Laïcité Part 2: From the Edict of Nantes to the French Revolution

Laïcité has roots in France going back to the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which granted freedom of religion (or at least tolerance) to French Protestants. And since that time, this French concept of secularism has been hotly debated. 

This podcast is part of "Paris: A City of Ideas," a series created and narrated by Roger Mummert (rogermum@aol.com)
For more information: www.theparisproject.net

This podcast was created by Roger Mummert for www.theparisproject.net.

Transcript

From the Edict of Nantes to the Revolution

In France, the origins of laïcité stem from the Edict of Nantes, signed by Henri IV in 1598. The edict established religious and civil liberties for French Protestants who previously had suffered great harm in the Catholic country. The edict cites “freedom of conscience” and marks a separation of civil and religious realms. The edict also ended the Religious Wars, a brutal conflict between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants) that had raged for 36 years. 

In the Enlightenment Paris of the 18th century, the spirit of laïcité flourished in the streets, salons and cafés. A generation later, the Revolutionary elites, who were the descendants of the Enlightenment philosophes, embraced this secularism and made it a pillar of the new republic. Their hatred of the corrupt Catholic clergy and the appalling vastness of church holdings fueled the “dechristianization” of France. Churches were closed and church properties were seized and nationalized, and assets were liquidated to fund the public good. 

Secularism expanded under Napoleon and the First Empire, where births, marriages and deaths were required to be registered by the state, not the church; in fact, civil marriages were required for a marriage to be recognized legally. “Other religions,” meaning Lutheran and Reformed Protestantism and Judaism, were formally recognized. 

In a few short years, the French nation was transformed from Catholic to “religiously pluralistic.” The change was unwelcome to the Catholic clergy whose views of “clericism” conflicted with “anti-clericism” in a prolonged era called the “Conflict of two Frances.” The sides remained in bitter conflict through the subsequent regimes of First Empire, the Bourbon and Orleans Restorations, the Second Republic and the Second Empire. The collapse of the latter in 1870 gave rise to the Third Republic, with a brief rule by the radical and anti-religious Paris Commune.  

The dispute over laïcité continued through the Third Republic. Secularists sparred with clericists who called for a return to religious inclusion in French public life (and who expressed hopes for a return to monarchy, as well). The construction of Sacré Coeur cathedral (1875-1914) embodied this pro-religious view; in fact, the sparkling white shrine, prominently placed in Montmartre, was seen as a repudiation of the Godless communards who failed in their evil schemes to banish worship in public life. Also during this time, the Eiffel Tower was under construction (1887-1889) on the Champs de Mars on the other side of Paris. Proponents of laïcité tagged it as the apogee of modernity and technology, befitting a science-based, secular society. The two structures rose over the modern city like competing philosophical bookends.