Reformation, The (La Réforme). The course of the Reformation in France before the outbreak of the Wars of Religion in 1562 was influenced, as was the Reformation movement generally, by social and political as well as theological issues. Many of the factors which contributed to the development of the Renaissance also played a part in the religious revival: impatience with tradition, the growth of national and municipal feeling, the spread of printing, and above all the new learning—the revival of Greek and Hebrew studies opened new areas to theological and philosophical enquiry. Among the Church's shortcomings identified by the proponents of reform were the ignorance, materialism, and undue privilege of the priesthood and monastic orders, the dullness and complexity of scholastic theology, and the tediousness and inaccessibility of Church ritual. Most conspicuous of all, according to Luther, was the worldliness and ambition of the papacy.
The French Church had secured a measure of independence both from Rome and from the monarch under the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438), which granted it special rights over taxation, the election of prelates, and the convocation of councils. The tradition of Gallican independence was exploited by Louis XII when, during his struggle with Julius II, he convoked the particularist Council of Pisa (1512), and it was continued by François Ier's Concordat with Leo X (1516). Thus, the anti-papal storm which followed Luther's protest in 1517 was not entirely unwelcome in France. Moreover, in recent years many religious houses and educational establishments had been reformed, often under the aegis of the Brethren of the Common Life, whose principles of personal piety and return to the pure sources of early Christianity were frequently contrasted by humanist reformers with the noisy outward show of contemporary worship, and with the theologians' reliance on the accumulated commentaries of medieval scholasticism. Finally, although the Concordat broke with tradition and concentrated ecclesiastical patronage in the hands of the monarch, on the whole François established an episcopate with reforming credentials.
The publication of Erasmus's Greek New Testament in 1516, and Luther's denunciation of the trade in indulgences in the following year, are arguably the events which precipitated the Reformation. In France, Erasmus was already well known (though more as satirist and classical scholar than as theologian), and it did not take long for Luther's ideas to percolate. In 1521 the Sorbonne followed the pope's excommunication of Luther with a vehement condemnation of his doctrine—which probably did much to disseminate his views. In the same year an influential group of Evangelical reformers was gathered by Guillaume Briçonnet in his diocese of Meaux. This included such diverse figures as Lefèvre d'Étaples and Guillaume Farel; in these confused early years of the intellectual ferment stirred up by Erasmus and Luther, unexpected alliances were not uncommon. Even the Sorbonne, so savagely represented by Rabelais as monolithically obscurantist, had its share of moderate scholars not averse to reform, such as Briçonnet's teacher Josse Clichtove; moreover, it had inherited the tradition of Gallican independence and was by no means the puppet of Rome. However, the pugnacious Noël Béda, syndic of the Faculty of Theology from 1520 to 1533, took the role of champion of orthodoxy, supported by the courts and in particular by the Parlement de Paris, and battle was joined.
Late in 1521 the Faculty condemned the works of Lef`vre, whose scriptural commentaries had anticipated Luther in some respects. In August 1523 occurred the first execution in Paris of a ‘Lutheran heretic’, Jean Vallière, an Augustinian from Normandy. Luther's translator Louis de Berquin was arrested, his books burned, and his release secured only by François Ier's intervention. During the king's captivity after the Battle of Pavia (1525), the regent Louise de Savoie, alarmed by the Peasants' War in Germany and social unrest in France, permitted renewed repression of troublemakers: Berquin was rearrested, and saved from the stake only by the king's return. At the same time pressure was put on the Meaux group, resulting in temporary exile for Lefèvre, whose translation of the New Testament was burned, and in retraction by Briçonnet. In February 1526 the Parlement forbade the preaching of ‘Lutheran’ doctrines and ordered the surrender of all French translations of scripture.
The king's return drove a wedge between the Sorbonne and the Parlement, which realized that it had been pushed too far by Béda's zeal. But François's need to restore national unity led him to sponsor a more modest episcopal and Gallican reform movement. Measures against extremism promulgated by the Council of Sens in 1528 led to condemnations and executions, culminating in the burning of the incorrigible Berquin in April 1529.
In the 1530s royal patronage frequently raised the hopes of the Evangelicals. The Sorbonne's influence was diminished in 1530 by the establishment of the independent royal professorships [see Collège De France], by the Faculty's humiliation over its proposed censure of Marguerite de Navarre's Miroir de l'âme pécheresse, and by Béda's banishment in 1533 for attacking the Evangelical preaching of Marguerite's protégé Roussel. On the other hand, bloody repression followed the two Affaires des Placards (October 1534 and January 1535), whose apparent revelation of schismatic and seditious extremism led François to severe measures, including a short-lived ban on all printing. But in July 1535 his Edict of Coucy offered terms to all but the Zwinglians, whose doctrine the placards embodied. At the prompting of the liberal Cardinal Jean du Bellay, François invited Luther's colleague Melanchthon to Paris to debate the terms for religious peace. Melanchthon never appeared, but the cardinal's brother Guillaume, seigneur de Langey, attended a Diet of the German Lutheran princes in 1537, presenting a most conciliatory paper. Although clearly part of François's diplomatic offensive against Emperor Charles V, this event perhaps represents the high-water mark of Evangelical hopes in France, bolstered by the election of a reforming pope, Paul III, in 1534. But the suspicions of the princes and of Luther, and the shifting alliances between the great powers, frustrated the initiative; in 1538 François signed a truce with the emperor, who took upon himself much of the burden of conciliation. François then turned increasingly towards the enforcement of religious orthodoxy, defined for the French Church by the Sorbonne's 26 Articles of Faith, promulgated in 1543, and largely a reply to Calvin's Institution. The ageing king was now particularly receptive to allegations of Reformist sedition, which may account for such dark deeds as the massacre of the Waldensians (Vaudois) of Mérindol in 1545. But in any case the opening in that year of the Council of Trent, the rise of the uncompromising Calvin, and the foundation of the Jesuits, were clear indications that the era of potential conciliation was ending; the Counter-Reformation was gathering pace.
Henri II continued his father's policy of fostering Gallican interests whilst repressing potential sedition. Liberal churchmen such as cardinals Jean du Bellay and Odet de Châtillon enjoyed his confidence, and relations with the papacy became so strained (cf. Rabelais's Quart Livre) that in 1551 it seemed possible that France would seek an ‘Anglican’ solution to the question of reform (in the end, political necessity healed the breach). On the other hand, in 1547 Henri authorized the notorious chambre ardente as an inquisitorial adjunct to the Parlement and, though he was restrained from instituting a full-scale Inquisition on the Spanish model, the number of burnings increased steadily. Predictably, these deaths, chronicled in Jean Crespin's Livre des martyrs, failed to deter the Calvinists; numerous small congregations were founded, public services were held, and the first national assembly of the French Reformed Church met in 1559. The adherence of prominent aristocrats, including Gaspard de Coligny and Louis de Condé, emphasized the extent of Calvinist penetration; L'Hôpital's policy of toleration, and the belated compromise attempted in 1561 at Poissy, where Bèze led the Reformist delegation, did little to heal the divisions [see Wars Of Religion].
French Renaissance literature before 1562 was profoundly marked by the events and controversies of the Reformation. While producing nothing to match the sombre grandeur of Ronsard's Discours or d' Aubigné's Tragiques, inspired by the Wars of Religion, writers of the period could scarcely ignore debates which involved the very destiny of their souls—and those of their readers: justification by faith, predestination, the role of the Church and of Christ, the nature of the Eucharist. Theological debate is never far from the pages of those renowned entertainers Rabelais and Marot, who both endured exile for their views, and a new, if somewhat eclectic, spirituality informs the poetry and drama of Marguerite de Navarre. Not least, the Reformation's challenge to established authority offered ideal conditions for the burgeoning of satire, exemplified by Des Periers's Cymbalum mundi and the vernacular writings of Dolet, Bèze, Viret, and Calvin himself.
— Michael Heath
Bibliography
- J. Delumeau, Naissance et affirmation de la Réforme (1973)
- R. M. Kingdon, Church and Society in Renaissance Europe (1985)
- M. Greengrass, The French Reformation (1987)
