Five rare French polemical works on the Counter-Reformation, all first published in 1561, here with three or four in their first editions: 3 barbed anti-Protestant "Epistres" by the translator, patristic scholar and defender of the Catholic faith Gentien Hervet (1499-1584), with the third known copy of the first and only edition of an anonymous Protestant Response to one or both of the Deux epistres and the first edition of Hervet's Apologie defending his views against the claims of the Response. Hervet states in his Apologie that he does not know the name of the author of the Response and therefore addresses him as "Monsieur l'Un pour Tous", but the Response was addressed to "fideles de l'Eglise Reformee d'Orleans" and the Apologie title-page supposes the Response came from the "Ministres de la nouvelle eglise d'Orleans", so it may have been written by Daniel Toussain (1541-1602), ordained in the Orléans Reformed Church in 1561. The first epistle (ad 1) is addressed to the devout Catholics, warning them of the Protestants, but the next two (ads 2 & 3) are more provocatively addressed to the ministers and supporters of the new Protestant Church. This provoked the Response, which in turn provoked Hervet's Apologia. All five editions are rare, but especially the anonymous Response (ad 4). The USTC records only 2 copies, and records no other edition.
With 3 contemporary or near contemporary inscriptions on the title-page, 2 struck through (1 perhaps reading "Robert Rey" or "Reny" or "Reng") and the third by "Francois Thiboult", this last repeated on the Response title-page. With contemporary ms. annotations in ink in all 5 works. First title-page sightly soiled and some light, most marginal waterstains in the last work, but still in good condition. Five rare works by and responding to the French Counter-Reformationist Gentian Hervet. J.N. Bakhuizen van den Brink, "De seconde epistre van Gervien Hervat", in: Ned. Archief v. Kerkgesch., 48 (1968), pp. 169-212 (discussing all 4 Hervet works); USTC 45253 (cf. 88267, barely distinguishable), 4528, 20245, 41867, 740 (ads 1-5); cf. Brunet III, 137-138; STC French p. 224; none in Adams; for Hervet: Nouv. Biogr. Gén. 24, cols. 536-40; G. Wylie Sypher, "'Faisant ce qu'il leur vient a plaisir': the image of Protestantism in French Catholic polemic on the eve of the religious wars", in: Sixteenth century journal, 11/2 (1980), pp. 59-84.