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This article analyses the approval of the Gallican Confession during the so-called first national synod of the French Reformed churches, held in Paris in May 1559. The established consensus is that Calvin had a starring role in the adoption of the Confession by the pastors assembled in Paris. The latter are believed to have modified and promulgated the Gallican Confession based on a draft that the former had authored and sent to the synod. This paper will test the hypothesis that Calvin never sent any draft to Paris for approval in May 1559 and that a 1557 Parisian document—the letter-confession Au Roy—was used as the basis for the text of the Gallican Confession. We will also show that in May 1559 Calvin was not opposed to the promulgation of a confession of faith, but to its untimely disclosure and/or publication in print. This article offers a different interpretation of the relationship between Geneva and the brethren assembled in Paris at this crucial stage, and suggests that the categories of agreement/disagreement between Calvin and some French pastors, normally applied to this event, might not be appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1559 the naval squadron under the command of Alvaro de Bazan lost one galleass and one zabra –a small 16th century Spanish sailing vessel- in a battle against the Turks at the coast of Cadiz. We know this incident in great detail due to diverse sources, in particular a statement signed by witnesses under oath in front of a public notary. The comparison of this information with a pamphlet in verse, published several months after, shows a need to rethink the importance of the printed composition in order to reconstruct history.