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Louis was proud, murderous, lecherous, lascivious, and positively religious. He was more so after his first wife Maria Theresa died, and he secretively remarried Madame de Maintenon, who affected Louis in ways that no one else could.
France had been a volatile mixture of religious hatred for centuries. The early Franks were pagans who invaded a “Christianized” Roman Gaul. Brutal slaughter ensued until the Franks famously became Catholics on Christmas Day 498. Any other denomination or religion was punished by death. Catholicism was the official state religion, and the rising Frankish kingdom became Rome’s great champion. Charles Martel, Peppin the Short, and Charlemagne all supported Rome’s religious domination. Further French Kings aided the Pope against heresy, and even undertook their own inquisitions against the “heretic” Waldensians, Petrobrusians, and Cathars. However, French Catholicism spawned two viable offshoots that would dramatically influence Louis, France, and Europe – Calvinism and Jansenism.
Calvinism was conceived in French Catholic Law schools of which John Calvin was a student. Calvin became acquainted with reformed ideas, most notably Jacques Lefevre D’Etaples’ notion that every man should read the Bible in his own common tongue. Though Calvin agreed with many reformation ideas, he still held most Catholic traditions. For instance, Calvin – when he took power in Geneva – ruled his city much the same way that the Popes had ruled Europe. No one was allowed to question Calvin’s authority, and anyone who did was killed (eg. Michael Servetus). Calvin also continued the Catholic hatred of Jews, and even sponsored killing many during his time (See Dave Hunt, What Love Is This?). Calvin’s ideas, found in his many writings, were founded on Augustine – the theoretical, philosophical, and practical founder of the Catholic Church. Calvin’s Institutes laid the foundation for his denomination “Calvinism”, which would separate into many sects. French Calvinists were known as Huguenots, and became extremely influential.
Though influential, France was still a Catholic dominated country. All of this would soon change when a king who had Huguenot ties assumed the throne. Henry IV fought the Catholics, joined them, changed his mind, and changed it back. He was not a stable character, rather he was a political vacillator. Yet, Henry did sponsor and adopt a revolutionary piece of legislation in an attempt to stop the bloody Wars of Religion. This Edict of Nantes officially recognized the Huguenots as a viable denomination on somewhat equal footing with Catholicism. It allowed open worship throughout the country, and protected against further Catholic persecution. The Huguenots already prosperous, would soon become the most wealthy and influential faction in France. It is certainly true that Huguenot money and power greatly helped Louis’ many causes domestically and abroad. Louis, a devout Catholic, signed the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, which revoked the Edict of Nantes. He made Catholicism the only legal religion in France, and encouraged persecution against non-Catholics. It is true that many converted to Catholicism, yet many more fled France. More than 400,000 Huguenots escaped to the New World (most famously, Paul Revere’ family), Germany, England, and the Netherlands. Such an exodus had dire effects upon Louis’ future reign. The Huguenots were the wealthy merchant class and skilled laborers, who funded and supplied Louis’ economy and military. Without these Protestants, France could not continue along Louis’ arrogant path. Truly, it did not, as Louis passed his peak. His next wars were debacles that ultimately led France to revolution a century later.
French Catholicism had internal issues as well. Because Calvinism is so closely related to Catholicism, it allowed adaptations. Catholics who did not leave Rome’s grip, and adopted Calvin’s philosophy became known as Jansenists, from the Dutch Professor of Theology, Cornelius Otto Jansen. Jansen taught much of the same teachings that Calvin held, especially those from Augustine. The movement grew quickly, especially because Jansenism was popular among intellectuals and writers, such as Jean Racine and Blaise Pascal. However, Catholics, especially Jesuits rejected Jansenism as equal with Calvinism. Controversy raged for decades mostly in French academic and theological circles, and threatened to destroy the French Church from within. Louis never tamed the fiery issues at hand, nor could he have ever tamed them. The problem continued to grow well into Louis XV’s reign and beyond, but the Jansenists eventually ceased to exist by the late 1800’s when the Revolution under “Enlightened” ideas (much of which were formulated by Jansenism) brought French religion to her knees.
Louis believed that God gave him the right to be king. From this postulation, Louis set about to destroy anything against what he believed to be “God’s Church”, but would only succeed in undoing France.
armchaircapitalist 