Reconstructing Charenton Temple
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Charenton Temple near Paris was the headquarters of French Protestantism in the 1600's. Charenton was known to several of our ancestors. Adrien Crommelin, the last of the children of Jean Crommelin and Marie De Sémery, married Susanne Doublet on August 11, 1641 at Charenton. Charles Crommelin was baptized there in 1676 presumably when Daniel, his father, was living in Paris and working as a banker. Also, Rachel Tacquelet (wife of Jean Crommelin) worshipped there occasionally when she lived alone in Paris in her old age.
The Charenton Consistory building (the French Protestant
administrative center) and a small chateau stood behind the temple.Although the church was demolished in 1685 because of the sectarian strife that followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many drawings still exist which give us an idea of what the temple looked like. Each drawing shows detail which differs from other drawings, but the overall size, shape, orientation, and location can be deduced by considering the principal features as seen in all the drawings.
Egon Speneder, a friend of Miff Crommelin, has made a computer model of Charenton temple for the benefit of church historians. This has been a painstaking and time-consuming process, but it no doubt provides a more realistic view of what the building must have looked like compared to earlier artists' concepts. Now we can 'look inside' Charenton temple and sense the spaciousness of the sanctuary as sunlight filters in through the windows.
The austere interior emphasized the Word of God and good acoustics so that a maximum number of people could hear the sermon at a time when no amplification of the preacher's voice was possible. The capacity of the church was around 4000 people.
Two sermons delivered at Charenton, 5 and 12 September 1649
by pastor Jean Daille Source:
Until recently this was perhaps the best concept of what the interior of Charenton Temple looked like.
The Law (the ceremonial and moral law of God) was an important theme represented by the Tablets of the Law, the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed which hung high above in the arched ceiling at one end of Charenton temple.
Nearly 340 years ago, on Sunday, January 5, 1676 [or the week before] Daniel Crommelin and Anne Testart would be sitting in either the red or green bench in front of the (blue) pulpit for the baptism of their son, Charles Crommelin. These two benches were reserved for those being married or baptized. The exact date is uncertain because the Charenton church registers were all consumed in the fire that destroyed the Charenton town hall in 1871.
Click to enlarge.The pictures below show the first stage of reconstructing Charenton temple using computer modeling techniques. Later we hope to have an exterior view of the building and the grounds as they appeared just prior to 1685. We also hope to find an audio sermon from this period which could be listened to as a viewer 'explores' Charenton over 325 years later!
Computer Modeling Reconstruction
Decalogue of the Reformed Church at Celle, Germany
which obviously originated somewhere in France. Click to enlarge.
Source: / See also:
Tucked away in a corner on the top floor of Charenton Temple, Pierre has been studying Calvin's "Institutes
of the Christian Religion" for 350 years. He was so engrossed in the book that he forgot to eat. Poor chap!
Contemporary theologians should be equally as dedicated!
Mention of Charenton by Rachel Tacquelet
(mother of Daniel Crommelin)
5 May 1685
My very dear grandson [Frederic de Coninck]...
...I took lodging at Mr. de la Chambre to whom I paid my respects and also with Mr. du Chemin and your aunt du Chemin [Esther Crommelin] who came to make her devotions at Charenton and was with me for 4 days. Together we talked about your plans to get married. I gave her ten gold louis [coins] to give you since I have a custom of giving this to all my children as a wedding present. You can use it any way you want as a remembrance of your dear grandmother...
[Rachel Tacquelet and her husband, Jean Crommelin, were the owners of the large Crommelin linen works in St. Quentin before the business was handed over to her son, Jacob Crommelin, brother of Daniel Crommelin.]
The louis d'or of Louis XIII were struck 1640-43 in large quantities
in an attempt to displace the miscellaneous écus d'or of an earlier reign, and that of Henri IV.
