Opposed to the influence of the church or the clergy in political affairs.
anticlericalism an'ti·cler'i·cal·ism n.
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Opposed to the influence of the church or the clergy in political affairs.
anticlericalism an'ti·cler'i·cal·ism n.The belief that the influence of the, or any, church in politics ought to be diminished. Strongest in some Roman Catholic countries, in reaction to the claims (real or supposed) of the Catholic Church. In Europe, it has been traditionally strong in France, representing social divisions that go back before 1789: areas that supported the French Revolution tend to remain anticlerical.
The term is properly reserved for hostility to the activities of the clergy. In the French case this has nearly always meant the Catholic clergy. It should be distinguished from hostility to the Catholic faith—though the two have often coincided. Many anticlericals proclaimed themselves deists of one form or another.
Anticlericalism in France is probably as old as Catholicism [see Heresies], but it acquired a new importance during the Enlightenment. Writers such as Voltaire, Diderot, and Condorcet sharply attacked the Catholic clergy. They were hostile to what they perceived as the wealth and corruption of the upper clergy, and to the intolerance of the Catholic Church as an institution (as shown in the Calas affair). They particularly attacked the religious orders, which they condemned as useless to society; the parish clergy, provided they showed themselves to be tolerant and rendered useful services such as the teaching of morality, were partially excepted from Enlightenment anticlericalism. The 18th c. also saw the development, in the artisanal working class of Paris, of a less intellectual but equally virulent anticlericalism, the reasons for which are still obscure.
Both strands of anticlericalism surfaced during the Revolution. Educated leaders (particularly the Girondins) were much influenced by Enlightenment hostility to the Church. Popular anticlericalism was often expressed by the Parisian sans-culottes. The two strands came together in the so-called ‘de-christianization’ campaign of 1793-4, when nearly all churches in France were closed and most of the remaining clergy compelled to abdicate. Anticlericalism during the Revolution was greatly exacerbated by the fact that many of the clergy sided with the king (unsurprisingly, in view of the close links between throne and altar under the ancien régime). Siding with the king came to mean siding with the foreign powers who were invading France; priests thus came to be perceived as traitors. This was one reason for the great bitterness of Revolutionary anticlericalism, which resulted in between two and three thousand priests losing their lives by violent means in the 1790s.
Anticlericalism became an important issue in French life again in the 1820s, when an attempt was made to re-establish the old alliance of throne and altar. Stendhal's Le Rouge et le noir is a classic statement of the anticlerical mentality of the time—with particular focus on what the author perceived as the hypocrisy of the clergy. The 1830 Revolution reduced the political influence of the clergy, but anticlericalism remained a powerful force in French life. Flaubert was one of the few non-Catholics to satirize it, in the character of Homais, whose discourse includes all the commonplaces of 19th-c. anticlericalism—much of it inherited from the Enlightenment. Napoleon III's support for Catholic causes in the 1850s gave renewed impetus to anticlericalism among his republican opponents, as did the Catholic domination of the first parliament of the Third Republic [see Republicanism].
The anticlericalism of the Third Republic was thus in many ways a product of the clergy's support for earlier anti-republican regimes. There were also other causes. There is evidence (e.g. in the writings of Michelet) that as Catholicism became more and more feminized in the course of the 19th c., republican men deeply resented the power that the clergy exercised over women. More generally, men seem to have resented the hierarchical structures of the Church, which demanded unquestioning acceptance by laymen of clerical authority.
For these and other reasons the Third Republic was dominated, between 1877 and 1914, by politicians who were strongly anticlerical. Their influence was particularly felt in freemasonic lodges, which served as a kind of counter-church. The 1880s saw a flood of anticlerical legislation, notably with the secularization of public education and the reintroduction of divorce (1884). Clerical involvement against Dreyfus gave renewed impetus to anticlericalism, resulting in the banning from teaching of any member of a religious order (thus almost destroying the Church's system of private schools), and in the separation of Church and State in 1905. More generally, Third Republic intellectual life was dominated by anticlericalism—as one can see notably in Zola, though in La Faute de l'abbé Mouret it takes a rather unusual form.
Joint support for the war effort in 1914 by both anticlericals and Catholics led to a lessening of hostility, and the 20th c. has been less marked by anticlericalism than the 19th. The old traditions of republican anticlericalism remain, however, deeply embedded in French life: the 1984 Socialist proposal to weaken the system of private Catholic secondary education was clearly a manifestation of it. The defeat of this proposal may not quite mark the end of traditional anticlericalism in France.
[Ralph Gibson]
The idea of "anticlericalism" as such does not belong to early modern Europe. The word describes a range of attitudes and behaviors toward clergy, ranging from mild criticism to loud protest and violence. Anticlericalism was in evidence both in the Middle Ages and the early modern era; it was expressed by laity and clergy alike, whether Catholic or Protestant; and it arose in response to actions, policies, and attitudes perceived as contrary to the ideals and duties of the clerical profession. By the eighteenth century, in France especially, anticlericalism developed into a hostile, self-conscious reaction against the Catholic Church, culminating in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), which subordinated the church to the French state. In the nineteenth century anticlericalism led liberal movements to abolish the church as a state institution.
Anticlerical criticisms in early modern Europe arose from various sources, including the clergy's insistence on its social superiority, privileges, prerogatives, tax exemptions, immunities from civil jurisdiction, and the payment of tithes and contributions. Other causes included resentment of the demand for blind acceptance of clerical direction and of measures to enforce orthodoxy or punish social, political, and sexual behavior seen as objectionable. Still other causes were clerics' intellectual arrogance, the punitive withholding of the sacraments, widespread clerical ignorance, theological rigidity, or lay hostility toward the papacy. In some cases, anticlericalism arose in response to outright ecclesiastical abuses such as simony, plurality of benefices, absenteeism, concubinage, nepotism, and scandalous or extravagant behavior.
Anticlericalism was not restricted to laypeople, as the clergy themselves often vented anticlerical sentiments toward fellow clergy whom they perceived as acting contrary to their calling. Such forms of anticlericalism ran the gamut from explicit, public denunciations to indirectly censorious and benignly tacit comments. Examples of the latter tactic are St. Francis of Assisi's (1182–1226) admonition to his friars that they not judge others for their luxurious raiment or choice foods and drink, but instead judge themselves (The Later Rule, ch. 2), or Ignatius of Loyola's (1491–1556) "Rules for Thinking with the Church," which urged his fellow Jesuits to be more ready to approve and praise the commands, recommendations, and behavior of their superiors than to criticize them.
In the early modern era, as in every other, Scripture proposed a standard of clerical comportment and at the same time drew attention to clerical shortcomings. In the gospel of Matthew, for instance, Jesus stated, "You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold or silver, or copper in your belts . . ." (Matt. 10:8–9). Many other biblical passages, especially in Luke's Gospel, suggested that Jesus lived poorly and eschewed the haughty attitudes of priestly superiority in his judgments against the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem; these passages were used to reproach ostentatious and inappropriate clerical behavior and displays of pomp, wealth, or exclusivity.
The various medieval antecedents of early modern anticlericalism have roots in the early church, as do ecclesiastical efforts to reform clergy to thwart criticisms and hostilities. Some bishops set forth norms of clerical behavior that were cited throughout the early modern era. The motto of Pope Gregory I (reigned 590–604), "the servant of the servants of God," expressed the attitude that the highest ecclesiastical dignity should be understood as an obligation to serve. Gregory's Regulae pastoralis liber (c. 591; Pastoral care) required that clergy value service, humility, and poverty and be single-minded about the things of God. Despite efforts to maintain these ideals, anticlerical attitudes escalated in the High Middle Ages, coinciding with the commercial revolution in Europe and the Crusades. Much anticlericalism was directed at the church's rapaciousness. The Franciscan movement spawned numerous offshoots that made poverty the foundation of Christian life. After the Black Death (1348–1350), deepening hostilities to clerical life and practices arose, which continued unabated into the Reformation era. The fourteenth-century humanist Petrarch (1304–1374) used biblical texts and imagery to lament clerical abuses of wealth and power at papal Avignon. In England the Lollards, followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1330–1384), were fiercely hostile to the institutional church and anticipated the Reformation in their demands.
On the eve of the Reformation, anticlerical sentiments were endemic throughout Europe, mostly from clergymen themselves. François Rabelais's Pantagruel (1532) and Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564) and many works of Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536), including Colloquies, Handbook of the Militant Christian, In Praise of Folly, and Julius Exclusus, are perhaps the best-known anti-clerical works. Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523), Martin Luther (1483–1546), and many other Protestants wrote devastating attacks on the papacy and the Catholic Church, while numerous sympathizers chimed in with books, pamphlets, woodcuts, and poetry castigating the clergy for their ignorance, ineptitude, wealth, dereliction of duty, and dissolute behavior. The Protestant Reformation's criticisms against the clergy were further fueled by Luther's reframing of the very idea of a "clergy" in An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), which denied to the clergy their special "indelible character" or status. Luther and other Reformers' writings were enormously assisted by the printing industry, which made anticlerical writings and woodcuts widely available throughout Germany.
Ironically, much of the Reformers' criticism fell in line with criticisms voiced by high-ranking clergy and religious who sincerely wished to reform the behavior of fellow clergy. Such criticisms often led to church synods and councils where corrective action was taken, as at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), which looked into the reformation of doctrine and discipline. In the post-Reformation era, Roman Catholic authorities, aware of the damage incurred through public criticism of the church, intervened to quash it. Ignatius of Loyola's "Rules for Thinking with the Church" reflect these efforts, as do the establishment of the Roman Inquisition (1542) and the Index of Prohibited Books (1559).
Nonetheless, anticlericalism persisted unabated into the Enlightenment. This was especially the case among the educated elites in France, with the relaxation of censorship following the death of Louis XIV (ruled 1643–1715). Criticism of the church increasingly hardened into a secular stance among the philosophes, who polemicized against the dominance of the church in every area of life. Chief among these antagonists were Denis Diderot (1713–1784), Voltaire (François Marie Arouet; 1694–1778), and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).
Bibliography
Cohn, Henry J. "Anticlericalism in the German Peasants' War 1525." Past and Present 83 (1979): 3–31.
Dykema, Peter A., and Heiko A. Oberman, eds. Anticlericalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Leiden, Netherlands, and New York, 1993.
Haigh, Christopher. "Anti-Clericalism and the English Reformation." History 68 (1973): 391–407.
Mellor, Alec. Histoire de l'anticléricalism français. Rev. ed. Paris, 1978.
—FREDERICK J. MCGINNESS
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious (generally Catholic) institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen. It suggests a more active and partisan role than mere laïcité. The goal of anti-clericalism is to reduce religion to a purely private belief-system with no public profile or influence. At times, its goals have included competed eradication of faith or particular faiths. Anti-clericalism has at times been violent, leading to attacks and seizure of church property.
Anti-clericalism in one form or another has existed through most of Christian history, and is considered to be one of the major popular forces underlying the 16th Century reformation. Some philosophers of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire, attacked the Catholic Church, its leadership and priests claiming moral corruption of many of its clergy. These assaults in part led to the Suppression of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and played a major part in the wholesale attacks on the very existence of the Church during the French Revolution. With the reaction against the excesses of the Revolution, especially after 1815, the Catholic church began to play a more welcome role in official European life once more, and nation by nation the Jesuits made their way back.
Anti-clericalism is particularly discussed in the context of the French Third Republic and its dissensions with the Roman Catholic Church. Prior to the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State, the Catholic Church enjoyed preferential treatment from the French State (along with the Jewish, Lutheran and Calvinist minority religions). During the 19th century, priests were employed as teachers in public schools, and religion was taught in schools (teachers were also obliged to lead the class to Mass). But during the 1880s, Jules Ferry, Minister of Education, then President of the Council, began to expel religious figures from public schools (expelling 5000 on November 29, 1880) [citation needed]. Then, in 1881-1882, his government passed the Jules Ferry laws, establishing free education (1881) and mandatory and lay education (1882), giving the basis of French public education. These laws were a crucial step in the grounding of the Third Republic (1871-1940), dominated until the 16 May 1877 crisis by the Catholic Legitimists whom dreamed of a return to the Ancien Régime.
The implementation of the 1905 law on secularism was enacted by strength and vigor by the government of Radical-Socialist Émile Combes, meeting violent protestation by the clergy. Most Catholic schools and educational foundations were closed, except in Alsace-Lorraine which belonged at that time to Germany — and which continues to retain today a derogatory status because of its specific history — and many religious orders were dissolved.
In the Affaire Des Fiches, in France in 1904-1905, it was discovered that the militantly anticlerical War Minister under Emile Combes, General Louis André, was determining promotions based on the French Masonic Grand Orient's huge card index on public officials, detailing which were Catholic and who attended Mass, with a view to preventing their promotions. [1]
Republican's anti-clericalism softened after the First World War, as the Catholic right-wing began to accept secularism. However, the theme of private schools in France, which are often Catholics, and which professors are paid by the state, remains a sensitive issue in French politics. Anti-clericalism still is present, however, in a large part of the French left-wing, as shown for example by the publication by Charlie Hebdo in February 2006 of the twelve cartoons, and some others, of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in support of freedom of expression. They have been sued by the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organisations of France) and the Great Mosque of Paris, both members of the controversial CFCM (French Council of the Muslim Faith).
Anti-clericalism in Italy is connected with reaction against the absolutism of the Papal States, overthrown in 1870. For a long time, the Pope required Catholics not to participate in the public life of the Kingdom of Italy that had invaded the Papal States to complete the unification of Italy, leaving the pope confined in the Vatican. Some politicians that had played important roles in this process, such as Camillo Cavour, were known to be hostile to the temporal and political power of the Church.
The hostility between the Holy See and the kingdom was finally settled by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who sought an agreement with the Church to gain its support: the Lateran treaties were finalised in 1929.
After World War II, anti-clericalism was embodied by the communist and socialist parties, in opposition to the Vatican-endorsed Christian Democracy.
The revision of the Lateran treaties in the eighties by the socialist prime minister of Italy Bettino Craxi, removed the status of "official religion" of the Catholic Church, but still granted a series of provisions in favour of the Church, such as the eight per thousand law, the teaching of religion in schools, and other privileges.
Recently, the Catholic Church has been taking a more aggressive stance in Italian politics, in particular through Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who often makes his voice heard commenting the political debate and indicating the official line of the Church on various matters. This interventionism has increased with the papacy of Benedict XVI. Anti-clericalism, however, is not the official stance of most parties (with the exception of the Italian Radicals, who, however identify as laicist), as most party leaders consider it an electoral disadvantage to openly contradict the Church: since the demise of the Christian Democracy as a single party, Catholic votes are often swinging between the right and the left wing, and are considered to be decisive to win an election.
Following the Revolution of 1860, US-backed President Benito Juárez, issued a decree nationalizing church property, separating church and state, and suppressing religious orders.
Following the revolution of 1910, the New Mexican Constitution of 1917 contained further anti-clerical provisions. Article 3 called for secular education in the schools and prohibited the Church from engaging in primary education; Article 5 outlawed monastic orders; Article 24 forbade public worship outside the confines of churches; and Article 27 placed restrictions on the right of religious organizations to hold property. Most obnoxious to Catholics was Article 130, which deprived clergy members of basic political rights. Many of these laws were resisted, leading to the Cristero Rebellion of 1927 - 1929. The suppression of the Church included the closing of many churches the killing and forced marriage of priests. The persecution was most severe in Tabasco under the strident atheist governor Tomás Garrido Canabal.
Anti-clericalism has been hard to notice in Poland until it became one of the policies of the communist People's Republic of Poland. It was nonetheless not a policy that gained any significant public support, as the Catholic Church became one of the publicly recognized and respected centers of the opposition to the government. Ironically, this has been reversed following the fall of communism in Poland, when the role of Catholic Church in political life increased. Some priests gained much influence in politics (ex. Henryk Jankowski, Tadeusz Rydzyk) and although their views and actions don't necessarily represent that of the Church, their views are supported by some political parties (ex. League of Polish Families) and groups (ex. Radio Maryja). This has led to the creation of opposition based on anti-clericalism philosophy (ex. Moherowe berety).
A first wave of anti-clericalism occurred in 1834 when under the government of Dom Pedro all convents and monasteries in Portugal were abolished, simultaneously closing some of Portugal's primary educational establishments. The fall of the Monarchy in the Republican revolution of 1910 led to another wave of anti-clerical activity. Most church property was put under State control, and the church was not allowed to inherit property. The wearing of religious garb and religious instruction in schools were abolished, as well as religious oaths and church taxes.
The first instance of anti-clerical violence due to political conflict in C19th Spain occurred during the First Spanish Civil War (1820-23). During riots in
In 1836 following the First Carlist War, the new regime abolished the major Spanish Convents and Monasteries. The Radical Alejandro Lerroux distinguished himself by his inflammatory pieces of opinion.
During the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, and in the context of atrocities on both sides (eventually far higher on the Nationalist side), many of the Republican forces were violently anti-clerical anarchists and Communists, whose assaults during what has been termed Spain's Red Terror included sacking and burning monasteries and churches and killing 283 nuns and more than 6,000 priests, including 13 bishops, 4184 diocesan priests, 2365 members of male religious orders, among them 259 Claretians, 226 Franciscans, 204 Piarists, 176 Brothers of Mary, 165 Christian Brothers, 155 Augustinians, 132 Dominicans, and 114 Jesuits, and there are accounts of Catholic faithful being forced to swallow rosary beads, thrown down mine shafts and priests being forced to dig their own graves before being buried alive. [2] The Catholic Church has seen fit to canonize several martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.
Anti-clerical waves have been seen in Quebec since 1960. The Quiet Revolution is characterised essentially by an opening toward socialism and the objection to the social model dictated by the church and the clergy.
Freemasonry has historically been seen, especially by the Catholic church[3] as a principal source of anti-Clericalism - especially in, but not limited to,[4] historically Catholic countries. Certain branches of Freemasonry are acknowledged by Masonic sources as a major source of anti-clericalism in Mexico,[5] Italy[6] and France.[7]
Most Communist governments have been officially anti-clerical, abolishing religious holidays, teaching atheism in schools, closing monasteries, church social and educational institutions and many churches. In the USSR, anti-clericalism was expressed through the state; some have estimated thousands of priests and monks were either executed or sent to forced labour camps to die during the Stalin era.
Today, traditional anti-clericalism tends to be less common. In western democratic nations, this is largely due to states recognizing freedom of religion and hence being disinclined to interfere in religious matters. Many states which engaged anti-clericalism in the past would be prohibited by their constitutions from engaging in the meddling in internal Church affairs and in abridging the free exercise of religion as they had previously. Some argue that the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in public life is relatively limited, causing a decline in anti-clericalism.
Anti-clericalism has recently focused on Islam, particularly its treatment of women, such as segregation of the sexes. Recently, several Western European nations, dealing with cultural clashes between secular, Christian, and Islamic populations, have adopted rules that can be perceived as anti-clerical, or as merely anti-Islamic-clerical. France, for instance, adopted a law banning conspicuous religious symbols in schools, widely perceived to be in response to local Islamic practices of female dress codes.[citation needed]
A notably anti-clericalist party in Israel is Shinui, which actively opposes the presence of rabbis in Israel's political structure.
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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - kirkefjendsk
n. - kirkefjendsk person
Nederlands (Dutch)
anti-kerkelijk(e)
Français (French)
adj. - anticlérical
n. - anticlérical
Deutsch (German)
adj. - kirchenfeindlich
n. - Antiklerikaler
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - αντικληρικός, αντιεκκλησιαστικός
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - anticlerical
Русский (Russian)
антиклерикальный
Español (Spanish)
adj. - anticlerical
n. - anticlerical
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - prästfientlig
中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
反对教会干预政治的, 反对教会干预政治
中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 反對教會干預政治的
n. - 反對教會干預政治
한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 반 교권적인
n. - 반 교권적
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) مقاوم للأكليروس, " او لتدخلهم في الشون العامه "
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - מתנגד להתערבות אנשי הדת, מתנגד להשפעת הכנסייה בעניינים ציבוריים וחילוניים
n. - אדם המתנגד להשפעת אנשי הדת, בעיקר בפוליטיקה
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