| Popis: |
Through a selection of libels published by zealous Catholics during three peaks of French interconfessional conflicts, this article proposes, on the one hand, to reconstitute the strategies presiding over the exploitation of the memory of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre for purposes of politico-religious argumentation, in particular by revealing what analogies are made between this event and the context in which the texts mentioning it appeared. On the other hand, focusing on discursive practices, it shows how such strategies resulted in the shaping of several a posteriori interpretations of the events of 1572, successively considering its attribution to Charles IX, its reading as proof of a divine blessing, and finally the exploitation of the combination of these two motives in order to legitimize St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre or even to suggest comparable initiatives. Through this double questioning, the article shows that the libelists considered St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre as a common historical episode that could be exploited, like many others, as an exemplum for making political claims in the present thanks to analogies with the past. It then reveals that the instrumentalisation of its memory led to define the zealous Catholics through a double rejection of the Edict of Nantes (both in terms of oblivion and peaceful cohabitation). Finally, it shows that the political and religious conflicts of the early 17th century were thought of in close connection with those of the preceding decades, and invites scholars to consider them as such as well. |
