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Montaigne and 'De la Liberté de Conscience
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
The Nineteenth Chapter of the second book of Montaigne's Essais has attracted the interest of critics because of its favorable treatment of Julian the Apostate. The essay is concerned with the problems raised by the Paix de Monsieur in 1576 and it is said that Montaigne's portrait of Julian was influenced by Bodin's remarks in his Méthode de l'Histoire and Ammian Marcellinus' life of the Emperor.
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- Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1973
References
1 Villey, P., Les Sources et l'Evolution des Essais de Montaigne, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Paris, 1933), II, 228–229.Google Scholar
2 Villey, p. 279.
3 Louis Cons, ‘Montaigne et Julien l'Apostat,’ BHR, 4 (1937), 411-420; 420.
4 Stebelton H. Nulle, ‘Julian and the men of letters,’ Classical Journal (1959), pp. 257-266.
5 Joseph Lecler, S.J., Toleration and the Reformation, tr. Westow, T. L., 2 vols. (London, 1960), II, 175.Google Scholar
6 See Villey, I, 386.
7 See B. L. O. Richter, ‘French Renaissance Pamphlets in the Newberry Library,’ Studi Francesi (1960), pp. 220-240.
8 Michel de L'Hospital, Œuvres complètes, ed. P.J. S. Dufey, 3 tomes (Paris, 1824-26), Tome 2, p. 199. See also Lecler, II, 78 et seq., who also quotes M. de L'Hospital and resumes the controversies over edicts from the Edict of Amboise on, and shows the importance of freedom of conscience in political documents.
9 Matthieu, Pierre, Histoire des derniers troubles de France (Lyon, 1597), p. 11.Google Scholar
10 (Au Souget, Par lean Torque, 1576).
11 Remonstrance aux Estats pour la Paix, p. 6.
12 I, 18-19.
13 See R. Patry, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay (Paris, 1933), pp. 40-43.
14 Cf. ‘Au reste faites estat de nostre amitié, comme d'une tres-ancienne, et toutesfois tousjours recente; et de mesme foi je le fais de la vostre, que je pense cognoistre en la miennc, mieux qu'en toute autre chose … ,’ op. cit., I, 274, ‘Lettre de M. Du Plessis a M. de Montagne'; see also pp. 288, 293, 294.
15 Cf. J. P. Boon, ‘Montaigne: Du Gentilhomme à l'écrivain,’ Modern Philology (1966), pp. 118-124.
16 See especially Essais, 1.23, et passim.
17 Brieve remonstrance à la noblesse de France sur le faict de la Declaration de Monseigneur le Due d'Alençon, faicte le 18 de Septembre 1575 (1576), in Remonstrance au Roy Tres Chrestien Henry III… Sur le faict des deux Edicts de sa Majesté donnez à Lyon… (Aygenstain, 1576).
18 Ibid., pp. 147-148.
19 Ibid., p. 149.
20 Voir A. D'Aubigné, Les Histoires, 3 tomes (Maillé, 1618), Tome II, Livre III, p. 250. Claude de Bauffremont, Baron de Senece, was later to espouse the cause of the League.
21 Ibid., p. 248.
22 Essais, ed. Plattard, Société des Belles Lettres (Paris, 1948), p. 99.
23 Cons, p. 411.
24 Ibid., p. 414.
25 For more details see J. Bidez, La Vie de l’Empereur Julien, Soc. d'éd. Les Belles Lettres (Paris, 1965), pp. 340ff.
26 Pierre Martini, Praefatio in Iuliani Imperatoris Misopogonem. In Iuliani Imp. Opera, ed. Ezechiel Spanhemius, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1696), 11, 15.
27 Gallia christiana, Tomus Nonus (1751), Col. 1119.
28 La Comédie de Dante de l'Enfer (Paris, 1596) and the Discours de I'Empereur Iulian sur les faids et deportemens des Caesars (Paris, 1580).
29 Discours de l'Empereur Iulian … , pp. Aiiv-Aiii.
30 Théodore de Beze, Du Droit des Magistrats (1574), ed. R. M. Kingdon (Genève, 1971), Les Classiques de La Pensée Politique, no. 7, pp. 17, 60, 67. See also Lecler, 11, 78, who remarks that Julian was being used as an example of the tyrannical persecutor of Christians long before the Paix de Monsieur.
31 Ibid., p. 60. The use made of historical analogy by the Protestants (although Catholics employed a similar technique) solicits this amusing remark from Arnaud Sorbin in his Le vrai Revcil-matin, pour la défense de la Maiesté de Charles IX (Paris, 1574), p. 79v:'Quand ils [les Protestants] invadent les terres & villes du Prince, ils se disent chastier les Amorrhées, Iebusées, & Chanaanéens. Si le Roy leur fait teste, ou ceux qu'il envoye, soudain ils sont baptisez des noms de Pharaons, Holofernes, Nabuchodonosors, que ces beaux Apostres leur mettent sur la teste.'
32 See Samuel Johnson, Julian the Apostate (London, 1682).
33 Harcngue du Roy nostre Sire,faicte en l’assemblee des Estats (Lyon, 1576), p. 4S.Google Scholar
34 Les Sorceleries de Henry de Valois … (Paris, 1589), p. 4.
35 Les Propheties merveillcuses advenues à l’endroit de Henry de Valois (Paris, 1589), p. 21.
36 Les Meurs, humeurs et comportemens de Henry de Valois representez au vray depuis sa naissance … (Paris, 1589), pp. 11-12.
37 Essais, I, ch. 42, p. 175. And if we are to believe Dr. Armaingaud (Montaigne pamphlétaire [Paris, 1910], pp. 19ff.) that the first paragraph of 2.21.110 refers to Henri III, then it is of interest to note that the next section in the 1580 edition (2.21.112) mentions the Emperor Julian.
38 Op. cit., 2.19.102.
39 As Stebelton H. Nulle, p. 265, concludes: ‘Each age has found in him [Julian] what it looked for, what was typical of itself. Just as “all history is contemporary history,” as the saying goes, all Julians may be said to be contemporary. If we knew nothing of a past epoch but its image of the emperor, we would know a good deal of its general outlook.'
40 de Raemond, Florimond: L'Anti-Christ (Lyon, 1597), p. 495 Google Scholar. Diderot too in his Pensées philosophiques (Ed. R. Niklaus, Geneva, T.L.F.N036, 1957, 30) shares Montaigne's view of Julian. Cf. ‘Tels etoient les sentimens de ce Prince, à qui Ton peut reprocher le paganisme, mais non l'apostasie: il passa les premières années de sa vie sous différens Maȋtres & dans différentes écoles, & fit dans un âge plus avancé un choix infortuné: il décida malheureusement pour le culte de ses ayeux & les Dieux de son païs’ (XLIII). Although this is an adaptation of Shaftesbury (see note in Vernière edition) we know that Diderot was particularly familiar with ‘De la liberté de conscience’ because he quotes from it in his Préface to his translation of Shaftesbury's Essay on Merit and Virtue.
41 We disagree with Cons, p. 419, that it was their mutual conservatism which attracted Montaigne to Julian.
42 See my article on ‘Montaigne and the Mask,’ L'Esprit Createur, 8 (1968), 198-207.