The Wars of Religion and the Origins of Reformed Confraternities of Penitents. A Theoretical Approach / Les Guerres de religion et l'origine des confréries réformées de pénitents. Une approche théorique - article ; n°1 ; vol.64, pg 117-136

Andrew E.Barnes.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1987 - Volume 64 - Numéro 1 - Pages 117-136
20 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1987
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Andrew E. Barnes
The Wars of Religion and the Origins of Reformed
Confraternities of Penitents. A Theoretical Approach / Les
Guerres de religion et l'origine des confréries réformées de
pénitents. Une approche théorique
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 64/1, 1987. pp. 117-136.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Barnes Andrew E. The Wars of Religion and the Origins of Reformed Confraternities of Penitents. A Theoretical Approach / Les
Guerres de religion et l'origine des confréries réformées de pénitents. Une approche théorique. In: Archives des sciences
sociales des religions. N. 64/1, 1987. pp. 117-136.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1987.2442
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1987_num_64_1_2442Arch Sc soc des Rei 1987 64/ï juillet-septembre) 117-136
Andrew BARNES
THE WARS OF RELIGION AND THE ORIGINS
OF REFORMED CONFRATERNITIES OF PENITENTS
THEORETICAL APPROACH
est au début du XVIe siècle que les premières confréries de pénitents
font leur apparition en France cette époque ces confréries se
composaient de petits cercles hommes origine sociale homogène
appartenant élite sociale Dans la deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle
des conflits sectaires devaient contribuer populariser les confréries
pénitentielles qui véhiculèrent alors expression de angoisse reli
gieuse de époque en même temps qu elles fournissaient un terrain de
recrutement ta Sainte Ligue partir observations effectuées sur le
comportement de groupe organisé dans le cadre une recherche en
sciences sociales poriani sur les organisations volontaires cet aritele
intéresse aux effets provoqués par arrivée de nouveaux adeptes
origine sociale hétérogène sur les confréries pénitentielles consi
dérées ici en tant organisations ainsi importance de ces
effets dans évolution vers un type de confrérie réformée dans les
dernières années de la guerre. aritele conclut que la dynamique de
groupe en uvre au sein des confréries avant guerre dépendait
étroitement de homogénéité sociale des membres Or la composi
tion des confréries pénitentielles devait se diversifier pendant les
années de guerre pour aboutir un groupe hétérogène dont le souci
extirper le protestantisme égalait celui affirmer sa foi dans glise
par la pratique de la flagellation rituelle arrivée de ces hommes
provoqué une crise organisationnelle au sein de ces confréries crise
qui ne pouvait trouver une issue que dans émergence un type
nouveau de confrérie pénitentielle laquelle devait privilégier homo
généité spirituelle et intégrer les valeurs spirituelles nouvelles dans ses
pratiques dévotionnelles
Introduction
During the era of the Wars of Religion several new types of lay devotions
became popular among French Catholics Among them were confraternities of
penitents These were lay brotherhoods dedicated to the idea that through the
ritualized use of self flagellation their members could do penance individually
and collectively for their sins This type of confraternity had existed in France be-
117 DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS ARCHIVES
fore the outbreak of sectarian conflict but only in the Rhone valley It was during
the wars that they spread to all corners of the realm After the wars they
maintained their popularity only in the south of France But in that region
flourished becoming by the middle of the XVIIth century the definitive expres
sion of masculine piety
Secret societies with hooded unknown memberships nocturnal meetings
and whispered rituals of self mortification penitential confraternities produced
mystique which has fascinated several generations of historians Late XIXth
century and early XXth century historians concentrated on the confraternities
from the perspective of their role in local history and culture More recent
research on the confraternities has gone in two directions Marc Venard and
Marie Froeschlé-Chopard have studied the place the confraternities occupied in
the spiritual economy of Counter-Reformation southern France while Maurice
Agulhou and his students have sought to establish the role they played in the
social life social behavior of Mediterranean Frenchmen However while
great deal is known about the confraternities import for external society their
internal workings remain for historians almost as much mystery as they did for
contemporaries The lacuna is nowhere as evident as in the history of the
confraternities during the era of the Wars of Religion Thus while Robert Harding
and Philip Benedict have recently drawn attention to the twin roles of vanguard of
Catholic reaction and recruitment ground for the Holy League performed by
penitential confraternities during the era they have been unable to discover
much about how this popularity affected the confraternities as organizations 1)
The problem can be posed as follows accepting point on which there seems
to be consensus among historians that the chapels of the confraternities which
existed before the religious wars were filled with small literate elite circles of
friends what happened in those chapels when they began to fill with hundreds of
militant Catholics from all classes concerned to do battle against the perceived
Protestant threat Secondly during the later years of the religious wars new type
of penitential confraternity began to appear one consciously labeled reformed
by contemporaries Reformed confraternities set the standard for male piety in
southern France during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries What exactly did the
term reformed mean and what were the connections between these later
confraternities and the transformations earlier confraternities had experienced
The paucity of archival materials explains in part why so little is known
about the development of penitential confraternities in the XVIth century
Fortunately the wealth of American research on voluntary organizations body
of research to which most French historians do not have access may be of some
assistance Research on voluntary organizations of course can not make
up for the lack of information on French confraternities but the American
approach of model building does provide methodology for taking what is
known about he confraternities and generating at least theoretical answers to the
still unanswered questions about them as organizations
That in essence is the ambition of this essay Applying the insights derived
from the study of group behavior in voluntary organizations this paper will
consider the organizational evolution penitential confraternities experienced
during the Wars of Religion It is worth stressing at the outset that the answers
drawn from this approach are not presumed to be definitive Rather they suggest
one possible way in which the slight and disparate types of information about
confraternities can be organized into coherent explanation of what happened
118 REFORMED CONFRATERNITIES OF PENITENTS
There was great regional variation among penitential confraternities and it
should be admitted that most of the examples are drawn from Marseille the
region with which am familiar However the effort will be made space
permitting to bring in examples from other regions and to show that the
processes occurring in the confraternities of Marseille were also occurring
elsewhere
It is best to start by making the case for viewing lay religious brotherhoods as
conforming to the model of modern voluntary organizations Two paradigms of
association existed in Old Regime society the religious order and the gild The
tendency in the past has been to explain confraternities by reference to one of
them Yet while confraternities shared characteristics with both in sense were an
extension of both they ultimately behaved like neither 3)
This is because unlike gilds and religious orders confraternities were
essentially voluntaristic in nature The argument can be made that participation
in religious orders and gilds was essentially involuntary that is not reflective of
any personal commitment on the part of the participant Enrollment in religious
order was often decision made not by an individual but by his or her family
Enrollment in gild had less to do with desire to associate with other men with
similar interests than with the necessity of association with such men for econo
mic survival Neither religious orders nor gilds were democratic that is respon
sive to the desires of the majority of their memberships and the spiritual penalties
for leaving monastery and the economic penalties for leaving gild meant that
in both types of association continued participation was not purely function of
personal desire Confraternities differed from these types of association in that
participation in them as groups was always voluntary decision In the context of
Old Regime society confraternities were unique in that they were the one type of
association in which enrollment was by choice and in which continued partic