[30] During the Protestant Reformation, Lefevre, a professor at the University of Paris, published his French translation of the New Testament in 1523, followed by the whole Bible in the French language in 1530. The Huguenot population of France dropped to 856,000 by the mid-1660s, of which a plurality lived in rural areas. The Edict reaffirmed Roman Catholicism as the state religion of France, but granted the Protestants equality with Catholics under the throne and a degree of religious and political freedom within their domains. Numerous signs of Huguenot presence can still be seen with names still in use, and with areas of the main towns and cities named after the people who settled there. The Huguenot Refuge in Switzerland - Muse protestant The French Protestant Church of London was established by Royal Charter in 1550. Various hypotheses have been promoted. Eric J. Roth, "From Protestant International to Hudson Valley Provincial: A Case Study of Language Use and Ethnicity in New Paltz, New York, 16781834". Of the refugees who arrived on the Kent coast, many gravitated towards Canterbury, then the county's Calvinist hub. Huguenot refugees also settled in the Delaware River Valley of Eastern Pennsylvania and Hunterdon County, New Jersey in 1725. Huguenot & Palatine Names in Ireland - Dochara Ancient relics and texts were destroyed; the bodies of saints exhumed and burned. Surnames found in Ireland which date to time in the 16th and 17th centuries when French Huguenots or German Palatines fleeing religious persecution in their home countries came to Ireland. By 1562, the estimated number of Huguenots peaked at approximately two million, concentrated mainly in the western, southern, and some central parts of France, compared to approximately sixteen million Catholics during the same period. 70 old books History & Genealogy of South Carolina SC on DVD CD [42][43], The French Wars of Religion began with the Massacre of Vassy on 1 March 1562, when dozens[8] (some sources say hundreds[44]) of Huguenots were killed, and about 200 were wounded.