The atheist was long considered as a lonesome fool, a cousin of the monster or the beast,
but between 1540 and 1560 he began to be taken seriously and regarded as a real threat to
Christianity, just like any « heretic ». The Cymbalum Mundi (1537), an atheist work whose
author, Bonaventure des Périers, we are told, had previously adhered to the Reformation
before turning away from it, informs us of one possible cause of this new attitude towards
atheists, which seems not be a fantasy but to correspond toreality. The Cymbalum points
towards the social disappointment caused by the Reformationeverywhere it was
established : the ruin of the hopes of equality and freedom that many people had invested
in it gave rise to the idea that no help would come from Heaven (perhaps empty) and
provoked a change in attitude of the churches.
