THE DAUPHIN'S WRITING ASSIGNMENT CORRECTED BY... Lot 159

THE DAUPHIN'S WRITING ASSIGNMENT CORRECTED BY HIS FATHER KING LOUIS XVI. LOUIS-CHARLES, Prince of France, Duke of Normandy (1785-1795). Handwriting assignment of the young Dauphin of France, written during his captivity in the Temple prison, bearing annotations and corrections in the hand of his father King Louis XVI (in bold type), 4 pages, folio. Minor edge wear, but overall good condition. Text on reform: "[...] spread throughout France. In the same year, a number of anxious minds ventured propositions on indulgences, which the Faculty of Theology in Paris condemned. In 1521 appeared the Sorbonne's famous censure against Luther himself, who, having first taken this respectable body as arbitrator in his disputes with the Court of Rome, then poured out his insults against the Judges, whom his faint praise had not been able to corrupt. The glare of this censure, as is usually the case, awakened public attention to opinions that had perhaps been forgotten, or at least neglected: many were seduced by the appeal they presented. As early as 1528, they were supported by the clergy, the nobility and even the common people. In the years that followed, the faculty was occupied only with censuring preachers and authors who, sometimes under equivocal and obscure propositions, insinuated false and dangerous meanings; soon more daring, presented openly the forests of Bohemia and Hungary. Their numbers, swollen by the sectaries expelled from the Catholic states, increased in proportion to the attacks made on the privileges of these proud and warlike peoples: it took perfidious politics, treachery and cowardly assassinations to bring them under the yoke they feared. Heresy, triumphant in so many places, made only slight progress in Polonia, where there were no parties with an interest in spreading it: a few examples of severity were enough to intimidate it and almost make it disappear; but the lure of a crown made it sovereign in Prussia. This country belonged to the Teutonic Order: the Grand Master, Ambert of Brandenburg, threw off the yoke of his vows to marry, and make the scepter hereditary in his family. Most of his knights imitated him, passing on to their posterity, by way of inheritance, the commanderies, of which they were merely the trustees. The faction that had called the fierce Christian from Denmark to Sweden [...]". Provenance: collection of Jean-Baptiste Gomin (1757-1841), given on his death by his widow to Viscount Alcide-Hyacinthe du Bois de Beauchesne (1800-1873), kept by descent before being offered for sale on March 3, 2015, under no. 173 by the Coutau-Bégarie firm, then today by the purchaser at the time. Exhibition: this document was presented at the "Louis XVII" exhibition organized by the Musée Lambinet at the Hôtel de Ville de Versailles from May to July 1989.