A huguenot and a catholic and the issue of marriage (in)dissolubility in Luanda, in the 17th century (A Gloriosa Família , by Pepetela, 1997).

Abstract

This study was carried out to call forth in the novel A Gloriosa Família by Pepetela (1997) from Angola, the international dimension of a religious confrontation between the Catholic nobility, led by the Guise, and the Calvinist bourgeoisie supported by the Bourbons, which led up to the slaughter of the Huguenots, French protestants, in Saint Bartholomew's night (1572), in Paris, and its survivals put to flight   into the Netherlands and other countries. In the "new historical novel", which shows the course followed by the mestizo Van Dum family in the course of the years of the Dutch occupation of Luanda (1641-1648), the obstinate dispute with the Portuguese concerning slaves meant for sugar-cane plantations in Brazil, a conflict of faith and dogma takes place  between a Huguenot and a Catholic on account of a marriage: Jean Du Plessis and his father-in-law Baltazar Van Dum. The officer of French ancestry, born in the Netherlands, arrived at the port of Luanda (1641), as a member of the conquering army and got married to Matilde who committed adultery. In face of such a family tragedy, the husband decided in favor of breaking up his marriage which, according to Calvinist tradition. did not have any sacramental nature,  and that shook the Catholic foundations of the marriage indissolubility ideology. The article, based on the bibliographic method, assumes that the Calvinist church created in the context of the reform of Roman Catholicism unleashed by Luther (1517) would not have excluded the sacramental character and dogma of the indissolubility of marriage.