Fathers, Pastors and Kings: Visions of Episcopacy in Seventeenth-Century France

Fathers, Pastors and Kings explores how conceptions of episcopacy (government of a church by bishops) shaped the identity of the bishops of France in the wake of the reforming Council of Trent (1545-63). It demonstrates how the episcopate, initially demoralized by the Wars of Religion, developed a powerful ideology of privilege, leadership and pastorate that enabled it to become a flourishing participant in the religious, political and social life of the ancien régime. This is the first publication to analyze the attitudes of Tridentine bishops towards their office by considering the French episcopate as a recognizable caste, possessing a variety of theological and political principles that allowed it to dominate the French church.