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Between Church and State: The Lives of Four French Prelates in the Late Middle Ages
For the past several decades, French historians have emphasized the writing of history in terms of structures, cultures, and mentalities, an approach exemplified by proponents of the Annales school. With this volume, Bernard Guenée, himself associated with the Annalistes , marks a decisive break with this dominant mode of French historiography. Still recognizing the Annalistes ' indispensable contribution, Guenée turns to the genre of biography as a way to attend more closely to chance, to individual events and personalities, and to a sense of time as people actually experienced it. His erudite, lively, elegantly written study links in sequence the lives of four French bishops, illuminating medieval and early modern history through their writings.
Guenée chooses as his frame the momentous period from the height of Saint Louis's reign in the mid-thirteenth century to the beginning of the Italian wars two hundred years later. During this time of schism in the church, of war between nascent states, and of treachery among princes, Bernard Gui (1261-1331), Gilles Le Muisit (1272-1353), Pierre D'Ailly (1351-1420), and Thomas Basin (1412-1490) all rose from modest circumstances to the dignity of office. Guenée shows us how these prelates used their talent, ambition, patrons, zeal, and experience to juggle the competing demands of obedience to church and state; to overcome competition from an upcoming new generation; and to cope with plague, war, and violence. Free of jargon yet steeped in learning, Between Church and State reveals the career patterns and politics of an era while forging a new model for points of departure in historical scholarship.
Guenée chooses as his frame the momentous period from the height of Saint Louis's reign in the mid-thirteenth century to the beginning of the Italian wars two hundred years later. During this time of schism in the church, of war between nascent states, and of treachery among princes, Bernard Gui (1261-1331), Gilles Le Muisit (1272-1353), Pierre D'Ailly (1351-1420), and Thomas Basin (1412-1490) all rose from modest circumstances to the dignity of office. Guenée shows us how these prelates used their talent, ambition, patrons, zeal, and experience to juggle the competing demands of obedience to church and state; to overcome competition from an upcoming new generation; and to cope with plague, war, and violence. Free of jargon yet steeped in learning, Between Church and State reveals the career patterns and politics of an era while forging a new model for points of departure in historical scholarship.
454 pages, Hardcover
Published September 21, 1990
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July 27, 2010
An attempt to combine biography and history, Between Church and State contains four lives of medieval French prelates. The first two are short, just over thirty pages each. The Dominican Bernard Gui (1261-1331) was prior, inquisitor, and bishop in southern France. An able administrator and a historian of note, he bears little resemblance here to the bloodthirsty inquisitor portrayed by Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose. Gilles Le Muisit (1272-1353) was abbot of Saint-Martin. After going blind in 1346 he devoted himself to dictating poetry and prose in French and Latin.
The other two prelates had more important political roles and Guenée devotes considerably more space to them. His life of Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420) is almost a mini-history of the French Church during the Great Schism. Ambitious and talented, Pierre d'Ailly rose to be head of the College of Navarre at the University of Paris, chancellor of Paris, chaplain to Charles VI, and then bishop of the important diocese of Cambrai. A renowned orator, he played a leading role in the political and theological debates of the period, over issues such as an unpopular chancellor, the immaculate conception, and the withdrawal of obedience from the Pope. Pierre d'Ailly's career culminated in leadership of the French "nation" at the council of Constance.
Along with his native Normandy, Thomas Basin (1412-1490) endured a troubled mid-fifteenth century. Appointed bishop of Lisieux, he swore loyalty to Henry VI of England in 1448; in 1449 he negotiated the bloodless surrender of his episcopal seat to Charles VII, retaining his position. He played an important role in the debates over the Norman Charter and the acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction. Having taken the wrong side in the War of the Public Weal, in 1466 Thomas Basin had to flee in order to avoid the wrath of Louis XI. He resigned his bishopric in 1474 and spent his old age as a refugee, moving from one town to another in search of security. His writings included lives of Charles VII and Louis XI.
Guenée does not indulge in dramatisation or psychological speculation. Neither can he provide much in the way of biographical minutiae: his primary sources are his subjects' own writings and those of their peers and his lives are, as a result, stronger by far in intellectual than in personal detail. Guenée does, however, make connections with broader themes in the history of ideas — such as the position of ambition among the other sins, the distinction between different kinds of fears, or the justification of capitulation to superior force.
The other two prelates had more important political roles and Guenée devotes considerably more space to them. His life of Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420) is almost a mini-history of the French Church during the Great Schism. Ambitious and talented, Pierre d'Ailly rose to be head of the College of Navarre at the University of Paris, chancellor of Paris, chaplain to Charles VI, and then bishop of the important diocese of Cambrai. A renowned orator, he played a leading role in the political and theological debates of the period, over issues such as an unpopular chancellor, the immaculate conception, and the withdrawal of obedience from the Pope. Pierre d'Ailly's career culminated in leadership of the French "nation" at the council of Constance.
Along with his native Normandy, Thomas Basin (1412-1490) endured a troubled mid-fifteenth century. Appointed bishop of Lisieux, he swore loyalty to Henry VI of England in 1448; in 1449 he negotiated the bloodless surrender of his episcopal seat to Charles VII, retaining his position. He played an important role in the debates over the Norman Charter and the acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction. Having taken the wrong side in the War of the Public Weal, in 1466 Thomas Basin had to flee in order to avoid the wrath of Louis XI. He resigned his bishopric in 1474 and spent his old age as a refugee, moving from one town to another in search of security. His writings included lives of Charles VII and Louis XI.
Guenée does not indulge in dramatisation or psychological speculation. Neither can he provide much in the way of biographical minutiae: his primary sources are his subjects' own writings and those of their peers and his lives are, as a result, stronger by far in intellectual than in personal detail. Guenée does, however, make connections with broader themes in the history of ideas — such as the position of ambition among the other sins, the distinction between different kinds of fears, or the justification of capitulation to superior force.
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