The sixteenth century was a time of great trouble within the Europe and especially within the church. New religions were forming and opposing the catholic church’s strangle hold on the powers at be in Europe. This power struggle was very evident within France and especially in the middle of the sixteenth century where three religious wars broke out between protestants and catholics. The article entitled “ Prologue to Massacre: Popular Unrest in Paris, 1557-1572” describes these wars and how they built up into the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre on August 24th , 1572 . Barbara Diefendorf, the author, is professor of Early Modern Europe and French History at the Boston University. She has been teaching at Boston University since 1980, she has authored multiple books about a variety of topics relating to sixteenth century France. Her knowledge of France in the sixteenth century allows her to dissect this issue she writes about in her article from multiple angles and without bias.…show more content… Professor Diefendorf provides a fair amount of background information in the article to help set up her point and help the common reader understand a topic that they normally would know very little about. The article itself presents the argument rather quickly and continues to provide evidence to support the claim throughout the article. Professor Diefendorf’s thesis’ of the article is “By examining the behavior of the Parisian populace and the activities of those responsible for maintaining order during the fifteen years prior to St. Bartholomew’s Day, I hope to establish a context that will cast new light on the climatic events of august 1572.” This thesis is supported throughout the article and all the evidence provided in the article supports her