4 - French Humanism

Summary

The reign of Francis I (1515–1547) created a cultural shift in France, caused by the importation and adaptation of the humanist tradition, a tradition of Italian origin. The reasons for this were political.¹ The French monarchy aimed to claim for itself the prestige associated with Italian Renaissance culture (in the artistic realm, but also in the scholarly and literary realms) and to strengthen its ties with Italy, a region in which France had important interests. These priorities complemented the concordat between the monarchy and the papacy (1516), which granted the king the right to name bishops and abbots and thus negated any political or financial gains the Protestant Reformation might have offered France. This milieu also produced the social context in which the young Calvin evolved. We will first examine a few stages of his education before offering an assessment of the years 1530–1534, centered around King Francis I’s creation of the first royal chairs.