Gouverner l'âme silencieuse
Intériorité et autorité à l'époque moderne
Published on Thursday, October 16, 2025
Abstract
Dans la poursuite des réflexions du groupe de recherche autour du silence, de l’acte et de la performance du langage, nous avons le plaisir de vous inviter à un séminaire en ligne le 17 novembre 2025, de 16h à 18h. Nous accueillerons deux professeurs assistants de l’université de Copenhague, Bastien Felter Vaucanson et Paolo Astorri.
Announcement
Programme
- 16h-16h15 : Introduction, par Jérémie Ferrer-Bartomeu et Monique Weis
- 16h15-16h45 : “Ô silence qui crie !” La performativité du silence dans l’écriture mystique de Jeanne Guyon, par Bastian Felter Vaucanson, Assistant Professor, Centre for Privacy Studies (PRIVACY), University of Copenhagen.
In this paper, I argue that the vast literary production of the mystic Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717) constitutes a sustained quest for silence. Although Guyon’s remarkable trajectory – most notably her friendship with the royal tutor François Fénelon – has attracted considerable historiographical attention, her substantively rich thought merits exploration in its own right. I contend that Guyon’s writing is situated within an intellectual current rooted in Erasmus’s conceptualisation of the Trinity as a hermeneutic model, yet offers an original elaboration informed by a distinctive poetics of interiority. In this context, the ideal of the “mute cry” becomes the animating utopia of her spiritual vocation and literary oeuvre.
- 16h45-17h30 : Governing the Silent Soul: Ecclesiastical Authority and the Boundaries of the Inner Forum, par Paolo Astorri, Assistant Professor of Legal History & Research Team Leader, Centre for Privacy Studies (PRIVACY), University of Copenhagen.
Early modern debates on ecclesiastical jurisdiction reveal how silence and interiority became central to the understanding of religious obedience and spiritual governance. The question of whether the Church could command not only external actions but also internal acts of thought and devotion exposed the tension between visible conformity and inward faith. This paper examines theological and juridical discussions of the Church’s potestas over the human mind, exploring how early modern authors sought to define the boundaries of authority in the realm of conscience and contemplation. A widely accepted scholastic position, represented by Guillaume Durand (1230-1296), maintained that the Church cannot bind individuals to internal acts of the heart – acts that belong to the silent, hidden forum of the soul. Yet, early sixteenth-century thinkers such as Adrian of Utrecht (Pope Adrian VI, 1459-1523), Tommaso de Vio (Cardinal Cajetan, 1469-1534), and Juan de Medina (1490-1545) argued that ecclesiastical power could reach this interior space through spiritual command, a view later rejected by Francisco Suárez (1548-1617). Protestant theologians and jurists, including Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and Johann Brunnemann (1608-1672), transformed this debate by asserting that human authority can judge only external acts, since the heart – and with it, the silence of inward devotion – belongs to God alone. These contrasting notions of internal and external jurisdiction illuminate divergent early modern attitudes toward conscience, speech, and self-governance. By tracing this evolution within both Catholic and Protestant thought, this paper argues that the legal and theological reconfiguration of the forum internum redefined what it meant to govern oneself in silence before God. It examines works by Peter Sutor (De potestate ecclesiae in occultis, 1546), Juan de Medina (De poenitentia, 1581), Francisco Suárez (De censuris, 1603), Johann Brunnemann (De iure ecclesiastico, 1681), and Samuel Stryk (De iure cogitationum dissertatio, 1701).
- 17h30-18h : Discussion
Practical information
Registration is mandatory: jeremie.ferrer@uclouvain.be
Subjects
- Religion (Main category)
- Society > Law > Legal history
- Periods > Early modern
Event attendance modalities
Full online event
Date(s)
- Monday, November 17, 2025
Keywords
- silence, intériorité, mysticisme, autorité ecclésiastique, conscience, théologie, droit, époque moderne, performativité, forum internum.
Information source
- Jérémie Ferrer-Bartomeu
courriel : jeremie [dot] ferrer [at] uclouvain [dot] be
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Gouverner l'âme silencieuse », Miscellaneous information, Calenda, Published on Thursday, October 16, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/14yth
