Religion and the Politics of Time: Holidays in France from Louis XIV through Napoleon

Abstract

Originating in a doctoral dissertation, Noah Shusterman's Religion and the Politics of Time: Holidays in France from Louis XIV through Napoleon, traces the history of calendar reforms in the ancien régime, the innovations of the republican calendar, the centralisation of religious holidays, and Napoleon's restoration of Gregorian calendar. He draws upon the hints and details hidden in numerous departmental and municipal archives as well as the official recordings of the various governments and ministries. Existing studies on holidays of the pre-industrial period and the period of industrialisation mainly focus on the economic aspect of this issue; Shusterman's presentation of the political perspective is refreshing. By analysing the roots of the transformation in the ancien régime, he convincingly argues that the decline in the number of holidays was not the result of industrialisation, but in many ways prefigured the transition towards industrial society. Through rich local sources, Shusterman points out that during the ancien régime, the decision-maker in each diocese was the local bishop, who decided upon the observation of religious holidays, while taking into consideration any secular regulation. He shows that the centralisation and nationalisation of religious holidays had not happened in pre-industrial French society. When the French Catholic Church sought to reduce the number and to standardise holidays throughout France, given Enlightenment critiques of the church's practice in the area, the power to declare holidays was moved from individual dioceses to the centre, helping to unify and reduce the religious holidays nationwide yet more.