Une lettre de consolation inédite de Pierre Jurieu au galérien René Barraud de La Cantinière

The unpublished letter dated 20 December 1690, transcribed here from a copy in the Collection Antoine Court in the Bibliothèque de Genève, was very probably sent by Pierre Jurieu to René Barraud, sieur de la Cantinière, who was at that time chained on one of the galleys at anchor in Rouen. It is a letter of consolation in the exhortative mode that assists in identifying some aspects of the discourse of consolation in an epistolary context and of the somewhat original symbolism of martyrdom marshalled by the pastor. It would appear that the art of consolation on the galleys was as much a political as a spiritual action; it constituted a process of socialisation to martyrdom in which others were implicated, like “Mademoiselle de La Roque” (Jeanne de Gênes, widow of the pastor Matthieu de Larroque), who gave practical help to the Protestants in chains.