Renee of France by Simonetta Carr

Instead of a regular post I have another book review today. This one is from the Bitesize Biographies series, consisting of brief biographies of various names from Christian history. Renee of France is the story of a lesser known patron of the Protestant Reformation, a French princess married to an Italian duke whose wealth and position gave her the opportunity to serve as a refuge for many reformers facing persecution by the Catholic Church.

In Renee of France, author Simonetta Carr seeks to compile the little information we have of Renee into a coherent image of her personal spiritual struggles and her fight to protect religious refugees. Often standing alone against the demands of her Catholic husband, French royalty, and the religious forces of Rome, Renee struggled to sort through the mass of Catholic, Protestant, and even heretical theology passionately presented to her. By all appearances, she sought truth, but often did not know which of the persuasive arguments laid before her represented that truth.

The structure of Renee of France is informative. In addition to sharing glimpses of what is known about Renee’s adult life, it also delves into the intertwining of the religious and political climates in Europe at the time, especially in France and Italy. Readers are offered a glimpse into the manner in which reformers clung together, trying to keep one another strong even across the miles and seeking to maintain the loyalty of powerful individuals such as Renee. Even the prominent John Calvin took a personal, pastoral interest in Renee, seeking to find ways to strengthen her grounding in theology, belief, and action when her husband and the Church worked to isolate her from “heretics” and their teaching.

Being informative in structure, Renee of France is not designed to be a captivating novel-like biography. Its brevity makes it a relatively quick and easy read, but because we know few details of Renee’s personality and relationships, the style keeps readers at a distance. Even so, I can see our family using this as a junior high or high school resource to provide a picture of the impact the Reformation had on individuals, especially among the wealthy.

This book was sent to me by Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for my honest review.