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Nouveaux-conertis in the 18th Century, Religious Life of French Calvinists Apostates

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2020

Abstract

The author focuses on the conversions of Huguenot descendants who were placed in Catholic institutions for re-education 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 boarders in these Catholic convents and lay congregations until the 1880s were closely related to the increase in clandestine Protestant marriages during this period.

The conversion of other believers to Catholicism and their eventual reverse apostasy were influenced by many factors, which, 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 motives of an individual's religious conscience.