ABSTRACT
Calvinists emphasized the "communication" of Christ with his followers, rather than his communion with them through the Host. In replacing Roman communion with the "communication" of the Host, reformers were drawing upon an older theological concept of communication idomatum. De Beze might chuckle all he wanted over the self-promoting tactics of controversial writers, he nonetheless promoted Reformation publications and the publicity they implied with utter seriousness. He could laugh at publicity stunts precisely because he took the creation of a Reformation public so seriously. The radial communities thus created forged a new sense of belonging, and, as reformed satire fanned out across distribution networks in France, in readers' imaginations a unified movement spread across all of Europe. Satire served to flesh out immanent forms of community; in its invitation to laugh from a distance at "foreign" unreformed Christians was born the French Reformation diaspora.
