Sacred Boundaries: Religious Coexistence and Conflict in Early-Modern France

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing books and creating religious coexistence have, at least, this much in common: they both require collaboration and institutional support . The institutional, that is to say financial, support for this book came from North Carolina State University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, and the American Philosophical Society. I am grateful to them for providing me with the means to undertake the research for and to complete the writing of this book. I also wish to thank the staffs of the institutions in which I carried out research, including those of the Archives Départementales de la Charente -Maritime, Archives Départementales des Deux-Sèvres, Archives Départementales de la Vienne, Archives Nationales, Bibliothèque Municipale d’Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale de Poitiers, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliotheque du Protestantisme Français, Bibliothèque Provinciale des Capucins, and Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève. It is the professionalism of these people, along with their interest in scholarship and their willingness to help researchers, that makes the study of French history possible. I am grateful to audiences that listened to and commented on parts of this work. I found receptive listeners at East Carolina University, Portland State University, Rutgers University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Memphis, the National Humanities Center, the University of New South Wales, and the Research Centre on Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam. I have also benefited a great deal from an ongoing exchange with a group of scholars, whom Wayne te Brake has organized into a workshop entitled “Accommodating Difference: The Politics of Cultural Pluralism in Europe.” Bringing a project such as this to completion depends not just on the efforts of an author but on a network of family, friends, and colleagues ix who offer support, advice, and the hard work of reading the manuscript as it progresses. For their help, I want to thank Harold J. Luria, Edwin Bezzina, Robert Chanaud, Carolyn Lougee Chappell, Natalie Z. Davis, Barbara Diefendorf, Nicholas Doumanis, Sandria Freitag, Gregory Hanlon , Lynn Hunt, Joseph Klaits, Yves Krumenacker, Florence Mirouse, Kathleen Nicholson, Bodo Nischan, Jeremy Popkin, William Ray, Peter van der Veer, and Dale Van Kley. Those who have given time and effort to reading the manuscript include David Gilmartin, Daniel Hickey, Anthony La Vopa, Jonathan Ocko, Steven Vincent, as well as other colleagues in the History Department of North Carolina State University. In particular, for their painstaking and perceptive readings, I must offer special thanks to Philip Benedict, Katherine Stern Brennan, S. Amanda Eurich, and Raymond A. Mentzer. I have also greatly appreciated the efforts of David J. McGonagle, Theresa Walker, and Philip G. Holthaus, who have overseen the book’s publication. A previous version of chapter  appeared in French Historical Studies , no.  (Spring ): –. My greatest debt of gratitude is to my wife, Mary D. Sheriff. She has read the work too many times to count and offered long, unwavering encouragement. In addition, through her own scholarship, she has provided an inspiration and example to many, not the least to me. This book is dedicated to her. x  ...