Tartuffe, Religion, and Courtly Culture

of the 1620's by followers of Cardinal Pierre de Berulle, the Company (known to its victims and critics as the cabale des devots) enlisted prominent nobles, magistrates and officials, as well as religious figures, in a vast campaign against the evils of the age. As the power of the central government declined during the 1640's the devots extended their network of provincial branches to most of the kingdom and promoted systematic projects for charitable assistance, for religious observance, and for the repression of various forms of lower-class indiscipline and disorder. During the 1650's the Company covertly prepared the way for the condemnation of Jansenism (despite a significant rigorist tendency within its own membership). However, the spread of the Jansenist controversy, which sapped the strength of the whole religious movement, also exposed the Company to the criticism of an increasingly unsympathetic public opinion. As religious feelings waned the devots were investigated, ridiculed, and attacked as meddling, conspiratorial vigilantes. Finally, having aroused the suspicions of Mazarin, the Com

Political science · European Political History Analysis · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History

• The Struggle for Influence

  Open Access•Julia Prest•Controversy in French Drama•2014

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