History of the French Reformation & the Huguenots

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Order of Contents

Short & Medium Histories
Large Histories
Specific Historical Periods
Historical Theology

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Short & Medium Histories

1800’s

Religious Tract Society

The History of Protestantism in France, from the Earliest Ages to the end of the Reign of Charles IX [1574]  1848  200 pp.

The History of Protestantism in France from the End of the Reign of Charles IX [1574] to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes [1685]  1848  200 pp.

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1900’s

Grant, A.J. – The Huguenots  Buy  1934  255 pp.

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2000’s

ed. Klauber, Martin – The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV [1553] to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes [1685]  Buy  (RHB, 2014)  432 pp.

The first half of this work gives a very clear, helpful and brief history of the time period in question.  The second half delves into the historical theology of significant reformed, French theologians.

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Large Histories

1700’s

Laval, Stephen – A Compendious History of the Reformation in France… from the First Beginnings of the Reformation to the Repealing of the Edict of Nantz [1685], vol. 1, 2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2  1737

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1800’s

Smedley, Edward – History of the Reformed Religion in France, vol. 1, 2, 3  1834

Baird, Henry M.

The History of the Rise of the Huguenots, vol. 1 (1500’s-1562), 2 (1562-1574)  1880

Baird was a professor of the University of the City of New York.

“Vehemently pro-Huguenot…  the only full narrative in English, and had real learning as well as vigour.” – Owen Chadwick

The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre, vol. 1 (1574-1587), 2 (1588-1610)  1886

The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, vol. 1 (1610-1685), 2 (1685-1802)  1895

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Specific Historical Periods

Plummer, Alfred – The Continental Reformation in Germany, France, and Switzerland, from the birth of Luther to the death of Calvin [1564]  1912  230 pp.  Especially ch. 8, ‘Calvin in France & Switzerland: Servetus’

Collett, Barry – A Long and Troubled Pilgrimage: the Correspondence of Marguerite D’Angouleme and Vittoria Colonna, 1540-1545  1993  175 pp.

Willis-Watkins, David – The Second Commandment and Church Reform: the Colloquy of St. Germaine-en-Laye, 1562  1994  88 pp.

Kingdon, Robert M. – Geneva and the Coming of the Wars of Religion in France (1555-1563)  Buy  1956  170 pp.

“Valuable monograph.” – Owen Chadwick

ed. Barker, S.K. – Revisiting Geneva: Robert Kingdon and the Coming of the French Wars of Religion  St. Andrews Studies in French History and Culture  (Centre for French History and Culture, 2012)  107 pp.

Kingdon, Robert – Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement, 1564-1572; a contribution to the history of Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, and Calvinist Resistance Theory  (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1967)

Hannah, William – Wycliffe and the Huguenots, or Sketches of the Rise of the Reformation in England and of the Early History of Protestantism in France [1515-1572]  1860  290 pp.

Kingdon, Robert – Myths about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacres, 1572-1576  (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988)

Baird, Henry M. – ‘Hotman and the ‘Franco-Gallia’ [1573]’  1896  23 pp.  in The American Historical Review

Francois Hotman (1524–1590) was a Huguenot lawyer, writer and leader of those who resisted absolute monarchy.  

Hotman, Franco-Gallia: Or an Account of the Ancient Free State of France and most other Parts of Europe before the Loss of their Liberties (1573)

Hotman wrote this in the late 1560’s, though it was only published after St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (the treacherous Roman Catholic slaughter of Protestants) in 1572.  See R.H. Murray on this workFrom the Translator’s Preface:

“Tis certainly as much a treason and rebellion against this constitution, and the known laws, in a Prince to endeavor to break through them, as ’tis in the people to rise against him, whilst he keeps within their bounds and does his duty.  Our constitution is a government of laws, not of persons.  Allegiance and protection are obligations that cannot subsist separately; when one fails, the other falls of course.  The true etymology of the word ‘loyalty’ (which has been so strangely wrested in the late reigns) is an entire obedience to the Prince in all his commands according to law; that is, to the laws themselves, to which we owe both an active and passive obedience.

By the old and true maxim, that the King can do no wrong, no body is so foolish as to conclude, that he has not strength to murder, to offer violence to women, or power enough to dispossess a man wrongfully of his estate, or that whatever he does (how wicked soever) is just: but the meaning is, he has no lawful power to do such things; and our constitution considers no power as irresistible, but what is lawful.”

Neale, J.E. – The Age of Catherine de Medici  Buy  1943

Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) was an Italian noblewoman who was queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, by marriage to King Henry II, and Queen mother of kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III from 1559 to 1589.  The years during which her sons reigned have been called “the age of Catherine de’ Medici” as she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France.

Baird, Henry M. – ‘The Strength and the Weakness of the Edict of Nantes [1598]’  1898  9 pp.

Baird, Henry M. – Theodore Beza, the Counselor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605  1899  440 pp.

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Historical Theology

Armstrong, Brian G. – Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy; Protestant Scholasticism and Humanism in Seventeenth-Century France  (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1969)

ed. Klauber, Martin – The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV [1553] to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes [1685]  Buy  (RHB, 2014)  432 pp.

The first half of this work gives a very clear, helpful and brief history of the time period in question.  The second half delves into the historical theology of significant reformed, French theologians.

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Related Pages

Reformation & Puritan History

Church History

Historical Theology