The lifetime of Francois Hotman (1524-1590) was one of the most tumultuous periods in European history. Donald R. Kelley shows how this protege 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...