Society and culture in early modern France : eight essays

A collection of essays discussing various social questions in France during the specified period including the position of women, forms of and reasons for social and religious protest, literacy and the question of proper attitudes towards and treatment of the poor. These essays, three of them previously unpublished, explore the competing claims of innovation and tradition among the lower orders in sixteenth-century France. The result is a wide-ranging view of the lives and values of men and women (artisans, tradesmen, the poor) who, because they left little or nothing in writing, have hitherto had little attention from scholars Introduction xv One. Strikes and Salvation at Lyon 1 Two. Poor Relief, Humanism, and Heresy 17 Three. City Women and Religious Change 65 Four. The Reasons of Misrule 97 Five. Women on Top 124 Six. The Rites of Violence 152 Seven. Printing and the People 189 Eight. Proverbial Wisdom and Popular Errors 227 Notes 271 Index 349