“A French “Confessionalization of Humanism”? French Humanists and the Early Reformation (1515-1547)”

PEÑA, SANTIAGO FRANCISCO

Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte

De Gruyter

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2023 vol. 114 p. 7 - 32

2198-0489

This article aims to study how religious conflicts affectedthe development of French humanism during the reign of Francis I (1515-1547), buildingupon Erika Rummel’s concept of “confessionalization of humanism”. The tragic livesof Louis de Berquin and Étienne Dolet serve as extreme examples of humanists struckby the agonistic atmosphere of the times, but also of the typical humanistic “habitsof thought” with which humanists faced repression, censorship, or intimidation.Other cases, such as those of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, Nicolas Cop, BonaventureDes Périers, or Clément Marot, also offer evidence that humanists were primarilyinclined, between the 1520s and the 1540s, to dissimulate heterodoxy simply throughanonymity or self-censorship. Nevertheless, a glance into the generations whichblossomed after 1550 shows a clearer presence of sceptical argumentation,irenic accommodation, and religious dissimulation.