Politique

The term politique is the name given to sixteenth-century political moderates who believed that national unity was more important than the religious conflicts that were threatening to tear Europe apart at the time. In the wake of warfare between Catholics and Protestants, politiques promoted religious tolerance in the interests of the greater good. The term was first used in France, where it was originally meant as an insult by supporters of the warring religions. French politiques believed the pope and the Catholic Church did not have the authority to dictate civil matters. French King Henri IV, who signed a landmark decree of religious tolerance in 1598, was considered one of the major politiques of the era. Other notable examples include French philosopher Jean Bodin and Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Background

By the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church had been the dominant religious and political force across Europe for more than a millennium. However, in 1517, dissatisfaction with church rules and the authority of the pope led German priest Martin Luther to openly question church doctrine. Luther believed that the Bible should be the ultimate source of church authority and wanted to reform what he felt were the corrupt practices of the Catholic clergy.

Luther’s objections became the basis for the Protestant Reformation, a movement that divided the Christian faith into two camps—Catholics and Protestants. Within a few years, the Protestant faith itself splintered into separate branches. One of those was founded by a French theologian named John Calvin. Calvin argued that salvation was only possible through the will of God, not through any actions taken by humans. Calvinists believed that each person was born into sin, and God had predetermined at the moment of a person’s birth whether that person could achieve salvation or not.

During the first few decades of the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation spread across Europe. The movement was initially met with tolerance in many places, and the Catholic Church was slow to respond to the reformers. However, as the reformation grew, it began to weaken the authority of the Church and sparked wars and violence against members of both faiths.

Overview

Sixteenth-century France was a heavily Catholic nation, but the teachings of the Reformation found a receptive audience among the more educated French citizens, including many members of the nobility and military. Many adhered to the tenets of Calvinism and began calling themselves Huguenots. By about 1560, France was home to about 2 million Huguenots and more than 2,000 Protestant churches. Because many Huguenots were members of the French aristocracy, the religion was at first tolerated by the king. However, in 1534, King Francis I passed a series of measures repressing the Huguenots’ right to worship. A compromise was reached in January 1562 that granted the Huguenots limited rights to practice their faith.

The compromise did not sit well with some French Catholics. In March 1562, Catholic nobleman François de Guise massacred a group of about one hundred Protestants attending a service in the town of Vassy. Protestant forces took up arms and retaliated, beginning the first of eight wars of religion in France over the next three-and-a-half decades. The wars were marked by savage acts of aggression and violence by both sides. Some estimates place the combined death toll from the warfare and resulting disease and famine in the millions.

In the midst of the escalating warfare, those who attempted compromise and spoke out against violence became known as politiques. In many cases, the desire for compromise was not done out of altruism but as an attempt to maintain the power of the monarchy and prevent a revolution. Politiques were often derided as weak-minded by staunch supporters on either side of the religious divide, and the term was not originally meant as a compliment. Politiques argued that the needs of France should take precedence over religious matters and that secular state politics should be kept separate from religious control. Leaders, writers, and philosophers who espoused these ideals were not trying to force religious unity in France. Instead, they believed both Catholicism and Protestantism could coexist in France without one being declared the dominant state religion.

The prime example of a politique was King Henri IV, a Protestant who inherited the throne of France in 1589. Henri led a Protestant army against Catholic forces across France and took part in a siege of Paris in 1590. Catholics in France and the pope in Rome were vehemently opposed to having a Protestant as king. Aware of this fact, Henri decided to renounce his Protestant faith and convert to Catholicism in 1593. He did so not as a matter of faith but in the hopes that by submitting to the pope, he could put an end to the war. In 1598, Henri signed the Edict of Nantes, which granted Protestants the right to worship freely and promoted religious tolerance. The edict ended the fighting but made Henri the target of anger from both sides. He survived numerous assassination attempts before he was killed in 1610.

Noted French philosopher Jean Bodin was one of the most influential politiques of the sixteenth century. Though he was a Catholic and wrote works on demonology and witchcraft, Bodin was very critical of the pope and religious fanaticism. He criticized both Catholic and Calvinist doctrine and rejected the idea of a dominant religion. Bodin supported religious tolerance, believing all faiths to be equally valid.

Though the term politique is most identified with France, it was also used in reference to other moderates in Europe who pushed for religious tolerance. England’s Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Henry notoriously split from the Catholic Church to form the Protestant Church of England in 1534. Unlike her father, Elizabeth was relatively tolerant of other faiths and did not actively persecute people because of their beliefs. Her stance resulted in the pope excommunicating her in 1570.

Bibliography

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Cavendish, Richard. “The Edict of Nantes.” History Today, 4 Apr. 1998, www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/edict-nantes. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.

Claussen, Emma. Politics and “Politiques” in Sixteenth-Century France : A Conceptual History. Cambridge University Press, 2021.

"The Eight Wars of Religion (1562 – 1598)." Musée Protestant, www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-eight-wars-of-religion-1562-1598. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.

Lindfors, Tommi. “Jean Bodin (c. 1529–1596).” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/bodin. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.

Racaut, Luc, and Alec Ryrie, editors. Moderate Voices in the European Reformation. Routledge, 2005.

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