The Appeal of Calvinism to French Noblewomen in the Sixteenth Century

The Appeal of Calvinism French Noblewomen in the Sixteenth Century In a review article about new interpretations of the Reformation in the New York Review of Books (December 29, I966), Lawrence Stone commented upon the appeal of Protestantism to aristocratic wives, tormented by the futility of their idle and neglected lives, for whom the new doctrine at last seemed offer some explanation for their existence. A striking example is the response of a significant number of French noblewomen Calvinism, a phenomenon so conspicuous that it has always been mentioned by historians-although merely in passing-as a characteristic of the Huguenot movement. More detailed study of particular women, including biographies of the most prominent and the publication of numerous documents in the Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du