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Anti-War Writing in France, 1500-60

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2021

Abraham C. Keller
Abraham C. Keller*
Affiliation:
University of Washington Seattle 5
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Extract

Attempts to establish just grounds for war are as old as civilization itself. The seriousness of the attempts, however, and the nature of the difficulties which men encountered in making their formulations have varied from age to age, in accordance with prevailing assumptions and values. The problem of rationalizing war or integrating it into the social-intellectual structure undoubtedly became most acute with the triumph of Christianity, which was committed to peace but lacked the means of abolishing war. Early Christian thinkers were much occupied with the problem of determining under what conditions good Christians might engage in war and, notwithstanding the paucity of the results, there has hardly been any relaxation of the effort in medieval or modern times.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , March 1952 , pp. 240 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1952

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References

Notes

1 See Quincy Wright, A Study of War, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1942), i, 158-159, and Wright's bibliographical footnotes.

2 Marguerites de la Marguerite, éd. F. Frank, 4 vols. (Paris, 1873), i, 70. See also ibid., ii, 171, iii, 52-55; Dernières poésies, éd. A. Lefranc (Paris, 1896), pp. 61, 322; P. Jourda, Marg. d'Angoulême, 2 vols. (Paris, 1930), i, 386.

3 See A. C. Keller, “Calvin and the Question of War,” MLQ, xi (1950), 72-80.

4 See Epistolae Guillielmi Budœi, Secretarii Regii, Posteriores (1522), pp. 12, 25-28, 28-31, 33-35, 67-74.

5 The Institution du prince, which is for the most part a collection of apothegms from Plutarch, with some comments by Budé, was probably composed in 1519, according to Louis Delaruelle, G. Budé (Paris, 1907), p. 201.

6 Prologue to the Tiers Livre. G. Zeller (RCC, xxxvii, 15 janv. 1936) overlooked this statement of Rabelais' in his generalizations about the absence of militaristic views in the Renaissance.

7 Inst. du prince, pp. 41-42, in Delaruelle, G. Budé, pp. 229-230.

8 Héroët, Œuvres poétiques, éd. F. Gohin (Paris, 1909), p. 54; Ronsard, “Ode de la Paix,” Œuvres complètes, éd. P. Laumonier, iv, 1-38, esp. ll. 337-350; “Exhortation pour la paix,” ibid., ix, 12; Du Bellay, Œuvres poétiques, éd. H. Chamard, ii, 115-116.

9 Dorat, Œuvres poétiques, éd. Marty-Laveau (Paris, 1875), pp. 49, 50, 51, 64.

10 See n. 8, above.

11 Ronsard, iv, 1-38, ix, 101-116; Du Bellay, vi, 10; Magny, Souspirs, éd. E. Courbet (Paris, 1874), pp. 84-85.

12 Magny, Souspirs, Sonnet 7; Du Bellay, ii, 115, 125, iii, 8, 47-49, iv, 115; Tahureau, Poésies, éd. Blanchemain, 2 vols. (Paris, 1870), ii, 223.

13 Odes, 2 vols. (Paris, 1875), ii, 106.

14 Du Bellay, ii, 59, iii, 142; Tahureau, n, 38, 59; Magny, Odes, ii, 4, Souspirs, Sonnet 109.

15 Œuvres, iii, 77.

16 A. Montaiglon et J. Rothschild, Recueil de poésiesfrançoises des xv6 et xvi6 siècles, morales, facétieuses, historiques, 13 vols. (Paris, 1855-78), xii, 225.

17 “Le Monde qui n'a plus que les os,” ibid., p. 213. Cf. in Los Sobres Sots: “la gent obstinée est pleine de rebellions,” in E. Founnier, Le Théâtre français avant la Renaissance, 2e éd. (Paris, n.d.), p. 430.

18 Champier, “Ung petit traicté de la noblesse et ancienneté de la ville de Lyon. Ensemble de la ne beine ou rebellion du populaire de la dicte Ville contre les conseillers . . . faicte ceste presente année Mil cinq cens, xxix,” in Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France, 1re série, ii (1835), 453-477.

19 In H.-L. Bordier, Chansonnier huguenot, 2 vols. (Paris, 1870), i, xiii-xx. Cf. Picot, “Chants historiques français du xvie siècle,” RHL, n (1895), 44.

20 The best illustrations are the satirical “Le Franc-Archier de Cherré” of about 1524, in Montaiglon, Recueil, xiii, esp. pp. 27-38, and “Chanson plaintive,” by Bèze, in Bordier, Chansonnier, ii, 382.

21 “Epistre en prose,” Œuvres, éd. Guiffrey et al., 5 vols. (Paris, 1875-1931), iii, 55-57.