Very different was the position of the young man who tried to undo all
that Louis XIV., under the influence of his mistress De Maintenon, and
his Jesuit confessor, Pere la Chase,[52] had been trying all his life
to accomplish. He was an intelligent youth, the son of Huguenot
parents in Viverais, of comparatively poor and humble condition. He
was, however, full of energy, activity, and a zealous disposition for
work. Observing the tendency which Protestantism had, while bereft of
its pastors, to run into gloomy forms of fanaticism, Antoine Court
conceived the idea of reviving the pastorate, and restoring the
proscribed Protestant Church of France. It was a bold idea, but the
result proved that Antoine Court was justified in entertaining it.