Open AccessDonne's Model: Henry IV
Author(s) -
Anthony Raspa
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
renaissance and reformation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 2293-7374
pISSN - 0034-429X
DOI - 10.33137/rr.v29i4.11445
Subject(s) - allegiance , martyr , state (computer science) , power (physics) , moderation , politics , religious studies , theology , philosophy , law , political science , psychology , social psychology , computer science , algorithm , physics , quantum mechanics
Donne's Pseudo-Martyr is his first major published work and the longest that he ever wrote. As he argues in it about the relationship of the state and religion to each other, he establishes Henry IV of Navarre, king of France, as one of his models of a competent and tolerant king. Henry's credentials for the title are his moderation, his steadfastness and fearlessness amid religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in his own country, and in the face of the power of the papacy. In the pages of Pseudo-Martyr, Donne calls upon the English Catholics to swear allegiance to James I as a political leader, in the same manner in which French Catholics and Protestants swore allegiance to Henry.