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Where Two Crosses Met: Religious Accommodation between a Reformed Protestant Community and a Commandery of the Order of Malta (Loudun, circa 1560–1660)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2012

Abstract

This article represents a local study investigating the relations between the commandery of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and a Reformed Protestant community from about 1560 to 1660. The chosen locality is the French provincial town of Loudun and the article spans the French Wars of Religion and the period of recovery and reconstruction beyond. The relationship between Loudun's commandery and Reformed community manifests the sometimes astonishing interplay of conflict, accommodation, and necessity. The Protestant use of the commandery's church enabled the Reformed community to entrench itself in Loudun and remain there until the Crown revoked all the civil and religious prerogatives that it had granted to this religious minority. For its part, the commandery's fortunes and misfortunes became tied to that Reformed Protestant presence. The commandery's recovery in the first half of the seventeenth century in part drew upon the momentum of the Catholic resurgence, but the earlier Protestant use of the commandery's church and the repairs that the Protestants effectuated on the edifice gave the commandery a foothold in that process of recovery. This at times begrudged interdependence between commandery and Reformed community allowed for something resembling cross-confessional relations where one would least expect to find them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2012

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References

1 In this paper, we will use the English term “commandery” but the French term “commandeur” (as the strict English translation of this word implies a purely military designation). The local priories of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem were referred to as preceptoria (preceptories) in the Middle Ages and then commendatoria (commanderies) for the centuries that followed. The term commendatoria is taken from the Latin verb, commendare, to entrust. The head of the local priory was called the commendator (a medieval Latin derivation of commendatarius), implying the sense of a trustee. Commendator translates into French as commandeur. See Sire, H. J. A., The Knights of Malta (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 102Google Scholar.

2 On the Catholic resurgence in France and Europe, see Jedin, Hubert, “Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation?,” trans. Luebke, David M., in The Counter-Reformation: The Essential Readings, ed. Luebke, David M. (1946; repr., Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), 4445Google Scholar; Jones, Martin D. W., The Counter Reformation: Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 15Google Scholar; Hsia, R. Po-Chia, The World of Catholic Renewal 1540-1770 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 19Google Scholar.

3 See, for example, Conner, Philip, Huguenot Heartland: Montauban and Southern French Calvinism During the Wars of Religion (Aldershot, U.K.: Variorum/Ashgate, 2002)Google Scholar; Tingle, Elizabeth C., Authority and Society in Nantes during the French Wars of Religion, 1559–1598 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Roberts, Penny, A City in Conflict: Troyes during the French Wars of Religion (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

4 Before they began constructing their own temples, Reformed Protestant communities often requisitioned or annexed existing Catholic edifices, in cities such as Montauban, Nîmes, Montpeller, and La Rochelle. See Guichardaud, Hélène, “An Introduction to the Architecture of Protestant Temples Constructed in France before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,” in Seeing beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition, ed. Finney, P. Corby (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999), 133Google Scholar; Spicer, Andrew, “Huguenots, Jesuits, and French Religious Architecture in Early Seventeenth Century France,” in The Adventure of Religious Pluralism in Early Modern France: Papers from the Exeter Conference, April 1999, eds. Cameron, Keith, Greengrass, Mark, and Roberts, Penny (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2000), 248Google Scholar. The Protestants and Catholics of Annonay worked out an entirely unique arrangement, holding their respective services in the same church! Christin, Olivier, La Paix de Religion: L'autonomisation de la raison politique au XVIe siècle (Paris: Éditions de Seuil, 1997), 8384Google Scholar. For an earlier example, see Rambaud, Pascal, “The Origins of Rural Calvinism in Aunis: The Sphere of Influence of La Rochelle,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 30, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 390Google Scholar; Spicer, “Huguenots, Jesuits, and French Religious Architecture in Early Seventeenth Century France,” 247.

5 See, in particular, Sire, The Knights of Malta; Nicholson, Helen, The Knights Hospitaller (Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell, 2001)Google Scholar; Barber, Malcolm et al. , eds., The Military Orders, 4 vols. (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 1994)Google Scholar. For some notable regional studies, see Jacquet, Alain, Templiers et hospitaliers en Touraine: sur les traces des moines chevaliers, 1193–2001 (Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire: A. Sutton, 2002)Google Scholar; Marquessac, H. de, Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jérusalem en Guyenne, depuis le XIIe siècle jusqu'en 1793 (Bordeaux: Typographie Ve J. Dupuy, 1866)Google Scholar; Goineaud-Bérard, André, Templiers et hospitaliers en Périgord (Périgueux: Pilote, 2002)Google Scholar; Durbec, Joseph-Antoine, Templiers et Hospitaliers en Provence et dans les Alpes-Maritimes (Grenoble: Le Mercure dauphinois, 2001)Google Scholar.

6 John Calvin sent the first Reformed minister to Loudun in 1555. In the Edict of Amboise (1563), King Charles IX acknowledged that Loudun was on a list of legalized French Reformed communities. “Lettres patentes issued by Charles IX permitting the free exercise of the Reformed religion in the town and faubourgs of Loudun,” June 27, 1563, AML, AA 1, pièce 2bis (copy of the original); Noyelle, Sylvette and Rohaut, Sylviane, Histoire des rues de Loudun: Le bourg du Martray et le faubourg du Vieux-Cimetière (Loudun: Société Historique du Pays de Loudunois, 1999), 124Google Scholar; Fond, François-Jacques Dumoustier de La, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun (Poitiers: chez Michel-Vincent Chevrier, 1778), tome I, 32Google Scholar.

7 In the absence of census data, an approximate idea of the size of Loudun's population is made possible by counting baptismal acts per annum and applying a multiplier of 25. The Protestant baptismal statistics were compiled from AML, GG 195–197: Lists of Protestant baptisms of the Reformed Church of Loudun (1566–1608, 1621–1663); the transcriptions of M. Jacques Moron, Baptêmes protestants de Loudun du 14/02/1566 à Mai 1608 (édition du 23 août 1995). For the Catholic figures, we used the baptismal registers of the town's two Catholic parishes, AML, GG 5–9, GG 182–85, 245. See also Benedict, Philip, The Huguenot Population of France, 1600–1685: The Demographic Fate and Customs of a Religious Minority, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge vol. 81, part 5 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1991), 32, 3435, 120Google Scholar.

8 There is some disagreement among historians about the precise dating of the riots, but one can confidently state that they occurred sometime in the late 1560s. Roger Drouault, “L'ancienne église Sainte-Croix de Loudun,” Revue Poitevine et de confins de la Touraine et de l'Anjou (15 janvier 1891): 19; Lerosey, Auguste-Louis, Loudun: histoire civile et religieuse (Loudun: Librairie Blanchard, 1908; Marseille: Laffitte Reprints, 1980), 67Google Scholar; Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 41–42. On the Michelade of Nîmes, see Tulchin, Allan A., That Men Would Praise the Lord: The Triumph of Protestantism in Nimes, 1530–1570 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 161–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 See, for example, the accusation made against the Protestant Louis Ragueneau in the demolition of a chapel belonging to the priory Notre-Dame-du-Château. “Montrée judiciaire of a house located in Loudun,” April 23, 1613, ADV, D 125; Rohaut, Noyelle and, Histoire des rues de Loudun: à travers le bourg Saint-Nicolas (Loudun: Société Historique du Pays de Loudunois, 1999), 3940Google Scholar.

10 Drouault, Roger, éd., Louis Trincant: abrégé des antiquités de Loudun et païs de Loudunois (Loudun: Imprimerie A. Roiffé, 1894), 2829Google Scholar; Mémoire de la ville de Loudun, et du pays de Loudunois par M. Louys Trincant procureur du Roi au siege de Loudun, BnF, Anciens Petits Fonds français 20157, fols. 193v-194r. Trincant does make a broad statement about how in 1568 and 1569 the Huguenots ruined all the churches noted in his summary, both in Loudun and the Loudunais (although he seems to be exaggerating when referring to the latter region). Drouault, éd., Louis Trincant: Abregé, 27.

11 “Declaration by King Louis XIV concerning the alms due by the commanderie of Loudun,” 1675 [no precise date], ADV, 3 H 1:683, f. 1r.

12 See, for example, the rich documentation concerning the Benedictine priory of Notre-Dame-du-Château, particularly “Procès-verbal given before the bailli of Loudun,” November 27, 1582, ADV, D 123; “Montrée judiciaire of a house located in Loudun,” April 23, 1613, ADV, D 125.

13 Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, x, 1–17; Sire, The Knights of Malta, 3–72; Bluche, François, Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle (nouv. éd.), (Paris: Fayard, 2005), s.v. “Malte,” 953–54Google Scholar; Bély, Lucien, Dictionnaire de l'Ancien Régime: Royaume de France, XVIe-XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Quadrige/Presses universitaires de France, 2003), s.v. “Ordre de Malte,” 937–38Google Scholar.

14 Rödel, Walter G., “Catholic and Protestant Members in the German Grand Priory of the Order of St. John: the Development of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg,” in The Military Orders, vol. 1, Fighting for the Faith and Caring for Sick, ed. Barber, Malcolm (Aldershot, U.K.: Variorum/Ashgate, 1994), 3441Google Scholar; Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 117–25; Sire, The Knights of Malta, 198–202.

15 The Order's successful defence of Malta in 1565 won widespread acclaim for the Order across Europe, among Protestants and Catholics alike (although admittedly, the victory enabled Philip II King of Spain, a key enemy of the Ottomans, to concentrate more resources on suppressing the Dutch Protestant revolt in the Netherlands). Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 117–25; Sire, The Knights of Malta, 68–72.

16 On the “decline” of the medieval Crusades, see Crosby, Alfred, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 5669Google Scholar; Tyerman, Christopher, God's War: A New History of the Crusades (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006), 917–22Google Scholar.

17 The Sotenvilles were a noble family that still wore the trappings of medieval chivalry in the seventeenth century (their stupidity mirrors their name, which translates as “dumb-in-town”). See Molière [Poquelin, Jean-Baptiste], Oeuvres complètes, eds. Forestier, Georges et al. (Paris: Gallimard, 2010), tome I, 9711013Google Scholar; Huppert, George, Les Bourgeois Gentilshommes: An Essay on the Definition of Elites in Renaissance France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 33Google Scholar.

18 The Grand Priory of Aquitaine was located in the langue of France (the Order was divided into eight langues, large territorial units). Vertot, Abbé René Aubert de, Histoire des chevaliers Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem, appellez depuis les chevaliers de Rhodes, et aujourd'hui les chevaliers de Malte (Paris: Rollin, Quillau, et Desaint, 1726)Google Scholar, tome IV, “Dissertation au sujet du gouvernement ancien et moderne de l'Ordre Religieux et Militaire de Saint Jean de Jérusalem,” Article III, “Des Dignitez, Prieurez, Bailliages et Commanderies attachées particulièrement aux Chevaliers de Justice,” 20–21.

19 “Declaration by King Henri IV concerning the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” April 28, 1610, ADV, 3 H 1:3.

20 “Declaration of King François I concerning the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” 1514, ADV 3 H 1:683; “Declaration made by King Charles IX concerning the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” November 20, 1576, ADV, 3 H 1:3; “Declaration by King Henri IV concerning the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” April 28, 1610, ADV, 3 H 1:3; “Patented Letters by various Kings of France, beginning with Henri II, outlining the privileges accorded to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” ADV, 3 H 1:3; “Lettres patentes des Roys François I, Louis XIII, et Louis XIV, à present heureusement regnant, octroyées à l'Ordre S. Jean de Hierusalem . . .” (Paris: André Chouqueux, 1661), ADV 3 H 1:3; “Declaration of King Louis XIII concerning the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” January 23, 1626, ADV 3 H 1:3.

21 See Hoppen, Alison, “The Finances of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” European Studies Review 3, no. 2 (1973): 106114CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bély, Dictionnaire de l'Ancien Régime, s.v. “Ordre de Malte,” 937–939. See also, “Declaration by King Henri IV concerning the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” April 28, 1610, ADV, 3 H 1:3.

22 Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 120.

23 See Goineaud-Bérard, Templiers et hospitaliers en Périgord, 56, 86, 114, 122, 156, 159, 225–27; de Marquessac, Hospitaliers de St Jean de Jérusalem en Guyenne, 130; Chailan, Abbé M., L'Ordre de Malte dans la ville d'Arles (Marseilles: Laffitte Reprints, 1974 [Réimpression de l’édition de Bergerac, 1908]), 1425Google Scholar; Barbier, Emmanuel, Bolle, Annie and Souquet-Leroy, Isabelle, “La commanderie hospitalière de Fontsèche à Tonnay-Charente (Charente-Maritime),” dir. Sylvie Le Clech-Charton, Les établissements hospitaliers en France du Moyen Âge au XIXe siècle: Espaces, objets et populations (Dijon: Éditions Universitaires de Dijon, 2010), 158Google Scholar.

24 The translation is mine. “Register of the Grand Priory of Aquitaine,” BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises 3067, fol. 21r (from the assembly of May 4, 1592). In the documentation, the “Religion” is a synonym for the Order itself and should not be mistaken for the Catholic religion. Bély, Dictionnaire de l'Ancien Régime, s.v. “Ordre de Malte,” 937.

25 See Heller, Henry, Iron and Blood: Civil Wars in Sixteenth-Century France (Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991), 86104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Beik, William, A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 217–22Google Scholar.

26 One such piece of art work is the painting “Procession of the Holy League Leaving the Saint-Jean Arch,” (1590, French School). See also Benedict, Philip, “The Wars of Religion, 1562–1598,” Renaissance and Reformation France 1500–1648, ed. Holt, Mack P. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 165172Google Scholar; Holt, , The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 125, 142CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Carmona, Michel, Les Diables de Loudun: Sorcellerie et politique sous Richelieu (Paris: Fayard, 1988), 64Google Scholar.

28 De Vertot, Histoire des chevaliers Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem, tome IV, “Dissertation au sujet du gouvernement ancien et moderne de l'Ordre Religieux et Militaire de Saint Jean de Jérusalem,” Article 2, “De la Réception des Frères Chevaliers,” 5–6.

29 “Extraict du Volume des Statuts de l'Ordre de St. Jean de Hierusalem,” [undated], ADV 3 H 1:3; Bluche, Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle, s.v. “Malte,” 953–954; Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 81–94. On the Jesuits, see Martin, A. Lynn, The Jesuit Mind: The Mentality of an Elite in Early Modern France (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988), esp. 84104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Determining the dates of the tenure of each commandeur requires tracking their appearance and signatures in the documentation year by year. The endeavor is not an exact science due to gaps in the available document base.

31 NLM, 15th classification: tribunali di Nobilita e processi delle prove di nobilata: Sezione prima: processi delle prove dei Cavalieri Francesci: 2956: DE JOUSSEAUME DU COUBOUREAU, Christophe (1570).

32 Noyelle, Sylvette and Rohaut, Sylviane, Histoire des rues de Loudun: Le long de la rue de la Porte-de-Chinon (Loudun: Société Historique du Pays de Loudunois, 2002), 14Google Scholar.

33 Dating the church's construction precisely is difficult. See Antoine-Ferdinand Arnault-Poirier, “Monuments de l'arrondissement de Loudun,” Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest (1846) [no volume number]: 117-20; Noyelle, Sylvette and Rohaut, Sylviane, Histoire des rues de Loudun: Autour de la rue de la Porte-de-Chinon (Loudun: Société Historique du Pays de Loudunois, 2002), 7778Google Scholar.

34 For the comment made about the commandery's fief in Loudun, see “Sentence concerning the litigation between the commandery of Loudun and the abbey of Fontevrault,” July 12, 1576, ADV, 3 H 1:688. See also “Sentence concerning the litigation between the commandery of Loudun and Benjamin Gervais,” 1609 (no precise date given), ADV, 3 H 1:688, esp. f. 1v.

35 Proust, Pierre Le, Commentaires sur les coustumes du pays de Loudunais ou se rapportent plusieurs coustumes d'autres pays, Ordonnances Royaux, Jugemens & Arrets, Textes de droit commun, auctorités & advis conformes ou contraires à icelles (Saumur: Thomas Portau, 1612), 66, 163Google Scholar.

36 “Sentence concerning the litigation between the commandery of Loudun and the abbey of Fontevrault,” July 12, 1576, ADV, 3 H 1:688; “Accord between the receveur of the Commandery of Loudun and Pierre Dumothey,” February 21, 1607, ADV, 3 H 1:686; Pierre Le Proust, Commentaires sur les coustumes du pays de Loudunais, 3–80, 85–95.

37 Sylvette Noyelle and Sylviane Rohaut, citing the unpublished research of Dominique Decoudun, situate such a hospital next to the church of St. Jean on the street of that name (departing from an earlier interpretation that placed it on the site of what became the residence of the commandeur, on the rue de la Porte-de-Chinon). Histoire des rues de Loudun: Le long de la rue de la Porte-de-Chinon, 25. For the earlier interpretation see Arnault-Poirier, “Monuments de l'arrondissement de Loudun,” 116.

38 See, for example, the sale contracts for March 14, 1571, ADV, 3 H 1:691; October 9, 1586, ADV, 3 H 1:685 and April 6, 1587, ADV, 3 H 1:688.

39 Admittedly Loudun's aumônerie de St. Jean and the commandery certainly had a great deal in common, that is, the same purpose of poor relief and the same patron saint (St. John the Baptist). See Charbonneau-Lassay, Louis, Héraldique Loudunaise (La Roche Rigault: PSR Éditions, 1996), 184–85Google Scholar; Drouault, Roger, Recherches sur les Établissements hospitaliers du Loudunais. Léproseries de Loudun et de Bernezay, aumôneries de Berthegon, Curçay, Sammarçolles, Monts et Moncontour, Maison-Dieu de Loudun, Le Sanitat, La Maison de Charité (Loudun: A. Roiffé, 1895), 2347Google Scholar.

40Bail à rente made by the Commandeur de Loudun,” June 25, 1569, ADV, 3 H 1:685; Drouault, éd., Louis Trincant: abrégé, 29. It was not unusual for a commandery not to have a hospital attached to it. See Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 79.

41 Drouault, Recherches sur les établissements hospitaliers du Loudunais, 39.

42 For the controversy surrounding the improvements made by Bigot, see the entries in NLM, Libri Conciliorum, Arch. 92, fol. 115r, 119v, 147r, 156v, 171r, 173r.

43Bail à rente made by the Commandeur of Loudun,” June 25, 1569, ADV, 3 H 1:685; “Sale of property between Pierre Decerisiers and Marin Chenereau,” November 12, 1564 (notary's copy), ADV, 3 H 1:686, esp. f. 2v; “Rent agreement between Nicolas Hamelin and Philippe Bigot,” January 10, 1565, ADV, 3 H 1:686. Regarding the sale of property, the seller was required to indicate the fief in which the property was located as well as the feudal dues that were owed by virtue of ownership of the property in question. Out of 112 such property sale contracts for the period 1560–1579, 98 contain a firm declaration that the property is located in one of the commandery's fiefs. Of course, it is likely that not all the property sale contracts survive, but this statistic is worthy of note and would contrast sharply with the following period, when the commandery's revenue base was thrown into disarray.

44 The commandery of the Moullins had originally been formed as a Templar house. But, once that Order was dissolved in the first few decades of the fourteenth century, the property and titles of the commandery of the Moullins were transferred to the Hospitallers. “Assessment of the Improvements made by François de Thalouet,” August 8, 1657, ADV, 3 H 1:683; NLM, Libri Conciliorum, Arch. 96, fols. 40v-41r; “Sale of property by Antoine Leconte and Françoise Aubry to Jehan Gallet,” May 31, 1587, ADV, 3 H 1:690; “Sale of property by Jehan Boistibault and Olive Levesque to Mathurin Guérin,” December 8, 1588, ADV, 3 H 1:690.

45 “Register of the Grand Priory of Aquitaine,” BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises 3067, fol. 39r and v.

46Bail à rente by Christophe Jousseaume to Vincent Robert,” May 15, 1586, ADV, 3 H 1:713.

47 What is difficult to explain is the choice of a rural base as opposed to an urban one, with the concomitant safety of the walls of a fortified city. No evidence can be mustered to prove that anti-Catholic violence was directly the cause of such a choice.

48 “Property sale between Anne Tallardier and Mathieu Caillin,” December 20, 1571, ADV, 3 H 1:692; “Accord between Philippe Bigot and Bonaventure Fourneau,” February 8, 1575, ADV, 3 H 1:688. For the baptismal data on Louis Ollivier, see Moron, Baptêmes protestants de Loudun du 14/02/1566 à Mai 1608 and the research files of Pasteur Denis Vatinel, OLLIVIER, Louis, file 1O11. The Ollivier continued to be the commandery's main revenue manager well into the seventeenth century, and the ferme was passed on from one generation to the next. One possible reason for that is that the Ollivier held such sway over the revenue base that they were able to extort the continued control of the ferme from the commandeurs. Some seventeenth-century documents imply that the Ollivier were withholding information from the commandeurs about the true value of the revenue base. This is an argument made by Simon LePetit, Loudun's commandeur in the 1620s. “Detailed inventory and description of the commanderies of Loudun and the Moullins,” May 6, 1625, ADV, 3 H 1:683.

49 Étienne Marreau, Rolland Morreau, and Étienne Rousseau all worked for the commandeur as revenue collectors or legal counsel. In Loudun's archival documentation, they are cited as Protestant, but the absence of genealogical or professional indicators in those ancillary records prevents us from linking definitively the data in those documents to the commandery's personnel data.

50 A ferme in this context is the right to collect revenues from a particular rural or urban domain. A ferme can be passed on to someone else for a set period for a set price through a notarial contract known as a bail à ferme. Lachiver, Marcel, Dictionnaire du monde rural: Les mots du passé (2e éd.), (Paris: Fayard, 2006), s.v. “ferme,” p. 593Google Scholar; s.v. "bail," p. 111.

51 A procureur was a legal official similar to a barrister who trained as an apprentice with another procureur. Lachivier, Dictionnaire du monde rural, s.v. “procureur,” p. 1064.

52 See Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 38–40.

53 The consistorial registers for the Reformed community in Loudun begin on March 2, 1589. The Protestant baptismal registers in Loudun begin in early March as well. The first mention of the church in the consistorial registers is made on March 3, 1589. Consistorial Registers of Loudun [henceforth CRL], reg. 1, p. 5, AN, TT 250 (232); Moron, Baptêmes protestants de Loudun du 14/02/1566 à Mai 1608 (édition du 23 août 1995); AML, GG 195–197: Tables des baptêmes et mariages protestants de l’église réformée de Loudun (1566–1608, 1621–1665). See also Denis Vatinel, “Les protestants Loudunais sous Henri IV,” Conference presented by pasteur Denis Vatinel for the Société Historique du Pays de Loudunois, Loudun, April 2, 1995, 14–18; Noyelle, Sylvette and Rohaut, Sylviane, Histoire des rues de Loudun: le bourg du Martray et le faubourg du Vieux-Cimetière (Loudun: Société Historique du Pays de Loudunois, 1999), 121–24Google Scholar.

54 Roberts, Penny, “The Most Crucial Battle of the Wars of Religion? The Conflict over Sites of Reformed Worship,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 89, no. 3 (1998): 247–48Google Scholar. See also Spicer, Andrew, “‘Qui est de Dieu, oit la parole de Dieu’: the Huguenots and Their Temples,” in Society and Culture in the Huguenot World 1559–1685, eds. Mentzer, Raymond A. and Spicer, Andrew (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 179–86Google Scholar; Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 32. For a general discussion of the bailliages and sénéchaussées, see Mousnier, Roland E., Les Institutions de la France sous la Monarchie absolue (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1980), tome II, 264271Google Scholar; Bluche, dir., Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle, s.v. “bailliages et sénéchaussées,” p. 151.

55 The number of baptisms for the Reformed community hovers around 150 for the late 1570s and early 1580s, but then drop to around 90–100 for the years immediately following. Using the multiplier of 25 discussed above, we arrive at a rough population estimate of 4,000 persons. With regards to the baptismal entries themselves, the provenance and socio-professional status of the parties are often given. For evidence of consistorial activity, see the entry for April 12, 1582, ADV, Baptismal acts of the Protestant community of Loudun (held in Baussay), 1578–1582, available at: www.archives-vienne.cg86.fr/numerique.php3. I am grateful to Pasteur Denis Vatinel for having provided me with a copy of this document. For information on the destruction of the first Protestant temple, see Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 51–52; “Contrat portant declaration que le lieu ou est construit le temple a été arrenté et la rente acquise au profit de ceux de la religion,” February 6, 1581, AN, TT 250 (232), carton 2, pièce 12. See also Boisson, Didier and Daussy, Hugues, Les Protestants dans la France moderne (Paris: Belin, 2006), 144–46Google Scholar.

56 Conférence faicte avecq’ M. Loys Bontemps dict la Callière Médecin; et un nommé de Clairville, tous deux Ministres de Loudun en Poictou et autres pretenduz fidèles, lesquelz ont donné responses et replicques par l'advis de plusieurs de leurs synodes touchant la vénération, prière, et intercession des Saincts (Paris: Michel de Roigny, 1586)Google Scholar, AN, TT 430:1. Louis Bontemps started his career as a medical doctor and then trained later to become a Reformed Protestant pastor. Jean Rivierre, Le livre d'or des Protestants du Poitou, ADV, 3 J 15–17, tome 13, 6211.

57 Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 128–134; Solnon, Jean-François, Henri III: un désir de majesté (Paris: Perrin, 2007), 342363Google Scholar; Letters by Henri III to the inhabitants of Loudun, the captain of the château of Loudun, and François de Rasilly, governor of Loudun, July 18, 1585 (copies), BnF, fonds français, 3309; Jouanna, Arlette et al. , dirs., Histoire et dictionnaire des guerres de religion (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1998), 340Google Scholar; s.v. “édit d'Union,” 1353–54.

58 Loudun was the center of the province of the Loudunais, but it was also part of, on the one hand, the Generality of Tours (an administrative jurisdiction for the purpose of funneling direct taxes to the state) and, on the other, the diocese of Poitiers. As such, Loudun lay within the Poitou in some respects. See Lerosey, Loudun: histoire civile et religieuse, 21, 56.

59 Xivrey, Jules Berger de, Recueil des lettres missives de Henri IV (Paris: imprimerie royale, 1843–76)Google Scholar, letter dated 5 mars 1589, tome II, 459; Duplessis-Mornay, Philippe, Mémoires et correspondance de Monsieur de Duplessis-Mornay, pour servir à l'histoire de la réformation et des guerres civiles et religieuses en France, sous les règnes de Charles IX, de Henri III, et de Louis XIII, depuis l'an 1571 jusqu'en 1623 (Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1969)Google Scholar, letter dated March 12, 1589, tome IV, 341–342; Poton, Didier, Duplessis-Mornay: le “Pape des Huguenots” (Paris: Perrin, 2006), 8089Google Scholar; Babelon, Jean-Pierre, Henri IV (Paris: Fayard, 2009), 380–82, 418–23Google Scholar.

60 Charbonneau-Lassay, Louis, Les châteaux de Loudun d'après les fouilles archéologiques de M. Joseph Moreau de la Ronde (Loudun: Librairie Blanchard, 1915), 371372Google Scholar; Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 65–66; Rasilly, Michel-Gustave de, éd., Généalogie de la famille de Rasilly (Touraine, Anjou, Poitou), (Laval: A. Goupil, 1903), 179Google Scholar.

61 An undated document (probably 1677) claims that the transfer took place in 1587, shortly after Navarre's victory at the Battle of Coutras (October 20, 1587). This date for the transfer is probably too early. This is a problematic document, based on the memory of some elderly Catholics and recorded ninety years after the fact. To be sure, Navarre was involved in military operations at least near Loudun in 1587, but that was before Coutras. Moreover, the Protestant community existed underground in those years because the Protestant faith was still outlawed in 1587, according to the terms of the Treaty of Nemours of July 7, 1585. The Protestant faith probably continued clandestinely, perhaps in the nearby village of Sammarçolles, that is, without a church inside Loudun. An entry in the consistorial registers also refers to a deacon's account that runs from June 1585 to December 31, 1588. But, the Protestant baptismal, marriage, and consistorial registers do not start again until 1589. “Memoire concernant le temple et école de ceux de la RPR,” BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises, 24383, 95–96; CRL, January 4, 1590, reg. 1, p. 45, AN, TT 250 (232); Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de Loudun, tome I, 62–63; Charbonneau-Lassay, Les Châteaux de Loudun, 369; Cuignet, Jean-Claude, L'Itinéraire d'Henri IV: Les 20 597 jours de sa vie (Bizanos, Fr.: Éditions Héraclès, 1995), 8485Google Scholar; Sutherland, N. M., The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980), 279–80Google Scholar.

62 Babelon, Henri IV, 351–401; Pitts, Vincent J., Henri IV of France: His Reign and Age (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 108143CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 The Edict of Union that Henri III signed confirmed the Treaty of Nemours (signed in July 1588 between Henri III and the League), which revoked all previous edicts of pacification and essentially criminalized the practice of the Reformed religion in France. Pitts, Henri IV of France, 114; Sutherland, The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition, 292, 364–67; Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 126–27.

64 Navarre may have heard of the disastrous attempt by Loudun's Protestants to seize the parish church of St. Pierre du Marché (an attempt that took place after the first Protestant temple was destroyed by the local Catholic population). Charbonneau-Lassay, Les châteaux de Loudun, 369.

65 That was in early October 1587, when Henri III was still under the sway of the League and when the duc de Joyeuse was commanding his armies. On ligueur activity in and around Loudun during this period, see the transcriptions of letters between Rasilly and François de Bourbon duc de Montpensier, June 2, 1585, Généalogie de la famille de Rasilly, 187; idem, June 3, 1585, 188; idem, [no precise date] 1585, 190; and idem, June 17, 1585, 190; Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 61–62.

66 “Letter by Henri de Navarre to Monsieur de La Cheze,” April 8, 1589, M. Berger de Xivrey, éd., Recueil des lettres missives de Henri IV, tome II, 472; Pitts, Henri IV of France, 139–40; Poton, Duplessis-Mornay, 89; Solnon, Henri III, 371–78.

67 Arnault-Poirier, “Monuments de l'arrondissement de Loudun,” 117; Noyelle and Rohaut, Histoire des rues de Loudun: Autour de la rue de la Porte-de-Chinon, 77–78.

68 French Protestants in Loudun and elsewhere always referred to the physical structure of their church as a “temple.” However, a Protestant church in the sense of a community of believers was called an “église de Dieu” or an “église réformée,” and collectively as the “Églises Réformées de France.” See Andrew Spicer's discussion on Reformed architecture and the predominant but complex architectural use of the word “temple” rather than “church.” Rebuilding Solomon's Temple? The Architecture of Calvinism,” in The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History, Papers presented at the 1998/1999 Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, ed. Swanson, R. N. (Woodbridge, U.K: Boydell Press, 2000), 275–87, esp. 282–83Google Scholar. See also Mentzer, Raymond A., “The Reformed Churches of France and the Visual Arts,” in Seeing beyond the Word, ed. Finney, P. Corby, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999), 205206Google Scholar.

69 Admittedly, a few temples were constructed in a basilican, rectangular style. Spicer, “‘Qui est de Dieu, oit la parole de Dieu’: the Huguenots and Their Temples,” 179–80; “Huguenots, Jesuits and French Religious Architecture,” 248–52; Mentzer, “The Reformed Churches of France and the Visual Arts,” 200–201; Luria, Keith P., “Sharing Sacred Space: Protestant Temples and Religious Coexistence in the Seventeenth Century,” in Religious Differences in France: Past and Present, Sixteenth Century Studies and Essays and Studies 74, ed. Long, Kathleen Perry, (Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 2006), 5354Google Scholar.

70 Arnault-Poirier, “Monuments de l'arrondissement de Loudun,” 117–20. Arnault-Poirier states that the columns, which contain the ornamentation, date from the medieval period. See the nineteenth-century drawings of the capitals on the columns, reproduced in Noyelle and Rohaut, Histoire des rues de Loudun: Autour de la rue de la Porte-de-Chinon, pl. 10. Such unexpected motifs and stylistic conventions were not entirely rare in medieval ecclesiastical architecture. Even in this Age of Faith, some medieval architects still maintained an (earthy) sense of humour. See McDonald, Nicola F., ed., Medieval Obscenities (York, U.K.: Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, York Medieval Press, 2006), 1738Google Scholar.

71 Charbonneau-Lassay, Les Châteaux de Loudun, 378–83.

72 M. H. Beauchet-Filleau, “Notice sur la vie de Pierre De Chouppes, d'après un manuscrit trouvé dans les titres de famille de la famille Guischard D'Orfeuille,” Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest, 1e série, 5 (2e trim., 1846): 315–16; “Donation made by Marc-Antoine Marreau de Boisguérin to the Reformed Church and community of Loudun,” August 6, 1618, AN, TT 250 (232), carton no. 2, pièce 24.

73 CRL, July 19, 1590, reg. 1, pp. 82–83; February 10, 1594, reg. 2, p. 296; June 9, 1594, reg. 3, p. 316; July 6, 1595, reg. 3, p. 356; July 20, 1595, reg. 3, p. 357; May 15, 1597, reg. 3, p. 418; June 17, 1599, reg. 3, p. 484, AN, TT 250 (232).

74 Such an immunity may have been effective. In all the 600 detailed pages of the consistory's registers, there is not one mention of any damage done to the building due to anti-Protestant violence.

75 See Luria, “Sharing Sacred Space,” 54.

76 ADV, Baptismal acts of the Protestant community of Loudun (held in Baussay), 1578–82, available at: www.archives-vienne.cg86.fr/numerique.php3.

77 “Transport conducted vis. the cemetery of Loudun,” October 19, 1577, AN, TT (232) 250, pièce 31.

78 CRL, September 19, 1591, reg. 2, p. 146; January 16, 1592, reg. 2, p. 172; August 5, 1593, reg. 2, p. 271; October 14, 1593, reg. 2, p. 280; November 9, 1595, reg. 3, p. 365; May 23, 1596, reg. 3, p. 386; March 13, 1597, reg. 3, p. 409; October 28, 1599, reg. 3, p. 496; AN, TT 250 (232).

79 CRL, November 9, 1595, reg. 3, p. 365, AN, TT 250 (232); Deacons’ Accounts, 1594–1598, AN, TT 250 (232), pièce 28, pp. 26 and 36. See also the four construction agreements, for the following dates: August 10, 1590 (two), April 13, 1596, March 13, 1600, AN, TT 250 (232), pièces 20–23.

80 CRL, July 11, 1591, reg. 1, p. 123; January 7, 1593, reg. 2, p. 238; January 13, 1594, reg. 2, p. 293; December 15, 1594, reg. 3, p. 337; January 5, 1595, reg. 3, p. 339; February 16, 1595, reg. 3, p. 344; March 20, 1595, reg. 3, p. 349, AN, TT 250 (232). On the havoc created by this phase of the religious civil wars, see Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 136–64; Heller, Iron and Blood, 120–36; Charbonneau-Lassay, Les Châteaux de Loudun, 378–83.

81 “Register of the Grand Priory of Aquitaine,” BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises 3067, fols. 8v and 13r.

82 For example, see the entries for CRL, April 2, 1592, reg. 2, p. 185; June 25, 1593, reg. 2, p. 263; October 7, 1599, reg. 3, p. 493, AN, TT 250 (232).

83 The translation is mine. CRL, February 6, 1592, reg. 2, p. 176, AN, TT 250 (232).

84 CRL, November 16, 1589, reg. 1, p. 38; February 15, 1590, reg. 1, p. 52; November 8, 1590, reg. 1, p. 97; December 13, 1590, reg. 1, p. 100, AN, TT 250 (232).

85 The sole remaining prior was reputed to have turned the hospice into an object of infamy in the town, operating a kind of cour des miracles (a house of miracles). Drouault, Recherches sur les Établissements hospitaliers du Loudunais, 38–39.

86 CRL, September 21, 1589, reg. 1, p. 34; November 16, 1589, reg. 1, p. 38; February 15, 1590, reg. 1, p. 52; November 8, 1590, reg. 1, p. 97; December 13, 1590, reg. 1, p. 100; May 16, 1591, reg. 1, p. 114; July 18, 1591, reg. 1, p. 128; September 19, 1591, reg. 2, p. 145; October 8, 1592, reg. 2, p. 226; December 10, 1592, reg. 2, p. 233, AN, TT 250 (232).

87 Moreover, interrupted Reformed worship could be re-established in those localities where it had existed during the promulgation of the Edict of Bergerac (1577) and the signing of the treaties of Nérac and Fleix (February 1579 and November 1580, respectively). L’Édit de Nantes (texte intégral en français moderne), éds. Thomas, Danièle and Bourgeon, Jean-Louis (Bizanos: Héracles, 1998), general articles 9 and 10, 3637Google Scholar.

88 For the articles on the culte de fief in the Edict of Nantes, see L’Édit de Nantes, éds. Thomas and Bourgeon, general article 7, 35-36; general article 8, 36, also, less directly, general article 12 and general article 13, 37. For evidence on the vulnerability of this type of legal title, see Joxe, Pierre, L’Édit de Nantes: une histoire pour aujourd'hui (Paris: Hachette, 1998), 145–46Google Scholar; Grossmann, Walter, “Toleration—Exercitium Religionis Privatum,” Journal of the History of Ideas 40 (1979): 129–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Olivier Christin, “L'Europe des paix de religion: Semblants et faux-semblants,” éds. Michel Grandjean and Bernard Roussel, Coexister dans l'intolérance: L’Édit de Nantes (1598), Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français 144, nos. 1–2 (num. spéc.), (jan.-juin 1998): 493–500. For the articles in the Edict concerning the culte de concession, see L’Édit de Nantes, éds. Thomas and Bourgeon, general article 11, 37; secret article 6, 62. For the vulnerability of such a title, see Cassan, Michel, Le Temps des Guerres de Religion: Le Cas du Limousin (vers 1530-vers 1630) (Paris: Publisud, 1996), 346–47Google Scholar.

89 The title was challenged three times in the decades from 1650 to 1670. See Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 145–46; Drouault, Recherches sur les Établissements hospitaliers du Loudunais, 74, 77; Bezzina, Edwin, “Charity and Confessional Difference in Seventeenth-Century France: The Maison de Charité of Loudun, 1648–1685,” Confraternitas 11, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 1621CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

90 Arnault-Poirier, “Monuments de l'arrondissement de Loudun,” 146–47; Noyelle and Rohaut, Histoire des rues de Loudun: le bourg du Martray et le faubourg du Vieux-Cimetière, 122.

91 Louis Trincant, Mémoire de la ville de Loudun, BnF, Anciens Petits Fonds français, 20157, fols. 192r-v; Roger Drouault, éd., Louis Trincant: abrégé des antiquités de Loudun et païs de Loudunois, 24–25; François Le Proust, De la ville et Chasteau de Loudun, du pays de Loudunais et des habitans de la ville et du pays, in Pierre Le Proust, Commentaires sur les coustumes du pays de Loudunais, 8–9; “Estat des places et deniers ordonnéz par Sa Majesté à Nantes les 12, 14, 17 et 18 mai 1598 pour seureté et d'ostage à ceux de la Religion,” (Montpellier: Jean Gillet, 1600), AN, TT 256 (232), pièce 36, p. 5; L’Édit de Nantes, éds. Thomas and Bourgeon, second brevet, 75–78; Carmona, Les Diables de Loudun, 48–49, 57–58; Lerosey, Loudun: Histoire civile et religieuse, 16–7; Vatinel, 9; Valone, James S., Huguenot Politics: 1601–1622 (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994), 137–50Google Scholar; Saulnier, V. L., “Henri IV, Odet de la Noue, et l'Assemblée de Loudun,” Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 27, no. 2 (1965): 536–38Google Scholar.

92 “Arguments prepared by the sindic of the Jesuits of Poitiers against Théophraste Regnier, and others,” 1658 [no precise date given], ADV, D 128, inventaire: marginalia; Carmona, Les Diables de Loudun, 70; Barbier, Alfred, éd., “Jean II d'Armagnac, Gouverneur de Loudun, et Urbain Grandier (1617–1635),” Mémoires de la Sociétés des Antiquaires de l'Ouest, 2e série, 8 (1885): 307Google Scholar.

93 Bezzina, Edwin, “After the Wars of Religion: Protestant-Catholic Accommodation in the French Town of Loudun, 1598–1665,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 2004), 6688, 119–20, 192–242Google Scholar; Benedict, The Huguenot Population of France, 30, 32, 34, 35.

94 Bezzina, , “After the Wars of Religion,” 67-73; “Caught between King, Religion, and Social Ambition: Marc-Antoine Marreau de Boisguérin and His Family (ca. 1560-1680),” Sixteenth Century Journal 29, no. 2 (Summer 2008): 339344Google Scholar; Dumoustier de La Fond, Essais sur l'histoire de la ville de Loudun, tome I, 67, 82. In conducting business on Catholic feast days, Loudun's Protestants were contravening the twentieth general article of the Edict. L’Édit de Nantes, éds. Thomas and Bourgeon, 39; “Articles contenants des plaintes des habitants catholiques de la ville de Loudun pour estre présentés à M.M. les commissaires députés pour l'exécution des édits (1611),” December 11, 1611, AN, TT 256 (232), pièce 49; Dumoustier de La Fond, tome I, 98.

95 For information on these conflicts see, Charbonneau-Lassay, Les Châteaux de Loudun, 389–460; [Pierre] Aubin, Histoire des Diables de Loudun ou De La Possession des Religieuses Ursulines et de la condamnation et du supplice d'Urbain Grandier, Curé de la même ville (Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang, 1693)Google Scholar; Rapley, Robert, A Case of Witchcraft: The Trial of Urbain Grandier (Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 There are 22,790 baptismal acts for Loudun's two Catholic parishes (for the years from 1593 to 1685). Of these, one can find 627 godfathers who were clerics. Influential Catholics operated as godfather numerous times. For example, Louis Trincant, an important pillar of the Catholic resurgence, appears as a godfather for 52 children (during the years from 1598 to 1635). For the one exception where a commandeur, Gabriel Thibault de La Carte, appears in these registers as a godfather, see “Baptismal act of Jean Lebois,” February 21, 1675, baptismal registers of the parish St. Pierre du Marché, AML, GG 23.

Although a godparent's purpose was to oversee the spiritual upbringing of the child and to care for the child if the parents should pass away, the social alliance-building potential of godparentage remained a reality. See Bossy, John, “The Counter-Reformation and the People of Catholic Europe,” Past and Present 47 (1970): 5658CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burguière, André, Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, Segalen, Martine, et Zonabend, Françoise, dirs., Histoire de la famille, tome II: Le choc des modernités (Paris: Armand Collin, 1986), 99101, 141–44Google Scholar.

97 See, for example, “Testament of Catherine Thibault,” October 26, 1630, minutier Aubin Douteau, ADV, 4 E 53:276; “Testament of Pierre Menuau,” January 20, 1651, ADV, 1 H 18:16.

98 See Bezzina, , “The Jesuits and the Application of the Edict of Nantes: the Priory of Notre-Dame-du-Château, Loudun, 1568–1640,” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History: Selected Papers 28 (2000): 146–56Google Scholar.

99 For example, see “Register of the Grand Priory of Aquitaine,” BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises, 3067, fols. 80r, 83r, 87r, 183v, 191r. What is problematic, however, is that Jousseaume's signature does not appear on many documents relating to the commanderies for the decades 1600-1620. That is different from a predecessor such as Philippe Bigot as well as a successor such as François de Talhouet.

100 “Agreement between Pierre Herpailler and Louis Ollivier the Elder concerning the succession of Jean Herpailler and Vincente Mesnard his wife,” November 30, 1623, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:44; “Agreement between René Deliard, Marie Boucher his wife, and the fermiers of the commandery of Loudun,” December 30, 1623, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:44; “Declaration by King Louis XIII concerning litigation between the sindic of the Jesuits of Poitiers and the commandeur of Loudun,” February 20, 1638, ADV, D 127; “Visitation of the commanderie of Loudun,” December 21, 1648, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:69; “Loan agreement between Daniel Gaultier and the commandeur of Loudun,” July 4, 1649, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:70; “Agreement between François de Thalouet commandeur of Loudun and the heirs of the late René Minier,” December 22, 1658, minutier Jean Huger, ADV, 4 E 53:396. The one exception here is the Catholic Nicolas Moussault sieur du Fresne, “Compromis and sentence of arbitration between Jacques Simon formerly fermier of the commandery of Loudun and the heirs of the late Louis Ollivier the Elder,” November 27, 1657, minutier Jean Huger, ADV, 4 E 53:395.

101 “Agreement between the commandeur of Loudun and his fermier, Daniel Avril,” October 18, 1658, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:79; “Visitation of the commanderie of the Moullins,” May 3, 1658, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:79. In addition to ensuring that Catholic service would be held in the church of Loudun's commandery, Avril could use only Moreau as his procureur when initiating litigation on the institution's behalf. “Bail à ferme between the commandeur and Daniel Avril and consorts,” October 25, 1651, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:72.

102 Bezzina, “After the Wars of Religion,” 192–223.

103 For information on the Catholic predominance in Loudun's two local law courts, see ibid., 88–111.

104 See, for example, the arrêt issued in favour of the commandery, June 5, 1610, ADV, 3 H 1:714, and the subsequent out-of-court settlement, May 17, 1611, ADV, 3 H 1:714.

105 “Register of the Grand Priory of Aquitaine,” BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises, 3068, assembly of May 3, 1627, fol. 74r; “Out-of-court settlement between Marie Adam widow of Louis Ollivier and François de Talhouet,” January 21, 1651, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:72; “Out-of-court settlement between Marie Adam widow of Louis Ollivier and François de Talhouet,” March 1, 1652, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:73; “Detailed inventory and description of the commanderies of Loudun and the Moullins,” May 6, 1625, ADV, 3 H 1:683. See also, “Register of the Grand Priory of Aquitaine,” assembly of July 22, 1619, BnF, nouvelles acquisitions françaises, 3068, fol. 19v.

106 “Inventory and Assessment of the commanderies of Loudun and the Moullins,” May 7, 1657, ADV, 3 H 1:683, p. 72.

107 See the major inventories and assessments prepared for these two commanderies, May 6, 1625, March 6, 1640, and May 7, 1657, ADV, 3 H 1:683.

108 “Inventory and Assessment of the commanderies of Loudun and the Moullins,” May 7, 1657, ADV, 3 H 1:683. See also Noyelle and Rohaut, Histoire des rues de Loudun: Le long de la rue de la Porte-de-Chinon, 27. On the procedure involved here, see de Vertot, Histoire des chevaliers Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem, tome IV, “Dissertation au sujet du gouvernement ancien et moderne de l'Ordre Religieux et Militaire de Saint Jean de Jérusalem,” Article III, “Des Dignitez, Prieurez, Bailliages et Commanderies attachées particulièrement aux Chevaliers de Justice,” 26.

109 See the two documents concerning litigation between the commandery and the abbey of Fontevrault: September 8, 1613 and April 28, 1617, ADV, 3 H 1:688. See also “Out-of-court settlement between the commandeur of Loudun and Louis Bonneau sieur de La Ronde,” February 20, 1649, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:70; “Extract from the Registers of the Parlement of Paris concerning the commandery of Loudun and the priory of Notre-Dame-du-Château,” March 11, 1643, ADV, D 128; “Sentence in favour of François de Talhouet, commandeur of Loudun,” June 5, 1654, ADV, 3 H:686; “Out-of-court settlement between the commandeur of Loudun and the heirs of the deceased René Minier,” December 22, 1658, minutier Jean Huger, ADV, 4 E 53:79; “Bail à rente between the commandeur of Loudun and Charles Honoré Mesmin sieur de Silly,” May 18, 1658, minutier Thomas Aubéry the Elder, ADV, 4 E 53:79.

110 Bezzina, “Charity and Confessional Difference in Seventeenth-Century France,” 3-4, esp. fn. 3; Drouault, Recherches sur les Établissements hospitaliers du Loudunais, 63–73.

111 Harrison, Michael, ed., Canada's Huguenot Heritage, 1685-1985: Proceedings of the Commemorations held in Canada during 1985 of the Tercentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, April 27th, 1985, Toronto, Ontario (Toronto: Huguenot Society of Canada, 1985)Google Scholar, description of frontispiece; Pierre Bourguet, La Croix huguenote ([en Cévennes]: Musée du Désert, 1991), 12–17.

112 “Accommodation” is a term used in sociology, but here it tends to convey more the ideas of cultural assimilation, amalgamation, and exchange between two groups, rather than the actual relations between those groups. Scott, John and Marshall, Gordon, eds., A Dictionary of Sociology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, s.v. “assimilation,” Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press, Memorial University of Newfoundland, July 10, 2012, http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t88.e100; Johnson, Allan G., The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User's Guide to Sociological Language, 2nd ed. (Madden, Mass..: Blackwell, 2000)Google Scholar, s.v. “cultural contact,” p. 70. See also Christopherson, Neal, “Accommodation and Resistance in Religious Fiction: Family Structures and Gender Roles,” Sociology of Religion 60, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 439–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Simpson, J. A. and Weiner, E. S. C., eds., The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989)Google Scholar, s.v. “accommodation,” v. 1, p. 79, s.v. “coexistence,” v. 3, p. 437. Our use of the words “Middle Ground” is a loose application of Richard White's term for his study of European-Amerindian contact. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region 1650-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)Google Scholar, x. See also Hanlon, Gregory, Confession and Community in Seventeenth-Century France: Catholic and Protestant Coexistence in Aquitaine (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

113 See Bezzina, Edwin, “The Consistory of Loudun, 1589-1602: Seeking an Equilibrium between Utility, Compassion, and Social Discipline in Uncertain Times,” in Dire l'Interdit: The Vocabulary of Censure and Exclusion in the Early Modern Reformed Tradition, eds. Mentzer, Raymond A. Jr., Moreil, Françoise, and Chareyre, Philippe (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2010), 253–67Google Scholar; Conner, Huguenot Heartland, 70–87; Mentzer, Raymond A., “Notions of Sin and Penitence within the French Reformed Community,” in Penitence in the Age of Reformations, eds. Lualdi, Katharine Jackson and Thayer, Anne T. (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2000), 8796Google Scholar; Chareyre, Philippe, “‘The Great Difficulties One Must Bear to Follow Jesus Christ’: Morality at Sixteenth-Century Nîmes,” in Sin and the Calvinists: Morals Control and the Consistory in the Reformed Tradition, ed. Mentzer, Raymond A. (Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth Century Publishers 1994), 6796Google Scholar.

114 Bezzina, “After the Wars of Religion,” 367–83, 404–13.

115 Davis, Natalie Zemon, A Passion for History: Conversations with Denis Crouzet (Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 2010), 1112, 175Google Scholar.

116 Today, the Hospitallers are well known for their hospital work around the world. See Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 144–46; Sire, The Knights of Malta, 268–79. See also, Nicholson, , “Muslim Reactions to the Crusades,” in Palgrave Advances in the Crusades, ed. Nicholson, , (Houndmills, U.K.: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), 269–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Claster, Jill N., Sacred Violence: The European Crusades to the Middle East, 1095-1396 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), 309–18Google Scholar.