Either personally or through the help of kind friends the author has searched far and wide among the provincial records of France. The sources of the information thus acquired have been carefully indicated in the notes, and the result has often been to discredit the statements of the older writers, carelessly copied by their successors. Two remarkable instances connected with Toulouse and Lyons will be observed in the course of the history. The Médicis MSS. at Le Puy, the manuscripts in the public library at Rouen, the letters of Charles IX. at Tours, the Acts Consulaires of Lyons, the Consular and Parliament Registers of Toulouse, the Registers of Caen, the Livre du Roi at Dijon, the Municipal Archives and Baptismal Registers at Provins, the Comptes Consulaires at Gap, have contributed to enrich this volume on several important matters. The public records of Montpelier, Nismes, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Bayeux, and other places, as well as the unpublished Memoirs of Jacques Gaches, and the MS. of President Latomy, which differs considerably from the printed text, have also furnished their contingent of information. Much curious and interesting matter has been found in Haag’s “France Protestante,” and in the “Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme François.” The reader will find very little in this volume about the internal development of the Reformed Church; for such information he must look to theological histories and to writers who have made theology their study. Laymen who venture into that field rarely escape the imputation of ignorance or heterodoxy. _December, 1867._ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. [1500–1547.] Causes of the Reformation--Lefevre of Etaples--Francis I.--Revival of Learning--La Renaissance--Clerical Manners--Early Converts and first Victims--Jacques Pavannes, Berquin--Margaret of Valois--Calvin and his Institutes--The King’s Inconstancy--Edict of Fontainebleau--Two Heretics burned--Treaty of Crespy--Vaudois Persecution--The Baron of Oppède--Massacre at Mérindol--Cry of Indignation--Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras--Tragedy of Meaux--A Cloud of Witnesses--Stephen Dolet and Robert Stephens--Marot--The last Martyr--Death of Francis I.--His Funeral Sermon--His Character PAGE 1 CHAPTER II. HENRY II. [1547–1559.]