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 pri-vate 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 politi-cal achievements and his contributions to French culture and art. The final result should be a two- to three-page biography on the monarch.

Kinesthetic; Interpersonal

Have students work with a partner to create a dialogue that might have occurred in one of the following situations: a seven-teenth-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 mon-archs' 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 seven-teenth-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 pow-ers 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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Locke or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Then have them evaluate divine right theory as it relates to natural rights theory in a two- to three-page 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 Date Main Monarch of Rule Accomplishments

Verbal/Linguistic; Interpersonal

Tell students that at various times, some Americans have believed that the United States has possessed certain 1/ divine rights" (e.g., manifest destiny). Provide some exam-ples. 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.

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.