The decision of Louis XIV to revoke the Edict of Nantes and thus liquidate French Calvinism was well received in the intellectual community which was deeply prejudiced against the Huguenots. This antipathy would gradually disappear. After the death of the Sun King, a more sympathetic view of the Protestant minority was presented to French readers by leading thinkers such as Montesquieu, the abbé Prévost, and Voltaire. By the middle years of the eighteenth century, liberal clerics, lawyers, and government ministers joined Encyclopedists in urging the emancipation of the Reformed who were seen to be loyal, peaceable and productive. Then, in 1787, thanks to intensive lobbying by a group which included Malesherbes, Lafayette, and the future revolutionary Rabaut Saint-Étienne, the government of Louis XVI issued an edict of toleration which granted the Huguenots a modest bill of civil and religious rights.
Adams’ illuminating work treats a major chapter in the history of toleration; it explores in depth a fascinating shift in mentalités, and it offers a new focus on the process of “reform from above” in pre-Revolutionary France.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references: p. 311-330
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 272/.4/0944
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 20
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- e-fr---
- ISBN
- 9780889209046 0889202095
- LCCN
- BX9454.2
- LCCN Item number
- A34 1991eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xiv, 335 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
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- CaOOCEL
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- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)jme00326916 (OCoLC)144144682 (CaOOCEL)402671
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Contents 10
- List of Illustrations 12
- Acknowledgements 14
- Introduction 16
- PART ONE: THE REVOCATION IMPOSED, 1685-1715 20
- I. The Edict of Fontainebleau: The Rationalization of Intolerance 22
- II. Thunderous Applause, Discreet Dissent: The Intellectual Reaction to the Revocation 34
- III. A Three-way Impasse: The Huguenots, The Clergy, and The State 50
- PART TWO: THE REVOCATION ATTACKED, 1715-1760 62
- IV. An Abstract Combat: Voltaire's First Battles Against Intolerance, 1713-1750 64
- V. Montesquieu and the Huguenots: A Conservative's View of Minority Rights 76
- VI. A Friend in the Enemy Camp: The Abbé Prévost 90
- VII. Controller-General Machault Provokes a Public Debate on Huguenot Rights, 1751-1760 102
- VIII. Encyclopedists and Calvinists: An Exercise in Mutual Aid 118
- IX. A Case Study in Incompatibility: The Philosophe Voltaire and the Calvinist La Beaumelle, 1750-1756 134
- X. Mutual Disenchantment: Voltaire and the Genevans, 1755-1762 150
- XI. Distant Cousins: Rousseau and the French Calvinists 162
- XII. The Stage in the Service of Huguenot Emancipation: Voltaire, Fenouillot de Falbaire, and Mercier 180
- XIII. Reaction Put to Rout: The Dictionnaire Philosophique, the Last of the Encyclopédie and the Bélisaire Affair, 1764-1767 194
- PART THREE: THE REVOCATION UNDONE, 1760-1787 210
- XIV. The 1760s: From Words to Deeds 212
- XV. The Calas Affair: A Catalyst for the National Conscience, 1762-1765 226
- XVI. Large Expectations, Limited Gains: The Reform Efforts of Turgot and Malesherbes, 1774-1776 246
- XVII. Conservatives and Pragmatists Try Their Hand: Necker, Armand, and the Parlementaires, 1776-1784 262
- XVIII. Genteel Conspirators: Breteuil and Malesherbes Set the Stage for Reform, 1784-1787 280
- XIX. Spurs to Action: The D'Anglure Affair and the Dutch Crisis, 1787 300
- XX. Toleration Triumphant: The Edict of 1787 310
- Epilogue 322
- Selected Bibliography 326
- Index 346
- A 346
- B 346
- C 346
- D 347
- E 347
- F 347
- G 347
- H 347
- I 347
- J 347
- L 348
- M 348
- N 349
- O 349
- P 349
- Q 349
- R 349
- S 349
- T 349
- V 350
- W 350
- Y 350
