Ninth Sermon - 1594

Who was Jean Boucher, and what was the context and form of his Ninth Sermon?

• Jean Boucher was a radical French priest, theologian, and prominent preacher for the Catholic League, particularly its radical subsect, The Sixteen.

• Context of the Sermon: Delivered mere months after Henry of Navarre’s conversion to Catholicism and the subsequent support he received across the populace.

• Form and Delivery: It was a deeply emotional sermon filled with apocalyptic rhetoric and moral appeals read out to a congregation at St Benoit’s Church in Paris in 1594.

What was the purpose of Boucher’s Ninth Sermon (1594)?

• To discredit Navarre’s conversion and the legitimacy of his rule.

• To reject the neutrality of the Politiques.

• To legitimise the Catholic League’s political project:

  • Presenting elective succession as legitimate.

  • Frame the call for a Catholic king as divinely ordained rather than seditious.

• To reclaim the language of patriotism:

  • To counter accusations of the League being “bad Frenchmen.”

  • Present Frenchness as tied to Catholicism.

• To mobilise Catholic resistance against Navarre in the closing stages of the French Wars of Religion.

What are the main arguments Boucher makes in his Ninth Sermon?

• Only God’s Chosen King is Legitimate, and, therefore, France Needs a Truly Catholic King.

• Divine Law Overrides Hereditary Succession.

• The Machiavellian Politics Of Compromise Held By the Politiques Are Anti-Christian.

• The Very Essence of French Identity was Catholicism.

• Spanish Support Is Legitimate.

• Peace Without Religious Unity Is False and Unsustainable.

• The Struggle Between France’s Catholics and Navarre Was Apocalyptic.

How