The Historical Review/La Revue Historique

Vol. 15, 2018

Review of: Howell A. Lloyd, Jean Bodin, “This pre- eminent Man of France”. An Intellectual Biography

Sfoini Alexandra Institute of Historical Research / NHRF https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.20455

To cite this article:

Sfoini, A. (2019). Review of: Howell A. Lloyd, Jean Bodin, “This pre-eminent Man of France”. An Intellectual Biography. The Historical Review/La Revue Historique, 15, 315-319. doi:https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.20455

http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 28/09/2021 05:56:26 | Howell A. Lloyd, Jean Bodin, “This pre-eminent Man of France”: An Intellectual Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, 311 pages.

This book, written by Howell A. Lloyd, – his name, being common, is a factor Emeritus Professor of History at the – Bodin provoked intense debates and University of Hull, an authority on disagreements among scholars.2 Lloyd, medieval and early modern English and discussing these differences, fills in the European history, joins the catalogue gap in the existing literature and offers a of the new research and publications primarily “intellectual” biography of the dedicated to Jean Bodin on the occasion sixteenth-century French philosopher as of the 400th anniversary of his death a follow-up to the collective work The (Angers 1529/30–Laon 1596).1 “Ce Reception of Bodin, which he also edited.3 premier homme de la France,” as he was Lloyd gives certain biographical styled by Gabriel Naudé in 1653, he was information on Bodin that mainly respected by Montaigne and Pierre Bayle concerns his education and professional but was sharply criticised by Justus Lipsius advancement, always in relation to his and Hugo Grotius. A controversial figure, work and his times. The son of an affluent with certain obscure points in his life textile merchant, Bodin was educated by

1 See, indicatively, Artemio Enzo 2 In 1734, Pierre Bayle published the first Baldini (ed.), Jean Bodin a 400 anni dalla critical biography of Bodin and compiled a morte: Bilancio storiografico e prospettive catalogue of his works as well. Lloyd notes the di ricerca; Atti del Convegno internazionale relative absence of contemporary synthetic per il quatro centenario della morte di Jean biographies of Bodin, citing, nevertheless, Bodin, Torino, 6–7 dicembre 1996, Florence: the research into and publications of Olschki, 1997 and Gabriel-Andre Perouse, various works of his by Roger Chauviré Nicole Dockès-Lallement and Jean-Michel (1914), Pierre Mesnard (1951), Kenneth D. Servet (eds.), L’œuvre de Jean Bodin: Actes McRay (1962), Vittor Ivo Comparato (1981) du colloque tenu à Lyon à l’occasion du and Paul Rose (1980). See, also, Marie- quatrième centenaire de sa mort (11–13 Dominique Couzinet, “Note biographique janvier 1996), Paris: H. Champion, 2004. sur J. Bodin”, in Jean Bodin: nature, histoire, His works have been digitised and are droit et politique, ed. Yves C. Zarka, Paris: available online at the Bodin Project Presses Universitaires de France, 1996, pp. at Harvard University (http://projects. 233–244. iq.harvard.edu/bodinproject), which also 3 The Reception of Bodin, Leiden: Brill, includes a comprehensive bibliography. 2013.

The Historical Review / La Revue Historique Section de Recherches Néohelléniques / Institut de Recherches Historiques Volume XV (2018)

http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 28/09/2021 05:56:26 | 316 Alexandra Sfoini the Carmelites in Angers and Paris, where service of the law and the “battlefield of he was introduced to the study of theology the forum”, rather than academia. While and scholastic Aristotelian philosophy, a lawyer in the Parliament of Paris, he something apparent in his writings, published the Juris universi distributio while he also came into contact with (1578, 1580), where, drawing on Aristotle, Platonic philosophy. Deciding against an Plato and the Stoics, he mostly treated ecclesiastical career – indeed, he might Roman law and the universality of the have been accused of heresy – he left the law that encloses iusprudentia and aspires Carmelites and continued his studies at the to iustitia. His enthusiasm for public universities of Nantes and, particularly, discourses is also apparent in the Lettre Toulouse, where intense debates were à Bautru (1562), where he addressed taking place in academic circles among philosophical and theological issues in conservatives and humanists who the context of the religious and civil wars had studied in Italy, specifically in among Protestants and Catholics that Padua. Influenced by the French studia convulsed Europe for a century. humanitatis flourishing in the mid- Theological and philosophical issues sixteenth century, he began his career are also discussed in the first of Bodin’s as a writer with the publication of the five great works, entitled Methodus ad Latin translation of Oppian’s Cynegetica, facilem cognitionem historiarum (1566), richly annotated and adhering to the free where he developed the relationship of translation method promoted by Étienne history with the true religion and the Dolet. As a result, he was attacked by interpretation of the law. For Bodin, the Adrien Turneve (who published the quest for the events and causes of the poem in Greek) Joseph Scaliger and Hugo three modes of history (human, natural, Grotius, while he was also accused of divine) was not centred on authority but appropriating the work of others. Lloyd on reason, assisted by wisdom, prudence provides a detailed commentary on and the arts, especially geography. Lloyd Bodin’s translation, citing all the sources thoroughly analyses Bodin’s position of his footnotes, which demonstrate on the role of God as father of nature his broad erudition, and noting the (naturae parens) relative to that of Jewish, skilfulness of his translation. With this classical and modern philosophers, as well translation, Bodin took a stand in the as his position on the unity and cohesion Republic of Letters in support of utilitas of the universe, which, drawing on and honestas, that is, of a humanistic Strabo and Ptolemy, couples geography education that would prepare citizens for and cosmography. Bodin also focused public office, as he argued in the Oratio he on the views of philosophers, Aristotle delivered in 1559 before the “Senate and especially, and historians regarding the the people of Toulouse”, in accordance issue of respublica and the definition with the teachings of Agricola, Erasmus of such concepts as citizen, imperium, and Ramus, readying the ground for the sovereignty, law, etc. The Methodus establishment of two colleges in Toulouse. achieved his purpose: to continue his Bodin would choose to put his search for the “universal law” through a knowledge and rhetorical skill at the historical perspective.

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Bodin’s theoretical interest in The Six Livres de la République, which economic issues, already evident in the contributed to Bodin’s reception by the Methodus, is also apparent in the short Académie du Palais of Henri III, and treatise Response… au paradoxe de the journal Recueil de tout ce qui est monsieur de Malestroit (1568), where he negotié en la compagnie des trois Estats, expressed mostly ethical considerations published anonymously in French and that sought an end to abuses. His interest Latin in 1577, were used by the Estates in politics was also manifested in the General of Blois to analyse historical, context of the religious wars when he legal and philosophical issues. The result translated from Latin into French the was the formulation of the Ordinances Epistola of his patron, Guy du Faur du Blois, the greatest legal undertaking de Pibrac. Written to a Polish noble, it in sixteenth-century France. However, justified the Saint Bartholomew’s Eve his involvement in politics cost him, Massacre (1572), and Bodin amended resulting in rivalries, Pibrac’s displeasure certain passages to accord with his and the search for a new patron in the own world view. His views are fully person of the Duke of Anjou; this was, in presented in the magnificent Six Livres his view, a symptom of the spiritual crisis de la République (1576). In this, his France was facing. most fundamental and successful work This spiritual crisis would be the (11 revised editions until his death; subject of his work De la démonomanie his own, revised, Latin translation in des sorciers (1580), a topic that had 1585; translations into Italian, Spanish, engaged thinkers from Aristotle to German and English), Bodin analysed Aquinas, and was particularly timely in old and contemporary legal texts (780 the sixteenth century, when witch trials references culled primarily from Roman were a frequent phenomenon. Bodin law, though he also delved into feudal accepted demonism and the corporeality law, French law and the law of other of demons, considered both white and countries) within a broad theoretical black magic impious, and supported framework (1,087 references mentioning punishing witches to obtain their a total of 93 names; primarily Italian confession. Demonstrating no tolerance, jurists of the late Middle Ages and the his only concession was mitigating the Renaissance and, among the more recent, torture of anyone who repented. The Niccolò Machiavelli, Gasparo Contarini Démonomanie continues the work of the and Thomas More) and using various République, exploring the negative aspect sources (manuscripts, correspondence, of society and the dialectic of good and treatises, legal and diplomatic texts, the evil, highlighting the need for catharsis Bible, classical authors). Lloyd analyses from the moral and spiritual threat. In the work’s structure and themes, their 1592, the book joined the République, concepts, definitions and content banned two years earlier, on the Index (republic, citizen, sovereignty, state, librorum prohibitorum. magistrates, government, religion, Bodin’s work would affect his justice, harmony) in relation to Bodin’s professional advancement. He settled in sources, references and original thought. Laon and became involved in the popular

http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 28/09/2021 05:56:26 | 318 Alexandra Sfoini unrest incited by ecclesiastical and other played by motion and change. Annexed to circles against Henri III, anonymously the Theatrum is the Io Bodini Paradoxon, publishing the Lettre d’un lieutenant a text covering moral, theological and général, in which he took a stand in political issues, in the form of a dialogue support of the will of the people and the between father and son. Included in a law, because, as he had maintained in the 1591 letter to a French parliamentarian, République, the kings of France ascended it provides interpretations of France’s the throne en vertu de la loi du Royaume experience of the religious wars. It would rather than through election or succession. be published separately in 1598, in a Seeking, like other humanists, such as French translation by Bodin. Erasmus, to educate the sovereigns, in In the Colloquium Ηeptaplomeres the late 1570s/early 1580s he published de rerum sublimium arcanis abditis, the Consilium de institutione principis which, however, was published in the aut alius nobilioris ingenii (originally nineteenth century (1857), Βodin tackled in French), where after first counselling the divine mode of history and compared piety, he presented a programme with religions, demonstrating a spirit of an academic content. The collection religious tolerance and moderation. Sapientiae moralis epitome (1588), He adopted the form of a dialogue comprising 210 Latin moral maxims, among seven representatives of different was composed during a period devoted religions, dogmas and sciences (Catholic, to educating his two sons. So too was Calvinist, natural philosopher, Lutheran the Universae naturae theatrum (1596), mathematician, Jew, Muslim), engaged which owes much to Aristotle’s Physics. It in a friendly discussion over dinner. A deals with the “science of nature”, whose narrator is also present. The central theme creator and master is God, while the is harmony and peace, while familiar “theatre” denotes harmony and beauty, themes from his previous works are also an aesthetically pleasing repository of repeated. The numerous arguments and knowledge that has the pedagogical form proofs are based on religious sources, of a dialogue between two characters in Christian and other, and on material from a student-teacher relationship. Just like different disciplines. The Colloquium his previous works, it contains more does not discover a universal religion references to classical, Neoplatonic, Jewish – corresponding to the prototype of a and Arab philosophers, as well as to the universal law that had engaged the young Church Fathers, than to contemporary Bodin’s interest – and there is no melding historians, astronomers, physicists, of religions. Each participant retains his philosophers and theologians. References own religion, yet there is no conflict of to the Bible increase towards the end of religions; all contribute to supporting the the work, which, however, is essentially effort to discover a modus vivendi among based on the undeniable authority of the communities that had prevailed after Holy Scripture and divine law, while at the religious wars. the same time, recognising the authority Summarising, Lloyd highlights ele- of “experimental knowledge” (Experientia ments of Bodin’s controversial personal- rerum magistra) and the significant role ity, while seeking to strike a fair balance.

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Setting aside Scaliger’s unfair assessment note regarding how common the name that accused Bodin of lacking moral val- Jean Bodin was, a catalogue of his work ue (he composed the anagram “Ioannes (contemporary and later editions up until Bodinus, Andinus sine bono”), he presents 2016), an extensive bibliography and an someone who was ambitious, reached index. high social circles and offices, had an Howell A. Lloyd, engaging in a impressive erudition, which he did not constant dialogue between individual always utilise wisely, was a misogynist, and general history, clearly describes in a intellectually arrogant and aggressively detailed and methodical manner the socio- judgmental about other scholars, such cultural landscape of the period and of as Aristotle, who, however, had a deci- every city Bodin lived in; he tracks Bodin’s sive influence on the development of his intellectual journey closely, outlining the thinking. Nevertheless, Bodin possessed a profile of a typical Renaissance man, who, high sense of justice, zealously fulfilled the imbued with intellectual optimism and an duties of the positions he attained, while insatiable thirst for knowledge, frequently he frequently risked his personal safety came into conflict with his conservative and career in the name of his principles. environment. This is, undoubtedly, a Moreover, even though his vita activa synthetic reference work for anyone was not as successful as expected, he was studying Bodin and his times. able to fulfil the goals of his vita contem- plativa through a comprehensive literary Alexandra Sfoini output that led to the path of knowledge and virtue. The book concludes with a Institute of Historical Research / NHRF

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