Friday, August 23, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

 

It is the 23rd of August 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

One sometimes forgotten by-product of the Early Modern Era and the age of Reformations was the decline of the Monarchy in the West. The 16th and 17th centuries begin the twilight of the kings with the age of Revolutions nailing the coffin shut.

And this was no coincidence. A by-product of Reformation thought was a distrust in hierarchy and supposed authority.  

Romans 14 and the general injunctions to be obedient to authorities- regardless of your own opinion- had to be reinterpreted in light of the rebellion against the Pope.

This would be a tradition brought to America, but before the colonists could proclaim “no more kings,” the French were already at it, led in part by the great Reformed political theorist- an overlooked giant in Reformation history- he was Francois Hotman.

Hotman was born on this, the 23rd of August, in 1524, in Paris. His father would be promoted in the Parisian parliament under King Francis- but he would die.

*And for the second consecutive day, we have the story of a man, born one of 11 children whose father died early*

However, unlike Isaac Backus, Francois was the oldest and expected to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Yet, hear his biographer: “Time and time again he turned away from his homeland, taking up the life of an adventurer, vagrant scholar, part-time diplomat, and conspirator, eventually to die in an alien German city who language…he did not fully understand and whose faith he could not accept. Why he chose this fate is the central problem of his life.”

And the answer is perhaps as obvious as he believed in his cause. The first was that of the Reformation. Francois had received his law degree from Orleans but fell in with the Humanists- those scholars fascinated with, among other things, “original texts”. From there, it was a hop, skip, and jump into John Calvin’s camp, and this meant fleeing France. Hotman would teach at various Reformed academies in Lausanne, Strasburg, and Geneva. He was a prolific pamphleteer for the Reformation cause, helping to write and distribute the pro-Reformation tracts that became such a thorn in the side of the Catholic monarchy.

Since 1562 and the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion the religious and political tensions ran high. Hotman did well to avoid the authorities as he formulated his repose to the question: how can disobeying the king be justified?

There was hope in 1572 that perhaps calmer heads would prevail. A marriage was arranged between Henry of Navarre- a protestant Huguenot leader, and Margot of Valois, the sister of the Catholic King Charles IX.

On the 18th of August, the wedding commenced, but two days later, amidst the festivities, there was a failed assassination attempt on the leader of the Huguenots in Paris. Hotman did well to flee to Geneva as it was also on this day- Hotman’s 48th birthday- the 23rd of August in 1572 that the St. Bartholomew’s massacre began. Thousands of protestants were killed in an event that would turn some public opinion against the crown and the catholic church.

And it was Hotman’s work of the following year- his Franco-Gallia, which would become a foundational text for resistance theory. By claiming that the Frankish, French, and Gallic crowns had always been limited by parliamentary powers and that claims to absolutism weren’t only wrong- but disqualifying. So, you could disobey someone “in authority” if you could show that their “authority” was gained on illegitimate grounds. This would be the spark for the coming age of Revolution.

In the meantime, up to 10,000 may have been killed in an event so bloody the French had to coin a new term for it- the seine ran with blood, and the mess reminded the people of a slaughterhouse, or butchers board- the Old French word “maçacrer” becomes “massacre.” And it was the blood of those along with the ideas of that adventurer, part-time diplomat, and author- Francois Hotman, born on the day that would become synonymous with St. Bartholomew’s Eve and the massacre. Hotman, the author of Franco-Gallia, lived until 1590 (the wars would last another eight years, at least), dying at the age of 65.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary from Psalm 34 from the old Revised Standard Version: 

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
    and his ears toward their cry.

The face of the Lord is against evildoers,

    to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,

    and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,

    and saves the crushed in spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous;

    but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He keeps all his bones;

    not one of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked;

    and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

The Lord redeems the life of his servants;

    none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of August 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man. “Why he chose this fate is the central problem of his life” he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man digging the “vagrant-scholar” idea… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.