but not allowed to meet publicly for worship.42 We learn through these events that at these times in French history, the State held the authority to grant religious freedom without grounding these rights in anything but the power of the State. There was little recognition of any divine right to freely worship the God of one’s understanding or recognition of the freedom of conscience to not worship any God.
1. Gauchet, La religion dans la démocratie, 41.
2. Davis, History of France, 2.
3. Gildea, French History, 15–17.
4. Cesari, Islam and Democracy, 76.
5. Barzun, Dawn to Decadence, 378.
6. Gaillard, “L’invention de la laïcité,” 9.
7. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 21–22.
8. Greely, Religion in Europe, 208–11.
9. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 190.
10. Bowen, Headscarves, 21.
11. Juvin, “Crèche de Noël.”
12. Monod, Sécularisation et laïcité, 47.
13. Cabanel, “La question religieuse,” 167–69.
14. Cabanel, “La question religieuse,” 171.
15. Cabanel, “La question religieuse,” 174–75.
16. Sarkozy, La République, 59.
17. Sarkozy, La République, 9.
18. Sarkozy, La République, 13.
19. Sarkozy, La République, 15.
20. Wessels, Europe, 3–4.
21. Ferry, L’homme-Dieu, 245.
22. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 90.
23. Newbigin, Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, 222.
24. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 29.
25. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 41.
26. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 73.
27. McManners, Church and State, 10.
28. Delumeau, Le christianisme, 22–23.
29. Robert et al., Nouveau Petit Robert, 428.
30. Hall, End of Christendom, 6.
31. Chaunu and Mension-Rigau, Baptême de Clovis, 10.
32. Montclos, Histoire religieuse, 19.
33. Walker et al., History of the Christian Church, 150.
34. McCrea, Religion and the Public Order, 18.
35. Lillback, “Church and State,” 678.
36. Davis, History of France, 34.
37. CNEF, Laïcité française, 12–13.
38. Cameron, European Reformation, 198.
39. Baubérot, Petite histoire du christianisme, 59.
40. Newbigin, Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, 25.
41. Carenco, L’Édit de Nantes, 3.
42. CNEF, Laïcité française, 13.
2
Reformation and
Incipient Laïcité
The Protestant Reformation, begun under Martin Luther (1483–1546) in Germany in 1517 and continued shortly after in France under John Calvin (1509–1564), provides a convenient and significant reference in our understanding of historical influences in French society and religious experience. As Reformation church history professor Euan Cameron asserts,
The personal motives for the reformers’ conversions are ultimately inexplicable. However, this overlooks the fundamental point: they were personal motives. One did not become a first-generation reformer
