Name ___________________ Date _ _ _ _ Class _ _ _ __
History and Cultures of Europe
Differentiated Instruction
Divine Right Theory
By the mid-1S00s, religious wars between Roman Catholics and
Protestants were sweeping Europe, weakening the Church's power
and strengthening the authority of Europe's monarchs. These rulers
began to claim that they ruled by divine right. This meant that their
authority was granted to them directly from God, not through the
will of the people, a parliament, or even the pope.
During the early reign of Louis XIV of France, French bishop
Jacques-Benigne Bossuet became an important promoter of divine
right theory. His study of the Bible convinced him that monarchs
were God's chosen representatives on Earth. According to Bossuet,
no one had the right to participate in government except the monarch.
Anyone who opposed the monarch was opposing God as well.
The excerpt below is from Bossuet's 1679 book, Politics Drawn from
the Very Words of Scripture. Read it, and then answer the questions
that follow.
liThe royal power is absolute.... The prince need render account of his
acts to no one .... Without this absolute authority the king could neither
do good nor repress evil. It is necessary that his power be such that no one
can hope to escape him .... The prince, as prince, is not regarded as a private person: he is a public personage, all the state is inhim; the will of all
the people is included in his. As all perfection and all strength are united
in God, so all the power of individuals is united in the person of the prince.
What grandeur that a single man should embody so much!"
Source: history.hanover.edu/texts/bossuet.html.
Directions: Answer the following questions.
1. Describing Based only on the passage above, pick three
adjectives to describe Jacques-Benigne Bossuet. Explain
your choices.
2. Explaining What does Bossuet mean when he says lithe will
of all the people is included in his [the monarch's will]"?
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Teaching Strategies for Different Learning Styles
The following activities are ways the basic lesson can be modified to
accommodate students' different learning styles.
English Learners (EL)
Ask students to consult a dictionary to find
the definition of the following words from
the excerpt: absolute, render, authority, repress,
personage, perfection, grandeur, embody.
Linguistic/Verbal; Intrapersonal
Tell students that Bossuet developed many
of his ideas in service of French King Louis
XIV. Ask students to learn more about Louis,
focusing especially on his military and political achievements and his contributions to
French culture and art. The final result should
be a two- to three-page biography on the
monarch.
Locke or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Then have
them evaluate divine right theory as it relates
to natural rights theory in a two- to threepage paper.
Log ica I/Mathematica I
Ask students to use library or Internet
resources to construct a table similar to the
one below about European monarchs of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Students
should select at least one ruler each from
Spain, France, and England.
Name of
Country
Monarch
Date
Main
Accomplishments
of Rule
Kinesthetic; Interpersonal
Have students work with a partner to
create a dialogue that might have occurred
in one of the following situations: a seventeenth-century European monarch meets with
members of the aristocracy, who oppose a tax;
Bossuet and the current U.S. president discuss
the legitimacy of the American government; a
Spaniard and French person debate their monarchs' divine claims on the same territory in
North America. Invite the students to perform
their dialogues in class.
Visual/Spatial
Have students create fashions for a seventeenth-century European monarch. Students
should research the styles of the times to make
their designs as accurate as possible. Remind
students that their designs should reflect the
monarchs' beliefs that they receive their powers directly from God. Display the best designs
in the classroom.
Advanced Learners
Ask students to research the concept of
natural rights. Point them to the ideas of John
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Verbal/Linguistic; Interpersonal
Tell students that at various times, some
Americans have believed that the United
States has possessed certain divine rights"
(e.g., manifest destiny). Provide some examples. Then ask students to reflect on these
ideas in their journals, especially as they
compare to the divine right theory of Bossuet.
Finally, have students exchange journals, read
one another's entries, and respond in writing.
1/
Below Grade Level
Ask students to examine the photos and
illustrations of European monarchs from
Section 1 of their text without reading the
captions or words. Tell them to look closely
for details. Then have them write in their
journals what they can learn about European
monarchy from the pictures.