The French Reformation

The French Reformation seemed well-placed to succeed: there was a vigorous pre-reform movement, an apparent welcome for the work of French-speaking reformers in many quarters despite severe persecution, and the beginnings of a powerful and well-organized church structure. Yet, French protestantism remained the faith only of a minority. This book seeks to understand this apparent contradiction and to explain why protestantism failed to take hold in France. Heterodoxy in the Early French Reformation

Repression and the growth of a Protestant church

The social geography of French Protestantism

The Huguenots and the civil wars

Appendix: The social geography of French Protestantism around 1560

Mark Greengrass is the author of The French Reformation, published by Wiley. The French Reformation seemed well-placed to succeed: there was a vigorous pre-reform movement, an apparent welcome for the work of French-speaking reformers in many quarters despite severe persecution, and the beginnings of a powerful and well-organized church structure. Yet, French protestantism remained the faith only of a minority. This book seeks to understand this apparent contradiction and to explain why protestantism failed to take hold in France.