- Title Pages
- Abbreviations
- 22 From Baptism to the Requiescat in Pace
- 23 Liturgical Worship
- 24 Sermons
- 25 The Curé's Prône and Parish Missions
- 26 Religious Practice
- 27 On the Margins of Official Religion
- 28 Confraternities
- 29 Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
- 30 The Dark Side of the Supernatural
- 31 The Confessional
- 32 Commercial Loans and Lotteries
- 33 Sexual Passion
- 34 The Theatre
- 35 The Jansenist Quarrel
- 36 Unigenitus
- 37 The Appeal to a General Council
- 38 From the Regent to Fleury
- 39 The Changing Face of Jansenism
- 40 Fleury's Repression and the Interventions of the Parlement
- 41 The Mid‐Century Crisis
- 42 The Jesuits of France
- 43 The Fall of the Jesuits
- 44 The Huguenots: The Great Persecution
- 45 Cruelty and Compromise, 1700–1774
- 46 Lutherans and Jews: Routine Intolerance
- 47 Towards a Grudging Toleration, 1774–1789
- 48 The Twilight of Jansenism
- 49 The Political Role of the Bishops
- 50 The Revolt of the Curés
- General Index
Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
- Chapter:
- (p.189) 29 Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
- Source:
- Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France Volume 2: The Religion of the People and the Politics of Religion
- Author(s):
John McManners
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Methodological problems abound in the study of the history of popular religion, and it is better not to make too rigid a division between the religion of the people and that of the clerical establishment. Literacy was growing in the eighteenth century and most reading matter had a religious content, but its use for the understanding of popular mentalities is limited. The reforming clergy saw themselves as the guardians of morals and made a consistent effort to suppress frivolity at religious festivities and to limit the number of holidays; here acting in concert with the state and Enlightenment reformers who wished to limit the days on which people did not work. The clergy also sought to control the credulity of the people by asserting their control over what should be considered a miracle and by absorbing folk practices into the fabric of routine institutional religion.
Keywords: folklore, holidays, literacy, miracles, popular literature, popular religion
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- Title Pages
- Abbreviations
- 22 From Baptism to the Requiescat in Pace
- 23 Liturgical Worship
- 24 Sermons
- 25 The Curé's Prône and Parish Missions
- 26 Religious Practice
- 27 On the Margins of Official Religion
- 28 Confraternities
- 29 Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
- 30 The Dark Side of the Supernatural
- 31 The Confessional
- 32 Commercial Loans and Lotteries
- 33 Sexual Passion
- 34 The Theatre
- 35 The Jansenist Quarrel
- 36 Unigenitus
- 37 The Appeal to a General Council
- 38 From the Regent to Fleury
- 39 The Changing Face of Jansenism
- 40 Fleury's Repression and the Interventions of the Parlement
- 41 The Mid‐Century Crisis
- 42 The Jesuits of France
- 43 The Fall of the Jesuits
- 44 The Huguenots: The Great Persecution
- 45 Cruelty and Compromise, 1700–1774
- 46 Lutherans and Jews: Routine Intolerance
- 47 Towards a Grudging Toleration, 1774–1789
- 48 The Twilight of Jansenism
- 49 The Political Role of the Bishops
- 50 The Revolt of the Curés
- General Index
