The Life of French Nouveaux convertis apostates in the 18th Century, Conversion in the Context of the Forced Reeducation of Huguenots in Lay Congregations
Abstract
In this article, the author focuses on the conversions of Huguenot children related to their forced placement and re-education in Catholic institutions during the 18th century. The internment of the children of non-believers in these institutions reflected the efforts of the Catholic Church and the state to prevent the potential growth of Huguenot influence in French society at the time.
However, it was also often the only solution to the precarious material situations of Reformed families. Meanwhile, the stable numbers of pensionaires in these Catholic convents and lay congregations until the 1780s were closely related to the increase of clandestine Protestant marriages during this period.
The author brings an analysis of cases from Languedoc in particular, but also draws on other French provinces. She demonstrates the pitfalls of interpreting conversions within these pensionate Catholic houses through the close example of a female inmate from 1754.
The indecisive apostasy of the Huguenot Grace Goutard of Castres was not only related to the girl's awareness of impending death, but was influenced by many factors that, in the case of an information-rich source, offer the researcher a wide range of analytical questions revealing the complexity of the inner and outer motivations of an individual's religious conscience.