French Church Research Articles

The spectre of Hegel: early writings

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Louis enjoyed virtually unrivalled status as the foremost living Marxist philosopher. Today, he is remembered as the scourge and severest critic of humanist or Hegelian Marxism, as the proponent of rigorously scientific socialism and as the theorist who posited a sharp rupture - an - between the early and the late Marx. This collection of texts from the period of 1945-1953 turns these interpretations of on their head. Readers discover that there was a young Althusser, as well as the mature Althusser people are already familiar with. In his Masters thesis, On Content in the Thought of G.W.F. (1947), developed a position which he was later to attack ferociously: namely, that the revolutionary potential of the Hegelian dialectic could be defended against Hegel's own political convervatism. is seen wrestling with the spectres of Hegel and of Catholicism in another long text, his letter to Jean Lacroix and, finally, his own epistemological break is shown in the piece On from 1953. Other texts included are his critique of Alexander Kojeve (whose interpretation Francis Fukuyama has recently revived), and his attack on the French Church's teachings on women, sex and the family. This collection not only gives an insight into the formation of this major intellectual figure, but should also restore the unknown Althusser to the centre of the history of Marxism and of philosophy since World War II. Louis is the author of For Marx, Reading Capital, Essays in Ideology, and and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists.

The making of the French episcopate, 1589-1661

This work, written by one of the leading historians of France's ancien regime, is an in-depth study of the French upper clergy during the key period of the Catholic Reformation following the Council of Trent. In describing the creation, character and role of these early French bishops, it also sheds light on social mobility, education, the career patterns and prospects of particular groups, the workings of patronage and clientage networks, and the wider dimensions of royal policy and patronage at this time. Joseph Bergin begins by analysing the structures of the French church and the process by which individuals were nominated and confirmed as bishops. He then presents a collective profile of these bishops in terms of their social and geographical origins, educational attainments and pre-episcopal careers. Bergin examines royal patronage in relation to episcopal office, tracing the successive pressures with which the crown had to deal in the wider social and political world. In particualr he shows how the crown gradually recovered control of church patronage after the low point of the religious wars, reducing the grip of the nobility on large numbers of dioceses. He also examines how reforming pressures were brought to bear on the crown to appoint bishops who met the standards of the counter-reformation church and how the crown became increasingly in tune with these reformist pressures. He concludes by explaining particular features of the French episcopate within a wider European context. The book includes an extensive biographical dictionary.

Minutes of the consistory of the French Church of London, Threadneedle Street, 1679–92. Edited by Robin Gwynn. (Quarto Series, 58.) Pp. ix + 437 incl. frontispiece and 2 ills. London: Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1994. £15. 0 906100 20 8

Minutes of the consistory of the French Church of London, Threadneedle Street, 1679–92. Edited by Robin Gwynn. (Quarto Series, 58.) Pp. ix + 437 incl. frontispiece and 2 ills. London: Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1994. £15. 0 906100 20 8

Cardinal Lavigerie: Churchman, Prophet and Missionary by François Renault

Cardinal Lavigerie: Churchman, Prophet and Missionary. By Francois Renault. Translated by John O'Donohue. (Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Athlone Press. 1994. Pp. vii, 470. $60.00.) has face of a banker: wrote Archbishop of Canterbury. This one-liner appears in numerous studies on ubiquitous Cardinal Lavigerie. The definitive biography of Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie (1825-1892) now sets in perspective his projects for Christianity and for France. Francois Renault is one of several White Fathers who have worked on theses d'Etat in Archives Lavigerie of order's Generalate, now at Rome. He effectively integrates complex issues of Church-State struggle under French Concordat, Vatican politics, relations among a dozen Christian and Muslim sects in Ottoman Empire, and high politics of European diplomacy on three continents. Renault considers all in context of ecclesiology, with due attention to Lavigerie's early stance between Gallicans and Ultramontanes. He evolved by 1870 to strong support for Papal Leadership--the essential for unity among Christians and anchor for French Church under attack. Renault comes to grips with an extraordinary personality. Seminary peers and professors remarked Lavigerie's indolence, chafing restlessness of spirit, practical mind, and practical jokes. The cardinal vacationing at Biskra, where desert climate eased his chronic rheumatism, loved organizing camel races. He was grand in pontifical regalia and solemnities, spare in his table and household. He sometimes spurned compliments and honors, confessing their temptation. He raged at associates and underlings, abjectly begging forgiveness later. Hard-charging impatience obscured his humanity. He used word tender for feelings of open affection toward his Arab orphans, compassion for a tubercular seminarian, and desolation for parents of missionaries murdered en route to mission field. Despite doctorates in letters and theology, Lavigerie did not dwell on abstractions. For him, like his soulmate Leo XIII, practical situations called for flexibility on behalf of core principles. Bismarck was only man Lavigerie praised in same breath with Leo XIII: They are great men because they possess will power (p. 301). Between Paris and Vatican Lavigerie pursued his goals as an honest banker, called by some the real Nuncio. One of his more revolutionary visions had Republic posting a few of its six cardinals of Crown to Rome, where other nations would have to put cardinals for counterweights. Thus de-Italianizing Curia would have enhanced Church's universality (as well as counterweighed French Ambassador to Holy See). …

The armor of light: stained glass in western France, 1250-1325

This landmark study is the first to look closely at the stained glass produced between 1250 and 1325 in western France during the late Capetian era. Generously illustrated with a wealth of color and black-and-white images never before published including many from French churches now closed to the public, Lillich greatly expands our knowledge of both the art and the society from which it emerged. The period Lillich chronicles begins with the region's new vitality following the knights' return from the crusades and ends with the onset of economic uncertainty and unrest that preceded the Hundred Years' War. She reveals that the stained glass of this 75-year span is forceful and uninhibited, dramatic and dazzling, characteristic of what we now term expressionism. Lillich tracks and identifies painters, glazing shops, working methods, models, and sources to argue that the stained glass is a major style with its own developmental evolution and character, putting to rest the notion that this art is merely transitional and provincial.

The Cult of the Virgin and Gothic Sculpture: Evaluating Opposition in the Chartres West Facade Capital Frieze

In the major literature on Gothic sculpture the new prominence of images of the Virgin Mary on mid-twelfth and thirteenth-century French church facades is associated with the newly increasing devotion to the cult of the Virgin in the twelfth century. The west facade of Chartres cathedral has played a central role in this interpretation. In particular, the narrative capital cycle that winds around all three portals would seem to offer invaluable evidence of the importance of the cult of the Virgin in the mid-twelfth century because it presents the first cycle of the life of the Virgin in the west. Through examination of thematic emphases of the cycle, the narrative structure of the capital frieze, and its position within the larger Royal Portal, I will argue that these images present a Mary very unlike that assumed to lie at the root of Gothic, a queenly intercessor whose appeal is universal rather than locally varied. In addition, I explore resonances between the images of the life of the Virgin on the capital frieze and aspects of the folkloric cult at Chartres that have so often been neglected in the modern literature. The cathedral is thus envisaged as a site of exchange between high and folkloric cultures. I conclude with questions concerning the relationship of images to cult at Chartres that have implications for understanding the narratives we construct about Chartres and the development of Gothic.

From Persecution to Toleration: The Glorious Revolution and Religion in England

Introduction The rise of Puritanism and the legalizing of dissent 1571-1719 The cohabitation of the faithful with the unfaithful The French and Walloon communities in London 1550-1688 From persecution to integration: the decline of the Anglo-Dutch communities in England 1642-1702 William III and toleration The claim to freedom of conscience: freedom of speech, freedom of thought freedom of worship? The Deist challenge The Jews of England and 1688 Disorder and innovation: the reshaping of the French churches of London after the glorious revolution The reception of the Huguenots in England and the Dutch Republic 1680-1690 The twilight of Puritanism in the years before and after 1688 The theory of religious intolerance in restoration England English Catholics after 1688 Toleration and religion after 1688 Appendices Index

Music at the Church of the SS Innocents, Paris, in the Late Eighteenth Century

That there was a lively tradition of French sacred choral music in the second half of the eighteenth century is a fact that has to some extent been obscured by the vivid personalities, the querelles, the wide public appeal and the overall vitality of the contemporary opera world. The French church, however, did support a nationwide system of choir schools (or maîtrises), and many establishments maintained music programmes of a size and excellence that reflected the church's wealth and taste.

The Catholic church and the French nation, 1589-1989

Paris is worth a mass was the cynical response of the Protestant King Henri IV who changed his faith to secure the throne of France. Principle and pragmatism have since been, in alteration, the two prime constituents of French Catholicism. For over 1000 years the Roman Catholic Church in France has played an integral role in the life of the French people. It was once so powerful as to be deemed a threat to the independence and strength of the French state and monarchy. The Bourbon kings of France managed to make the French Church into an effective instrument of political and social conformity and order. But in tying the church so closely to the monarchy they made it so conservative and fearful of change that it was unable to face the challenges of modern life which emerged in the 18th century and the French Revolution. Consequently the Church consciously chose to defend the established order of bourgeois France in the 19th century, despite its fundamental antipathy towards the bourgeoisie. It also directed the revolutionary implications of its own theology and history in an ultra-reactionary direction. This culminated in the Church's support for authoritarian and reactionary movements, such as the Action Francaise and Marshal Petain's National Revolution. Norman Ravitch interprets the interaction of the Roman Catholic Church with the national life of France over the last 400 years. Today, Ravitch argues, this process has left French Catholicism redundant - more a historical monument than a living institution.

Reviews : Joseph Bergin, Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld: Leadership and Reform in the French Church, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1987, viii + 302 pp; £22.50

Reviews : Joseph Bergin, Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld: Leadership and Reform in the French Church, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1987, viii + 302 pp; £22.50

Richard Smith’s Gallican Backers and Jesuit Opponents. Part III: The Continuation of the Controversy 1631–c. 1643

When he arrived in France in the summer of 1631 Smith began to give all the help he could to the French writers who had taken up his cause. In doing so he put himself in a very delicate position as a member of Richelieu’s household for he was exacerbating the dissensions in the French Church that the Cardinal was intent upon healing because they posed a threat to national unity. Moreover, the writer to whom Smith chiefly looked for support, the Abbé de Saint-Cyran, was soon to become, for reasons partly political and partly doctrinal, the object of Richelieu’s implacable hostility. Smith had to proceed with great caution if he were not to lose the extraordinary advantages that the Cardinal’s patronage brought him. I propose now to follow the controversy as it developed in France during the 1630s, illustrating Smith’s rôle in it mainly from his private correspondence preserved among the papers of the English secular clergy in the archives of the Archdiocese of Westminster. The dossier is far from complete but enough has survived to allow us to trace with reasonable clarity moves that would otherwise have been totally obscure. The greater part of it consists of letters from Smith to the clergy’s Agent at Rome, Peter Fitton, between 1631 and 1634 (after which there is a gap in this series), and from Smith to the Secretary of the clergy in London, John Southcote, from 1631 until the latter’s death in 1637. There are also a number of letters from Southcote to Smith and to Fitton between 1631 and 1637, and a few to Smith from other members of the clergy, in particular Anthony Champney, formerly Vice-President of the English College at Douai and now chaplain to the English Benedictine nuns at Brussels. After 1637 the correspondence still extant becomes very sparse.

Joseph Bergin, Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld. Leadership and Reform in the French Church, New-Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1987, 302 p.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: Leadership and Reform in the French Church

Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: Leadership and Reform in the French Church

:Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: Leadership and Reform in the French Church

:<i>Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: Leadership and Reform in the French Church</i>

Early Modern

Keepers of the City. The ‘Corregidores’ of Isabella I of Castile (1474–1504). Marvin Lunenfeld The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind. Edited by Angel Alcalá The Earliest Printed Maps 1472–1500. By Tony Campbell The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli. By W.P. Stephens Melchior Hoffman, Social Unrest and Apocalyptic Visions in the Age of Reformation. By Klaus Deppermann, trans. Malcolm Wren, edited by Benjamin Drewery Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany. By R.W. Scribner Economy and Society in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Hungary (1526–1650). By Vera Zimányi The English reformation revised. Edited by C. Haigh Anglicans and Puritans? Presbyterianism and English Conformist Thought from Whitgift to Hooker. By Peter Lake Christian Humansim and the Puritan Social Order. By Margo Todd Bloodfeud in Scotland 1573–1625: Violence, Justice and Politics in Early Modern Society. By Keith M. Brown Letters of John Holles 1587–1637. Edited by P.R. Seddon Archbishop William Laud. By Charles Carlton Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld. Leadership and Reform in the French Church. By Joseph Bergin Music in the Seventeenth Century, By Lorenzo Bianconi The British Army of William III, 1689–1702. By John Childs The Formation of the British Slate: England, Scotland, and the Union 1603–1707. By Brian P. Levack The Foundations of Modern Wales: Wales 1642–1780 (History of Wales, ed. Glanmor Williams, vol. IV). By Geraint H. Jenkins Politics, Religion and Society in England, 1679–1742. By Geoffrey Holmes Britain in the First Age of Party 1680–1750. Essays Presented to Geoffrey Holmes. Edited by Clyve Jones Corsairs and Navies, 1660–1760. By J.S. Bromley Turned to Account: The forms of criminal biography in late seventeenth‐ and early eighteenth‐century England. By Lincoln B. Faller Prison Reform in Lancashire, 1700–1850: a Study in Local Administration. By Margaret DeLacy Lord Bute. Essays in Re‐Interpretation. Edited by K.W. Schweizer Education at Christ Church Oxford 1660–1800. By E.G.W. Bill Berlin 1650–1800. Sozialgeschichte Einer Residenz. By Helga Schultz, mit einem Beitrag von Jügen Wilke Pont‐St‐Pierre 1398–1789: Lordship, Community and Capitalism in Early Modern France. By Jonathan Dewald Policing the poor in eighteenth‐century France. By Robert M. Schwarz Jasmin's Witch. By Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment. Edited by G.S. Rousseau and Roy Porter Aberdeen and the Enlightenment. Edited by Jenifer J. Carter and Joan H. Pittock Montesquieu. By Judith N. Shklar Citizen of the World: Essays on Thomas Paine. Edited by Ian Dyck

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS Get access Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld. Leadership and Reform in the French Church. By Joseph Bergin. Yale University Press, 1987. 302 pages. $32.50. Timothy Tackett Timothy Tackett University of CaliforniaIrvine, CA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume LVII, Issue 3, Fall 1989, Pages 629–631, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LVII.3.629 Published: 01 October 1989

Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: leadership and reform in the French Church

Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld: leadership and reform in the French Church

A Sixteenth-century Assessment of the French Church in the Years 1521–4 by Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet of Meaux

‘C'est à vous, Madame, à qui je parle.’ So wrote the distinguished church statesman and reforming bishop of the Meaux diocese to Marguerite d'Angoulême, duchess of Alençon (later queen of Navarre), powerful sister of the Renaissance monarch François I, on 22 December 1521. The personal and emphatic form of address employed here by Guillaume Briçonnet arose from his concern that Marguerite should grasp firmly a neglected aspect of Christian doctrine: the role of the Spirit in the life of each believer as well as within the Ecclesia. By grace, came the episcopal injunction, Marguerite must recognise ‘le vray feu qui s'est logé, long temps a [i.e. il y a longtemps déja] dans vostre cceur’;and by this same grace French Christendom must acknowledge its state of desolation. An analysis of the 1521–4 exchange of letters between the duchess of Alençon and the bishop of Meaux reveals both the extent of Briçonnet's distress at what he saw as basic weaknesses in the French Church and his spiritual counsel aimed at rectifying a situation he held to be desperate.

Four Gallican Bishops in Exile: Concepts of Episcopacy in the Face of Revolution

WHEN THE BISHOPS of the French Church were confronted with the final form of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790 they presented an almost united front of opposition to the new order. Their ideological and social solidarity remained substantially intact in the protracted exile which, with the victory of the revolutionary party, was the almost inevitable consequence of their shared refusal. This was nowhere more apparent than in London where the largest single concentration of exiled bishops gathered. But, given the general concord, there was a subtle variety of response, a continuation of the debate leading up to the Civil Constitution in which many of the bishops had taken part, to the events beginning with the Civil Constitution and ending with the Napoleonic Concordat, which throws some light on the attitudes of these men to their office of bishop. This paper focuses attention on four of the London bishops: La Marche, Dillon, Thémines and Boisgelin; and suggests, from their example, four possible views of, or approaches to, the episcopate.

The French Church and Current Problems of Peace and War An Evolving Debate

The French Church and Current Problems of Peace and War An Evolving Debate