Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples published a French translation of the New Testament in 1523. The work brought scripture closer to lay readers at a moment of growing religious controversy. It challenged the assumption that sacred knowledge should remain chiefly in Latin and under clerical supervision.

Vernacular scripture transformed poetic diction, hymnody and devotional prose. French poets inherited a language increasingly charged with biblical cadence, reformist urgency and debates over who had the right to interpret sacred words.