La absolución de herejía de Enrique IV de Francia por Clemente VIII. Un caso moral, canónico y político conflictivo

Abstract

Henry IV, King of France, brought up as a Calvinist, by attending a catholic mass attempted a « change of image », which would allow him to succeed to the throne of France as a Catholic, at least as far as appearances went. Finding himself in these circumstances, he pronounces the famous and still topical phrase: Paris is worth a mass. The article presents, with brief commentary and edition of texts, ten documents preserved in the National Archives of Simancas, which are representative of the different reactions to the monarch's decision. In effect, on the quaestio facti, true or false conversion, essentially hinged the quaestio iuris: the viability in good conscience of the king's absolution, a theme about which there already existed a long tradition and historical praxis. Alongside this question there is another fundamental question of great importance: what were the political consequences of one or other decision, religious peace in France or the continuance of a religious war and perhaps even a schism in the heart of French Catholicism. Without a doubt, the documents published in this article are of great interest for the history of Penal Canon Law.