ABSTRACT
The Counter-Reformation Church is rarely associated with the notion of religious coexistence. One remembers instead its intolerance, epitomized by the Inquisitions. But despite the Church, Catholics did find ways to live together with members of rival religious groups. They settled, or at least set aside, conflicts, and they arranged for peace in the midst of religious strife. Certainly, one cannot say that coexistence triumphed over intolerance; the violence of the period is too evident for that. But the widespread evidence of coexistence does show that people, and often states, recognized it as a necessary alternative to religious conflict.
