Let God Arise

Let God Arise draws upon an extensive array of archival sources to present the first modern account in English entirely devoted to the rebellion and war of the Camisards. Combining traditional narrative with analysis, W. Gregory Monahan examines the issues that led to that rebellion, beginning with the conversion of the artisans and peasants of the remote mountain region of the Cévennes to Protestantism in the sixteenth century, its persistence in that confession in the seventeenth, and the shattering impact of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which deprived Protestants first of their pastors, and then of the itinerant preachers who attempted to take their place. Beginning in 1701, prophetism swept the region, and the prophets, who believed they heard and followed the word of the Holy Spirit, soon led their followers into violent attacks on the Catholic Church and rebellion against the crown. A persistent and occasionally successful guerrilla war raged for over two years.

Monahan argues that the resulting war involved a host of often conflicting world views, or discourses, in which the various parties to the conflict, whether the king and his ministers at Versailles, the provincial intendant Basville and local officials, the foreign powers, the Church, the generals, or the Camisard rebels themselves, often misunderstood or failed to communicate with each other, resulting too often in terrible violence and bloodshed. Let God Arise tells us much about the nature of the reign of Louis XIV and the popular religion of the time in exploring the last great rebellion in France before the Revolution of 1789.