Robert Estienne (1503-1559)
Robert Estienne was born in a well-known family of Parisian typographers who were in touch with humanistic circles all over Europe.
Sébastien Castellion (1515-1563)
Sébastien Castellion is looked upon today as an apostle of tolerance and freedom of thought. He maintained that the Bible could have several different interpretations, and that this implied a...
François Hotman (1524-1590)
François Hotman questioned royal absolutism.
Guillaume Du Bartas (1544-1590)
Du Bartas was a diplomat, a poet, and a fervent Calvinist.
Jean de Sponde (1557-1595)
Jean de Sponde was a politician and a well-known baroque poet. His entire life was influenced by the wars of religion : « Je sens dedans mon âme une guerre civile ». (I...
Literature in the 16th century
The powerful renewing social and spiritual movement presented by the Reformation could not fail to mark contemporary literature: prestigious names testified of this. A wide range of genres were influenced...
Ambroise Paré (1509-1590)
Initially an army surgeon, he made discoveries in such fields as anatomy, physiology and therapeutics.
Olivier de Serres (1539-1619)
He dealt with agriculture as with a science.
Marguerite d’Angoulême (1492-1549)
Marguerite d’Angoulême was a literary person who, while fostering new ideas, was at the very centre of the cultural and spiritual life of her time.
Jeanne d’Albret (1528-1572)
She became a convert of Protestantism and made it the official religion in her kingdom of Navarre.
Sully (1559-1641)
Maximilien de Béthune, Baron of Rosny and Duke of Sully, became a close companion of Henri de Navarre at a very early age. He became his most valuable adviser and his government...
Catherine de Parthenay (1554-1631)
Staunch supporter of the defence of the city of La Rochelle against Richelieu in 1627-1628, she was a staunch Huguenot and likewise a poet, a playwright and a mathematician.
Claude du Chastel (1554-1587)
A rich Huguenot heiress coveted by a Catholic nobleman, or Romeo and Juliet during the wars of religion…
The Reformed Churches in France
In 1559, the Paris Synod organised the French Reformed Churches according to Jean Calvin’s guidelines.
Church organisation
Initially, Reformed Churches were not institutionalised, but as from 1555, throughout Kingdom of France, they progressively conformed to the pattern Calvin had organised in Geneva.
The reformed service of worship and the sacraments
The central part of the service of worship was the sermon, based on a text from the Bible. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were celebrated during the service, the latter...
Salomon de Brosse (1571-1626)
Born in one of the most renowned families of architects of the 16th century, Salomon de Brosse was the famous architect of the Luxembourg Palace (nowadays housing the Senate) for...
Chaires
La chaire est élevée à un endroit du lieu de culte, d’où le pasteur puisse être vu et surtout entendu par l’ensemble des fidèles. Sa place dépend de la configuration...
Jacques I Androuët du Cerceau (before 1520-1585 or 1586)
The influence of his many publications on architects was immense. He refused to convert to Catholicism despite his attachment to the King of France.