`titrebForging the “Christian soldier”. The catholic supervision of the papal and royal troops in France in 1568-1569`/titrebThis paper deals with a crucial stage in the history of the Church in its relations with war and the army leading to the explicit formulation of a model of the “Christian soldier”, in which the Jesuits played an important role. This model will henceforth shape the conception of warfare and military discipline inspired by the Counter-Reformation all over Christendom, expanding progressively in the second half of the sixteenth century and the seventeenth century. It is in France, during the third civil war, more precisely during the military campaign of 1569, when pope Pius V sent to Charles IX troops to help him in his war against the Protestants, that this model was carried out for the first time. The involvement in France of these Italian troops goes along with the formation of a Jesuit military chaplaincy and the completion by Antonio Possevino of a Handbook of the Christian soldier, the first official manual written under the tutelage of the Company in order to teach the soldiers and, in particular their noble commanding officers, how to carry out a Holy war. Within the logic of a universal struggle against the enemies of the Church as conceived by Pius V (1566-1572), this device involves a process of disciplinarization of the troops, which presupposes to transform the archetype of the glory-seeking knight into the ethics of the service of God in a view of military efficiency. The paper examines the way in which this device of religious tutelage was developed and its confrontation with noble values and practices. It questions the relations of this model with the extreme violence exerted at the battle of Moncontour, along with the failure of the Jesuit chaplains to submit the soldiers to a form of devout discipline.