29 June 2026
In 1545, John Calvin published his treatise Contre la secte phantastique et furieuse des libertins qui se nomment spirituelz in which he denounces the spiritual libertines.
The latter are part of an obscure religious movement active in France from the 1530s to the 1560s, and from which very few traces remain. Calvin describes this “cult” – originating from Flanders – as a “fatal and insidious plague” and a “deadly threat” to believers. Nonetheless, Margaret of Navarre grants them her attention: several libertines, amongst which Quentin Thierry, Claude Perceval, and Antoine Pocque, are thus welcomed to the court of the queen – who is infuriated by the aforementioned treatise. The aim of the present volume is thus to examine how the ideology conveyed by the libertine cult was able to cause so definite of a schism between two major figures of the Renaissance. Furthermore, the book also aspires to determine how this movement could simultaneously present a substantial threat to Calvin’s Reformation as well as a source of religious reflection, and even of inspiration for Margaret of Navarre.
Louise Daubigny
