Introduction

After the period of religious wars which, in part at least, prevented France from initiating the reforms promoted by the Council of Trent, the seventeenth century witnessed the growth of a movement within the Church which sought to transform all aspects of social, religious and even political life. The Church's programme was inclusive in the sense that it desired no less than to make its presence felt in all areas of human activity and to ensure that the behaviour and beliefs of all those engaged in human activity acted according to the lights of orthodoxy as it had been defined by Trent and as that definition came to be refined when confronted by issues deriving from the need to control the numerous areas of public and private life which had perhaps not previously ever come under such close scrutiny.

The Catholic Reform had to perform two principal tasks, and it could not afford to put one before the other. Both had to be carried out simultaneously. The faithful at every level of society had to be brought within the space of Tridentine orthodoxy of belief and practice, and the cadres of the Church, from top to bottom, had themselves to be taught and to be trained in this orthodoxy if reform was to be successful. At this stage my principal concern is the degree to which Trent had an effect on the organisation of the Church and the faithful.