Voices of conscience : royal confessors and political counsel in seventeenth-century Spain and France / Nicole Reinhardt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reinhardt, Nicole, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Confessors--Spain--History--17th century.

Confessors.

Confessors--France--History--17th century.

Kings and rulers.

History.

Spain--Kings and rulers--History--17th century.

Spain.

France--Kings and rulers--History--17th century.

France.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 419 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

This work examines the role of royal confessors as political counsellors in seventeenth-century Spain and France, and how, against the backdrop of the momentous intellectual, theological, and political shifts that marked this period, questions of conscience became a major argument in the hegemonic struggle between the two competing Catholic powers.--Publishers description.

Contents:

I Christian Princes, Counsellors, and Confessors

1 Councils and Counselling: Institutions 17

The Fuzziness of the Conseil du roi 18

The Spanish Council System 26

2 Counsel and Councillors: Debates 36

The Boterian Moment 38

Counsel and Councillors in Spain 43

France: Councillors and Ministers 54

3 Royal Confessors as Counsellors: Role and Expertise 67

The Confessor's Role: The Bellarminian Model 68

The Confessor's Expertise: Moral Theology and the Science of Conscience 73

Moral Theology and the Rise of Probabilism 77

II Royal Sins: Definitions and Transformations (c.1550-c.1650)

4 Identifying Royal Sins 87

Azpilcueta's List 87

Origin and Character of Azpilcueta's Normative Framework 94

After Azpilcueta 100

5 The End of Just War as We Know It? 106

Just Causes 107

Doubtful War and Doubtful Conscience 113

Theologia Bellica 117

6 Taxes-Old and New 122

Auctoritas imponendi 123

Just Cause and Just Form 127

Taxes, Authority, and Opinion 131

7 Acceptio personarum: Justice, Favours, and Merit 136

Acceptio according to Aquinas 137

Early Modern Discussions of acceptio: Questions of Ownership 142

Dignity: Merit or Money? 146

III Counsels of Conscience

8 Confessors at Work 161

Distributive Justice 162

Defending Regalism 168

Galilean Confessors? 178

Truce, Peace, War! 183

9 A Case Study: The Expulsion of the Moriscos 195

Avoiding Decisions 197

Establishing Consensus 203

Executing a Decision 209

10 Favourites and Confessors 218

Allies? 220

Enemies? 226

Cardinal Richelieu, Nicolas Caussin, and the Political Language of Royal Conscience 235

IV How to be a Royal Confessor: From Prophecy to Ecclesiastical History

11 Confessors: Courtiers and Prophets? 245

From Quevedo's Godly Politics to Caussin's Holy Court 246

Speaking like a Prophet: True Religion, Politics, and Conscience 252

Portrait of the Prophet as a Holy Courtier: Constancy, Sacrifice, and Exile 260

12 Being Seneca-Stoic Lessons 267

The Spiritual Exercise and Christian Stoicism 268

Seneca's Problematic Exemplarity 274

13 The Confessor's Paradox 282

The Sources of 'Truth' 283

A 'Reading List' for Royal Confessors 286

Bertrandus in Cugnerium: Spiritual against Secular Power 293

V The Eloquence of Silence

14 The Crisis of Counsel of Conscience 305

Spain: Model or Failure? 305

France: Impossible Counsel? 312

15 The Scandalous Confessor 322

France: Jesuit Subversion 323

Pascal's Long Shadow: From Laxism to Despotism 327

Spain: Factional Confessors 335

16 Privatizing Royal Conscience 346

France: Ideological Crisis and Institutional Reorganization 347

Spain: Eclipse and Transition 352

Redefining Royal Conscience: Towards an Absolute Royal Conscience 361.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0198703686

9780198703686

OCLC:

942378570