Instructor | History 318 Home Page | Schedule of Weekly Readings and Questions

Please note that the 13:30 tutorial on Thursday takes place in CC 5120, not AQ 5120.

The Foundations of Early Modern France

NB Much of the material in the outline below ("The Reformation: The Appeal of Calvinism") is covered in Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 8-49, part of the assigned reading for 10 September 2002 (next Tuesday). In class (5 September), I will integrate the sections on Calvin and French Calvinism in a discussion of Davis, Society and Cultue in Early Modern France, 1-16.

Davis, "Strikes and Salvation in Lyon."

1. Where is Lyon? Consult a map.

2. What was the Company of the Griffarins? Why might its members be attracted to Protestantism? Why did most of them remain Catholics?

3. Evaluate the reading: Is the title of the article well chosen? What is its significance? What is Davis' argument? Can you locate it in the article? Or: is there an explicit argument? How persuasive is her article?

Some helpful historical background:

In the famous Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541 Calvin proposed four types of offices within the Church: deacons, doctors, elders, pastors. Deacons looked after financial matters and took charge of the day-to-day care of the sick and poor. Doctors were to instruct the faithful in sound doctrine = catechists, schoolmasters, professors. The elders, usu. leaders in the local community had the job of keeping an eye on the Christian life of the community. They spent most of their time on people in trouble and troublesome people, such as those who refused to attend church or were known to be living an immoral life. The pastors, who preached and officiated at worship services, joined the elders in maintaining discipline. The organ of discipline was the Consistory. People guilty of incorrect rel. opinions or bad personal conduct (adultery, wife abuse) were brought before the Consistory, shown the error of their ways and urged to repent. If they did not repent, they were excommunicated: an ecclesiastical penalty, not a civil one.

The Reformation: The Appeal of Calvinism

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN FRANCE ON THE EVE OF THE REFORMATION

  • Gallicanism, Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438), Concordat of Bologna (1516)
  • two important results of the Concordat of Bologna

    THE BEGINNINGS OF PROTESTANTISM AND OF PERSECUTION

  • the watchdogs of orthodoxy: the Sorbonne and the Parlement of Paris
  • Many French humanists were suspected of heresy, e.g. Lefèvre d'Etaples and the circle at Meaux under Bishop Briçonnet.
  • attitude of Francis I; Affair of the Placards (18 October 1534), Amboise; suppression of heresy in Provence (1545)
  • Henry II (1547-1559), Chambre ardent (Court of Fire) established in 1548.

    CALVIN AND CALVINISM

  • John Calvin (1509-1564), Institutes of the Christian Religion
  • church organization: Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541); church offices: deacons, doctors, elders, pastors.

    FRENCH CALVINISM IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

  • French Protestantism up to the 1550s; conventicles
  • How did Calvinist ideas spread in France? (1) printing and book trade, (2) humanist colleges: Universities of Montpellier and Nîmes, (3) court, Jeanne d'Albret
  • Who converted to Calvinism? One Catholic critic wrote with sarcasm: "The first to hear the truth...were goldsmiths, masons, carpenters and other miserable wage-earners, who became overnight excellent theologians."
  • conversion of the noblity, the transformation of the "religion des petits gens" into a "protestantisme seigneurial", motives for conversion.
  • emergence and organization of Calvinist churches, establishment of consistories: Paris, Poitiers (1555), Orleans (1557), La Rochelle (1558), Nîmes (1561).
  • Geneva sent out 88 pastors to France between 1555 and 1562.
  • first synod of French Reformed church (1559)
  • the United Provinces of the Midi = Dauphiné, Languedoc, Guyenne, Gascony, Périgord, and Saintonge.
  • Huguenots, consistory, family, God's elect,
  • the consistories and morality

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