6.7. VIOLENCE EXPANDS AUTHORITY

PROTESTANTS FORM A STATE WITHIN A STATE. LOUIS XIII AND PRIME MINISTER RICHELIEU SUPPRESS IT 

At the same time the king gives the terrain for the Saint-Louis church,* whose architecture and decor announce that obeying the monarchy is necessary for salvation : shown here.

*Now "Saint-Paul Saint-Louis:" Napoleon changes the name to lessen the tie with monarchy. 

Richelieu at the siege of Rochelle by Henri-Paul Motte, 1881 / zoom

Fighting between Catholics and Protestants breaks out again after 1620. The port of La Rochelle, a Protestant stronghold, declares itself independent in 1621. Louis XIII et Richelieu begin a siege in 1627. La Rochelle capitules in 1628. 

Entry of king Louis XIII in La Rochelle by Pierre Courtilleau, 17th century (at the historical museum of  La Rochelle) / zoom  

The other rebels surrender in June 1629. Protestants lose their strongholds and privileges but keep their freedom of religion, that is, continue contesting brakes on gain. 

First stone of Saint-Louis church: March 8 1627.

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The figure at the summit, who is both saint and king, wears a crown, not a halo. 

The church is in the aristocratic neighborhood of the time, the Marais (next to the river in the 3rd district). 

 

Louis IX / Saint Louis (mid 13th century)

Louis XIII dominates the giant painting at the entry to the nave.

 The crucifix before which he kneels is almost invisible. 

To discern the crucifix look very attentively.

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Toward 1700 in Rome God is represented as light, but at Versailles as a patriarch like the king, his image directly over the royal pew : at that time the Protestants have been almost completely suppressed.

Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit  order, is received in Heaven by Andrea Pozzo, arch of Saint-Ignace-of Loyola church in  Rome, 1685-1694 / vidéo

     God in his Glory, arch of the Versailles chapel by Antoine Coypel, 1708-1709

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To buttress their control of économies that grow after neighboring kingdoms have been suppressed, Dahomey kings have ancestors replace pythons. To strengthen his command of an explosively growing economy after conquest, the leader of the Segou theocracy proclaims his capital a pilgrimage destination as important as that of Mecca.  

The same causes bring the same effects.  

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The Grande Arche de la Défense hovers over the multinationals' skyscrapers, signaling that the State dominates the search for gain.

Claude Abron

Erasing Protestants is at the origin 

of France regulating business

 more than other capitalist countries do. 

 

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Next,

6.8. 

Detour:
A faith specific to France