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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
What lay behind the anxiety of so many Frenchmen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to defend the ‘liberties of the Gallican church’? In a stimulating essay published in 1971, Professor W. J. Bouwsma argued that Gallican ideas transcended any purely national setting, and that they should be studied (to borrow Febvre's distinction) from the standpoint of religious rather than of ecclesiastical history. Beyond the narrowly institutional concerns of traditional French approaches to the subject, Professor Bouwsma glimpsed among the upholders of Gallican liberties a certain cast of mind: a disposition towards religious renewal, an acceptance of the diversity of local church arrangements, and a corresponding distaste for the dogmatic certainties and standardizing ambitions of Tridentine Catholicism. So Professor Bouwsma argued.
1 Bouwsma, W. J., ‘Gallicanism and the nature of Christendom’, in Renaissance studies in honour of Hans Baron, ed. Molho, A. and Tedeschi, J. A. (Florence, 1971), pp. 809–30.Google Scholar
2 The theme – I hope accurately reproduced here – of course has much in common with his slightly earlier Venice and the defense of republican liberty (Berkeley, 1968).Google Scholar
3 Huppert, G., Les bourgeois gentilshommes (Chicago, 1977), pp. 155–6.Google Scholar
4 Vivanti, C., Lotta politico e pace religiosa in Franciafra cinque e seicento (Turin 1963), pp. 132 ff. The reference to individual conscience is on p. 186.Google Scholar
5 Huppert, G., The idea of perfect history (Urbana, 1970), pp. 55, 68–71. Pasquier's most systematic study on the history of the church is in the third book of his Recherches de la France, discussed more fully below.Google Scholar
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11 Vivanti, Lotta politico, pp. 132 ff.
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13 In addition to the sources already cited, see Yardeni, M., La conscience nationale en France pendant Us guerres de religion (Paris, 1971), pp. 283 ff.Google Scholar
14 Lecler, J., Histoire de la tolérance (Paris, 1955), II, 114Google Scholar. It is worth note that the English edition makes nonsense of Leder's argument through mistranslation; Toleration and the Reformation (London, 1960), II, 132–3.Google Scholar
15 His career is sketched in the preface to Lettres et Ambassades de Messire Philippe Canaye (Paris, 1635–1636)Google Scholar. See also the miscellaneous speeches printed in Harangues et actions publiques des plus rares esprits de nostre temps (Paris, 1609), pp. 313–58, 359–84, 385–94.Google Scholar
16 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Jourmaux, VII, 311; IX, 111–12; x, 131–3.
17 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Journaux, XI, 13.
18 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Joumaux, x, 38–9; Espiner-Scott, J. G., ed., Documents concemanl la vie et les auvres de Claude Fauchet (Paris, 1938), pp. 189–90.Google Scholar
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20 De Thou, Histoire universelle, I, 409–24.
21 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Dupuy 137, fos. 32–50. See also Martin, V., Le Gallicanisme et la réforme cathohque (Paris, 1919), pp. 197 ff.Google Scholar
22 Printed by Bonnefon, P., Revue d’ Histoire Litthaire de la France, XXIV (1917), 1–33, 307–19Google Scholar. This text is discussed — not it seems to me wholly convincingly - in Huppert, , Bourgeois gentilshommes, p. 158Google Scholar. Sutherland, N. M., The Huguenot struggle for recognition (London, 1980), p. 134, gives an account of the edict and its context.Google Scholar
23 P. 12 in Bonnefon's text.
24 Macpherson, C. B., The political theory of possessive individualism (Oxford, 1962), pp. 226 ff.Google Scholar
25 P. 27 in Bonnefon's text.
26 Vivanti, Lotto politico, p. 186.
27 Dupuy 514, fo. 16.
28 De Thou, Histoire universelle, XII, 449.
29 Pithou, P., Libertez de l'eglise gallicane (Paris, 1594)Google Scholar. This compendium was much reprinted: for example in Pithou's CEuvres complètes (Paris, 1609), pp. 513 ff.Google Scholar
30 De Thou, Histoire Universelle, x, 438.
31 On this see in general Martin, Gallicanisme.
32 De Thou, Histoire universelle, x, 438.
33 François, M., Le cardinal François de Tournon (Paris, 1951), pp. 258–9Google Scholar; Romier, L., Les origines politiques des guerres de religion (Paris, 1913), 1, 268–9.Google Scholar
34 Correspondence des nonces en France Dandino, della Torre et Trivultio, ed. J. Lestocquoy (Acta Nunciaturae Gallicae, VI, 1966), p. 82.
35 Correspondance des nonce en France G. B. Castelli, ed. R. Toupin (Acta Nunciaturae Gallicae, VI, 1967), pp. 477–8.
36 Lettere at Gallicani, pp. xxi ff.; Vivanti, Lotta Politico, p. 365.
37 Thireau, J. L., Charles Du Moulin (Geneva, 1980), p. 306.Google Scholar
38 Recherches de la France, pp. 382–93. Similarly a treatise by the Gallican jurist Guy Coquille acknowledged the authority of the pope (and the Council of Trent) in matters of doctrine; Autre traité des libertez de l'eglise de France (1603), printed in Coquille's Œuvres (Paris, 1665), 1, 133.
39 Lettres et ambassades, II 157. Professor Bouwsma, Venice, pp. 254–5, cites the letter in question, but omits Canayc's declaration of loyalty to the Catholic church, warts and all.
40 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Journaux, x, 131—3.
41 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 513, fos. 337 ff.: ‘De la puissance royale et sacerdotale’.
42 Folio 398. Royal officers had of course long argued that the competence of the church was ‘spiritual’ in the most restrictive sense; see for example Lefebvre-Teillard, A., Les officialités à la veille du Concile de Trente (Paris, 1973), pp. 130 ff.Google Scholar
43 Folios 378–80.
44 De Thou, Histoire Universelle, XII, 483.
45 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Journaux, VIII, 232.
46 Jean, Du Tillet, Memoirt et advis sur les libertés de l'eglise Gallicane (Paris, 1606), pp. 293–4; the first draft dates from 1551. De Thou made the same point when he addressed the University of Paris in 1600: Histoire Universelle, XII, 452.Google Scholar
47 Lettere ai Gallicani, p. 239.
48 For some sceptical modern comment see Mollat, G., ’Les origines du Gallicanisme parlemen-taire’, Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, XLIII (1948), 90–147Google Scholar; and Lecler, J., ‘Qu'est-ce que les libertés de l'eglise Gallicane?’, Recherches de Science Religieuse, XXIII (1933), 385–409, 542–67.Google Scholar
49 The general context is discussed in Martin, Gallicanisme, pp. 167 ff., and in the introduction to Correspmdance de Castelli, cited above.
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51 Compare an anonymous paper in Dupuy 358, fo. 81, which accused the decree of subverting the authority of parents. The French legislation of 1556 is to be found in Isambert, XIII, 469–71.
52 Correspondance du nonce en France G. Ragazzoni, ed. P. Blet (Acta Nunciaturae Gallicae, II, 1962), p. 217.
53 Correspondence de Castelli, pp. 63, 426, 495.
54 Things took a marked turn for the worse following the Bull against Henry of Navarre in 1585; see the account in Pastor, L. von, History of the popes (London, 1952), XXI, 283 ff.Google Scholar
55 Dupuy 358, fo. 104V; the paper mentions the Songe du vergier and the works of Gerson as possible targets.
56 Dupuy 358, fo. 72.
57 Bouwsma, Venice, pp. 533–5.
58 Sutherland, Huguenot struggle, pp. 42 ff.
59 Procès-verbaux des Etats-Généraux de 1593, ed. A. Bernard (Collection de Documents Inédits, 1842), pp. 146–7.
60 Karcher, A., ‘L'Assemblée de notables de St. Germain-en-Laye’, Bibliothèque de I'Ecole des Chartes, CXIV (1956), 124.Google Scholar
61 Correspondence de Ragazzoni, pp. 159–60; De Thou, Histoire universelle, IX, 83–6. These were the ‘rights of St. Romain’ — the power to free certain convicted criminals - enjoyed by the Archbishop of Rouen.
62 Correspondance de Castelli, pp. 223, 257; Dupuy 358, fo. 90V.
63 Correspondence de Castelli, pp. 165–9.
64 For the origins of this change in approach see Sutherland, Huguenot struggle, chapter four.
65 Dupuy 240, fo. 58 ff.; the paper was probably drafted during the second religious war. On Du Tillet in general see Kelley, D. R., ‘Jean Du Tillet’, Journal of Modern History, XXXVIII (1966), 337–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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67 Hinrichs, E., Fürstenlehre und politisches Handeln im Frankreick Heinrichs IV (Göttingen, 1969), pp. 24–7Google Scholar; Courteault, P., Geoffroy de Malvyn Magistral et Humaniste (Paris, 1907), 131–54.Google Scholar
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69 Pastor, XXI, 283.
70 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Journaux, II, 210; Correspondance de Ragazzoni, p. 462; P. Du Belloy, Moyens d'abus, entreprises et nullités du rescrit et bulk du Pape Sixte V (1586, no place of publication).
71 Sutherland, Huguenot struggle, pp. 279–80.
72 Correspondance de Ragazzoni, p. 434.
73 L'Estoile, Mémoires-Journaux, II, 201–2.
74 Fonds français 15570, fo. 110; Dupuy 514, fo. 16.
75 See for instance Salmon, J. H. M., ‘The Paris Sixteen 1584–94: the social analysis of a revolutionary movement’, Journal of Modern History, XLIV (1972), 540–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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78 H. Du Laurens, Panégyrique de l'Hénéticon (1588, no place of publication), especially p. 315.
79 Recueil de la publication de l'Edict d’ Union faite en Parlement (1588, no author or place of publication), pp. 14–15.
80 Dupuy 240, fos. 130–9; L'Estoile, Mémoires-Journaux, VI, 248–9. Professor Huppert, Bourgeois genlilshommes, pp. 160–1, regards senior office-holders as consistently hostile to the Society of Jesus; this seems to me an unconvincing claim, and I hope to discuss the question at greater length elsewhere.
81 Dupuy 240, fo. 181.
82 Yardeni, La conscience nationale en France, p. 210.
83 Dupuy 61, fos. 30–3.
84 Archives Historiques de la Gironde, IV (1863), 215–16.
86 Correspondance de Castelli, pp. 165–9.
86 L'Estoile, Ménoires-Journaux, v, 119; De Thou, Histoire universelle, XI, 440–1.
87 Remonstrance aux françois and L'Anti-martyr de Jacques Clément, reprinted in Pasquier, E., Les Ecrits politiques, ed. Thickett, D. (Geneva, 1966), pp. 127–77 and pp. 185–246.Google Scholar
88 Especially in the Remonstrance; Ecrits politiques, pp. 173–4.
89 Surveyed in Vivanti, Lotta politico, pp. 132 ff.; and in Yardeni, La conscience nationale en France, pp. 263 ff.
90 De Thou, Histoire universelle, x, 535; Martin, Gallicanisme, p. 254.
91 Dupuy 240, fo. 192. According to L'Estoile, this speech represented Coqueley's amende honorable for his past conduct; Mémoires-Journaux, VII, 14.
92 See the remarks of Vivanti, Lotta politico, p. 145.
93 Fonds français 4397, fos. 201 v-202.
94 Radouant, R., Guillaume Du Vair (Paris, 1908)Google Scholar, is a valuable guide to Du Vair's career and writings. Du Vair's references to the siege are in Traicté de la Constance, ed. J. Flasch and F. Funck-Brentano (Paris, 1915), especially pp. 62 and 199. On the authoritarian character of much neo-stoic writing see Abel, G., Stoizismus und fruhe neuzeit (Berlin, 1978), p. 217.Google Scholar
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97 The literature is extensive; see for example Hinrichs, Fürstenlehre, pp. 24–7, and Courteault, Geoffroy de Malvyn, pp. 131–54.
98 Dupuy 240, fo. 66 v, citing Annals, 4, 40. There has been a good deal of recent work on the influence of Tacitus during the period: Salmon, J. H. M., ‘Cicero and Tacitus in sixteenth-century France’, American Historical Review, LXXXV (1980), 307–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schellhase, K., Tacitus in renaissance political thought (Chicago, 1976)Google Scholar; Etter, E. L., Tacitus in der geistesgeschichte des 16. und 17. jahrhunderts (Basel, 1966)Google Scholar; Stackelberg, J. von, Tacitus in Romania (Tübingen, 1960). Von Stackelberg, pp. 11 ff., seems to me to provide a particularly acute account of the Roman historian's relevance to sixteenth-century experience.Google Scholar
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