Catholic Activism in South-West France, 1540-1570 (review)

This book is a study of the rise of political militancy of urban elites and nobles in southwestern France in the middle decades of the sixteenth century, especially in Bordeaux, Agen, Toulouse, and Béarn. The author's main argument is that the militancy of Catholic urban notables in this region was endemic and widespread long before the advent of the Catholic League in the 1580s, a conclusion the author claims overturns current views that tend to portray all pre-League Catholic activities as "parochial ... [and] inconsequential" (5), while the book also "challenges the historiographical axiom that places the Council of Trent at the centre of the sixteenth-century movement of Catholic renewal in France." (6) Heavily based on research in the departmental and municipal archives of the region, Gould's book is a useful addition to the literature of local cities and towns in the religious wars, building on and complementing the work of other scholars of the region such as Jonathan Powis, Mark Greengrass, Joan Davies, Robert Schneider, René Souriac, Philip Conner, and Michel Cassan.

In chapter 1 Gould lays out the general themes of the book and also describes the major sources upon which his study is based. Chapters 2-5 focus on the city of Bordeaux and explain how Catholic militants in the city first fought off attemps by Protestants to take over the city, then consolidated their power against Catholic moderates, and finally organized a counter-offensive so successful that a militant Catholic consensus had won over the population by 1570. In Agen, as explained in chapters 6-7, the situation was much the same, as urban elites first beat back Protestant attempts to gain a foothold in local politics by organizing into local committees, then used the outspoken nobleman Blaise de Montluc to win over the local nobility and a majority of the population to the Catholic cause. In chapters 8-9, Gould analyzes the city of Toulouse, where a similar scenario played out, with militant Catholics resisting and defeating the attempted Protestant coup to take over the city in 1562. As in Agen local magistrates and nobles joined together with a militant Catholic populace to insure that no such attempt to seize the city by force would ever happen again. Resisting the more moderate policies of the crown, leaders in Toulouse initiated a policy of severe repression against the Protestant minority in the city. Only in Béarn, as explained in chapter 10, were Catholic efforts thwarted by the powerful Protestant influence of the Calvinst queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret. Even there, however, Gould shows that militant Catholics worked actively, sometimes with Philip II of Spain, to try to oust the Protestant leader. Moreover, the militant Catholic networks in Béarn were closely tied to their counterparts in Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Agen where Catholicism triumphed. Above all, Gould stresses the interconnectedness of Catholic militant organizations throughout the region.

Gould's narrative underscores the leading Catholic activists in the southwest and the critical role they played in preventing the region from falling into the hands of Protestants. At the top of the social ladder were men such as the sieurs d'Escars, de Candalle, de Terride, de Tilladet, and de Negrepelisse. Although many of them were clients of Montluc, they were all local elites who offered their own independent support to Catholic magistrates in the region when the threat of Protestantism reared its head in the 1550s. Equally important were the militant magistrates in the Parlements of Bordeaux and Toulouse. When some magistrates in the sovereign courts began to waiver on enforcing religious uniformity, militant Catholics such as Christophe de Roffignac, François de Baulon, and Charles de Malvin in the Parlement of Bordeaux and Jean Daffis in the Parlement of Toulouse led the opposition to the crown's efforts to guarantee Huguenot rights in the various edicts of pacification. Equally important were the urban councilors who worked with the nobles and magistrates in the Parlements...