Each coin bears, engraved around its rim, the life of the man; the exergue sums up his legacy. Twenty-four figures, chosen among many others: a selection, not an inventory.
Coin I · forerunner
The Poor of Lyon
A Lyon merchant who became an itinerant preacher after having the Scriptures translated into the vernacular. His community will survive persecution and join the Reformation three centuries later.
Life
c. 1140 – c. 1206
Centre
Lyon
Later depiction: no contemporary portrait is known. Sources
Coin II · forerunner
Scripture above the pope
An Oxford theologian, behind the first complete translation of the Bible into English. His writings will circulate as far as Bohemia and nourish the Hussite movement.
Life
c. 1330 – 1384
Centre
Oxford
Later depiction: no contemporary portrait is known. Sources
The word “evangelical”
What it says, and what it does not
The word comes from evangelium, the good news: in the 16th century it simply refers to those who want to return to the gospel. In France, since the 19th century, it has taken on a more precise meaning, that of a Protestantism that stresses four points: the authority of the Bible, the need for personal conversion, the centrality of the cross, and commitment to witness and service.
It is therefore neither a denomination nor an American import: it is a sensibility that runs through very different families — several of which were born in France or Switzerland long before any influence from the United States. And the adjective “evangelical” is not opposed to “Protestant”: it refers to part of it.
These two men come before the Reformation. They are not called “evangelicals” in today’s sense: the word took on its meaning much later. Striking their portraits on these medallions expresses a shared commitment to accessible Scripture and its primacy, without implying a direct institutional lineage.
Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition12 / 49
Medal page · forerunners and ReformersSix coins · obverse
The portrait gallery
Second page: from Prague to the Cévennes, those who gave the Reformation its theology, its churches of professing believers and its revivals.
Coin I · forerunner
The Unity of the Brethren
Preacher at the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague and a disciple of Wycliffe, he is burned at Constance in 1415 despite an imperial safe-conduct. His followers will found the Unity of the Brethren in 1457, from which the Moravian Brethren descend.
Life
c. 1372 – 1415
Centre
Prague
Later depiction: no contemporary portrait is known. Sources
Coin II · Reformed and Lutherans
The 95 Theses
An Augustinian monk and professor of Bible, he challenges the trade in indulgences in 1517 and rediscovers justification by faith alone. His translation of the Bible into German puts Scripture into the hands of the people.
Life
1483 – 1546
Centre
Wittenberg
Coin III · Reformed and Lutherans
Theologian of the Huguenots
Exiled from France, he publishes the Institutes of the Christian Religion in Basel, then organises the church of Geneva, from which the pastors of the Reformed churches of France set out. His presbyterian-synodal order still shapes Reformed Protestantism.
Life
1509 – 1564
Centre
Geneva
Coin IV · Mennonites
Father of the Mennonites
A Frisian priest who joined peaceful Anabaptism in 1536, he gathers the communities scattered after the Münster disaster. His name remains attached to the Mennonites, churches of professing believers committed to non-violence.
Life
1496 – 1561
Centre
Timeline
Later depiction: no contemporary portrait is known. Sources
Coin V · Reformed · the “Desert”
Restorer of the “Desert”
At twenty, in 1715, he convenes the first synod of the Desert and reorganises the clandestine Reformed churches after the Revocation. From Lausanne he then trains the pastors who make their way back to France.
Life
1695 – 1760
Centre
Cévennes
No portrait of Antoine Court has been found: his initials take the place of a face. Sources
Coin VI · Methodists
Father of Methodism
An Anglican clergyman whose heart was “strangely warmed” at Aldersgate in 1738, he preaches in the open air to crowds of working people and organises his converts into societies. Methodism is born of this revival, with no intended break from the Church of England.
Life
1703 – 1791
Centre
London
Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition13 / 49
Medal page · Free Evangelical Churches, Brethren and PentecostalsSix coins · obverse
The portrait gallery
Third page: in the 19th and 20th centuries, the free churches, the Brethren assemblies, Pentecostalism, the Bible Students — and, looking further back, the first Baptist church.
Coin I · Free Evangelical Churches
Founder of the Free Evangelical Churches
A pastor in Paris shaped by the Geneva Réveil, he leaves the state-recognised Reformed Church in 1849 to found, with Agénor de Gasparin, the Union of Free Evangelical Churches. He wants a church of professing believers, independent of the state and founded on a confession of faith.
Life
1794 – 1863
Centre
Paris
Coin II · Brethren assemblies
The Brethren assemblies
A former minister of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland, he joins the first Plymouth Brethren and, from 1837, travels through French-speaking Switzerland, then the South of France. His assemblies, without clergy, gather around the Lord’s Supper and the reading of Scripture.
Life
1800 – 1882
Centre
Ireland, the South of France
Coin III · Pentecostals
Pentecostal pioneer
An English evangelist who arrived in Le Havre in 1930, he preaches the baptism in the Holy Spirit and healing at Hélène Biolley’s, at the Ruban Bleu. From this centre the Assemblies of God of France are born.
Life
1900 – 1967
Centre
Le Havre
Coin IV · Pentecostals
Apostle to the Travellers
A pastor of the Assemblies of God, from the 1950s he baptises the first Gypsy converts in Brittany and founds the Vie et Lumière (“Life and Light”) mission. It has become a worldwide Pentecostal union among Travellers.
Life
1921 – 2001
Centre
Brittany
Coin V · Bible Students
The Bible Students
A Pittsburgh businessman formed in the wake of Millerism, in 1879 he founds the magazine The Watchtower and the Bible Students movement. His successors will turn it into the Jehovah’s Witnesses, breaking with the faith of Nicaea.
Life
1852 – 1916
Centre
Pittsburgh
Coin VI · Baptists
The first Baptist church
An English Separatist who took refuge in Amsterdam, he baptises himself and then his congregation, probably at the beginning of 1609: this is the first Baptist church. He then draws closer to the Mennonites; Helwys and a minority refuse this union and found, in London in 1612, the first Baptist church in England.
Life
1570 – 1612
Centre
Amsterdam
Attribution not confirmed; image used for illustration. Sources
Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition14 / 49
Medal page · revivals, Adventism and Bible StudentsSix coins · obverse
The portrait gallery
Fourth page: from Azusa Street to Herrnhut, the revivals, Adventism and the Bible Students — with the Geneva Réveil and the French-speaking Reformation.
Coin I · Pentecostals
The Azusa Street revival
A Black preacher, the son of former slaves in Louisiana, he leads the Azusa Street meetings in Los Angeles from 1906. This interracial revival is one of the major centres from which Pentecostalism spread worldwide.
Life
1870 – 1922
Centre
Los Angeles
Coin II · Millerism · Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventists
After the Millerite “Great Disappointment” of 1844, her visions and writings shape the movement that becomes the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. The Sabbath, health and the expectation of Christ’s return are its hallmarks.
Life
1827 – 1915
Centre
United States
Coin III · Bible Students
Jehovah’s Witnesses
A lawyer who succeeded Russell at the head of the Watch Tower Society in 1917, he centralises the movement and in 1931 gives it the name Jehovah’s Witnesses. Its non-Nicene Christology places them outside the Protestant families.
Life
1869 – 1942
Centre
Brooklyn
Coin IV · Moravians
The Moravian revival
A Saxon count raised in Pietism, he welcomes the descendants of the Bohemian Brethren onto his lands: Herrnhut is born in 1722, the revival in 1727. From 1732 the Moravians send out their first missionaries, and they leave their mark on John Wesley.
Life
1700 – 1760
Centre
Herrnhut
Coin V · the Geneva Réveil
The Geneva Réveil
A Scottish layman, in 1816-1817 he gathers theology students in his Geneva drawing room to read the Epistle to the Romans. Merle d’Aubigné, Gaussen, Frédéric Monod and Henri Pyt come out of this revival.
Life
1764 – 1842
Centre
Geneva
Coin VI · Reformed and Lutherans
Reformer of the French-speaking world
An evangelist from the Dauphiné who had been part of the Meaux circle, he wins Neuchâtel and Geneva for the Reformation and, at Chanforan in 1532, secures the Waldensians’ adherence. It is he who keeps Calvin in Geneva in 1536.
Life
1489 – 1565
Centre
French-speaking Switzerland
Anonymous 16th-century portrait (Bibliothèque de Genève); attribution unconfirmed. Sources
Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition15 / 49
Medal page · from Saillens to the ArnottsFour coins · obverse
The portrait gallery
Fifth page: four faces, from the Tower of Constance to the charismatic renewal in Toronto.
Coin I · Baptists
The Bible institute
A Baptist pastor, evangelist and hymn writer, in 1921 he founds, with his wife Jeanne, the Nogent-sur-Marne Bible Institute, which has since trained Christian workers from every evangelical family. He embodies a French Baptist tradition shaped by revivalism.
Life
1855 – 1942
Centre
Nogent-sur-Marne
Coin II · Reformed · the “Desert”
The resistance of the “Desert”
Held for thirty-eight years in the Tower of Constance for her Reformed faith, she refuses to abjure and supports her fellow prisoners; the word “Résister” (resist) carved into the well-curb is attributed to her. She is released in 1768.
Life
1711 – 1776
Centre
Aigues-Mortes
Image of unknown origin, used for illustration; no contemporary portrait has been found. Sources
Coin III · Anabaptists
The first Anabaptists
A Zurich humanist, at first a disciple of Zwingli, on 21 January 1525 he baptises the first adults on profession of faith: Anabaptism is born. Banished from his city, he dies of the plague the following year.
Life
c. 1498 – 1526
Centre
Zurich
Modern depiction (Oliver W. Schenk, 1972); no contemporary portrait has been found. Sources
Coin IV · charismatics · Catch The Fire
The Toronto Blessing
Pastors of the Toronto Airport Vineyard, in January 1994 they see a revival break out that draws visitors from all over the world. Their church becomes Catch The Fire, a charismatic network now present in France.
Milestone
Toronto, 1994
Centre
Toronto
Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition16 / 49
Sébastien Fath, Une autre manière d’être chrétien en France. Socio-histoire de l’implantation baptiste (1810-1950) [Another way of being Christian in France: a social history of the establishment of Baptist churches in France, 1810–1950], Labor et Fides.
Sébastien Fath and Jean-Paul Willaime (eds.), La nouvelle France protestante. Essor et recomposition au XXIe siècle [The new Protestant France: growth and reconfiguration in the 21st century], Labor et Fides.
André Encrevé (ed.), Les protestants [The Protestants] (Dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine), Beauchesne.
Patrick Cabanel, Histoire des protestants en France, XVIe-XXIe siècle [A history of Protestants in France, 16th–21st century], Fayard.
Jean Baubérot, Histoire du protestantisme [A history of Protestantism], PUF, “Que sais-je ?”.
Musée virtuel du protestantisme (Virtual Museum of Protestantism) — thematic and biographical entries (in French).