Returns from exile and religious minorities in the modern era

This meeting forms part of a collaborative project focusing on religious migration in the modern era, particularly that which affected North-West Europe and the colonial world (16th–18th centuries). The abundance of scholarly literature on the subject of refuge stands in contrast to the more limited attention paid to repatriations. Admittedly, returns from exile involved smaller numbers of people and became less significant in the 18th century, at least within the Protestant world. However, even if we consider only the religious history of the 16th century, returns from exile had significant consequences in shaping confessional identities and the Churches: Calvinism and Puritanism in England and Scotland (the return of Marian exiles who had taken refuge in continental Europe), devout Catholicism in France (the return of former members of the League who had taken refuge in the Netherlands), and spiritual reconquest
in the southern Netherlands (the return of Catholic exiles).
It is this ‘grey area’ of historiography that we propose to examine. What impact does the experience of exile have on religions when individuals
or minority groups return to their territories of origin? What are the practical arrangements for this return (individual, collective, clandestine, official, etc.)? What are the social, political and cultural effects: harmony and reconciliation, or a reinforcement of confessional divisions and religious zeal?