Luc Racaut PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

sects, his conclusions were applied by historians to Protestantism as a whole. 49 As an
herald of 'progress', Protestantism was identified with rationalism and positivism,
which are the hallmarks of nineteenth century historiography. These values were a
looking glass which distorted the historians' reading of events and left a long-lasting
legacy on future historiography. In many ways the historiography of the Reformation
still suffers from this prejudice, as noted by Mark Greengrass: 'Historians have
tended to write the history of the French Reformation through the eyes of the
protagonists of change'. 5° This has also been noted by James K. Farge:
En raison d'une absence d'etude scientifique des elites et des
institutions conservatrices du seizieme siècle, les historiens ont
parfois ete amenes a faire leurs les opinions des hommes
'nouveaux'.... Si l'on ajoute a cette negligence le danger
omnipresent pour tout historien d'adopter la perspective de son
propre siècle, on se trouve alors menace de mesestimer les
traditionnalistes, et de les juger tout simplement comme ennemis
des `lumieres' et du progres. On court ainsiIc risque de pendle
tort l'histoire d'une mentaiite minoritaire pour ilistoire de
l'epoque entiere.51
Although Crouzet has corrected this deficiency to a certain extent by paying
more attention to the agents of tradition, he nonetheless perpetuates the Weberian
paradigm by arguing that Protestant violence was more 'rational' than Catholic
violence. Protestant violence is described as 'human, rationalistic, cool - calculated
and targeted to achieve a Protestant Reformation' 52, clearly zweckrational, means to
an end.
49 Max Weber, Les Sectes Protestantes et L'Esprit du Capitalisme (Paris, 1965).
50 Greengrass, 'Psychology of Religious Violence', p. 467.
51 Farge, Le Parti Conservateur, p. 25. See above, p. 3, and below, p. 213.
52 Greengrass, 'Psychology of Religious Violence', p. 469.
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