The professional class that grew up in the 16th century was different in one respect from those that had gone before: it represented a predominantly secular culture—the product of Renaissance humanism. The Italian wars had brought French elites into contact with the new art, literature, and learning; Charles VIII, Louis XII, and especially Francis I imported numerous Italian painters, sculptors, and architects. French scholars such as Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Guillaume Budé devoted themselves to the study of Classical Greek and Latin and attempted to reform the French language. The establishment in 1530 of the Collège de France institutionalized humanist studies, in opposition to the University, where the legacy of medieval Scholasticism, satirized in François Rabelais’s bawdy prose works, Gargantua and Pantagruel, still dominated. Later in the century, the group of poets known as La Pléiade, of whom Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay are the best-known, created a new style of French verse inspired by Classical models.

Many of the French humanists were initially receptive to ideas about returning to the original sources of the Christian religion that began to spread in France soon after Martin Luther publicized his famous Ninety-five Theses in 1517. Lutheran works first appeared in Paris in 1519; in 1521 Francis I, who was on the point of war with Emperor Charles V and King Henry VIII of England and who wanted to demonstrate his orthodoxy, forbade their publication. Yet interest in the new faith continued to grow, especially in the humanist circle of Lefèvre. Having published in 1512 an edition of the letters of St. Paul with a commentary that anticipated Martin Luther in its assertion of the doctrine of justification by faith, Lefèvre became the leader of a small group of moderate but orthodox Reformers in the tradition of the great Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus. This group included Guillaume Briçonnet, the bishop of Meaux; the mystic Gérard Roussel; and Margaret of Angoulême, the king’s own sister. Although this circle was dispersed in 1525, Lutheranism had already established itself, especially in such trading centres as Lyon, where it found support among the poorer classes. The progress of the Reformation in France depended on the crown’s attitude; although Francis for political reasons had initially shown hostility, his feelings were far from clear. He was favourably disposed toward Lefèvre and toward orthodox reform in general, though he naturally feared those extreme movements that threatened social upheaval. In addition, Francis I saw political advantages in establishing good relations with the Lutheran German princes. On the other hand, unlike them, he had no great incentive to assert his independence from Rome, because the Gallican church already enjoyed a large measure of autonomy. In 1516 the Concordat of Bologna had given the king effective control over the church in France.

In 1534, however, royal policy changed radically. The posting of anti-Catholic placards that began to appear in Paris and even at the royal court alarmed Francis I, who feared losing control of the religious movement. He responded with the first of a series of persecuting edicts. French Protestantism itself had changed, reinforced from the mid-1530s by the spread among the poorer classes of Languedoc and the seaboard towns of Normandy and Brittany of the ideas of John Calvin, a French exile in Geneva. Henry II (1547–59) pursued his father’s harsh policies, setting up a special court (the chambre ardente) to deal with heresy and issuing further repressive edicts, such as that of Écouen in 1559. His sudden death from a jousting accident in 1559 and the demise the following year of his eldest son, Francis II, left royal policy uncertain. Meanwhile, the infusion of Calvinism, or Huguenotism, into the French Reformation had stiffened the Protestant opposition. Protestant pastors, trained in Geneva, infiltrated the country; by 1562 there were some 2,000 highly organized Calvinist churches in France. Calvinism provided both a rallying point for a wide cross section of opposition and the organization necessary to make that opposition effective. Each Huguenot community created its own administrative structure to provide a tight disciplinary framework through which the community could ensure its spiritual and material independence. The new creed attracted several elements in French society: small artisans, shopkeepers, and the urban unemployed, who were suffering in particular from steeply rising prices; many rich townspeople and professional men who thought that material advancement would be easier to procure as Calvinists; and, after the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, many nobles, especially the poorer ones who had lost with the peace their best hope of wealth and status.

The adherence of large numbers of the nobility had two important effects upon the movement in France: it caused many peasants to join the new creed in imitation of their noble seigneurs, thus swelling the overall number and widening its social composition, and it brought a new military element into the Calvinist communities. Under the leadership of the nobility, secret religious meetings were transformed into mass public demonstrations against which the king’s forces were impotent. Such demonstrations sometimes involved upward of 20,000 people. Similarly, the administrative structure that was so important in aiding the survival of the proscribed faith was transformed into a military organization. This organization was ultimately headed by Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé, who assumed the title of protector general of the churches of France, thus putting all the prestige of the house of Bourbon behind the Huguenot cause. By doing so, he added a new dimension to the age-old opposition of the mighty feudal subject to the crown: that opposition was now backed by a tightly knit military organization based on the Huguenot communities, by the financial contributions of wealthy bankers and businessmen, and by the dedicated religious zeal of the faithful, inspired by the example of Geneva.

At a time when the threat to the crown had never been greater, the monarchy itself presented a sorry spectacle. The struggle between the families of Guise, Bourbon, and Montmorency for political power at the centre of government after Henry II’s death; the vacillating policy of Catherine de Médicis, widow of Henry II, who strongly influenced the three sons who successively became king; and, most important, the ineptitude of those rulers—Francis II (1559–60), Charles IX (1560–74), and Henry III (1574–89)—meant that local government officials were never confident of their authority in seeking to curb the growing threat of Huguenotism. After the death of Francis II, Catherine de Médicis, who was ruling in the name of her second son, Charles IX, abandoned the repressive religious policy of Francis I and Henry II and attempted to achieve religious reconciliation. Guided by the moderate chancellor Michel de L’Hospital, Catherine summoned the French clergy to the Colloquy of Poissy (1561), at which an unsuccessful attempt was made to effect a religious compromise with the Huguenots; in the following year she issued the Edict of January, which allowed the Calvinists a degree of toleration. These signs of favour to the Protestants brought a violent reaction from devout Catholics, who found leadership in the noble house of Guise, the champions of Roman Catholicism in France. The first civil war began with the massacre of a Huguenot congregation at Vassy (March 1562) by the partisans of François, 2^e duc de Guise.