Paris (Renaissance and Reformation)

Introduction

With a population of two hundred to three hundred thousand people, Paris was the largest city in northern Europe during the 16th century. Its greatest growth came during the prosperous first half of the century, especially after King Francis I (1515–1547) announced his intention to spend more time in Paris, instead of the Loire Valley castles favored by his predecessors. Although the court remained peripatetic, the shift in focus to the Île-de-France encouraged considerable building and also the spread of Renaissance arts and culture. The outbreak of religious war in 1562 hampered but did not extinguish the cultivation of a new taste for learning and a distinctive French Renaissance style of art and architecture that married classical motifs favored by the Italian Renaissance to indigenous traditions and style.

General Overviews

Babelon 1986 is an indispensable synthesis, offering a rich and detailed treatment of the architectural, political, social, and cultural history of 16th-century Paris. Favier 1974 covers the last decades of the 15th century. Pillorget 1988 rounds out the picture it offers of Renaissance Paris by extending this broad coverage through the reign of Henry IV and into the 17th century. Ranum 2002 is a readable overview and especially useful for the reign of Henry IV. Its focus is on the 17th-century city, and its treatment of 16th-century developments is necessarily brief.

Babelon, Jean-Pierre. Paris au XVIe siècle. Nouvelle histoire de Paris. Paris: Hachette, 1986.
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This magisterial work by a noted architectural and urban historian looks at representations of Paris in art and literature, its role in the monarchy, its elite and popular culture, and its architectural evolution through the 16th century. Richly illustrated, it examines the physical city in terms of the growth and distribution of population, provisioning and commerce, and habitation. It also examines the impact of religious divisions on the city.
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Favier, Jean. Paris au xve siècle, 1380–1500. Nouvelle histoire de Paris. Paris: Hachette, 1974.
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A beautifully illustrated and rich synthesis of the history of Paris in the later Middle Ages, useful also for the early stages of the Renaissance in the late 15th century.
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Pillorget, René. Paris sous les premiers Bourbons, 1594–1661. Nouvelle histoire de Paris. Paris: Hachette, 1988.
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The early chapters, which trace the evolution of the material fabric of the city, but also its society and politics during the reign of Henry IV (1589–1610), belong to the history of the French Renaissance and contain valuable material on both urbanism and the beginnings of the Catholic renewal that occurred in the early 17th century.
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Ranum, Orest. Paris in the Age of Absolutism: An Essay, Rev. ed. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
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First published in 1968, this interpretive essay takes the end of the Wars of Religion as its point of departure and surveys the city’s political and economic recovery under Henry IV, along with the important changes in the urban fabric that occurred. The heart of the book lies in the 17th century, but chapters “Early Bourbon Absolutism” and “The Birth of Modern Paris” are directly relevant to Paris’s Renaissance history.
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Reference Works

Although not limited to Paris, Jouanna 2001 and Jouanna 1998 are useful reference works, which can help place historical actors and events into a broader explanatory context. Both works also contain useful bibliographies.

Jouanna, Arlette, et al. Histoire et dictionnaire des guerres de religion. Paris: R. Laffont, 1998.
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Includes a lengthy introductory essay on the Wars of Religion; a briefer section on international dimensions of the religious conflicts; an alphabetically organized topical dictionary covering of persons, places, and events; a chronology of the wars; and a list of sources and bibliography.
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Jouanna, Arlette, et al. La France de la Renaissance: Histoire et dictionnaire. Paris: R. Laffont, 2001.
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Includes a lengthy introductory history of the period (running roughly from 1470 to 1559); a briefer section on international relations; an alphabetically organized topical dictionary of persons, institutions, and events; a chronology; and a bibliography.
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Journals

The journal published annually by the Société de l’Histoire de Paris and then by its successor, the Fédération des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l’Île-de-France, has changed names several times and is indexed only erratically. It nevertheless remains an important resource for scholars working on the social, political, and urban history of Paris.

Mémoires de la Société de l’Histoire de Paris et de l’Île-de-France (1874–1930).
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Continued after 1930 under the title Mémoires de la fédération des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l’Île-de-France. Published in Paris by Champion. A useful resource for scholars, as it contains documents as well as articles on different aspects of the history of Paris, its society, politics, and urbanism.
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Paris et Île-de-France (1949–).
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Published by the Fédération des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l’Île-de-France (Paris: Klincksieck). Continues the publication project of the Mémoires de la Société de l’Histoire de Paris et de l’Île-de-France under a new name.
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Political Institutions, Government, and Law

Paris was governed by multiple, overlapping (and sometimes competing) governmental institutions. The first chapter of Diefendorf 1983 gives a brief description of municipal institutions and the ways in which the king oversaw the city’s government, both directly and through the royal institutions of the provost (Châtelet) and Parlement of Paris. First published 1913–1916, Maugis 1977 remains the standard study of the high court of Parlement and its personnel. Roelker 1996 looks at the role of Parlement’s magistrates in the religious quarrels of the 16th century. Olivier-Martin 1973 traces the history of civil law in the Paris region. The royal entry ceremony was one of the principal ways in which not only the king’s person but also power relations and key political concepts associated with the monarchy were dramatized for the people during the Renaissance. Bryant 1986 examines both participants in these ceremonies and the political lessons they conveyed.

Bryant, Lawrence M. The King and the City in the Parisian Royal Entry Ceremony: Politics, Ritual, and Art in the Renaissance. Geneva, Switzerland: Librairie Droz, 1986.
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Focusing on the royal entry of King Henri II in 1549, Bryant mines the rituals and iconography of royal entry ceremonies for evidence of how the Crown represented itself to its subjects in 16th-century Paris.
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Diefendorf, Barbara B. Paris City Councillors in the Sixteenth Century: The Politics of Patrimony. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
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Although primarily a study of the way in which Paris’s civic elite used marriage, career, and inheritance strategies for upward mobility, the book also provides the most accessible overview of the institutions and politics of city government.
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Maugis, Édouard. Histoire du parlement de Paris de l’avènement des rois Valois à la mort d’Henri IV. 3 vols. Geneva, Switzerland: Slatkine-Megariotis Reprints, 1977.
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First published in 1913–1916. Traces the history of the high court of Parlement from the beginning of the Valois monarchy in 1345 through the death of Henry IV in 1610. Considers questions of jurisdiction and institutional development but also includes a useful biographical dictionary of magistrates and their offices.
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Olivier-Martin, François. Histoire de la coutume de la prévôté et vicomté de Paris. 2 vols. Paris: Editions Cujas, 1973.
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The laws governing property, inheritance, and other dimensions of civil (that is, noncriminal) law derived from local customs and usages in the Paris region and were only codified in 1510. Olivier-Martin sets out the principles on which these laws were based and traces the history of their codification and subsequent reformation in 1580.
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Roelker, Nancy Lyman. One King, One Faith: The Parlement of Paris and the Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
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Examines the mentality and political culture of the magistrates of Parlement with particular attention to their attitudes toward the religious divisions and conflicts of the 16th century. The book tends to favor the more moderate Catholic judges, according less attention to the ultra-Catholics within the court. It nevertheless offers good insights into the way the court functioned and its role in major events.
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Sources

The Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris has brief but informative coverage of public ceremonies in the reign of Francis I. Bonnardot, et al. 1883 gives useful summaries of city council meetings, and Félibien and Lobineau 1725 includes an extensive selection of foundational acts and laws concerning both secular and religious institutions.

Bonnardot, François, et al., ed. Registres des délibérations du bureau de la ville de Paris. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1883–.
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The first fourteen volumes cover the 16th and 17th century through the death of Henry IV in 1610. Contains detailed summaries of city council deliberations, including routine matters of governance but also actions to be taken in moments of crisis and correspondence with higher authorities concerning these crises.
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Félibien, Michel, and Guy-Alexis Lobineau. Histoire de la ville de Paris. 5 vols. Paris: G. Desprez, 1725.
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A history of Paris and its secular and religious institutions. Most useful for the last two volumes, which consist of primary source documents, or “preuves.”
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Lalanne, Ludovic, ed. Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris sous le règne de François Premier. Paris: J. Renouard, 1854.
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This journal gives brief narrative accounts of national affairs but also includes accounts of more local ceremonies, incidents, and decrees, giving a good picture of the interests and preoccupations of a bourgeois Parisian in the first half of the 16th century.
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Political and Religious Conflicts

An ardently Catholic city, Paris was nevertheless deeply divided by the religious schism that grew out of the Protestant Reformation. The city harbored a small but significant Protestant population, and because of its size and importance to the monarchy, it became the center of fierce battles at several points in the Wars of Religion. Diefendorf 1991 traces the rise of religious violence in Paris from the late 1550s through the infamous Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, which left several thousand Protestants dead in the streets of Paris. (For additional works on the massacre, see the entry “The Reformation and Wars of Religion in France.”) Richet 1982 discusses the social and religious context in which the conflicts took place. The revolt of the ultra-Catholic Holy League against King Henry III in 1588 has been a focus of considerable scholarly attention. Carroll 2000 looks at political factionalism and the role of the Guise family in this revolt. Lebigre 1980 highlights the role of radical clergy in fostering revolt but also offers a general study of the Holy League. Barnavi 1980 and Descimon 1983 offer contrasting interpretations of the political leadership of the Paris league, their social background, and motivations.

Barnavi, Élie. Le parti de Dieu: Étude sociale et politique des chefs de la Ligue parisienne, 1585–1594. Brussels, Belgium: Nauwelaerts, 1980.
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Barnavi attributes the antinoble and populist ideology of the league to the frustrated ambitions of the league’s leaders, and argues that, as members of the middling bourgeoisie, they found upward mobility blocked by the city’s elites. Radicalized by these limitations, they made revolutionary demands for popular sovereignty and the right to revolt. At the same time, Barnavi argues, their program was more reactionary than forward-looking.
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Carroll, Stuart. “The Revolt of Paris, 1588: Aristocratic Insurgency and the Mobilization of Popular Support.” French Historical Studies 23.2 (2000): 301–337.
DOI: 10.1215/00161071-23-2-301Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The revolt of the League began with the Day of the Barricades in May 1588, when Henry III attempted to deny entrance to the city to the ultra-Catholic Duke de Guise. This article reexamines the question of Guise’s following in Paris and argues that his followers played a key role in turning a defensive protest into an insurrection.
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Descimon, Robert. Qui étaient les Seize? Mythes et réalités de la Ligue parisienne (1585–1594). Paris: Klinksieck, 1983.
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Centered on a prosopographical study of the leaders of the radical league in Paris, Descimon’s study argues that they represented a middling social group whose revolt was rooted not in frustrated ambitions for social mobility but rather in their strong attachment to traditional notions of a participatory civic sphere.
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Diefendorf, Barbara. Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
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Examines the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre within the context of the building religious tensions in Paris and revises the history of the massacre by shifting the focus of her inquiry from scholars’ traditional preoccupation with the question of royal responsibility to the problem of popular participation in these events.
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Lebigre, Arlette. La Révolution des curés: Paris, 1588–1594. Paris: Albin Michel, 1980.
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A narrative account of the revolt of the League in Paris. Despite the book’s name, the author does not place undue weight on the role of the parish priests in provoking or leading the revolt.
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Richet, Denis. “Sociocultural Aspects of Religious Conflicts in Paris during the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century.” In Ritual, Religion, and the Sacred: Selections from the Annales. Edited by Robert Forster and Orest Ranum, 182–212. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.
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Densely argued; shows the complexity of religious conflicts in Paris. Originally published as “Aspects socio-culturels des conflits religieux à Paris dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle,” Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations (1977): 764–789. Available online through Persée.
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Sources

Three sets of memoirs offer good insights into the way Parisians and their neighbors perceived the religious conflicts that broke out at mid-century. La Fosse 2004 and Haton 2001–2007 offer extensive coverage of the era leading up to and encompassing the Wars of Religion. L’Estoile 1982 comments at great length on the climactic period of the religious wars and restoration of peace under Henry IV. La Fosse and Haton are ardent Catholics and tend to support the ultra-Catholic faction in the wars; L’Estoile is still Catholic but more moderate, royalist, and ecumenical in his positions. In addition, Diefendorf 2009 offers excerpts of a variety of documents concerning the massacre of several thousand Protestants that occurred in Paris in 1572.

Diefendorf, Barbara B. The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.
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Contains many previously untranslated documents on the religious violence leading up to the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, on the massacre itself, and on its repercussions.
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Haton, Claude. Mémoires de Claude Haton. 4 vols. Paris: Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2001–2007.
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This new and complete edition of the memoirs of a parish priest from the nearby town of Provins contains extensive commentary on events in Paris between 1553 and 1582, and in particular the religious conflicts that dominated this era’s history. A somewhat abbreviated edition published by Félix Bourquelot in 1857 is available online.
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La Fosse, Jean de. Les “Mémoires” d’un curé de Paris de Paris (1557–1590) au temps des guerres de religion. Edited by Marc Venard. Geneva, Switzerland: Librairie Droz, 2004.
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A new edition of the memoirs of the parish priest, Jean de La Fosse, first published in 1866. Vividly describes religious conflicts in Paris from a partisan but always informative position.
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L’Estoile, Pierre de. Mémoires-journaux: 1574–1611. Edited by G. Brunet, et al. 12 vols. Paris: Taillandier, 1982.
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First published 1875–1896. A member of the Parisian notability with ties to many parlementaire families, Pierre de L’Estoile (1546–1611) was a memoirist and chronicler of Parisian society during the later Wars of Religion. His gossipy registres-journaux gave almost daily accounts of events in Paris during the reign of Henry III, crisis of the Holy League, and reign of Henry IV. The registre-journal for the reign of Henry III is also available in a new edition (Geneva: Droz, 1992–).
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Society and Social Groups

Only isolated social groups in 16th-century Paris have been subjected to systematic study. Angelo 2005 is a model study of the social roles and background of the Parisian clergy. Descimon 1997 looks at the acquisition of noble status by magistrates in Parlement, Hamon 1999 studies the king’s financial officers, and Diefendorf 1983 the composite elite who held office as city councillors. Relatively little work has been done on merchants and artisans. Bimbinet-Privat 1983 examines the jewelers and Larmour 1967 the grocers’ guild. Geremek 1987 focuses on the late medieval period, but much of what he has to say about the marginal classes remains true in the Renaissance as well. Descimon 1989 traces the social geography of Paris in 1572, identifying both the relative wealth and poverty of various neighborhoods but also their occupational profile.

Angelo, Vladimir. Les curés de Paris au XVIe siècle. Paris: Cerf, 2005.
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A detailed study of Paris’s parish priests, including their social background, education and training, but also the process by which they were named to their positions, the functions they served within their parishes, and their relations with both parishioners and secular authorities. Includes a biographical dictionary covering more than four hundred parish priests.
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Bimbinet-Privat, Michèle. “Le commerce de l’orfèvrerie à Paris sous les derniers Valois (1547–1589).” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’Île-de-France 110 (1983): 17–96.
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A careful study of the jewelers’ guild and trade based largely on archival records. Illuminates both corporative culture and social ties among the jewelers and their families.
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Descimon, Robert. “Paris on the Eve of Saint Bartholomew: Taxation, Privilege, and Social Geography.” In Cities and Social Change in Early Modern France. Edited by Philip Benedict, 69–108. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
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This study, based on a uniquely detailed tax record, sets out the complex urban geography of 16th-century Paris, identifying not just rich and poor neighborhoods but the social mix and occupational structure within these neighborhoods.
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Descimon, Robert. “The Birth of the Nobility of the Robe: Dignity versus Privilege in the Parlement of Paris, 1500–1700.” In Changing Identities in Early Modern France. Edited by Michael Wolfe, 95–123. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
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Examines the social identity of the magistrates of the Parlement of Paris as they evolved from an urban patriciate into a robed nobility (noblesse de robe) that was to play a key role in monarchical politics through the end of the Old Regime.
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Diefendorf, Barbara B. Paris City Councillors in the Sixteenth Century: The Politics of Patrimony. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
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A study of the families of the men who served as Paris city councillors between 1535 and 1575, a group encompassing wealthy merchants, royal officers, and magistrates. Examines the ways in which these elite families used marriage alliances, career choices, and inheritance practices to promote upward mobility.
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Geremek, Bronislaw. The Margins of Society in Late Medieval Paris. Translated by Jean Birrell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
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First published in Polish in 1971 and then in French in 1976. A study of the Parisian underworld, including beggars, prostitutes, and criminals in the 14th and 15th centuries. Based on a wide variety of sources, the book considers also the many links between the margins and the center of Parisian society.
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Hamon, Philippe. “Messieurs des finances”: Les grands officiers de finance dans la France de la Renaissance. Paris: Comité pour l’histoire économique er financière de la France, 1999.
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A prosopographical study of the men who had charge of French finances between the late 15th and the mid-16th centuries. Although most were not Parisian by origin, many moved to Paris and made homes there in the course of their careers.
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Larmour, Ronda. “A Merchant Guild of Sixteenth-Century France: The Grocers of Paris.” The Economic History Review n.s. 20.3 (December 1967): 467–481.
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Based on a dissertation that was never published, a still useful study of the grocers’ guild, the character of their trade, and their corporate structures.
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Work and Economy

Two major quantitative studies of wages and prices done in the 1970s remain the best basis for understanding changes in the standard of living in 16th-century Paris. Baulant 1971 is a long-term study of salaries in the building trades from the 15th to the early 18th century. Baulant 1976 compares salaries paid for a variety of forms of labor with the cost of a variety of comestible and noncomestible products in 16th-century Paris and concludes that, in general, purchasing power diminished over the course of the century. Franklin 2004 offers a carefully annotated collection of guild statutes from early modern Paris. Loats 1997 focuses on women’s work in the trades, both within their own guilds and in connection with those of their husbands.

Baulant, Micheline. “Le salaire des ouvriers du bâtiment à Paris de 1400 à 1726.” Annales: histoire, sciences socials, 26 (1971): 463–493.
DOI: 10.3406/ahess.1971.422372Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An archivally based study that uses records from a number of building projects to calculate the daily salary a worker in the building trades would on average receive. Along with salary, the article gives good background on conditions affecting these trades, such as the length of the working day in summer and winter, the problems of unpaid holidays, and the instability of jobs worked by laborers.
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Baulant, Micheline. “Prix et salaires à Paris au XVIe siècle: Sources et résultats.” Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations 31 (1976): 954–995.
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Uses archives to chart prices for various commodities and, by comparing them with salaries, to evaluate changes in purchasing power both seasonally and across the 16th century. Looks at foodstuffs, construction materials, various kinds of cloth, and a variety of other items, such as candles, nails, and horseshoes. The section on salaries looks at wages paid for various forms of agricultural labor, building trades, domestic service, and medical personnel.
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Franklin, Alfred. Dictionnaire historique des arts, métiers et professions exercés dans Paris depuis le treizième siècle. Paris: Bibliothèque des arts, des sciences et des techniques-Martin Media, 2004.
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A valuable collection of guild statutes, allowing good insights into the structure of the trades and their regulation from the Middle Ages through the Old Regime. Reprint of 1906 edition (Paris: H. Welter).
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Loats, Carol L. “Gender, Guilds, and Work Identity: Perspectives from Sixteenth-Century Paris.” French Historical Studies 20 (1997): 15–30.
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Uses notarial contracts to study women’s role in the Parisian workforce, concluding that, while many women worked alongside their husbands in the crafts and/or carried on their trade after their death, others had a distinct work identity separate from that of their husbands.
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Religion and the Sacred

The role of religious practice and faith in the lives of 16th-century Parisians has been approached through a long-term study of changing attitudes toward death in Chaunu 1978, through a long-term study of the rituals and liturgy devoted to Paris’s patron, Saint Geneviève, in Sluhovsky 1998, and through a prosopographical study of parish priests and their role in the city’s religious life in Angelo 2005. Taylor 1999 looks at the career of just one parish priest and celebrated preacher, François Le Picart, but sets his role into the broader context of attempts to reform and to defend Parisian Catholicism. Diefendorf 2002 looks at the religious impulses of piously Catholic women in the last Wars of Religion and early stages of the Catholic Reformation.

Angelo, Vladimir. Les curés de Paris au XVIe siècle. Paris: Cerf, 2005.
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Examines the training and social background of parish priests in Paris, but also offers a close study of the functions they served in their churches, with regard to parishioners, subordinate clergy, and lay parish officers.
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Chaunu, Pierre. La mort à Paris: XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Fayard, 1978.
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Approaches the study of religious beliefs and values through people’s changing attitudes toward death. Based on the quantitative study of wills, as well as on literary sources, the book asks how people understood death and how they prepared for it.
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Diefendorf, Barbara B. From Penitence to Charity: Pious Women and the Catholic Reformation in Paris. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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The first chapters of the book examine the apocalyptic spirituality of the last War of Religion, when Paris was ruled by the ultra-Catholic Holy League, and argue that this penitential piety prompted the foundation of new reformed religious orders for women at the beginning of the 17th century.
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Sluhovsky, Moshe. Patroness of Paris: Rituals of Devotion in Early Modern France. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1998.
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Examines the cult of Saint Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. Looks at the ways in which the saint was venerated, the sacralization of urban space through processions of her relics, and attempts to politicize the cult of Saint Geneviève by both the Crown and a variety of corporate groups within the city.
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Taylor, Larissa Juliet. Heresy and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Paris: François Le Picart and the Beginnings of the Catholic Reformation. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1999.
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A valuable study of one of Paris’s most popular and influential preachers from the 1530s through the mid-1550s. Taylor presents Le Picart as a reform-minded Catholic who nevertheless became a voice for orthodoxy when the crown launched more repressive policies toward religious dissent in the 1550s. Though based on one popular preacher, the book has much to say about broader religious controversies in Paris.
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Urbanism and Architecture

Thomson 1984 surveys private and public building in Renaissance Paris in terms of both architecture and urbanism. Jurgens and Couperie 1962 focus on domestic arrangements within Parisian houses. Babelon 1965 looks at domestic architecture more from the outside in and limits his study to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Ballon 1991 takes up Henry IV’s urbanism and sets the major building projects of the era into a broader social and political context.

Babelon, Jean-Pierre. Demeures parisiennes sous Henri IV et Louis XIII. Paris: Le Temps, 1965.
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A study of the evolution of domestic architecture in late 16th- and early 17th-century Paris, with a special emphasis on the townhouses (hôtels particuliers) built by aristocrats and wealthy elites.
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Ballon, Hilary. The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.
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Uses archival sources to examine the building program undertaken under Henry IV, which included expansion of the Louvre, the place Royale (now Place des Vosges), the Pont Neuf and adjacent place Dauphine, and the Hôpital Saint Louis. Argues that the king’s urbanism was intended to make Paris the heart of a centralized state and a center of manufacturing, as well as to link court and commerce.
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Jurgens, Madeleine, and Pierre Couperie. “Le logement à Paris aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles.” Annales: Économies, sociétés, civilisations 17 (1962): 488–500.
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Uses inventories made of people’s property before their estates were divided to chart the domestic living arrangements of 16th-century Parisian households. Particularly interesting for the complex ways in which houses originally intended for a single family might be divided to take in lodgers.
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Thomson, David. Renaissance Paris: Architecture and Growth, 1475–1600. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
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Encompasses private, municipal, and royal building in late 15th- and 16th-century Paris. Traces the geography of residential development, as well as discussing stylistic evolution from late gothic to Renaissance styles.
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Education and Philosophy

Farge 1985 offers a careful study of the often maligned Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris (often mistakenly called the Sorbonne, though that was just one college within the university). Farge 1992 looks further at the involvement of the university’s theologians in a variety of political and religious issues but also at the origins of the Collège de France with the appointment of humanist scholars under Francis I. Huppert 1999 looks at humanistically inclined lawyers and scholars who adopted liberal ideas on key social and political issues.

Farge, James K. Orthodoxy and Reform in Early Reformation France: The Faculty of Theology of Paris, 1500–1543. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1985.
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Examines the structure and functioning of the faculty of theology within the University of Paris during the first half of the 16th century. Includes a prosopography of graduates receiving doctorates in theology but looks also at the responses of the faculty when consulted on key issues concerning heresy, the relation between the monarchy and the papacy, and other sensitive issues.
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Farge, James K. Le parti conservateur au XVIe siècle: Université et Parlement de Paris à l’époque de la Renaissance et de la Réforme. Paris: Collège de France, 1992.
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Essays and documents on the theologians of the University of Paris and their collaboration with conservatives within the Parlement of Paris in suppressing new and potentially subversive ideas. Looks also at the relations between the faculty of theology and the lecteurs royaux appointed by Francis I to offer more humanistically inspired education in the 1520s and 1530s.
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Huppert, George. The Style of Paris: Renaissance Origins of the French Enlightenment. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
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Examines the education and thought of a group of young scholars and writers, many of them now largely forgotten, in whose writings the author identifies origins of ideas on social equality, toleration, and freedom on thought later popularized in the Enlightenment. Clearly written and provocative in its sweeping claims.