ABSTRACT
Towards the beginning of 1698, Henri D’Aguesseau, conseiller du roi and effective chair of the Council of Dispatches, addressed a memorandum to his cousin by marriage, the contrôleur général des finances Louis de Pontchartrain:
There are some among the intendants, who, inspired no doubt by good motives and inflamed by the indiscreet zeal of certain unenlightened churchmen, employ extreme rigour upon those whose Catholicity they suspect. They charge fees, quarter soldiers, and, in a word, employ against them all the authority they have in order to force them to go to church and take the sacraments.
