French material to make Court accessible to English speakers. A towering figure in the Church of the Desert (L’Église du Désert), Court helped reinvent and reorganize the post-Huguenot French Reformed movement by establishing a theological seminary, challenging the Camisard “prophets” who claimed to receive extrabiblical revelation, and leading a reform of the post-Revocation church in its polity, organization, and worship. This book is a meaningful contribution to Reformed scholarship on one of the least known but most significant successors of the Huguenots.
— Dr. Joel R. Beeke, Chancellor and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; Pastor, Heritage Reformed Congregation, Grand Rapids, Michigan
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There are many ways to serve the Church of Christ. One of them is to keep alive the memory of our ancestors in the faith so that it helps us live faithfully today. This is what Stephen Davis is giving us in this first biography in English of a French pastor mostly unknown even in his own country. By following the life of Antoine Court, Davis writes a vivid account of the struggles to rebuild the Protestant churches in the eighteenth century in the midst of persecution, controversies, and schisms. Beyond Court’s ministry itself, this is a tale of God’s providential care of the Reformed Church in France and an exhortation to seek his guidance in troubled times.
— Yannick Imbert, William Edgar Chair of Apologetics, Faculté Jean Calvin
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This well-researched biography illustrates the extraordinary courage of Antoine Court, who tirelessly worked to revive French Protestantism during decades of persecution following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Providing an inspiring example of reliance against all odds, Stephen Davis’s book is an essential read for anyone interested in the forgotten history of the Huguenots.
— Martin I. Klauber, Scholar in Residence, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary
From the Book
“Antoine Court was a remarkable Frenchman who remains largely unknown to the English-speaking world. One explanation for his obscurity might be the relative disinterest in this period of French religious history in the eighteenth century, as observed by French historian Yves Krumenacker. He asserts that interest in the Les Lumières (Enlightenment) and the French Revolution overshadowed religious history. He has also observed that many of the great Huguenot regions—Dauphiné, Vivarias, Cévennes, Languedoc, Aunis, Saintonge, Poitou— have been neglected in historical studies.
Patrick Cabanel also comments on why the period from 1717 to 1765 has been relatively neglected. Before 1715, there was Louis XIV, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, prophetism, and the War of the Camisards. In the 1760s, there was the affaire Calas, Voltaire and his Traité sur la tolérance (Treatise on tolerance), the Edict of Toleration in 1787, and the French Revolution. Between these dates, we find “two giants, Antoine Court and Paul Rabaut, a seminary in exile, pastors executed . . . [and] the icon Marie Durand and le Resister.”
Court’s contribution to the restoration of Protestantism in the first half of the eighteenth century has been overlooked but cannot be overestimated. He lived at a time when the future of Reformed churches in France was uncertain. He faced strong opposition and had difficulty imposing his authority, which was resented by some pastors in the Church of the Desert, especially when he was in exile in Switzerland. He also faced numerous perils and escaped capture only through extreme caution and his guides’ vigilance. Throughout his life, Court defended the cause of the French Protestant community, the freedom of conscience, and Protestant loyalty to the French Crown. To this end, he published Le patriote français et impartial (The Impartial French Patriot) in 1751. In his Histoire des troubles des Cévennes (History of the Troubles of the Cévennes), published the year of his death in 1760, he established himself as one of the first Reformed historians of the Camisard war. Court deserves to be known for his immense contribution to the restoration and reorganization of Reformed Protestantism in his day. “
From the Preface
Table of Contents
- Praise for This Volume
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword (Michael A. G. Azad Haykin)
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. The Sun King and the Revocation
- 2. In the Shadow of the Prophets
- 3. Court’s Early Years
- 4. First Steps of Restauration
- 5. Companions in Restauration
- 6. Defense of the Church of the Desert
- 7. Progress and Persecution
- 8. Seminary of Lausanne
- 9. Controversy and Schism
- 10. Court’s Writings
- Appendix One: Regulations for the Church of the Desert, Signed by Antoine Court, Synods 1716 and 1717
- Appendix Two: Prayer Adopted at the First National Synod of the Church of the Desert in 1726, Later Titled “Liturgy for Protestants of France for Families Deprived of Public Exercise of Their Religion”
- Appendix Three: Doctrinal Examination for Pastors of the Church of the Desert
- Chronology
- From the Same Author
- Bibliography
- Index
