Divine Right
Portrait of Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux by Pierre-Imbert Drevet (1723)
Bossuet, a French clergyman and thinker, in the work “Politics according to the Holy Scriptures”, affirmed that the power was transmitted to the King directly by God. The monarch is therefore not responsible for his actions before his subjects but before the divinity. The legitimacy of its power is based on the pillars of a non-earthly right. Bossuet points out four main characteristics of royal authority:
- It is sacred, because it has divine origin.
- It is absolute, because the monarch does not have to account to any subject
- It is paternal, because it is inspired by goodness, the king must be like a father and seek the happiness of his subjects with his actions
- It subject to reason, because the monarch must act according to reason and not arbitrarily.
“When states are formed, one seeks for unity, and one is never so unified as under a single leader.”(Bossuet, 47)
Religion
Under Louis XIV, the official religion of the State was Catholic, however the popes had no major influence in France in the designation of bishops and archbishops, who were appointed by the French king. In th
is way, Louis XIV could subject the decisions of the Church to the interests of the Crown. Gallicanism brought conflicts with the pope, who also claimed to be chosen by God to lead the catholic church. Louis continued the process of religious unification by prohibiting the practice of any religion, except Catholicism. In October 1689, Louis promulgated the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the previous edict of Nantes, under the pretext that the almost complete extinction of Protestantism in France made an edict granting them privileges unnecessary. Although the Edict of 1689 formally prohibited the Huguenots from leaving France, about 200,000 did. (Beik 11)
“Protestants leaving France” by Jan Luyken