A Matter of Jurisdiction: “Guelfs” and “Ghibellines” in the French Wars of Religion

Abstract

Gallicans like Montaigne construed the confessional struggle as a problem of jurisdiction between the Crown and the Pope. When he quipped “to the Ghibelline I was a Guelph, to the Guelph a Ghibelline”, he was thus not intimating that he appeared “Protestant” to the Catholic side and “Catholic” to the Protestant one. Instead, he used these terms in their historical sense, designating a division between citramontane supporters of the king and ultramontane supporters of the pope. Between anti-tolerant and anti-pacifist Leaguers and tolerant-pacifist Politiques lay a third option, that of anti-tolerant but pacifist Gallicans.