Located south of Geneva, the Chablais region of France was, in the 1590s, part of the Duchy of Savoy but was occupied by Calvinist Reformers. Catholicism had long been suppressed, and Francis de Sales was sent there to recover the population to the Faith.
Initially, Francis encountered unrelenting hostility and stiff resistance to his evangelical efforts in the Chablais (1594-1598). But he struck on the idea of using social media to reach the hearts of the many. Well... 1590s social media.
The Catholic Controversy is a collection of his hand-written and then typeset pamphlets or tracts used to subvert the ruthless Calvinist regime. Eventually, DeSales rallied the entire population of some 72,000 Savoyards living and farming in the Chablais to return to the Catholic faith.
The Power-Graden Library contains four editions of Francis's Controversy: 1886, 1908, 1989, and 2012. You can find the book online as well (e.g. Google Books).
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