Paris in the 16th century on September 5, 1557, thirty were from noble families. In 1561-62, the number of Protestants in Paris was estimated at between ten and fifteen thousand; in France as a whole, three million, or fifteen percent of the population. The Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew's Day on August 23–24, 1572 killed between two and three thousand Protestants; it was followed by a large-scale emigration of Protestants out of the city, primarily to Sedan, Montbeliard and Geneva. In 1598, with the Edict of Nantes, the Protestant were again able to open a church a Grigny, on the banks of the Seine outside the city.
Christianity in the 16th century of the 16th century, but Counter-Reformation efforts in the 17th century reconverted a majority of the kingdom to Catholicism. A significant Protestant minority remained, most of it adhering to the Calvinist faith. The Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, was the response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation. The essence of the Counter-Reformation was a renewed conviction in traditional practices and the upholding of Catholic doctrine as the source of ecclesiastic and moral reform, and the answer to halting the spread of Protestantism. Thus it experienced the founding of new religious orders, such as the Jesuits, the establishment of seminaries