Censorship and reformation requests in the court of François I: Marguerite de Navarre´s "Inquisiteur" in the history of "Cymbalum Mundi"

Abstract

Margarita de Navarra's role in the diffusion of reformist thought in France is closely linked to the mystery surrounding the author of the clandestine treatise Cymbalum Mundi. The history of censorship considers the condamnation of this volume to be a consequence of the climate of suspicion created by the rupture of the highly delicate balance of powers exercised by the Parliament and the Faculty of Theology, the two institutions most active in the fight against heresy. In the context of ideas, controversies, personalities and debates in which Cymbalum ideally situates itself to better enumerate its importance in the history of religious thought of the Cinquecento, the literary work of Margarita de Navarra constitutes a useful reference to circumscribe a fertile and problematic scenario. A concrete text, belonging to the queen's non-Biblical theatrical production, L'Inquisiteur, presents itself as a small pamphlet of current events offering a series of elements which, though only marginally, can be related with the Cymbalum's story.