In this study the content and background of La Milletiere's irenism are analysed and compared to the irenism of Hugo Grotius, who strove for unity in this same period. The reactions which La Milletiere's books and pamphlets provoked are related to the rival groups within each confession: Jansenists versus Jesuits, the scholars of Saumur versus orthodox theologians like Rivet and Du Moulin and the ministers of Charenton. Richelieu's conciliatory religious policy was experienced by the oppressed French Calvinists as a major threat to the integrity of their doctrine. When one of their...