Description
Book Synopsis'Bellicose Dove' is the first English biography of the Huguenot lawyer, preacher, diplomat and martyr Claude Brousson for 150 years. It examines his life (1647-98), letters, sermons, books, and the role he played in resisting Louis XIV's persecution of the Huguenots until his death on the scaffold in 1698. Unique features of the book include a detailed examination of biographical details in his letters, analysis of the symbolism in his sermons and books (especially his anti-Catholic rhetoric), the importance of his three missionary journeys into France, and the effectiveness of his international diplomatic efforts in England, Holland, and Prussia.
Trade Review"Utt and Strayer retain the merit of having distanced themselves from a Protestant hagiography that treated Brousson as but a holy martyr above reproach, as one who died heroically for his reformed beliefs. They convincingly reveal a human Brousson more complex than a faultless saint. This book is well worth the attention of serious scholars of seventeenth-century France." -- Seventeenth-Century News.
"...we are indebted to Walter Utt and ultimately to Professor Strayer for skilfully illuminating another misunderstood and unfamiliar aspect of Louis the XIV's later reign." -- Mark Bryant, French History, Vol 21, no 4, December 2007.
Table of ContentsContents: Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; The Dove is Born (1647-1683); The Dove Turns Bellicose (1683-1684); The Dove Flies Abroad (1683-1688); The Dove Returns to France (1689-1693); The Lion and the Dove; The Hawk and the Dove; The International Dove (1693-1696); The Mystical Dove; The Sacrificial Dove (1697-1698); Epilogue: Reconsidering the Revocation; Notes; Bibliography; Index.