Spiritualities in early modern France

Two master classes and workshops

1. The consolatory tradition

NUI Maynooth, Board Room, Top Floor, Hume Building, North Campus

Friday 26 March 2010. 9.30am to 4.30pm

“For there are definite words of comfort habitually spoken in dealing with poverty, definite words in dealing with a life spent without obtaining office or fame; there are separate forms of discourse respectively for exile, the destruction of one's country, slavery, illness, blindness, and any other mishap that might properly be called a calamity.”

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 3.34.81

The consolatory impulse was widely practiced in the ancient world by Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, Epicurus, and Chrysippus, to name only the most prominent figures in this tradition. Although the consolatio mortis (consolation for the alleviation of grief following a death, or in anticipation of one’s own) was the most usual, consolation was also offered to alleviate the emotional pain or despair experienced as a result of any misfortune or tragedy as the quotation from Cicero, given above, reveals. Consolation was a therapy of the word, and took a number of forms: the consolatory letter or oration (the latter being longer and more ambitious), the funeral oration, elegiac verse, consolatory dialogues, and manuals of consolation. As Paul Holloway observes (p.65): ‘ancient consolation contained a significant theoretical component. Each major philosophical school developed its own approach based on such things as its view of the soul, its doctrine of good and evil, and its theory of the passions’. But whatever the school of thought, the impetus of the consoler was to exhort the bereaved to be rational and responsible in the face of grief. In fact, ancient consolation took the form of moral instruction and arguments against grief. But it is also important to note that, consolation in antiquity was inseparable from a belief in the therapeutic power and function of rhetoric; consequently, for some, consolation and beauty (and hence style in a therapy of the word) were inseparable. The early Church inherited this tradition of consolation and modified it in line with its own system of beliefs; the immortality of the soul (also shared with Platonism), and, most notably, the resurrection (specific to Christianity) being a case in point. Among the Christians who adopted the consolatory tradition, some names stand out: Cyprian, Gregory of Nazianzen, Gergory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome, the latter being the most important model for the Christian consolatory letter. While these writers were familiar with the consolatory tradition from pagan antiquity, and

adapted many of its insights, they were concerned to place a particularly Christian inflection on the therapy of the word. However, they too accepted that grief was to be controlled by more rational impulses. In fact, most if not all, adopted the Pauline distinction of ‘godly sorrow’, which leads to salvation, and ‘the sorrow of the world’, which produces death (2 Corinthians 7.10). Thus, to quote George W. McClure, ‘the remedies for sin took precedence over the remedies for sorrow’ (14). The cura animarum (cure of souls) in the early Christian tradition was hortatory and, to an extent, ascetic; its framework was more penitential and corrective than therapeutic. Believers were exhorted to extract a meaning from their sorrow that would have a salutatory effect: sorrow as an affliction from God, and which could therefore be tempered with hope; affliction as a vehicle for divine correction, and which would consequently lead to amendment of life; grief that was to be moderated with the joy that came from the promise of salvation. In sum, the early Christian tradition was driven by contemptus mundi (contempt for this world), and haunted by the possibility of succumbing to acedia (despair), which was connected in people’s minds to sloth, believed to be one of the seven deadly sins. As a result, Christian consolation tended to militate against showing therapeutic sympathy (which they distinguished from exhortation) for those afflicted by misfortune or unexpected tragedy. A paradigm shift seems to have occurred in the Renaissance, however. George W. McClure argues that in Italy, humanists, and particularly Petrarch, ‘legitimate the domain of worldly sorrow’, by recasting the classical and patristic remedies in new rhetorical forms. Doctors tended to the body, and priests to the soul, but figures like Petrarch ‘wanted to fashion a therapeutic wisdom for the area in between, the mind’ (p.4). As a result, a different perception of human misery, suffering and death emerged, as did a distinctly therapeutic definition of rhetoric and philosophy, which heralded the lay psychologist. However, as McClure observes in passing in a footnote, ‘The Protestant context of this process warrants further study’ (p.284n.). The Masterclass at NUI Maynooth aims to address this gap in our knowledge of early modern spiritualities, and will study the way two key figures in the French Reformed tradition viewed the role of consolation. Professor Olivier Millet and Dr Marianne Carbonnier-Burkhard will address the Masterclass in the morning on, Jean Calvin and Charles Drelincourt respectively, both of whom reflected on the art of consolation and practiced it in their respective ministries. A short summary of their topics may be found below. Contributions for the afternoon workshop are invited from graduate students or academics working in this area. Proposals of 100 to 200 words in English should be sent electronically to the organiser no later than 25th February 2010. The aim is not to present finished papers but rather to introduce work in progress and stimulate discussion on the topic of consolation in any of the religious or philosophical traditions of early modern France. Successful applicants will be informed if they have a place on the afternoon programme by 4th March; they will be required to provide

electronic copy of one or two A4 pages of source material related to their topic, in French with an English translation by 11 March, which will be distributed electronically to those who have reserved a place in the Master class and Workshop. One or two modest travel bursaries may be available to assist graduate students travelling by Apex air flights from outside the island of Ireland; these will be offered to what are deemed by the organiser to be the most significant and pertinent proposals. Here are some questions to stimulate reflection and discussion:

(20 minute presentations in English may address any, some or all of the following questions)

How does the author or tradition in question view sorrow, affliction, misfortune? How does this understanding relate to the author’s religious or philosophical tradition? Is there a particular anthropology, or epistemology, at work in the consolatory writings of the author or tradition in question? What consolatory arguments (solacia) are offered by the author? What is the understanding of the art of consolation in the author in question? What is the relationship between rhetoric and consolation in the author in question? Is the author’s approach to sorrow, affliction and misfortune hortatory, or therapeutic, or both? In other words, is there any shift from a religious to a more psychological response? What glimpses do we get into the inner life, or the silent world of feeling, in these writings?

* A number of books and articles exist on the subject, many of them written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; but the following more recent publications provide succinct overviews and further bibliography: Paul A. Holloway, Consolation in Philippians. Philosophical sources and rhetorical strategy (Cambridge, University Press, 2001), ch 3, ‘On the genre of Philippians: ancient consolation’, p.55-83 George W. McClure, Sorrow and consolation in Italian humanism, (Princeton, University Press, 1990) : Introduction, ‘The classical and Christian traditions’, p.3-17; Conclusion, ‘The Italian Renaissance and beyond’, p.155-166

* Olivier Millet, is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure (Ulm), and agrégé de Lettres classiques, and he is professor of French literature (XVIe siècle) at the Université de Paris 12. His research and publications to date are principally in the area of religious literature, the history of rhetoric, and theatre in the Renaissance. He is the author of Calvin et la dynamique de la

parole (1992), Culture biblique (2003), and numerous articles on humanist tragedy. He has edited the works of Joachim Du Bellay, Marguerite de Navarre, and the Institutions chétiennes of Jean Calvin. Professor Millet will speak about Jean Calvin and consolation. For Calvin, consolation is an essential dimension of the divine Word, as evinced by the biblical prophets, who, in Calvin’s view, are the model for the ministry of the word in the Church. In his exegesis, Calvin is particularly attentive to what the biblical authors are seeking to express (vouloir-dire). Consolation is one aspect of this vouloir-dire, and it often makes it possible to understand the meaning of the promises emanating from God (which along the divine warnings are at the heart of prophetic preaching). Marianne Carbonnier-Burkhard lectures on the history of early modern Christianity, and particularly Reformed Christianity, at the Faculté de Théologie Protestante (Paris); she is also Vice President of the Society for the History of French Protestantism (SHPF); her research interests are mainly in the area of Reformed French devotional writings from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, especially narratives of life and death. She is also interested in the question of Protestants and memory in France. She is the author (with P. Cabanel) of Une histoire des protestants en France, XVIe-XXe siècles (1998); and (as sole author), Comprendre la révolte des camisards (2008); and Jean Calvin. Une vie (2009). She will speak about Charles Drelincourt’s manuals of consolation. French Reformed writings on piety and spirituality are abundant in the seventeenth century, and manuals on consolation form an important part of that literature. The most famous is the Consolations de l’âme fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort (1651) by C. Drelincourt, pastor of the French Reformed Church in Paris (Charenton), which went into many editions right up to the nineteenth century, and was translated into many languages, including English (71 editions between 1675 and 1824). Drelincourt, who was a well-know author and preacher, exhorts, preaches and develops arguments based on Scripture with the view of consoling readers whom he addresses directly as ‘my brother’, ‘my sister’, and whom he guides in prayer and meditation at the end of each chapter. The manual was meant to assist pastors and elders in their pastoral visits to the sick and dying, but it was also widely used in personal and family devotions. At the end of his ministry, Drelincourt published a different kind of manual of consolation Les visites charitables ou les consolations chrétiennes pour toutes sortes de personnes afligées (1665), the first volume was followed by four more, the last published in 1669. The Visites charitables have a broader remit than the Consolations, as they are designed to be read by all afflicted persons, including those who mourn, and by the faithful whose sense of sin made them fear the justice of God. The work is organised as a series of dialogues between pastor and believer, which close with prayer. The expected readership is also wider: young men aspiring to the ministry, recently ordained pastors, and believers living in isolated places. Reading the manual

was intended to replace the word and presence of the absent pastor, and it therefore opens up the possibility of a lay ministry. The works of both of these French Reformed authors were present in ecclesiastical libraries in Ireland in the early modern period, although we do not yet know how widely they were read by the clergy of the period.

* Students, academics, and interested parties, who wish to reserve a place in the first Master class and Workshop, should contact Professor R. Whelan at ruth.whelan@nuim.ie on or before Monday 8th March 2010. As places are limited, early booking is advised. A second Master class and Workshop on the topic of Mysticism and Meditation in early modern France will take place at NUI Maynooth on Friday 23 April 2010. An outline and programme will be circulated shortly. Professor Ruth Whelan School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures French Section NUI Maynooth Spiritualities in early modern France. Two master classes and workshops are part of the project Protestants, print and Gaelic culture in Ireland, 1567-1722, which is funded by the IRCHSS, to whom we express our gratitude; it is a joint project between UCD (Dublin), the University of Ulster, and NUI Maynooth. Professor Ruth Whelan, M.A., H.Dip.Ed., D.E.A., Ph.D., MRIA, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques Department of French National University of Ireland, Maynooth Maynooth Co Kildare Tel. 00-353-1-7083700