A Catholic Response in Sixteenth-Century France to Reformation Theology: The Works of Pierre Doré (review)

Despite his standing as the most edited Catholic writer in France in the first half of the sixteenth century, the Dominican and Paris theologian Pierre Doré (ca. 1497-1569) remains largely in the wings of Reformation historiography. This scholarly neglect is unfortunate, John Langlois argues compellingly, considering the sheer size of Doré's publishing record and its convergence with the first decades of the French Reformation. Returning Doré to the prominence he enjoyed in his own day, Langlois provides a general introduction to his literary corpus and its significance as a "grass-roots" Catholic response to Protestant theology and the challenges it posed to French Catholic unity.

Langlois begins by situating Doré's works in the context of the institutional reaction to the Reformation in France, and more specifically, that of his fellow Dominicans (introduction, Chapter 1). Set against this backdrop, Doré clearly stands out in his early and unwavering commitment to fighting heresy based on a singular strategy. Rather than engaging the Reformers directly, he addressed the French laity instead, seeking to keep them within the Catholic fold through religious instruction, guidance, and inspiration. Chapter 2 reveals that this strategy found expression in more than thirty texts written by Doré in French between 1537 and 1557, ranging from a catechism to polemical treatises and devotional writings.

Especially striking here is the large number of devotional works Doré wrote at the request of and for aristocratic women, most of which went on to become his top sellers (pp. 89-97; see also the book's four appendices, where Langlois neatly summarizes Doré's bibliographical output). While acknowledging this female influence on Doré's literary career, Langlois does not consider the broader implications regarding the role of women in shaping early modern French Catholicism. Given the fact that his book is the first comprehensive study of Doré, this comment is not a criticism per se; Langlois has a lot of basic ground to cover, which he does effectively. But it does point to the rich veins of analysis remaining to be tapped.

As Langlois demonstrates, a determined desire to undermine the validity of Protestant theology while calling his readers to a more personal (and orthodox) relationship with Christ shaped Doré's work regardless of genre. For this reason, Langlois devotes the second part of his study to an analysis of three major themes found repeatedly in Doré's books: justification, grace, merit and free will (chapter 3); the Eucharist (chapter 4); and the virtuous life (chapter 5).

Reflecting Doré's own preoccupations, the chapter on the Eucharist is the longest in the book. Because Doré believed Protestants' rejection of transubstantiation was satanic, thereby posing the greatest risk to the Church and the individual believer, he addressed the Eucharist in some fashion in almost every one of his books (pp. 167-169). To elucidate this angle of Doré's anti-Protestant strategy, Langlois examines the basic features of Doré's theological exposition and how he packaged them for his readers. Despite the strength of Langlois' textual analysis, it offers little insight into Doré's place in the growing debate in France concerning the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. Noticeably absent from Langlois' bibliography is Christopher Elwood's book exploring precisely this topic (Oxford, 1999). Doré was ahead of the game, not just in recognizing the potency of the printed vernacular as a bulwark against Protestantism (as Langlois contends), but also in situating the Eucharist at its core. As Elwood discusses, the 1560's saw an explosion of eucharistic treatises and related public discourse in France, which ultimately helped to reshape its political and religious landscape...