Protestant Exodus and Demographic Collapse

One summer night in 1686, in the rain and with snow still present at altitude, the inhabitants of Mizoën left their village in silence. Jean Giraud recounts this night departure as a wrenching separation: people left without a sound, carrying only a few rags, a few memories, and the Bible. On July 29, 1686, almost the entire community set out on the mountain paths. At dawn, at the pass, it rained, it snowed, and the ice made walking perilous. Behind them were their houses and fields; ahead of them was exile, often toward Switzerland or the German lands. Historically, this exile was part of the wave of departures caused by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Between the autumn of 1685 and the summer of 1686, most inhabitants classified as Protestants or “new converts” left the village clandestinely. The consequences were immediate: Mizoën fell from 122 families in 1684 to 67 in 1686, then to around fifty taxable households in 1687, and to only 25 or 26 inhabitants in 1692. The commune was emptied, land was abandoned, family ties were broken, and the old Protestant society of Mizoën disappeared almost entirely. This episode remains one of the most brutal moments in the village’s history.