D’Aubigné, Théodore-Agrippa

Abstract

Agrippa d’Aubigné is a very prolific author: he composed both love and religious poetries, meditations, satirical tracts, political treaties, historical books, and an autobiography. He is also a man of action, who played a very important part in the Huguenot Party and a soldier who fought with energy against Catholics during the religious wars (1562–1629). He is not a philosopher nor a theologian, but all his works lie on a personal theology which draw on different authorities: the ancient philosophy, the Church Fathers, the reformed hermeneutics, and especially the Calvinist one. To understand Agrippa d’Aubigné’s thought, it is necessary to bear in mind the historical context. His religious thought is torn between two opposing feelings: a radical vision of suffering that lives the persecuted Protestants and a theology of hope which gives them the assurance of salvation. Affliction is for d’Aubigné the evidence of the election of protestant people. From the eschatologic point of view, the afflicted ones will triumph and the arrogant ones will be destroyed. This purifying conception of pain, called tribulation by Paul or “l’épreuve” by Calvin, induces d’Aubigné to justify war and martyrdom, that are the promises of celestial beatitude. The writer also took part in the political discussion about tyranny sharing the “Monarchomaques” point of view that consists of limiting the royal authority if the king exceeds his rights. D’Aubigné is especially in favor of a “monarchie mixte” under the strict control of nobility.