PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

point de la haine de Dieu, mais de la malice et corruption de l’homme lequel est le
propre autheur de toutes les afflictions et calamitez’. 557 Associated with this idea,
and central to Boaistuau’s ‘estrange philosophie de la misere de l’homme’, was the
notion of original sin as the root of all evil. As largely defined by Anselm of
Canterbury and St. Thomas Aquinas, Man’s fall from grace was the result of his pride
and persistent desire to have more. The ensuing sufferings were a malediction which
all generations had to endure: ‘car sans l’ambition et desir d’estre grand de ce
premier homme, nous fussions demeurez comme les anges, et telz que nous serons en
la resurrection, et courronez d’honneur et de gloire’. 558
The examination of this notion might have been superficial but Boaistuau was neither
philosopher nor theologian. As a writer who knew how to make his book appealing,
he wrote on a widely employed theme in early modern literary culture which
expressed the anxiety and fear of life and the afterlife:
Il n’est pas exagéré d’affirmer que le débat sur le péché originel avec ses
divers sous-produits – problèmes de la grâce, du serf ou du libre arbitre, de la
prédestination devint alors une des préoccupations principales de la
civilisation occidentale et qu’il concerna tout le monde, des théologiens aux
plus modestes paysans. 559
Boaistuau created a philosophical-theological context which allowed him to refer to
such concepts without having to go into much detail. His aim was not to analyse them
but to use them as the basis for a call to reform. The uncertainty of human affairs
mirrored Man’s estrangement from God, and the universal corruption served as
reminder of this estrangement:
557 Boaistuau, P., Le Théâtre du monde, p. 148. Bold font is mine.
558 Ibid, p. 149. Bold font is mine.
559 Delumeau, J., Le péché et la peur: la culpabilisation en Occident, XIIe-XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1983),
p. 277. Also see Wajeman, L., La parole d’Adam, le corps d’Eve: le péché originel au XVIe siècle
(Geneva, 2007).
- 182 -