ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203055748/9fa93cb9-576f-4d7e-aae3-f90b98506c65/content/ch14_page335-01_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> The explosion of Catholic violence in the early 1560s and the accompanying defeat of the Huguenot insurrection in the first civil war decisively blunted the initial appeal of French Calvinism, which until then had spread quite rapidly. Even so, beneath the political struggle lay other indicators of the mounting Catholic counteroffensive against heresy. Among these was the “triumphant victory by God's body over the evil spirit Beelzebub” achieved in Laon in 1566, an incident of capital importance both for its propaganda value and for the crises of mimetic possession it inspired. 1
