ABSTRACT
For several reasons, Roman Catholics did not respond quickly to the threats posed by Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers. From the twelfth century, the church had reacted to increasing threats posed by new ‘heresies,’ including those whose teachings on the Mass and Scripture would find echoes in the early sixteenth century. Unlike their Lutheran counterparts after 1520, Roman Catholics were deeply suspicious of using print propaganda. As a result, in the first four decades after Luther’s challenge to the medieval church, the Catholic response was slow, leading to the spread of Reformed ideas in France and the beginning of the religious wars that tore the country apart between 1561 and 1594. After the Colloquy of Marburg in 1529 had shown insoluble divisions between Lutherans and Swiss reformers over the nature of the Lord’s Supper, Catholics found a means to attack the reformers. The most popular preacher in Paris, Francois Le Picart, stood at the forefront of the counteroffensive.
