Abstract: The article precisely documents the story of the complex relationship between Bossuet and two apostate pastors, Deshmahis and Papin, from 1683 and 1692. By so doing, it questions the conversion processes of Protestant ministers, and the way in which, especially through the publication of polemical texts, links are gradually forged between those apostates and Bossuet – so that the former eventually become important instruments of Bossuet’s fight against Protestant “heresy”.
