The Politics of Piety

About this book

"The Politics of Piety situates the Franciscan order at the heart of the religious and political conflicts of the late sixteenth century to show how a medieval charismatic religious tradition became an engine of political change. Anxious about the spiritual state of confessionally divided France and convinced in their roles as God's most devoted servants, the friars used their redoubtable skills as preachers, intellectual training at the University of Paris, and personal and professional connections with other Catholic reformers and patrons to successfully galvanize popular opposition to the spread of Protestantism throughout the sixteenth century. By 1588, mounting suspicion of the religious agenda of the French Crown encouraged the friars to use these same strategies on behalf of the Catholic League, the radical political association which first emerged in 1585 to prevent the succession of the Protestant heir presumptive, Henry of Navarre, to the French throne." "The Politics of Piety contributes to our understanding of religion as a formative political impulse throughout the sixteenth century by linking the long-term political activism of the friars to the emergence of the French monarchy of the seventeenth century."--BOOK JACKET.