Dancing, morality and the religious origins of secularization in France, 1500–1650

In early-modern France, dancing generated much controversy. For its advocates, dancing became a way to acquire individual virtue, to promote social virtue and to display theological virtue. For its detractors, it was anything but virtuous. Yet, both advocates and detractors drew on arguments that gradually segregated morality from religion and dancing from religious practice. In so doing, they took part in the secularization of French society and culture.