PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

the effort of the Catholic Church to re-establish the historical basis of its authority. As
Baronius noted in his preface, ‘nothing in the Church seems so far to have been so
much neglected, as a true, certain, exact and diligently researched narration of
Ecclesiastical history’. 749 Boaistuau’s Histoire de persecutions de l’Eglise chrestienne
et catholique should be examined in the same light. It was not only a work of
humanist research based upon a long historical tradition, but an attempt to bolster the
Catholic faith, written against the backdrop of the consolidation of the Reformed
ideas and the religious tensions which led to the Wars of Religion. Boaistuau was
surely alarmed by events such as the Amboise conspiracy in 1560, and by episodes of
iconoclasm and civic tumult which occurred in the major French cities. 750 For him,
such incidents were understood as proofs of the Huguenot danger which could
overturn the stability of the kingdom and threaten the unity of Catholic faith.
Therefore, Boaistuau’s narrative of the persecutions of the first Church can be
interpreted as an attempt to show ‘l’ardeur et le zele de l’Eglise ancienne’, and thus
re-assure Catholics of the resilience and endurance of the present Church. 751
The account of the persecutions of Christians during the time of the Roman Empire
occupied the first part of Histoire de persecutions. Boaistuau began by describing the
conversion and work of Paul the Apostle, and then the works and sufferings of the
Twelve Apostles, with particular reference to Peter, John, James (son of Zebedee),
Thomas, Matthew, Andrew, James (son of Alphaeus), and Bartholomew. They were
praised as ‘heraux et ambassadeurs’ for the teachings and will of Christ on earth, due
749
Cited in Cameron, E., Interpreting Christian History: The Challenge of the Churches’ Past (Oxford,
2005), p. 141.
750
The Amboise conspiracy was a failed attempt by a group of Huguenots to abduct the young king
Francis II. See Barker, S., Protestantism, Poetry and Protest, Chapter 3: The Conspiracy of Amboise
and the French Reformed Church.
751
Boaistuau, P., Histoire des persecutions de l’Eglise chrestienne et catholique, p. 9v.
- 240 -