Through the eyes of rural notaries: business, community and confessional divisions in seventeenth-century poitou

摘要

Historians have often reflected upon the relations between Catholics and Protestants in the small towns of seventeenth-century France. Using the recorded information on the lives and business dealings of notaries, this article looks at how they integrated into and dealt with both confessional groups in the small Poitou town of Chef-Boutonne. Of the twenty-one men who listed themselves as notaries in the parish registers, seven left records of the acts they drew up. Using their papers as well as parish registers the article follows up on these men, their religious affiliation, families, marriages, training as notaries, business dealings and their selection as godparents for town children. It then reflects back upon the role of these men and their respective confessional groups in the crucial years between the end of the Wars of Religion and the lead-up to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.