to power. Because of this, there was, "increasing pressure on all segments of society to conform" (Walker 61). Moliere obviously was notconforming to the popular religious dogma of the day and this was seen as a threat, even though he hadthe support of Louis XIV. Despite the support of the king, the play was banned. This is testimony tojust how much power the religious officials had.The French had been deeply split over matters of religion in the years preceeding the play. Thishad led to a war between the Catholics and Protestants. Religious groups sided with various noblemen whowere struggling for power. This became known as the Battle of the "Frondes". After this war concluded,there emerged a belief that the main danger to national unity lie in heresy. "Agnostic, free-thinkingideas were very much present, although carefully screened for fear of the real possibility of executionfor heresy" (Walker 61). This attempt to restrain free thinking was challenged by Moliere and he wasshot down for it. One critic wrote an especially scathing review of "Tartuffe", in which, " the authorof 'Tartuffe' was represented as practically the Antichrist" (Fernandez 39).The church and state were each fully supportive of the other. Hence, "a clever man likeRichelieu could pursue interlocking careers in the church hierarchy and government. One path to temporalpower was ecclesiastical, not only over the spirits of men but in the political and social sense"(Walker 61). A similar path was followed by the "imposter", Tartuffe. Both used arranged marriages tocreate a political stronghold. Both were intent on getting rid of resistance. Most importantly, bothused their power in the spiritual realm to increase their power in the political realm. At the end ofthe play Tartuffe appears to have done just this by taking over the hapless Orgon's estate. Only the king'sintervention prevents this. The king apparently knew what was going on the whol...
