Communities of Belief

This volume is about the beliefs and behaviour of people in early modern France, dealing particularly with the conflicts related to social and intellectual change and with the tensions between the elite and the common people. The topics discussed include witchcraft, popular belief and superstition, confession, the family, Church, State and popular revolt. The author has combined analyses of important topics with more detailed focus on individual cases to produce an analysis of the changes and tensions which mark this period as one of vital development in all these areas. The work is divided into two parts. In the first, the author concentrates on history as seen from below and in the second, he examines the intellectual and institutional superstructure and its relation to society as a whole. The author shows the ways in which the communal, oral culture of the older Europe was gradually broken up and replaced by a recognizable modern culture.