Introduction

Much of the previous discussion in this study has involved hostility of some sort, arising for example from different positions over Tradition, from institutional rivalries within the educational system and from the abandonment of the old science in favour of the new. Some disputes led to a position where, from within the space of the Church, individuals like Richard Simon could even be described as the enemy within. In this chapter I should like to deal with two groups which existed in identifiable geographical spaces, one within the Catholic Church and one outside it, but within the space of belief.

Protestantism was a space in terms of a clearly differentiated form of belief disseminated in separate institutions: the temple and academies. The separate space for Protestantism was, moreover, enshrined in the Edict of Nantes of 1598. It was also a space geographically since adherence to the Reformed Religion was more widespread in some areas of France than others. Indeed Protestantism was a space to be defended from its confessional rivals in military terms, sometimes as a defence against invasion, as in Navarre and Béarn. The most spectacular event of this sort was the siege of La Rochelle whose consequences were so disastrous for Protestantism as a whole. On the other hand Protestants promoted the oneness of political space in the kingdom with many remaining fiercely loyal to the crown even at the height of their persecution.