Journal of the History of Ideas

The conversion of Henry IV of France to Catholicism provoked a debate in the Roman curia over the status of converts that was finally resolved through a re-reading of the history of the Church by one of its most well-known scholars, Cesare Baronio. Though often viewed as a political maneuver, Baronio’s argument for clemency towards heretics was in fact part of a larger shift in policy towards Protestants in Italy that was subsequently promoted by a proxy, the ex-Calvinist Justus Baronius, who publicized his own conversion and reception in the Roman curia in a collection of letters.