Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France: Volume 2: The Religion of the People and the Politics of Religion: v. 2 (Oxford History of the Christian Church) - Softcover

With a prodigious range of often hilarious examples McManners shows how the presence and influence of the Church were to be found nearly everywhere ... No author could come closer to empathizing with the mindset of eighteenth-century French clergy ... a major triumph and advance of scholarship. It shows beyond argument the interest and importance of the French Church, hitherto undervalued by nearly all historians, by demonstrating that eighteenth-century ecclesiastical history involves almost all aspects of politics and society ... Like all profound studies, Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France stimulates thought and comment over a very wide field. (The Historical Journal)

Magisterial two-volume history of the church in eighteenth-century France ... Rarely has history been written with such ease and thoroughness. Professor McManners combines scholarly detachment with sympathy to produce a thoroughly readable history, one that will not be superseded for many a day. (Contemporary Review)

It is rarely that a reviewer has the privilege of reviewing a book that can genuinely be described as a life's work ... a penetrating picture of the Church of the ancien régime ... In the tapestry Professor McManners provides there are many fascinating threads ... Behind McManners' rich narrative lies a wealth of research and reading, as the notes make clear. The judicious balancing of illustrative (and often amusing) anecdote and analysis makes this rounded picture of the Gallican Church of the ancien régime a study that is unlikely to be superseded. (Geoffrey Rowell, Church Times)

This second volume begins with a Section on the religion of the people. The clergy offered the liturgical services, sermons, evangelistic missions, and the offices sanctifying birth, marriage, and death; distinctions are made between what they intended and how their ministrations were popularly interpreted and incorporated into the social order. Statistical soundings concerning the extent of religious practice and the degree of conviction involved are evaluated. Further chapters deal with processions, pilgrimages, and popular practices and superstitions, with hermits and confraternities, with the impact of reading the Bible and other edifying literature in an age of increasing literacy. Finally comes a view of the twilight world of magic and sorcery. Throughout this Section the comments of theologians and thinkers of the Enlightenment are recorded, whether in coincidence or contradiction. The next section deals with the efficacy of the confessional and the role of the casuistry of the Church in attempting to mould sexual mores, business practices, and in the world of the theatre. In the next two Sections, the role of religious issues in political affairs is detailed. An overview of the Jansenist quarrel and of the activities of the Jesuits brings in the story of the struggle between Crown and Parlement, while an extended portrayal of the life of the Protestant and Jewish communities leads to the history of the debate on toleration, involving the Gallican Church in political interventions and controversy. Throughout the two volumes the rising forces of anticlericalism and the tensions within the ecclesiastical establishment have been recorded, and these themes come to their climax in a final section on the role played by churchmen in the coming of the Revolution.