Calvinismo, galicanismo y antimaquiavelismo en el pensamiento político de Innocent Gentillet (1532-1588)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objectives Innocent Gentillet was one oft the most influential Huguenot polemists during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). Although the important role played by his writings in this conflict, his figure remained in the shadow after the 17th Century. Neither contemporary philosophers nor historians, payed too much attention to this author, always considered secondly after his 'monarchomach' co-religionists, theologians and jurists such as Hotman, Duplessis-Mornay or Bèze, taken since a long time ago as the main exponents of Huguenot juridical and political thought. Taking into account this relative forget (the only monography dedicated to Gentillet is a brief account of his anti-Machiavellian ideas which was written in 1969), we considered that it was necessary a systematic study of the ideas and writings of Gentillet which focused in the important role played by this Calvinist jurist in the French Reformed Movement between 1574 (date of publication of his first Remonstrance) and 1588 (date of his death) and in his relevance for the History of Philosophy and for the History of Political Ideas. Methodology This work undertakes a reconstruction of Gentillet's biography from a philosophical and political perspective. In this biography we use, for the first time, important pieces of information taken from primary sources as the register of Grenoble University, the letters of important figures in 16th Century France and other documents related to the history of Dauphiné in the above-mentioned period. Our dissertation offers, secondly, a systematic lecture of the writings published by Gentillet from 1574 to 1576. Putting into practice the most contemporary trends of research in the areas of the History of Political Ideas and Conceptual History, we contextualize these writings and we show their relationship with other important pieces of the polemical debates of this period. Conclusions The dissertation provides, for the first time, specific information about the studies followed by Innocent Gentillet at Grenoble University in the 1550s, when the Faculty of Law had among their teachers the famous Portuguese civil jurist António Gouveia. We consider Gouveia as a very important figure to understand the very specific juridical and political perspective developed by Gentillet among the French Reformed polemists. While studying this perspective, we focus specially in the ideas and concepts employed by Gentillet in order to propose a reform of the way of dealing with public affairs in the French Crown of his time. We also analyze the conceptualization of royal authority in the writings of Gentillet, showing that he proposed the kings a "civil" (opposed to "absolute") exercise of his power. Our book takes Gentillet's proposals as a 'third way' (very influenced, on the other hand, by earlier thinkers as Seyssel) between the pragmatic and 'authoritarian' government recommended by Machiavelli in his Prince and the republican ideas of monarchomach Protestants, interested in submitting royal authority to the control of nobility and institutions such as Parliaments and General Estates. Our dissertation underlines, finally, the importance of the Discours contre Machiavel for the History of Political Philosophy. This book is a long treatise written by Gentillet in 1576 and reissued in a very rare (there is only one available copy in Grenoble) 1585 edition. Gentillet's Discours is, in fact, the first systematic critic to the main writings of Machiavelli (Il principe, Discorsi, Istorie fiorentine, Dell'arte della guerra). Moreover, Gentillet undertook in his work a total refutation of the ideas of the famous Florentine secretary, taking into account his opinions about politics, society, economy, history or theology.