Carrefour Théologique at Montauban

The building that was used for the Carrefour Théologique at Montauban was built in the 1300s. In its time it has been a convent, then a prison for protestant girls and women, then a convent again, then a prison for priests, then a protestant seminary, then a military hospital. Now it's a retirement home. In the attic there's a museum of artefacts relating to the building's history. A list of the protestant women imprisoned. Some graffiti and a diary entry dating from those times.

At the revolution the nuns were carted off to Paris and "more or less guillotined" said the guide. We all decided that the less guillotined we were, the better. The priests were "hanged or killed".

The diary extract says "the 14th January 1686 Mr. Mubasson the consul, followed by several archers and sergeants, took by force and with the greatest violence my youngest sister whom he imprisoned, by order of the intendant, in the convent of Saint Claire at Montauban. My dear mother was also dragged off there at the same time. The next day a squad of four men came early to find me in my room to tell me that they had the orders of the intendant to put me in prison unless I agreed to recant. I embraced my wife and my poor children and we said goodbye for ever, in tears, but mutually resolved never to abandon our faith in Jesus Christ who had chosen us to suffer for his name. I was shut up in the chateau royal (the Montauban civil prison) and forbidden to see anyone. Also my sister, Mrs Derassus, was imprisoned by order of the intendant."

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