French Wars Of Religion Research Articles

Glorifier le royaume et le souverain en temps de crise : émotions et royauté chez Christine de Pizan, les chroniqueurs de Charles VI, et Pierre de Ronsard

This article proposes to explore crises from seemingly different backgrounds and periods (the madness of Charles VI of France and the French Wars of Religion) to demonstrate how these elements were used by authors in order to create emotional narratives in support of the failing monarchy. In the two situations, the French community was constructed as an entity which duty was to support the king. However, the authors use different methods to transmit their messages. While Christine de Pizan and the chroniclers advocate for the building of an integrating, all encompassing community around the love of and for the king, Ronsard’s France is tasked at differentiating the Catholics and the Protestants, in an effort to construct France also as a monarchy loving community, of which the protestants are presented as the enemies.

Buchdruck und Reformation in Genf (1478-1600): Ein Überblick

This article links profits from the rich literature in the fields of Reformation history and book-history in order to analyse the relation between printing and the Reformation in Geneva from 1478 to 1600 in a general historian’s perspective. Although various genres of religious and literary (illustrated) books have been printed for a local market since 1478, texts with evangelical tendency have not been produced in Geneva before 1536. Therefore, the ideas of Reformation were rather introduced by evangelical preachers than by the printing press. But after that Geneva became the centre of protestant or better: Calvinist printed propaganda in French (and Latin) until the early 1560s. Because of changing political contexts – French wars of Religion and the comeback of the Duke of Savoy as a neighbour – and the emerging of reformed printing in France forced Geneva to redirect their production towards more learned and non-religious books in Latin (humanism, classical authors, science). Nether the less, the production of (Genevan) Bibles and texts of Calvin and his followers and successors did not cease.

Catholic resistance theory: William Barclay versus Jean Boucher

ABSTRACTThis article examines William Barclay's response to Jean Boucher's De Justa Abdicatione Henrici Tertii (1589) in view of the complexities of Catholic political thought in this post-Tridentine period. It argues that Barclay's famous category of ‘monarchomach’ is problematic for its avoidance of the issue of confessional difference, and that on questions of the relationship between the respublica and the ecclesia Barclay struggled to find an adequate response to Boucher in his De Regno et Regali Potestate (1600). His De Potestate Papae (1609) is treated as the intellectual extension of his battle with Boucher, and more broadly his confrontation with the position of the Catholic League and Jesuits on indirect papal power. By considering Barclay's works in the context of French Gallicanism and the Catholic League in the French Wars of Religion, this discussion aims to reposition Barclay in relation to other Catholic political theorists and thereby re-evaluate the category of Catholic resistance theory.

A Psalter from Maillezais at Maynooth

A Psalter from the third quarter of the fifteenth century is preserved in the collections of St Patrick's College now housed in the Russell Library at Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. The psalter was evidently made in a Benedictine monastery in south-west France, probably Poitou. One particular saint occurs in both the calendar and the litany. St Rigomer, though little known elsewhere, was specially venerated at Maillezais in the marshes of bas-Poitou, where the abbey, founded c.1000, was provided with incoming funds from pilgrims by the transfer there of the saint's relics c.1020, and they were given a place of special importance in the chapel to the south of the main altar. The monks at Maillezais had a good library of which there is a catalogue from the end of the twelfth century. Of the small number of these books that still survive one is identified as a Maillezais book because it includes a mention of St Rigomer. It is extremely likely that the psalter now at Maynooth came from Maillezais. This journey cannot have been direct. Maillezais suffered heavily in the Hundred Years War and the French Wars of Religion and the books from the monks' library were probably dispersed in the 1560s. What happened to the psalter between this time and when it arrived in Maynooth probably in the first half of the eighteenth century is moot, but we can now be reasonably certain of its place of origin as well as knowing where it is housed now.

Lectures du Troisième Livre des Essais de Montaigne ed. by Philippe Desan

Reviewed by: Lectures du Troisième Livre des Essais de Montaigne ed. by Philippe Desan Gregory B. Stone Desan, Philippe, éd. Lectures du Troisième Livre des Essais de Montaigne. Champion, 2016. ISBN 978-2-7453-3556-2. Pp. 382. This collection is indispensable for any serious student of Montaigne. Following two introductory chapters that provide a wealth of primarily philological discussion clarifying the composition of Book III, the collection includes a treatment of each of that book's thirteen essays. There are several common characteristics, beginning with the fact that the chapters are of roughly uniform length, that give this collection more coherence and organic unity than is often the case: each chapter provides substantial bibliographical reference to important previous and often quite recent discussions of the essay under consideration; the general aim in most cases is to make manifest the given essay's implicit underlying organizing principles; in line with recent scholarship's emphasis on the social and political dimensions of Montaigne's project, there is a consistent attention to the Wars of Religion as a chief motivating context for the Essais. Overall, the collection is successful at avoiding one of the pitfalls of Montaigne criticism—the tendency to offer paraphrase of rather than insight concerning Montaigne's writing. Each of the book's fifteen chapters is strong and insightful. Desan's introduction shows that, with the 1588 addition of Book III and later manuscript additions in the Exemplaire de Bordeaux, Montaigne fundamentally changed the nature of Books I and II, which had originally been conceived largely as reflections on issues involving politics, morality, and diplomatic and military strategies. After 1588 the first two books become more consonant with the personal and politically disengaged discourse of Book III. Amy Graves Monroe argues convincingly that the apparently meandering itinerary and disconnected subject matters of "Des coches" (III, 6) are motivated and unified by a pun involving cochon ("pig,""hog"): the essay [End Page 251] is artfully constructed by drawing upon a series of philosophical anecdotes featuring pigs in texts by Diogenes Laertius, Plato, and Plutarch. In a similar vein, Alexandre Tarrête teases out the order of the apparently disorderly "De l'art de conférer" (III, 8) by considering various senses of the verb featured in the essay's title, conférer. Jean Balsamo reads "De la vanité" (III, 9) in the context of Montaigne's reception of an honorary Papal grant of Roman citizenship in 1581, juxtaposing that honor's quality as a gratuitous end-in-itself with the mercantile logic of quid pro quo exchange that drove the ostentatious bestowal of honors during the French Wars of Religion. Véronique Ferrer regards Montaigne's declarations of apathy and disengagement in "De ménager sa volonté" (III, 10) as a surreptitious mode of political engagement targeting violent partisan conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Bruno Méniel argues that the"lame"or"unstable"persons to whom Montaigne alludes with the title of "Des boiteux" (III, 11) are those leading jurists of Montaigne's time who pretend that legal judgments are rational and objective truths rather than matters of personal opinion. The collection is an invaluable resource for the study of the individual essays of Book III and of the Essais as a whole. Gregory B. Stone Louisiana State University Copyright © 2018 American Association of Teachers of French

The Local in the Global: Battles for Sacred Space in the French Wars of Religion

The Local in the Global: Battles for Sacred Space in the French Wars of Religion

« En centinela en su propia casa ». Reflexiones sobre el terrorismo como guerra civil - el ejemplo de las guerras de Religión (1562-1598).

This paper offers to think about the problems faced by a society confronted with the presence - real or fantasized - of the « enemy within ». In this society, the identification of the other and the self-presentation do not only serve to protect the social honor but are matters of life and death. What are the skills mobilized for identifying the "suspects"? The wars of Religion (1562-1598) can help to think of a society confronted with sudden violence and, just like the terrorism, from the inside of the community. La presente contribución propone una reflexion sobre los problemas encontrados por una sociedad confrontada con la presencia - efectivo o fantaseada - de un "enemigo interior". En esta sociedad, el reconocimiento de los otros y la presentación de sí mismo no tienen por objeto unico de proteger el honor social, pero son situaciones de vida o muerto ¿ Cuáles son las competencias movilizadas para identidiar a los "sospechosos"? Las guerras de Religión (1562-1598) pueden ayudar a pensar una sociedad confrontada con la irrupción de una violencia súbita y, como el terrorismo, venida del interior de la comunidad. La présente contribution se propose de réfléchir aux problèmes rencontrés par une société confrontée à la présence – réelle ou fantasmée – d’un « ennemi intérieur » prêt à frapper n’importe où, n’importe qui, tapi dans l’indolence, la banalité, la routine et le confort du quotidien. Dans cette société, la reconnaissance d’autrui et la présentation de soi n’ont plus pour but de protéger l’honneur social mais engagent des questions de vie ou de mort. Quelles sont les compétences mobilisées pour débusquer les « suspects » ? Les guerres de Religion (1562-1598) peuvent aider à penser une société confrontée à l’irruption d’une violence soudaine et, à l’image du terrorisme, venue de l’intérieur de la communauté

Forgetting Differences: Tragedy, Historiography, and the French Wars of Religion by Andrea Frisch

Forgetting Differences: Tragedy, Historiography, and the French Wars of Religion by Andrea Frisch

Personal Geographies and Liminal Identities in Three Early Modern Women's Life Writings about War

Throughout literary history, war has been a recurrent theme in life writing. This article discusses life writing as an important aspect of comparative literature or world literature, and focuses on three early modern women’s geographical experiences and liminal identities as found in their life writings: Marguerite of Valois (1553-1615), a Catholic and Queen consort of Navarre who served as a supporter of Protestants during the French wars of religion, Queen Henrietta Maria of England (1609-69), and Lady Brilliana Harley (1598-1643), the wife of a Parliamentarian representative of England. These three noblewomen used their writings as means of constructing their identities in the public sphere.

:Forgetting Differences: Tragedy, Historiography, and the French Wars of Religion

:<i>Forgetting Differences: Tragedy, Historiography, and the French Wars of Religion</i>

Forgetting Differences: Tragedy, Historiography, and the French Wars of Religion. By Andrea Frisch.

<i>Forgetting Differences: Tragedy, Historiography, and the French Wars of Religion</i>. By Andrea Frisch.

The Role of Jeanne d’Albret in the French Reformation and the French Wars of Religion

The Role of Jeanne d’Albret in the French Reformation and the French Wars of Religion

Collage, Architectural Inscription, and the Aesthetics of Iconoclasm in Jacques Perret's Des fortifications et artifices (1601)

Taking the case of a late Renaissance treatise on Huguenot architecture, this essay explores the potentials of collage as an expression of confessional contestation in the wake of the French Wars of Religion. The book's hybrid imagery bears a formal language of cutting, removal, and addition, which evokes the confessional violence that precipitated in this period at the scale of the built environment. Illustrated plates depict open-plan temples with their ceilings and floors cut away, as if to reenact pictorially the dismantling of rood screens and liturgical furnishings in Catholic churches during episodes of iconoclastic purification. The same pages feature Calvinist Psalms and pious sayings that were once chanted and sung by French Protestants, as well as inscribed and layered in abundance on the walls of their churches and homes. In this mixed verbal-visual form, the medium of early modern collage was operative in a plurality of sensory registers and at disparate physical scales.

El Imperio Otomano y la política de alianzas: las relaciones francootomanas en el tránsito del siglo XVI al XVII

Although Western historiography considered the Ottoman Empire as a marginal and antagonist factor, the Ottomans were an integral component of the history of Early Modern age. The conscientious policy of balance of power towards the Christian powers made Ottomans a crucial element in the struggle for hegemony. The Franco-Turkish alliance that was established in the reigns of Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent mainly depended on mutual enmity against Spanish hegemony in Europe. In the late sixteenth century, after the death of Henry III the French Wars of Religion gave rise to a chaotic situation in which the Catholic King sought the opportunity to place France under its control. This could have caused an irreversible change in the balance of power in the Mediterranean, an unacceptable situation for the geostrategic interests of the Ottoman sultans. The Ottoman Empire played a major role in the French foreign policy against Spanish claims during the different phases of the reign of Henry IV. Even Clement VIII implicitly instrumentalized Ottoman- French friendship to strengthen both its own position as well as that of France with respect to the Spanish Monarchy. This article aims to demonstrate the limits and efficiencies of politics of alliance in the transition from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century considering the role of England and the Republic of Venice.

The Wars of Love’s Labour’s Lost: Performance and Interpretation

This paper investigates the trope of war in relation to the critical and performance history of Love’s Labour’s Lost. The “civil war of wits” has long been recognized as central to the play’s linguistic texture, as has the “war against your own affections” that Navarre urges on his fellow academe-lovers. In addition to these linguistic and psychological threads, the play’s disputed debt between France and Navarre concerns the “wars” waged by Navarre’s father, while the four lords’ names point toward historical actors in the French wars of religion from the 1570s into the 1590s. Beyond these well-cited links, however, the play has an unusual history of being performed in actual war-time, or staged in a war-setting, as in Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus, the Branagh film, and productions directed by Robin Phillips, Trevor Nunn and Corinne Jaber, among others. Publicity for the current RSC production describes the setting as just before the First World War, “conjuring up the carefree elegance of a pre-war Edwardian summer.” This paper explores why the play has so frequently been associated with war, and particularly the Edwardian period.

Religion Around Shakespeare by Peter Iver Kaufman (review)

Peter Iver Kaufman. Shakespeare. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013. Pp. iii + 256. $34.95. Peter Iver Kaufmans appears as first installment in a series called Religion Around, of which Kaufman is general editor. series intends to bring religious background into foreground for cultural icons. For as recent to in studies suggests, this is no small task. difficulties, as Kaufman sees them, are first, that criticism has attended to the religion of Shakespeare rather than the religion around him (1); and second, that the ways plays are read (as laments for a religion that was lost or as intrigued, bemused, or cleverly critical reactions to religion found around him) often determine ways in which contexts are patched together (2-3). Kaufmans remedy is to begin by ignoring plays and reconstructing late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century religious milieu, and then by imagining what kind of religious views (and news) may have encountered, first in Stratford and then in London. Only after Kaufman has isolated times' religious character does he turn to Shakespeare's plays, but even here Kaufman insists he is uninterested in new dramatic interpretations, but instead docks evidence drawn from some plays alongside evidence left by preachers, churchwardens, vestrymen, polemicists, theologians, and diarists (4-5) to recover circumstance (5). Circumstance, Kaufman assures us, --the religion around playwright, not his faith or plays' proper interpretations--is my subject (5). Two chapters, Religion and Around Shakespeare, comprise book's first section. Religion begins in 1558 with establishment of a reformed church that owed due obedience to Queen Elizabeth and her bishops--a demand that challenged consciences of Catholics and Calvinists alike. Kaufman attempts to avoid contagious logophobia among historians of this contested Elizabethan Protestantism by adopting Charles Prior's choice of conformist and reformist--defined by degree of satisfaction with English church's state of reform--with caveat that puritan is useful for Calvinist pietists who internalized their dissatisfaction with reform by emphasizing their co-religionists' prodigality through excessive sermonizing and devotional literature (11). conformist/reformist binary envisions Jacobethan religion as conflicted both within church and between Protestants and Catholics. This chapter, then, considers both doctrinal differences (the efficacy of sermons versus sacraments, tensions between episcopacy and laity) and religious, or quasi-religious, political confrontations: Elizabeths conflict with Archbishop Grindal over prophesying; Pope Pius Vs excommunication of Elizabeth; Mary Queen of Scots' Catholic claim to succession; Alencon's courtship of Elizabeth framed by French wars of religion; Jesuit mission to England; Spanish threat, including Dutch Revolt, Armada, and earl of Essex's preemptive strikes against Spain and subsequent fall; and continuity into James I's reign of attitudes associated with these events, beginning with Hampton Court Conference and culminating in Gunpowder Plot. Kaufman skillfully weaves into his narration of these events their reception by Catholics, reformists, and conformists identifiable through sermons and printed texts. In considering such public responses, Kaufman is cautious about what could have known--as, for example, regarding Essex's fall, he notes, The importance of all this for a politically and confessionally non-aligned playwright living in London at time is hard to gauge (37). next chapter, Around Shakespeare begins in Stratford, where despite Shakespeare's family's possible fondness for old religion, power of local reformist notables like Robert Dudley, Thomas Lucy, and Edwin Sandys would have made outright expression of Catholic positions politically unwise. …

Claude Le Jeune and Theodore de Bèze: A first encounter in the &lt;i&gt;Dix Pseaumes ... en forme de Motets&lt;/i&gt; of 1564

In this article Claude Le Jeune’s Dix Pseaumes is investigated, with special attention to its historical context. The Dix Pseaumes came into existence during the initial phase of the Frenchwars of religion, between the Edict of Ambois on 19 March 1563 and its publication in 1564,with Le Jeune as its composer and Theodore de Beze wrote the texts. De Beze’s influence in forming the French Protestant’s view on armed resistance makes his connection to the Dix Pseaumes very interesting. It is argued that the non-sequential order of the psalms in this work cannot be accepted as unintentional, but relates directly to the political situation of that time. The texts were evidently chosen to mirror a well-defined consciousness of the French Protestants’ particular existential situation. This is worked out in detail with respect to theopening psalm (Psalm 96), but can be detected in all the other psalms as well. The closing psalm (Psalm 81) ends with an upbraiding of the people’s unkindness in refusing the yoke of God’s law. Thus the obstinate disobedience of the people is blamed for the sad state of affairs in the country. This sorrowful note is echoed in the chanson spirituelle , Mais qui es-tu , which closes Le Jeune’s collection.

The death of Charles IX Valois: an assassin's or a martyr's blood?: The image of kingship during the French Wars of Religion

The purpose of this article is to analyse works connected to the death of Charles IX Valois. In particular, we will focus on the image of the blood of the dead king. Analysis of Charles’ autopsy, as well as the account of the court intrigue characterizing the last months of his life, provides the context in which this flow of propaganda took place. Catholic sources, especially funeral sermons by court preacher Arnaud Sorbin, cast light on the image of the blood of Charles IX as the blood of a ‘saint’ and a ‘martyr’ king. We will also show how Sorbin’s sermons related to Henri III’s succession to the throne given the tense situation at court. Finally, analysis of Reformed sources, both contemporary to Charles’ death and later, outline how Calvinists tried to dishonour the ‘tyrant’ through references to his blood and by characterizing his death as divine justice.

'Remarque en toy telle marque': Etienne Jodelle's Parisian Inscriptions and Epitaphs in the French Wars of Religion

This article considers the various inscriptions and epitaphs written by Etienne Jodelle (1532–1573) during the French Wars of Religion. Jodelle asserted his identity as a Parisian with an urban poetics that inscribed a pro-Catholic and pro-royal narrative upon the city itself. He sought to make Paris a readable, royal, Catholic space through his inscriptions, particularly those he composed for the Croix de Gastine, a monument erected in 1569 to commemorate the execution of a family of Protestants on the rue Saint-Denis. However, Jodelle’s attempts to inscribe a narrative of royal power onto the city highlight the difficulty of creating such a narrative within the contested space of Paris at the end of the sixteenth century. The policies of oblivion of the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (August 1570) led to the removal of the Croix de Gastine. However, despite the poet’s disappointment in these policies, he continued to make his work public through monumental writing in Paris. By means of this direct, material encounter with his public, Jodelle sought to preserve collective memory of royal power, appealing first and foremost to the minds of his readers in the hopes of leaving an inscription that would remain after its material source disappeared.

Wes Williams Monsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture: Mighty MagicMonsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture: Mighty Magic. Wes Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. xv+344.

Wes Williams Monsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture: Mighty MagicMonsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture: Mighty Magic. Wes Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. xv+344.