"Dieu nous garde de la messe du chancelier": The Religious Belief and Political Opinion of Michel de L'Hopital
Michel de L'Hopital, chancellor of France from 1560 to 1568 during the Wars of Religion, has traditionally been viewed as an apostle of religion, believing in the ideal of the freedom of conscience. L'Hopital's repeated plea that the government had to pursue the policy of granting lim...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
1993
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| In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 1993, Volume: 24, Issue: 3, Pages: 595-620 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | Michel de L'Hopital, chancellor of France from 1560 to 1568 during the Wars of Religion, has traditionally been viewed as an apostle of religion, believing in the ideal of the freedom of conscience. L'Hopital's repeated plea that the government had to pursue the policy of granting limited freedom to Protestants because it was the only solution to civil war has not been given much credence. Historians have also mistakenly followed contemporary opinion, seeing the chancellor as a secret Protestant who conformed to Catholic worship so that he could use his position to help his coreligionists. But L'Hopital was a statesman prepared to tolerate Protestantism only as the alternative to civil conflict. He did not deny the unquestioned value of religious uniformity, but concluded that the coexistence of two religions was unavoidable in order to preserve the unity in the kingdom. L'Hopital's position, therefore, was one of sound political realism, and not one of dissemblance as his contemporaries and many historians have believed. |
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| ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/2542111 |