In the mid-16th century, France is a loose fabric of 22 provinces. Power in the
country is divided among a powerful nobility and King
François II of the House of
Valois is merely
primus inter pares. When a trend toward the concentration of
power in the crown begins, the nobility is alarmed, as it urges to preserve its
old regional rights and political autonomy. A polarization sets in across
France.
A new religion comes to the nobility’s aid, for in Calvinism,
there is no king anointed by God and thus “exalted.” This “new” faith offers the
peers an ideological counterweight to the crown. Thus, a rebellious nobility
creates its own networks and forges military alliances. In this way, religion
becomes a tool of power politics.
When, on March 1, 1562, the leader
of the Catholics, Duke
François de Guise, ordered the killing of about a hundred
Reformed worshippers in the Massacre of Wassy, a civil war between Catholics and
Calvinists - the so-called Huguenot Wars - began.
The 27-year
conflict reached its climax on the night of St. Bartholomew’s Day, from August
23 to 24, 1572, when thousands of Huguenots were murdered, first in Paris and
then in other cities across France. The massacre took place under King
Charles IX, who was strongly influenced by his mother,
Catherine de’ Medici. From 1559
to 1588, she was effectively the ruler of France.
Catherine attempted
to reconcile the country through ten edicts. But her attempts failed. Violence
escalated. The Venetian ambassador reported: “The French people have become
completely brutalized.”
In 1575, Catherine’s favorite son was
anointed King of France as
Henri III. Meanwhile, three power blocs face off in
the country. Alongside the Catholic Holy League and the Huguenots, there is this gay, nomadic king Henri III, whose domain is limited to a few areas around Paris
and who alternates between his 26 castles along the Loire and in Paris.
The
situation changes abruptly when, on August 1, 1589, the religious fanatic
Jacques Clément assassinates Henri II, and with the extinction of the House of
Valois—despite Catholic opposition—the Huguenot King of Navarre,
Henri IV,
ascends to the French throne.
Professor
Volker Reinhardt’s lecture "From the Civil War to the Court of Versailles" was a brilliant history lesson. Prof.
Frick had not overpromised when introducing the speaker. Reinhardt, in turn,
thanked him for the generous introduction and remarked that he could only live
up to 10% of what Prof. Frick had promised, yet he exceeded expectations by at
least 150%!
His lively presentation style prompted me to watch the lecture recording and
transcribe the following portion:
Thus, after 27 years of civil war, the showdown began. From the summer of
1589 onward, arms would definitively decide who would rule France and how,
as well as the ecclesiastical and religious situation would be. Would there
be a purely Catholic France through the murder or expulsion of the Huguenot
religious minority—which had by then shrunk to about 8% of the population—or
would there be a bi-confessional France through the legally regulated
coexistence of two Christian churches and denominations in one country? The
big question was: was that even possible? Could Catholics and Calvinists—or
Reformed, which means the same thing—could Catholics, Calvinists even live
together in a country, in a province, in a city, on a street, in a family,
in a marriage?
In 1589, the answer was clear. It was not possible
without constant murder and manslaughter. It was not possible without orgies
of violence.
The key question is: What were the actual causes of
more than a quarter-century of self-destruction through a civil war,
accompanied by famines and epidemics, which ultimately cost the lives of
about a quarter of France’s population at the time—18 million people—that
is, about 4 million French citizens?
The Calvinists believed that man had no free will. The Catholics granted man
this librium abitrium, this free will, provided he made proper use of God’s
grace, which is always necessary but, with good intentions, also always
available.
The Catholics, like the Lutherans, believe that the
body and blood of Christ are truly present in the bread and wine during
Mass; thus, when Catholics receive Communion, they become theophagists -
those who eat God - while the Calvinists would call them God-munchers. The
Reformed believed in a symbolic, spiritual presence of Christ in the Lord’s
Supper.
And then Prof. Reinhardt looked up to the audience and mourned:
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But why on earth did people bash each other’s skulls in over such
theological quibbles?
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That is the question we must answer first.
In 1580, Michel Montaigne sought an answer to the question in his Essays: Why this
self-flagellation? Montaigne’s answer was unequivocal. I quote him
in my translation:
We, that is, the French, bring nothing but our
interests and passions to this war. The justice that one party or the other
claims for itself is nothing but a façade and a veil.
This justice
is spoken of but not embraced or internalized. God owes his support to
faith and religion, but not to our passions. Yet people use religion for their
own purposes. It should be exactly the opposite. From this disillusioned
assessment, Montaigne drew even more radical conclusions.
1. All
forms of the Christian religion make people worse than they already are by
nature. True religion, however, should have the opposite effect and ennoble
humanity.
2. People are incapable of recognizing the truth. All
philosophies are baseless babble; all religions degenerate in human hands into
catalysts of violence.
3. Another quote. This is one of my favorite
quotes from Montaigne: No conflict is as deadly as that among Christians,
If
you’d like to hear another beautiful sentence. When I play with my cat, I very
often wonder if my cat isn’t playing with me.
Religion is a
stimulant, a drug of violence, an accelerant; this diagnosis by Montaigne is
fully justified in the daily reality of the civil war
From the
conflicts now raging, it can be concluded that for most people—for the
overwhelming majority of people of the time—the daily practice of faith, with
its rites and ceremonies, and the fear of salvation associated with the fear
of their confiscation, was decisive.
Thus, the cause of the
massacres that broke out with annual predictability in all major cities was
always the same. The Catholics hold a procession. A Calvinist throws a
flowerpot or a filled chamber pot at this procession, and suddenly a scuffle
breaks out, which then ends in a massacre—and vice versa: it is the very
ordinary that triggers the conflict.
Behind this slumbers a deep fear
that God will severely punish the division of faith and thus, indeed, the
betrayal of His truth - that is, that biconfessionalism means divine
punishment.
The Calvinists had eliminated the saints as
intercessors for humanity in heaven, abolishing them without replacement.
This, too, was a major catalyst for violence.
Naturally, the
Calvinists did not participate in any of the major Catholic saints’ feasts.
Disturbances occur regularly, and bloody brawls break out. These grassroots
conflicts are fiercely stoked by the preachers of both denominations.
Today,
in the spirit of the ever-invoked but seemingly unattainable ecumenism, people
treat one another with courtesy. Occasional slip-ups occur, such as when a
pope says that the Reformed do not actually have a real Church, but these are
exceptions.
Back then, they demonized one another in ways that are unimaginable today. The
Calvinists referred to the pope as the Antichrist - that is, as evil incarnate,
the worst of all evils - and vice versa; for Catholics, too, the Calvinists are
the arch-heretics, the God-cursed spawn of hell, and this is now preached
daily from the pulpits, which actually acts as a catalyst for this grassroots
confessionalism and for the violence at the very foundation of society.
In
the Battle of Yvry in 1590, the Huguenots prevail, and Henry IV gains
charisma. In 1598, after 40 years of civil war, he succeeded in issuing the
Edict of Nantes. Its most important provision is:
- The past is annulled.
- With
certain restrictions, the Huguenots are guaranteed freedom of religious
practice.The king becomes the unifying figure of the nation. To
achieve this, he must be elevated, for none of his rivals would challenge the
monarch’s inviolability.
Unrestricted exercise of power is the only solution to prevent new civil wars. And power must be centralized. The state is an instrument of justice and peacekeeping.
Although the king already has 26 castles, a 27th is needed - the central, most magnificent one. People speak of the human zoo at Versailles. The people must see the glory; hence the self-staging: The king is the state,
L’État, c’est moi.
The staff at Versailles consists of the nobility, 5,000 of whom are drawn to the court. The king becomes the tamer of the nobility. Every nobleman
receives a role at court but no share of power. Louis XIV domesticates the
nobility, keeping them in check.
Versailles is the formative phase
of France. The state must present itself as sublime.
The sublimity of the French state is celebrated to this day.
**
