Draft:Jean-Paul Perrin

Jean-Paul Perrin (1580-?), sometimes incorrectly named Jean Paul Perrin Lionnois because he was originally from Lyon, was a Protestant preacher and historian of the 16th and 17th centuries, and pastor of a congregation in Nyons, Dauphiné.

Works
He is best known for his Histoire des Vaudois, commissioned by the Provincial Synode of the Reformed Church of Dauphiné in March 1605, completed around 1609 and printed by Matthieu Berjon on January 1, 1618, in Geneva. A second edition dates from the following year, printed by Pierre and Jacques Chouët, also in Geneva.

This 596-page work, sometimes also referred to as Histoire des Chrestiens Albigeois, is based on numerous sources gathered mainly between 1602 and 1603 by Calvinists (including some former Waldensians) to defend the thesis that the Roman Catholic Church is not descended from the primitive Church, Rather, it had departed from it, in contrast to the Albigensians and Waldensians and other groups before them, who, according to Perrin, had maintained the true faith, particularly in the Alpine valleys, and had mostly joined the Protestant Reformation or Anabaptism in the 16th century.

Despite the fact that most of these original sources disappeared during the dragonnades, this work is considered highly credible by historians for several reasons: it was revised by numerous Protestant pastors from Southern France over a period of 9 years; it often overlaps with the writings of Jean Crespin, Nicolas Vignier and Philippe de Marnix; it served as a reference for the writings of Thieleman Van Braght (Martyrs Mirror, 1660), Jean Léger (Histoire générale des Églises Évangéliques des Vallées du Piémont ou Vaudoises, 1669) and Antoine Monastier (Histoire de l'Église Vaudoise, 1847).