Érudition et religion aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles by Bruno Neveu (review)

BOOK REVIEWS471 naries against the charge of treason and disloyalty to Elizabeth. No missionary to England set out to undo queen or government (p. 292). Francis Edwards, S.J. London Érudition et religion aux XVH' etXVHT siècles. By Bruno Neveu. (Paris:Albin Michel. 1994. Pp. xvi, 516. FF. 180,00.) Already in 1935, Paul Hazard in his authoritative La Crise de la conscience européenne coined the term "Pre-enlightenment" to characterize Gallican scholarship at the turn of the seventeenth century, impressive both in quantity and quality, and influential in the many questions it raised. It is sad to admit that fifty years later very few studies have been devoted to the many aspects of this scholarship; we know more about the Maurists' finances or eating habits than their patristic publication. In his masterly preface to this collection of articles, Marc Fumaroli appropriately stresses how Bruno Neveu, one of the few to pursue Hazard's intuition, has contributed a first-class analysis of this intellectual movement. Eight ofthese eleven studies deal directly with this question;the last three were preparatory to the great study L'Erreur et sonjuge (reviewed ante, LXXXII [January, 1996], 114-116) concerning the magisterium of the Church during the Jansenist crisis. Of these articles, the most valuable and certainly the most impressive is the first one, "La Vie erudite à Paris à la fin du XVIIe siècle," based upon the documents collected by Father Léonard de Sainte-Catherine de Sienne.This Augustinian friar was the librarian of his community and spent his life collecting and filing every possible bit of information he could find. Professor Neveu,who has learned to decipher the very difficult handwriting of the religious, has used his notes to present a general survey of French intellectual life. In sixty-seven pages we have here the only existing exposition of this extraordinary interest manifested by the French in a reconstruction of the past, an abstract and idealized past conceived as absolute and normative for the present.The other studies examine some ofthe major issues related to this scholarship,its various aspects (S. Le Nain de Tillemont et l'érudition ecclésiastique de son temps, Mabillon et l'érudition gallicane, Mabillon et l'historiographie gallicane) , its influence (Muratori et l'historiographie gallicane),the questions it raised (Érudition ecclésiastique et la nostalgie de l'Antiquité chrétienne, Archéolatrie et modernité dans le savoir ecclésiastique au XVIIe siècle), as well as its ideological content (PortRoyal à l'âge des Lumières, Le statut théologique de St.Augustin au XVIIe siècle). Neveu shows clearly how despite some reforming aspirations, in Rome itself (Culture religieuse et aspirations réformistes à la cour d'Innocent Xl), the Papacy was able to resist such perspectives and even oppose them on the issue of Jansenism (Augustinisme janséniste et magistère romain). In their ambition to establish irrevocable truth through a purely scientific and independent 472book reviews process, Gallican scholars and their allies were countering the Papacy's perception of its role and its claim to infallibility; a confrontation was inevitable (Juge suprême et docteur infaillible: le pontificat romain de la bulle In eminenti à la bulle Auctoremfidei). Each one of these well-written essays not only offers precious information but also thoughtful analysis and stimulating observations. In order presumably not to frighten the reader, the original footnotes have been changed to endnotes ,but they are complete and offer many precious references.There is also a very useful index. Happily this republication marks a renewed interest in the field as a new generation of scholars has been following Neveu's lead in this demanding but important path.We may hope to see in the future more works that will contribute to a better knowledge of Gallican scholarship and an assessment of its influence upon the European Republic of Letters. Jacques M. Gres-Gayer The Catholic University ofAmerica Galileo and the Church: Political Inquisition or Critical Dialogue? By Rivka Feldhay. (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp.viii, 303. $54.95.) Ln 1983 Pietro Redondi published his controversial account of Galileo's condemnation , an account considered by one reviewer to be "un véritable désastre, une sorte...