Abstract EN:

As a frontier province situated in the north-west of the kingdom of france, the seneschalsy of boulogne was very close to the protestant england and to the flemish and artois territories belonging to the spanish. Around 1550, boulogne and its surroundings became the center of a new diocese which was created after the former diocese of therouanne had been destroyed by the spanish. In the second half of the sixteenth century, protestants and catholics were both anxious to get in control of boulogne harbour and of the region. In the seventeenth century, a small protestant community still existed (it will survive until the revocation of the edict of nantes in 1685) and the bishops of boulogne were aware a catholic reform was necessary. They wanted to improve the state of the clergy so that the priests were more easily able to control the religious practices of their congregations by laying stress on the religious instruction. This catholic reform was marked by the spirit of "l'ecole francaise de spiritualite", the main representatives of which were the cardinal berulle, the oratoriens and saint vincent de paul. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a jansenist crisis broke out in the region of boulogne, showing that the catholic reformation had been a success in this region.