Of Blood and Blindness: Islam and Huguenot Identity in Aubigné's "Jugement" ( Tragiques VII)

Abstract

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY OF BLOOD AND BLINDNESS: ISLAM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY IN AUBIGNÉ’S “JUGEMENT” (TRAGIQUES VII) MARCUS KELLER ONE of the major figures in religious polemics during the French civil wars was the Turk. A versatile imaginary construction, the Turk served both Catholic and Protestant pamphleteers and authors of political treatises to denigrate their opponents. The ideological conflict growing ever more acerbic after the outbreak of the fist war in 1562, Catholic polemicists often equated Huguenots with Muslims to imply that a new crusade was needed to purge France of her heretics from within. Some alleged that Protestants had requested support from the Ottoman empire for their fight against the Spaniards and the Pope: “Ilz sont prests à coëffer le Turban et prendre la Circoncision de Mahommet.”1 On the other side, Calvin did not hesitate to invoke Islam in his condemnation of Catholic rites and “superstition,” especially the adoration of relics. He wondered how idolatrous Catholics would explain their form of worship “au Turc qui se moque de leur folie,” but not without distancing himself immediately from both sides: “il suffit qu’entre eux ils vident leur débat. Cependant nous serons excusés de ne croire ni à l’un ni à l’autre” (Rouillard 412). In Protestant pamphlets the Ottoman empire was also cited as a model for religious tolerance that France could emulate to find a way out of its religious and political impasse (Yardeni 87-88). As religious violence escalated and the kingdom threatened to collapse, impassioned calls for a new crusade against the Turk could be heard 1 See “The Turk as a Weapon of Religious and Political Propaganda” (Rouillard 40718 , here 414). YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 137 from both camps.2 Ronsard was among those who encouraged Charles IX to reunite the French behind a common cause and lead them against the infidel in Istanbul.3 Evocations of the Turk and Islam then were pervasive in the religious and political discourse of the second half of the sixteenth century . It therefore does not come with surprise that they also play a significant role in Les Tragiques, Agrippa d’Aubigné’s epic staging of the drama of French Protestantism, which he began to compose in 1577 and published first in 1617. The Ottoman empire emerges in books I, V, and VII, and although references to the Turk and to Islam are relatively few in number, Aubigné makes a very targeted use of them. They contribute to the complexity of his endeavor to foster Huguenot identity . Mostly linked to the epic’s satirical attack on Catholics, the Turk becomes the poet’s unexpected accomplice in creating a vision of France as a reformed nation that nonetheless reunites Catholics and Protestants. Toward the end of “Misères,” the epic’s first book in which Aubigné paints a gruesome tableau of his war-stricken country, the poet implores God to reestablish order among the French and punish the persecutors of the Huguenots, His faithful servants. After portraying the Protestant Church as a harrassed and persecuted “fille du ciel” seeking refuge in the desert,4 the poet likens the situation of the Huguenots to God’s own isolation in a world populated by pagans, Muslims, and idolaters: Les temples du payen, du Turc, de l’idolatre Haussent au ciel l’orgueil du marbre, et de l’albastre, Et Dieu seul au desert pauvrement hebergé A basti tout le monde, et n’i est pas logé. (I. 1305-8) 138 ROMANCE NOTES 2 Michael J. Heath shows how important a role the idea of a new crusade played in Catholic and Protestant discourse alike. 3 See for example Ronsard’s “Élegie à la Magesté du Roy son maistre” (131-40) in which the poet encourages the young king to move military action outside of Europe: “Comme Alexandre aurez l’ame animée/ Du chaut desir de conduire une armée/ Outre l’Europe, & d’assautz vehemens/ Oster le Sceptre aux puissans Ottomans…” (ll. 43-46). 4 “Préface,” ll. 125 and 167-8. I quote from Aubigné 2006. Subsequent references bracketed in the text are to book and lines. Contrary to Calvin who casts Catholics and Muslims as antagonists because of their different views of proper worship...