Das literarische Bild des verfolgten Glaubensgenossen bei den protestantischen Schriftstellern der Romania zur Zeit der Reformation.

Stefan Osieja. Das literarische Bild des verfolgten Glaubensgenossen bei den protestantischen Schriftstellern der Romania zur Zeit der Reformation.

Franzosische Sprache und Literatur 262. Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang, 2002. xiv + 358 pp. illus. bibl. $43.95. ISBN: 3-631-39499-3.

During the past two decades an ever-increasing number of scholars have made significant contributions to the field of "comparative imagology"--sometimes referred to in English as the comparative study of cultural, ethnic, or national stereotypes. Joining their ranks, Osieja examines here the portrayal of Protestants as "triumphant victims" of Catholic repression based on the literary works of seven major Protestant authors active in Reformation-era France, Spain, and Italy. The focus of his study lies in particular in selected works by militant French poet and historian Agrippa d'Aubigne.

According to Osieja, Protestant writers in France, Spain, and Italy were all the more intent on projecting an image of their faith in triumph as their campaigns for social and political recognition had in large part failed in their respective countries. Many were forced to expatriate in the search of safe haven, conceal their beliefs, or suffer imprisonment or death. Just as Emser, Eck, and Cochlaeus had previously done in Germany, Catholic writers in France, Italy, and Spain challenged the Protestant claim to higher truth, thus fueling a literary and religious polemic of international magnitude. D'Aubigne, Osieja's prime example of a French Protestant writer, engaged not only in the production of apologetic literature, but also spent many years as a soldier resolutely defending his religious faith on the battlefield. There he experienced first-hand the atrocities of war which form an integral part of his writings. Despite his professed impartiality as an historian--"vous ne verrez ni digressions ni exclamations, n'estant mon metier que d'escrire sans juger des actions [...]"--his epic poem Les Tragiques, his autobiographical Vie a ses enfants, and the voluminous Histoire universelle all seek to promote the "image" of a Protestant faith superior to traditional Catholic doctrine. Ronsard, for instance, mocks in his Discours des miseres de ce temps the diversity of Protestant sects, implying that their doctrinal differences alone discredit any claim they make to possess "the truth." However, as Osieja points out, d'Aubigne's Histoire universelle responds directly to such criticism by presenting Calvinism not as one among several Protestant sects (as we know it was), but as the historical successor to all others. He sees the spirit of Protestant doctrine passing from Waldenses to Albigenses, from Wycliffe to Hieronymus von Prag and Jan Hus, from Luther in Germany to Zwingli in Zurich, from Oecolampadius in Basel to Capito in Strasburg, ending at Calvin's reformed Church in Geneva. In addition to such manipulation of historical perspective (Osieja suggests that it was likely unintentional), d'Aubigne also seeks to "prove" the legitimacy of Protestant doctrine by multiplying and promoting the appearance of Protestant triumph, even in the light of defeat and death. He of course points to numerous instances in which Protestant troops claim victory over their numerically and logistically superior adversary in battle, inviting readers to conclude this was due to divine intervention. In defeat, however, he glorifies Protestant martyrs, soldiers, women, and children, whose steadfastness supposedly guarantee them a place in Heaven, or he presents their defeat as a divine chastisement for past transgressions. According to Osieja, "triumph" in death, conceived as an eschatological argument, is intended to ultimately confirm the validity of the Protestant faith. And indeed, the final chapter of Les Tragiques, significantly titled "Jugement," underscores the work's eschatological implications.

Following discussion of d'Aubigne, Osieja briefly reviews the works of Spanish and Italian Protestants of the Reformation period. These include Francisco de Enzinas's De statu Belgico (1558) and Historia de la muerte de Juan Diaz (1546), Perez de Pineda's Epistola consolatoria (1560), Gonzalez de Montes's Sanctae inquisitionis hispanicae artes (1567), Olympia Morata's Epistolae (1553 and later), Scipione Lentulo's Historia delle grandi e crudeli persecutioni (1594), and Taddeo Duno's De persequutione adversus Locarnenses (1602). Each of these works contributes to the Protestant repertoire of triumphs, triumphs not only in a military or political sense of the term, but also in a spiritual one, by bringing examples of Protestants who achieve victory in death and escape damnation. Osieja, however, maintains that the Protestant works examined in his study all failed to deliver the unequivocal "proofs" they sought to provide. And he is correct. But to consider these works of literature solely from a perspective of logic, and thereby neglect the central role that rhetoric plays in them, suggests perhaps a weakness in his otherwise commendable research. Were not d'Aubigne and his co-religionists appealing as much to hearts as to reason? As humanist writers of the sixteenth century well knew, rhetoricians strive not to prove but to convince, to galvanize, and to promote action.

JAN PENDERGRASS

University of Georgia