Of Pastorals and Partisans: Nationalist Variations on the Myth of Rural Virtue in Sixteenth-Century Anti-Protestant Polemics
In the tumultuous time preceding the French Wars of Religion, one innovative partisan author infused his anti-Protestant rhetoric with nationalistic discourse based in the myth of rural virtue. Drawing on existing anxieties regarding urbanization, Artus Désiré depicted Geneva as a festering slum tee...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
[2020]
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| In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 2020, Volume: 51, Issue: 2, Pages: 343-366 |
| RelBib Classification: | KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance KBG France KDB Roman Catholic Church KDD Protestant Church SA Church law; state-church law ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
Catholic apologetics
B Country life in literature B Partisanship B Ethics in literature B Desire, Artus B Anti-Protestantism literature B 16th century French literature B Pamphlets B Pastoral societies in literature |
| Summary: | In the tumultuous time preceding the French Wars of Religion, one innovative partisan author infused his anti-Protestant rhetoric with nationalistic discourse based in the myth of rural virtue. Drawing on existing anxieties regarding urbanization, Artus Désiré depicted Geneva as a festering slum teeming with corruption and debauchery. He contrasted this with an idyllic French countryside inhabited by traditional, rustic characters whose innocence fostered pure devotion and protected them from Calvinism's corrupting influence. Building on this dichotomy, Désiré conflated socioeconomic divisions with political borders and theological distinctions to further alienate Calvin and his followers. In his portrayal, Calvinists had abandoned their native communities in favor of a foreign heresy associated with the corrupt and corrupting urban landscape. By recontextualizing the immediate conflict, Désiré provided a model for future anti-Protestant polemics. |
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| ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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