Week 4 – Reading Notes
Diefendorf, Barbara. Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth Century Paris. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1991.
1. Author’s Credentials: PhD from University of California at Berkeley; Professor Emeria of
History at Boston University; author of several books, journal articles, and book chapters
2. Research Questions:
a. What was the role of the violence in Paris in the overall French Wars of Religion?
b. What was the role of political notables in the violence that broke out in Paris, in
particular, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre?
3. Methodology: This is a work that examines the intersection of social, political, and religious
history.
4. Key Conclusions:
a. Argues that the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre or the League cannot be understood
without a full appreciation of the mass psychology of the Parisian populace from 1557-
1572
b. Argues that these years spawned not only the radicalization of opinion that would later
characterize both the league and the party of moderation whose solutions often
contributed to the mounting violence
c. Posits a strong religious basis for the French Wars of Religion – rituals enacted in Paris
merged civic, monarchical and Catholic symbols - the body social, the body politic, and
the body of Christ were so closely intertwined that they were inseparable
d. Argues that St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre was not an isolated incident of violence or
political intrigue but rather part of an inexorable sequence of events that resulted in the
bloody catharsis of August 1572. Rather than attributing the massacre to Machiavellian
politics, Diefendorf contends that in view of earlier events may have been the result of
panic or maybe a more calculated desire to destroy the Huguenots. Either way it was the
result of a sudden impulsive decision and not a carefully nurtured plot. A contagious
quality of fear fostered by the violence of the previous decade drove the fury of a large
segment of the populace.
5. Evidence:
a. 270 primary sources from the Geneva Archives, London Archives, and Paris Archives
b. Includes a 13-page bibliography of secondary sources
6. How does this book or article differ from established interpretations or how does the author bring
new ways of understanding the topic?
a. Challenged traditional interpretations that viewed the Wars of Religion as the result of
personal and political struggles for domination among the leaders of the nobility
b. For most of the twentieth century historians of the sixteenth century France have found
ways to take religion out of the Wars of Religion prompting many scholars from the
current generation to try to put it back in. Historians like Henri Drouot offered socio
political interpretations for the seemingly religious violence and recent works like Deniz
Crouzet demonstrate religion did play a role.
c. Janine Garrison’s book contends that “until recently most histories of the Wars of
Religion have been written in confessional terms, and the popular violence was
embarrassing to both sides” (5) so they have focused on the political rather than the
religious aspects of the Wars of Religion
d. Diefendorf traces both the extremist and moderate positions throughout the period
showing how previous studies that attempt to assess blame for specific events largely
miss the point. The climate of escalating fear and rumor that pervaded the capital in these
years, fed by ambiguities in the various edicts of toleration led to sporadic outbreaks of
violence
Holt, Mack P. The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
1. Author’s Credentials: PhD from Emory University; Professor of History Emeritus at George
Mason University; author of several books and articles on the French Wars of Religion and
French history
2. Research Questions:
a. What role did religion lay in the political, social, and economic tensions during the
French Wars of Religion?
b. What was the sequence of events that made up the French Wars of Religion?
3. Methodology: This is a work that examines the effects of religious adherence to politics, society,
and economics. It provides both a narrative of the French Wars of Religion and a synthesis of
current scholarship.
4. Key Conclusions:
a. Argues that “the French Wars of Religion were fought primarily over the issue of
religion” (2) – he does not see the wars as only political events or signs of socio-
economic tensions
b. Argues that religion was the “fulcrum upon which the civil wars balanced” (2)
c. Defines religion as a “body of believers” – a community – rather than a “body of beliefs”
– a theology or orthodoxy – people were united in a sacred community
d. Conflicts and violence erupted because Catholics and Protestants each saw the other as a
threat to their survival
e. By looking at these communities of believers, Holt illustrates their participation as agents
in the wars, not pawns to the machinations of those in political power
f. The final chapter deals with the economic and social impact of the wars. He concludes
with the assertion that absolutism was the solution to the disorder of the period but the
tensions created were an enduring legacy of the wars.
5. Evidence:
a. Multiple secondary sources
b. Jean du Tillet, Memoire & advis de M. Jean du Tillet, protenotaire dt Secretaire du Roy
tres-Chrestien, Greffur du sac our de Parlement (1594)
c. Theodore Beza, Histoire ecclesiastique des englises reformees au royaume de France.
d. Public records from Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
e. Bibliotheque de l’Institut de France
f. Diaries from the Bibliotheque municipal de Blois
6. How does this book or article differ from established interpretations or how does the author bring
new ways of understanding the topic?
a. The book was written for undergraduate students and general readers who might have no
background in the historiography or history of the period.
b. Concurs with historians John Bossy, Natalie Zeemon Davis and Denis Crouzet that the
period cannot be fully understood without grasping the importance of religion to the
people who lived in it
c. Contrary to other historians, Holt extends the period of the French Wars of Religion to
1629. Others tend to end with the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Holt sees Nantes not as a
permanent solution but as a temporary measure to end the violence long enough for the
Huguenots to follow the king’s example and return to Catholicism. The end goal of
Nantes was not toleration, it was unity.
Tulchin, Allan A. “Ending the French Wars of Religion.” American Historical Review (December 2015):
1696-1708.
1. Author’s Credentials: PhD from University of Chicago; Associate Professor of History at
Shippensburg University
2. Research Questions:
a. Why was it difficult for the Wars of Religion to find an end?
b. What can historians learn from other academic disciplines, in this case political science,
that can be applied to the French Wars of Religion?
3. Methodology: This work applies theories from political science to understand the political,
cultural, and social reasons for the extended period of conflict in the French Wars of Religion
4. Key Conclusions:
a. Applying political science models, Tulchin finds three conclusions about the French
Wars of Religion
i. They came to an end because the factions learned more about their opponents
ii. The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre showed members of both sides that the
opposition could not be eliminated. Both sides began to “recognize that total
victory was impossible, and made peace more likely.” (1703)
iii. The peace that came about with Henri IV in 1598 was more stable because he
was “not seen as a biased mediator.” (1698) Be was viewed as a victor who had a
conciliatory approach that came as a result of his experiences as a leader in the
Protestant movement
b. Sixteenth century understandings of the role of the monarch made compromise difficult,
if not impossible
c. Religious beliefs made compromise more difficult to achieve. “Many French Catholics
and Protestants expected God to intervene to ensure that the righteous side would win.”
(1699)
d. It became clear after 1577 that “religious uniformity was incompatible with political
unity or social peace.” (1705)
e. The French Wars of Religion should be divided into two groups: “The first seven, which
led slowly to a fragile peace, and the eighth, which lasted as long as the first seven
combined, but which led to a firmer peace based on similar principles.” (1706)
f. Understanding political science models can help historians gain clarity about the Wars of
Religion and how and why they ended
g. Henri IV’s peace settlement and later conversion gave French Catholics hope that the
nation would again unify under the one true church and helped solidify the idea of
absolute monarchy
5. Evidence:
a. Greengrass, Mark. Governing Passions: Peace and Reform in the French Kingdom,
1576-1585. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
b. Reiter, Dan. How Wars End. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
c. Memoirs de Conde, servant d’eclaircissement et de preuves a l’Historire de M. de Thou:
Contenatn ce qui s’est passe de plue memorable en Europe (1743)
d. Theodore Beza, Histoire ecclesiastique des eglises reformees au royaume de France
e. Toft, Monica Duffy. Securing the Peace: The Durable Settlement of Civil Wars.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
6. How does this book or article differ from established interpretations or how does the author bring
new ways of understanding the topic?
a. Other historians have portrayed the eight Wars of Religion as “largely identical clashes
that continued to reignite because France’s Catholics simply refused to accept the
existence of an organized Protestant movement in the country.” (1696) The goal of the
wars was not to overcome the opponent but to annihilate it.
b. The historiography tended to place blame on the last members of the Valois dynasty for
failing to end the wars
Diefendorf, Barbara. “The Scars of Religious War in Histories of French Cities (1600-1750).” French
History, Vol. 34, No. 4 (2020).
1. Author’s Credentials: PhD from University of California at Berkeley; Professor Emeria of
History at Boston University; author of several books, journal articles, and book chapters
2. Research Questions:
a. Why did local historians not follow the national trend to interpret the French Wars of
Religion along political and not confessional lines?
b. How did Catholic historians remember the Wars of Religion on a local level and why
were their writings still filled with anti-Protestant invective even after the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes?
3. Methodology: The article explores history in memory and the religious and social motivations of
those who wrote local histories in France during the century and a half after the Edict of Nantes.
4. Key Conclusions:
a. Local historians needed to mobilize memory “to reaffirm a unified local identity rooted in
Catholic practice and belief after the schism provoked by the wars.” (455)
b. “Catholic confessionalization… worked by ‘othering’ members of the minority faith,
excluding them from the bonds of community and depicting them as dangerous enemies
of civic unity.” (455)
c. In spite of some local historians’ claim to historical accuracy in their work, many
“commonly wrote in an emotionally charged language that united them with their
coreligionists in the shared suffering of their common past.” (458) The language in
Catholic narrative can be understood within the context of their need to “restore and
reaffirm a shared sense of Catholic community at the local level.” (460)
d. Local histories were confessional in nature. They reinforced the idea that “the Catholic
Church offered the only sure path to salvation.” (461)
e. Historians have overlooked local histories, but “they are both symptoms and carriers of a
memory culture that marginalized Protestants as outsiders by celebrating a civic – an
ultimately a French – identity defined in confessional terms.” (470)
f. The Edict of Nantes created a bi-confessional state in which the people co-existed by
mandate, but memory was long and the official policy of the government could not erase
past wrongs.
5. Evidence:
a. Used 58 urban histories in France published between 1600 and 1750
b. Bibliotheque nationale’s Catalogue de l’historie de France
c. Jacque Le Long’s Bibliotheque historique de la France
6. How does this book or article differ from established interpretations or how does the author bring
new ways of understanding the topic?
a. Some previous scholars suggested that local histories wanted to hide or forget the
experiences of their local people and city during the French Wars of Religion . National
histories do this, to be sure, but Diefendorf shows that local historians were not of the
same mind.
1. Citation: Discours merveilleux de la vie, actions & deportemens de Catherine de Medicis Royne
mere, Auquel sont recitez les moyens qu'elle a tenu pour usurper le gouuernement du Royaume de
France, & ruiner l'estat d'iceluy. (1575) University of Virginia Library.
2. Key Conclusions: The work is a political, rather than religious, piece that explains that Catherine
de Medici has usurped the government of France as was responsible for the ruin of the nation. It
outlines her life from her birth to her regency for Henri III. It paints her as a woman of passion
and ambition who would stop at nothing, including murder, to gain more power. This is one of
the texts that places sole blame for the Wars of Religion on Catherine de Medici.
3. Primary sources: This text is one of the foundational texts for what historians once understood
about the character of Catherine de Medici. The authorship is debated among historians. It is not
kind to her in any respect, while it does exonerate many of her fellow Catholics in the
government. It seems to be more anti-Italian than anti-Catholic.
1. Citation: The Ronsard Polemic (1563). University of Virginia Library.
2. Key Conclusions: Ronsard’s poems called for the end of the Wars of Religion and unity in
France. In one, he calls on Theodore Beza, the leader of the Protestants, to personally take action
to stop the violence. Throughout the works that make up the Polemic, he condemns heresy, calls
for Protestants and Catholics to sign peace agreements, and asks God to help restore order to
France.
3. Primary sources: These were a series of religious poems written by Pierre de Ronsard. They were
a defense of the Catholic Church and Catherine de Medici. Ronsard was a critic of Protestants,
both politically and theologically. These discourses were popular throughout France during the
period.
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