The Renaissance brings a rebirth of art, literature and the ideals of liberty, yet this same idealism becomes a threat the unbridled power of Church and state.

One law, one faith, one king is the rule of the day, and those who dare to think otherwise risk being the targets of terror and intolerance. Only a few are brave enough to speak their conscience, but not without the risk of death or dungeon. Soon, the name Huguenot (pronounced hoo-guh-no) is applied to these reformers and dissenters, and many Huguenots and Humanists alike stand together in civil disobedience against corruption and and cruelty, for the sake of civil liberty.

The Huguenots lost much in this paradoxical time in a place torn between renaissance and genocide, but from their tribulation they learned tolerance and compassion that was handed down for generations.

Pope Gregory XIII's coin commemorating the slaughter of innocents.

The revival of this spirit was evident during World War II, when a small group of Huguenot descendants, in a small village in southern France risked their own lives sheltering thousands of Jews during the Nazi occupation (also the subject of an award-winning documentary, “Weapons of the Spirit” by Pierre Savage).

“If you know French history,” says British critic Warburton, “you must know how cruel and unjust were the persecutions instigated against the Huguenots. The best blood of France deluged the battlefield, the brightest genius of France was suffered to lie neglected and starving in prison, and the noblest characters which France ever possessed were hunted like wild beasts and slain with as little pity.”

The historian Lecky notes: “The persecution of the Huguenots prepared the way for the inevitable degradation of the national character, which, a century later, laid prostrate, in merited ruin, both the altar and the throne.” Most historians believe these events directly laid the foundation of the French Revolution.

The climax of decades of persecution equated to over twenty thousand Huguenots killed in the bloody massacre in Paris alone. On “St. Bartholomew’s Day”, 1572, women were openly and pitifully violated and children were murdered before their parents, powerless to protect them. The massacre was carried out with the utmost swiftness and cruelty. Estimates of the dead range from 10,000 to 100,000.

Few other events in history, until the Jewish Holocaust, provoked such an outcry that was remembered for centuries and included in D.W. Griffith’s 1916 classic film about the worst atrocities in human history “Intolerance.” The award-winning film, based on the Dumas novel “La Reine Margot,” also depicts the inhumanity.

The Huguenots experienced a period of peace and prosperity under King Henry IV, a former Huguenot himself. Under his rule, the Edict of Nantes was issed, granting the Huguenots equality with Catholics under the throne and a degree of religious and political freedom within their domains. However, upon reaching the throne in 1598, Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes. Facing renewed persecution, the Huguenots fled en masse to England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and to settlements in North America (they were, however, barred from settling in New France).

Historian Charles Baird: “The Huguenots took with them a love for liberty (…) associated with tolerance learned in the school of suffering.”

From the Encyclopedia Britannica: “The phrase, to be ‘honest as a Huguenot’ denotes the highest degree of integrity.”

“Rebirth” depicts this turbulent time and their fight for civil liberty– through the eyes of a Renaissance artist. See “Home” for list of awards and news.

From the final scroll of the screenplay:

It was not until the American Revolution that France’s loss truly became America’s gain. It was then that the French Catholic Lafayette discovered that George Washington was a descendant of the French Huguenots. Dozens of other American Presidents and countless other American patriots, scholars and entrepreneurs, many unknowingly, also share this love of liberty and legacy of honor.

FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH HUGUENOT ANCESTRY: Robert Duvall, Johnny Depp, Charleze Theron, Warren Buffet, Orlando Bloom, Steve Forbes, Jane Seymour, Tyrone Power, Marlin Brando, Al Gore, Warren Buffet, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Laurence Olivier, Tyrone Power, Winston Churchill, Davy Crockett, Thomas F. Bayard, Paul Revere, George Washington, John Jay, John Rockefeller, Henry David Thoreau, William Wadsworth Longfellow, Peter Mark Roget, E. I. du Pont, Eddie Izzard, and the writer of the provocative screenplay “Rebirth”. There are many worldwide who share this proud legacy and many unknowingly so. See: Home for awards and news.