Together, these books provide us with a very long view indeed of the French Reformation. Tyler Lange presents us with a late medieval perspective on the development of the political and religious framework of reform in France in the early years of the Reformation, while the collection of essays which make up L'Identité huguenote takes the Protestant story from the sixteenth century through to the present day.

Lange's thesis seeks to locate the origins of French absolutism in the conciliar reforms of the fifteenth century. He posits that the monarchy appropriated political models derived from canon law in asserting its authority over the century 1440–1540, and argues that it was the rise of heresy which galvanised the usually conciliarist and Gallican parlement to support the monarchy in this endeavour. This in turn brought about a significant constitutional shift as the parlement sought to uphold orthodoxy by strengthening the power of the monarch. Thus, the French crown achieved a juridical supremacy over the national Church comparable to that of Protestant rulers without the need for full-blown Reformation.

Lange skilfully ties in these developments, which he labels as the ‘First French Reformation’, with the well-researched reforms of Francis i's reign in finance and justice, as well as the constitutional conflict which erupted over the ownership of the duke of Bourbon's lands. Lange emphasises, in particular, the importance of the key role of figures such as the first president of the parlement, Pierre Lizet, and the chancellor, Guillaume Poyet, in arguing the case for royal sovereignty during the 1520s. He demonstrates the growing influence of humanism and Roman law in reinforcing (but, importantly, not as the origin of) these claims. Gradually, it was the kingdom rather than the Church which emerged as the prime defender of orthodoxy, and the king's will became accepted as the basis of law. Lange concludes that ultimately these reforms established the French monarch as God's representative on earth and France as ‘irreparably Catholic’ (p. 244).

Some parts of Lange's thesis do not strike the reader as particularly original or new. For instance, the papacy had already provided the judicial and political inspiration for centralising monarchical tendencies in the High Middle Ages, and it has long been asserted that Francis i laid the foundations of absolute monarchy, by R. J. Knecht among others. Nevertheless, Lange provides a much fuller, systematic and more coherent picture of the fifteenth-century contribution to sixteenth-century developments, and of the late medieval Church to the origins of the early modern state. While repetitious in places, his argument is subtle and nuanced in others, and demonstrates a firm grounding in contemporary legal documentation and recent historiography. It provides further ammunition for those historians who argue that the French Reformation could never have succeeded, but without establishing the definitive statement on this issue.

While Lange argues for the inevitable failure of the French Reform movement, the contributors to L'Identité huguenote demonstrate the dynamism and resilience of the Huguenot community which it spawned. Written by both francophone and anglophone experts in the field, the thirty scholarly essays (seven of which are in English) chiefly cover the topical themes of identity, memory and history. They provide a remarkable coverage both thematically and chronologically to which only a detailed look at the table of contents can fully do justice. A helpful introduction outlines the issues and tensions in the self-conscious presentation of memory and history by a religious minority aware of the importance of both in forging an identity for future generations. The first part focuses on the development of Huguenot identity and historicity from the sixteenth-century origins of the movement to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. There is much here that is useful both to those seeking a general discussion of the key issues as well as specialists seeking new perspectives. The short essays are grounded in close analysis of primary sources as well as discussion of recent historiographical trends. The second and third parts look at the same themes up to the present day, from the perspective, respectively, of the Huguenot diaspora and of those who stayed on in France. Again, there is plenty of sustenance for those working on exile communities and themes of exile more generally, as well as on the survival of religious minorities both under persecution and within secularised societies. Comparing this volume with Lange's book underscores the importance of considering both sides of a story which might seem on the surface to present an unproblematic tale of triumph and loss, and the lesson that many histories are not, in fact, written by the victors.