Jean Bodin: biography of this French philosopher and politician

This was the life of Jean Bodin, a French thinker who lived in a context of religious conflicts.

France in the 16th century was a rather turbulent place. It was a time marked by the religious war in which lifelong Catholics and Calvinist reformers clashed in a war that even shook the French monarchy.

Jean Bodin was born just in that century and witnessed the convulsive political situation in his country.. This man, who cultivated diverse knowledge during his lifetime, was a lawyer and also a clergyman, so he did not refrain from writing at length about how to change the situation.

Known for his mercantilist theses, his support for religious tolerance and his defense of the power of an absolute monarchy, Bodin's thinking had a considerable influence on Renaissance Europe. Let's discover his history, works and thought, through a biography of a biography of Jean Bodin.

Short biography of Jean Bodin

Jean Bodin, also known in English as Jean Bodin, was a French lawyer, philosopher, politician, historian, economist and clergyman. His life was spent in 16th century France, a country that was bleeding and weakening economically and politically due to the religious wars between Calvinists and Catholics. The social situation of his country motivated him to write about sovereignty, economics and, naturally, religion since he was ordained as a Carmelite friar.

His childhood

The day of his birth is not known with certainty, but several sources indicate that he was born in July between he was born in July between 1529 and 1533 in the city of Angers, in the west of France.in western France. His father was Guillaume Bodin, a wealthy merchant and member of the locall bourgeoisie, while his mother was Catherine Dutertre, of whom we know only that she must have died before 1561.

The young Jean was the youngest of the seven children of the Bodin family and was educated in the cloisters of the Carmelites of Angers, joining the brotherhood of the Carmelite monks.He joined the brotherhood to become a friar, however, he would end up renouncing his vows a few years later.

University education

Bodin studied at the University of Paris and the Collège de France, both institutions located in the French capital. In Paris he would be impregnated with medieval scholasticism and Renaissance humanism, coinciding this time with the fact of freeing himself from his monastic vows as a Carmelite friar (1549).

In the year 1551 he went to the University of Toulouse to study civil law, where he graduated and remained a professor until 1561. until 1561. After a decade of teaching in Toulouse, Bodin decided it was time to give up teaching and returned to Paris. In that city he would work as a lawyer at the High Court of Justice and as a member of the Parliament of Paris.

His return to the capital of France coincided with the beginning of a turbulent period in the country and throughout Europe, with the start of the Wars of Religion (1562-1598). Bodin could not have been unaware of this historical event, especially considering the fact that he had been a Carmelite friar. He was attracted to rabbinical teachings as well as to the Reformed current of John Calvin and gradually took a position in favor of religious tolerance.

Prolific writing years and last days

In addition to working as a lawyer, Bodin published in 1566 his first important work: "Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem" (Method for the easy understanding of history).This was a gratifying achievement that was accompanied by the sad event of his father's death.

After the publication of that first book of great repercussion, Jean Bodin would begin an intense literary and professional activity, publishing a decade later a set of very important works to understand his economic and political point of view: "Les six livres de la République" (The Six Books of the Republic, 1576).

Already having great social and philosophical repercussions, Jean Bodin was able to carry out work of real relevance for his time. He was appointed commissioner for the reform of forest tenure in Normandy in 1570 and, in 1587, he would begin to serve as a commissioner for the reform of forest tenure in Normandy in 1570, in 1587, he began to serve as attorney general of the city of Laon.. A little later, in 1596, he published "Universae naturae theatrum" (The theater of nature).

His last years were spent in Laon as soon as he was appointed attorney general of the city. He remained in that city, located in northern France, until his death in 1596, the exact date of which is not known. What is known is that he died of a plague epidemic while he was still working as a procurator.. He was dismissed with a Catholic burial in the Franciscan church of Laon.

Thought and theoretical contributions of this thinker

Jean Bodin's thought is, in some respects, surprisingly advanced while in other matters it sins of being what it was, a man of the 16th century. His conception of economics was well ahead of his time, and so was his apparent religious tolerance, although he could not be considered a progressive person since he was a staunch defender of absolutist monarchy and his views on atheism and witchcraft were not at all tolerant.

Political thought: concept of sovereignty and absolutism.

Jean Bodin speaks about the existence of several possible forms of governmenttaking into account in whom or in which institution sovereignty is concentrated:

• Democracy: the people possess sovereign power.
• Aristocracy: sovereignty is possessed by a small group within the people.
• Monarchy: sovereignty is concentrated in a single person.

Bodin's idea of sovereignty is that of an obligation that goes beyond human law and was subject only to human law. and which was subject only to divine or natural law. Sovereignty, according to this French philosopher, is defined in terms of absolute, perpetual, indivisible and inalienable power. This sovereignty gives legitimacy to the state in the face of other powers, such as those of the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, at that time the two antagonistic forces in European international political dynamics.

Bodin asserted that the origin of authority lies in the pact agreed upon by the various families that make up the elite of a society or country. These families that wield a lot of power must agree on which person or institution should exercise authority and, therefore, rule. The person who governs should hold all power and all should obey him. In other words, he expounded a classical interpretation of absolute power, a power that was to be exercised by a monarch without the subjects being able to put limits on it.

Bodin united the figure of the king with that of a supreme judge and legislator, a figure above any internal institution of the state. The king personifies sovereignty by divine right and this doctrine of thought ended up being known as monarchical absolutism, well represented in later reigns such as that of Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Economic thought: mercantilism and international trade.

"The Six Books of the Republic" constitute the most outstanding contribution of Jean Bodin in the field of political philosophy, being published in 1576 and whose repercussion was such that they were translated into several languages while the author was still alive. In this work he speaks of different themes, being especially important his response to the political crisis caused by the religious wars in France between 1562 and 1598.

It is remarkable the sixth book of the collection, since Bodin exposes several of his mercantilist economic principles, advocating the establishment of limitations on the outflow of raw materials and the importation of non-essential manufactures, i.e., the state was to protect the economy of the country.In other words, the state should protect the national economy. However, he also emphasized his defense of international trade, stating that the benefit of one country is not synonymous with disadvantages for the other.

One cannot speak of Jean Bodin's economic thought without mentioning his "Paradoxes de M. de Malestroit touchant le fait des monnaies et l'enrichissement de toutes choses" (Reply to Malestroit's Paradoxes, 1568). It is a text in which he responds to Monsieur de Malestroit who had pretended to deny the rise of prices in the long run. On the other hand, Bodin argues that prices can rise for various reasons, including the increase in the quantities of gold and silver, as well as the influence of monopolies..

His reply to Malestroit had great repercussions in 16th century Europe, and there are many who consider this text to be the first exposition of a quantitative theory. the first exposition of a quantitative theory of money.. However, it seems that this might not be so, since texts have been found written by thinkers of the School of Salamanca, especially Martín de Azpilcueta, who had already described the inflationary effects of the massive importation of metals and raw materials. It is most likely that Bodin was familiar with the economic theses of these thinkers and gave his own interpretation of them.

Religious thought: religious tolerance, witchcraft and atheism

In the field of religious thought, his main contributions are his works "Démonomanie", "colloquium heptaplomeres" and "Universae naturae theatrum", all written in response to the conflictive climate of the France in which he lived. He addressed the issue of what was the true religion (vera religio) and ended up defending religious tolerance, as long as one believed in Christianity.

The war between Huguenots and Catholics made him embrace a third party, that of the "politicians", which proposed religious tolerance and the reinforcement of the authority of the state as an arbiter that would guarantee peace between believers of different creeds. Although it had initially supported the Catholic League, it ended up recognizing as king of France the Huguenot Huguenot of Navarre Henry VIwho would convert to Catholicism and end the war in 1593.

However, his tolerance towards those labeled as witches and sorcerers, along with atheists, was conspicuous by its absence. In his work "De la démonomanie des sorciers" (On the demonic mania of witches, 1580), Jean Bodin asserted that "demonism" and atheism were treason against God and should be penalized with all possible means. This work was very popular in its time, and also had several translations, which is why several historians consider that the figure of Bodin contributed to the prosecutions of "witches" during the years following its publication.

Bodin was not only a prolific writer, but also a creative sadist. He offered countless ideas on how to torture would-be witches and warlocks, some of them so extremely gory and bloody that they could be used as a means of torture.some so extremely bloody and inhumane that even his own colleagues in the parliament of Paris gave him a shout for restraint. He firmly believed that if the Holy Inquisition applied these methods, it would not judge anyone unjustly, even the truly innocent.

Bibliographical references:

• Blair, A. (1997). The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Franklin, J. H. (1963). Jean Bodin and the 16th Century Revolution in the Methodology of Law and History, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Franklin, J. H. (1973). Jean Bodin and the Rise of Absolutist Theory, Cambridge: University Press.
• Saillot, J (1985). “Jean Bodin, sa famille, ses origines”, dans Jean Bodin. Actes du colloque interdisciplinaire d'Angers, Angers, Presses de l'université d'Angers, p. 111-118.