This book examines the character of the governing elite of sixteenth-century Paris--a group that included some of the most important jurists, administrators, and intellectuals of the early modern French state--and investigates the strategies employed by members of this group to promote and maintain their position in the city and in the monarchy.

Originally published in 1983.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book examines the character of the governing elite of sixteenth-century Paris--a group that included some of the most important jurists, administrators, and intellectuals of the early modern French state--and investigates the strategies employed by members of this group to promote and maintain their position in the city and in the monarchy. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A riveting account of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, its origins, and its aftermath, this volume by Barbara B. Diefendorf introduces students to the most notorious episode in France's sixteenth century civil and religious wars and an event of lasting historical importance. The murder of thousands of French Protestants by Catholics in August 1572 influenced not only the subsequent course of France's civil wars and state building, but also patterns of international alliance and long-standing cultural values across Europe. The book begins with an introduction that explores the political and religious context for the massacre and traces the course of the massacre and its aftermath. The featured documents offer a rich array of sources on the conflict -- including royal edicts, popular songs, polemics, eyewitness accounts, memoirs, paintings, and engravings -- to enable students to explore the massacre, the nature of church-state relations, the moral responsibility of secular and religious authorities, and the origins and consequences of religious persecution and intolerance in this period. Useful pedagogic aids include headnotes and gloss notes to the documents, a list of major figures, a chronology of key events, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index.

Winner of the American Historical Society's J. Russell Major prize for the best book on French History, From Penitence to Charity analyzes female penitents and the revival of Catholic institutions and spirituality that produced a stunning burst of religious construction during the French wars of religion. Diefendorf argues that the spiritual imperatives of self-mortification and renunciation of will that lay at the heart of this penitential piety profoundly influenced not just those with religious careers but also the behaviour of devout lay women.