ABSTRACT
Marginals were treated harshly by seventeenth-century society, which was intolerant. Humanist sceptics such as Montaigne had tended to view morality in natural terms, arguing that men formed their beliefs through their experiences independently of church dogma. The traditional interpretation insists that the libertines were sceptics, who concealed their doubts in order to conduct a hidden assault upon church orthodoxy. The libertines had no intention of destroying Christianity or undermining church orthodoxy, quite the reverse. Atheism was scepticism about certain aspects of church orthodoxy, including a diminished role for God in the creation of the world, a belief in the spontaneous generation of matter and a denial that Christ’s miracles were in any way natural. Marginals might have the solidarity of church, parish and priest, and the loyalties created by charitable assistance reinforced those of the church. Heretics and witches condemned by the church were the real social outcasts.
