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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Luc Racaut
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At the turn of the seventeenth century King Henri IV of France sought to reconcile his Catholic and Protestant subjects by blaming the violent excesses of the French Wars of Religion on religious radicalism. In particular, Catholic preachers and pamphleteers were accused retrospectively of having poured oil on the fire of religious violence through vitriolic sermons and pamphlets. Historians have tended to reproduce this charge while at the same time emphasizing the 'modernity' of Protestantism, particularly in view of religious education. A review of books printed in the sixteenth century enables historians to test empirically the extent to which violence was fuelled by religious polemic. From the beginning of the Reformation the Catholic Church had been torn between educating the laity in correct doctrine on one hand and denouncing heresy on the other. A closer look at the book trade reveals that these concerns were reflected in the kinds of books that were published in the vernacular in the second half of the sixteenth century. While the clergy increasingly saw the merits of educating the laity, it had to compete with the public's taste for polemic that printers were keen to cater for.
Author(s): Racaut L
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: History: The Journal of the Historical Association
Year: 2010
Volume: 95
Issue: 318
Pages: 159-176
Print publication date: 11/03/2010
ISSN (print): 0018-2648
ISSN (electronic): 1468-229X
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-229X.2009.00480.x
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.2009.00480.x
Notes: The research for this article was conducted thanks to a British Academy Small Research Grant awarded in 2003 and an AHRC matching leave scheme awarded in 2006 that provided the breathing space necessary to write this article.
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