Catholic Militants in France’s Protestant Heartland
In 1582, eighteen Capuchin friars arrived in Toulouse from Rome to establish houses from which to fight the Protestant heresy then spreading in Languedoc. Members of a strictly reformed congregation of Franciscans, Capuchins were famed for ardent preaching and ascetic lives. The chapter examines the strategies used to spread their message and shows how they claimed a prominent place in the urban fabric by adapting ritual practices and public service during plague to battle heresy in the streets, as well as from the pulpit. Refused admission to Protestant-dominated towns, they were forced by the continuing conflicts to focus instead on stimulating a renewal of Catholic piety in the towns where they settled. Joining an internalized spirituality with exuberant exterior displays of faith, they helped spread a still-nascent Catholic Reformation in the South. Their militancy nevertheless alienated Protestant onlookers rather than inspiring conversion and hardened confessional boundaries instead of erasing them.