LA CABALE DES DEVOTS

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The best to date on the Cabale des dévots, a powerful secret society of the 17th century. Based on the manuscript Annales de la compagnie du Saint Sacrement, this work reveals the founder, René II de Voyer d’Argenson (1623-1703), ambassador to Venice from 1651-1655. A misanthropist, and pious to the point of bigotry, he gave up his functions to take orders. Admirably qualified, through his intimate relations with the most influential members of the community, to furnish an exact and detailed narration on the subject, he composed this history of the association, giving numberless data on its organisation, action and purposes. The author of this volume provides an excellent analysis of the violent reactions to which this sect gave rise, on the part of the Jansenists, in fashionable society, and among the writers, such as Molière whose Tartuffe directly stigmatises the members of this community.

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