The five volumes of J. -H. Merle d’Aubigné’s Histoire de la Réformation du seizième siècle, published between 1835 and 1853, were an enormous success in the French- and English-speaking worlds. They present Luther’s religious life as the Reformation’s basic driving force—an original reading for the time. The Histoire is also a monument to the fame of Luther, who is often lauded for his action and his writings, which Merle d’Aubigné presents as being almost always conform to the divine will.