ABSTRACT
Religious war broke out in March 1562 after Catholic-led troops attacked Protestants worshipping outside the town of Vassy, in Champagne, but the wars must also be understood in the context of the increasingly provocative behavior of militant Protestants. Jean Faurin, a Protestant citizen of Castres, left a detailed record of events in this southern French town of approximately 5,000 people, as tensions built toward the first War of Religion. By his account, Castres’ Protestants, tired of clandestine night-time meetings and the constant danger of attack, held their first public services in October 1560 in a local school. The behavior of Protestants in towns like Castres, where they enjoyed dominance over contested spaces, nevertheless raises interesting questions about just what it was the Protestants truly wanted and how far they were willing to go in pursuit of their own vision of religious truth.
