For a good part of the 17th Century, Poitiers was a stronghold of Calvinism in France. John Calvin himself came to Poitiers to preach in 1534. In many cities, the messages of Protestantism appealed particularly to the small bourgeoisie, to merchants, lawyers and artisans. Poitiers had a lot of these. Wool cloth from Poitou could be found throughout France and in much of Europe. The number of fairs and markets across the region grew during the middle ages, with the Great Fairs of Poitiers, Niort and Fontenay at the forefront, attracting crowds of traders from everywhere. Poitiers had a large number of weavers and traders.
The 100 Years’ War between France and Britain, fought for the most part in the west of France, had set back the region and the city’s economy – with the 1356 Battle of Poitiers the biggest English victory in the long conflict — but Poitiers was still a rich and artisanal city when Calvin arrived. Then came the Wars of Religion, as the Ultra-Catholic League sought to suppress the new religion, and Protestant converts fought for freedom of worship. Poitiers was again at the center of this new war: in 1562 Protestant troops made a surprise attack and sacked the city, destroying the interiors of nearly all Catholic churches in Poitiers; and then in 1569 the city was besieged for seven weeks, again by Protestant troops (see illustration below). From 1560 to 1580, historians have counted over 3,000 fires, 70 assassinations of clergy and 700 of laymen, in Poitou. The constant fighting destroyed security and much of the agriculture in the area, with famines registered in 1563, 1565, 1568, 1569, 1582, and 1597, and the plague hitting in 1563, 1586, and 1597.
By the time of Henri IV’s ascension, and his publication of the Edict of Nantes which brought a close to the fighting, Poitiers was exhausted, and sick of Protestants. Locals even dismantled the fortified Chateau of Poitiers at the junction of the Clain and the Boivre out of distrust of the possible reformist leanings of the castle’s commander (see “The Rich Hours of the Chateau of Poitiers”). Once a center of the Reformation, Poitiers now became a center of the Counter-Reformation. No fewer than 11 different catholic orders established themselves here in the 17th century, and left their mark on the fabric of Poitiers. The first to arrive were the Jesuits, in 1604, who consolidated existing schools into the Lycée, which brought students from a wide area to study here. The Capuchins, or Friars Minor, came in 1607, the Congregation of Our Lady of Calvary in 1617, the Congregation of the Daughters of Notre-Dame in 1618, the Order of Saint Catherine of Sienna in 1621, the Daughters of St Francis in 1629, the Carmelites in 1630, the Sisters of the Visitation in 1633, the Hospitallers of St Joseph in 1644, the Genofevains or Congregation of France in 1652, and the Congregation of the Feuillants somewhat later. One can imagine, in a city with a population of about 20,000 as Poitiers was at the time, that the streets must at times seemed overwhelmed first by construction workers, and then by grey, brown and black religious robes. These new religious orders established themselves around the edges of the central plateau, though within the protection of the city’s defensive walls.
Yet while the Counter-Reformation brought new building to the city, it also further exhausted the city’s economic vitality. Richelieu’s taxes in the 1630s and 1640s, funding the build-up of centralized authority under Louis XIII, ruined much of the industry which was left, while the growing anti-Protestant persecutions, the dragonnades, drove the city’s Huguenot small bourgeois into ruin and/or exile. Before the Hundred Years’ War, Poitiers was estimated to be among the 5% wealthiest cities of France; by the time of the Revolution, it was in the bottom third. The orders have a far smaller presence in today’s Poitiers than during the Counter-Reformation, but can still be seen. The Sisters of the Visitation are now near the Cathedral, though their original convent is now a prison, while that of Saint Catherine of Sienna is a military garrison, and that of the Daughters of Notre-Dame a police station. The Carmelites are now in the old church of St Hilaire-de-la-Celle, while the Daughters of Notre Dame are in the former priory of the church of Sainte Radegonde.