"Imprimée de différentes manières": The Gallican Confession and its First Printed Editions (1559?–1561)

This paper analyses the first printed editions of the Gallican Confession (agreed upon at the synod of Paris in May 1559) and formulates a hypothesis on the context in which they were published and disseminated. Analysis is based on abridged editions of the Confession in Latin and in French, printed in Geneva and Strasbourg, and featuring a preface authored by pastor Antoine de Chandieu. Although the ministers assembled in Paris in 1559 promulgated a confession in 40 articles, only 35 articles were included in these editions (which are dated 1559, but were ostensibly printed in the first half of 1560). These editions in 35 articles were abridged versions of the ‘full’ Gallican Confession, and this abridgment responded to polemical purposes and political expediency connected to the failure of the conspiracy of Amboise. This paper also offers some remarks upon the decision to abandon these 35-articles editions in 1561, probably with a view to the calling of the e´tats de Pontoise and the colloquy of Poissy.