Counterreformation, Absolutism and Civility

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Counter-reformation, Absolutism and Civility
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Counter-reformation

• 1598 Henri IV Edict of Nantes
• Louis XIII and Louis XIV increasingly hostile
  toward the Protestants
• destruction of 6-700 Protestant churches
• Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) Louis XIV
• mass emigration of Protestants
• rise in efforts by the Church to impose its
  values of godliness through the villages priests
  (cures) and the devouts (dévots).

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Absolutism

• In 17th-century France provided a model for
  absolutism that influenced other countries in
  Europe.
• Based on Divine Right King represents the
  Christian gods wishes healing powers
• Cardinal Richelieu "one law, one faith, one
  king."
• Fight against revolts against the crown 1650 the
  Fronde (Louis XIV a child)

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Louis XIVs reign

• personal reign was from 1661 to 1715
• personification of absolutism
• the Sun King
• highly centralized power
• lettres de cachet (royal arrest warrants)
• development of a patriarchal society
• Académie Française founded by Richelieu
• made luxury a virtue

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Versailles

• Moved the court to Versailles 1682
• All roads converged on his bedroom as spokes on a
  wheel
• Ostentatious
• Canals, Hall of Mirrors
• Nobility resided there

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Civility

• "courtliness" latter Middle Ages aristocratic
  code of behavior personal honor, courage,
  self-sacrifice
• slow extinction of the knightly-feudal warrior
  and the formation of a new court aristocracy in
  the 16th and 17th centuries, the concept of
  "civility" slowly takes hold and this word comes
  to replace the word "courtliness"

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Civility defined

• "Civility" means "honesty", "affability" or
  "sociability" and "decency".
• More bourgeois than courtly. Reflect the
  assimilation of the bourgeoisie into the
  aristocracy wealthy bourgeois merchants at this
  time bought titles of nobility and became part of
  the aristocracy.

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Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 - 1536)

• Dutch humanist and theologian.
• Criticized the Church.
• Inspired Martin Luther and the Reformation.
• Author of Manners for Children (1530).

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Erasmus, Manners for Children (1530)

• Reformulated the notion of civility, drawing on
  texts from ancient Greece Rome, the Middle
  Ages, and folk wisdom.
• Set the tone for manners guides over the next 3
  centuries.
• Gave advice to children regarding social
  situations church, dining, meetings, gambling,
  going to bed.
• Argues that physical signs (gestures, mimicry,
  postures) express a persons inner state.
• Believes in the childs natural goodness.
• Proposes a code of conduct valid for everyone.
• Assumes that civility can be taught.

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Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 - 1719)

• French priest and educational reformer.
• Founded charity schools in Lyon in 1679, for poor
  urban children.
• Author of Rules of Propriety and Christian
  Civility (1703).

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La Salle, Rules of Propriety and Christian
Civility (1703)

• Follows the Erasmian model, but authoritarian in
  structure.
• Dwells on modesty of bodily posture and
  behaviors, providing detailed instructions for
  every bodily pose.
• The body must be effaced as much as possible.
• The body must remain hidden, even in private, and
  even from ones own eyes.