Niki Wanner
The Protestant Cause:
Natalie Zemon Davis’ Use of Religion in The Return of Martin Guerre
It is a well-known idea that history, as a discipline, is inherently interpretive and never
isomorphic with the past. Historians are not direct reporters of past events, for there is no way to
revisit and relive the time period of interest; instead, historians use pieces of what has been left
behind to retell the story in the way they see fit. Natalie Zemon Davis’ Return of Martin Guerre
is a perfect example of this interpretive nature – the author consults myriad primary and
secondary sources pertaining to the story of the Guerre family, and then uses critical reading to
draw unexpected conclusions regarding the events that transpired. A number of these
conclusions are based on possible character motives like monetary gain, love, and the topic to be
discussed here, religion. In my paper, I will argue that Natalie Zemon Davis includes
Protestantism in The Return of Martin Guerre in order to present an interpretation of character
motives that supports her “against the grain” reading of primary and secondary sources on the
subject. Davis asserts that the Reformed Church and its relatively relaxed view of marriage and
confession appealed to Bertrande de Rols and Arnaud du Tilh, who she concludes were
enamored conspirators in the imposture. By discussing several main assertions in the work, I will
illustrate the way Davis employs Protestantism with varying evidentiary support to shape and
validate her own argument.
First, Davis’ uses Protestantism to support her argument that Bertrande was a willing
participant in Arnaud’s act of deception. Near the beginning of the work, she claims that Arnaud
and Bertrande felt that Protestantism and the Reformed Church provided justification for their
