Shaking up the enlightenment : jansenist Convulsionnaires and their witnesses in mid-eighteenth-century paris

Abstract EN

A bizarre sort of spectacle rivetted Paris between 1758 and 1760: assemblies organized by fringe cells of the Jansenist convulsionary movement where female adepts endured crucifixions and other brutal mortifications—often before sizable audiences.

Starting with the question of what prompted these macabre demonstrations of religious faith in the middle of Enlightenment-era Paris, this article considers how they were understood historically by contemporary commentators.

It specifically explores the role of print culture in disseminating the narratives of these crucifying convulsionnaires, paying particular attention to the strategic use of eye-witness reports in Frédéric Melchior Grimm’s elite periodical Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique.