Libertine and Libertinism: Polemic Uses of the Terms in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English and Scottish Literature

This essay analyzes the actual usage of the terms libertine and libertinism within the context of early modern English literature, investigating how the very idea of libertinism starts appearing from the sixteenth century onward and how the character of the libertine was imported from France to the British Isles in the course of the seventeenth century. This latter term starts to appear in the direct and often explicit context of Calvin's work against the "sect" of the "Libertines." However, a dual usage of the term seems to articulate itself rather quickly, as the analysis of two pamphlets published in 1646 reveals: the libertine is then both a member of one of the many so-called spiritualist "sects" contesting the Anglican church and Calvinism simultaneously, or he is a ruthless hedonist. Exactly this conception, which arose within the context of Calvinism and in which the "liberty of the flesh" was understood as a false liberty, unites the two distinct interpretations of the term. The terms libertine and libertines were always used in a polemical and defamatory mode. However, an informal group described as the "ranters" claimed this term while at the same time trying to redefine it.