Representation of an assembly of the desert; clandestine meetings held by Protestants at the time of persecution of their religion (i.e. between the abolition of the edit of Nantes in 1685 and the edit of tolerance of 1787); in order to celebrate Protestant worship; often on the occasion of a predicant itinerant; at the risk; always present in the minds; of being arrested and imprisoned by the authorities (Protestantism: assemblee du desert; assembly during the period between the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the Edict of Toleration (1685-1787) during which Protestantism was illegal in France) Engraving from ?????Les pritres et les monines a travers les ages?????by Hippolite Magen; 1857 Private collection