This book sheds new light on the origin of Calvinism and the Reformed faith through a detailed history of its progress in the Pays de Vaud. A careful examination of twin conflicts – the forced conversion of a Catholic populace to Protestantism by the Bernese; and the struggle of Calvinists against the Zwinglian political and theological ideas that dominated the Swiss Confederation – helps show why the Reformation bloomed where and when it did.