RELIGION, n.f. is a borrowed word (Nca 1085) to latin religio, whose etymology has been
controversial since Antiquity. After Lactance, from Tertullien, the christian authors liked to link religio
to the verb religare "to link, to unite", from re- (>re-) with an intensive value,
and ligare, (>to link).
Religion having as object relationships with Divinity, the word would mean properly "link, tie"
or "dependance", the meaning's variations being similar to "tied up, tied" [rattachement et
attachement]; showing simultaneously the affective tie and the effective tie. Another origin was given by Ciceron
and is sustained by his authority: religio would came from either legere
(to pick, to gather) (> to read) with addition of the prefix re- (>re-) disclosing intensity
or the look-back, flash-back; either from religere, "to gather, collect", verb attested
only from a participle. From Emile Benveniste, it meant, abstractly, "to come back on what one did, re-understand
by thought or reflection, redouble one's attention and application", a development similar to the recolligere'
development (>to gather, to 'recolliger' - [in o.f., recolliger]).
Factually, religio is synonymous to "scruple", "meticulous care" , "anxious
or worried fervour", which seem to exclude, in classical latin at least, the idea of relationship with the
sacred. In that sense, the word fits though with the practice of the cult, to the ritual observiance demanding
a vigilant and litteral practice. Equivalent to "delicateness of consciousness, meditation, meticulously circumspection",
the term has been apt to fix itself fast and almost exclusively on the experience and handling of the sacred. It
covered only, originally, a set of practices, beliefs and moral obligations, sliding from the subjective
disposition hereabove to objective realities that this disposition touches. Therefore, during the High Middle-Age,
religio fits only to the monial discipline, the religious profession (Vth C), the religious order
(1143) and the whole of religious truths and religious duties. It looks that western languages , as opposed as
other idioms, even indo-european ones, have specialized a word to show the beliefs' and rites' machinery [appareil,
in french text, ndt] from any other social institutions. This break and transfer suit to the distinct thought of
a domain which had never been thought separately, older societies having not separated or distinguished the sacred
from the social, their social constitution being intrinsecally religious.
The word passes into french with the semantic restriction it was subjected to in middle age's latin, meaning
the monastery, the religious house, also called the église de religion. With this sense which
had became rare on XVIIth C. end, it takes concrete and abstract values, meaning a monastic order
(ca 1155) and the status of people engaged by vows in an order, especially into locutions such as entrer
en religion [entering into the religion] (ca 1170) and nom de religion [religion's
name](1870); it was even extended to a company [order] recognized by ecclesiastical authority and whose members
pronounced vows (ca 1460) , specifically the Ordre de Malte (1614). Those nuances are assembled in the figurative
locution être de la religion de St Joseph, "being married" (1640)
no longer used.
Since the first half of 12th C, (ca 1120) the word designates generally a practice linked to a determined faith
and to a definite doctrin about the divinity: in this acception tied to culte et rit (rite), the
word concerns only, till the second half of XVth C, the only roman catholicism.; its extension to other cults [cultes
in french, ndt], even non-christian ones, appears in XVIth C (1538). It's then that the word is employed with a
capital letter to design the protestantism (1538), from where those of the religion [ceux de
la religion] "les protestants", elliptically said for "reformed religion" (end XVIth
C), which became by roman catholics religion pretended reformed or RPR (>réforme). The
general expression guerres de religion (religion's wars) was used after (1701); during XVIIth C,
the main use of religion in France for the only roman catholic religion, witnesses of a refusal to
consider other belief's systems.; so, wrote Furetière: "All the false Gods cults are only superstition,
and are called religion only through abuse" (1690). Though, the word begins to be used more objectively, by
instance into religion de Mahomet (v.1590). During the Age of Lumières , the word enters into
the expression religion naturelle (ca 1742), first while speaking of common principles
to every human, then from an independant of any god's revelation 's religion (1765). State Religion designates
(1868) a religion profiting of state protection on the whole state's territory, reflecting the separation between
religion and politics, fitting to the separation between institutions: church and state.
Outside of the ecclesiastical and dogmatic domain, the word took since the XIIth C some more subjective values
(ca 1155), meaning an interior disposition of piety, devotion, (ca 1275) and a feeling of respect, adoration and
exact obedience towards what one considers as a moral obligation (begin XVIIIth, Malherbe). This meaning, reinforced
through the value of religio in classical latin, can be seen into locutions like "se faire
une religion de..." [making a religion from...], (1677), "mettre sa religion à "
[put his religion to] (end XVIIIth C), "to enlighten the religion of sb." , (to enlighten
him), (1797), this supposing some older metaphoring, or "astonish the religion of sb."
(1690), meaning to abuse - a judge - by subterfuges; those locutions became litterary and these senses tend to
mix into the more general figurative use of the word for "activity, organization, compared to a religious
doctrine" (1810), often used by irony.
