The French Reformation

by Mark Greengrass

The French Reformation seemed well-placed to 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.

Genres: History

108 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 1987

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly accessible, extremely brief overview of the French Reformation. Mostly social history. Used to get basic geography, timeline, points of reference. Helpful in deconstructing a Genevan bias in French reformation studies.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history.

[Seth Westhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a decent overview of the French Protestant from a more English (language) point of view (the majority of references were not French). There was little comparisson to other Protestant movements taking place which is appropriate for the work. However, such a contrast may have better highlighted the peculiarities that were the French reformation. Like many other works on the subject, it was treated from a largely political context. I personally would like to see something describing what the internal inactions that typified and energized the mouvement. Finally, it ended on a rather abrupt note leaving the reader with little closure.

[Mark Nenadov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I'm not qualified to analyze all its arguments or conclusions, I enjoyed reading this and found it rather informative. The illustration on the cover is really neat (with a quote from Theodore Beza: "The More Blows You Use, The More Hammers you lose). It comes from the title page of a 16th century ecclesiastical history of the French reformed church. I'm also pretty impressed with how much detail is stuffed into 80 pages! I hope to be able to read more about the French Reformation in the near future.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read it for a class. Great detail in 80 pages.

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, short overview, mostly focused on French Protestantism--the early days of the Reformation era, rather than the whole period. Of course, it's 80ish pages long, so fair enough.