Raymond A. Mentzer and Andrew Spicer, eds. Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559-1685.

Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xviii + 242 pp. + 3 b/w pls. index, illus, tbls. $60. ISBN: 0-521-77324-5.

What did it mean to be Protestant in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? This is the question that the editors of this interesting collection of essays use to open the book, and if there is a central focus of the entire volume, this is it. The editors acknowledge in the introduction that from the perspective of the French Catholic majority, the question could be answered very simply: Protestants were heretics who professed not only false bur dangerous beliefs. They were to be always referred to in legal and royal documents, including the Edict of Nantes, as the religion pretendue reformde. Moreover, they were instantly recognized and stood out like a sore thumb from the Catholic majority because they refused to participate in Catholic rituals and traditions, did not attend Mass, and failed either to celebrate or observe Catholic feast days. In short, not only did French Protestants reject the basic tenets of the traditional faith, but they openly rejected the rites and practices of the Catholic religion, which served as the foundations of sociability. Most of the authors of this varied collection make an effort to build upon this basic answer to the question of Huguenot identity, and the result is a variable, yet unusually coherent volume. Regrettably, space permits only a small sampling of the volume's contents in this short review.

Timothy Watson demonstrates in his study of the rise and fall of the Huguenot community in Lyon between 1550 and 1572 that the broad and fluid coalition of interests that enabled such striking Protestant growth in the wonder years of 1557-62 could not be sustained under the pressure of civil war. Indeed, he shows that the very means by which the Huguenots fostered such enthusiasm for their cause in the city--preaching, printing, and public worship--were seized by Lyon's Catholics to undermine these early efforts. Luc Racaut argues that it was this very confrontation between Huguenots and Catholics that really forged Protestant identity in the period. He articulates an evolution of Protestant identity, based on a reading of Jean Crespin, Simon Goulard, and others, that at mid-century was built on comparisons with the early church martyrs. As the civil wars progressed, however, this image was replaced by comparisons to the persecuted minorities during the late Middle Ages. And by the seventeenth century, Protestant identity was shaped more by antipopery than anything else. These conclusions are in some ways supported by Philip Benedict's study of Montpellier, where he shows that religious identities of both faiths hardened and became more secure over the course of the seventeenth century, after the early years of convivencia and interaction immediately after the Edict of Nantes.

Penny Roberts and Mark Greengrass explore still other areas of Protestant identity. By focusing on the legal process of petitioning to the crown to redress Huguenot grievances, Roberts underscores the legitimate and conservative, rather than the more well-known rebel and radical, nature of Protestant identity as defined by French Catholics. Given their status as a persecuted minority, Greengrass remarks upon the quite remarkable ability of the Huguenots not only to maintain an ecclesiastical institution across nearly every region of the kingdom, but also to maintain a sense of community amidst the pressure of the Catholic majority. This success can be largely attributed, he argues, not just to the might of the printing press and official contacts between French churches and Geneva, but also to more informal networks of communication. Other essays focus on more discrete elements of Protestant identity. Raymond Mentzer's essay on the Edict of Nantes, Amanda Eurich's essay on Huguenot magistrates, Karin Maag's essay on Protestant academies, Martin Dinges' essay on Huguenot poor relief, and Alan James' essay on the Huguenot military in the seventeenth century all demonstrate specific facets of Protestant identity. Two of the most interesting essays, however, show the striking contrasts between Protestants and Catholics: Andrew Spicer's essay on Huguenot temples and Bernard Roussers fine essay on Protestant funerals. Ecclesiastical architecture and rituals of death are two areas in which Protestant identity can be easily perceived, as the simpler and plainer aspects of Protestant churches and funerals contrasted explicitly with their Catholic counterparts. All in all, this is a very useful volume.

MACK P. HOLT

George Mason University