Libertine

Libertine is the name given to certain political or social groups active in Europe in the 17th century. Libertinism was a form of freethinker philosophy, and was first derisively applied by John Calvin to a Dutch Anabaptist sect in the 16th century that rejected many of society's established mores, and advocated a community of goods and of women..

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"Libertine" has come to mean one free from restraint, particularly from social and religious norms and morals. The philosophy gained new-found adherents in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in France and England. Notable among these were the Marquis de Sade and Aleister Crowley. In modern times, libertinism has been associated with sado-masochism, nihilism and free love.

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Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons, 1782), an epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, is a trenchant description of sexual libertinism. Wayland Young argues that "…the mere analysis of libertinism… carried out by a novelist with such a prodigious command of his medium… was enough to condemn it and play a large part in its destruction." (Young, 1966, 246) (See Libertine novel)

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17th century: As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar....

Freethinker: REDIRECT The Freethinker...

John Calvin: John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a prominent Christian theologian during the Protestant Reformation and is the namesake of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism. He was born Jean Chauvin (or Cauvin) in Noyon, Picardie, France, and French was his mother tongue; Calvin...