This book, the culmination of a lifelong career in French   history,   tackles head-on the central question of the French Religious Wars: Why   did   France prove so consistently hostile and resistant to Protestantism?   Distinguished scholar Nancy Lyman Roelker claims that what ultimately   motivated   the passion and violence of the civil wars was religion. She   demonstrates that   not only the body politic but also the body social was defined by   Gallican   Catholicism.  Roelker underscores the role the Parlement played in shaping and   safeguarding   the social, as well as the political, order. Her study is based on   extensive   research in the correspondence, memoirs, and tracts of mainstream   Catholic   magistrates as well as dissenters. It creates an overview of the   mentalits of   the Parlement, analyzes religious attitudes toward major events of the   period,   and examines the Parlement's role in the triumph of Henri IV. Along the   way, it   sheds light on the inner workings of the Parlement and other political   institutions, on social structures, and on collective ideas. And above   all, this   distinguished work brilliantly illuminates the role of religion in   society and   the state. It will be the definitive work on the subject for many years   to come.

One King, One Faith: The Parlement of Paris and the Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century (Centennial Book) PDF

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