Etudes Epistémè (Feb 2021)
Entre polémique et affaire pastorale : la prédication des indulgences en France de 1550 à 1650
Abstract
The Reformation in Germany was sparked – inadvertently – by the preaching of Johan Teztel on indulgences. Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses opened up a new polemic on the nature and significance of pardons that found a response throughout the western Church. In the following century, preaching about indulgences mirrored contemporary debates about religious authority, good works and salvation. In France, while Protestant polemic condemned indulgences across the period, from the mid-sixteenth century, Catholic preachers adopted pardons as a sign of orthodoxy and as a useful practice for the faithful. After the Council of Trent upheld the practice of indulgences in 1563, the Roman Jubilees of 1575 and 1600 popularised plenary pardons across Europe, including France. This revival was aided by the re-adoption of traditional devotions in the militant Catholicism of the League Wars. Polemical uses of indulgences continued into the first quarter of the seventeenth century, but with the quietening down of religious conflict after 1630, sermons adopted a more pastoral tone. Preachers turned to recommending indulgences as a spiritual work, a means of interior as much as exterior reform. This article examines preaching on indulgences in France over the period 1550 to 1650 and places it in the evolution of devotional practices, from anti-Protestant polemic to Catholic pastoral care.
