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Jean Ferrault on the King's Privileges: A Study of the Medieval Sources of Renaissance Political Theory in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Jacques Poujol
Jacques Poujol*
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
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Extract

Scholars have generally given only passing attention to a 24-folio booklet in Gothic characters entitled Insignia pecularia christianissimi Francorum regni numero viginti …, the work of an early sixteenth-century French writer, Jean Ferrault. This oversight is partly due to the inelegance and obscurity of Ferrault's Latin and also to the fact that his treatise belongs to the vast ‘no man's land’ which too often separates medieval and Renaissance fields of research. Few books, however, are more important than Ferrault's for a clear understanding of the period of rising absolutism which extends from the first years of Francis I's reign to the beginning of the religious wars. Indeed, as Henri Hauser puts it, Insignia pecularia constitutes ‘the point of departure of Gallican and royalist doctrine in France'.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 5 , 1958 , pp. 15 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1958

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References

1 Hauser's summary of Insignia pecularia is sketchy and even inaccurate, for example, when he states that this book ‘se rattache au schisme de Louis XII’ ( Hauser, Henri, Les Sources de l'histoire de France-XVIème siècte, Paris 1909, II, 69)Google Scholar.

2 Gabriel Hanotaux, who was the first to mention the importance of Ferrault's treatise as a source of the theory of regalia, knew only the editions of Insignia pecularia subsequent to 1530 (those enumerated infra, n. 5). He thought it was the anonymous summary of a theory taught in the law school of Toulouse in the late 15th century. (Essai sur les libertés de l'Eglise gallicane, introduction to Vol. I of Receuil des instructions donnies aux ambassadeurs, Paris, 1888.) Murray, R. H. lists Perrault's (sic) Insignis (sic) Pecularia as a political treatise published in the year 1500 (The Political Consequences of the Reformation, Boston, 1926, p. 285)Google Scholar. For Allen, J. W., Ferrault's book was published ‘under Louis XII’, but he gives 1515 as the date of publication in his bibliography (A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century, London, 1928, pp. 283, 521)Google Scholar. 1517 is proposed as the date of publication by Sée, H., Rébillon, A., and Préclin, E. in Le XVIème siècle (Paris, 1950), p. 249 Google Scholar.

3 A. Edition by Jean Petit, 1520, in-8° goth. (Bibliothèque nationale Le4. 3). B. Edition Tolose apud N. Vieillard, 15—, in-8° (Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse Res. D XVI 333 C. Edition by Jean Petit, undated, pages numbered, in-8° goth. (Bibliothèque nationale Le4.3.A). D. Edition by Jean Petit, undated, pages not numbered, different imprint (Bibliothèque Mazarine and Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal). E. J. G. Meusel in his Bibliotheca historica, X, 179, N° 2467, lists a 1529 edition.

4 The first author who mentions Jean Ferrault's book is Jacques Bonaud de Sauset in a Panegyricus printed with his edition of Jean de Terre Rouge's Contra rebelles suorum regum (Lyon, 1526), fol. cxi, cxrv.

5 F. Under the title of Tractatus cum iuamdus turn maxime utilis jura ac privilegia regni Franciae continens, Jean Ferrault's book is found in a collection that starts with Guillaume Du Breuil's Stilus supræmæ curiæ parlamenti parisiensis atque tholosani (Paris, 1530, in-40° goth.). This collection was reprinted in 1542 and 1551. G. As an appendix to Charles de Grassaille's Regalium Franciae libri duo (Paris, 1545, in-8°). H. In Charles Dumoulin's Opera of 1555 and from there in the various editions of the complete works of the same, especially in the Opera omnia (Paris, 1658), II, 1107-1130. I. In the legal encyclopedia of Ziletti, F., Tractatus universi juris (Venice, 1584), XVI, fol. 174 v-178Google Scholar.

6 French manuscript 5208 and Latin manuscript 4777. Neither one is dated. The French manuscript, an abridged version, was intended for the king himself. The Latin manuscript, richly illuminated with golden ‘fleurs-de-lis’, constitutes the original text reproduced by the different editions.

7 ‘Propriis sumptibus bononiam [=Bologna] a bentivolo [= J. Bentivoglio]: romandiolam a Venetiis occupatas sedi apostolicae et Julio secundo restituit* (fol VIv). As a consequence of Agnadel, the province of Romagna was taken from the Venetians by Louis XII and given to Pope Julius II.

8 The 1545 edition by Grassaille of Insignia pecularia (p. 321) mentions a treatise published by Jean Feu in 1510. This passage is not included in the Latin manuscript or the early editions. Grassaille probably made this addition, which is also found in Dumoulin's editions.

9 Port, Célestin, Dictionnaire biographique du Maine-et-Loire (Paris, 1876), II, 144 Google Scholar.

10 Ménage, Giles, Histoire de Sablé (Paris, 1844), II, 116 Google Scholar.

11 A compilation of these manuscripts has been published by Tardif, Adolphe under the title of Privilèges accordés à la couronne de France par le Saint-Siege (Paris, 1855)Google Scholar.

12 Latin manuscript 9814. Ferrault's wish that his treatise should be placed close to the ‘Livre des Fleurs-de-lis’ must have been fulfilled, for the cover of the Latin manuscript 4777 of Insignia pecularia also has been embroidered with ‘fleurs-de-lis’. By matching the books, the king's librarian stressed the association between the two.

13 Almost all these privileges date from the time of the Avignon popes. Very few were granted after the Pragmatic Sanction (1438).

14 The Rebriches des Privileges followed the French court in its exile during the worst times of the Hundred Years’ War. On the first page of Manuscript 9814 has been written in 1446 the certificate of baptism of Charles de France, Duke of Berry, the king's fourth son.

15 Bibliothèque nationale, French manuscript 1965, fol. 42v.

16 … multaque alia privilegia, quae inter chartas regias invenies…’ (Pragmatica sanctio cumglossis, Paris, 1546, in-4°, fol. 6).

17 Aufreri, Éfitienne, Opusculorum avidissimus cumulus… (Lyon, 1533, in-4°)Google Scholar.

18 ‘Sicut luna lumen suum a sole sortitur … sic regalis potestas ab auctoritate pontificali suae sortitur dignitatis splendorem’ (Innocent III, Epist. I, 401, in Migne, Patr. lat. CCXIV, 377, and Décrétales 1, 33, 6, para. 4).

19 ‘ … moy contentant d'en avoir nombré jusques a vingt qui est le nombre auquel les hommes peuvent par le souverain prince estre repputez maieurs par dispense et previlleige’ (Manuscrit français 5208, fol. 21v-22).

20 ’ … affin que iceulx roys sachent avoir telles preheminences, soient soigneux a les ampliffier garder et deffendre’ (ibid., fol. 22).

21 This embarrassing question is very exhaustively discussed by the French jurist Jean Feu (Johannes Igneus) in a lecture ‘An rex Franciae recognoscat Imperatorem …’ first given in Pavia in 1510 and printed with Feu's Varia opera (Pavia, 1510).

22 This implies an important concession: the pope may excommunicate the king of France, a right which was contested by some French jurists and theologians during the Pisa Council and the conflict between Louis XII and Pope Julius II. This passage, among others, may have made untimely the publication of Insignia pecularia between 1511 and 1514.

23 Chasseneuz's Catalogus had several editions: 1546, 1579, 1586, 1617, 1649.

24 Grassaille, Charles de, Regalium Franciae, libri duo, jura omnia et dignitates christianissimi Galliae regis continentes (Lyon, 1538, in-8°)Google Scholar. There is a second edition, the one I have used (Paris, 1545, in-8°). An appendix to this second edition gives the text of Insignia pecularia.

25 ‘Ferrault. Andegavensem regiumque apud Cenomanos procuratorem tempore Ludo. 12, cui dicavit, ut notes barbariem et imperitiam temporis. C[arolus]. M[olineus].’ (Opera, Paris, 1658, II, 1107).