The French monarchy was irrevocably linked to the
Catholic Church (the formula was ''la France est la fille aînée de l'église'', or "France is the eldest daughter of the church"), and French theorists of the
divine right of kings and
sacerdotal power in the Renaissance had made those links explicit.
Henry IV was able to ascend to the throne only after abjuring Protestantism. The symbolic power of the Catholic monarch was apparent in his crowning (the king was anointed with blessed oil in
Rheims) and he was popularly believed to be able to cure
scrofula by laying on his hands (accompanied by the formula "
the king touches you, but God heals you"). In 1500, France had 14 archbishoprics (Lyon, Rouen, Tours, Sens, Bourges, Bordeaux, Auch, Toulouse, Narbonne, Aix-en-Provence, Embrun, Vienne, Arles and Rheims) and 100 bishoprics. By the 18th century, archbishoprics and bishoprics had expanded to a total of 139 (see
List of Ancien Régime dioceses of France). The upper levels of the French church were made up predominantly of old nobility, both from provincial families and from royal court families, and many of the offices had become
de facto hereditary possessions, with some members possessing multiple offices. In addition to the fiefs that church members possessed as seigneurs, the church also possessed seigneurial lands in its own right and enacted justice upon them. In the early the 16th century, the
secular clergy (
curates,
vicars,
canons, etc.) accounted for around 100,000 individuals in France. Other temporal powers of the church included playing a political role as the
first estate in the "États Généraux" and the "États Provinciaux" (Provincial Assemblies) and in Provincial Conciles or
Synods convoked by the king to discuss religious issues. The church also claimed a prerogative to judge certain crimes, most notably heresy, although the Wars of Religion did much to place that crime in the purview of the royal courts and parliament. Finally, abbots, cardinals and other prelates were frequently employed by the kings as ambassadors, members of his councils (such as
Richelieu and
Mazarin) and in other administrative positions. The faculty of theology of Paris (often called the
Sorbonne), maintained a
censorship board, which reviewed publications for their religious orthodoxy. The Wars of Religion saw their control over censorship however pass to the parliament and, in the 17th century to the royal censors, although the church maintained a right to petition. The church was the primary provider of schools (primary schools and "colleges") and hospitals ("hôtel-Dieu", the
Sisters of Charity) and distributor of relief to the poor in pre-revolutionary France. The
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438, suppressed by
Louis XI but brought back by the États Généraux of Tours in 1484) gave the election of bishops and abbots to the cathedral
chapter houses and
abbeys of France, thus stripping the pope of effective control of the French church and permitting the beginning of a
Gallican church. However, in 1515, Francis I signed a new agreement with Pope
Leo X, the
Concordat of Bologna, which gave the king the right to nominate candidates and the pope the right of
investiture. The agreement infuriated Gallicans but gave the king control over important ecclesiastical offices with which to benefit nobles. Although exempted from the
taille, the church was required to pay the crown a tax called the "free gift" ("don gratuit"), which it collected from its office holders, at roughly a twentieth the price of the office (that was the "décime", reapportioned every five years). In its turn, the church exacted a mandatory tithe from its parishioners, called the "
dîme". In the
Counter-Reformation, the French church created numerous religious orders such as the
Jesuits and made great improvements in the quality of its parish priests; the first decades of the 17th century were characterized by a massive outpouring of devotional texts and religious fervor, exemplified in
Saint Francis of Sales and
Saint Vincent de Paul. Although the
Edict of Nantes (1598) permitted the existence of Protestant churches in the realm (characterized as "a state within a state"), over the next eighty years the rights of the
Huguenots slowly eroded, until Louis XIV finally
revoked the edict in 1685, which caused a massive emigration of Huguenots to other countries. Religious practices that veered too close to Protestantism (like
Jansenism) or to the mystical (like
Quietism) were also severely suppressed, as were
libertinage or overt
atheism.
Regular clergy (those in
Catholic religious orders) in France numbered into the tens of thousands in the 16th century. Some orders, like the
Benedictines, were largely rural; others, like the
Dominicans (also called "Jacobins") and the
Franciscans (also called "cordeliers") operated in cities. Although the church came under attack in the 18th century by the philosophers of
the Enlightenment and recruitment of clergy and monastic orders dropped after 1750, figures show that on the whole, the population remained a profoundly Catholic country (absenteeism from services did not exceed 1% in the middle of the century). At the eve of the revolution, the church possessed upwards of 7% of the country's land (figures vary) and generated yearly revenues of 150 million livres.
Gallicanism Louis XIV supported the
Gallican Church to give the government a greater role than the pope in choosing bishops and the revenues from vacant bishoprics. There would be no inquisition in France, and papal decrees only held sway after the government approved them. Louis avoided schism and wanted more royal power over the French Church but did not want to break free of Rome. The pope likewise recognized the "most Christian king" was a powerful ally, who could not be alienated.
Monasteries Until the French Revolution, the monastic community constituted a central element of the economic, social, and religious life of many localities under the Old Regime. From the end of the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution,
Menat, a Cluniac abbey dating back to 1107, ruled over the Sioule Valley in the northwest region of the Clermont diocese. The monks were large landholders and developed a diversified and complex set of links with their neighbors. They received seigniorial rights; provided work to the rural poor and were in daily contact with notaries public, merchants, and surgeons. While they did not directly manage the religious life of the faithful, which was done by parish priests, monks were a motivating force in it by setting up of a parish clergy, providing alms and social services and playing the role of intercessors.
Convents Communities of nuns in France on the eve of Revolution had on average 25 members and a median age of 48 years. Nuns were both entering the profession later and living longer than ever. In general, they had little wealth. Recruitment varied from region to region and by convent lifestyle (active or contemplative, austere or opulent, lower class or middle class). The nature of male and female monasticism differed greatly in France both before and during the revolution. Convents tended to be more isolated and less centrally controlled, which made for greater diversity among them than among male monasteries.
Reformation and the Protestant minority French Protestantism, which was largely
Calvinist, derived its support from the lesser nobles and trading classes. Its two main strongholds were southwestern France and Normandy, but even there, Catholics were a majority. Protestantism in France was considered to be a grave threat to national unity, as the Huguenot minority felt a closer affinity with German and Dutch Calvinists than with its fellow Frenchmen. In an effort to cement their position, Huguenots often allied with France's enemies. The animosity between the two sides led to the French Wars of Religion and the tragic
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The religious wars ended in 1593, when the Huguenot
Henry of Navarre (1553–1610), who was already effectively king of France, became a Catholic and was recognized by both Catholics and Protestants as King
Henry IV (reigned 1589–1610). The main provisions of the
Edict of Nantes (1598), which Henry IV had issued as a charter of religious freedoms for the Huguenots, allowed Huguenots to hold religious services in certain towns in each province, allowed them to control and fortify eight cities, established special courts to try Huguenots, and gave Huguenots the same civil rights as Catholics. Military privileges were incorporated in the edict to allay the fears of the minority. Over time, those privileges were clearly open to abuse. In 1620, the Huguenots proclaimed a constitution for the "Republic of the Reformed Churches of France", and Prime Minister
Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) invoked the full powers of the state and captured La Rochelle after a long siege in 1628. The next year, the
Treaty of Alais left the Huguenots their religious freedom but revoked their military freedoms.
Montpellier was among the most important of the 66
villes de sûreté that the 1598 edict had granted to the Huguenots. The city's political institutions and university were handed over to the Huguenots. Tension with Paris led to a siege by the royal army in 1622. Peace terms called for the dismantling of the city's fortifications. A royal citadel was built, and the university and consulate were taken over by the Catholics. Even before the Edict of Alès, Protestant rule was dead and the
ville de sûreté was no more. By 1620 the Huguenots were on the defensive, and the government increasingly applied pressure. A series of small civil wars that broke out in southern France between 1610 and 1635 were long considered by historians to be regional squabbles between rival noble families. New analysis shows that the civil wars were in fact religious in nature and remnants of the French Wars of Religion, which had largely ended by the Edict of Nantes. Small wars in the provinces of Languedoc and Guyenne had Catholics and Calvinists use destruction of churches, iconoclasm, forced conversions and the execution of heretics as weapons of choice. Louis XIV acted more and more aggressively to force the Huguenots to convert. At first, he sent missionaries, which were backed by a fund to reward converts to Catholicism financially. Then, he imposed penalties, closed Huguenots' schools and excluded them from favorite professions. Escalating the attack, he tried to convert the Huguenots by force by sending armed
dragonnades (soldiers) to occupy and loot their houses. Finally, the 1685
Edict of Fontainebleau revoked the Edict of Nantes. The revocation forbade Protestant services, required children to be educated as Catholics and prohibited most Huguenot emigration. That proved disastrous to the Huguenots and costly for France by precipitating civil bloodshed, ruining commerce and resulting in the illegal flight from the country of about 180,000 Protestants, many of whom became intellectuals, doctors and business leaders in England, Scotland, the Netherlands Prussia and South Africa; also, 4000 went to the American colonies. The English welcomed the French refugees by providing money from both government and private agencies to aid their relocation. The Huguenots who stayed in France became Catholics and were called "new converts". Only a few Protestant villages remained in isolated areas. By the 1780s, Protestants comprised about 700,000 people, or 2% of the population. It was no longer a favorite religion of the elite since most Protestants were peasants. Protestantism was still illegal. The law was seldom enforced but could be a threat or a nuisance to Protestants. Calvinists lived primarily in the southern France, and about 200,000 Lutherans lived in Alsace, where the 1648
Treaty of Westphalia still protected them. In addition, there were about 40,000 to 50,000 Jews in France, chiefly centred in Bordeaux, Metz and a few other cities. They had very limited rights and opportunities, apart from the moneylending business, but their status was legal. ==Social structure==