Scandale et religion au XVIIe siècle : aspects de l'image du prêtre dans les campagnes cambrésiennes

G. Deregnaucourt, Scandal and religion in the XVIIth century ; Aspects of the image of the priest in the "Cambrésien" countryside. Based on the records of the Cambrai "officialité", this article is an attempt at apprehending the reactions of the Christian communities facing the multifarious abuses committed by the vicars of the Cambrai diocese in the XVIIth century. Beyond these reactions, it is the problem of the counter-reformation and of its significance which is asked. As a matter of fact, in front of this ancient but still quite frequent type of shameful vicar, drunken and debauched, violent and careless, one may observe a double reaction made of a mixture of indifference and questioning, of complicity and new requirements. This ambiguity allows two hypotheses : 1) Facing a very mean general situation, as regards both clergy and religious feeling, the post-Tridentine hierarchy uses and takes advantage of old behaviours and old attitudes against these behaviours, in order to promote a new image of priesthood and new standards which it tries to enforce on the occasion of trials. 2) The hierarchy becomes conscious of a certain religious discomfort, awkwardly expressed though deeply felt, expresses it and tries to bring a solution to it through a new apostolate. In other words the question is to know wether the effort of repression and thus of renewal of priesthood has been a vast process of "a-culuturation" for the bulk of the peasants or partly the expression of the new religious requirements of an unsatisfied Christian population which the hierarchy progressively took notice of.Deregnaucourt Gilles. Scandale et religion au XVIIe siècle : aspects de l'image du prêtre dans les campagnes cambrésiennes. In: Revue du Nord, tome 58, n°230, Juillet-septembre 1976. pp. 451-464