Neo-Calvinism and the French Revolution (original) (raw)
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Introduction to Calvinism and Enlightenment Special Issue
Long ago, in 2008, Professor Knud Haakonssen and the editor of this special issue, both then of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, set up a project, funded by the British Academy, examining the interaction between confessional religion and what is commonly considered as Enlightenment ideas. The
Church and State in the French Reformation
Although national boundaries dividing European historians from each other are tenacious, divisions by period are sometimes more so. The history of France in the sixteenth century is sometimes treated quite separately from that of subsequent centuries. Indeed, sixteenth-century European historians frequently pay greater attention to France than French historians pay to the sixteenth century. Sixteenth-century European historians care about France because the French Wars of Religion occupy a central position in sixteenth-century international relations and political history, as well as because Calvin, France's leading reformer, was extraordinarily influential internationally. 1 Great historians whose work has *The books discussed in this essay are Thierry Amalou, Une concorde urbaine: Senlis au temps des réformes ðvers 1520-vers 1580Þ ðLimoges:
Canadian Journal of History, 1978
HE position of religion in the first half of the Enlightenment in France (see A. Adam, Le Mouvement philosophique dans la premiere moitie du XVlIl" siecle, chap. V, "Le Probleme Religieux") was characterized chiefly by a strong display of disbelief which was evident from 1715 to 1750. It would be an error, however, to assume that this was new to the thought of the time. We have already seen in the Intellectual Origins of the French Enlightenment that the negative intellectual reactions to the dogma and doctrines of Christianity stood out as a menace to religion in the development of all French thought from Montaigne to Bayle. The antireligious trend of thought originated in the urban Italian universities of the early Renaissance due to the transformation in the natural sciences, the rise of humanism, and the struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants. More specifically, it was encouraged by a vast development of libertins, the introduction of ancient philosophical schools (Epicureanism and skepticism) and the wars of religion. All these currents united in the Essais of Montaigne and passed throughout the seventeenth century well integrated both in the thought of a whole magnificent group of excellent European philosophers and in that of a corresponding group of dynamic freethinkers. Contributing to the dissemination of this thought and freethinking at the beginning of the eighteenth century were the seventeenth-century quarrels between the Catholics and the Protestants; between Catholic groups, such as the Jansenists and the Jesuits; the fierce discussions between free-thinkers and orthodox believers; and the even fiercer quarrels between the higher clergy, such as Bossuet and Fenelon, over Quietism. The three historical events which made the position of religion rather critical during the last half of Louis XIVs reign were the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), the suppression of the Jansenists, as well as the condemnation of Quietism. What Louis XIV had in mind in these three moves was the reestablishment of religious harmony and unity in his kingdom. What he got was great disorder and increase in religious free-thinking. Both results served only to render the Church weaker and weaker in dogma, morality, and the policing of religion. Adam has quoted specifically from those who, during the last • 177 •
Calvinism and the Making of the European Mind
2014
Scholars of the Reformation in the Netherlands have long understood the role of persecution and exile in encouraging specific forms of Christianity over others. In the sixteenth century, the Low Countries saw a great diversity of religious adherents, including Lutherans, reform-minded Catholics, Anabaptists, spiritualists, and Calvinists. Though all of these strains persisted, it was the Calvinists who emerged in control of the state-sponsored Dutch Reformed Church once the military success of rebel forces in 1572 allowed the creation of the Dutch Republic.1 One reason that historians have given for the success of Calvinism has been the key role of the experiences in exile in helping to consolidate this religious movement, theologically, institutionally, liturgically, and even socially. The received story generally goes like this. In the 1540s, the Catholic Habsburg government stepped up its persecution of religious dissenters. Some Protestants renounced their heresy, while others lived in hiding. Still others accepted martyrdom. The most important people in the consolidation of Calvinism, though, were the exiles. These were people who were willing to leave their homes, families, and friends, and to move to foreign lands, where their prospects were uncertain. Unlike other dissenters, exiles both preserved their commitment to their faith-and lived to tell about it. By the mid 1550s refugee communities of Calvinists from the Low Countries had emerged in southern England and the northwestern Holy Roman Empire. In England, the largest were in London and Norwich, while in the German lands they were in Emden and Wesel.2