ABSTRACT
Louis XIV presents us in his Mmoires with an extremely rationalistic theory of human nature and of the state. Louis XIVs rationalism however, did not extend to the mysteries of religion These were beyond human reason. The author illustrates the close connection between the guerre de Hollande and his religious policies. It is also well known how, upon the death of his father-in-law, Philip IV of Spain, Louis took the opportunity to pursue his wifes claims under the obscure Law of Devolution, practised in much of the Spanish Low Countries. We have seen that the decision to go to war against the Dutch had been taken against the advice of Colbert. But if it had excluded him from any influence on foreign policy. The Jansenists, were the followers of Cornelius Jansen, a combination of dogmatic predestinarians and moral rigorists, who had taken root in the convent of Port Royal and in the ranks of the Arnauld family.
