, whose ideas became central to French Protestantism
Introduction of Reformation ideas Renaissance humanism began during the 14th century in Italy and arrived in France in the early 16th, coinciding with the rise of
Protestantism in France. The movement emphasised the importance of
ad fontes, or study of original sources, and initially focused on the reconstruction of secular
Greek and
Latin texts. It later expanded into the reading, study and translation of works by the
Church Fathers and the
New Testament, with a view to religious renewal and reform. Humanist scholars argued
interpretation of the
Bible required an ability to read the New Testament and
Old Testaments in the original Greek and
Hebrew, rather than relying on the 4th century Latin translation known as the "
Vulgate Bible". In 1495, the Venetian
Aldus Manutius began using the newly invented printing press to produce small, inexpensive, pocket editions of Greek, Latin, and vernacular literature, making knowledge in all disciplines available for the first time to a wide audience. Cheap pamphlets and broadsides allowed theological and religious ideas to be disseminated at an unprecedented pace. In 1519, John Froben published a collection of works by
Martin Luther and noted in his correspondence that 600 copies were being shipped to France and Spain and sold in
Paris. In 1521, a group of reformers including
Jacques Lefèvre and
Guillaume Briçonnet, recently appointed
bishop of Meaux, formed the Circle of
Meaux, aiming to improve the quality of preaching and religious life in general. They were joined by
François Vatable, an
expert in Hebrew, along with
Guillaume Budé, a
classicist and Royal librarian. Lefèvre's
Fivefold Psalter and his commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans emphasised the literal interpretation of the Bible and the centrality of
Jesus Christ. Many of the tenets behind
Lutheranism first appeared in Luther's lectures, which in turn contained many of the ideas expressed in the works of Lefèvre. Other members of the Circle included
Marguerite de Navarre, sister of Francis I and mother of
Jeanne d'Albret, as well as
Guillaume Farel, who was exiled to
Geneva in 1530 due to his reformist views and persuaded
John Calvin to join him there. Both men were banished from Geneva in 1538 for opposing what they viewed as government interference with religious affairs; although the two fell out over the nature of the
Eucharist, Calvin's return to Geneva in 1541 allowed him to forge the doctrine of
Calvinism. A key driver behind the Reform movement was corruption among the
clergy which Luther and others attacked and sought to change. Such criticisms were not new but the printing press allowed them to be widely shared, such as the
Heptaméron by Marguerite, a collection of stories about clerical immorality. Another complaint was the reduction of
Salvation to a business scheme based on the sale of
Indulgences, which added to general unrest and increased the popularity of works such as Farel's translation of the Lord's Prayer,
The True and Perfect Prayer. This focused on
Sola fide, or the idea salvation was a free gift from God, emphasised the importance of understanding in prayer and criticised the clergy for hampering the growth of true faith.
Growth of Calvinism repressed Reformist ideas The Italian revival of classical learning appealed to
Francis I (1494–1547), who set up royal professorships in
Paris to better understand ancient literature. However, this did not extend to religion, especially after the 1516
Concordat of Bologna when
Pope Leo X increased royal control of the
Gallican church, allowing Francis to nominate French clergy and levy taxes on church property. Unlike Germany, the French nobility also generally supported the status quo and existing policies. Despite his personal opposition, Francis tolerated
Martin Luther's ideas when they entered France in the late 1520s, largely because the definition of Catholic
orthodoxy was unclear, making it hard to determine precisely what was or was not
heresy. He tried to steer a middle course in the developing religious schism, but in January 1535, Catholic authorities made a definitive ruling by classifying "Lutherans" as heretical
Zwinglians. Calvin, originally from
Noyon in
Picardy, went into exile in 1535 to escape persecution and settled in
Basel, where he published the
Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1538. This work contained the key principles of
Calvinism, which became immensely popular in France and other European countries. Lutheranism was widespread within the French commercial class; it flourished in the cities but was not adopted among the peasantry. However, it cut across social class and strata and encompassed the entire country. Its rapid growth was driven by the nobility, where being a Huguenot became fashionable. It is believed to have started when
Condé passed through Geneva while returning home from a military campaign and heard a Calvinist sermon. Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, converted to Calvinism in 1560, possibly due to the influence of
Theodore de Beze. Along with Condé and her husband
Antoine of Navarre, she and their son Henry of Navarre became Huguenot leaders.
Rise in factionalism The crown continued efforts to remain neutral in the religious debate until the
Affair of the Placards in October 1534, when Protestant radicals put up posters in Paris and other provincial towns that rejected the Catholic doctrine of the "
Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist". This allowed Protestantism to be clearly defined as heresy, while Francis was furious at the breach of security which had allowed one of the posters to be placed on the door of his bedchamber. Having been severely criticised for his initial tolerance, he was now encouraged to punish those responsible. On 21 February 1535, a number of those implicated in the Affair were
executed in front of
Notre-Dame de Paris, an event attended by Francis and members of the
Ottoman embassy to France. , as imagined by
Gustave Doré (1832–1883) The fight against heresy intensified in the 1540s, forcing Protestants to worship in secret. In October 1545, Francis ordered the punishment of
Waldensians based in the south-eastern village of
Mérindol. A long-standing
Proto-Protestantism tradition dating back to the 13th century, the Waldensians had recently affiliated with the Reformed church and became increasingly militant in their activities. In what became known as the
Massacre of Mérindol, Provençal troops killed numerous residents and destroyed another 22 to 28 nearby villages, while hundreds of men were forced to become
Galley slaves. Francis I died on 31 March 1547 and was succeeded by his son
Henry II, who continued the religious repression pursued by his father in the last years of his reign. His policies were even more severe since he sincerely believed all Protestants were heretics; on 27 June 1551, the
Edict of Châteaubriant sharply curtailed their right to worship. Prohibitions were placed upon the distribution of 'heretical' literature, with the property of 'heretics' seizable by the crown. From his base in Geneva, Calvin provided leadership and organisational structures for the
Reformed Church of France.
Calvinism proved attractive to people from across the social hierarchy and occupational divides and was highly regionalised, with no coherent pattern of geographical spread. Despite persecution, their numbers and power increased markedly, driven by the conversion to Calvinism of large sections of the nobility. Historians estimate that by the outbreak of war in 1562, there were around two million French Calvinists, including more than half of the nobility, backed by 1,200–1,250 churches. This constituted a substantial threat to the monarchy.
Amboise conspiracy In 1559, the Italian wars between France and Spain ended with the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. These wars had nearly bankrupted both countries. Additionally, the death of Henry II in July 1559 created a political vacuum and an internal struggle for power between rival factions, which the 15-year-old Francis II lacked the ability to control.
Francis, Duke of Guise, whose niece Mary, Queen of Scots, was married to the king, exploited the situation to establish dominance over their rivals, the
House of Montmorency. Within days of the King's accession, the English ambassador reported "the
house of Guise ruleth and doth all about the French King". On 10 March 1560, a group of disaffected nobles led by Jean du Barry, attempted to break the power of the Guise by abducting the young king. Their plans were discovered before being carried out and hundreds of suspected plotters executed, including du Barry. The Guise suspected Condé of involvement in the plot, and he was arrested and sentenced to death before being freed in the political chaos that followed the sudden death of Francis II, adding to the tensions of the period. In the aftermath of the plot, the term "
Huguenot" for France's Protestants came into widespread usage. Shortly afterwards, the first instances of Protestant
iconoclasm or the destruction of images and statues in Catholic churches, occurred in
Rouen and
La Rochelle. This continued throughout 1561 in more than 20 cities and towns, sparking attacks on Protestants by Catholic mobs in
Sens,
Cahors,
Carcassonne,
Tours and elsewhere.
Regency of Catherine de' Medici , When
Francis II died on 5 December 1560, his mother
Catherine de' Medici became regent for her second son, the nine year old
Charles IX. With the state financially exhausted by the Italian Wars, Catherine had to preserve the independence of the monarchy from a range of competing factions led by powerful nobles, each of whom controlled what were essentially private armies. To offset the Guise or "Guisard", she agreed a deal in which Antoine of Navarre renounced any claim to the regency in return for Condé's release and the position of
Lieutenant-General of France. Catherine had several options for dealing with "heresy", including continuing Henry's II's failed policy of eradication, an approach backed by Catholic
ultras such as
François de Tournon, or converting the monarchy to Calvinism, as preferred by de Bèze. A middle path between these two extremes was allowing both religions to be openly practised in France at least temporarily, or the Guisard compromise of scaling back persecution but not permitting
toleration. For the moment she held to the Guisard line. Before his death, Francis II had called the first
Estates General held since 1484, which in December 1560 assembled in
Orléans to discuss topics which included taxation and religion. It made little progress on the latter, other than agreeing to pardon those convicted of religious offences in the prior year. Since this was clearly unacceptable to Condé and his followers, Catherine bypassed the Estates and enacted conciliatory measures such as the
Edict of 19 April 1561 and the
Edict of July. This recognised Catholicism as the state religion but confirmed
previous measures reducing penalties for "heresy". The Estates then approved the
Colloquy of Poissy, which began its session on 8 September 1561, with the Protestants led by de Bèze and the Catholics by
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, brother of the Duke of Guise. The two sides initially sought to accommodate Protestant forms of worship within the existing church but this proved impossible. By the time the Colloquy ended on 8 October, it was clear the divide between Catholic and Protestant theology was too wide to be bridged. With their options narrowing, the government attempted to quell escalating disorder in the provinces by passing the
Edict of Saint-Germain, which allowed Protestants to worship in public outside towns and in private inside them. On 1 March, Guise family retainers attacked a Calvinist service in
Champagne, leading to what became known as the
massacre of Vassy. This seemed to confirm Huguenot fears that the Guisards had no intention of compromising and is generally seen as the spark which led to open hostilities between the two religions.
Turn to violence Guyenne was the epicentre of the turn to religious violence in late 16th-century France. Many explanations have been proffered for the rise of violence. Traditional explanations focus on the influence of Jeanne d'Albret and Antoine of Navarre. Other explanations focus on the rise of
seigneurialism in the 1550s and see the turn to violence as a response of the peasant class. The murder of the baron of by a Protestant mob in 1561 is often cited as an example. Recent analyses, on the other hand, have turned the focus on religious explanations.
Denis Crouzet blames the fiery eschatological preaching of the Franciscan
Thomas Illyricus, who toured the region in the 1510s and 1520s. Stuart Carroll, however, argues for politicisation: "the violence was directly caused by politicized factions and was not the result of a spontaneous intercommunal eruption." == 1562–1570 ==