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Politique

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, politiques (French pronunciation: [pɔlitik]) were Western European statesmen who prioritized the strength of the state above all other organs of society, including religion. During the French Wars of Religion, this included moderates of both religious faiths (Huguenots and Catholics) who held that the country could only be saved by the restoration of a strong monarchy which rose above religious differences.

The term politique often had a pejorative connotation of moral or religious indifference, especially after 1576 in contrast with the radical Catholic League calling for the eradication of Protestantism in France. By 1588, the politiques were seen by pious detractors as a faction more pernicious than heretics. Similar clashes emerged during the same period in the Netherlands and England.

In matters of law and politics, Jean Bodin saw religion as a social prop, encouraging respect for law and governance.[1]

History

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In early critical writings, the politiques (largely jurists and intellectuals) were sometimes confused with another group, the "malcontents" (nobles who opposed the political influence of the Guise family). Many moderate politique Catholics defended the idea of Gallicanism, of making a distinction between the State and Religion, of a unitary and undivided royal sovereignty (against external influence or internal divisions), and of privileging national security and peace.

It can be argued that anyone who believed in the necessity of a strong monarchy to national security was a politique. For example, the politique policies of Henry IV of France, such as the Edict of Nantes (a document granting political and religious liberties to the minority French Protestants), directly contributed to the centralized administrative system of seventeenth century France and the absolutism embodied by Louis XIV, which included an eventual revocation of the Edict. Another example of a politique was Elizabeth I of England, who was (or claimed to be) a Catholic during the time of her sister Mary I but moved to Protestantism when attaining the throne. The later monarch Charles II - long flirting with Catholicism and holding out a promise to convert to it as a means of getting support from Louis XIV, but only actually converting on his deathbed - could also be considered to have acted as a Politique, though by his time the term was less often used.

Jonathan I. Israel emphasizes the important role played by various "Politiques" in the Dutch Revolt of the 16th Century and the 17th Century Dutch Republic created by that revolt. Specifically, he notes as the most important of them William the Silent, who moved from the Catholic Church to the Calvinist one - the opposite direction to that taken by his contemporary Henry IV of France, but taken out of similar motives. In Jonathan Israel's view, the long-term influence of such Dutch Politiques was positive, helping to mitigate the more intransigent forms of Calvinism and to create in the Netherlands a climate of (relative) religious toleration, greater than in other European countries at the time.[2] Likewise, Blair Worden makes the point that during the Commonwealth of England, while the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was broadly Calvinist, his circle contained non-sectarian ‘merciful men’ or politiques who were more tolerant of other doctrines.[3]

Jean Bodin

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Jean Bodin became well known for his analysis of sovereignty, which he took to be indivisible, and to involve full legislative powers (though with qualifications and caveats). With François Hotman (1524–1590) and François Baudouin (1520–1573), on the other hand, Bodin also supported the force of customary law, seeing Roman law alone as inadequate.[4]

He hedged the absolutist nature of his theory of sovereignty, which was an analytical concept; if later his ideas were used in a different, normative fashion, that was not overtly the reason in Bodin.[5] Sovereignty could be looked at as a "bundle of attributes";[6] in that light the legislative role took centre stage, and other "marks of sovereignty" could be discussed further, as separate issues. He was a politique in theory, which was the moderate position of the period in French politics; but drew the conclusion that only passive resistance to authority was justified.[7]

Bodin's work on political theory saw the introduction of the modern concept of "state" but was in the fact on the cusp of usage (with that of Corasius), with the older meaning of a monarch "maintaining his state" not having dropped away.[8] Public office belonged to the commonwealth, and its holders had a personal responsibility for their actions.[9] Politics is autonomous, and the sovereign is subject to divine and natural law, but not to any church; the obligation is to secure justice and religious worship in the state.[10]

Bodin studied the balance of liberty and authority.[11] He had no doctrine of separation of powers and argued in a traditional way about royal prerogative and its proper, limited sphere. His doctrine was one of balance as harmony, with numerous qualifications; as such it could be used in different manners, and was. The key was that the central point of power should be above faction.[12] Rose sees Bodin's politics as ultimately theocratic,[13] and misunderstood by the absolutists who followed him.[14]

Where Aristotle argued for six types of state, Bodin allowed only monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. He advocated, however, distinguishing the form of state (constitution) from the form of government (administration).[15] Bodin had a low opinion of democracy.[16]

Families were the basic unit and model for the state;[17] on the other hand John Milton found in Bodin an ally on the topic of divorce.[18] Respect for individual liberty and possessions were the hallmark of the orderly state, a view Bodin shared with Hotman and George Buchanan.[19] He argued against slavery.[20]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Holmes, Stephen (1988). "Jean Bodin: The Paradox of Sovereignty and the Privatization of Religion". In Pennock, James Roland; Chapman, John W. (eds.). Religion, Morality, and the Law. Nomos Series. Vol. 30. NYU Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780814766064. Retrieved 2015-09-04. In the Republique, at least, religion captures Bodin's attention because of its influence on the sovereign's capacity to keep the peace. A false religion is nevertheless useful because it 'doth yet hold men in fear and awe, both of the laws and of the magistrates [...]' (IV, 7, 539). If fear of hellfire lends credibility to the law, then religion is a welcome ally [...] In other words, Bodin advances a social-prop theory of religion. The utility of religion does not hinge upon its truth.
  2. ↑ Jonathan I. Israel. "The Dutch Republic", Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995.
  3. ↑ Worden, Blair (2012). God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell. OUP. p.85-86. ISBN 9780199570492
  4. ↑ Elliott, p. 92.
  5. ↑ Glenn Burgess, Ancient Constitution p. 123.
  6. ↑ Holt, p. 160.
  7. ↑ Elliott, p. 224.
  8. ↑ Ball etc. Political Innovation, p. 120.
  9. ↑ Wernham, p. 502.
  10. ↑ Wernham, p. 490.
  11. ↑ Isaiah Berlin, Freedom and Betrayal, p. 29.
  12. ↑ Nicholas Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism (1992), pp. 126-127, p. 204.
  13. ↑ Rose, p. 276.
  14. ↑ Rose, p. 277.
  15. ↑ Wernham, p. 503-4.
  16. ↑ Sheldon Wolin (2003), Tocqueville, Between Two Worlds, pp. 59-60.
  17. ↑ Kelley, p. 72.
  18. ↑ Hill, Milton and the English Revolution, p. 123.
  19. ↑ Wernham, p. 506.
  20. ↑ Peter Gay, The Enlightenment 2: The Science of Freedom (1996), p. 408; David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1966), pp. 111-114.

References

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  • Elliott, J. H. (2000). Europe Divided: 1559-1598, Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Holt, Mack P. (2002). Renaissance and Reformation France, New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Kelley, Donald R. (1981). The Beginning of Ideology: Consciousness and Society in the French Reformation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rose, P. L. (1987). "Bodin's Universe and Its Paradoxes: Some Problems in the Intellectual Biography of Jean Bodin," pp. 266–288 in E. I. Kouri and Tom Scott (eds.) (1987), Politics and Society in Reformation Europe, London: Macmillan.
  • Wernham, R. B. (ed.), (1971). New Cambridge Modern History vol. III, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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