Francois Hotman

The lifetime of Francois Hotman (1524-1590) was one of the most tumultuous periods in European history. Donald R. Kelley shows how this protégé of Calvin and agent of many of the great Protestant princes became involved in ecclesiastical politics, Huguenot diplomacy, and conspiracy.

One of the first modern revolutionaries, Hotman rebelled not only against his family and its faith, but against the laws and eventually the government of his country. As an embittered exile lie produced a voluminous body of propaganda aimed at recovering a lost political and religious innocence on which to found a new community. At the same time he was one of the greatest and most versatile scholars of his age, achieving distinction as a jurist, teacher, classical scholar, dialectician, theologian, and historian. His Franco-Giallia and Anti-Tribonian have fascinated generations of political theorists, and his letters, reports, and anonymous works are of inestimable value to historians.

Originally published in 1973.

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