The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589-1661 by Joseph Bergin

Abstract

Making of the French 1589-1661. By Joseph Bergin. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 1996. Pp. xiii, 761. $50.00.) emergence of prosopography as a historical method some thirty years ago has led to the publication of a large number of works on the early-modern episcopate. Bishops are well suited to this approach because of their status and the extensive information, relatively speaking, available about them.The best of these studies so far is this massive book, which provides a vast amount of detail about the 351 bishops given miters in the seven decades it covers.The book's title accurately reflects its content in that it concentrates on how bishops were appointed and what went into preparing a cleric for episcopal office, not on what they did once they gained their sees. text is divided into three major sections. first, French Church and Its Bishops, provides a sketch of the previous studies of the French episcopate and a description of the territorial layout of the French Church before moving on to the process by which bishops were appointed.The latter point is accomplished largely through a series of case studies that demonstrate the complicated maneuvers within the diocese, at Rome, and especially at court that would-be bishops and their patrons had to go through to gain a miter. Bergin devotes two valuable chapters to the finances of the episcopate, showing what the bishop's nominal income in each of the 113 French dioceses was at midseventeenth century and what obligations, mostly in the form of pensions, reduced a bishop's real income. second section, Profiles of the Episcopate, is devoted largely to the question of what went into the making of a bishop: place of origin, family background, clientele and kinship ties, education, and career path. Among the noteworthy points shown by Bergin's data are a decline in home-grown bishops and a substantial increase in those from Parisian families. His data on their social origins contradict the common image of an episcopate solidly noble by 1661, showing that under Richelieu in particular a higher percentage of commoner bishops were seated than in the sixteenth century.The education of future bishops was decidedly improved over the previous century. By 1661 over 90% had higher degrees in law or theology. Even the best noble families had realized that if they hoped to win miters for their younger sons, they had to be well educated. Other changes that Bergin's statistics reveal are the near disappearance of underage appointees but yet a longer average period of tenure, as bishops no longer resigned their sees or traded them in the same high proportions as previously. final section, The Crown and the Episcopate, examines the patterns of episcopal appointments according to the politics of the court. Bergin first details the anarchy in the episcopate during the last years of the religious wars and shows how Henry IV through a pragmatic policy of rewarding supporters and buying off former enemies was able to restore stability to it. …