ABSTRACT
After 1700 prophesying was widely experienced among dispersed Protestant communities in the Cevennes. The earliest occurrences of entranced prophesying and preaching in the Cevennes, recorded in the texts of the Theatre sacre, are to be found in the depositions of David Flotard, Abraham Mazel and Durand Fage. The depositions of the Theatre sacre reveal that inspired children and youths predominated in the Cevennes. Historians, as noted by Schwartz, 'have made much of the youth of the inspires after 1700'. His contention that their prophesying served to confirm that 'a new generation' had endured despite persecution 'by the grace of God', also illuminates why their inspired pronouncements had generated much religious excitement among desert congregations. Collections of extant family papers have included copies of children's catechisms, prayers and even statements of belief. In the exhortations of inspired children, human sinfulness was identified as the cause of the persecution and the afflictions of the church.
