Le sens des reliques. Pratiques érudites et dévotionnelles autour des reliques du Christ en France au xviie siècle

Abstract

The criticism of Jean Calvin and other reformers in the 16th century with regard to the cult of relics led to a questioning of the paradigm of the authenticity of the sacred. In his Traité des reliques published in 1543, Jean Calvin examines relics, which he mocks, from the point of view of their historicity. He maintains that the historical and archival proofs of their authenticity are insufficient and sometimes do not even exist. This criticism leads to a Catholic reaction beginning in the 1580s. Many authors, usually ecclesiastics, write in defense of a particular sacred object, and sometimes many. The relics of Christ are at the heart of the question, usually linked to local material and devotional promotions. The aim of this article is thus to study these writings, which are both scholarly and pastoral, in order to understand how the meanings of the sacred evolve in the Catholic world after the Counsel of Trent, in a mounting tension between historical truth and devotional truth.