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North Carolina State University | Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures | Charlotte Bulkeley | 6 May 2021

Corresponding with Calvin:� The Role of Letter Writing Between John Calvin and Three Royal Femmes de lettres during the Reformation Period

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Jean Calvin

(1509-1564)

Theologian

Writer

French

Marguerite de Navarre

(1492-1549)

Sister of François I

Mother of Jeanne d’Albret

Sister-in law of Renée de France

First published female poet

Codification of French language

🌎 France

Jeanne d’Albret

(1528-1572)

Daughter of Marguerite de Navarre

Highest ranking French woman to publicly ascribe to Calvinism

Bourbon Dynasty

Literacy

🌎Navarre/Spain

Renée de France

(1510-1574)

Daughter of Louis XII of France

Educated in François I’s court under Marguerite de Navarre and Mme. de Soubise

Ercole d’Este, Borgia

Pope Alexander VI

🌎Ferrara/Italy

The better question is “who am I researching.”

Original research question: how has knowledge of a second language levelled the social playing field and empowered people to speak up in times of political and cultural upheaval or war?

Does a language have to be a strictly linguistic or can it be rhetorical? Written versus verbal?

With these language questions in mind, a background in international development of religion from my undergraduate studies and personal knowledge, and many conversations with professors, I started researching the history and role that letter writing played in the expansion of Protestantism and the intensity of the Religious Wars of the 16^th century. This late Medieval and early Modern European time period is what I naturally gravitate towards, and the connection between history, literature, interpersonal communication, religious studies, and the evolution of gender roles particularly during times of intense political or cultural war provide the perfect opportunity to combine most of my interest areas while keeping my research goals realistic given the natural time constraints of my program.

Jean Calvin (1509-1564): Born in France, major figure of the protestant reformation of the Catholic church and the eventual split between the catholic church and the protestant, Lutheran, and Jesuit sects. Prolific writer of tracts, sermons, treatises, and letters, particularly personal letters of counsel and requests for help and support to members of the royal families.

Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), sister to French king at the time, François I who had championed the renaissance in France. First published female poet of her time, wrote L’Heptaméron, a seven-volume work, mother of Jeanne d’Albret and the aunt of Renée de Ferrara. Anchor and major mover of the reformation writings and expansion in France specifics.

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Preliminary Research Questions

How did these three women function as loci of political tension and power while contributing to the expansion of a new religious movement?
How did their connections, educations, and intellectualism allow them to level the social playing field and empower others to speak up in a times of political, religious, and cultural war, if at all?
What rapport existed between these women and Calvin that continued the correspondence over so many years and what does that tell us about women of that time?
If the Reformation so limited women’s freedoms and alternatives to the traditional social expectations according to certain historians, then how did these women contribute to the movement? Furthermore, what gaps exist in our knowledge of the earliest amplification of female voices and can they be filled by examining certain correspondence of some of the most powerful and educated women of this time?

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The better question is “who am I researching.”

Original research question: how has knowledge of a second language levelled the social playing field and empowered people to speak up in times of political and cultural upheaval or war?

Does a language have to be a strictly linguistic or can it be rhetorical? Written versus verbal?

With these language questions in mind, a background in international development of religion from my undergraduate studies and personal knowledge, and many conversations with professors, I started researching the history and role that letter writing played in the expansion of Protestantism and the intensity of the Religious Wars of the 16^th century. This late Medieval and early Modern European time period is what I naturally gravitate towards, and the connection between history, literature, interpersonal communication, religious studies, and the evolution of gender roles particularly during times of intense political or cultural war provide the perfect opportunity to combine most of my interest areas while keeping my research goals realistic given the natural time constraints of my program.

Jean Calvin (1509-1564): Born in France, major figure of the protestant reformation of the Catholic church and the eventual split between the catholic church and the protestant, Lutheran, and Jesuit sects. Prolific writer of tracts, sermons, treatises, and letters, particularly personal letters of counsel and requests for help and support to members of the royal families.

Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), sister to French king at the time, François I who had championed the renaissance in France. First published female poet of her time, wrote L’Heptaméron, a seven-volume work, mother of Jeanne d’Albret and the aunt of Renée de Ferrara. Anchor and major mover of the reformation writings and expansion in France specifics.

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The better question is “who am I researching.”

Original research question: how has knowledge of a second language levelled the social playing field and empowered people to speak up in times of political and cultural upheaval or war?

Does a language have to be a strictly linguistic or can it be rhetorical? Written versus verbal?

With these language questions in mind, a background in international development of religion from my undergraduate studies and personal knowledge, and many conversations with professors, I started researching the history and role that letter writing played in the expansion of Protestantism and the intensity of the Religious Wars of the 16^th century. This late Medieval and early Modern European time period is what I naturally gravitate towards, and the connection between history, literature, interpersonal communication, religious studies, and the evolution of gender roles particularly during times of intense political or cultural war provide the perfect opportunity to combine most of my interest areas while keeping my research goals realistic given the natural time constraints of my program.

Jean Calvin (1509-1564): Born in France, major figure of the protestant reformation of the Catholic church and the eventual split between the catholic church and the protestant, Lutheran, and Jesuit sects. Prolific writer of tracts, sermons, treatises, and letters, particularly personal letters of counsel and requests for help and support to members of the royal families.

Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), sister to French king at the time, François I who had championed the renaissance in France. First published female poet of her time, wrote L’Heptaméron, a seven-volume work, mother of Jeanne d’Albret and the aunt of Renée de Ferrara. Anchor and major mover of the reformation writings and expansion in France specifics.

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The better question is “who am I researching.”

Original research question: how has knowledge of a second language levelled the social playing field and empowered people to speak up in times of political and cultural upheaval or war?

Does a language have to be a strictly linguistic or can it be rhetorical? Written versus verbal?

With these language questions in mind, a background in international development of religion from my undergraduate studies and personal knowledge, and many conversations with professors, I started researching the history and role that letter writing played in the expansion of Protestantism and the intensity of the Religious Wars of the 16^th century. This late Medieval and early Modern European time period is what I naturally gravitate towards, and the connection between history, literature, interpersonal communication, religious studies, and the evolution of gender roles particularly during times of intense political or cultural war provide the perfect opportunity to combine most of my interest areas while keeping my research goals realistic given the natural time constraints of my program.

Jean Calvin (1509-1564): Born in France, major figure of the protestant reformation of the Catholic church and the eventual split between the catholic church and the protestant, Lutheran, and Jesuit sects. Prolific writer of tracts, sermons, treatises, and letters, particularly personal letters of counsel and requests for help and support to members of the royal families.

Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), sister to French king at the time, François I who had championed the renaissance in France. First published female poet of her time, wrote L’Heptaméron, a seven-volume work, mother of Jeanne d’Albret and the aunt of Renée de Ferrara. Anchor and major mover of the reformation writings and expansion in France specifics.

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The Methodology

Read authors from various disciplines on the historical, political, cultural, religious, and gender contexts of the late Medieval and Reformation Europe.
Read specific collections of letters between John Calvin, and Marguerite de Navarre, Jeanne d’Albret, and Renée de France.
Translate and compare select letters between Calvin and these three women, focusing on the language they use and the time and context of each correspondence, and whether other translations highlight other nuances maybe less featured in other editions.
Highlight points of continuities between the language the women use and their personal connections with Calvin.

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So What?

Women’s rise in intellectualism and positions of power;
Communication across public and private boundaries;
Religion;
Political calculus and tolerance;
(Challenging) stereotypes of canonized figures and roles of the era (ie. weak, “insignificant” female figures; overpowering male tyrants);
Progress vs. Protection;
Faction vs. Fashion;
Longevity of top-down change vs. “reform from within.”

While Religion has become particularly more looked-down on and science and progress has taken on modern religious tones of their own, a study of these three women will show how religious fervor (whether you agree w the actual doctrines or not) did give women leverage in combating the traditional, social expectations and cultural prisons of the day.

�Women’s rise in intellectualism and positions of power;

Women’s rights, roles, and treatment;

Communication across public and private boundaries;

Religion;

Political calculus and tolerance;

(Challenging) stereotypes of canonized figures and roles of the era (ie. weak, “insignificant” female figures; overpowering male tyrants);

Progress vs. Protection;

Faction vs. Fashion;

Longevity of top-down change vs. “reform from within.”

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The value

A revisitation to this period by current scholars where the focus is placed on the anachronistic conceptualization which places actions, personalities, movements, and institutions into the understandings, experiences, and privileges of life in the twenty-first century.
Modern day Babylon; the repetition of history as we pass the 500-year marker of our 1,000-year period.
The historical examination of female figures who defy narratives of female timidity and subjugation.
The evolutions of social contracts between the Church, the State, men and women, and the individual with the community.
A more nuanced understanding of the Bourbon Dynasty and its inception through Jeanne d’Albret.
An opened door for the academy to allow young scholars with age-old questions to examine topics like religion, gender, politics, and social polarization through the direct correspondence of individuals that encountered the same issues.

While Religion has become particularly more looked-down on and science and progress has taken on modern religious tones of their own, a study of these three women will show how religious fervor (whether you agree w the actual doctrines or not) did give women leverage in combating the traditional, social expectations and cultural prisons of the day.

�Women’s rise in intellectualism and positions of power;

Women’s rights, roles, and treatment;

Communication across public and private boundaries;

Religion;

Political calculus and tolerance;

(Challenging) stereotypes of canonized figures and roles of the era (ie. weak, “insignificant” female figures; overpowering male tyrants);

Progress vs. Protection;

Faction vs. Fashion;

Longevity of top-down change vs. “reform from within.”

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Thank you for your attention and your support throughout this research process.