Political and religious insecurity in the correspondence of Charles Drelincourt, pastor of the Charenton, 1620–1669

The correspondence of the Parisian minister Charles Drelincourt runs from 1620, a year before his church in Charenton was burnt by the Paris mob, to 1668, seven years after the beginning of the personal rule of Louis XIV. It offers insights into his experience, particularly of the period after the Peace of Alès in 1629, when the loss of the right to hold political assemblies and maintain strongholds had seriously eroded the military and political strength of the French Reformed community. Letters to three eminent correspondents based in Metz and in the Netherlands illuminate their shared scholarly, theological and pastoral endeavours, but they also reflect Drelincourt’s sometimes anguished awareness of the increased insecurity of his community and the extent of its dependence on the goodwill of the monarch.