Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1914. / Bibliography: p. 170-177.

Thèse--Université de Paris.

Thèse--Université de Paris.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1914. / Bibliography: p. 170-177.

Humanist legal scholarship was the catalyst to historical revolution that took place in sixteenth-century France. French philologists succeeded in demonstrating the cultural distinctiveness of France from a heretofore assumed classical heritage shared with ancient Rome. As a result, scholars sought to retrace the historical origins of France in the non-Roman Gauls and Franks. Their intensive study of the laws, customs and institutions that developed in France, as distinct from ancient Rome, transformed the understanding of the national past. Following the introduction of the principles of historical anachronism and cultural relativism, the sixteenth century witnessed a transformation of traditional perceptions of historical time. It was during this period when the historical myths, legends and traditions that comprised the cultural fabric of French society were called into question, were transformed, and emerged as new myths that spoke more directly to the crises of the French Religious Wars. The purpose of this study is to attach greater significance to the Tumult of Amboise of 1560 than has previously been afforded in the scholarship of this period. The Tumult of Amboise provide not only the impetus for the civil wars that were waged in France for nearly half a century, but also served as the catalyst for an first expression of Protestant resistance theory that was to change the face of political discourse in this period. The debate centered around the Tumult of Amboise set the stage for constitutional theories regarding the laws of succession and the role of the Estates-General that were dominate political discourse in the latter half of the sixteenth century. As political polemicists increasingly sought to reconstruct an image of the mythical French past, in order to demonstrate the ancientness of the French constitution, the historical fiction that developed around these efforts became a functioning political ideology that should be viewed as one of the first concerted expressions of French nationalism. In this regard, the recreation of the national past took on a patriotic dimension heretofore absent from traditional, chroniclesty led medieval histories and, in time, developed into a uniquely Gallican mythology that stood defiantly as a rival to the cultural heterodoxy of Rome. Further, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate the developmental nature of political discourse in this period. As the civil wars progressed, doctrines of constitutionalism and limited monarchy began to be laced with more abstract theories regarding the nature of political obligation and the responsibility of the ruler to his subjects. Employing a comparative analysis of discourse from the 1560's to the succession of Henri IV, it will be shown that the transformation of political propaganda was direct! y dependent on the historical memory of the participants, who engaged in an effort to frame the political and religious crises within the context of their perceptions of the past.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 375-395).

No description available.

From the Enlightenment to the Romantic period, many writers transformed Christianity into a religion of temporal salvation. Whether they manifest, in their writings, a will to destroy it (Voltaire, Helvetius, d'Holbach, etc.) or to surpass it (Leroux, Lamennais, Hugo, etc.), all refer to its dogmas as a paradigm of argumentation from which they suggest a new explanation of the world and, most important, they all propose a transformation of the society. The goal of my thesis is to offer a new analysis of this period that spreads from 1750 to 1848. In my hypothesis, I stipulate that before 1789, the philosophers of the Enlightenment never undertook a real "de-Christianisation" and that at the turn of the century, the writers did not return exactly to Christianity. Far from taking the position that the argumentation had transformed itself in a manner that radically differed during this historical period that preceded and followed the French Revolution, my goal is to show that a same will to ameliorate the human condition on earth was manifested in comparable ways throughout these different discourses. The thought of these authors is rather a testimony of a new "sacralisation" of which finality is now on a temporal level: sin is not necessary and, more importantly, it is possible to abolish it through social reformations. This desire of a better world is the most important message that Christianity passed on to the thinkers of this period. By viewing human existence in this way, modernity could be defined not as the end, but rather as the inheritance of Christianity or, to say it all, as its humanization.

No description available.

This study explores Franco-Papal relations, and their effect on the French Church and State, from Henri IV's conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1593 until his death in 1610. Because Henri IV's primary concern, even in matters involving the Papacy or the Gallican Church, was to protect his kingdom from Habsburg encroachment, he was willing either to abandon his Protestant allies abroad, or to adopt reform measures, such as the decrees of the Council of Trent, that might weaken his own authority or disturb the peace of his kingdom. This caused repeated conflicts with the Counter-Reformation Popes Clement VIII and Paul V, to whom the primary enemy was always the infidel and the heretic. Nevertheless both sides realized that they needed each other to maintain their independence of Spain.