The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities 9789462986688, 9789048537976

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CROSSING BOUNDARIES

Rose-Marie Peake

The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities

The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities

Crossing Boundaries Turku Medieval and Early Modern Studies The series from the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS) publishes monographs and collective volumes placed at the intersection of disciplinary boundaries, introducing fresh connections between established fields of study. The series especially welcomes research combining or juxtaposing different kinds of primary sources and new methodological solutions to deal with problems presented by them. Encouraged themes and approaches include, but are not limited to, identity formation in medieval/early modern communities, and the analysis of texts and other cultural products as a communicative process comprising shared symbols and meanings. Series Editor Matti Peikola, University of Turku, Finland Editorial Board Matti Peikola, Department of Modern Languages, University of Turku (Editorin-chief) Janne Harjula, Adjunct Professor of Historical Archaeology, University of Turku Johanna Ilmakunnas, Acting Professor of Finnish History, School of History, Culture and Arts Studies, University of Turku Hemmo Laiho, Postdoctoral Researchers, Department of Philosophy, University of Turku Satu Lidman, Adjunct Professor of History of Criminal law, Faculty of Law/Legal History, University of Turku Aino Mäkikalli, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Turku Kirsi-Maria Nummila, Adjunct Professor of Finnish language, University of Turku; University Lecturer of Finnish, University of Helsinki. Kirsi Salonen, Associate Professor, School of History, Culture and Arts Studies, University of Turku

The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities

Rose-Marie Peake

Amsterdam University Press

Cover illustration: Courtesy of AP-HP / F. Marin. This work is kept at the Musée de l’Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 668 8 e-isbn 978 90 4853 797 6 doi 10.5117/9789462986688 nur 685 © Rose-Marie Peake / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2020 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.



Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

7

Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction Studying the moral management of the Daughters of Charity: methods and sources Study in scholarly context

9 16 27

1 At the Cradle: Gender and Power in Seventeenth-century Parisian Society 1 The elitist facelift of Paris 2 The dévotes and the spiritual facelift of Paris 3 Social problems and the reorganization of nursing

33 34 42 46

2 Portrait of Louise de Marillac: Ensuring Resources for Moral Management 51 1 The credible head: Louise de Marillac and the elite networks of the Company 53 Louise, one of the Marillacs 54 Great names, great works 61 Cooperation beyond social boundaries 65 Motivation of the elites 69 Making good dévotes71 2 The living saint: managing spiritual authority 74 Embracing poverty 75 The family martyr 81 Upholding the Magdalen, subverting leader status 89 The moderately fleshless woman 92 The tender mother and exemplary sufferer 99 3 The passive penitent: portraying orthodox power relations 104 Reassessing the tormented soul 106 Revisiting administrational talent 108 The significance of submissiveness 112 3 Portrait of the Daughter of Charity: Safeguarding the Execution of Moral Management 1 Martha and Mary: conflict and reconciliation

117 118

2

3

4

Cloistered outside the cloister: managing spiritual position 125 125 Contemplative foundations Mental enclosure through obedience 131 138 Mental enclosure through control Moderate Magdalen: devotional practices and social status 145 Preventing illusions of grandeur: catechization and education 145 150 From animals toward interior angels: mortification 154 Chastising the body according to social standing Superior saint of Jerome – justifying the mixed vocation 158 Superior to nuns, equal with first Christians 159 The question of medieval predecessors and early modern​ models162

4 Portrait of the Underprivileged: Managing the Ignorant Substitute of Christ 1 Ignorant soul to be saved: motivation through prejudice Catholic conversion to gain salvation 2 Jesus nursed: motivation through love Saintly poverty in the early modern context The Daughters of Charity in imitation of Christ Self-sacrifice and philosophical motives 3 Creating the ideal underprivileged to protect the Company: substance of the moral management Only shamefaced The deserving poor as women’s responsibility Able-bodied but poorly educated Catholic subject

189 189 197 200

From Conservative Moral Management to Survival: Conclusions

209

Sources

215

Note on Vocabulary

237

Index

241

169 170 171 175 176 178 185

Acknowledgements This book was written over a number of years and mainly at the University of Helsinki. During the time I was researching, writing and revising, I was surrounded and supported by great scholars and warm-hearted friends. It is to them that I wish to express my deepest gratitude. The subject of this book came to me in early 2009 when a conversation with Adjunct Professor Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner led me to consider studying Louise de Marillac or Jeanne de Chantal. Thank you, Maiju, for instigating this unforgettable scholarly adventure into seventeenth-century France. That the subject grew into a much larger project and later this book is due to Professor Laura Kolbe, who kindly invited me to join her research seminar on European history at the University of Helsinki. I am extremely grateful for her support and constant belief in the value of the work. I am likewise immensely indebted to Adjunct Professor Päivi Salmesvuori for many hours of guidance and instrumental support in the process of writing this book, including commenting on several versions. The advice of the two anonymous readers of the manuscript of this book was also highly useful in the process. I must also acknowledge Professors Barbara Diefendorf and Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée: I especially want to express my deep gratitude to Professor Diefendorf for delivering valuable advice, particularly on sharpening my argument. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of growing as a scholar in several multidisciplinary environments. In addition to Professor Kolbe’s seminar and the department of History, I have discussed the central themes of this book with scholars at the faculty of Theology, likewise at my Alma Mater, during my fellowship in 2018–2019, at the Finnish Society of Church History (SKHS), and at the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS). The Society for Medieval Studies in Finland (Glossa) likewise deserves a special mention. Furthermore, important academic acculturation was received during my stay at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissence, Université de Tours, in 2017–2018, of which I am most indebted to the director of the centre, Professor Benoist Pierre. Several brilliant scholars owe a special thanks for their support and valuable comments. I thank especially Professors Matti Klinge, Markku Peltonen, Martin Ingram, Alain Tallon, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Joan W. Scott in addition to Adjunct Professors Satu Lidman and Päivi Räisänen-Schröder. I am grateful also to Dr. Pärttyli Rinne for his sharp methodological insights.

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THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS SOCIE TIES IN SHAPING EARLY MODERN SOCIE T Y

A collective thank you goes to all other colleagues and friends with whom I have had the pleasure to engage in inspiring discussions over the years. I will always cherish the memory of the warmth with which I was received at the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity in Paris. I am indebted to sœur Élizabeth Charpy, the most important historian of the Company, and to the now already departed archivist and sœur Anne Marguerite Fromaget for their insights on the source material and also on their personal vocation. Archivist Mme Aurore Darnet offered likewise vital and kind help with archival material. Several foundations have had a crucial role in the process of writing this book. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Kone Foundation, University of Helsinki Funds, and the department of History at the University of Helsinki, which have allowed me to work full-time and make vital archival trips to France and to conferences abroad. The revision process overlapped with funding periods most kindly granted by the Finnish Foundations’ Post Doc Pool / Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. Everyone needs a family, but especially this early-career scholar with a child. Thank you, Mum and Dad, brother Christopher and the whole extended family including my closest non-historian friends, especially Johanna, for your love and support and for reminding me that life exists also outside seventeenth-century Paris. It is to my brilliant daughter Inessa that I wish to dedicate this book, the completion of which she so patiently observed all these years.



Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction Abstract The chapter introduces the subject, approach, and focus of the book. The book offers a new insight into the history of the unenclosed Catholic Company the Daughters of Charity (les Filles de la Charité) by focusing on the contents and implementation of its value system in the first half of the seventeenth century. The chapter discusses the backbone of the book, the methodological concept of moral management which is a ‘travelling concept’ (Mieke Bal) utilized here for the first time in research on seventeenth-century Catholicism. Moral management is defined as the implementation, within the organization and its charitable activities, of a specific value system that is expressed in actions, behaviour, and mentalities, and that aims at securing the survival of the Company threatened by its perplexing religious identity. Keywords: moral management; travelling concepts; religious identity; performance studies; early modern Catholicism

One Sunday in April 1659, a group of women had gathered in a modest two-floor house in the faubourg Saint-Lazare in Paris. The clamour of the city seemed to be far away: the house, built of brick, had a walled front yard and garden as well as a stable and apricot trees.1 The clothing of the women further enriched the rustic idyll: with their brimless hats and long grey dresses with little white collars they looked like typical peasant women of the Parisian region.2 Some of them had indeed come to the house from the outskirts of the capital whereas others had just simply come down to the communal hall from the upper quarters of the residence where they lived. 1 2

Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 424–443. See Paul 1900–1985 (Paul FR), vol. II, doc. 534 (1641), p. 181, note 3.

Peake, R.-M., The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789462986688_intro

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THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS SOCIE TIES IN SHAPING EARLY MODERN SOCIE T Y

But on that particular Sunday no-one had come to Paris to sell their produce. They had come to the capital to visit the motherhouse of their Catholic community called the Filles de la Charité, or the Daughters of Charity, and to hear their superior general speak. ‘Dear sisters,’ father Vincent de Paul began his talk, ‘this conference is on our dear sister Barbe Angiboust (1605-1658), whom God has taken to himself’.3 With these words began a lengthy reminiscence about one of the most cherished members of the Company. The superior general as well as the superior of the Company, the devout widow Louise de Marillac, and the women, one after another, got up and testified about the virtuous life of their fellow sister. They grieved over the loss but at the same time also exalted God. Towards the end of his conference with the women de Paul burst into praise: Or sus, or sus, Sisters, what a beautiful picture! How fortunate we are to have been with a soul who practiced such virtues! God has willed to show us this beautiful picture, Sisters, to help us by His grace to succeed in practicing those virtues. 4

Sister Barbe Angiboust was by no means the only upright person of whom the members and directors of Daughters of Charity painted a virtuous tableau in their monthly meetings. In fact, the accolade and promotion, or in other words, the cherishment of Catholic morality was at the core of the mission of the Company. Furthermore, this ‘moral management’, as it can be called and will be discussed in depth later, was not only aimed at edifying the sisters. Through charity work among the underprivileged, the Company also aimed to manage the mentalities of French society at wide and implement a particular Catholic value system. Considering the importance of the Daughters of Charity as one of the most well-known and influential charitable Catholic organizations in France, the examination of their ideas about the good Catholic way of life reveals an extensive programme of identity shaping on various levels of early modern French society: the upper, lower middle, and lower strata. The 3 Paul 1985 (Paul EN), vol. X, doc. 109 (27 April 1659), p. 511. French quotation: ‘Mes sœurs, dit Monsieur Vincent, le sujet de cet entretien est de notre chère sœur Barbe Angiboust, de laquelle Dieu a disposé’. Paul 1952 (Paul Conférences), 27 January 1659, p. 886. 4 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 109 (27 April 1659), p. 521. French quotation: ‘Or sus, or sus, mes sœurs, quel beau tableau ! Que nous sommes heureux d’avoir conversé avec une âme qui a été dans la pratique de telles vertus ! Mes sœurs, Dieu a voulu nous représenter ce beau tableau, afin de nous donner confiance d’arriver, avec sa grâce, à la pratique de ces vertus’. Paul Conférences, 27 January 1659, p. 894.

Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction

11

focus was mainly on girls and women although their schooling activities touched also some poor boys. In this book these three strata of society will be dealt systematically in order to fully grasp the contents, aims, and motives behind the value system the Daughters of Charity imposed on early modern French society. The main chapters are composed around these three levels of society: Chapter 2 discusses the identity formation, or ‘portrait’, of the superior Louise de Marillac, Chapter 3 turns to the moulding activities aimed at the identity of the sisters, whereas Chapter 4 takes a closer look at the ideal ‘portrait’ of the poor the Company helped. Together the chapters of the book aim to answer the following main question: what kinds of ideals of a good Catholic life and morality did the Company of the Daughters of Charity aim to create in early modern French society and what purposes did they serve? More specifically, the study aims to shed light on the full process of value and identity shaping. The study asks, on the one hand, what kinds of ideals were attached to Louise de Marillac, who, as the superior, acted as an authoritative role model to the sisters and, at the same time, was also in charge of the overall image of the Company in French society? On the other hand, what kinds of values were the sisters to embody as role models of Catholic womanhood for the underprivileged and as representatives of the Company in public? Moreover, how did the Company and its survival benefit from the use of these images? And what kind of an impact did these activities altogether have on society and identities at large? What lay at the core of the value system the Company imposed – did it challenge or reinforce existing ideas about social and gender order? The focus of the book is in the early stages of the Daughters of Charity in the first half of the seventeenth century, starting roughly from the birth of the Company in 1633 up to the death of the founders, Louise de Marillac (also known by her married name Mademoiselle Le Gras, b. 1591, canonized 1934) and Vincent de Paul (b. 1581, canonized 1737) in 1660. This is a particularly fruitful period for research as it was during this time that the directors were able to gradually gain recognition for the Company and develop the foundation and main governing principles that were to guide communal life and charity work for centuries to come. Today the Daughters of Charity have their headquarters at 140, rue du Bac, Paris, and employ more than 14,000 sisters, who serve in 94 countries around the world.5 The Company continues to follow the principles laid out by the founders and remains one of the most important Catholic organizations of France. 5 Based on the figures given for 1 January 2019 by the Company at http://filles-de-la-charite. org/fr/who-we-are/where-we-are/ (13 August 2019).

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THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS SOCIE TIES IN SHAPING EARLY MODERN SOCIE T Y

The time period under scrutiny in this book is exciting also due to its transitional nature: it is an age in which European mentalities were marked by religious Reformations and upheaval. The question of identities is central as new ideas began to circulate in Christian anthropology. Questions like ‘what is an ideal Christian like?’ or ‘what is good Christian life?’ received new or at least more nuanced answers. Unlike medieval thinkers, sixteenthcentury Protestants decided to reject the ideal of a nun or a monk as the most precious state of life. Instead, Protestants made the worldly vocation and married life the highest ideal especially for women.6 Attitudes were reshuffled in the remaining non-Protestant parts of Europe, although the change was more subtle. The church, now described as Catholic, began officially revising its decrees and ideals in the middle of the sixteenth century by means of a series of ecumenical meetings known as the Council of Trent (1545–1563). This launched a process generally known as the Counter-Reformation, or the Catholic Reformation, to use a less charged term.7 The process was, however, rather slow and inconsistent as some states refused to recognize the outcome of the council for several decades. In the case of France, it was not before the late 1610s that the refashioning of the church began properly.8 The Catholic Church also redefined its idea of the ideal human being, although only delicately: all states of life – and, thus, not only that of monastics – were now given more recognition than previously. The best example of a Catholic treatise in this vein is the contemporary ‘best-seller’, even over confessional boundaries, namely the Introduction à la vie dévote, or the Introduction to the devout life (1609/1619) by the Bishop of Geneva, François de Sales (1567–1622, canonized 1665), who also had an important influence on the Daughters of Charity. In his book de Sales gives people of ‘all sorts of vocations and professions’ instructions on how to seek perfection.9 During the reformation process, authors also started to publish manuals for husbands and wives, just like Protestants, and, thus, took a more active 6 For Luther’s view on monastic life and particularly the vows, see Luther 1521, especially p. 304–308; for Luther’s ideas on the supremacy of lay life as producing offspring, see Luther 1522, especially p. 17–21. See also Mikkola 2017; Wiesner-Hanks 2010, 78; Hendrix 2000, 337–339; Plummer 2012. 7 See Chapter 1 for a further discussion. 8 Forrestal & Nelson 2009; Bergin 2009, 3–14; Venard & Bonzon 2008, 15–18, 102; Parsons 2004; Tallon 1997; Martin 1919. Other states hesitant to receive the decrees of Trent included Austria and Venice: see Beales 2003, 34. 9 French quotation: ‘toutes sortes de vacations et professions’, in Sales 1641, 10. See also Bireley 1999, 178–181.

Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction

13

stance toward marriage than their medieval predecessors who were more uniform in their appraisal of the monastic lifestyle.10 Another important aspect in the revised Catholic faith was the strengthening of the focus on the marginalized of society. Challenged by the Protestants and their claim of salvation through faith alone, the Catholic Church declared charity work in favour of one’s neighbour to be an integral part of a good Catholic life. Vast programmes of intellectual, spiritual, and physical education were launched bringing the underprivileged into close contact with elite ideas of morality.11 In France, the impulse to charity coincided with a powerful monastic revival, which made especially women engage fervently in religious communal life. Although the nun’s vocation in a contemplative monastery continued to be popular, a significant number of devout women decided to combine a life of prayer with active charity work among the disadvantaged, whose way of life was to be edified.12 The Daughters of Charity are the most well-known and successful example of this line of religious commitment. However, these charitable activities went against the decrees confirmed in Trent regarding religious women who were to prefer contemplative monasteries and stay out of the streets: The holy council […] commands all bishops that by the judgment of God to which it appeals and under threat of eternal malediction, they make it their special care that in all monasteries subject to them by their own authority and in others by the authority of the Apostolic See, the enclosure of nuns be restored wherever it has been violated and that it be preserved where it has not been violated […]. No nun shall after her profession be permitted to go out of the monastery, even for a brief period under any pretext whatever, except for a lawful reason to be approved by the bishop; any indults and privileges whatsoever notwithstanding. Neither shall anyone, of whatever birth or condition, sex or age, be permitted, under penalty of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto, to enter the enclosure of a monastery without the written permission of the bishop or the superior.13 10 Wiesner-Hanks 2008, 31–34, 219, 230; Wiesner-Hanks 2010, 134–137. 11 For the canons on the importance of good works for one’s salvation, see The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 6: canons 11–12, 24, 32, p. 43–46. 12 Diefendorf 2004, 135–136. 13 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25:5, p. 223–224. In fact, Trent actually resurrected a decree called ‘Periculoso’ issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298. See Makowski 1997. For a general discussion on the changes in monastic life in the sixteenth and seventeenth

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Thus, the first half of the seventeenth century in Catholic France was an era of constant negotiation: women had to negotiate with church authorities not only their own identity as religious laywomen but also that of the underprivileged, whom they, as women, were not supposed to help as it required leaving the communal house. The content of poor relief was to be carefully assessed not to provoke authorities. All of this had an impact on the contents and motivation of religious charity work and can be studied in depth in the case of the Daughters of Charity. Due to this backdrop, the early path of the Daughters of Charity was rocky: the semi-religious Company was officially recognized only more than 20 years after its founding. As late as in 1650, Louise de Marillac reported about the reservations of the Procurator General, an appointee of the King who was to be persuaded in order to get royal acceptance for the Company: He asked me if we considered ourselves regular [cloistered] or secular [non-cloistered]. I told him that we aspired only to the latter. He told me that such a thing was without precedent. I cited for him Madame de Villeneuve’s Daughters14 and pointed out to him that they go everywhere.15 He said many good things about the Company and added that he did not disapprove of our plan. However, he said that something of such importance merited much thought.16

According to de Marillac’s letter, the Procurator General deemed the mission of the Daughters of Charity unique, without precedent, which required centuries, see Mullett 1999, 69–110; DeMolen 1994. The tension between women’s religious vocation and charitable activities was born in the later Middle Ages that witnessed the upsurge of religious lay movements attracting especially women. In Northern Europe and in the Low Countries they were often called Beguines and in Italy Penitents. Often religious laywomen were associated with the mendicant orders such as the Dominicans or the Franciscans. For a general introduction to medieval religious laywomen, see Lehmijoki-Gardner 2006; Makowski 1997, 9–20. 14 Madame de Villeneuve was a friend of Louise de Marillac and the founder in 1641 of the Filles de la Croix. She had died quite recently, in January. See Marillac 1983 (Marillac FR), L. 30 (3 October 1640), p. 42, note 6. 15 The Daughters of Charity did not live in enclosure either, except for the sisters working in hospitals: ‘The Daughters shall not go out into the city’, de Marillac wrote in her undated Rules for the sisters working in hospitals. Marillac FR, A. 88 (between 1633 and 1647), p. 742. 16 Marillac 1991 (Marillac EN), L. 283 (April 1650), p. 318. French quotation: ‘ il me demanda si nous prétendions être régulières ou séculières; je lui fis entendre que nous ne prétendions que le dernier; il me dit cela être sans exemple; je lui alléguai les filles de la Madame de Villeneuve et lui prouvai qu’elles allaient partout. Il me témoigna ne pas désapprouver notre dessein, disant beaucoup de bien de la Compagnie; mais qu’une chose de telle importance méritait bien y penser’. Marillac FR, L. 283 (April 1650), p. 317.

Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction

15

careful thought before acceptance could be given. This means that despite the fact that there were provably other active communities of which the King’s appointee had approved already a decade ago,17 the Daughters of Charity stood apart. Barbara Diefendorf has argued that it was the extensiveness of the Company’s mission and its rapid expansion that made it very visible in the religious landscape.18 As a result, it stood out from the other active communities operating on a smaller and, thus, less provoking scale. A later section in the aforementioned letter by de Marillac reveals that the directors had deliberately taken a slow track: they had wanted to first cement the foundations of the Company for twelve to fifteen years before soliciting official recognition in order to see if it really was an effort ‘pleasing God’19 – and thus the authorities, one could plausibly add. This cautious attitude was also reflected in the early considerations of the location of the motherhouse as Vincent de Paul was weary about moving the headquarters of the Daughters too close to the Lazarist priests in order to avoid gossip.20 The Company received official recognition from the Cardinal de Retz in 1655, from the King in 1657 and from the Pope in 1668.21 Furthermore, the tension had also internal reflections: the founders had to tackle criticism coming from the inside, which is an aspect that has escaped scholarly attention until now. As late as in 1660, Vincent de Paul had to explain to a new Lazarist priest why the Lazarists were allowed to mingle with the Daughters of Charity when interaction with nuns was forbidden.22 Sources dealing with the identity-shaping of the sisters offer further evidence. As Chapter 3 discusses, the Daughters expressed explicit desires for a more contemplative vocation, which the founders wanted to curtail. These curtailing measures included for example certain spatial arrangements 17 According to Diefendorf 2004, 215, 224, 302 note 31, the Filles de la Croix, for example, had received approbation from Louis XIII already in 1642; and the Filles de la Providence had been recognized by Queen Anne of Austria (regency 1643-1651) in 1643. A third Company, originally not from Paris but from Bordeaux, the Filles de Saint-Joseph, running an orphanage for girls, had, for their part, received royal approval already in 1641. 18 Diefendorf 2004, 217–219, 224–225, 302 note 31. 19 Marillac FR, L. 283 (April 1650), p. 317. 20 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité aux origines: documents 1989 (Compagnie des Filles de la Charité), doc. 147 (March 1636), p. 137. 21 For the official approbation from the Cardinal de Retz on the 18 January 1655, see Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 613 (18 January 1655), p. 676–677, from the King through the Lettres Patentes (doc. 707 (November 1657), p. 806–811) and from the Pope on the 8 June 1668, see ‘Confirmation par le cardinal de Vendôme, légat du Saint-Siège, de la Congrégation des Filles de la Charité’, Archives Nationales (AN), Documents. 22 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 783 (7 February 1660), p. 899–901.

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(namely, the rejection of a grill) in the Company’s houses and the creation of an unambitious intellectual programme to create an image deferring from that of a cloistered order and help the sisters maintain it. These examples show that the religious identity of the Company was indeed disconcerting and called for both external and internal measures to ensure survival. The central idea of this book is to analyse the survival of the Company by looking at its moral management activities. It puts forward the argument that the Daughters of Charity cherished a rather traditional, medieval value system in order to survive. Moreover, the study asserts that efficient moral management was a key element also in its success as an important conservative shaper of early modern French society, values, and identities.

Studying the moral management of the Daughters of Charity: methods and sources To analyse the activities of the Daughters of Charity and its survival, the study employs most importantly the concept of moral management. The concept is used to highlight and efficiently grasp the new aspect this study brings to scholarship on the Daughters of Charity and seventeenth-century religious communities in general: that survival and success was importantly linked to the efficient management of morality. In other words, moral management is used as an umbrella term encompassing and explaining the different moralitycentred activities of the Company. A concise definition of the concept as it is understood in this study is as follows: it is the implementation, within the organization and its charitable activities, of a specific value system that is expressed in actions, behaviour, and mentalities, and that aims at securing the survival of the Company threatened by its perplexing religious identity. The use of the concept of moral management is a reflection of the influence cultural studies has had on the study. Cultural studies are often interdisciplinary surpassing traditional boundaries of disciplines by means of combining different approaches. Mieke Bal has discussed the nature of cultural studies by arguing that they often utilize ‘travelling concepts’: [Concepts] travel – between disciplines, between individual scholars, between historical periods, and between geographically dispersed academic communities. Between disciplines, their meaning, reach, and operational value differ.23 23 Bal 2002, 24.

Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction

17

Moral management is also a concept that has travelled between disciplines and is employed in scholarship on seventeenth-century Catholic communities for the first time in this study. The aim of this study is to take the methodological use of moral management further in the field and in the discipline of history in general. Up until now, the term has been used in the history of psychiatry, cultural historical studies on early modern emotions, in business ethics studies, and cultural anthropology. In all of these fields except psychiatry, the term is used in quite similar ways: it is used to understand the means by which an organization or a person aims to influence morality and values to attain a certain end.24 The two latter fields have been able to do this with assigning more analytical power to moral management than cultural history, as will be discussed below. Historian Penelope Gouk and art historian Helen Hills mention moral management in their introduction to the volume Representing Emotions. New Connections in the Histories of Art, Music and Medicine. Gouk and Hills define moral management in relation to religion as ‘a general framework for both understanding and controlling human passions, above all in their relation to the soul’. Furthermore, they claim, ‘the desire to establish a right relationship with God through appropriate forms of worship and daily conduct is at the root of most medieval and early modern discourses on moral management’.25 Gouk’s and Hills’ main source of inspiration is Norbert Elias who discusses the management of the emotions in his The Civilizing Process.26 Unfortunately the term is not used later in the volume leaving the operational and methodological value of moral management unclear. Studies generated outside the discipline of history have used moral management in a more analytical way. In business studies, professor of management Andrew Sikula was the first to coin the term in his Moral Management: Business Ethics from 1989. In an article published in 1996, he further clarifies the term along with another interconnected term, moral maximization. To him, moral management ‘is management with ethics, a state of ethical excellence, and the practice and implementation of the moral maximization principle’. Moral maximization, on the other hand, is ‘behaviors, actions, and decisions that result in the greatest enhancement of 24 In the history of psychiatry, moral management has been used synonymously with moral treatment (from the original French ‘traitement moral’) to describe the new softer methods in the treatment of mental illnesses in England and in France in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. See Crump 1998; Reuber 1999. This differs from the way the other mentioned fields define and use moral management in their analysis. 25 Gouk & Hills 2005, 19. 26 Elias 2000, 158 et passim.

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individual and collective human rights, freedoms, equity, and development’. As an example, Sikula uses the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s famous for their interest in socially responsible business.27 The case of the Daughters of Charity, although relating to a religious context and a completely different historical period, can be compared to an organization aiming at moral maximization by means of implementing in the organization carefully planned moral management. The directors Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul aimed to mold behavior and actions in order to reform people to meet specific moral standards based on early modern Catholic values and those that served the survival of the Company. This was aimed at not only on the individual level of the members of the Company but also more generally in society through the Company’s charity work. Cultural anthropologist Laura D. Stanley has used the concept moral management in connection with survival strategies. In her article, Stanley studies AIDS/HIV patients considered non-typical in the United States: white, middle-class women. She finds that for the women their disease was a moral issue that demanded the reconstruction of a coherent moral identity. To achieve this end, the women employed several psychological and spirituality-flavoured strategies: they considered their diagnosis either a calling, redemption, or a blessing or gift. Stanley refers to this reconstruction process as a whole as moral management.28 Stanley’s use of the concept, despite the completely different context, resonates with the understanding of it in this study: fundamental motivation for moral management in the Company of the Daughters of Charity also rose from the desire to protect and repair if not a stigmatized but at least a disconcerting religious identity. The deconstruction of the concept helps to further describe its utility in this study: it is formed by two words directing thought toward ethics and control. Definitions of moral in the Merriam-Webster dictionary include ‘of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour’, ‘expressing or teaching a conception of right behaviour’, and ‘conforming to a standard of right behaviour’. Right kind of behavior in the form of ‘establishing a right relationship with God through appropriate forms of worship and daily conduct’ (following Gouk’s and Hill’s line of thought) is at the core of religious communities and the activities of its members. Management, for its part, is defined for example as ‘the conducting or supervising of something (such as a business)’. ‘Management is as old as human civilization,’ John F. Wilson 27 Sikula 1996, 182, 187–188. For more on Sikula’s use of the term moral management, see Sikula 2009. 28 Stanley 1999.

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and Andrew Thomson write in their survey of the history of management in Britain. Management is derived from the French ‘menager’ referring to household management. Another close etymological relative is the Italian ‘maneggiare’, horse-handler.29 Supervision and control are closely associated with management and are central concepts also in religious communities that are typically organized around a clear-cut hierarchy. In the Early Modern Period, the hierarchy was strengthened by the Council of Trent. Highest local authority was exercised by the bishop to whom all religious Companies were to be subject, at least in principle. In female communities, a male superior general or an abbot held the second highest position and after him the female superior or abbess. A hierarchy existed also among the sisters with postulants, prospective sister candidates, holding the least amount of power. Control in early modern religious communities has also links to control in early modern secular society. Discipline and social order are important concepts in classical sociology of religion and evolutionary biology as well as in early modern scholarship on the secular sphere. For example Émile Durkheim has argued that religion is an important element of social cohesion in general,30 whereas evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson has found that moral codes are central in the survival of religious groups.31 Historical theories of early modern society for example by Hans Schilling, Michel Foucault, and Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, have described the tightening of social order and emphasized ambitions of disciplining the underprivileged to serve elite interest. This development brought the secular and ecclesiastical spheres closer to each other: Ulrike Strasser has argued that monks and nuns were virtual prototypes of the modern subject.32 The moral management activities of the Daughters of Charity arose from this ecclesiastical and secular landscape emphasizing proper order and control. Consequently, focus on how and why the Company aimed to create order is sound and has the potential of broadening our understanding of seventeenth-century Catholic communities and power. In practice, the concept of moral management as a method in the study is one form of close reading that directs the researcher’s gaze, while reading the source material, toward elements of morality-centered teachings and advice 29 Wilson & Thomson 2006, 6. 30 Durkheim 1912. 31 Wilson 2002. 32 Cf. Strasser 2004a, 119–148; Strasser 2004b, 533, 539–542, 553; The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, e.g. 25:20, p. 227; Bergin 2009, 100, 127, 143–144.

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on how to become a good Daughter or Christian or how to remain one. The study observes these kinds of elements on three levels. On the executive level (Chapter 2), the source material on the directors and especially on Louise de Marillac is read with an eye on the way spiritual authority was assigned to her. This chapter analyses the ways resources for the activities of the Company were ensured. On the level of the members, in Chapter 3, the sources are analysed by means of paying attention to the efforts the directors put into moulding the behaviour and mentalities of the sisters. This chapter discusses the means the directors utilized to create a uniform body of members to efficiently execute the charity work of the Company. The writings on the purpose and aims of the charity work are studied in Chapter 4, which turns to discussing the multiple ways the sisters were to make the beneficiaries, the poor they helped, conform to the value system of the Company. Chapter 2, in its discussion of the image making of Louise de Marillac, also uses the theoretical framework of performance studies. Main inspiration comes from the approach of Päivi Salmesvuori in her study on saint Birgitta of Sweden (1303–1373, canonized 1391). Building on the classic studies of Gabriella Zarri and Aviad Kleinberg on living or recent saints of the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance,33 Salmesvuori reads sources on Birgitta with an eye on the way she was able to perform her sanctity successfully and thereby gain authority.34 Just like in the case of Birgitta and other medieval and early modern saints, the saintly reputation of Louise de Marillac is encountered in texts created by or in conjuction with other people, that is, her audience and their perceptions. This makes the process very much a performative one. Performance scholars maintain that meaning is generated in interaction between the performer engaging in actions and his or her surroundings.35 Applying this approach to her study on Birgitta Salmesvuori writes: In this study, the religious identity is not understood as fixed, but as continually constructed through performances. The investigation of religious performances reveals the strategies behind them and how they were interpreted. This can yield new understanding about power relations in Birgitta’s world.36 33 Zarri 1996; Kleinberg 1992. 34 Salmesvuori 2014. 35 For an introduction to the performance as a methodological tool, see Schechner 2013. 36 Salmesvuori 2014, 14. See also the collection of articles on late medieval spirituality and performance Suydam & Zeigler 1999.

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The idea that saintly identity (or reputation) is the product of continual negotiations and performances that reveal power structures is also the starting point in my study of Louise de Marillac. Lastly, an important method in the study is also the method of moving from the particular toward the general by means of using the Daughters of Charity, the most important charitable organization in seventeenth-century France, as a mirror of wider trends in the early modern Catholic Church and French society. Thus, the study intends to decipher continuity and discontinuity in the ideas against a wider historical context of Christian anthropology, female spirituality, and social order. Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul employed four means to implement moral management in the Daughters of Charity: de Paul’s speeches (called conferences), the Rules of the community, and writings and correspondence. Consequently, these groups form the most important primary source base of the study. The corpus has persisted surprisingly well and is composed of thousands of letters and other writings. One reason for the survival of the material is the ever-present need for moral management: the material has been used to train subsequent generations of Daughters of Charity for almost 400 years. As a result of this incessant need, almost all seventeenth-century material has been edited in the original language and also translated by sisters and brothers close to the Daughters of Charity in the twentieth century. Editing projects were occasioned especially by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) encouraging religious communities to return to the sources.37 As religious communities consider original source material primarily as holy legacy instead of an object of scientific research, the editors have modernized the French language to better reach the target audience, twentieth and twentyfirst-century sisters and brothers. The original manuscripts are stored in the archives of the motherhouses of the Daughters of Charity (AFC), located at 140, rue du Bac, Paris, and of the Congrégation de la Mission, the Congregation of the Mission (CM), found at 95, rue des Sèvres, Paris, which was Vincent de Paul’s main organization for Lazarist priests who serve as the superior generals of the Daughters of Charity. The archives of the sisters were opened partially to secular researchers only in the 2000s and remain incompletely organized as we speak. This means that access to original manuscripts is restricted. Nevertheless, permission was given to consult the most central documents: Réglement de vie of Louise de Marillac written before 163338, Vertus de Louise

37 Ryan & Rybolt 1995, 225; Charpy 1995, 8–9. 38 Archives de la Maison Mère des Filles de la Charité (AFC), Règlement de vie.

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de Marillac composed in 166039, and Règles communes des Filles de la Charité, servantes des pauvres malades prepared in 167240. The manuscript of Louise de Marillac’s Pentecostal vision written after 4 June 1623 and archived at the Congregation of the Mission was consulted41. In addition, the Archives Nationales (AN) in the Marais, Paris, were consulted to check the official approbations of the Company42. Comparison of editions to the originals revealed only minor errors. Thus, the editions are trustworthy and suitable for secular academic research conducted with source criticism. Consequently, this study has been conceived by using mainly the French language editions, in addition to the aforementioned consultable original manuscripts. English translations have only been used in quotations, and even then only when found accurate. The speeches of Vincent de Paul form the most important source group. As the superior general of the Company, de Paul gave a speech to the Daughters at the motherhouse in Paris at least once a month. 43 These talks, called conferences (conférences), are very much like sermons which were very popular in seventeenth-century France, the great age of preachers such as Pierre de Bérulle (1575–1629), Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), and Jean-Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742). The conferences were important and awaited social events which gathered the sisters residing at the motherhouse and in the Paris area together. The sisters living further away were reached through transcriptions of the conferences composed by Louise de Marillac and the Parisian sisters. In the speeches, a common rhetorical technique is the citing of saints’ lives and other heroic Christian biographies. The communal examination of the virtues of deceased sisters was another popular oratorical practice. Usually de Paul opened conferences on the subject by asking the daughters to share their remarks on the qualities of their departed fellow sister and concluded the session by a brief summary of the good qualities the Daughters were to learn from the case and adopt. This Socratic method of asking questions to stimulate the thinking of the

39 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac. 40 AFC, Alméras 1672. 41 Archives de la Congrégation de la Mission (CM), Lumière de Pentecôte. 42 AN, Cardinal de Vendôme; Documents. The collection for the Company dates back to 1792 when the Commune of Paris closed down the motherhouse of the Company and contains most commonly off icial and administrational material of the motherhouse and individual communities mostly from the late seventeenth century up to the Revolution. Some documents have gone missing not only during the Revolution but also after the 1980s, as historian Susan Dinan notes (see Dinan 2006, 129 note 38). 43 Dodin 1960, 48.

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audience is a common trait running through all conferences and, thus, the most important teaching technique of de Paul. The surviving 120 conferences have been edited by the Lazarist priest Pierre Coste in the first half of the twentieth century. They are found as an independent publication by the name Conférences aux Filles de la Charité (1952). 44 Coste claims to have used the original transcriptions or fragments and the most reliable copies of the surviving 120 talks. Several of these primitive notebooks have unfortunately been lost. The remaining 54 original leaflets are conserved at the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity. The Company’s Rules had likewise paramount importance in the moulding of the sisters’ behaviour who vowed to follow them. As in all religious companies, the Rules provided the rudiments of communal and individual spiritual life and were to be read regularly. The Rules regulated the daily rhythm of the Daughters hour by hour and gave the sisters concrete examples of behaviour in relation to avoiding private property, nice food and clothes, and too close contact with men especially on the streets but including also confessors. The Rules also educated the sisters in the ways unity was to be maintained within the community, obedience shown to authorities, and the poor patients treated right. The Rules, an original manuscript compiled by René Alméras in 1672, 45 are found at the archives of the motherhouse. The manuscript has never been edited properly. It is noteworthy that the Company used a definite set of Rules only for five years of the time period under scrutiny in this study. It was originally Vincent de Paul, who started drafting the rules as early as in 1634 in his conferences held to the sisters. 46 It is known that Louise de Marillac had also written down a set of rules for the first Daughters in 1633.47 De Paul wrote down the first set of regulations in 1645,48 but a slightly modified version was approved by the Archbishop of Paris the following year. 49 It was not until 1655 that the Company received Approbation from Cardinal de Retz, who at the same time also approved a slightly modif ied version of the 1646 set of rules.50 However, reading 44 Paul Conférences. Some conferences have also been edited by sœur Élizabeth Charpy in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité. 45 AFC, Alméras 1672. 46 Paul Conférences, 31 July 1634, p. 1. 47 Marillac FR, A. 55 (1633), p. 722–723. 48 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 392 (August-September 1645), p. 371–375. 49 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 428 (20 November 1646), p. 441–445. 50 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p. 679–682. See footnotes for variants distinguishing the 1655 Rule from the 1646 one. The most important modif ication was that Cardinal de Retz confirmed the Company to be directed by the superior general of

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the conferences of Vincent de Paul it becomes clear that the Rules, once published in 1655, were merely a collection of all the virtues and instruction preached by de Paul during the previous 20 years or so. René Alméras was the first successor of Vincent de Paul. According to tradition, Alméras was very careful in assembling the various writings and conferences of Vincent de Paul on the Rules and transforming them into a concise form without altering the words of his predecessor.51 The correspondence and writings of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul form the largest source group of the study. Of the more than seven hundred letters of Louise de Marillac that have survived roughly half or even up to two thirds were written between the superior and the sisters. The letters reveal an effective centralized organization in which the superior personally not only supervised the practical issues in running a community or founding a new one, but also repeatedly educated the sisters about the principles that should govern their conduct and communal life. The superior asked for regular reports on the doings of the sisters in each community, reprimanded misbehaviour, and gave advice also in practical matters. The reciprocal correspondence of the directors attests to intensive collaboration and planning of the moral management activities with de Marillac taking a visible lead in especially administrational and practical issues.52 The thousands of letters and notes of the directors are kept at the archives of the motherhouses of the Daughters of Charity and of the Congregation of the Mission. De Paul’s writings can be found in the massive, thirteenvolume edition of Pierre Coste from the first half of the twentieth century.53 Scholars working on de Paul use this edition commonly and consider the transcriptions accurate. Coste has also been translated into English54 and Spanish. All versions are found online.55 The writings of de Marillac have been edited by sœur Élizabeth Charpy in two volumes: Louise de Marillac, the Congregation of the Mission, that is, Vincent de Paul, and his successors, instead of local bishops as in the 1646 version. See Dinan 2006, 49–50. 51 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 149a (October 1655 to 21 July 1658), p. 147 note 1. See also Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 234–239, who shows that the Alméras rule does include phrases not found in other writings on the subject by Vincent de Paul. But, ‘even though the letters differ, the spirit remains the same’, he concludes. 52 The subject will be discussed in detail in Chapter 2. 53 Paul FR. 54 Paul EN. Translation by a group of members of the American Daughters of Charity and the Congregation of the Mission in 1985. Translated quotations are taken from this volume when found suitable. 55 See https://via.library.depaul.edu/lcd/ (13 August 2019).

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Écrits spirituels56 published in 1983 and translated into English (translation also found online)57, as well as Compagnie des Filles de la Charité aux origines: documents58 published 1989 but not translated nor found online. The latter also contains several important letters of the Daughters of Charity as well as their accounts about the virtues of their superior. The edition history of de Marillac’s writings is lengthy and, as a result, somewhat problematic: Élizabeth Charpy based her publication Écrits spirituels on an anthology composed in the late nineteenth century by a Daughter of Charity. The anthology is mainly based on primary sources, although a collection called ‘cahiers Marguerite Chétif’ is actually a copy of original manuscripts. The author of this collection is sister Chétif, de Marillac’s first successor, who we know to have modified the original writings at least in regard to names of sisters and places. Her intention was to safeguard the anonymity of the members of the confraternity mentioned in the writings and still alive at the time of copying. In her edition, Charpy has rediscovered a great deal of these censored names through extensive archival work. She has also striven to maintain the original seventeenthcentury language of the documents in regard to vocabulary.59 Another question to ponder in relation to this nineteenth-century anthology is the motive for which it was created: it was very likely composed in view of the reinitiating of the canonization process of de Marillac.60 Has the anthology been selective, has inauthentic material been added to portray de Marillac as saintly as possible? The massiveness of the corpus makes the deliberate manipulation of manuscripts a too laborious fraud to execute. And even if it was selective, it anyway offers abundant information on the way proper morality and saintliness was conceived in the seventeenth century. Other source materials help to cross check the sources produced in de Marillac’s name. They are particularly useful in shedding more light on the molding of her image as the superior. These sources fall in the genre of hagiography, but are more trustworthy than in many other cases, especially medieval hagiography. Instead of talking about the ‘touch of the real’, 56 Marillac FR. Meditations are marked by an A and letters by an L. 57 Marillac EN. Translation by an American Daughter of Charity, Louise Sullivan, in 1991. Translated quotations are taken from this volume when found suitable. See https://via.library. depaul.edu/ldm_1591–1660/ (13 August 2019). 58 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité. 59 See introduction in Marillac FR, p. vii-viii. 60 According to McNeil 1992, 118, 121–122, the Vatican reviewed Louise de Marillac’s writings and gave permission to proceed with the canonization process on the 23 July 1894. She was beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1934. See also Renoux 1993.

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used for example by Päivi Salmesvuori to assess the level of credibility of the hagiographic sources on Birgitta of Sweden,61 I would refer to my material as the ‘hug of the real’. We have important material produced by people who had known Louise de Marillac personally – her employees and Vincent de Paul – and recorded for the most part shortly after her death in March 1660. There are six notes or letters by the Daughters of Charity 62 and two conferences by Vincent de Paul from July 166063 discussing the superior’s virtues. These are testimonies produced within the Company and primarily for internal use. They were used to pay tribute to the founder and first superior of the Company and to offer a role model of saintliness to the sisters. As canonization was not seriously reflected upon at this point, we can assume that the testimonies include genuine information about the actions – or performances – of de Marillac. It is unlikely that in this kind of a situation generic expressions, topoi, and fabricated material (all typical for the genre of hagiography in general) would inundate the testimonies in order to convince papal authorities. Furthermore, postTridentine hagiographic material was more regulated than in the Middle Ages. Narratives of saints and other saintly personae were composed in the spirit of humanist criticism increasing the credibility of hagiography.64 Of course criticism should not be dismissed completely as the hagiographic genre always include religiously motivated exaggeration and interpretation. Nevertheless, I deem the material suitable especially for the study of image building which is basically about interpreting and combining ‘reality’ with ideals. The testimonies are for the most part repeated in the first official saintly biography of de Marillac composed by Nicolas Gobillon (c. 1626-1710) in 1676,65 making also the vita an important source for historical research on ‘real’ performances. DePaul University has translated Gobillon’s vita into modern French and published it electronically, but the edition remains 61 Salmesvuori borrows the phrase ‘touch of the real’ from Gallagher & Greenblatt 2000 and uses it in connection to the debate in medieval studies on the reliability of hagiographic material after the linguistic turn. Salmesvuori is one of the scholars of the ‘middle ground’ in favour of using hagiographic material by means of careful contextualization and source criticism. See Salmesvuori 2014, 18–21. 62 Found in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 800 (9 June 1660), p. 917–918; doc. 801 (9 June 1660), p. 918–919; doc. 802 (July 1660), p. 920–921; doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 921–924; doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), p. 946–956; doc. 823 (after 1680?), p. 957–958. 63 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac. Found edited in Paul Conférences, 3 July 1660, p. 934–944; 24 July 1660, p. 945–952. 64 Burke 2005. 65 Gobillon 1676.

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incomplete: the fifth chapter has been omitted.66 M. Collet revised the hagiography in 176967, but the study does not use this later version as the first version is more suitable for analysing contemporary images and performances. The two versions of the life of Vincent de Paul by Louis Abelly, written in 166468 and 166769 , respectively, are also used but considered secondary. The two vitae are voluminous and detailed but centre on the spirituality and works of de Paul especially with the Congregation of the Mission leaving information on the Daughters of Charity much vaguer.70 Material at the Archives Nationales and at a provincial archive has been used to study the role of wealthy female patrons in the moral management activities. The Archives Nationales possess a manuscript with guidelines for the patrons in their work.71 Some 40 kilometres from Paris, the Oise area used to host an important community called la Charité de Vineuil or St-Firmin founded by the princess of Condé, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency (1594–1650), in the 1640s. Several letters and notes on the community have survived in the writings of Louise de Marillac.72 The archives at the castle of the Condés in Chantilly, Archives du Musée Condé, offer some mentions of the Daughters of Charity via the correspondence of the princess.73

Study in scholarly context Most scholarship on the Daughters of Charity has been apologetic or religious in nature. The most important Catholic scholar is Élizabeth Charpy, a Daughter of Charity. She is the editor of the letters and spiritual meditations of Louise de Marillac74 as well as of other documents relating to the early history of the Daughters of Charity 75. Due to her expertise in the writings of de Marillac and other early material, Charpy was the first scholar to properly challenge the long hagiographic tradition by rewriting the vita of Louise de Marillac in a way that gives more credit to the role of the superior in the 66 See http://via.library.depaul.edu/gobillon/ (11 March 2019). 67 Gobillon 1769. 68 Abelly 1664. 69 Abelly 1667b. 70 The most recent scholarship to follow on Vincent de Paul is that of Forrestal 2017. 71 AN, Mémoire pour les Dames. 72 Marillac FR, see entry Chantilly in Index. 73 Archives du Musée Condé (Condé), Série P, tome III. 74 Marillac FR. 75 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité.

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founding and direction of the Daughters of Charity.76 Despite the religious tone of Charpy’s books – which as a rule refer to their subject as Saint Louise or even more intimately as Louise – her contributions have been valuable. She has cleared the way for modern and secular scholarship on Louise de Marillac and brought her out from the shadow of Vincent de Paul, who has received much scholarly attention.77 The Daughters of Charity have been the object of two secular academic monographs: Susan Dinan’s Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France78 was published in 2006 and Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée’s Histoire de Filles de la Charité XVIIe-XVIIIe. La rue pour cloître79 came out in 2011. Both works are largely the result of the more open attitude the Daughters of Charity have adopted toward secular academic research in the twenty-first century: archives have been opened at least partially to researchers and the Company’s interest in recording their history professionally has increased. Due to their pioneering nature, both studies concentrate mainly on tracing the institutional development and activities of the Company. This is particularly true in the case of Brejon de Lavergnée, who was commissioned by the Parisian Daughters themselves: he produced a carefully researched institutional history. Full access to the archives even allowed him to draw up quantitative data to explain the growth and social composition of the Daughters of Charity. Dinan approached the Company with the same intention of revealing the ‘full picture’ regarding the nature and expansion of the organization, but with a more nuanced approach. (This is very likely due to less extensive access to original source material, which probably made her focus more on the content of original and edited material.) The present study is very much a continuation in the footsteps of Dinan’s work, but with the aim to leave institutional descriptions aside altogether and concentrate on analysing in depth the religious life of the Company to explain survival. Dinan also discusses survival and puts forward three arguments. Most importantly, 76 See e.g. Charpy 1988 (among many other titles by the same author). Recent hagiographies of de Marillac include French, American and Spanish contributions, the most recent being that of Nuovo 2010. An early exception to this is the book of the Daughter of Charity Margaret Flinton: already in 1957, she aimed to decipher and describe the role and work of Louise de Marillac with the poor. I have used the 1992 edition of the book: Flinton 1992. 77 However, the scholarship on Vincent de Paul is also in need of revision which has been taken on by Alison Forrestal (see Forrestal 2017; Forrestal 2004). Most important works on Vincent de Paul include Coste 1934; Calvet 1948; Dodin 1960; Dodin 1985; Maloney 1995; Pujo 2003; Guillaume 2015. 78 Dinan 2006. 79 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011.

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Dinan argues that Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul intentionally conspired to deceive local and Church authorities and that one important mean to achieve this was to manage the self-presentation of the Company and of the sisters to avoid association with a cloistered order. Nevertheless, many pages are devoted to description of the sisters’ activities leaving discussion on image-moulding unnecessarily thin. This study is devoted completely to the multifaceted aspect of management which is deemed the most important factor behind survival. Management – termed in the study more precisely as moral management – is approached holistically by means of tracing it on all levels of the organization. One of the most important findings my holistic reading has yielded is the aspect of internal resistance. Close reading of the moral management activities aimed at the sisters revealed that the body of members were also questioning the active, non-cloistered way of life. This means that moral management was exercised not only to convince the authorities but also to curtail internal discord. Furthermore, this study not only describes these moral management activities, but also analyses their content and consequences: it discusses the inherent value system they carried and the way they shaped early modern identities both within the Company and in early modern French society in general. In this, the study is also filling a gap in scholarship identified already by Colin Jones in 1989: in his book on nursing in Ancien Régime and Revolutionary France Jones emphasize the role the Daughters of Charity played ‘in the making of a new moral and social consensus’ in France.80 Until now, the thorough examination of the contents of this moral and social consensus created by the Company has been missing. The other arguments Susan Dinan puts forward in her book are likewise aspects that resonate with the aims of this study but are taken further. Dinan claims that success and survival were also due to the protection the Company received from the French political and religious establishments. This study offers a more nuanced picture of the importance of networks by highlighting the role of especially Louise de Marillac and the successful management of her image. By examining the saintly image or reputation of the superior, the study is a contribution to new readings of the social roles that saints, both existing and putative, occupied in early modern Catholic societies. Pioneering work has been done by Peter Burke and Simon Ditchfield,81 and the field is becoming increasingly established as the recent volume 80 Jones 1989, 116. For a more recent study on the Daughters of Charity in the context of hospital sisters, see Dinet-Lecomte 2005. 81 See especially Burke 2005; Ditchfield 2010; 2009; 1995.

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Lived Religious and Everyday Life in Early Modern Hagiographic Material suggests.82 Scholars such as Clare Copeland have produced brilliant studies on the making of early modern female saints and their cults.83 In this study, emphasis is more on the connection of the saintly reputation of Louise de Marillac to authority and power during her lifetime than on the making of her cult. As de Marillac was canonized as late as in 1934, the study of the development of her cult would take the book beyond its scope. It would also defer it from its primary focus of interest, which is to understand how image making contributed to the survival of the Daughters of Charity in the seventeenth century. Susan Dinan argues that the Daughters of Charity were able to avoid enclosure because the stipulations of Trent emphasizing enclosure for religious women were simply too unrealistic to achieve. Dinan points out that financial needs kept even the cloistered orders ‘permeable’ as patrons and boarders, sources of income, mingled with the nuns. This study takes this discussion further: it argues that not only financial needs but also persistent tradition kept religious mentalités less strict than deemed suitable by Trent. The study shows that although de Marillac and de Paul themselves did not identify their work as a continuation of medieval charity work by religious laywomen, their de facto strategies and spirituality are clearly connected to this tradition. This means that the stipulations of Trent were too radical an approach to women’s spirituality in Paris in the first half of the seventeenth century, because local Catholics preferred their own, more traditional interpretation of the revised faith. In this respect, the study is also a contribution to reoccurring assumptions and premises in early modern scholarship: although many scholars acknowledge in their introduction the tradition of religious lay women in the middle ages, few have discussed systematically the significance of tradition in the ideals and work of early modern religious orders. Instead, the majority of scholars choose to describe the seventeenth-century active vocation anyway as an innovative and novel enterprise.84 By analysing in depth the role and image making of Louise de Marillac, the present study aims to offer a more nuanced and detailed picture of female agency in the French Catholic Reformation. Scholars today agree that the Catholic Reformation in France – and especially in Paris, the cradle and 82 Kuuliala & Peake & Räisänen-Schröder 2019. 83 Copeland 2016. 84 See e.g. Dinan 2006, 57, 61; Lux-Sterritt 2005, 179; Diefendorf 2004, 14; Rapley 1990, 6; Brockliss & Jones 1997, 271; Jones 1989, 90.

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most active centre of the Catholic Reformation which has also been studied the most – was mainly the result of the ingenuity and activity of the devout female elites, also known as the dévotes. The most important accounts come from Elizabeth Rapley and Barbara Diefendorf. Rapley was the first to argue for the feminization of seventeenth-century French religious life portrayed as misogynistic in previous scholarship. In her classic 1990 study The dévotes: women and church in seventeenth-century France85 , Rapley demonstrates the numerous ways in which women engaged in the Catholic Reformation and gained social and spiritual promotion, especially through work in the active communities of teaching nuns and filles séculières, the latter including also the Daughters of Charity. Rapley’s Social History of the Cloister, published in 2001,86 is a seminal work on everyday life in French teaching congregations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and illuminates even further the agency women were able to claim within the context of Catholicism.87 Barbara Diefendorf continued in the footsteps of Rapley and produced in 2004 an in-depth study called From penitence to charity: pious women and the Catholic Reformation in Paris88 on the role of elite women and their piety in Catholic Reformation Paris in the first half of the seventeenth century. Studying not only the active but also the contemplative, enclosed communities, Diefendorf offers a refined discussion of the motivation and strategies of the dévotes in the monastic sphere. In addition to institutional history, she also studies women’s piety and traces a shift from penitential practices to charity. Diefendorf explains this shift chiefly by the social and economic stresses France underwent in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. The Daughters of Charity are also discussed: the personal virtues of Louise de Marillac as having considerable administrational talent are mentioned as well as the importance of networks for the survival and success of the Company. The work of Rapley and Diefendorf was continued in 2014 by Jennifer Hillman who discussed elite women’s agency in the religious sphere in the latter half of the century and in the context of Jansenism.89 85 Rapley 1990. 86 Rapley 2001. 87 The f irst academic article on the agency of Louise de Marillac was published in 1979. Liebowitz 1979 discussed three female founders of seventeenth-century unenclosed religious communities. Calling the leaders blatantly ‘activist women’ and taking as a basic assumption that the active vocation was more emancipatory in nature than the contemplative one makes the article too one-sided from today’s scholarly perspectives. 88 Diefendorf 2004. 89 Hillman 2014.

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The final chapter of the study enters in dialogue with revisionist historians, such as Jean-Pierre Gutton, Robert Jütte, Pierre Deyon, and Alain Tallon,90 to challenge Foucauldian conclusions about poor relief as a means of social control. Most of the aforementioned historians have written about or at least mentioned the Daughters of Charity and their poor relief activities. Susan Dinan and Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée have, for their part, described the extent and type of these activities, but no one has produced a systematic and profound study of the value system at play in these poor relief activities. The study shows that the idea of saintly poverty and thus empathy governed in the charity work and that its content was also part of the survival strategy. The study suggests that by schooling only the poor and teaching them a trade was a means to differentiate the Company from enclosed teaching orders.

90 See Gutton 1970; 2004; 2006; Jütte 2001; Deyon 1967a; 1967b; Tallon 1990; Tallon 1991.

1

At the Cradle: Gender and Power in Seventeenth-century Parisian Society Abstract The chapter offers an overview of the historical context that gave birth to the Company of the Daughters of Charity. It argues that the urban development of Paris is a crucial backdrop: the contents and direction of the Company and its moral management were always handled from the motherhouse in Paris. Vital support for the Company came likewise from the devout networks of powerful elite Parisian women (the dévotes). Understanding the institutional changes in poor relief and nursing likewise sets the stage further for the analysis of the organization, execution, and contents of the moral management of the Daughters of Charity. Keywords: seventeenth-century Paris; the dévotes, elite culture; reorganisation of poor relief; developments in nursing

The story of the Daughters of Charity and its moral management activities can only begin with Paris and its metamorphoses which gave birth to the Company. The transformation of the capital began in the early seventeenth century when the city ruined by the Wars of Religion (1562-1598) was turned into an elegant capital of political, cultural, and spiritual revival. Along with new residential areas, new districts of religious institutions were born, the Daughters of Charity forming one of these new institutions. Although Paris was never the one and only scene for the activities of the Company which rapidly established communities also outside the capital, the city remained an important location. Of the roughly 70 communities established during the lifetime of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul, 25 were located within the city gates of Paris. Most of the remaining 45 early foundations were established in the vicinity of Paris: in the Parisian territories or in the rural areas of Île-de-France. Furthermore, even the foundations far away from the capital were for the most part the fruit of the founders’ Parisian contacts.

Peake, R.-M., The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789462986688_ch01

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The influential Paris-based friends of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul would suggest establishments to be founded in their distant terrains.1 Moreover, the contents and direction of the Company and its moral management was always handled from where the founder-directors permanently resided, that is, Paris and the motherhouse. Against this backdrop, it is crucial to contextualize the Company with the capital’s development; its nature and the individuals and groups of people behind it. In addition, understanding the institutional changes in poor relief and nursing likewise deepen understanding of the historical context and set the stage further for the analysis of the organization, execution, and contents of the moral management of the Daughters of Charity.

1

The elitist facelift of Paris

Corneille, in his play Le Menteur, first performed in 1644, described Paris and the changes it was undergoing in the following way: DORANTE: Paris seems to my eyes a land described in novels This morning I thought I saw an enchanted island: I left it deserted and find it inhabited. Some new Amphion without the aid of masons Has changed its shrubs into superb palaces. GERONTE: Paris sees the metamorphoses every day, In the Pré-aux-Clercs you will see the same things, And the entire universe can see nothing equal To what you see toward the Palais-Royal A whole new city built with pomp Seems to have come from an old moat by miracle, And makes us presume, from its superb roofs, That all the inhabitants are Gods or kings. [...]2 1 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 380, 388–391. 2 Corneille 1644, II:5. All translations by author if not indicated otherwise. French quotation: ‘DORANTE: Paris semble à mes yeux un pays de Romants, I’y croyois ce matin voir une Isle enchantée, Ie la laissay deserte, & la trouve habitée, Quelque Amphion nouveau sans l’ayde des maçons En superbes Palais a changé ses buissons. GERONTE: Paris voit tous les iours de ces Metamorphoses,

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By the second decade of the seventeenth century Paris had moved into a new era: social and political upheaval was reflected in the face of the capital that Henry IV (1589–1610) had taken an interest in modernising. The king, who was a gifted planner and political reorganizer of the capital, began a process that ended two centuries of stagnation in building construction and revolutionized urban life.3 During the process, Paris became the true capital of France and, as such, the cradle of political, cultural, scientific, religious, and economic influences radiating to all other cities in France and to many abroad. 4 One of the most interesting plans Henry IV initiated was residential building. By introducing royal sponsorship, the King encouraged the wealthy bourgeois, royal officials as well as some gentlemen to engage in large-scale housing projects.5 Famous examples are the Place Dauphine on the Île-de-laCité (in construction by 1607) and Place Royale (after the Revolution known as Place des Vosges, in construction by 1605) in the vicinity of the Marais. The Marais had been a horribly swampy area up to the 1550s when it was drained to produce a sumptuous residential area. This development was encouraged also by the establishment of the silk industry in the capital.6 The new squares were masterpieces of a new residential ideology in which style and materials were carefully controlled and spaciousness made a key element. The squares were surrounded with less expensive pavillons rather than hôtels, and included arcades and galleries, statuary, and, in some cases, shared gardens.7 This innovation would influence urban planning in other major European capitals. As a whole, the early seventeenth-century made Paris a luxurious ensemble of quays, bridges, and houses, including hôtels, to meet aristocratic preferences, but also some maisons indicating a clientele of differing levels of social standing and wealth. Paris had become a superb showcase of royal power, national wealth, and sophistication.8 Dedans le pré aux Clercs tu verras mesmes choses, Et l’Vniuers ne peut rien voir d’égal A ce que tu verras vers le Palais Royal Toute une ville entiere avec pompe bastie Semble d’un vieux fossé par miracle sortie, Et nous fait presumer, à ses superbes toits, Que tous ses habitants font de Dieux, ou de Roys. [...]’ 3 Ranum 2002, 87, 105–107. 4 Pardailhé-Galabrun 1991, 214. 5 Ranum 2002, 106. 6 DeJean 2014, 46. 7 Ranum 2002, 105–107. 8 DeJean 2014, 45–76; Ranum 2002, 90–98, 105–122.

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Elites demonstrated their power and wealth by funding residential building projects as well as the construction of religious buildings. The process started in the late 1610s, 1620s when the French Catholic Church slowly started to open toward Rome – the Catholic reform had been launched already at the Council of Trent almost 50 years earlier. One important reason for the delay was the ideology of Gallicanism which made the sovereign – and even some some elites9 – protective of the French church and wary of papal authority. Hostilities with Spain, a Catholic monarchy, also lessened interest in receiving the reforms. The monarch feared provoking a violent Calvinists reaction. In 1615 the French clergy, however, declared to adopt the new Tridentine stipulations. Even the declaration was mostly symbolic in nature, it nevertheless marked the beginning of ultramontanism, a time up to the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715) when France was more open to Roman influence.10 Despite the slow start, the level of intensity and creativity became unparalleled and exceeded that in any other Catholic region.11 Paris in particular was the cradle of the French Catholic Reformation and the centre from which missionary activities disseminated around the realm and beyond.12 One of the most important consequences of the Catholic reform was the reforming and founding of religious institutions: monks and nuns can be said to have been the efficient disseminators of the revised Catholic faith designed by Trent and executed by the Pope and bishops.13 In fact, side by side with the secular metamorphoses of the Place Royale and Place Dauphine, the face of Paris was also altered significantly by the revival and construction of monasteries and other religious houses. The intensity of the process has been compared to that of the year 1000, when Europe and especially France were described to be adorned by ‘the white mantle of churches’, referring to the impressive presence of both male and female religious orders. It was in France, after all, that many of the most powerful orders were established and developed over the centuries. 500 years later the revival was, however, even more wide-scale.14 9 Diefendorf 1996, especially 305. 10 Bergin 2009, 3–14; Venard & Bonzon 2008, 15–18,102; Parsons 2004; Tallon 1997; Martin 1919. See also Forrestal & Nelson 2009, which discusses the roots of the Catholic Reformation during the reign of Henri IV. France was not, however, the only hesitant state: Austria and Venice likewise resisted the influence of Rome. See Beales 2003, 34. 11 Forrestal 2017, 1. 12 Chartier 1998a, 96–102. 13 Beales 2003. 14 Bergin 2009, 84. For the ecclesiastical revival of the first millennium, see Hiscock 2003.

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In the capital alone, more than 60 new religious houses were opened between the mid-1590s and 1650.15 The revival was especially a feminine one: according to Barbara Diefendorf, all together 48 new houses were erected for women between 1604 and 1650. The prevailing religious lifestyle was contemplative, referring to prayer-centred spiritual life within a monastery, as 60 per cent of the new houses were enclosed communities. This is not, however, the whole story: since 1633, the official founding of the Daughters of Charity by Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul, there were far more active orders erected. In fact, the amount of new contemplative orders fell from 80 per cent between 1604 and 1633 to 45 per cent between 1634 and 1660.16 An active order, in comparison to a contemplative one, is a community dedicated to communal religious life in the style of nuns and monks but without making perpetual, if any, monastic vows (chastity, poverty, obedience). Active congregations also engage in an apostolic mission outside the community house for example by nourishing the poor, educating children, housing former prostitutes, and tending to the sick, sometimes in hospitals. The preference for contemplative religious life was reflected in the location of the new religious houses: one of the most significant areas in Paris for the new religious houses was the faubourg Saint-Jacques on the left bank of the river Seine, outside the city gates. It included the fields and gardens on both sides of the rue Saint-Jacques and stretched all the way to the gardens of the Luxembourg.17 The area was in many respects in ruins, although it had been thriving and expanding for quite a while despite its location outside the twelfth-century city wall built by Philip Augustus. Devastation came along with the Wars of Religion that made the faubourg more or less discarded land. The tranquil location and vast premises combined with easy access to and from the city appealed especially to the enclosed orders.18 The faubourg housed many monastic societies that favoured austerity, often of Spanish or Italian influence: the Discalced Carmelite nuns and the order of Saint-Josephdes-Carmes, or the Discalced Carmelite fathers (both a French adaptation of the revived order of Teresa of Avila (1515-1582, canonized 1622) and John of the Cross (1542-1591, canonized 1726)); the Capucines, that is, Capuchin nuns (Franciscans of Italian origin); the Ursulines (reformed Augustinians of Italian origin); the Benedictines of Val-de-Grâce; and the reformed Cistercians of Port Royal, to name the most important ones.19 15 16 17 18 19

Bergin 2009, 119. Diefendorf 2004, 135–136. Ranum 2002, 181. Diefendorf 2004, 138. Diefendorf 2004, 138–140; Ranum 2002, 181.

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Despite the inclination toward asceticism, these establishments were aristocratic in spirit. They appealed especially to the royal, aristocratic, and robe families, and in their exclusiveness and isolation in the rural surroundings, the new monasteries were ‘the spiritual equivalent of the country château’, as Orest Ranum has put it.20 In fact, in extent, style, and cost the new religious quarter of Saint-Jacques was in every way a matching counterpart to the new secular residential areas described above. The impulse to enclosed orders thus coincided with the overall new penchant for the aristocratic way of life in elite Parisian society. 21 In addition to the faubourg Saint-Jacques, other important new religious quarters were built in the faubourg Saint-Germain, Left Bank, and in the vicinity of rue Saint-Honoré on the Right Bank. The area housed likewise orders of the austere style, including many of the above mentioned but also for example the reformed Dominicans called the Jacobins, and the Feuillants.22 Either side of the river Seine, less rigid adaptations of religious life were also accommodated. In 1619, for example the Ordre de la Visitation SainteMarie, the order of the Visitation of Holy Mary or, shortly, the Visitation nuns, built their first house on rue Saint-Antoine in the Marais. Seven years later, they established a second house in the faubourg Saint-Jacques.23 The order was founded by François de Sales and his penitent Jeanne de Chantal (1572–1641, canonized 1767) in Savoy in 1610. Originally it was an active, unenclosed religious congregation for women, but was made into an enclosed one in 1615 by the Archbishop of Lyon.24 Vincent de Paul was a close friend of de Sales, and after the death of the latter, he took over the houses of the order in Paris and also became the confessor of Jeanne de Chantal.25 The Left Bank but mainly areas further away from the elitist neighbourhoods were home to the centre of radiance of the Daughters of Charity, the motherhouse. In my view, the history of the locations of the motherhouse reflects the desire of the Company to emphasize its overall humble mission and present itself as an antithesis to the elitisms of the surrounding secular and religious culture: it was founded in the present fifth arrondissement, but established more permanently in the poor northern parts of Paris. 20 21 22 23 24 25

Ranum 2002, 181, 191. Ranum 2002, 181–182, 191. Ranum 2002, 190–191. Ranum 2002, 181. See Wright & Power 1988, 26–30. See Chapter 2.

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The first house of the Daughters of Charity was, in fact, the home of Louise de Marillac, located at rue de Versailles in the parish of Saint-Nicolas-duChardonnet on the Left Bank.26 De Marillac erected the Daughters of Charity officially in 1633 together with her confessor Vincent de Paul who, born son of a peasant in Gascony, became one of the most important reformers of the French Catholic Church.27 The Daughters of Charity were originally a spinoff of the couple’s earlier work with communities called the Confréries de la Charité in which wealthy women helped the poor together with the Lazarist priest who were members of de Paul’s main organization, the Congregation of the Mission, founded in 1625. The charities were mainly founded outside Paris, the first one in Châtillon-les-Dombes28 in 1617, and they became the model and inspiration for many other charitable institutions run by women in the region especially before mid-century.29 As the noble women one after another decided to send their maids to perform menial chores that they deemed unsuitable for their rank, de Paul and de Marillac began recruiting specifically common women for those tasks. By the early 1630s, they had attracted so many women that it was time to organize their activities under a community. The wealthy women remained an integral part of the Company, but under the name the Ladies of Charity and acted as financers and local directors of the Company of the Daughters of Charity. The mission of the Company was active and apostolic although the members led a monastic-like communal life with devotional practices. In contrast to nuns, the Daughters, however, lived without enclosure and binding vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The Company’s active vocation is described in the Common Rules: The main Purpose for which God has called and assembled the Daughters of Charity is to honour Our Lord Jesus Christ as the source and model of all charity, serving him corporally and spiritually in poor persons; either the sick, children, prisoners or other who because of shame do not dare to express their needs.30 26 Gobillon 1676, II:1, p. 51–52; Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 424. 27 See the work of Alison Forrestal (2017) for the most recent scholarship on de Paul. 28 The town is located close to Lyon and Mâcon and is known today by the name Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne. 29 Gutton 1970, 373–375; Gutton 2006, 23. For the sixteenth-century forerunners of the charités, see Diefendorf 2016. 30 AFC, Alméras 1672, I:1, fol. 1. French quotation: ‘La Fin principale pour laquelle Dieu a appellé et assemblé les Filles de la Charité, est pour honorer Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ comme la source et le modele de toute charité, le servant corporellement et spirituellement en la personne

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The Daughters in Paris and in other towns as well as in rural districts nursed the sick very often in their individual communities but especially since the 1640s almost as often in hospitals of which they were in charge.31 One of the first hospitals of the Company was that of Angers founded in the 1640s.32 The Company was likewise renowned for their orphanage, the Hôpital des enfants trouvés, managed by the Ladies of Charity and Vincent de Paul and staffed by the Daughters of Charity since 1638. In the very beginning, orphans were gathered in the motherhouse of the Company in La Chapelle but transferred within a month to a rented apartment on rue des Boulangers in the present fifth arrondissement of Paris. There were twelve children with several Daughters of Charity to take care of them under the supervision of Madame Pelletier who was the first director. From very early on the œuvre faced serious problems especially financially. Additional problems were posed by military officials demanding the community to house their soldiers in the quarters. Moreover, wet nurses were hard to find, and the sisters were often forced to give the infants goat’s or cow’s milk. However, the institution grew so rapidly that in 1640 Vincent de Paul assembled the Ladies of Charity to ask for their help. The event was honoured by several Ladies, among them the princess of Condé and the duchess d’Aiguillon, or Marie de Vignerot (1604–1678). She was the niece of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) and, after the death of her husband, also closely tied to the Carmelite order. Most importantly, she is remembered as the generous donator and organizer of various charitable projects.33 A few years later, in 1647, the King allotted the children the château de Bicêtre, 4.5 kilometres south of Paris. Some orphans, and especially during the civil war Fronde (1648-1653), were likewise lodged at the Treize-Maisons, located along the rue faubourg Saint-Denis.34 Basic education of (mainly) girls was a central part of the mission of the Daughters both in towns and in the countryside. The activity was inaugurated officially in May 1641 when Louise de Marillac received permission from the Chancellor Michel Le Masle to establish a petite école in the very poor faubourg Saint-Denis in Paris. The Chancellor, also the director of des pauvres, soit malades, soit enfans, soit prisonniers, ou autres, qui par honte n’osent faire paroistre leur nécessité’. 31 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 384, Figure 33. 32 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 270 (1641?), p. 247–252. 33 See Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 198 (December 1637), p. 186, note 6. 34 AN, Mandement du Roi en faveur des enfants trouvés 1642 (edition found in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 365 (July 1642), p. 340–342); AN, Abregé historique de l’établissement de l’hôpital des enfans-trouvés; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 199 (1 January 1638), p. 187, note 3; doc. 585 (11 May 1654), p. 651, note 1; Coste 1934, II:451–478; Flinton 1992, 53–84.

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the petites écoles of Paris and its suburbs, reasoned his decision as follows, originally in Latin: ‘[...] the report of your pastor, the testimony of other trustworthy persons and having knowledge about your life, manners, and Catholic faith, we give you permission to […] keep schools’.35 Prisoners and especially galley slaves became an important part of the mission of the Company in 1639 when the sisters began to assist the men at La Tournelle, a small fortress along the quai de la Tournelle in the present fifth arrondissement of Paris. This group of needy had always been central to the vocation of the Congregation of the Mission, but was integrated into the work of the Daughters only after the Company received a specific donation for the work.36 Despite the helping of the galley slaves, in terms of gender the mission of the Daughters of Charity was aimed largely at girls and women. There were, however, two occupations where the beneficiaries were mixed: in hospitals and orphanages. The Common Rules hint at this in the chapter on chastity where the sisters are exhorted to be especially precautious with patients of the opposite sex. Medicine was to be given to men carefully and physical distance kept even when the patient was in agony or when the sisters were assisting him at the moment of death.37 Moreover, the orphanage lodged both girls and boys up to the age around twelve,38 which was one of the first milestones of adulthood in the canon law. Schools, however, were intended strictly only for girls.39 As the Company grew in size, the motherhouse moved away from the clamour of the city to more humble and rustic surroundings but remaining always in the vicinity of the Congregation of the Mission and Vincent de Paul. In 1636 the Daughters moved to La Chapelle, a small village north of Paris, and in 1641 a bit closer to Paris, to the angle of rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis and rue Saint-Laurent, just opposite to the Saint-Lazare and the congregation of de Paul in the vicinity of present-day Gare de l’Est. The motherhouse grew in size after the death of the founders as more property was added to it to better house the growing body of members. By the time of the expulsion 35 Marillac FR, L. 41 (May 1641), p. 52. French quotation (translated from Latin by Charpy?): ‘[...] le rapport de votre Curé, le témoignage de tous les autres dignes de foi, et ayant connaissance de votre vie, mœurs et Religion Catholique, nous vous accordons pour ce sujet la licence […] de tenir les écoles’. 36 Gobillon 1676, II:4, p. 87–89; Flinton 1992, 100–117. 37 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:3, fol. 13. 38 See e.g. the conference of Vincent de Paul where he states that unlike at the orphanage, schools of the Company can only accept girls: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 458 (30 October 1647), p. 494. See also the note of Louise de Marillac on the rules relating to the orphans: Marillac FR, A. 91 (possibly after 1643), p. 734. 39 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 458 (30 October 1647), p. 493–495.

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of the Company in 1792–1793, the residence of the Daughters of Charity claimed a fairly significant quarter of the neighbourhood. 40

2 The dévotes and the spiritual facelift of Paris The powerful spiritual facelift of Paris not only transformed urban space but also effected the street scene in the form of a new type of a city dweller: contemporary observers noted that early seventeenth-century Paris had become a city of sober-clothed girls and women who treaded the streets modestly in their long black capes. 41 These women, the founder of the Daughters of Charity Louise de Marillac among them, came mainly from the upper segments of society and embraced the reform of the Catholic faith in great numbers. In fact, it was these women, known as the dévotes, who were largely responsible for the new spiritual geography of the capital, although not all of them lead consecrated lives within a religious community. What is particular for the Catholic reform in France is the significance of devout lay people as initiators. This was due to the internal incoherence of the French Catholic Church. As Barbara Diefendorf puts it, [t]he simple fact is that it was not the church but rather individual donors who built the convents of the Catholic revival. The process was less centralized, less coherent than it is often made to seem. 42

Furthermore, Diefendorf continues, ecclesiastical authorities, bishops and monastic leaders, were inconsistent in the implementation of their power and in the supervision of the new convents. This was due to the disorderly process itself and also the extensive patronage system of the convents of which the authorities themselves were part. The result of this lack of consistent oversight was that the convents and the people – mostly women – heading them gained more room for initiative and more formal and informal authority. 43 An illuminating example on the microhistorical level supporting Diefendorf’s argument is the establishing of the Daughters of Charity in Nantes in 40 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 424–443. 41 Rapley 1990, 17. 42 Diefendorf 2001, 499. 43 Diefendorf 2001, 499. See also Forrestal 2004, especially Chapter Three on the power struggle between French bishops and regulars; Gutton 2004; Rapley 1990; Châtellier 1989.

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1646. In her report on the arrival of the sisters, Louise de Marillac describes how the whole town and especially the pious Ladies of influential families and rushed to greet them in great numbers. Some of the Ladies, along with a couple of ecclesiastics, even came to receive the party on the road, a few days away from Nantes. When the sisters and their superior arrived in the town, the Ladies insisted they immediately visit Belestre, ‘a house belonging to Mademoiselle des Rochers [a Lady of Nantes], where most of the religions [religious orders] established in Nantes first sojourn’. Later, at the hospital, several superiors of reformed orders came to greet the Daughters, and even nuns, confined to their convents, obliged the Ladies to bring the sisters to visit them. 44 But, despite this warm welcome from the devout laity and religious from a wide range of professions, Louise de Marillac faced problems with the Bishop of Nantes and his Grand Vicar relating to the independence of the Company from the Bishop. 45 The enthusiasm of the laity to engage in the revival of religious institutions was also nurtured by the revised Catholic faith itself, which proclaimed education and charity work as one of its important functions. This inspired especially the noble and the wealthy bourgeoisie women of the so-called milieu dévot.46 The term dévot is of Latin origin: devotus is a person devoted to God. In the context of the French Catholic Reformation the word, however, specifically refers to the group of people who acted as the central force in the spiritual movement. This group is also connected to the Wars of Religion of the sixteenth century as many of them or members of their family had been lay militant ligueurs. The eagerness to fight heresy did not die with the waning of the wars, quite the contrary: the energy of the ligueurs returned to the stage in the form of an interior reform of the church. 47 The ligueurs along with other members of the lay upper strata of the society were key agents in the flowering of spirituality and religious culture in France by embracing the Christian humanism of the Jesuits and Spanish mysticism. Furthermore, many dévots not only nurtured their own personal spiritual growth with the help of confessors and extensive spiritual exercises but also acted as eminent social reformers. Often this activity was funnelled to different informal Catholic associations, confraternities (French confrérie) 44 Marillac FR, L. 159 (1646), p. 173–175. French quotation: ‘qui est une maison appartenant à Mademoiselle des Rochers, qui est le lieu où la plupart des religions établies à Nantes y ont fait leur premier séjour’. 45 Marillac FR, L. 159 (1646), p. 176. 46 Roche 1987, 846–847. 47 Venard & Bonzon 2008, 18.

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being the most common type of institution.48 In the case of the dévots, the word confraternity should not, however, be confused with the long tradition of guild and parish associations. 49 Furthermore, for the superior of the Daughters of Charity, Louise de Marillac, the gendering of religious projects was dependent on the nature of the venture. In a note written in 1653, she expressed her idea on the involvement of women in the forthcoming project of the notorious Hôpital général, or the General hospital of Paris, planned by the Catholic Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement for the confinement of the marginal populace of the capital: If the task is considered political, it seems like the men should undertake it […]. If it is regarded an act of charity, the women can undertake it in the manner they have assumed the other great and unpleasant tasks of charity [...].50

But why were Parisian devout women able to take and use the power the incoherence of the Catholic Church had produced? Women and power are certainly not a pair easily connected with French history as France had excluded women from the royal succession already in the fourteenth century.51 Although women did not have direct political power, they benefitted from other favourable circumstances in Paris. Compared to most other parts of the country and of Europe, these conditions were quite exceptional, if not unique, as Barbara Diefendorf has proposed. Paris had more wealthy, cultured and well-educated women than any other European city. Furthermore, local legal traditions gave women extensive inheritance rights, thus, personal property, and widows the possibility to act as guardians of minor children and administrators of their husband’s estates. On the other hand, the regencies of Marie de’ Medici (1600–1614) and Anne of Austria favoured the position of aristocratic women in the Court. Salon culture and the customs of the elites likewise advanced women’s position 48 Gutton 2004, 5–7. 49 For the definition of a ‘traditional’ confraternity, see Black & Gravestock 2006, and especially introduction by Christopher Black, p. 1–2; Black 1989, 1–32. For an analysis of the seventeenthcentury confraternity, see Bergin 2009, 105, 140–145; Dinan 2006, 42–51. 50 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 558 (August 1653), p. 623. French quotation: ‘Si l’œuvre est regardée comme politique, il semble que les hommes la doivent entreprendre […] Si elle est considérée comme œuvre de charité, les femmes la peuvent entreprendre en la manière qu’elles ont entrepris les autres grands et pénibles exercices de charité [...]’. 51 This was due to the resurrection of the Salic law. See Taylor 2006.

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in culture and gave them the right to manage family property. In addition, the maintenance of often large manors and territories gave elite women experience of leadership which they could make good use of in the founding and running of religious communities.52 Despite the stipulations of Trent conf ining all women religious to enclosure to pursue a contemplative vocation within a monastery,53 the Parisian dévotes, who used their creativity extensively in the French Catholic Reformation, founded and supported many active congregations for women, one example being the Daughters of Charity. The efforts of the elite dévotes offered opportunities for a number of women who engaged in the work of the new active congregations. As Marie-Claude Dinet-Lecomte’s study on hospital sisters indicates, hospitals alone employed 6 500 women belonging to secular (or unenclosed) congregations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Only 3000 were professed nuns and 2000 were laics.54 As active orders employed sisters in various activities beyond hospitals, the figures for religious laywomen are even greater. To put the data in perspective, it should be mentioned that in the seventeenth century the population of France varied between 18 to 20 million and that of Paris between 220 000 and 500 000.55 Turning back to the secular hospital sisters studied by Dinet-Lecomte, another interesting detail deserves a mention: of the 6 500 women a third were members of the Daughters of Charity.56 The Daughters of Charity became the largest, most influential and famous of the new seventeenthcentury active orders. In fact, the fille de la charité became a generic term in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, signifying for contemporaries members of all similar communities.57 Important to note here is that in the case of the Daughters of Charity, the women employed were not part of the elites. Thus, the activities of the elite dévotes touched an important number of common women. According to the most recent estimates presented by Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée, the Daughters of Charity erected 506 communities in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 55 per cent of them were erected in the seventeenth century. In addition, 30 were established in Poland. During 52 Diefendorf 2004, 16–18, 250. I am also grateful for Barbara Diefendorf for sharing her conference paper from 2013 on female charity work in Paris in comparison to the Mediterranean zone. 53 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25:5, p. 223–224. 54 Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 9, 423. 55 Bluche 2005. 56 Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 9, 423. 57 Jones 1989, 90.

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the lifetime de Marillac and de Paul, 20 to 25 new establishments were opened every decade. However, the analysis of Brejon de Lavergnée reveals that the period of most intensive growth was experienced after the deaths of the founders, in the 1680s and 1690s, in the wake of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes banning Protestant faith in 1685 and increasing demand for missionary work among non-Catholics. The following century, nevertheless, witnessed a drop in activity especially during the last decades of the reign of Louis XIV, although as a whole, the Enlightenment continued to boost the movement of charitable institutions.58 In regard to the number of members, Brejon de Lavergnée has suggested that there were 8 200 to 8 300 Daughters of Charity, the communities both in France and Poland included, during the Ancien Régime.59 Élizabeth Charpy, for her part, has estimated that during the lifetime of the founders up to 1660 there were 365 sisters.60 Today, the Company is still one of the most significant French Catholic organizations employing more than 14,000 sisters in 94 countries.61 The Daughters of Charity did not only play a crucial role in reshaping the vocations of women but also touched the lives of a significant number of ordinary French people. ‘Possibly 10 000 lives depend on your fidelity [to your vocation],’ Vincent de Paul instructed the Daughters in 1641.62 Rhetoric or not, taken the wide geographical distribution and vigour of the Company, the Daughters of Charity and their moral management activities had an important influence on the society as a whole.

3

Social problems and the reorganization of nursing

The social problems of the day motivated the devout elite to take an interest in educative and charitable institutions. Peaking right before the official founding of the Company in 1633 and lasting until the death of the two 58 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 378–381. Interestingly, the pattern is inverse for the hospital sisters: Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 165. For lists of establishments, see AN, List of establishments; Individual communities; AFC, List of establishments. On a more general level, it has been shown that the Catholic Reformation in Europe flourished especially in the first half of the eighteenth century. See e.g. Beales 2003, 8–9, 28–29. 59 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 302. 60 Cited in Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 301. 61 Based on the figures given for 1 January 2019 by the Company at http://filles-de-la-charite. org/fr/who-we-are/where-we-are/ (13 August 2019). 62 Paul Conférences, 31 July 1641, p. 6. French quotation: ‘de votre fidélité dépend peut-être la vie de dix mille personnes’.

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founders in 1660, the difficulties included unprecedentedly high levels of popular destitution, deracination and vagrancy resulting mainly from economic recession and warfare, both civil and foreign.63 The number of fainéants or do-nothings increased steadily between 1630 and 1670,64 even though the first third of the century had been a period of growth after the disastrous Wars of Religion had waned. Economic bloom was, however, far from matching the heydays of the first half of the sixteenth century. The extent of the misery of peasants flowing into the hands of the Daughters in the parishes of Paris and the surrounding villages after 1630 was extreme also in comparison to later times. The factors behind the rural catastrophe were age-old: harvest failure, epidemics and immoderate fiscal burden. Rainy summers in the north and drought in the south destroyed harvests between 1630 and 1633 and thus caused famine across the realm. After a couple of better years, bad weather struck again in 1645 destroying harvests until the dissolution of the wars of the Fronde in 1652. The shortage of food was accompanied by the plague especially between 1625 and 1630 and by peasant uprisings. The reinforcement of absolutism was the third important cause of misery: involvement in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) not only wreaked havoc all over the kingdom but also swelled the administration and thus the fiscal demands especially on the peasants.65 For the urban population of Paris, war was not the most serious source of destruction. Despite urban unrest during the wars of the Fronde, for example, it was the countryside that suffered the most. Nonetheless, the cities struggled with the influx of the impoverished victims of the war. Although harvest failure did not hit city dwellers with their wide commercial networks as badly as it did the peasants, a crisis in the form of an epidemic caused by soldiers passing by, for example, was often far more disastrous in the densely populated urban areas than in rural settlements. A serious outbreak was experienced in almost all French cities between 1628 and 1636, that is, not long before the official founding of the Daughters of Charity. Nevertheless, none of the serious urban epidemics of the seventeenth century matched the extent of demolition of the great bubonic plague raging in Europe from 1348 to 1440 and further.66 On the other hand, the founding of the Daughters of Charity was also closely connected to the reorganization of poor relief – a phenomenon also 63 64 65 66

Bergin 2009, 382–383. Ranum 2002, 316–317. Jacquart 1975, 182–185, 187, 239, see also 241–256; Ranum 2002, 274–276; Deyon 1967a, 137–138. Neveux 1998, 34–41. See also Nassiet 2006, 18–20, 22–37.

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present in Protestant areas67 – and nursing which started to shift from ecclesiastical to lay control in the late Middle Ages. The sixteenth century witnessed the birth of collective municipal poor relief institutions such as the Chambre de pauvres, Bureau des pauvres, Communauté des pauvres and the Aumône générale. The latter was imported to Paris in 1530 from the eastern borders of the realm. Despite some resemblance to medieval charity work, the novelty of these new institutions laid in the lay administration, which included the cataloguing and examining of the needy. Nevertheless, these institutions were not able to fully address the growing problem of urban poverty, which inspired the elite dévots to take action and complement the existing structures.68 Efforts to centralize hospitals began in the late fifteenth century by means of regrouping small establishments. Institutions such as the Hôtel-Dieu that was staffed mainly by Augustinian nuns and some monks not only nursed the sick but also took care of the poor and travellers. In the following century hospital reforms continued to aim at centralization but also at remodelling administration: royal authorities strove to replace ecclesiastical authority with lay management. The mixed-sex environment of the Hôtels-Dieu and the freedom of nursing nuns to visit the poor at their homes caused governing bodies – not only lay but ecclesiastical too – to react to the potential threat of uncontrolled female sexuality by demanding enclosure for the women. However, demands were not smoothly implemented, and the work of the nuns remained vital for the Hôtels-Dieu under both lay and ecclesiastical administration.69 By the seventeenth century, the feminization of nursing in hospitals had become even more evident. One third of the nurses with a congregational or confraternal background belonged to the Daughters of Charity.70 According to the most recent figures presented by Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée, the Daughters worked in 103 hospitals and 177 parishes in the seventeenth century. Work in the latter consisted primarily of nursing, schools being of secondary importance.71 As Marie-Claude Dinet-Lecomte has suggested, an explication for the feminization might lay in the sharpening division of interests between the sexes: men turned more toward priesthood, 67 Jütte 2001, 100–105. 68 Chartier 1998b, 221–225. See also Roche 1987, 842–846. See Diefendorf 2016 for the sixteenthcentury background of these developments and its relationship to the seventeenth-century elite initiatives. 69 Broomhall 2004, especially 76–77, 83–86, 89; Imbert 1956. 70 Dinet-Lecomte 2005, especially 423–424. 71 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 381–385.

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congregations of priests (such as de Paul’s Congregation of the Mission) and traditional monastic orders making them administrators of charity rather than its executors – a role adopted mainly by women. This was not, however, necessarily an expression of contempt toward charity work, but possibly an overvaluation of ‘feminine qualities’. The idea of a woman as naturally and culturally more prone to caregiving progressed further in the eighteenth century.72

72 Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 425–426.

2

Portrait of Louise de Marillac: Ensuring Resources for Moral Management Abstract The aim of the chapter is to put Louise de Marillac fully in the spotlight. It reassess her role in the success of the Company of the Daughters of Charity and examines her significance in the organization of the Company’s moral management activities. The first subchapter examines the role of Louise de Marillac’s family and dévote networks in the founding and funding of the Company of the Daughters of Charity. The following subchapters turn to the image of Louise de Marillac and study the ways her image as a living saint and a passive penitent of Vincent de Paul were critical in creating spiritual authority and an orthodox image of the Company as a whole. Keywords: female sanctity; living saint; performance of religious identity; elite networks; penitential practices; confessor-penitent relationship

On the Feast of Pentecost, during holy Mass or while I was praying in the church, my mind was instantly freed of all doubt. I was advised that I should remain with my husband and that a time would come when I would be in a position to make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and that I would be in a small community where others would do the same. I then understood that I would be in a place where I could help my neighbor but I did not understand how this would be possible since there was to be much coming and going.1 1 Marillac EN, A. 2 (sometime after 4 June 1623), p. 1. French quotation: ‘ le iour de la pentecoste oiant la Ste Messe ou fesant l’oraison a leglise, tout en un instant mon esprit fut eclercy de ses doutes et [ie] fus avertie que ie devois demeurer avec mon mary [et] que un temps devoit venir que ie se[rois] en [eta]t de faire Vœu de pauvrete, chastete et obeissanse et que ie serois en une petite communaulte ou quelques unes ferrent le semblable ientendois lors estre en un lieu p[our]

Peake, R.-M., The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789462986688_ch02

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On Sunday, 4 June 1623, at the age of 31, Louise de Marillac, a pious wife and mother, received a vision about her future while praying in a church in her neighbourhood in the sophisticated Marais. This vision later became a powerful means for her to claim divine support for transforming herself from a pious wife to a holy widow with significant spiritual authority.2 The piece of paper on which she wrote down her Pentecostal experience became such a precious document that it is conserved at the archives of the motherhouse of the Congregation of the Mission, the father organization of the Daughters of Charity. The stage of the vision, the church Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, is still today a holy site upholding the memory of Louise de Marillac and her calling vision.3 The unenclosed Catholic community of the Daughters of Charity dedicated to moral management through charity work was officially erected ten years later by Louise de Marillac and her confessor Vincent de Paul. Despite Louise de Marillac’s vision and the significance it bears for the Company, the master narrative around the foundation has been very strongly dominated by the character of Vincent de Paul. In this storyline, the role of Louise de Marillac is secondary and her personality greatly dependent on her confessor: it has been assumed that she only assisted de Paul, and that he transformed the life and soul of a tormented woman into something saintly, which, in return, led to the creation of a successful religious community. 4 But was this really so? Recent scholarship has shown that the Catholic Reformation and especially its by-product, the revival of religious communities, were in the hands of Parisian elite women. Was Louise de Marillac an exception to this rule? The character of Louise de Marillac has received growing attention since the late 1960s, early 1970s when scholars, both within and outside the Company, for the first time took an interest in bringing her ‘out of the shadow’. This was a reflection of second wave feminism and the rise of feminist historiography as well as the Second Vatican Council that encouraged a return to the sources with new perspectives. However, the studies are still servir le prochain mais ie ne pouvoi[s] entendre comme cela se pourroit faire a cause quil y [en ?] devoit avoir alant et venant’. CM, Lumière de Pentecôte. 2 For the role of calling visions in female spirituality, see e.g. Salmesvuori 2014, 70–73, who has studied the significance of the calling vision of the medieval saint Birgitta of Sweden. 3 The church is located in the third arrondissement in Paris, on rue Saint-Martin. The Pentecostal experience is a central part of the identity of the church and its parish. Still today, the website of the church takes care of informing visitors about the two significant personalities related to its history: saint Nicolas and Louise de Marillac. See https://asaintnicolas.com/ paroisse/saint-nicolas-des-champs/sainte-louise-de-marillac-1591–1660/ (13 August 2019). 4 The classic study is that of Déplanque 1936, especially p. 1–13, 73–74, whose ideas are repeated also by Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 97.

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few and lack an in-depth analysis of the role and image of the superior.5 Thus, this chapter aims to set Louise de Marillac fully in the spotlight and reassess her role in the Company’s success and examine her significance in the organization of the Company’s moral management activities. The first subchapter is interested in examining the significance and role of the Parisian elites in the founding of the Company of the Daughters of Charity and in the pursuit of its programme of moral management. Furthermore, it analyses the ways the elite background of Louise de Marillac was crucial for the Company. Subchapters two and three turn to the way the morality and image of Louise de Marillac was managed inside the Company and in what ways this image was critical in creating spiritual authority and an orthodox image of the superior and through her of the whole Company. The chapter suggests that the image moulding was an important means to secure the survival of the Company facing suspicious authorities and being dependent on the resources provided by elite women and the body of members.

1

The credible head: Louise de Marillac and the elite networks of the Company

In September 1613, the paths of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul were still far from crossing. De Marillac was living comfortably in the aristocratic neighbourhood of the Marais popular among members of the court6 with her husband Antoine Le Gras (d. 1625), secretary to the queen.7 The couple were married seven months earlier, and now the young wife was carrying a baby to be born within a month’s time.8 Vincent de Paul, originally the son 5 These studies include ones by present-day Daughters of Charity who have concentrated on her biography (see Charpy 1988 who seems to have set the model for all other present-day biographies produced amid the Company in several languages), spirituality (see Charpy 1995; LaFleur 1996) or social work (See Flinton 1992), whereas lay scholarship has been overtly feministic and, as a result, too one-eyed (see Liebowitz 1979), or has treated de Marillac only as part of a vast study on a more general phenomenon or within the institutional history of the Daughters of Charity (see Jones 1989; Rapley 1990; Diefendorf 2004; Dinan 2006; Brejon de Lavergnée 2011). The work of Jean Calvet likewise deserves a historiographical note: his interesting yet non-academic psychological essay on Louise de Marillac was published in 1958. Calvet was the first to reveal that Louise de Marillac was born out of wedlock (see Calvet 1958). 6 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 78. 7 Very little is known about Antoine Le Gras. See the remarks of John Rybolt in Rybolt 1997. 8 The marriage contract of Louise de Marillac: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 825 (4 February 1613), p. 971–975, for de Marillac’s son Michel-Antoine Le Gras, see Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 14 (between 1626 and May 1629), p. 20, note 3.

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of a Gascon peasant family, for his part, had just left his position as a parish priest in Clichy, northern Paris, and taken a job with the influential family of Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi (1580/1581–1660), the General of the Galleys, working as the preceptor of the children and as the confessor of their mother, Françoise Marguérite de Silly (1584–1625). The new position that Vincent de Paul took in September 1613 was to be crucial for the future Company of the Daughters of Charity: the wife of the General of the Galleys became the first important elite female figure in the networks of the Daughters of Charity. It was on her lands and with the help of her significant donations that de Paul originally began the re-evangelization of rural districts through the Confréries de la Charité from which the Daughters of Charity later sprung.9 Furthermore, the influential Gondi family served de Paul also as a conduit to the devout Parisian elite society, as Alison Forrestal has convincingly argued.10 This lead de Paul to meet more wealthy dévotes interested in helping and sponsoring de Paul’s work, and, eventually, to encountering Louise de Marillac. In what follows, a closer look will be taken at the role of the devout Parisian elite women in the founding and functioning of the Daughters of Charity and the significance of Louise de Marillac for attracting their interest. Louise, one of the Marillacs Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac met in 1625 shortly after de Marillac was widowed and through the instigation of her confessor and relative Jean Pierre Camus (1584–1652), the Bishop of Belley. He was too busy to give proper direction to his penitent and suggested that de Marillac ask the priest called Vincent de Paul to become her new spiritual director.11 The encounter led de Marillac to acquire a leading role in the work of the Confréries de la Charité. Her responsibilities included the inspecting of the confraternities.12 By the early 1630s, the wealthy women associated with the charités had begun, however, to neglect the menial tasks that they were to perform to help the poor. Pleading social rank, the women preferred to send their maids to take care of preparing food, bandaging wounds and 9 Forrestal 2009, 182–183. 10 Forrestal 2017, 36–44; Forrestal 2009, 181–185. 11 Charpy 1995, 21; Gobillon 1676, I:4, p. 28. 12 For Louise de Marillac’s notes on the inspections, see e.g. Marillac FR, A. 51 (before 1633), p. 703–704.

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other similar tasks.13 Before long, de Paul and de Marillac decided to start employing specifically common women for the menial work and organized them under the name Daughters of Charity in 1633. The discharge of elite women from the lowly tasks did not mean that the women were cut off from the Company completely. On the contrary, the women were now provided with a role that best suited them: they remained as financers, patrons and supervisors of the work of the sisters under the title the Dames de la Charité, or the Ladies of Charity. The importance of Louise de Marillac for the activities of Vincent de Paul and the eventual birth and functioning of the Daughters of Charity should not be underestimated. Born in Gascony to a peasant family, Vincent de Paul was, I argue, estrange to the elite society of the capital of which he had only little if any experience before the year 1608 when he first travelled there,14 and in which he also initially struggled to settle.15 Even after meeting the Gondis his connection to the dévot circles was thin. Louise de Marillac, on the other hand, had spent her whole life as part of the elite society and had lived in Paris at least since her early teens. Unlike the modest priest, she had, I claim, the social resources to build and maintain the important network of elite women for the Company of the Daughters of Charity and its programme of moral management. As religious institutions and charity work in particular was the field of elite women, Louise de Marillac was the ideal character to give the Company credibility and, thus, attract the interest of elite women. The illegitimate status of de Marillac, dwelled upon widely in scholarship, did not reduce the value of the widow as a vital head of the Company. The story of Louise de Marillac begins with her birth into the prominent de Marillac family, originally from Auvergne, on 12 August 1591. Her place of birth is unknown.16 Historians both inside and outside the Daughters of Charity and the Catholic Church have speculated rather extensively about the identity of her mother 17 as well as about the psychological stress she experienced in her childhood and youth due to the lack of mother. Her position as the illegitimate daughter of Louis de Marillac (1556–1604), lord of Farainvilliers (in Brie), the relative poverty she fell into at thirteen after 13 See e.g. Paul Conférences, 24 February, 1653, p. 397; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 613 (recognition of the Company by Cardinal de Retz 18 January 1655), p. 676–677. 14 Coste 1934, I:11–12; Forrestal 2017, 24; Forrestal 2009, 180. 15 Forrestal 2017, 24. 16 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 66. 17 The latest, interesting contribution to the subject is that of Robert Descimon, who suggests that the mother was an Alméras. See Descimon 2011, 4–5.

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the death of her father and the overall lack of a motherly figure in her life have all been seen as explanatory factors behind her delicate spirit and choice of career.18 Indeed, de Marillac herself wrote the following words: God, who has granted me so many graces, led me to understand that it was His holy will that I go to Him by way of the Cross. His goodness chose to mark me with it from my birth and He has hardly ever left me, at any age, without some occasion of suffering.19

However, it seems like her status as the illegitimate daughter of Louis de Marillac did not seriously limit her options in life. This argument has also been put forward by Susan Dinan but with different premises.20 It is true that de Marillac’s hagiographer, Nicolas Gobillon, went as far as to give her an imaginary mother by the name Marguerite le Camus.21 Then again, there are public legal documents such as the marriage contract of Louise de Marillac proving that Louis de Marillac recognized Louise as his illegal daughter.22 Thus, could it be that a fille naturelle was not such a big issue after all? In fact, Sylvie Steinberg’s research has shown that natural children were a common phenomenon in early seventeenth-century French society, which considered the father unquestionably responsible for his offspring. Furthermore, court cases prove that the father was expected to provide for the children according to his own rank.23 Considering the case of Louise de Marillac against this backdrop, it is plausible to argue that she was, indeed, one of the Marillacs and sufficiently elite to embark on a successful career as a religious reformer and leader. Furthermore, Robert Descimon goes as far as to propose that it was precisely the unspoken illegitimate status of Louise that made the family give her their support.24 Considering that de Marillac was sent to the famous Dominican convent of Poissy as early as at the age of three or four,25 it is certainly reasonable to 18 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 64–76; Charpy 1991; Charpy 1995; Calvet 1958. 19 Marillac EN, A. 29 (before 1633), p. 711. French quotation: ‘ puisqu’il [Dieu] m’a fait tant de grâces que de me faire connaître que sa sainte volonté était que j’allasse à Lui par la Croix, que sa bonté a voulu que j’eusse dès ma naissance même, ne me laissant presque jamais en tout âge, sans des occasions de souffrance’. Marillac FR, A. 29 (before 1633), p. 707. 20 Dinan 2006, 9. 21 Gobillon 1676, I:1, p. 6. 22 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 825 (4 February 1613), p. 971. 23 Steinberg 2009, especially 129, 136. 24 Descimon 2011, 5. 25 Charpy 1991, 7–8; Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 69.

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argue that she hardly knew her mother, who ever she was. To claim that the absence of this biological motherly figure very likely damaged her psyche and had a negative effect on her future and career risks anachronism. Our convictions about ‘good’ childhood differ from early modern mentalities. Daughters of elite families were often boarders in religious houses as part of family strategies and elite culture. This means that the decision to place Louise in Poissy can also be seen as a standard practice and an investment in her future. The convent of Poissy, erected in the beginning of the fourteenth century, was an appreciated centre of learning that attracted many noble women. The daughter of Charles VI, Marie de France (1393–1438), was put in the convent around the same age as Louise de Marillac and the daughter of the famous poet and philosopher Christine de Pizan (1364–1430) resided there in addition to the poet herself in her last years.26 Louise very likely received comfort from her aunt and namesake, Louise (d. 1629), who also resided in the convent as one of its fully professed nuns.27 Her aunt and the rest of community provided Louise with plentiful feminine, perhaps even motherly figures. The education of Louise was excellent. This is not surprising considering the status of convent and the reputation of her aunt as an erudite author of spiritual meditations and commentaries for example on the Song of Songs.28 The convent school not only introduced little Louise to Latin, the humanities and arts in general as well as to religious life, but, I argue, also to the elite circles of the society, giving her valuable provisions for life. One of these important families was the Gondis: the prioress during Louise’s stay was Jeanne de Gondi who raised some of her nieces along with other members of the best families in her convent.29 One of the prioress’ brother’s sons was Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi; the General of the Galleys, whose wife later became the first important elite female contact in the network of the Daughters of Charity. Perhaps convent life also saved de Marillac from miserable family life with her father and his new wife. Described as having led a joyful soldier’s life, Louis de Marillac was cultivated and enjoyed poetry also by writing some himself. His themes included love and aristocratic life. He did have, however, his dark sides as his second wife, Antoinette Camus, left him 26 27 28 29

See e.g. Willard 2000. Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 70. Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 70. Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 70; Noel 1869, 211.

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in 1600 accusing him of domestic violence. A few years later, it was Louis de Marillac’s turn to file charges against Camus accusing her of adultery. Brejon de Lavergnée, however, interprets the second process as merely a financial battle.30 Due to either the financial problems of Louis de Marillac or his death in 1604, around the age of eleven or thirteen Louise de Marillac was taken out of expensive Poissy and put into a boarding house run by a pious woman.31 The posthumous testimonies on the standard of living de Marillac experienced as a boarder are contradictory: on the one hand, sister Barbe Bailly stated that the superior had told the sisters that the house was so poor that she had learned to do all household tasks herself, even the lowliest ones, such as stacking firewood.32 De Marillac’s official hagiographer, Gobillon, on the other hand, specified that the tasks she learned suited her condition.33 Despite the blatant contradiction in the two testimonies, the shift from Poissy to a boarding house denoted an incontestable social decline. Nevertheless, de Marillac never seems to have suffered from absolute poverty and banishment from family. According to Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée, a few months after Louise’s birth, Louis granted his daughter seven arpents of arable land three pieces of land in the territory of Ferrières that he shared with his brother. He also secured her with annual allowances, ranging from 100 to 235 livres. After the birth of Louise’s stepsister Innocente, Louis’ only legal inheritor, he donated another 1200 livres to her. Up to 1610, Louise’s uncle, Michel de Marillac (1560–1632), was in charge of Louise’s property.34 Later Michel also became Louise’s spiritual advisor – as did also Jean Pierre Camus, the Bishop of Belley, who was related to Louise’s stepmother Antoinette Camus.35 Louise de Marillac also had possessions to distribute in her will.36 However, the marriage contract of Louise de Marillac reveals that although she was indeed part of the elite ten per cent of the population she was not, however, fully part of the most advantaged circles, due to her illegitimate status. Her dowry, 6 000 livres, was modest when considered that in contemporary Parisian elite marriages the dowry was rarely less than 20,000 livres.37 The modest dowry is also an important explanation 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 67, 69–70. Gobillon 1676, I:1, p. 6–7; Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 71. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 923. Gobillon 1676, I:1, p. 7. Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 71–72. Cf. Charpy 1995, 15–21. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 847 (15 December 1645), p. 992–1000. Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 77; Mousnier 1978, 178–179.

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for the disparity in her marriage to the non-noble Antoine Le Gras taking care of a minor position as the secretary to the queen. Another reason was, nevertheless, the de Marillac family strategy, which reveals that Louise was, indeed, an integral part of the family and valuable for its prosperity. Brejon de Lavergnée has argued that Louise de Marillac’s marriage was arranged in order to gain the Le Gras family’s support for the Marillac-Doni front at the court.38 The Donis were allied with the Marillacs through the marriage of Louise’s aunt Valence (d. 1617) to Octavien Doni d’Attichy (d. 1614) who were also behind the marriage project: the contract was signed in the presence of the Donis and at their hôtel on rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the Marais on 4 February 1613. Other relatives present at the occasion were for example Michel de Marillac, Louis de Marillac (Louise’s father’s stepbrother, (1572–1632) and Catherine de’ Medici (d. 1631) who was Louis’ wife.39 I argue that Louise de Marillac remained an integral and respected part of the family also after her wedding. In fact, after the death of both Valence and Octavien Doni d’Attichy, the couple’s children and their possessions were put under the tutelage of the Le Gras family. 40 Louise de Marillac grew close especially to one of her wards, her cousin Anne d’Attichy, the comtesse de Maure, with whom she maintained an important relationship until her death. The comtesse is separately mentioned in de Marillac’s will, written in 1645 and conf irmed in 1653 and 1656. In her will de Marillac solicits her son, Michel-Antoine Le Gras (1613–1696)41 to always have respect for the de Marillac gentlemen and for her cousin, the comtesse de Maure and her husband ‘and all those to whom I have the honour to be related’. 42 The correspondence of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul shows that there was also another very close relative: Louise’s cousin Isabelle Hennequin, or Mademoiselle du Fay. In the years before the official founding of the Daughters of Charity, du Fay and de Marillac seem to have been like two peas in a pod: they both received spiritual guidance from Vincent de Paul and worked intensively together for the Confréries de la Charité. A decisive year for the relationship was very likely 1625, the year when Antoine Le Gras 38 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 76–77. 39 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 825 (4 February 1613), p. 971–975. 40 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 827 (12 September 1619), p. 976–977; Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 77–78. 41 See Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 78. 42 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 847 (15 December 1645), p. 993–994. French quotation on page 993: ‘et tous ceux auxquels j’ai l’honneur d’appartenir’.

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died: now, as a widow, also de Marillac was free from marital obligations, just like du Fay due to her cuisse bénite, ‘blessed thigh’43. Having one thigh two or three times bigger than the other, she was shut out of the marriage market and, thus, able to dedicate her fortune and time to charity work side by side with her cousin Louise de Marillac. The intensity of their relationship seems to have eased after de Marillac was appointed head of the Daughters of Charity. However, even then the cousins stayed in close cooperation as du Fay became an important member of the Ladies of Charity working especially for the foundlings. 44 Despite the persecution of two prominent de Marillacs, Louise’s uncles Michel and Louis, the foundress of the Daughters of Charity does not seem to have suffered significantly from the political turmoil her family experienced. Michel de Marillac was the Keeper of the Seals, patron of the Carmelites in Paris and head of the parti dévot after Pierre de Bérulle as well as an author of spiritual treatises. Louis de Marillac, for his part, was Marshal of France. As important figures in the parti dévot, they advocated an anti-Protestant policy in favour of strengthening ties to Spain. Encouraged by the Queen Mother Marie de’ Medici, they conspired against Louis XIII (1610–1643) and Richelieu. The restoration of Richelieu in 1630 meant catastrophe for the Marillacs: Michel was thrown in the prison of Châteaudun where he died in 1632, and Louis was publicly decapitated the same year at the Place de Grève in front of the present-day Hôtel de Ville in the fourth arrondissement in Paris.45 The most visible consequence was that the ascension of the family drew to a halt. The de Marillacs had benefitted from the renewal of the nobility in the previous century and had climbed the social ladder especially through important governmental positions but also by means of military service. 46 Susan Dinan has suggested that Louise de Marillac and her undertakings did not suffer significantly from the traitors in her family because her own father was not involved in the conspiracy as he had died long before the problems with Richelieu and the King arose. 47 43 Paul FR, vol. XI, doc. 99 (21 October 1643), p. 131. 44 See e.g. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 7 (October 1627), p. 14–15; doc. 10 (17 January 1628), p. 17; doc. 54 (2 September 1631), p. 56–57; doc. 59 (likely September 1631), p. 63. For the correspondence of Vincent de Paul with and about Mademoiselle du Fay and mentions of her in his conferences to the Lazarists, see Paul FR, vol. I (passim, 1626–1634/1635); vol. XI, doc. 99 (21 October 1643), p. 131. See also Guillaume 2015, 195–196. 45 For the political backgrounds of the so called Day of Dupes in 1630, see e.g. Drévillon 2011, 71–74. 46 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 66–67. 47 Dinan 2006, 8.

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Despite the halt in ascension of the de Marillac family, Louise de Marillac had close ties to the elite of Parisian society, and especially to the religious personae. The genealogy composed by Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée shows that the family was very pious. Already Louise’s great grandfather, Guillaume I de Marillac (d. c. 1527) and his wife Marguerite Genest produced as offspring two bishops and four monastics, of which one was aunt Louise from the convent of Poissy. The two marriages of the grandfather of the foundress of the Daughters of Charity further strengthened the ties to the Catholic Church as one of his three sons, Michel, became the head of the parti dévot. The generation of Louise seems to have been a very religious one: she had six professed monastics as cousins and three as second cousins. Of Uncle Michel’s three children, Octavien (1597–1631) became a Capuchin monk and Bishop of Saint-Malo and Valence (1599–1642) a Carmelite. Michel’s third child, René (1588–1621), fathered five children of which three became Carmelites. Louise’s aunt Valence likewise parented together with Octavien Doni d’Attichy seven children of whom one became a Jesuit, another one an Ursuline, a third one a Carmelite and the fourth one a Bishop. 48 Great names, great works Being so profoundly intertwined with the devout Parisian elite society, as argued above, suggests that networking with important women came naturally to Louise de Marillac. This was important, because the expansion and flourishing of the Daughters of Charity was based solely on the help from the Parisian elite. Initiatives even for establishments far away from Paris came from Paris: the duchesse d’Aiguillon suggested a community be established in Richelieu (central France) in 1638 and the initiative of the foundress and f irst president of the Ladies of Charity, Madame Goussault, née Geneviève Fayet (d. 1639), took the Company to Angers (western France) in 1639. The communities of Sedan and Metz (both in northern France and founded in 1642 and 1658, respectively), on the other hand, were proposed by Anne of Austria. Exceptions to the rule were two southern communities which were established due to the initiatives of the bishop friends of Vincent de Paul: Cahors in 1658 by Alain de Solminihac (1593–1659) and Narbonne in 1659 by François Fouquet (1611–1673). 49 Most communities were, however, due to the initiative of the female members of the elites residing in Paris. 48 See Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 68. 49 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 388–391.

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Who were the elite women and what does elite refer to in the case of the supporters of the Daughters of Charity? In general, the elite women titled as the Ladies of Charity seem to have been composed of the highest strata of society: there were far more women accorded the honorific ‘Madame’ than ‘Mademoiselle’ which was a title reserved for the highest ranks of the bourgeoisie, such as Louise de Marillac who married the non-noble Antoine Le Gras. The titled nobility was well represented, although it was outnumbered by the highest ranks of magistracy.50 Furthermore, the Ladies, of which many were widows but some also married women, were drawn from the less mundane sections of the elite society. According to Georges Goyau, Vincent de Paul selected only women who did not enjoy ‘dangerous pastimes’ such as games or theatre and did not aspire to become pious out of vanity.51 This was significant Counterculture as an essential part of seventeenth-century high society culture was engagement in various amusements.52 The recent study of Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée sheds more light on the specific families the Daughters of Charity attracted: it shows that great French families close to the King were especially keen on aiding the establishing of new communities of the Daughters of Charity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The elite networks composed during the time of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac were the basis of also future linkages. This meant that in certain cases, such as the de Lamoignons, the patronizing of the Daughters of Charity run in the family for generations. Other important noble names included the princess of Condé, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, the duchesses d’Aiguillon, Bouillon, Ventadour, née Marie de la Guiche (1623–1701); Montpensier, née Marie-Louise d’Orléans (1627–1693); and the duke de La Roche-Guyon.53 As it were, the Company of the Daughters of Charity was wholly dependent on the Ladies of Charity. Their important role is portrayed in the painting of Jean André (1662–1753) created around 1732 and depicting a meeting of the Ladies with Vincent de Paul. Conforming to contemporary ideas of social order, the central and most important position in the composition is occupied by Vincent de Paul who had been made into an icon of charity by the time of the painting. To emphasize further his authority and the fact that 50 Diefendorf 2004, 234–235. Diefendorf bases her study, however, on a list of members posterior to the seventeenth century. 51 Goyau 1918, 26. 52 See Pöllä 2017; Peake & Rosenberg 2019. 53 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 411–413.

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he had been recently beatified, the painter has added a golden glow around the protagonist’s head. The elite women with whom de Paul collaborated are placed on both sides of the priest, Queen Anne of Austria being closest to him but still lower. Louise de Marillac is identifiable in her black widow’s veil on the right. The Ladies, most famous for running an orphanage, are not holding the infants as it would not suit their social status. Instead, a humble Daughter of Charity is taking care of the swaddled babies. In reality, the superior general himself was also wholly dependent on the intellectual and financial aid of the wealthy dévotes. During the lifetime of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, the Ladies composed a body of 200 or 300 members with significant assets at their disposal. They were divided into two sections, that of the Hôtel-Dieu (working especially with the foundlings there) and that of the Assemblée, or the Assembly, referring to members who would also partake in other charitable works such as helping the galley convicts, raising money for foreign and domestic missions and paying stipends to the priests who heard confessions at the Hôtel-Dieu. One of their greatest efforts was war relief especially in the northeastern borders of France: the Ladies collected alms to help orphaned girls and nuns fleeing the miseries of ravaging armies.54 In an assembly meeting in 1657, Vincent de Paul reported to the Ladies that since 1650 their Company had managed to raise 367,500 livres for Champagne and Picardie. This money had been spent to feed the sick poor and to take away from ruined towns 800 orphaned boys and girls who were instructed and put into trade or service. In addition, a number of priests of destroyed villages were maintained and churches restored. Thus, the money was also used for food, clothing men, women, priests and children and for church ornaments.55 The Ladies also financially supported the poor relief activities of the Daughters of Charity and the Congregation of the Mission in war zones and in hard times in general. An illuminating example is that of the community in Chantilly, or Vineuil, which was founded in 1647 under the protection of the princess of Condé, mistress of the château de Chantilly. The death of her husband in 1646 had left her with access to important possessions, which she could now use as she best judged. The community had faced serious financial problems since 1649 but they became more acute in 1654 due to the Fronde. The correspondence of the princess of Condé shows that the poor relief activities of the Daughters of Charity were wholly dependent on the princess. There are several letters in which the Condé’s employees beseech 54 Diefendorf 2004, 230–234. 55 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 198 (11 July 1657), p. 804–805.

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the princess to continue her compassionate work – that is, sponsorship – for the poor ‘more miserable than ever’56 due to the Fronde.57 The expansion of the Company followed a pattern established already by Françoise Marguérite de Silly, the wife of the General of the Galleys: women would suggest establishments to be founded in their terrains. The correspondence of Louise de Marillac reveals that usually the Ladies invited the Company to establish a community on their premises without demanding any compensation for housing.58 There is letter evidence that for example the marquise de Maignelay, née Marguerite de Gondi (1570–1650)59 and sister of the General of the Galleys, had asked Louise de Marillac to send one sister to teach in her district, Nanteuil-le-Haudoin, where, to the dissatisfaction of the marquise, girls and boys studied together.60 The duchesse de Bouillon was likewise very eager to get another sister to work on her premises in Morainvilliers, expressing even discontent with the slow reaction of Louise de Marillac to her demand.61 The Ladies could not rule over Louise de Marillac, however. The superior would place sisters as she pleased despite objection from the part of the Ladies. For example, once de Marillac chose to remove a sister from a community, which caused the Lady and the priests of the area to protest. Yet, she did not succumb to pressure. Furthermore, de Marillac did this without offering any explications to the Lady: the superior seems to have put the sisters first as she did not want to scandalize the sister by letting the Lady know that the sister was removed because of too great an attachment to her confessor.62 56 Letter of chaplain of the château de Chantilly, Delahodde, to the princess, 12 January 1649, Condé, série P, fol. 43r. 57 More about the f inancial problems of the community and its dependence on the aid by the princess especially in 1654, see AN, Individual communities, under C, S 6163. Marillac FR and Compagnie des Filles de la Charité also contain several entries for Chantilly describing the financial situation and everyday life in the community. The latter also contains some editions of documents for Chantilly found at the Archives Nationales. On the princess of Condé and her involvement in religious life and charity work, see Herard 1987. 58 Marillac FR, L. 577 bis (25 June 1658), p. 594, in which Louise de Marillac explains to sisters in Richelieu that normally the Ladies have not asked for rent for accommodating sisters. 59 Her f irst name is spelled either as Claude-Marguerite (as in http://famvin.org/wiki/ Gondi_Family (13 August 2019) or as Charlotte-Marguerite (as in Diefendorf 2004, 79). See also Élizabeth Charpy’s biographical note number 1 in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 299 (21 August 1640), p. 284. 60 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 299 (21 August 1640), p. 284–285. 61 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 685 (June 1657), p. 783. 62 This episode is found in a text by sister Mathurine Guérin written in 1661 on the virtues of Louise de Marillac: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), p. 953.

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The physical existence of the motherhouse of the Company in Paris was likewise completely due to the patronage of influential women. The first proper house for the Daughters of Charity was found with the help of Madame Goussault who rented them a house in La Chapelle.63 In 1641, the motherhouse shifted to Saint-Lazare to quarters rented previously by Mademoiselle de Pollalion, née Marie Lumague (1599–1657), who perhaps used the place as a retreat close to Vincent de Paul.64 With the aid of the bequest of the commander de Sillery (d. 1640) to the Lazarists and the 9 000 livres donated by Madame Goussault for the buying of a house for the Daughters of Charity, inter alia, the Company bought the quarters rented by de Pollalion in addition to another residence next to it. Together the property was called la propriété Sadot after the seller. It comprised the corner of the streets rue Saint-Laurent and rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. Officially, the purchase was done in the name of Vincent de Paul and the Lazarist priests as the Daughters of Charity lacked legal status still at that time.65 Cooperation beyond social boundaries Although the importance of elite women and their social and financial resources is undeniable, there is one important aspect to note: the work of the Ladies did not exist without an intensive relationship to the humble Daughters. This brings fresh insights to the dynamics of the Catholic Reformation in France and underlines the importance of collaboration beyond the barriers of social rank. The intertwined positions of the Ladies and the Daughters are described in the Company’s Common Rules which state that the sisters had to obey without delay the Ladies of Charity as well as other authorities such as the local bishop, the superiors (Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac), sisters in charge of local communities, doctors and the personnel of hospitals.66 Furthermore, Vincent de Paul reformulated the Pauline idea of the Christian body in which Christ is the head of man and man the head of woman67 by stating that ‘[the Ladies of Charity] are like the head of a body and you 63 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 424–425. 64 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 426–427. 65 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 427–428. 66 AFC, Alméras 1672, IV:1–4, fols 16v-18. About the importance of respecting the Ladies, see also Marillac FR, L. 144 (July 1646), p. 152–153; L. 284 bis (4 May 1650), p. 319; L. 341 (17 February 1652), p. 389; L. 419 (4 December 1654), p. 455; L. 565 (16 February 1658), p. 584; Paul Conférences, 14 June 1643, p. 78–79; 2 February 1647, p. 205. See also a more detailed analysis of the social hierarchy of the Daughters of Charity in Chapter 3. 67 See 1 Corinthians 11:3.

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[,sisters] nothing but the feet. Oh, what would happen if the feet ruled the head and directed it wherever they wanted? That would be ridiculous  [...]’.68 The founders also reminded the sisters that without the Ladies their work could not be carried out.69 This said, an important trait in the cooperation was the honouring of social order: working together did not mean escaping social hierarchies but rather reinforcing them by stipulating that the elites were to lead and the commoners were to obey. In addition, collaboration did not encompass equal tasks as the Daughters were to perform the lowliest chores and the Ladies the more abstract and delightful tasks such as bringing the patients sweets and spiritual edification.70 The Company embraced the idea of mutual compassion. Louise de Marillac urged the Daughters to perceive the Ladies as their mothers and as the Virgin Mary – following the tradition of spiritual motherhood very popular in the Early Modern Period – 71 the Ladies, for their part, were to see Jesus Christ in Louise de Marillac and to consider the Daughters as His offspring.72 Although Louise de Marillac seems to have been the only elite woman to have lived with the sisters, her correspondence discloses that the relationship of the elites to the sisters was close and intensive. At times, the superior had to intervene to solve disputes between the two parties,73 and on other occasions, she scolded the sisters for engaging in too friendly an intercourse with the Ladies.74 However, the relationship was, apparently, less intense than between contemplative nuns and elite women,75 perhaps because they were socially equal and, as a result, more prone to intensive interaction. It seems like the Ladies of Charity (and other notable women) did not regularly 68 Paul Conférences, 2 February 1647, p. 205. French quotation: ‘elles sont comme le chef d’un corps, et vous n’en êtes que les pieds. Oh ! Que serait-ce si les pieds voulaient ordonner et faire passer la tête par où bon leur semblerait ! Ce serait une chose bien ridicule [...]’. 69 Marillac FR, A. 56 (s.a.), p. 781–782; Paul Conférences, 14 July 1643, p. 78–79. 70 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 200 (1660), p. 825. For the tasks of the elite women, see also Diefendorf 2004, 228, 233. 71 For spiritual motherhood in the Early Modern Period, see Brockliss & Jones 1997, 268. For its medieval roots, see e.g. Bynum 1982, especially p. 110–169. 72 Marillac FR, A. 54 (prior to 1645), p. 724. See also Vincent de Paul and his teachings to the sisters urging them to consider all authorities as God: Paul Conférences, 31 July 1634, p. 5; 2 December 1657, p. 721. 73 Marillac FR, L. 517 (20 March 1657), p. 542; Marillac FR, L. 555 (4 December 1657), p. 577. 74 Marillac FR, L. 648 bis (30 December 1659), p. 663. 75 See Diefendorf 2001, who discusses the surprisingly extensive rights of e.g. entry noble women had in cloistered convents over which they often also exercised patronage. More about the subject, see below sub-heading ‘Making good dévotes’.

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visit the houses of the Daughters in spiritual issues but embarked on spiritual retreats only at the motherhouse. In the end, the Ladies and the Daughters very likely felt that they gained equally from the relationship. In the case of the poorer sisters, the cooperation offered a unique possibility for a woman from modest backgrounds to interact with the elites and assume agency in the Catholic Reformation. However, by this I do not want to oversimplify the image of the seventeenthcentury common woman. She certainly was not completely divested of agency in her worldly life: recent studies show that despite restricting legislation76 peasant women, for example, were able to undertake rather extensive action in society. This is true especially from mid-century onwards when the transition toward modern economy fortified women’s economic and social roles for example as creditors and debtors, land sellers and land buyers and in family businesses.77 The upsurge of artisanal manufacturing78 and the general developments of the urban economy79 in the Early Modern Period had an equal effect on the opportunities of common women in both small villages and greater towns and cities. However, the possibilities the Daughters of Charity offered in the form of work side by side with the devout elite broadens the horizon of agency bringing to light the potential in the religious sphere. The Ladies of Charity, for their part, gained power by having women under their rule performing tasks they deemed unsuitable for themselves. These combined efforts produced a work that was a great tribute to God and, thus, a possibility to gain personal salvation for both the dévotes and the pious underprivileged. The fact that the existence of the Daughters of Charity was so largely dependent on the financial and intellectual investments elite women and their networks is interesting from the point of view of the history of religious communities of women who were not, however, nuns, but laywomen. In comparison to the religious laywomen called Beguines in medieval Paris, studied fairly recently by Tanya Stabler Miller, the Daughters of Charity seem 76 The work of Sarah Hanley (1989) is a classical study on the legislative changes in France in the Early Modern Period. According to Hanley, during the period, legislation on inheritance and marriage strengthened the position of the father and the husband, and, as a result, shut women efficiently outside public life. Hanley suggest that the development was linked to the formation of the modern state: the absolutist King needed the support of the heads of family. See also Hardwick 1998. For a critique of Hanley’s thesis, see Diefendorf 1996, especially 270–274. 77 Dermineur 2011. I am grateful to Associate Professor Elise Dermineur for her kindness in letting me consult her unpublished PhD thesis. 78 See e.g. Farr 2000; Farr 1988. 79 See e.g. Simonton & Montenach 2013.

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to have been much more dependent on their elite patrons. The Beguines were able to circulate their fortunes (which they quite often had) in favour of their community in addition to occupying an important role in the city’s silk industry.80 The Daughters of Charity, on the other hand, were much poorer and did not have a significant share in the urban economy as they concentrated mainly on ‘unproductive’ work (nursing, schooling, poor relief). Another difference is the heterogeneity of the protectors of the Beguines: the beguinage was sponsored mainly by the King but also by the elites of the society – including not only women but also men.81 This seems to fit the general picture of the possibilities of medieval women. Bernard McGinn has argued that in the Middle Ages women could not pursue the new active apostolic vocation without the approval of men and in cooperation with them.82 The Daughters of Charity, on the other hand, attracted only wealthy women as patrons. This was the case also in other seventeenth-century active companies, as Susan Dinan has noted.83 For example the Filles de la Providence, dedicated to the rescuing of girls from prostitution, was completely dependent on the intellectual and financial resources of its foundress, Mademoiselle de Pollalion, a Lady of Charity and friend of the founders of the Daughters of Charity. As a result, the death of de Pollalion almost ruined the Company, which was left without leadership and money. The work was saved, however, by other wealthy Ladies of Charity after the plea of Vincent de Paul.84 Thus, the case of the Daughters of Charity was different as the extensive engagement of the elites to the Company meant that the organization was less vulnerable in the case of the death of a patron.85 One explanation for this phenomenon stems from the tightening social order in the Early Modern Period: elite women who were willing to soil their hands in menial work in the Middle Ages became more conscious of their condition in the Early Modern Period.86 Their resourcefulness was not wasted, however, as the women took a position as patrons. This development might at least partially explain why the support for religious institutions was so strongly gendered in the Early Modern Period and less so for example in 80 Miller 2014, 35–80. The Beguines of the Low Countries were likewise part of the urban economy, see Simons 2001. 81 Miller 2014, 25–46. 82 McGinn 1998, 17. 83 Dinan 2006, 53. 84 Dinan 2006, 53; Diefendorf 2004, 222–226. 85 Dinan 2006, 53. 86 For a more detailed discussion of the interplay of social rank and work in the seventeenth century, see Chapter 3.

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the medieval beguinage of Paris. This does not, however, completely explain the disappearance of men as protectors. Were the charitable ambitions of early modern men channelled into male institutions or did they just diminish or even disappear altogether? Motivation of the elites Turning back to the role of elite women, one important question remains: what made the wealthy women want to patronize the Company of the Daughters of Charity? What did they gain from it? The answer is manifold. First, by financing and locally overseeing charitable work in a distinguished institution the devout female elite was able to acquire for themselves and their family visibility, perpetuity for their name and social capital.87 But at the same time they were also following a principle ages old: noblesse oblige. Privileges had to be balanced by taking care of the less fortunate, echoing the personal relationship of the lord to his vassal.88 But, I suggest, for many elite women their role as a patron also enabled personal spiritual growth including opportunities to perform and gain spiritual authority. Eventually the patronage also enhanced the women’s possibilities to gain salvation which is a motive not be underestimated. In the assembly meetings of the Ladies, Vincent de Paul would encourage the women by assuring them that through their work they would edify themselves, erase past and even future sins and give themselves the opportunity to have a good death. De Paul also assured them that they would receive benediction, glory and riches in their families.89 An illuminating example and a point of reference of how the charity work of the women acted as spiritual growth and a stage to perform the role of the good Catholic woman, is in a text composed by Louise de Marillac in 1630. This was three years before the founding of the Daughters of Charity when she was still just one of the dévotes. In a letter to Vincent de Paul, de Marillac reports what she saw upon an inspection to the Confréries de la Charité in Asnières and Saint-Cloud. Contrary to her later similar but more practical accounts, de Marillac chose to communicate her spiritual perfection. Instead of recording the charities’ financial situation, housing arrangements, number of livestock 87 Diefendorf 2004, 19. In relation to contemplative monasteries and the purchase of devotional items Diefendorf goes as far as to talk about the elite women as practitioners of conspicuous consumption. 88 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 414–417. 89 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 190 (April 1640), p. 781–782. See also vol. XIII, doc. 185 (s.a.), p. 761–762.

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or the problems in the functioning of the communities, de Marillac narrated a scene of bridal mysticism. In Saint-Cloud, while attending Communion, it seemed to me that Our Lord inspired me to receive Him as the Spouse of my soul and that this Communion was a manner of espousal. I felt myself more closely united to Him by this consideration which was extraordinary for me. I also felt moved to leave everything to follow my Spouse [...].90

Interestingly, the date of this experience was 5 February, almost the wedding day of Louise de Marillac and her late husband Antoine Le Gras who had got married seventeen years earlier on 4 February. This choice of date highlighted the transition of Louise de Marillac from an earthly spouse to a heavenly one. Later Louise de Marillac composed similar accounts in a completely different, more practical style,91 possibly due to the increase of administrational responsibilities she had within the Company. Nevertheless, it is very likely that other elite women attached to the Company but with less practical duties viewed their role in spiritual terms. For example, Madame Goussault, who would also inspect the communities of the Confréries de la Charité and of the Daughters of Charity, reported likewise about her own spiritual development. Pierre Coste has published one of her reports to Vincent de Paul dealing with a trip to Angers in 1633 (before the establishing of the Daughters of Charity). The focus of the communication is on her doings and people’s reactions to them. Goussault relates all of her devotional practices, such as the saying of a Hail Mary at every strike of the hour of her clock and regular visits to churches on the way. Furthermore, she quotes a certain Mademoiselle Le Fèvre for having praised her love for the poor by saying that she looked twice as beautiful when talking to them. This was most certainly a reference to spiritual inner glow rather than to Goussault’s temporal allure.92 Another important aspect in the work of the elite women was the public role and spiritual authority they were able to assume – despite the fact that officially women were not allowed to preach. Madame Goussault reported to have surprised even herself with the courageousness with which she 90 Marillac EN, A. 50 (February 1630), p. 705. French quotation: ‘il me sembla que NotreSeigneur me donnait pensée de le recevoir comme l’époux de mon âme, et même que c’était une manière d’épousailles, et me sentis plus fortement unie à Dieu en cette considération, qui me fut extraordinaire, et eus la pensée de quitter tout pour suivre mon Époux [...]’. Marillac FR, A. 50 (February 1630), p. 702. 91 Cf. Marillac FR, A. 51 (before 1633), p. 703–704; A. 53 (1633), p. 716–718; A. 52 (1633), p. 718–720; A. 47 (1636), p. 725–726; S.1 (around 1652?), p. 784. 92 Paul FR, vol. I, doc. 135 (1633), p. 191–196. See also Diefendorf 2004, 226–228.

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catechized people. Wherever she went, she would lecture about the principles of faith. And again, she did not hesitate to describe the reception: at one occasion, there were at least 100 listeners who all praised her after she had finished. According to Goussault, the pastor present went as far as to say that he would be happy to end his days with Madame Goussault, only listening to the words flowing out of her mouth.93 In fact, the Rules of the Ladies of Charity of the Hôtel-Dieu composed in 1660 prove that catechizing and the general religious instruction of people composed the central part of their calling. Whereas the focus of the activities of the humble Daughters of Charity was more on the practical side of poor relief (cooking, nursing, cleaning and similar tasks), the Ladies concentrated on the abstract, spiritual level which they deemed proper for their social rank. They would lift the patients from their everyday life to a more numinous level by bringing them a delightful snack in the afternoon and by initiating spiritual conversations. The Ladies would check that the patients knew the things necessary for their salvation and made a general confession of their past life, ensured that the dying left the world in a good state and that the others would live the rest of their life in a Christian way.94 According to a speech delivered by Vincent de Paul to the Ladies, the spiritual service was highly important as confessors did not necessarily have recognition from the Pope, Bishop or the local Vicar nor the capabilities to perform their task, and because the people were often ignorant of the things necessary for their salvation.95 Although this active role was at times contested by parish priests,96 the elite dévotes had real possibilities to act outside the official ecclesiastical context and, in their mind, for the better good of the church. Making good dévotes Another important way the wealthy dévotes were able to acquire spiritual edification by patronising the Company of the Daughters of Charity was by attending spiritual retreats they were entitled to engage in at the motherhouse. This was one important aspect of the Company’s moral management for the retreats were a fruitful way to manage the morals of the patrons. A closer look at the spiritual growth offered to the women in the guidance of Vincent de 93 Paul FR, vol. I, doc. 135 (1633), p. 195. See also Diefendorf 2004, 227. 94 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 200 (1660), p. 825. See also Diefendorf 2004, 228, 233. 95 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 186 (1636), p. 765. 96 I am grateful to Barbara Diefendorf for sharing her conference paper from 2013 on the subject.

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Paul and Louise de Marillac reveal traditional values typical in the history of female spirituality. Although networks and wealth were both absolutely essential for the founding and running of the Company of the Daughters of Charity, as argued in the subchapters above, the good Catholic Lady of Charity was, nonetheless, to despise worldly possessions and attachments. The offering of spiritual retreats has a long history and was widely in use also in contemporary contemplative monasteries. In the Early Modern Period, many spiritual retreats followed the Ignatian, that is, the Jesuit model.97 Compared to contemplative convents, it seems, however, that retreats at the Company of the Daughters of Charity were less intensive and less extensive and limited to the motherhouse. Barbara Diefendorf has shown that even the strictest cloistered orders were in abundant interaction with elite women by allowing them spiritual retreats within the walls of the enclosed monastery. Some of the women in retreat in enclosed convents were not even founders of the convents. One such case was the princess of Condé: in 1622, she obtained a papal brief according her up to 36 visits per year in any Carmelite convent. Later she even made built for herself and her daughter, the duchesse de Longueville, or Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon (1619–1679), a personal apartment in the convent of the Incarnation in the faubourg Saint-Jacques. As the construction also included new quarters for the professed inhabitants of the house, the mother and daughter were given free entry to the convent in exchange. In this, the princess was merely following the custom of Marie de’ Medici and Anne of Austria. Even women of lower status could move into a convent permanently. This practice seems to have become more and more popular the further the seventeenth century progressed.98 As the Company of the Daughters of Charity understood it, a spiritual retreat was a disengagement from all temporal tasks and occupations to apply oneself seriously to understanding well one’s interior life, examining carefully the state of one’s conscience, meditating, contemplating, praying and preparing one’s soul in this way so as to be purified from all sins and bad attachments and habits in order to be filled with the desire for virtue.99 97 Bernos 2003, 229–233. 98 Diefendorf 2001, 478–486. 99 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 44 (s.a.), p. 143–144. French quotation: ‘un dégagement de toutes affaires et occupations temporelles pour s’appliquer sérieusement à bien connaître son intérieur, à bien examiner l’état de sa conscience, à méditer, contempler, prier et préparer ainsi son âme pour se purifier de tous ses péchés et de toutes ses mauvaises affections et habitudes, pour se remplir du désir des vertus’.

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Vincent de Paul also taught that a spiritual retreat was likewise a possibility to search for the will of God and, once found, to submit to it fully. The withdrawal was also possibility to restore one’s strength as phrased in Matthew 11:28: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’. According to the hagiographer of Vincent de Paul, the service of spiritual retreats of the Daughters of Charity was modelled on the practices of the Congregation of the Mission. The Lazarists valued the service greatly and offered it especially in the Parisian and Roman branches of the congregation, but only to men who came from all conditions.100 The hagiographer of Louise de Marillac relates that the Company started offering retreats to the Ladies already very early on in La Chapelle, north of the clamour of Paris, where the Daughters moved in 1636. Away from the world, the women were tuned into an introspective mood for a couple of days and expected to submit to the mortifyingly humble surroundings of the servants of the poor and their superior in order to learn to despise worldly riches.101 A letter of Vincent de Paul to Louise de Marillac from the 1630s gives some guidelines on the contents of the spiritual retreats. First, de Paul advised de Marillac to give the devout women, Madame Goussault and Mademoiselle Lamy, née Catherine Vigor, who were the subject of the letter, a theme for their prayers. Then, after prayer, the three of them were to gather and discuss the thoughts that had come up during the women’s prayer. The women were also to hear spiritual reading during their meal. After dinner, the women were to relate their thoughts evoked during solitude or something interesting they had found in saintly writings. They could also go for a walk. Silence was to be maintained always outside the occasions of self-reflection with Louise de Marillac. Suitable spiritual reading included the Gospels, the Imitation de Jésus-Christ, or Imitation of Jesus Christ, by Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471) and the writings of Louis of Granada (1505–1588). As the spirituality of François de Sales was important to the Daughters of Charity – and to many others across confessional boundaries as some of de Sales’ books were, after all, best-sellers of their time –102 it is very probable that the women also read Introduction à la vie dévote. De Sales wrote the book to an imaginary Philotée, who did have, however, a real-life equivalent in Louise de Châtel, a Lady of the Savoyard elite who received spiritual guidance from the Bishop of Geneva. In his book, de Sales rejects noble blood, rank, influential friends, popularity and praise that are to 100 Abelly 1664, I:26, p. 119–122. 101 Gobillon 1676, II:3, p. 74–79. 102 See Bireley 1999, 178–181.

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be despised.103 He also instructed rich people to have contempt for their possessions and encouraged them to become poor – both in spirit and in practice. The ambiguous attitude toward property is present in the opening of the chapter as the writer hopes to insert in Philothée’s heart at the same time richness and poverty as well as a great care and a great disdain of temporal things. Then de Sales moves on to teach that our possessions do not belong to us but to God who wants us to cultivate them wisely. Good care of wealth separated the devout from the less spiritual people. He deemed helping the poor an especially meritorious way to use wealth. Furthermore, the Bishop of Geneva also taught the elites to enjoy the loss of wealth: financial crises after natural catastrophes, for example, were to be seen as wonderful occasions to engage properly in the practice of poverty.104 Taking all of this anti-elitist teaching to the members of the elites into account, it was, perhaps, logical that Mademoiselle Lamy’s and Madame Goussault’s retreat ended in repentance. On the day of their general confession, Madame Goussault and Mademoiselle Lamy were to read the prayer in Granada’s Mémorial de la vie Chrétienne, or Memorial of a Christian Life. The chapter was to stimulate contrition in the readers, although none of the exercises were to be performed too severely.105 A passage in Granada’s prayer reads: In this manner, O my Lord, and with suffering such cruel torments, didst thou vouchsafe to redeem me; and yet I, who am but a worm of the earth, a miserable sinner, have dared to give thee as many buffets, and crucify thee afresh, as many times as I have committed mortal sins, which ought to make all creatures with justice rise up against me, to revenge the injuries of their Creator.106

2

The living saint: managing spiritual authority

Not only the patron dévotes but also the superior Louise de Marillac herself was a living example of a contradictory elite identity. Despite the paramount importance of influence, wealth and networks in the life and career of Louise 103 Sales 1641, 168–173. 104 Sales 1641, 229–236. 105 For the description of Mademoiselle Lamy’s and Madame Goussault’s retreat, see Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 181 (between 1636 and 1639), p. 169. On the spiritual retreats offered by the Daughters of Charity, see also Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 425. 106 Granada 1824, II:4, p. 88. For the French version, see Grenade 1701, II:4, p. 87–88.

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de Marillac, she carefully rejected the elite lifestyle in profuse ways, as will be shown in the following subchapter. Why was this so? And furthermore, why did the superior, just like other influential women, want to embrace the ideal so fully? Moving from the elite networks and their significance for the Daughters of Charity to the most important elite woman of the Company, Louise de Marillac, the following subchapter will offer a hypothesis for the phenomenon. By looking at the ways the morality and image of Louise de Marillac were managed to create the anti-elitist image, the subchapter analyses the importance of this image as a strategy to safeguard the mission of the Company. Considering the difficult position of the Daughters of Charity in relation to acceptable religious identities and the Company’s dependence on elite women attracted essentially by Louise de Marillac, the image of the superior was, I argue, an important way to affect the way the Company as a whole was perceived. The tension in the vocation of the Daughters of Charity was caused both by external and internal pressures. External pressures came from ecclesiastical authorities: in the Post-Tridentine religious society officially banning unenclosed lifestyles for women religious, the active vocation of the Daughters of Charity was seen as potentially unorthodox.107 On the other hand, also the sisters posed an internal threat as they expressed explicit desires for a more contemplative and enclosed vocation, as will be discussed below in Chapter 3. In what follows, the central elements present in the narratives of the virtues of Louise de Marillac are examined as vital tools for creating the image and reputation of a living saint. She renounced the elite lifestyle, including the rejection of worldly possessions and family life and desired to perform radical subversions of social status by embracing the sacrament of penance. In addition. de Marillac’s heroic endurance of tribulations are analysed as ordeals testifying to the supernatural character of the superior as a perfect example of a good Catholic elite woman. Embracing poverty An integral part of the testimonies on the virtues of Louise de Marillac is her great love for poverty denoting an important subversion of a central elite attribute. This also connects her to a long tradition in female spirituality. Embracing poverty in various performative ways had been a typical means for religious women to gain spiritual authority since the Middle Ages. 107 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25:5, p. 223–224. See also discussion in the introduction.

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Vincent de Paul calculated in his conference that de Marillac had observed poverty in clothing and food in the footsteps of Jesus for the last 25 years of her life, that is, ever since the establishment of the Company.108 There are, however, testimonies, which attest that de Marillac had lived poorly also before the Daughters of Charity were established. For instance, on her journeys to inspect the Confréries de la Charité she would endure terrible coaches and travelling conditions, sleep on straw and even eat bad meat which made her and the women accompanying her sick.109 The sisters, for their part, would testify about her humble lifestyle after the founding of the Daughters of Charity: the superior would refuse to have anything new for herself and prefer to give others what they needed. For example, she never used the serge given to her to make a new coat. The coat was worn out and patched with different colours. The sisters also had to say little white lies to get her to change her coiffe: she would not let go of her old headdress without being assured by the sisters that the new one had been bought second-hand. If she found that new clothes had been purchased, she would become very angry. The superior did not dress, however, in the same way as the sisters: instead of wearing a simple rustic habit, she used the usual costume of devout widows, by permission from Vincent de Paul.110 The sisters likewise related that the superior had been very unhappy about not being always able to keep to the poor diet of the Company due to her infirmities.111 The rejection by Louise de Marillac of worldly possessions in her outer appearance was related to her will to perform very traditional virtues of devout women. In fact, the denunciation of decent clothing and food was a fundamental step on the path toward Christian perfection. The stages of perfection, which were not necessarily reached consecutively, are found already in the writings of the first Christians and studied in the case of the Dominican monk Henry Suso (c. 1295–1366) thoroughly by Meri Heinonen.112 As Suso presents a classical three-fold description of the phases, his model will be used in this analysis. The first step was purification, which demanded the devout person to free him or herself from worldly lifestyles and thus, embrace asceticism. The second stage, illumination, denotes the phase in 108 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 30. 109 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 923; Gobillon 1676, I:4, p. 39. 110 Paul FR, vol. II, doc. 534 (1641), p. 181 note 3. 111 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 38–39; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 823 (s.a.), p. 957 (a testimony of de Marillac’s virtues by sister Genviève Caillou). 112 Heinonen 2007.

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which the person becomes to better understand Christ and his love as a result of Imitatio Christi, or the imitation of His good works but also passion. The third and last stage, perfection or union, is a time when the person reaches Unio mystica, or the union of his or her soul with God and often experiences a mystical betrothal with Christ. This phase seals the passage of the person from the temporal world to the divine.113 In the case of Louise de Marillac, the stages did not follow sequentially as she experienced the mystical betrothal with Christ already fairly early on her devotional path, in 1630, as mentioned earlier.114 The will to embrace poverty became an especially popular devotional practice in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries along with the raise of the new apostolic devotional ideals promoted by movements of mendicant orders and religious laywoman. Of the friars especially Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226), the former extravagant son of a wealthy merchant who decided to change his life by renouncing all worldly riches, is connected to the ideal of poverty.115 The power of the devotional practice laid in the voluntary simplification: this was considered quite sensational in a world structured by a rigid God-given social hierarchy in which material comfort was the privilege and leading attribute of the elites. I claim that in the seventeenth century the subversive performance116 was very likely even more radical: for the early modern human being one’s outer appearance and consumption, often to the level of conspicuous consumption, were extremely important ways to represent social status and claim thereby authority and power in society. Moreover, an integral part of the societal developments in the Early Modern Period was the heightened importance of clothes, hairdos, jewellery, apartments, decoration, furniture, and other material belongings in signifying and performing elite culture and creating a contrast to the lower segments of society.117 Furthermore, it was particularly Paris that became the incontestable capital of the culture of luxury lifestyles and consumption, the faubourg Saint-Honoré and the Palais Royal being

113 Cf. Seuse 1961, Kap. IL, p. 168; Suso 1989, p. 184; Heinonen 2007, 12. 114 Marillac FR, A. 50 (February 1630), p. 702. 115 Kieckhefer 1987, 145. 116 Performance is understood here as an act by which de Marillac constructed her religious identity. See ‘Three Worlds, Three Portraits: Introduction’ for a detailed discussion of this approach. 117 See e.g. Simonton & Kaartinen & Montenach 2014a and in it especially the introduction (Simonton & Kaartinen & Montenach 2014b, 11–13). See also Chatenet-Calyste 2014; Ilmakunnas 2014; Roche 1989.

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considered the height of the luxury market.118 This was acknowledged as far away as in Sweden where the aristocracy came specifically to Paris to shop for luxury items in the eighteenth century.119 Furthermore, the possibility to display one’s social standing materially was significantly advanced by the opening of the New World with its riches. In fact, consumption became more legitimate and accepted in the seventeenth century as it was closely connected to the growth of trade and the circulation of money and fed the commercial growth of Paris.120 This said, the rejection by Louise de Marillac, a woman from a distinguished family, of worldly possessions and comforts was a performance most certainly conveyed as sensational and, thus, emphasized the extraordinary qualities of de Marillac as a holy person. On the other hand, it was also a peculiar approach as the functioning of the Company of the Daughters of Charity was based, however, on the sponsorship of the wealthy Parisian elites. Did not the poverty performances of de Marillac present the wealthy dévotes in a rather unpleasant light? Apparently not, as the sponsoring activities do not seem to have been endangered by the ideal of poverty the superior had adopted. In fact, it seems like the French Catholic circles did not despise wealth and inequality as such – they were, after all, assigned by God – but, nevertheless, exalted and expected voluntary simplification. The superior’s desire to perform saintliness in conventional ways was not a coincidence but rather a conscious decision. She was, in fact, very erudite in the lives of great medieval and renaissance saints whom she used as references in her personal pursuit of holiness and spiritual authority. These saintly role models were indeed an authoritative means to achieve and legitimize her goals as they occupied an important role in contemporary spirituality – despite the serious criticism the Protestants expressed against the veneration of saints. In fact, the Council of Trent reinforced the practice but also issued reforms: the process of canonization was revised and the cults became more carefully regulated, all of which resulted in a new, critical collection of the saints’ lives called the Acta Sanctorum. The series was begun in the seventeenth century by Heribert Rosweyde and continued by Jean Bolland and his followers.121 However, great seventeenth-century French preachers, such as Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, are known to have avoided the 118 Chatenet-Calyste 2014, 172, 174–178. 119 Ilmakunnas 2014. 120 Chatenet-Calyste 2014, 172. 121 Burke 2005; The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25, p. 218–220; Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur 1643–1902/1863–1919 (Acta Sanctorum).

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use of exempla.122 I argue that this suggests that saints were very likely an important part particularly of lay piety. The correspondence of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul reveals that the superior’ devotion toward holy women was reinforced by attending spiritual retreats, such as the one she engaged in in May 1632 during which she, exhorted by de Paul, read the lives of the pious widows to whom she had particular devotion.123 The most important of these widows was very likely Monica (c. 333–387), the mother of Augustine of Hippo (354–430), who receives the most direct references in the writings of Louise de Marillac. The superior was careful to celebrate the saint’s feast day on 4 May: Permit me, my most Honored Father, to remind your Charity that tomorrow is the Feast of saint Monica, and that this day is a solemn feast for me because of the grace which you know God bestowed upon me then [...].124

This grace was the vow of widowhood she had made on 4 May in 1623 in case her gravely husband should die. It also formed the ground from which her calling vision at the church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in the Marais sprung a month later. The vision would eventually become important divine evidence justifying her transformation from a pious married woman to a holy widow.125 In this transformation, saint Monica was without doubt an important role model: according to hagiography, she had experienced a difficult marriage which ended in her widowhood. She was also burdened with the sorrow of her son Augustine who for some time refused to convert to Christianity.126 Although less directly referred to, also medieval and renaissance role models supported the way of Louise de Marillac. Earlier holy women were subjects of the spiritual literature she read, namely, the popular works of François de Sales.127 As Hélène Michon has noted, especially in the Traité de l’amour de Dieu de Sales uses plenty of examples of the lives of saints 122 Michon 2008, 295. 123 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 76 (May 1632), p. 77. 124 Marillac EN, L. 522 (3 May 1657), p. 548. French quotation: ‘Permettez-moi, Mon Très Honoré Père, faire souvenir votre charité qu’il est demain Sainte-Monique, et que ce jour est solennel pour moi, pour la grâce que vous savez que Dieu m’y a faite [...]’. Marillac FR, L. 522 (3 May 1657), p. 546. 125 For the vow of widowhood and the Pentecostal vision, see CM, Lumière de Pentecôte. 126 Acta Sanctorum, 4 May, XIV: 474–480. 127 Evidence for de Marillac reading the Traité de l’amour de Dieu is found in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 35 (between 1629 and 1633), p. 39; doc. 173 (around December 1636), p. 163–164; Marillac FR, A. 10 (around 1630), p. 702. Evidence for de Marillac reading the Introduction à la vie

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and other celebrated religious persons.128 The Bishop of Geneva mentions for example Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231, canonized 1235), Angela of Foligno (1248–1309, canonized 2013), Birgitta of Sweden, Catherine of Siena (1347–1380, canonized 1461), Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) and Teresa of Avila.129 The significance of the legend of Catherine of Siena as a role model for Louise de Marillac is heightened by the fact that the saint was invoked several times in her writings and the conferences of Vincent de Paul attesting that her story was well known to Louise de Marillac.130 Catherine was famous for her determination in pursuing the religious calling, rejecting marriage and embracing severe corporal austerities such as fasting, which seems to have been the death of her.131 Teresa of Avila was likewise an important saint as Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul used her example to encourage the sisters in their vocation.132 Teresa had been canonized rather recently, in 1622, for her career as a visionary and a monastic reformer. With John of the Cross she was the founder of the very austere order of the Discalced Carmelites brought to Paris in 1604.133 However, Birgitta of Sweden, inspired profoundly by Elizabeth of Hungary, seems to have been especially dear to Louise de Marillac: she not only read about her in de Sales’ book but also owned a copy of Birgitta’s Vita. This is revealed in one of Vincent de Paul’s letters to de Marillac in which the confessor apologizes for not remembering to return the hagiography to his penitent.134 Furthermore, the Daughters of Charity cooperated with the contemporary Brigittine order: in Arras, the sisters had for confessor Monsieur Canisius, the priest serving local Brigittines.135 The interest of Louise de Marillac in Birgitta is not surprising as the life story of de Marillac resembled in several ways that of Birgitta: already during her marriage, Birgitta sought perfection and purity but it was not until the dévote, see Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc.76 (May 1632), p. 77; doc. 183 (between 1636 and 1642), p. 171. 128 Michon 2008, 295. 129 Sales 1616. 130 Marillac FR, L. 105 (24 August 1644), p. 116; L. 70 bis (September 1644), p. 118–119; L. 225 (October 1648), p. 265; Paul Conférences, 22 January 1646, p. 158, 161; 19 August 1646, p. 182. 131 For more on Catherine of Siena, see Muessig & Ferzoco & Kienzle 2012; Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999; Lehmijoki-Gardner 2005. 132 Marillac FR, L. 370 (16 September 1653), p. 426; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 668 (30 September 1656), p. 763. 133 For more about Teresa of Avila, see Bilinkoff 1989. 134 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 255 (1639), p. 237. 135 Paul Conférences, 30 August 1656, p. 617.

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death of her husband that she was able to more fully embrace the ascetic religious life. She eventually became a prophet and a foundress of a new monastic order, the Brigittines. Birgitta also took part in the period’s most heated political and ecclesiastical tribulations as she tried to convince the Pope in Avignon to return to Rome. Furthermore, an important maxim for Birgitta was the combining of the ideals of the active and contemplative vocation,136 which must have resonated strongly with Louise de Marillac and her life’s mission as a religious woman following her calling outside the enclosure of a monastery and in charity work. The family martyr In her search for spiritual authority, Louise de Marillac not only performed the purificative phase by rejecting the elite lifestyle in the form of fine clothes. She also importantly aimed to portray herself has having suffered from having experienced married life and the worldliness that accompanied it. Here again, despite the great importance of marriage for the elite identity as a means to enhance and secure the family’s financial position and reinforce networks and, thus, protect their power in society,137 the rejection of it was, however, a traditional means of sanctification for a woman religious. Nevertheless, comparison of the different sources on Louise de Marillac suggests that this area of moral management was one of the most difficult ones in her case. The official hagiography paints a unanimous image of an aspiring woman religious, whereas private letters reveal that the story was far more complicated. There are at least two spiritual texts by Louise de Marillac in which she laments the fact that she was or that she had been married. In the first one, the famous Lumière (1623) when her husband was still alive but gravely ill, she wrote: On the following Feast of the Ascension, I was very disturbed because of the doubt I had as to whether I should leave my husband, as I greatly wanted to do, in order to make good my first vow and to have greater liberty to serve God and my neighbor.138 136 For an illuminating recent study on Birgitta of Sweden, see Salmesvuori 2014. For Birgitta following the combined ideal of the active and the contemplative vocation, see especially p. 50–51. 137 See e.g. Ilmakunnas 2012, 53–69. 138 Marillac EN, A. 2 (1623), p. 1. French quotation: ‘Le jour de l’Anscension en suivant, j’eus un grand abatement d’esprit pour le doute que j’avais, si je devais quitter mon mari, comme je le désirais fortement pour réparer mon premier vœux et avoir plus de liberté de servir Dieu et le prochain’. Marillac FR, A. 2 (1623), p. 3.

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By ‘the first vow’ de Marillac is referring to the time before her marriage, when in her youth she felt a religious calling.139 More than 20 years later she was still preoccupied with her past married life: in a note she wrote that, during communion, she had asked forgiveness for having been married.140 Louise de Marillac’s repentance of her past married life, the ‘family martyr’ paradigm, is a typical characteristic found in the saintly biographies of women since the Middle Ages. By describing de Marillac as a ‘family martyr’ I am extending Barbara Newman’s notion of a ‘maternal martyr’. Newman’s term denotes a hagiographic convention in which the holiness of a woman is enhanced by her willingness ‘to abandon her children or, in extreme cases, consent to their deaths as the Virgin did to Christ’s’.141 In my view, as children were often conceived within marriage, women expressed regret also towards having a husband making themselves martyrs of the family life as a whole. For example Birgitta of Sweden, with the Vita of whom Louise de Marillac is known to have been very familiar,142 would, on the one hand, ask God to rip out from her heart the thorn of bodily love for her family, and, on the other hand, emphasize that she loved God more than her children.143 Another saint familiar to Louise de Marillac, the Franciscan mystic Angela of Foligno,144 wrote likewise that her spiritual awakening had caused her to hate her husband and children. The eventual death of her family was an answer to her prayers and a great relief.145 The ‘family martyr’ paradigm was very much alive also in the minds of clerics close to Louise de Marillac. At the death of Antoine Le Gras, Louise de Marillac received the following lines from Jean Pierre Camus, the Bishop of Belley, who did not hide his overtly negative opinion about her marriage: At last, my dear Sister, the Saviour of our souls has put Himself in your care after taking care of your husband. Oh, heavenly Spouse, remain 139 Gobillon 1676, I:2, p. 8. 140 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 387 (5 June 1645), p. 365. 141 Newman 1995, 77. 142 Louise de Marillac owned a copy of Birgitta’s Vita as is revealed in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 255 (1639), p. 237. 143 Salmesvuori 2014, 31, 49. 144 Louise de Marillac very likely knew her legend from the Traité de l’amour de Dieu of François de Sales, see Sales 1616. 145 Foligno 1993, 219–221. See also Elliott 1993. For the roots of the attitudes in the Early Church, see Shaw 1998. The anti-wedlock attitudes in appraisal of virginity have long roots springing to Paul who, for his part, was influenced by Hellenistic thought: the dualism of mind and body and the need to overcome the flesh in order to engage more profoundly in spiritual life. See Bugge 1975, especially Chapters Two and Three; Weinstein & Bell 1982, 73–74; Elliott 2012.

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always such to my sister who has chosen you to be that when she was still divided [between temporal and spiritual life] [...].146

Nicolas Gobillon followed Camus’ line of thinking in his hagiography by sanctifying the anti-marital attitude of Louise de Marillac even further. A closer look at the Livre premier describing the life of de Marillac before engaging in charity work with Vincent de Paul reveals that the central motive of Gobillon in that section is to belittle de Marillac’s married life. As a whole, Gobillon presents the project of marriage as an unfortunate episode caused by the lack of guidance by her father who experienced an untimely death – all of which is to emphasize the originally virginal desires of the heroine. Gobillon reminds the reader that de Marillac had wanted to enter the Capuchin order but was rejected due to her fragile health.147 Sister Barbe Bailly likewise relates in her notes that Louise de Marillac had had great affection for the Capuchin nuns already in her youth: the sheer sight of the walls of the monastery would fill her with joy. At the monastery, apparently while engaging in a spiritual retreat, de Marillac would only eat roots. Bailly also claims that de Marillac had blamed her close relatives for having to marry.148 In the history of female spirituality, laywomen who took up a religious vocation only after wedlock are often described as ending up married only because of obstacles in pursuing the religious calling. Very typically family or frail health were explanations for marriage. For example, in the legend of the Dominican laywoman Catherine of Siena, very familiar to Louise de Marillac,149 Catherine’s mother tried her best to suppress her daughter’s asceticism and make her turn more toward worldly life. Once she decided to offer Catherine some physical refreshment by taking her to the baths. In resistance Catherine, however, burned herself under a hot water stream.150 146 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 840 (22 February 1626), p. 987. French quotation: ‘Enfin, ma très chère sœur, le Sauveur de nos âmes après avoir mis votre époux en son sein s’est mis dans le vôtre. O céleste Époux, soyez à jamais celui de ma Sœur qui vous a choisi pour tel lorsqu’elle était encore divisée [...]’. 147 Gobillon 1676, I:2, p. 8–9. 148 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 923. 149 Louise de Marillac read about Catherine in the Traité de l’amour de Dieu by François de Sales and invoked her several times in her writings. See Sales 1616; Marillac FR, L. 105 (24 August 1644), p. 116; L. 70 bis (September 1644), p. 118–119; L. 225 (October 1648), p. 265. 150 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 128–131. For other medieval cases, see Weinstein & Bell 1982, 74–76. For the topos of the frustrated religious vocation in the saintly biographies of the seventeenth century, see Diefendorf 2004, 211 and Beauvalet-Boutouyrie 2001, 58–69 who has analysed the biographies of widows.

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Instead of blaming the father, the official hagiography chooses to accentuate the rightfulness and religiousness of the heroine’s father. Gobillon states that had the father been alive, Louise de Marillac would not have been married. This suggests that an orthodox saintly image of a woman was enhanced by portraying her relationship to her father, the head of the family, as good and supportive of the religious vocation. This conclusion is also supported by the overall positive view Gobillon aimed to promote in his work of Louis de Marillac who is pictured as a decent man in favour of the high-quality education of his daughter. The image Gobillon creates is, however, misleading: nothing is mentioned about the man’s darker sides, brought to light by recent research, namely, domestic violence that took the man to court,151 or the contradictory narration of the young de Marillac’s stay at a boarding house. According to Gobillon, Louis de Marillac had put her daughter in a boarding house corresponding to her social status.152 Sister Barbe Bailly told a completely different story. She claimed that the superior herself had told the sisters that the house had been so poor that she had had to perform also menial household chores. Internal evidence proves that Gobillon was aware of Bailly’s testimony: he published his work as late as in 1676 and announced to have based it also on the consultation of ‘the people who have been part of her undertakings and whose memory has been able to bring about some testimony of her actions [...]’.153 Indeed, later on the hagiography repeats a certain event in the life of Louise de Marillac that is only found in the testimony of Barbe Bailly.154 Nevertheless, Gobillon chose to be selective in his account and, I argue, intended to create a consistent positive image of the father as supporting the proper education and religious ambitions of his daughter. Although the marriage was clearly an unwanted episode, Gobillon depicted Louise de Marillac as surviving it in a decent, heroic, and saintly way. Gobillon did this, first, by listing alleviating circumstances in the marriage of de Marillac: he pointed out that she was fortunately united with a family renowned for their charitable spirit, as the Le Gras family had found the hospital of le Puy.155 Furthermore, Gobillon claimed that de 151 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 67, 69–70. 152 Cf. Gobillon 1676, I:1, p. 7 and Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 923. 153 Gobillon 1676, ‘Avertissement’. French quotation: ‘les personnes qui ont eu part à ses desseins, & dont la memoire a pû rendre quelque témoignage de ses actions [...]’. 154 The story of the good works of Louise de Marillac in Beauvais is told by Barbe Bailly in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 923 and repeated in Gobillon 1676, I:5, p. 40–43. The event will be further discussed in II.3. 155 Gobillon 1676, I:2, p. 9.

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Marillac practiced all the virtues possible in her state: despite her worldly obligations, she was able to carry out all the duties of religion and charity work by visiting the poor.156 In her testimony, a certain lady-in-waiting, who, according to a note in the manuscript, had served Louise de Marillac, also claimed to have witnessed similar virtues. She asserted that the pious wife had had a special affection for the poor whom she had brought delicacies such as sweets, jam, and biscuits. De Marillac was also reported to have combed the hair of the poor, cleaned scabies and vermin, and also buried the dead. Once, despite poor weather, she left her company and climbed a hill to comfort a poor soul trembling of cold. This lady-in-waiting also testified that at de Marillac would only pretend to eat at the table. In the night, as soon as her husband was a sleep, she would withdraw to her private room for devotional practices.157 Gobillon, for his part, also claimed that Louise de Marillac rejected her worldly status by avoiding vanities, and even during public feasts she would rather withdraw to the Capuchin monastery for a retreat. Furthermore, according to Gobillon, the woman was at her happiest in retreat and prayer where she would indulge in spiritual reading such as the Imitation de JésusChrist and the works of François de Sales and Louis of Granada. She was also personally familiar with the Holy Scriptures, as Jean Pierre Camus had given her permission to read them.158 Gobillon portrayed Louise de Marillac as a talented religious educator of her household in which she was able to convert even two of her servants who ended up joining religious orders.159 This gender role was promoted also by François de Sales in his Introduction à la vie dévote.160 As Jean-Pierre Gutton has argued, in general domestics were a constant preoccupation of the seventeenth-century dévots who considered servants one of the important target groups of moral education.161 In Gobillon’s view, the most important household members to influence were de Marillac’s husband and son. The way she managed her obligations toward them was considered crucial evidence of her as an exemplary pious wife, despite her original reluctance toward family life. In his narration of the illness and subsequent death of Antoine Le Gras, Gobillon carefully related the virtuous conduct of de Marillac during the last weeks of her husband’s 156 Gobillon 1676, I:2, p. 10–11. 157 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 809 (s.a.), p. 930. 158 Gobillon 1676, I:2, p. 11–13. 159 Gobillon 1676, I:3, p. 19–20. 160 Sales 1641, 342. 161 Gutton 2004, 151–159.

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terrible illness. He asserted that the wife took care of him patiently and with tender affection and made sure he died in a good Christian way. After the death of the spouse, Gobillon stated that de Marillac fulfilled all the virtues of a mourning widow and compared her to a widow described by Jerome (c. 347-420).162 Nevertheless, de Marillac did not hesitate to see a confessor immediately after the death of her husband not only to receive comfort in her pain but also to consecrate herself to Christ.163 In this, she was fulfilling the greatest virtue of a ‘true’ widow: avoiding remarriage and giving herself completely to God. This was a tradition with roots in the teachings of Paul reinforced in the seventeenth century by François de Sales.164 The status of a widow offered many advantages. Compared to the most appreciated group of women – that is, virgins – widows could use to their advantage their life experience, networks, and possible wealth and engage in religious projects. In fact, most of Louise de Marillac’s colleagues, of the elite dévotes such as Jeanne de Chantal and Mademoiselle de Pollalion, were widows.165 Their leading role in the Catholic revival in Paris was quite a tour de force for such a small group of people: widows constituted only a few per cent of the total population.166 Gobillon also praised de Marillac for having fulfilled the virtue acclaimed by the early theologian Chrysostom (c. 347–407), namely that of a good mother who teaches her children to despise worldly possessions and to prefer virtues. He exalted de Marillac for having brought up a fine young man who ended up working as the king’s counsellor.167 However, in reality the story of bringing up Michel-Antoine Le Gras was far from virtuous, as the correspondence of Louise de Marillac reveals. Nevertheless, this true story was omitted completely from the testimonies of the virtues of Louise de Marillac with the exception of the story of sister Françoise Paule Noret who only hints at it: she related that in 1645 she had encountered the superior in a devastated state of mind by a cross. When the very worried Noret had pressured the superior to tell her what had happened, de Marillac had cried 162 ‘Cette veuve, dit ce Pere, pleura tellement la mort de Nebridius son mary qu’elle donna des marques de sa tendresse & de son amitié conjugale; mais en même temps elle la supporta avec tant de vertu, qu’elle la regarda plustot comme un voyage, que comme une perte & une privatisation’. Gobillon 1676, I:3, p. 23. 163 Gobillon 1676, I:3, p. 20–24. 164 Sales 1641, 351–359; Bernos 2003, 173–184; Beauvalet-Boutouyrie 2001, 38–52. 165 Beauvalet-Boutouyrie 2001, 78–95, 283–310; Bernos 2003, 181–182, 206–207. 166 Scarlett Beauvalet-Boutouyrie has estimated that widows represented five to ten per cent of the adult population in eighteenth-century French towns. See Beauvalet-Boutouyrie 2001, 337. 167 Gobillon 1676, I:3, p. 18.

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out that her son had disappeared.168 The conferences of Vincent de Paul on the virtues of the superior contain no references to the scandals caused by Michel-Antoine Le Gras. Thus, an important trait of a good Catholic elite woman was ‘successful’ motherhood; motherhood that produced decent new Catholic subjects. A contrary account was to be omitted. The scandalous story of mothering Michel-Antoine Le Gras began when he was 25. For the past ten years he had been living in a boarding school for future priests, first at the Collège de Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet and since 1631 with the Jesuits. He would spend his holidays at the Collège des Bons-Enfants or at Saint-Lazare with Vincent de Paul’s Lazarist priests.169 In 1638, Louise de Marillac received shocking news from Vincent de Paul. Michel-Antoine had told a Lazarist priest that he was unhappy with his vocation that he claimed was not even his in the first place. He claimed that he was studying to become a priest only because of his mother’s wish. He was frustrated to the point that he had sinister thoughts about Louise de Marillac: he had said he wished death for his mother and himself. De Paul pleaded with the mother to let the young man decide his vocation for himself: Whatever the reason, his character or the devil, his will is not free to make a decision in such an important matter and you must not wish him to do it. […] Allow God to lead him; He [God] is more like his father than you are his mother, He loves him more.170

In December 1644, the boy suddenly disappeared. He had arrived in Paris with Madame la comtesse de Maure but never went to his mother’s. Sometime later, possibly in the spring of 1645 the son disappeared again without giving any notice of his location even to his servant.171 This time he seems to have gone missing for weeks. Then the story starts to unfold: apparently Michel-Antoine had an affair with a woman who was residing at the convent of the Madelonnettes in the Marais, the most famous French monastery for former prostitutes – although such institutions also served as detention quarters for any woman whose behaviour was deemed equivocally ‘bad’. The background for the woman’s placement in the convent is not clear but 168 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 802 (July 1660), p. 920. 169 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 14 (between 1626 and May 1629), p. 20, note 3. 170 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 236 (around October 1638), p. 222. French quotation: ‘Quoi que ce soit, ou que cela vienne de la nature ou du diable, sa volonté n’est pas libre pour se déterminer en chose de telle importance, et vous ne le devez pas désirer. […] Laissez-le conduire à Dieu; il est plus son père que vous n’êtes sa mère, et l’aime plus que vous’. 171 Marillac FR, L. 113 (2 December 1644), p. 121; L. 109 (around 1645), p. 132.

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there are two plausible options: she was either a repentant prostitute there or then put in the convent as punishment for an adulterous relationship, very possibly with Louise de Marillac’s son. In July 1645 the unnamed woman, who had promised to forget MichelAntoine and go back to her native region, was about to be freed. Louise de Marillac had, however, doubts as she was afraid the couple will implement the plan they had had before getting caught: they would get married and settle in the native region of the woman. Michel-Antoine would either become a partner in the wine trade business of his parents-in-law or then the couple would just ‘live there in peace, but as idlers,’ as the worried mother wrote to her confessor.172 The available sources say nothing about Michel-Antoine’s activities until January 1650 when he, at the age of 37, married Gabrielle Le Clerc, the daughter of the lord of Chennevières, described by Louise de Marillac as a very virtuous young Lady who was not from Paris. In 1651, they had a child, Louise-Renée.173 The episode of spring 1645 tormented Louise de Marillac: in October 1645, she asked a friend, the Abbé de Vaux to pray for her and her son whose salvation she deemed endangered as he was caught in a vice ‘curable only by God’.174 In December, the distressed mother drew up a will containing a lot of instructions for her son and expressing a great concern for his salvation. She also asked him to have respect for the family members who will love and help him as long as he behaves as an honourable man.175 Furthermore, the following spring de Marillac decided to donate a painting of the Virgin to be placed at the altar dedicated to the Holy Mother at the chapel of Saint-Lazare. By asking the painting to be placed in this specific location, she writes that she hopes to compensate for the errors of her son committed in one of the houses of Vincent de Paul.176 The phrase inspires some cautious speculation: as the convent of the Madelonnettes was under the supervision of de Paul and thus, one of de Paul’s houses,177 it is possible that the ‘crime’ referred to by de Marillac happened in the convent. This means that the mistress of Michel-Antoine Le Gras was could have been a former prostitute, or, to say the least, an ‘ill-behaved’ woman. 172 Marillac FR, L. 124 (26 July 1645), p. 130. French quotation: ‘y vivre en paix, mais en fainéants’. See also L. 123 (21 July 1645), p. 129–130. 173 L. 275 (13 January 1650), p. 312; L. 272 bis (December 1649), p. 306–307; L. 274 (December 1649), p. 307; L. 489 (31 July 1656), p. 516. 174 Marillac FR, L. 129 (28 October 1645), p. 136. 175 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 847 (15 December 1645), p. 993–994. 176 Marillac FR, L. 303 bis (March 1646), p. 138. 177 See Chapter 2 for an account of the relationship of de Paul to the convent.

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Overall, although scholars have argued that Catholic attitudes toward the married state became more relaxed in the Early Modern Period,178 the anti-wedlock attitudes in the portrayals of Louise de Marillac testify to conventional anthropology. The most sacred state was still that of a virgin nun who had never been married or experienced sexual intercourse. In fact, a close reading of the Introduction à la vie dévote by François de Sales, used by some scholars as evidence (and read extensively also by Louise de Marillac), proves, in my view, that the more permissive attitude toward the marital status was more apparent than real. The book seems to offer women of all states advice on how to attain holiness. It devotes a fairly long chapter (some twelve pages) to the ways one can live a good Christian life as a wedded wife.179 Nevertheless, I see that the central message of the book is not the promotion of the married state but of virginal life which should be adapted to married life. In effect, the aforementioned chapter is followed by a detailed seven-page account on how to keep the nuptial bed chaste. According to de Sales, the most Christian way to have sex was for procreative reasons only, never for just pure sexual lust. De Sales offered the elephant as a suitable role model for Catholic sex: the beast never changes his female companion whom he loves tenderly. The admirable animals do not copulate more than every three years and even then for only five days in such secrecy and discretion that they are never seen doing it. On the sixth day, the elephant makes sure to wash himself thoroughly in the river before re-joining his flock.180 Upholding the Magdalen, subverting leader status The testimonies of the virtues of Louise de Marillac contain interesting subversions of the elite status of director. Despite her important and valuable position as the elite superior of the Company and the idea of the members of the upper segments of society as unquestionably entitled to a leading role,181 de Marillac humbled herself in front of the sisters and reverse their roles. She would do this through performances aimed at displaying her holiness and convincing her audience, the Daughters, of her spiritual authority. The stage of the most flamboyant acts was the refectory, the heart and symbol 178 See e.g. Wiesner-Hanks 2008, 31–34, 219, 230; Wiesner-Hanks 2010, 134–137. 179 Sales 1641, 10, 332–344. See also Bireley 1999, 178–181. 180 See Sales 1641, 344–351. On the appraisal of chaste marriages in the Early Modern Period, see Wiesner-Hanks 2008, 31–34, 219, 230; Wiesner-Hanks 2010, 134–137, Bernos 2003, 119–148. 181 See e.g. Ilmakunnas 2012, 70–111, 276–297.

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of communal life, which enhanced the impressiveness and effectiveness of the status subversion: She often did acts of humility in the refectory: she asked for pardon by spreading her arms or lying on the floor and by serving at the table. She also helped to wash the dishes and would have liked to do all the other tasks of the house.182

The spreading of arms was a theatrical gesture typical of Dominican medieval spirituality and aimed to imitate the sufferings of Christ at the Cross.183 Another sister recited that she had also seen the superior laying herself down on the floor and asking the sisters to walk over her. This most likely also happened in the refectory, as the other events, a repetition of the acts mentioned above, related by the sister in the same paragraph were set in this specific area.184 There were also testimonies according to which de Marillac would also get on her knees and kiss the feet of the sisters for example at the chapel.185 The reason why the superior wanted the sisters to walk over her was for the repentance of her sins, which she aimed to convey to her audience by acting as a doormat for her subordinates. Contrition is vividly present in other portrayals of Louise de Marillac making it one of her central virtues. In this, de Marillac was attached to very traditional spiritual ideals related especially to the cult of Mary Magdalen who was a particularly suitable saint to imitate. The kissing of the sisters’ feet, for example, was a direct reference to the legend of Mary Magdalen in which she cherished the feet of Christ.186 Begun originally in the Middle East as a local cult, the devotion to Mary Magdalen became very popular in the West especially in the thirteenth century and among religious laywomen.187 After a period of diminishing popularity in the fifteenth century, the repentant sinner saint was again highly appreciated in the Baroque era. In art, the depictions of Mary 182 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 38. French quotation: ‘Elle à fait ausy souvent des actes d’humilité En plain refectoire y demandant pardon y Estant les bras Estendus ou couchée contre terre et y servant à table; elle à aussy aidé à laver les Escuelle et heut bien desiré faire tout les autres Emplois de la maison’. 183 Lehmijoki-Gardner 2005, 17–18. 184 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 27. 185 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 802 (July 1660), p. 920; Paul Conférences, 24 July 1660, p. 946. 186 For the legend of Mary Magdalen, see Acta Sanctorum, July, V: 187–225. 187 For the development of the cult of Mary Magdalen, see Saxer 1959; Haskins 1993; Jansen 2000. For the relationship of medieval religious laywoman to the cult, see Lauwers 1992, 214–218, 257.

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Magdalen emphasized almost solely her repentant image,188 although the paintings such as by Georges de la Tour also emphasizes the erudition of Mary. The saint was likewise a popular theme in religious literature and treated for example by Pierre de Bérulle.189 Fuel for the cult was provided by the Council of Trent, which further reinforced the sacrament of penance by ordering all Christians to confess sins before having communion at least once a year. Monastics were ordered confess at least once a month.190 Vincent de Paul and the sisters who had personally known Louise de Marillac related that the superior would embody an essential Magdalenian virtue; shed abundant tears in repentance of her sins. According to testimonies, de Marillac regularly blamed her personal sins for the problems the Company encountered and would repeatedly ask her employees to forgive her faults. Sometimes she would even ask an individual sister to name her errors, which troubled many as they could not find a single one in her.191 Vincent de Paul agreed that in the 38192 years he had known de Marillac, he had observed only minor imperfections, such as impatience, which, however, never grew even close to being a sin. She had a pure soul during all the phases of her a life; as a young woman, as a wife and as a widow, de Paul concluded. Nevertheless, she would confess very thoroughly to her confessor who had never seen a person of such purity repent so greatly. De Paul had trouble calming down his penitent who would not stop crying.193 Several sisters testified about her abundant tears of contrition: communion was an emotional occasion in which the superior would sometimes cry so that her handkerchief became soaking wet. At other times, she was seen sobbing in great desolation at a flagellated Crucifix repeating that is was because of her sins that Jesus had suffered.194 According to sister Barbe Bailly, the figure of Mary Magdalen was present also at the last communion of Louise de Marillac. The dying superior had asked for an image of the repentant saint that contained three verses. One of them was cited by Bailly: 188 See e.g. the fifth chapter in Maisch 1998. 189 Bardon 1968, 283–300. 190 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 13:5, p. 76; 25:10, p. 227. 191 Paul Conférences, 3 July 1660, p. 941. 192 This seems to be a mistaken calculation as the couple did not meet each other before after the death of Antoine Le Gras in 1625 making the length of the relationship 35 years. See II.1, above, and Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 837 (26 July 1625), p. 984. 193 Paul Conférences, 3 July 1660, p. 938–939. 194 Paul Conférences, 24 July 1660, p. 947; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 802 (July 1660), p. 920.

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All is over, Madeleine expires; death, in an instant, will take her to its empire. And love will not be offended, far from it, alas, it has completed a martyr which it itself had given birth to a long time ago.195

The moderately fleshless woman An important aspect in the culture of contrition was penances the devout voluntarily imposed on their body. Louise de Marillac’s performances of repentance in the refectory and in the chapel, mentioned above, all included the bodily aspect: the body was crushed by subordinates walking over it and the mouth contaminated by the kissing of a sister’s feet. These were not, however, the only bodily practices of Louise de Marillac who, in fact, followed a programme of corporal austerities in order to compensate for her sins, overcome the flesh, and gain fuller spiritual authority. Once again, this was a radical subversion of the elite lifestyle with bodily comfort and indulgences as its leading attributes. Physical work in the household was done exclusively by servants196 and the interior decoration including soft chairs, sofas, and beds coated with luxurious materials and sumptuous embroidery 197 conveyed comfortable, social living in contrast to the hard surfaces of the common people.198 In contrast to the underprivileged that ate mainly for survival, sumptuous meals were yet another integral part of the elite lifestyle and the dinner party the stage for performing the elite identity through civilized manners.199 The case of Louise de Marillac offers not only a window to the way spiritual authority was created through corporal austerities but also to developments in women’s devotional practices in early modern France. In fact, de Marillac’s regime of bodily penances underwent an intriguing change from extreme to moderate in the course of time. The following, by means of using Louise de Marillac as case study, aims first to sharpen the general assumptions historians, mainly medievalists, have made about the development of the relationship of gender and corporal austerities 195 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 800 (9 June 1660), p. 917. French quotation: ‘C’en est fait, Madeleine expire; la mort, dans un moment, la tient sous son empire. Et bien loin que l’amour s’en estime offensé, hélas, il vient lui-même achever un martyre que, depuis si longtemps, il avait commencé’. 196 Courtin 2011, 102–105; Pardailhé-Galabrun 1991, 37–39. 197 For a description of typical chairs, sofas and beds in the hôtels particuliers in the Marais, see Courtin 2011, 200–227. 198 Roche 2000, 166–192; Pardailhé-Galabrun 1991, 73–83, 96. 199 Roche 2000, 225–242; Pardailhé-Galabrun 1991, 83–103.

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when moving from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century. Second, it attempts to decipher the practice’s significance for the managing of the image of Louise de Marillac and for the success of the Company of the Daughters of Charity. The beginning of de Marillac’s spiritual path, the time prior to the founding of the Daughters of Charity, reflects medieval sensibilities: an important saintly virtue of women in the Middle Ages was the heroic endurance of self-imposed bodily sufferings.200 The aforementioned lady-in-waiting, who had known Louise de Marillac as the wife of Antoine Le Gras, attested that de Marillac had used the hair shirt and taken the discipline, that is, whipped herself.201 The hagiography of Nicolas Gobillon repeats that before meeting Vincent de Paul, de Marillac endured austerities in order to better reach God. She fasted and used the cilice (or the penitential belt) even though her infirmities and charitable labours already gave her plenty of mortification. The death of her husband made her take up even more austerities.202 In fact, the widowed de Marillac went as far as to draw up for herself a Rule in which she made her life in the world resemble that of a nun in her cell. Her day would start at five thirty (from Easter to All Saints’ Day) or six o’clock (from All Saints’ Day to Easter) and follow the rhythm of canonical hours. She would meditate on spiritual texts and pray, but also devote hours to charity work among the poor. She would withdraw to her room for the night at eight o’clock. In addition, she ordered herself to think about God four times per hour. So as to get rid of the impetuosity in her character she would also chastize her body in remembrance of the passion of Christ: she would use the penitential belt (la cinture de penitanse) at Communion every morning and the whole day on Fridays. She would also take the discipline two or three times reciting the first time Pater Noster in honour of Jesus Christ, the second time Ave Maria in honour of Virgin Mary, and the third time De Profundis (psalm 129) in honour of souls in Purgatory. Even though she did not allow herself normally more than two meals a day, during fast she ate even less. She fasted around the year always on Fridays in addition to rejecting food during Advent and Lent and on the eve of the feasts of Jesus, His mother, and the apostles.203 200 The issue will be discussed at length towards the end of this sub-section. 201 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 809 (s.a.), p. 930. 202 Gobillon 1676, I: 2, p. 14; I: 4, p. 28. 203 AFC, Règlement de vie. For editions, see Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 99–103; Marillac FR, A. 1 (before 1633), p. 687–689. See also Hillman 2014, especially 71–99 for a discussion on the characteristics and material dimensions of the devotional life pursued by seventeenth-century religious elite women in Paris.

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By the early 1630s, Vincent de Paul began adjusting the devotional programme of Louise de Marillac. In his letter to de Marillac de Paul suggested moderation: he wrote that at times when she could not take the discipline (due to frail health or charity work?) she could instead use a penitential belt with silver rosettes. The confessor justified his idea by saying that the discipline and another one made of horsehair give too much heat (apparently to the body, following the theory of humours).204 In her want to mortify the body and thereby keep the soul in the state it was at the moment of creation and which pleased God,205 Louise de Marillac was performing a devotional practice fundamental in all major religious systems.206 A physical motive for ascetic practices was the enhancement of the religious experience: for example fasting is known to provoke introversion and reduce sexual desires, whereas the infliction of pain produces pleasant hormonal changes, all supposedly intensifying the devotional practice.207 Religions have given mortification ample philosophical and theological justification. In Christianity, the principle is solidly rooted in the Bible and practices of the first Christians. The biblical frame for the practice is found foremost in the New Testament which deals with dualism, that is, the doctrine holding that mind and matter (body) are opposite and rival forces in the world with mind being the more virtuous one. In late antiquity Christians embraced asceticism especially in the monasteries of Egypt, Syria and the Holy Land. From this time forward, the devout used hair shirts, belts (cilice) and took the discipline. Early monastic leaders, such as Basil of Caesarea in the fourth century, were fascinated by the idea of using mortif ication as a means to bring oneself closer to the state of angels and further away from that of animals. Humans were believed to have been caught between these two states. The further the Middle Ages progressed, the more severe and varied the austerities became.208 204 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 59 (likely September 1631), p. 63. French quotation: ‘pource que celles-là échauffent trop’. See also doc. 35 (between 1629 and 1633), p. 39. For humouralism, see e.g. Bouley 2017, 96–97. 205 Marillac FR, A. 67 (3 January 1655), p. 788; see also e.g. Paul Conférences, 6 January 1657, p. 627–629. 206 The medievalist Giles Constable has noted that the want of suffering is by no means a ‘strange’ medieval or religious phenomenon but present also in the secular society of our day, existing, though, for perhaps different reasons: athletes, soldiers, career-builders and so on often embrace the idea that efforts and suffering make success sweeter. See Constable 1996a, 7. 207 Constable 1996a, 8. 208 Constable 1996a, 9–13, 15.

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Authorization for corporal austerities is found in the New Testament and in Paul (Romans 8:13). Although in Pauline thought flesh was not necessarily a reference to the physical body but to the opposite force of spirit, Vincent de Paul explained the phrase as exhortation to mortify the body by means of fasting, prayers and other ascribed penances so as to prevent the soul from dying along with the body and never reaching Heaven.209 The greater ideology behind it was the Imitatio Christi, or the bodily imitation of the passion of Christ, enlightened by three passages in the Galatians (2:19–20; 5:24; 6:17)210. In the history of the imitation of Christ’s passions, the twelfth century was an important milestone: it marked the development of a more physical understanding of the Imitatio. This is portrayed for example in the way the term stigma switched its meaning from allegorical to concrete during the century.211 Self-flagellation was a common practice especially in the reformed monasteries of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, such as the famous establishments at Cluny and Monte Cassino.212 Francis of Assisi is also often closely associated with Imitatio Christi as he received five wounds in his body, although a tradition of stigmatic spirituality existed already before his time.213 Stigmata and other corporal raptures were also common devotional phenomena in the later Middle Ages.214 The mortification of the body was also a gendered issue, although there is no comprehensive scholarship on the subject for the Early Modern Period. For the past 30 years or so scholars of female spirituality, but mainly of the Middle Ages, have dwelled widely on the characteristics of the devotional practices of women. One great conclusion has been that bodily devotional practices were a way to perform and gain saintliness and spiritual authority especially in the case of women religious: the general medieval idea of womanhood was strongly related, after all, to the body and, thus, to the suffering human side of Christ. 215 The conclu209 Paul Conférences, 9 December 1657, p. 728; 3 January 1655, p. 508–509. See also 1 Corinthians 9:27. 210 See also Matthew 16:24; Paul Conférences, 11 November 1644, p. 112; Constable 1996a 9; Constable 1995, 194–195. 211 Terpstra 1990, 195–196; Constable 1996a 15–16; Constable 1995, 199–202. 212 Constable 1996a, 16. 213 Mooney 1999b, 56–58; Muessig 2013. 214 Matter 1992, 138. 215 See the classical studies of Caroline Walker Bynum published in 1988 and 1991. See also Weinstein & Bell 1982, 234 and the work of Sari Katajala Peltomaa (2006; 2011; 2013) who showed that among fourteenth-century pilgrims especially women were prone to inflict on themselves corporal austerities during their journey.

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sion has also raised opposition, however, with scholars emphasizing geographical and cultural differences and calling for a more complex and subtle reading of the sources and theological concepts.216 Furthermore, medievalists have also argued that the later Middle Ages, in particular, was the golden age of women’s ascetic practices, performed publicly and sometimes even collectively – despite the disapproval expressed by ecclesiastical authorities. It has been assumed that it was not until the Early Modern Period that extreme bodily practices were successfully weeded out of female spirituality and transformed into a purely masculine ritual. 217 The late sixteenth century and the seventeenth century seem to have allowed more space for Catholic women’s bodily devotional practices making them an important characteristic of female saintliness. The most obvious example is that of Teresa of Avila who came to represent the ideal heroic sanctity of the militant Catholic Church. In the sculptural group Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, Bernini (1598-1680) has depicted the saint in a state of a powerful rapture the effects of which are also visible in the posture of the body. Furthermore, it seems like bodily asceticism was maintained – or rather revived – especially in the reformed orders of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. For example, the Baroque Capuchin nuns, also a reformed order, were famous for their extreme bodily austerities.218 Nonetheless, the picture is blurred by the case of Louise de Marillac. Despite her regular engagement in bodily austerities before the Daughters of Charity, the birth of the Company reduced them significantly. The general guideline in the Company was that the sisters – the superiors as their models – should prefer interior mortification of the senses and reprimand the flesh only rarely, as discussed below in Chapter 3. Louise de Marillac was not, however, the only dévote undergoing such a change. Barbara Diefendorf has identified a larger pattern in the piety of seventeenth-century French 216 See especially Lochrie 1991; Hollywood 1995; Hollywood 1999; Newman 2003; Heinonen 2007, and Jenni Kuuliala’s forthcoming book. 217 Zarri 1999, 86; Strocchia 1998, 48–49; Matter 1993, 72; Terpstra 1990, 195–196; Bynum 1988, 237–244. See also Hollywood 1999, 82; Heinonen 2007, 195. Important to note here is that despite the fact that the importance of interior spirituality instead of empty exterior acts had been emphasized already by the first Christians in late antiquity and especially from the twelfth century onward, religious ritualism faced unprecedented questioning in the Early Modern Era due to the Protestant Reformation. For the medieval views in favour of less extreme bodily asceticism, see Constable 1996b; for the tradition of seeking internal attitudes instead of external manifestations, see Constable 1996c. 218 Zarri 1999, 111–112.

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women: a shift in devotional ideals from penitence to charity occurred around the 1630s when the number of new contemplative communities fell from 80 per cent to 45.219 Diefendorf traces the enthusiasm of the first-generation ‘penitential’ women for asceticism to the reformed Italian and Spanish orders: inspiration was provided first by the Capuchins founded by Matteo da Bascio in Umbria in the 1520s. Established officially in France in the 1570s, the order aimed to observe more closely the rule of Saint Francis. The Feuillants, a reformed Cistercian order originally from Gascony, for their part, gained papal recognition in 1587 arriving in Paris the same year. A little bit later, a house was established for women in Toulouse, called the Feuillantines. The idea that corporal austerities were popular particularly in the reformed orders is propped by the speeches of Vincent de Paul to the Daughters of Charity: according to the superior general, hair shirts and penitential belts were in use by the Carmelites, the Dominican Sisters of Saint Thomas and the Visitation nuns.220 Indeed, the hagiographies of the women of the penitential age resemble very much that of de Marillac in the early phase of her spiritual path. For example, Antoinette d’Orléans de Longueville (1572–1618), to the astonishment of her family and friends, decided in 1599 to leave her young sons and exchange her comfortable life for a coarse woolen habit and a hard bed made of bare wooden planks. Her new lifestyle also included a poor diet of black bread and bitter greens with multiple bodily penances in the form of hair shirts and scourges.221 More studies, however, need to be conducted on the question of gender: were bodily austerities more typical for women than for men? Thus far, Diefendorf has argued that at least in the ‘penitential’ generation also men mortified their bodies: for example, Louise de Marillac’s uncle Michel would also wear the penitential belt and sleep on the cold tiles of his household chapel. Furthermore, in the sources studied by Diefendorf, both genders also experienced powerful visions and raptures that had serious effects on the body.222 However, Diefendorf assumes that penitential piety was probably more common for women, who had fewer opportunities to display their piety.223 Furthermore, the studies of Donald Weinstein and Rudolph Bell in 219 Diefendorf 2004. 220 See Chapter 3 for a detailed discussion. 221 Diefendorf 2004, 49–50, 58–68. 222 Diefendorf 2004, 91–93. 223 Discussion with Barbara Diefendorf in autumn 2015.

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addition to that of Éric Suire claim that harsh asceticism continued to be a typical feature of especially female saints in the Early Modern Period.224 However, the rise of active orders in Paris between 1634 and 1650225 – despite the stipulations of Trent banning the unenclosed lifestyle – make, I believe, the picture more complex. Although two prominent historians have offered plausible explanations for the shift in devotional practices from penitence to charity, I would like to suggest other ones. On the one hand, Barbara Diefendorf has credibly argued that the shift was primarily caused by the social and economic stresses France underwent in the middle decades of the seventeenth century.226 On the other hand, Jean-Pierre Gutton has explained the same phenomenon by the Day of the Dupes which threw the dévots out of politics and made them turn to charity and poor relief.227 However, I propose other plausible explanations that are found in the source material in relation to the corporal austerities of the sisters. First, as the Rules and a writing of Louise de Marillac emphasize, the continuous labours of the Daughters hindered the carrying out of an extensive programme of penitential practices.228 Secondly, moderate penitential piety was very probably also linked to the active order’s need to sharpen the contrast between them and the enclosed ones and thereby ensure survival. One way to do this was to moderate corporal austerities that were closely connected to the enclosed vocation of nuns. Although Diefendorf has pointed out that corporal austerities became moderated also in cloistered orders, in the teachings of Vincent de Paul this development is not visible or, at least, not addressed. On the contrary: in his speeches to the sisters, he unequivocally describes the enclosed houses as oases of harsh corporal austerities.229 I think it is plausible to assume that this ideology also applied to the penitential piety of Louise de Marillac, who was, after all, a role model to the sisters. Thus, the shift of Louise de Marillac away from penitential devotional tastes toward a less austere regime is very likely linked to practical reasons as well as to identity-shaping activities. Together they helped to safeguard the mission of the Company: ensured the carrying out of the practical mission and helped to convey orthodox holiness by means of a non-enclosed image and, as a result, save the Company from enclosure. 224 Suire 2001, 101; Weinstein & Bell 1982, 234. 225 Diefendorf 2004, 135–138. 226 Diefendorf 2004. 227 Gutton 2006, 109. 228 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:11, fol. 15v; Marillac FR, L. 55 (3 January 1642), p. 66. 229 Paul Conférences, 8 August 1655, p. 533. For a more thorough discussion and more examples, see Chapter 3.

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The tender mother and exemplary sufferer Oh, my sisters, what a painting God puts in front of your eyes […]! Yes, it is a picture that we have and which you should consider a prototype inspiring you to do the same: to acquire [Louise de Marillac’s] humility, charity, tolerance and firmness in all behaviour. It also reminds you how she tended to conform her actions to those of Our Lord.230

Four months after the death of Louise de Marillac, in July 1660, Vincent de Paul arrived at the mourning motherhouse for a reminiscing conference on the virtues of the deceased superior. The event was described as intimate and emotional as some of the sisters cried along with de Paul who also shed tears.231 However, the conference not only had therapeutic significance amidst the sorrow of losing a dear superior, but it was also an important occasion to manage the morality of the sisters by giving them an imitable model of a good Catholic woman. Thus, the life story of Louise de Marillac was carved into a coherent narrative of virtues resonating among the sisters who held that the superior ‘showed a tenderness of a true Mother equally to all [sisters]’.232 This was an expression of an ideology very popular in the Early Modern Period, namely, that of spiritual motherhood, which had its roots in the Middle Ages.233 Influential literature for the directors of the Company in the issue was very likely that of François de Sales and Madame Fouquet, or Marie de Maupéou (1590–1681), a friend of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul, who edited and published a collection of pharmaceutical recipes.234 Although these virtues unarguably also created the saintly anti-elitist image and authority of Louise de Marillac in general, they also had, I suggest, 230 Paul Conférences, 24 July 1660, p. 947–948. French quotation: ‘Ah ! mes sœurs, quel tableau Dieu met devant vos yeux […] ! Oui, c’est un tableau que nous avons et que vous devez regarder comme un prototype qui vous doit animer à faire de même, à acquérir cette humilité, cette charité, ce support, cette fermeté en toutes ses conduites, à vous ressouvenir comme, en toutes choses, elle tendait, en la sienne, à conformer ses actions à celles de Notre-Seigneur’. See also the letter of Barbe Bailly to the sisters in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 800 (9 June 1660), p. 917–918. 231 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 36. 232 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 921 (French quotation: ‘elle témoignait une tendresse de vraie Mère à toutes’.); doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), 952; Gobillon 1676, IV:1, p. 136. 233 For spiritual motherhood in the Early Modern Era, see Brockliss & Jones 1997, 268. For the medieval roots, see e.g. Bynum 1982, especially p. 110–169. 234 See e.g. Marillac FR, L. 307 (June 1651), p. 356 and Fouquet 1685.

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important educational value for the sisters of the Company and are thus, treated in a separate subchapter. These virtues included love for the poor, toleration of the faults of others and the submission to tribulations and physical suffering, which all, without doubt, served the sisters as encouragement to persist in their vocation and further ensured resources for the moral management activities of the Company. A central theme in the testimonies on the virtues of Louise de Marillac was the superior’s great love for the underprivileged. This is understandable as the central vocation of the Company was to help the underprivileged making examples of this service useful encouragement for the sisters. Furthermore, the personal contact of Louise de Marillac with the poor was a significant subversion of elite customs and social order: the poorer people were strictly separated from the privileged ones making the sacrifice of the devout woman for the poor a radical act. The narration of sister Mathurine Guérin testifies that encountering of the members of the lower segments of society was, indeed, shocking for the superior: in the beginning, it took time for de Marillac to get used to the vulgarity even of the first sisters of the Company who came from humble but not the poorest of backgrounds. The superior transformed the cultural shock into a sanctifying ordeal by deciding to show special affection for the most vulgar ones. She even went as far as shared her bed with a sister who was particularly coarse in her demeanor.235 Sisters testified about the superior’s love for work for the poor by saying that they had seen with their own eyes how she had met with freed prisoners, bandaged their wounds, washed their feet and dressed them in the old clothes of her son.236 In her notes written in preparation for the conference of Vincent de Paul, sister Françoise Paule Noret related that de Marillac had bravely visited prisoner in shocking circumstances. The men had shirts that were rotten from the back – most likely due to the pains of the galleys – and legs that had been eaten by animals.237 Furthermore, Noret narrated an event that happened one weekday as de Marillac was exiting the church of Saint-Lazare: among the poor crowding outside she saw a young woman dressed as a man. The woman told her about her miseries as a soldier after which de Marillac took her to the motherhouse and gave her new clothes. The woman promised to mend her ways.238 235 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), p. 947–948. 236 AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 26. 237 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 802 (July 1660), p. 920. 238 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 802 (July 1660), p. 920.

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Furthermore, several testimonies build an image of long durée of the good works of de Marillac by repeating the story of Beauvais. The fact that the people relating the story were not eyewitnesses themselves shows that the narrative carried collective significance and was an important building block in the construction of the saintly image and authority of the superior. According to the narrative, the visit of Louise de Marillac to Beauvais excited locals so much that although men were not allowed to hear the catechism lessons of a woman, they would hide in the room to hear de Marillac speak. On her way back to Paris de Marillac was followed by a crowd. During the voyage, de Marillac suddenly saw how a child was driven over by a coach. Shocked, de Marillac prayed to God. Soon the child got up and walked without having been injured.239 The portrayals of Louise de Marillac also include the important image of forbearance of suffering and tribulations. These were, again, central aspects in the vocation of the Daughters who would work in war zones risking their lives. Their work was also dangerous and demanding in parishes and villages far from the pillaging armies: the ailing poor and especially galley convicts were often rude and even dangerous producing considerable nuisance for the Daughters of Charity. De Marillac is described as a patient and tolerant mother for the sisters. This was very likely an encouragement also in communal life where conflicting desires and disputes easily hindered the carrying out of the vocation. The sisters testified that Louise de Marillac would help her employees during their illnesses and also reside by their side at their deathbed. She would also shed tears in compassion when receiving the news of a death of a sister.240 The superior would also show great charity towards the sisters by tolerating their faults, but without forgetting to reprimand also them when necessary.241 Ailing health caused Louise de Marillac tribulations. As early as in 1647 Vincent de Paul wrote to the superior of the Lazarists in Genoa, Monsieur Blatiron, about the health of his penitent, referred to by her married name Mademoiselle Le Gras:

239 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 923; Gobillon 1676, I:5, p. 40–43. 240 Paul Conférences, 3 July 1660, p. 935; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 921. 241 Paul Conférences, 3 July 1660, p. 941–942; 24 July 1660, p. 945–947; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 803 (around July 1660), p. 921; doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), 949–951.

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[I have considered] Mademoiselle Le Gras naturally dead for the past ten years. She looks like she has come out of the tomb, so frail is her body and pale her face.242

In the narratives on the virtues of Louise de Marillac, abundant lines are devoted to the heroic forbearance of her frail health and activities during and despite her illnesses. On the one hand, the illness narrative must have served as peer support to the sisters whose health was in continuous danger because of their hard work. On the other hand, it might have also fortified the vocation of the sisters by spurring compassion toward their clientele which very often struggled with health problems. Furthermore, the narrative created spiritual authority for the superior by attaching her to long traditions in female spirituality: frail health and its courageous forbearance has been a typical virtue of especially saintly women since the Middle Ages.243 In the seventeenth century a famously ill holy French woman was Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (1647–1690, canonized 1920), a Visitation nun, who remained paralysed for four years and was not, allegedly, cured before making a special vow to the Virgin Mary.244 Louise de Marillac’s struggle with health problems began before the founding of the Daughters of Charity as de Marillac would visit the Confréries de la Charité at the expense of her health. In 1630 at Villepreux and Villiersle-Bel she worked so hard that she fell ill but continued her work as soon as she got better.245 Later sisters testified that sometimes at mass she looked like she was dead: she was so sick that she could not move, clenching the balustrade of the church Saint-Lazare.246 Louise de Marillac’s, lethal illness was the greatest attestation of her virtuousness attaching her to an important tradition of the church. The late Middle Ages created a cult of death with representations in literature and art, especially in the form of the literal Ars Moriendi (the Art of Dying, on the ways of dying in a good way) and the Danse Macabre (the Danse of Death, an artistic genre depicting in paintings the universality of death touching all regardless of rank). Despite the Protestant rejection of the 242 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 463 (13 December 1647), p. 506–507. French quotation: ‘[Je considère] Mademoiselle Le Gras comme morte naturellement depuis dix ans; et à la voir, on dirait qu’elle sort du tombeau, tant son corps est faible et son visage pâle’. 243 For the medieval ideal of frail health, see Weinstein & Bell 1982, 234–235; Heinonen 2007, 140, 195–196. 244 Weinstein & Bell 1982, 235; Languet 1729. 245 Gobillon 1676, I:5, p. 39. 246 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), p. 947.

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cult of death and the rituals involved in it, the ideology was advanced in seventeenth-century France by François de Sales, among others, who exhorted that good Christians should live in preparation for death. According to this ideology, one could acquire in the last moments a crown for his or her whole human existence. This happened often in a public ceremony where other people could witness the dying person’s exemplary conduct in face of death.247 This is why Nicolas Gobillon chose to compose a lengthy and detailed account of the death of Louise de Marillac. Gobillon narrates the last weeks of Louise de Marillac very much based on the reminiscence of the sisters and Vincent de Paul.248 This makes the narrative trustworthy, although the aim of the text should be kept in mind. It was primarily intended to construct the saintly reputation of Louise de Marillac and hence very likely contains religiously motivated exaggeration. In any case, it highlights the importance of suffering and agony in the construction of spiritual authority. According to the narrative, Marillac fell ill on 4 February 1660. She had a swelling in her left arm and a high fever that was so violent for eight days that she had to receive Extreme Unction. However, due to an intercession by saints, as Gobillon puts it, her situation stabilized: after having venerated the stole of saint Charles and a piece of the heart of François de Sales which were brought to her, the fever disappeared for three weeks and the swelling diminished. Nonetheless, by 9 March the fever had returned and she attended a second communion. According to Gobillon, she considered her pains a penance and suffered patiently. At one point de Marillac was in such great pain that she cried out: take me away from here! The Lazarist priest sent to comfort her reportedly showed her the crucifix and replied: Jesus did not want to leave his cross. According to the narrative, de Marillac found comfort in the priest’s words, submitted and was able to gain more patience to endure her sufferings. Gobillon emphasized that the superior showed great detachment from the world as she endured bravely the absence of Vincent de Paul. De Paul was likewise sick but did not even send a letter to his penitent and colleague. Instead, he sent a word with one of his Lazarist priests: she will go first but he will follow her and they will meet in Heaven. 247 Muir 2005, 50–61; Beauvalet-Boutouyrie 2001, 95. For depictions of saintly seventeenthcentury deaths of widows, see Beauvalet-Boutouyrie 2001, 95–99. 248 The following is based on the detailed narrative in Gobillon 1676, IV:5, p. 172–187. Cf. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 801 (9 June 1660), p. 918–919; AFC, Vertus de Louise de Marillac, p. 26.

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Between 13–15 March several Ladies of Charity came to visit Louise de Marillac, proving that she had been able to create authority and credibility and, thus, maintain an important status among the elites. According to Gobillon, Madame la duchesse de Ventadour, née Marie de la Guiche, who had joined the Ladies in 1649 after the death of her husband, showed the greatest friendship and cordiality. She even moved to the motherhouse to assist de Marillac. She was also on de Marillac’s side on 15 March when the superior died, after suffering great agony for half an hour during which she allegedly had her eyes fixed on Heaven. Louise de Marillac was buried in the church where she often used to practice her piety, namely, in the Saint-Laurent, in the chapel of the Visitation of Virgin Mary. Following her wish, a cross bearing the words Spes Unica (‘only hope’, referring to Jesus Christ) was placed on the wall of the chapel. The funeral was very simple, adhering to the manner the Daughters of Charity were honoured when they passed away. This formed a radical contrast to the typically sumptuous elite funerals in the age of the Baroque,249 and was another subversive performance creating de Marillac’s spiritual authority. Even her grave was depicted as bearing signs of saintliness: there was an odour of violets and irises, which the sisters praying at her tomb were, claimed to have brought back to their house. Gobillon himself attested to have smelled the flowers at the tomb, without finding any natural cause for it.

3

The passive penitent: portraying orthodox power relations

When describing Louise de Marillac’s relationship to Vincent de Paul, hagiographer Nicolas Gobillon portrayed the superior as a tormented soul saved by de Paul. According to Gobillon, before meeting the confessor, de Marillac was tortured by the devil who made her mind go from one extreme to another. At first, the devil caused the woman to struggle with passions and affections, and when she came to control them, it made her fear sin excessively.250 In the hagiographer’s view, the meeting of de Paul changed everything: This loyal and zealous soul received orders from Vincent de Paul with as much joy as respect. She obeyed him so perfectly that ever since she 249 See e.g. Harding 2002; Chaunu 1978; Hillman 2014, 96–98. 250 Gobillon 1676, I:2, p. 14–15.

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showed nothing but total dependency on his opinion and his orders, considering him as the minister and interpreter of the will of God.251

The passive and dependent role of the psychologically unstable Louise de Marillac as depicted by Gobillon has been a surprisingly persistent line of argument in scholarship,252 despite contributions making contrary conclusions. The Daughters of Charity have produced studies highlighting the originality of the spirituality of Louise de Marillac. Elizabeth Charpy and Kathryn LaFleur argue that de Marillac was competent in spiritual matters already before meeting de Paul and developed her personal theology.253 This is in no way radical in the context of the feminization of the French Catholic Church. Although attitudes towards women were misogynist on the theoretical level, women obtained an important, even critical role in the church, as Raymond Deville has argued.254 This was also continuation of a medieval tradition of women being able acquire power in the religious sphere.255 The most important academic contributions come from Susan Dinan and Barbara Diefendorf, who have argued for the extraordinary administrational talents of de Marillac who worked without de Paul’s constant supervision.256 In what follows, my intention is to provide more evidence for the independent and active role of Louise de Marillac. I will revisit the sources dealing with the state of her soul before meeting de Paul, reconsider her administrational role, and discuss the industrious spirit of the dévotes in general. Lastly, I will discuss the significance of the portrayal of de Marillac as a passive penitent for the survival of the Company. Reassessing the tormented soul Sources on the state of the soul of Louise de Marillac prior to meeting Vincent de Paul are important evidence for scholars to argue for the prominent role 251 Gobillon 1676, I:4, p. 31–32. French quotation: ‘Cette ame f idele et zélée reçut les ordres de Monsieur Vincent avec autant de joie que de soûmission & de respect. Elle lui rendit une obeïssance si parfaite, que depuis elle n’entreprit rien que par une entiere dépendance de ses avis et de ses ordres, le regardant comme le ministre et l’interprete de la volonté de Dieu’. 252 See Déplanque 1936, especially p. 1–13, 73–74, whose ideas are repeated by Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 97. 253 See LaFleur 1996; 1998; Charpy 1995. 254 Deville 2008, 235–242. On the role of women as spiritual directors, see Diefendorf 2004, 69. 255 See e.g. Bynum 1982, especially p. 110–169. 256 Diefendorf 2004, 212–216; Dinan 2006, 52.

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of de Paul in the life of de Marillac. In 1661, the year following de Marillac’s death, sister Mathurine Guérin related her memories of the superior. According to Guérin, who had worked with Louise de Marillac since 1648, the superior had at one occasion told her that in the beginning she had often considered setbacks as catastrophes that made her want to give up. However, meeting Vincent de Paul was a turning point as he removed all her fears.257 Fifteen years later Nicolas Gobillon further developed the theme by describing extensively her tormented mental state before meeting de Paul, as cited in the beginning of the subchapter. Nevertheless, a reassessment of the correspondence of Louise de Marillac with Vincent de Paul challenges these conceptions. It is true that there are at least two letters from the second half of the 1620s in which de Marillac intensively appeals to de Paul in order receive his support. In June 1627, she wrote: Monsieur, I hope that you will excuse the liberty I am taking in telling you how impatient I have become because of your long absence, troubled as I am about the future and by not knowing where you are or where you are going. It is true, Father, that I find some comfort in my trial from the thought of the business that is keeping you away, but that does not prevent the days from seeming like months for someone as lazy as I.258

Yet considering the body of letters as a whole it becomes clear that de Marillac’s need for personal support declined as the 1620s progressed and, I suggest, her identity as a dévote and an active reformer of the Catholic Church strengthened. The contents of the letters became more professional, centring on the administration of the growing Company rather than on de Marillac’s personal needs.259 Furthermore, the placing of loose sentences into the context of the two early, less administrative letters as a whole reveals that de Marillac was confiding in de Paul in practical rather than purely personal spiritual matters. First, she asked for de Paul’s opinion and help 257 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 822 (beginning of 1661), p. 949. 258 Marillac EN, L. 1 (5 June 1627), p. 5–6. French quotation: ‘Monsieur, J’espère que vous me pardonnerez la liberté que je prends de vous témoigner l’impatience de mon esprit, tant pour le long séjour passé, que sur l’appréhension de l’avenir et de ne savoir le lieu où vous allez après celui où vous êtes. Il est vrai, mon Père, que la pensée du sujet qui vous éloigne est un peu d’adoucissement à ma peine, mais elle n’empêche pas que dans ma fainéantise, les jours quelquefois, me semblent des mois’. Marillac FR, L. 1 (5 June 1627), p. 7–8. See also Marillac FR, L. 2 (13 January 1628), p. 9. 259 See also Charpy 1995, 9.

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with her son who had started refusing his education at the seminary for priests. Another problematic issue to which de Marillac sought de Paul’s reply was the case of a certain young woman who would have wanted to join the Confrérie de la Charité. She could not, however, be accepted to enter without de Paul’s consent. As de Paul was out of town in an unknown location, the question was pressing for Louise de Marillac. Again, it was not a question of spiritual despair but of a practical problem. Nevertheless, it is also true that there are letters from de Paul to de Marillac from the second half of the 1620s – the corresponding letters by de Marillac have unfortunately not survived – in which the confessor encourages his penitent to stop worrying and start trusting in Divine Providence. But again, these letters deal mainly with the two practical problems mentioned previously in de Marillac’s letters without clear and direct evidence of response to any personal mental or spiritual problems posed by the penitent.260 This is the tone in which the correspondence of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul continued for decades: de Marillac would consult de Paul in practical matters that needed his authoritative approval, such as creating rules for the community and dealing with the authorities. De Paul would often hesitate with making decisions, which made de Marillac seem insistent.261 Furthermore, I claim that it was rather natural instead of unbalanced to express anxiety to spiritual directors given the situation in which Louise de Marillac found herself. In his above-mentioned description of the devil-instigated spiritual torments of de Marillac, Gobillon draws heavily on the letters of the Bishop of Belley, Jean Pierre Camus, who acted as de Marillac’s spiritual director just before de Paul. It is true that the letters of Camus – and even those of Michel de Marillac, de Marillac’s spiritual advisor before Camus – are composed almost completely of reassuring phrases to calm Louise de Marillac.262 One letter by Camus has likely defined later interpretations of Louise de Marillac. In 1625, the year Camus introduced Vincent de Paul as a suitable confessor for de Marillac, he wrote: Forgive me, my dear Sister, if I say that you are a little bit too attached to those guiding you and you lean too much on them. When Monsieur 260 See e.g. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 10 (17 January 1628), p. 17; doc. 14 (between 1626 and 1629), p. 20–21. 261 Cf. Charpy 1995, 26–32, 43–44; Diefendorf 2004, 214. 262 See e.g. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 829 (12 August 1621), p. 978–979 (Michel de Marillac to Louise de Marillac); doc. 833 (s.a. but before 1625), p. 981 (Jean Pierre Camus to Louise de Marillac).

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Vincent is missing, Mademoiselle Le Gras is off-course and disoriented … We must certainly see God in our guides and Directors and see them in God; but sometimes we must see God all alone [...].263

Nonetheless, even without having any idea of what de Marillac actually wrote to her directors as her letters have not survived, the context in which she wrote them is important. The correspondence took place during the illness of her husband Antoine Le Gras whose death would leave her alone with their young son. As both Michel de Marillac and Jean Pierre Camus were also her relatives (Louise’s father’s second wife Antoinette was Camus’ aunt)264, it seems rather natural that de Marillac turned to them for help. Both Michel de Marillac and Jean Pierre Camus were, however, busy men who did not have enough time to guide Louise de Marillac. The reason why de Marillac met de Paul in the first place was the diocesan affairs of Camus, which made him too occupied to meet the needs of his Parisian penitent.265 Thus, the lack of time would at least partly explain the evasive tone in the replies of the confessors. Moreover, the image of a woman tormented by the devil was a typical expression of the idea of the female nature: women were believed to be especially prone to the ruses of the devil.266 Thus, Gobillon’s interpretation of the difficult phase de Marillac was going through was also a reflection of gendered ideas and very likely an exaggeration with the aim to portray her in a light deemed suitable for a female penitent. Revisiting administrational talent Another aspect to reconsider in the relationship of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul is de Marillac’s administrative role. The mutual correspondence of the founders included several incidences in which de Marillac hardly matched Gobillon’s description of obeying de Paul ‘so perfectly that […] she showed nothing but total dependency on his opinion and his orders’. She took initiative and acted before and sometimes even without Vincent de Paul’s consent, just like other dévotes, which has not been discussed at length in previous scholarship. 263 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 837 (26 July 1625), p. 984. French quotation: ‘Pardonnezmoi, ma très chère Sœur, si je vous dis que vous vous attachez un peu trop à ceux qui vous conduisent et vous appuyez trop sur eux. Voilà Monsieur Vincent éclipsé et Mademoiselle Le Gras hors de pile et désorientée … Il faut bien regarder Dieu en nos conducteurs et Directeurs et les regarder en Dieu; mais quelquefois il faut regarder Dieu tout seul [...]’. 264 See Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 68 for the genealogy. 265 Gobillon 1676, I:4, p. 28; Charpy 1995, 21. 266 See e.g. Bernos 2003, 71–93.

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The most fruitful parallel and point of comparison for the case of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul can be found in the relationship of Jeanne de Chantal to François de Sales. This ‘saintly pair’ founded the Visitation order in 1610, which was an unenclosed apostolic community until 1615. De Chantal, née Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de Rabutin, was the daughter of a Dijonese lawyer who, just like Louise de Marillac, never knew her mother who had died in childbirth when Jeanne was less than two. Through marriage, she became a baroness and thus a woman with important networks. The untimely death of her husband evoked in her a powerful spiritual calling in favour of the neighbour, which she was able to fulfil with the help of the Bishop of Geneva, François de Sales.267 After the death of de Sales in 1622, Vincent de Paul became her spiritual director. Just like de Marillac, de Chantal had a problematic relationship with her son who had a passion for the duel to the dislike of his mother. Michel-Antoine Le Gras, on the other hand, did not want to become a priest, contrary to the wishes of his mother. Vincent de Paul would encourage both of the women in the issue: What will I say now about your son […]. When I have the joy to see you, or when I have more spare time than now to write to you, I will tell you the thought I had one day and which I related to Madame de Chantal on the subject. She was consoled and freed, by the mercy of God, from a sorrow similar to that which you might have.268

A closer look at the dynamics of the relationship of de Chantal and de Sales and a comparison to that of de Marillac and de Paul reveal more parallels: first, both women seem to have occupied an organizational and practical role in the relationship. In accordance to patriarchal hierarchies, de Paul and de Sales acted as the official heads of their respective congregations, gave general speeches on the philosophy of the communities, but left the management of everyday spirituality and administration to the women. Their role could be plausibly described as rubber stamp of clerical authority. De Marillac and de Chantal visited personally the individual establishments and gave extensive advice in both practical and spiritual matters in letters. Both of them also participated in the crafting of the spirit and customs of 267 Wright & Power 1988, 26–30. 268 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 10 (17 January 1628), p. 17. French quotation: ‘Que vous dirai-je maintenant de votre fils […]. Lorsque j’aurai le bonheur de vous voir, ou plus de loisir qu’à present de vous écrire, je vous dirai la pensée que j’eus un jour et que je dis à Madame de Chantal sur ce sujet, dont elle fut consolée et délivrée, par la miséricorde de Dieu, de quelque peine semblable à celle que vous pouvez avoir’.

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the congregations as a whole. The conferences of de Paul, despite published in de Paul’s name, were often a joint effort as de Marillac suggested topics to be treated.269 She also commented and suggested revisions to the chapters of the Rule.270 Sometimes Louise de Marillac went surprisingly far in her independent action. In 1647, de Marillac wrote to the superior general about the schooling the Company was offering to poor children. The superior wrote that she, together with a couple Ladies of Charity, had found a house suitable for arranging teaching for the orphans, both girls and boys, in Bicêtre. De Marillac related that the women had entered the house and started planning how the space was to be modified so as to separate the sexes from each other.271 This initiative was surprising as the King and the Archbishop had specifically banned mixed teaching. Vincent de Paul, as a representative of official authority, had to enforce this rule and reject the plans of de Marillac and her fellow dévotes.272 The incident highlights the fact that the French Catholic Reformation was much more in the hands of the milieu dévot and especially its elite female members than the official authorities. In this case the officials ruled over the women, but many other projects were more successful. One example is the project of the notorious Hôpital général, or the General Hospital of Paris. The Hôpital general incorporated several different hospitals, la Salpêtrière, in the present-day thirteenth arrondissement of Paris on the Left Bank, being the most famous one. The importance the elites attached to the project was portrayed in architecture. The church of la Salpêtrière, la Chapelle Saint-Louis, from the 1670s, is an impressive tour de force of the realm’s finest architects Louis Le Vau (1612–1670) and Libéral Bruant (c. 1635–1697).273As the royal edict of 1656 indicates, the hospital was created for the confinement of the poor, ‘fallen women’, foundlings and other marginals included.274 In fact, it did not offer any medical services before the Revolution. The main force behind the creation was the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, a secret organization created by the so-called parti dévot, or the influential Catholic circles behind the Catholic Reformation in France. The aim of the 269 For one of many examples, see Marillac FR, A. 63 (between 1647 and 1660), p. 772–773 and note 1; A. 62 (25 May 1654), p. 787–788, also note 1. 270 One of many examples is found in Marillac FR, A. 93 (around 1656), p. 800–801. For de Chantal: Wright & Power 1988, 29–33, 70–86. 271 Marillac FR, L. 192 (22 August 1647), p. 216. 272 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 458 (30 October 1647), p. 493–495. 273 For the architecture of the church, see Theillou 2008, 124–135. 274 L’Édit d’établissement de l’Hôpital Général 1786.

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Company was to re-evangelize the people by means of extensive charity and missionary work.275 Vincent de Paul was a central figure in the project. Already in the seventeenth century, de Paul’s biographer Abelly called him the father of the institution.276 Contemporaries assumed automatically that he would be in charge of the spiritual administration: the royal edict of 1656, approved by the Parlement and the Archbishop of Paris, made Vincent de Paul and his Lazarist priests the head of spiritual direction at the hospital and the Daughters of Charity assistants.277 The correspondence of Vincent de Paul with elite women reveals a different story. Central figures in the project were the Ladies of Charity, led by the duchesse d’Aiguillon. In her letters to Vincent de Paul, it becomes clear that the Ladies worked behind de Paul’s back and in contradiction to his wishes, with the help of their great fortunes. For example, the Ladies had already acquired from the Queen the land and started the construction works.278 The duchess even boldly pressured Vincent de Paul to accept the project: she wrote that if the Ladies now withdrew, God or at least humans would accuse them of destroying the project.279 In his replies, de Paul explained his suspicion towards the project: he argued that he did not have enough people to do the job, as he was pressed to focus on missionary work abroad.280 A reoccurring theme in the sources on the relationship of de Paul to the dévotes is the lack of time. Previous studies have discussed de Paul’s hesitation and desire to wait for ‘God to make his will known’,281 hindering significantly the progress of the women’s plans. It seems that also the practical side of the implementation of the Catholic Reformation in Paris played a role. The intensive phase of the revival in the first half of the seventeenth century made a few – too few – important men, such as de Paul and de Sales, very busy. The men not only ran and developed their own communities but also directed and gave consultation to other reformed or new congregations. The Catholic Church was expanding rapidly and de Paul’s Lazarist priests, 275 Sigaut 2008, 11–31; Tallon 1990. 276 Abelly 1664, I:45, p. 211–218. 277 L’Édit d’établissement de l’Hôpital Général 1786, p. 266; Paul FR, vol. VI, doc. 2218 (23 February 1657), p. 239. 278 Paul FR, vol. V, doc. 1681 (9 November 1653), p. 47–49. 279 Paul FR, vol. VI, doc. 2158 (17 October 1656), p. 110–111. 280 Paul FR, vol. VI, doc. 2226 (March 1657), p. 250–251; doc. 2231 (23 March 1657), p. 256–257. Vincent de Paul did not, however, completely wash his hands of the project: he e.g. helped the Ladies find a textile worker for the hospital: Paul FR, vol. VI, doc. 2323 (28 July 1657), p. 376–377. 281 See especially Charpy 1995, 26–32, 43–44; Diefendorf 2004, 214, 228.

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for example, engaged in missionary work not only in France but also abroad, Italy being their first destination in the late 1630s.282 On top of this, the two key reformers had the enthusiastic dévot society and royal circles to attend to. Thus, it is no wonder that this left the industrious dévotes with considerable responsibility. The chronic lack of time of the ‘official rubber stamps’ not only irritated the dévotes behind the General Hospital and Louise de Marillac running the Daughters of Charity, but also Jeanne de Chantal directing the Visitation nuns. François de Sales was often absent due to his duties elsewhere, and the situation did not change after his death and the nomination of his successor, Vincent de Paul. Marie-Ange Duvignacq-Glessen has argued in her study on the Parisian section of the Visitation order that the direction of the convent under de Paul caused confusion among the nuns. In October 1646, the superior general decided to withdraw and communicate with the nuns only via correspondence. The reason for this partial resignation, which lasted for eighteen months, was the overload of work, as de Paul wrote to the Visitation sister in charge. De Paul eventually asked the Bishop of Paris permission to leave his duties with the Visitation nuns. However, the sister of the Bishop (and of the General of the Galleys), the marquise de Maignelay, née Marguerite de Gondi, persuaded de Paul to continue his work with the Visitation order.283 Stress was augmented also by a spiritual contradiction: the Lazarists were not to use their sparse time in guidance of professed nuns.284 The significance of submissiveness If Louise de Marillac – just like many other of her fellow dévotes – was in reality everything than passive and wholly dependent on her confessor, why did she herself, Vincent de Paul, the sisters, and the hagiographer uphold the submissive image? Without doubt, these traits were considered important features of a good Catholic elite woman and, thus, important aspects in the management of the image of Louise de Marillac. One plausible way the creation of this image could be interpreted is to 282 Coste 1934, II:163. Other destinations of missionary work in the lifetime of de Paul included Tunis, Algiers, Ireland, Madagascar, and Poland. Poland was also of interest for the Daughters of Charity who established a community there in 1654 (see e.g. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 595 (20 July 1654), p. 661–662 and the previous document). 283 Duvignacq-Glessen 1994, 24, 134–136. 284 For de Paul’s spiritual contradiction, see the superior general’s conference to the Lazarists: Paul FR, vol. XI, doc. 111 (13 November 1654), p. 167.

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suggest that it was a means to gain legitimization for the Company and safeguard its mission. The conveyance of orthodox power relations between religious men and religious women was important, as spiritual friendship and the submissive role of the penitent are two central, intertwined phenomena in Western Christianity. Although very typical in the Early Modern Period,285 ‘paired saintliness’ springs its roots to late antiquity and to the relationship of Jerome with his female spiritual companions.286 The Middle Ages further strengthened the penitent-confessor relationship: the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 made communion obligatory to all Christians at least once a year. Communion was not, however, possible without the confession of sins. This reinforced the role of priests who would hear the confession, grant absolution and assign an act of penance as recompense.287 The popularity of communion and confession grew in the subsequent centuries giving birth to an intensive penitential culture highlighting indulgences, pilgrimages, Eucharistic devotion and confraternities among others. The Council of Trent strengthened this culture by reaffirming the need to confess at least once a year as an ordinary Christian or at least once a month as a monastic. Furthermore, monastics were ordered to have one regular confessor and, twice or three times a year, to visit an extraordinary one.288 Importantly, devotional practices and religious lifestyles previously retained mainly in monasteries became available for ordinary people since the late Middle Ages. The phenomenon was a highly gendered one as especially women embraced the new penitential culture.289 This cultural development also affected the role of the priest administering the sacrament of penance or confession: from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, he was required to provide services outside confession, namely, spiritual direction. For women this, on the one hand, provided protection and authorization, and, on the other hand, a unique possibility to engage in a profound, non-sexual conversation with the opposite sex outside the context of marriage and other secular institutions regulating the 285 Cf. Hsia 2005, 40–41; Bergin 2009, 144. 286 Lives of Roman Christian Women 2010. 287 Bilinkoff 2005, 1–2; Salmesvuori 2006, 104–106. 288 Bilinkoff 2005, 12–14; The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25:10, p. 227. See also Bernos 2003, 219–223. 289 This was partly due to the possibility to access the public sphere, which was otherwise fairly closed to women. On the other hand, the ideas of the innate sinfulness and carnality of women also had an effect. But late medieval culture also held the idea of women, in the image of Mary Magdalen, as more compassionate and devout than men. Bilinkoff 2005, 15–16.

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relationship between men and women, as Jodi Bilinkoff has pointed out. In 1540, spiritual guidance was already an integral part of the Jesuit mission.290 The rhetoric of submission of the penitent to her confessor, although typical for seventeenth-century women religious,291 was not only an early modern phenomenon. It is one of the most significant characteristics of the confessor-penitent relationship explored by scholars especially in the context of the Middle Ages.292 In the day of Louise de Marillac, the virtue of submission to one’s confessor was promoted by François de Sales in his Introduction à la vie dévote: a woman, after finding a suitable confessor, should submit to him fully, considering him as an intermediary through whom God speaks.293 In comparison to earlier times, the emphasis of de Sales on the woman’s possibility to choose her confessor is interesting. ‘One does not ordinarily choose one’s prince, bishop, father or mother, often not even one’s husband. But one can choose one’s confessor, director’, de Sales wrote.294 According to Patricia Ranft, this is a purely early modern phenomenon which allowed the penitent to ‘control the controller’295 – allowing more space for women’s agency. What seems to separate the relationship of Louise de Marillac to Vincent de Paul from earlier penitent-confessor relationships and even of some from so close as the late 1610s, is the distance de Paul resolutely aimed to create between his penitent and himself. For example, André Duval (1564-1638) hurried to the deathbed of his penitent Barbe Acarie (1566–1618), alias Marie de l’Incarnation, and was devastated at her loss.296 However, as was mentioned in II.2, above, analysing the virtues attached to the death of Louise de Marillac, Vincent de Paul, for his part, abstained from visiting the dying woman. Without even writing a letter to her, de Paul chose to send one of his Lazarist priests to comfort de Marillac instead. In the hagiographies of the two, this was considered a great virtue of unattachment to the world for both of them. De Paul was praised at length by his hagiographer Abelly 290 Bilinkoff 2005, 17–20. 291 See Diefendorf 2004, 68–71, 205; Rybolt & Diefendorf 2000. 292 Scholars such as Amy Hollywood, Caroline Walker Bynum, Catherine M. Mooney, Barbara Newman, John Coackley and Dyan Elliott have made important contributions to the subject. See e.g. the collection of essays called Gendered voices (Mooney 1999a). For the Early Modern Period, see especially Weber 1990 who has looked at the ‘rhetoric of femininity’ of Teresa of Avila. 293 Rybolt & Diefendorf 2000, 28. 294 Sales 1641, 212. French quotation: ‘On ne choisit pas pour l’ordinaire son Prince, & son Evesque, son pere, & sa mere, ny mesme souutesfois son mary, mais on choisit bien son confesseur, son directeur’. 295 Ranft 1994, 18. 296 Duval 1621, I:20, fols 345, 347.

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for safeguarding chastity in the confessional relationship: de Paul would prefer to meet women under his guidance as little as possible and only due to great necessity. Furthermore, he would never hear the confessions alone but have a companion in the same room. He would also leave the door open. De Paul aimed to maintain the same distance similarly in his letters of direction the tone of which were never to express too much affection toward the recipient. He also trained his Lazarist priests to adopt the same kind of formality as confessors.297 As a result, de Paul aimed to create less intense relationships and make the religious laywomen under his direction turn more towards the world and charity work. Despite the less intense confessional ideals of de Paul, submissiveness remained an important trait in the image of Louise de Marillac. This was very likely connected to the age-old contradiction gender caused women seeking spiritual authority. In a world dominated by men who held official spiritual power and the monopoly of preaching, theologically oriented women religious treaded a fine line. By belittling the woman, it was possible to emphasize the source of her spiritual activity as coming from God. Thus, submissiveness was as a rhetorical strategy by which allegations of surpassing the suitable role of a woman could be discarded. Women were preferably portrayed as mere ‘sites of divine agency on earth’, as Amy Hollywood has put it.298 The orthodox portrayal of power relations in the case of de Marillac reinforced her image as a credible head of an orthodox Catholic community.

297 Gobillon 1676, IV:5, p. 177–178; Abelly 1664, III:20, p. 305–307; Abelly 1667, II:24, p. 263–267. See also Bernos 2003, 223–226. 298 Hollywood 2004, 515. In her article Hollywood, however, also questions this interpretation which I, nonetheless, find very relevant.

3

Portrait of the Daughter of Charity: Safeguarding the Execution of Moral Management Abstract The chapter turns to the body of members of the Daughters of Charity to examine the ways the directors managed the morality of the sisters. The chapter argues that the way the sisters were trained to become good Daughters and Christian women was an important survival strategy for the Company. The chapter opens with an analysis of the delicate position of the sisters as active women religious in avoidance of enclosure which would have made their vocation impossible. The subsequent sections discuss the ways the directors aimed to manage the sisters’ spiritual position by controlling their behaviour in public space, education, and devotional practices in order to negotiate an orthodox religious identity and avoid enclosure. Keywords: monastic enclosure; religious identity; bodily mortification; education; lower strata of society

The main aim of the nuns of place Royale is to help the poor sick women they receive, but not the men. As this is part of their Rules, they believe they will save their souls by observing them. But you, my dear sisters, you have given yourselves to God in order to live as good Christian women, as good Daughters of Charity [...]’.1

1 Paul Conférences, 18 October 1655, p. 550. French quotation: ‘[Les religieuses] de la place Royale ont pour fin principale d’assister les pauvres femmes malades qu’elles reçoivent, et non les hommes; et parce que ce sont leurs règles, elles croient faire leur salut en le observant. Mais vous, mes chères sœurs, vous vous êtes données principalement à Dieu pour vivre en bonnes chrétiennes, pour être bonnes Filles de la Charité [...]’.

Peake, R.-M., The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789462986688_ch03

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Moving from the upper strata of the Company of the Daughters of Charity – namely, Louise de Marillac and her elite networks – to the portrayal of the poorer body of members of the Company, the third chapter ponders: what composed good Catholic womanhood, referred to in Vincent de Paul’s conference quoted above, and why? The aim of the chapter is to analyse how and why the morality of the Daughters were managed in order to create certain images of them. Moreover, the chapter is also interested in deciphering the importance of these images in the execution of the moral management activities of the Company. The chapter begins with an introduction to the sensitive position of the sisters of the Company of the Daughters of Charity as a body of laywomen assembled in an unenclosed community with religious convictions. The situation is contextualized as a reflection of the centuries-old tension in female spirituality between the two ideals of Martha and Mary. In the religious atmosphere of the Catholic Reformation, the only suitable religious vocation for women was the one pursued in the image of Mary in an enclosed monastery. The fact that the sisters, through their large number and apostolic work in the image of Martha, were a visible part of the streets of Paris and other French towns and villages, made the tension of the Company with official stipulations dangerously clear. How did the Company of the Daughters of Charity manage to avoid the pitfalls, that is, enclosure? The following three subchapters offer an answer to this question by means of employing a specific hypothesis as a backdrop: the study suggests that the sisters were to convey an orthodox image of the Daughters of Charity in order to safeguard the execution of poor relief. Subchapter two does this by looking at the way the directors of the Company explained and deciphered the vocation and the spiritual position of the sisters. The subchapter also brings to light the suspicion of the sisters themselves toward their calling and that the directors had to curtail internal resistance in order to protect the community’s active vocation. Subchapter three turns to the ways the directors aimed to mould a certain social image of the sisters. The chapter is concluded by the fourth subchapter, which discusses the ways the directors justified the apostolic mission in order to assure the sisters and make them preserve in their controversial vocation.

1

Martha and Mary: conflict and reconciliation

For the Catholic Church, there were two official ways to please God in the seventeenth century, as Vincent de Paul taught the Daughters of Charity:

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[S]ome are in their own homes and attend only to the care of their families and the observance of the Commandments; the others are those whom God calls to the state of perfection, such as religious in every Order [...].2

Although the superior general specified that a Daughter of Charity was in the same state of perfection as a nun,3 she was not, however, one: Nuns are enclosed and don’t often have the opportunity to be with outsiders, but that’s not the case with you, for a Daughter of Charity is always mixing with people. You have a vocation obliging you to help equally all sorts of persons: men, women, children, and in general every poor person who needs your assistance, as you’re doing, by the grace of God [...]. 4

The Daughters of Charity had, thus, a rather liminal status through their position somewhere between a nun and a laywoman. Despite de Paul’s and Louise de Marillac’s determination, this liminal status of a religious laywoman raised suspicion for decades5 due to the stipulations of the Council of Trent banning religious vocations of women outside the cloister.6 The slow and rocky path of the Daughters of Charity to official recognition is puzzling: the study of Barbara Diefendorf has shown that the period from the 1630s up to mid-century was a golden age for Parisian unenclosed communities with more than half of the newly erected religious houses for women being active in nature.7 Furthermore, several other active com2 Paul EN, vol. IX, doc. 2 (5 July 1640), p. 13. French quotation: ‘les unes sont dans leur ménage et ne vaquent qu’au soin de leur famille et à l’observance des commandements; les autres sont ceux que Dieu appelle dans l’état de perfection, comme les religieux de tous Ordres [...]’. Paul Conférences, 5 July 1640, p. 9. A popular expression of the period contained the same idea: ‘maritus aut murus’ referred to the two acceptable vocations of a woman: husband or cloister. See Rapley 1990, 19, 41. 3 ‘although they don’t have vows to sustain them for the present, [they] are, nevertheless, in that state of perfection, if they’re true Daughters of Charity’. Paul EN, vol. IX, doc. 2 (5 July 1640), p. 13. French quotation: ‘bien qu’elles n’aient pas pour maintenant des vœux [en 1640], [elles] ne laissent être en cet état de perfection, si elles sont vraies Filles de la Charité’. Paul Conférences, 5 July 1640, p. 10. 4 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 92 (6 January 1658), p. 363. French quotation: ‘Les religieuses sont renfermées et n’ont pas souvent l’occasion de se trouver avec les externes, mais vous n’êtes pas comme cela; car une Fille de la Charité est toujours dans le monde. Vous avez une vocation qui vous oblige à assister indifférement toutes sortes de personnes, hommes, femmes, enfants, et généralement tous les pauvres qui ont besoin de vous, comme vous le faites, par la grâce de Dieu [...]’. Paul Conférences, 6 January 1658, p. 764. 5 See the Introduction for a discussion of the suspicious authorities the Company faced. 6 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25:5, p. 223–224. 7 Diefendorf 2004, 135–136.

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munities had received approbation before the Daughters of Charity, as Diefendorf has discovered:8 the Filles de la Croix, for example, had received approbation from Louis XIII already in 1642; and the Filles de la Providence had been recognized by Queen Anne of Austria in 1643. A third Company, originally not from Paris but from Bordeaux, the Filles de Saint-Joseph, running an orphanage for girls, had, for their part, received royal approval already in 1641.9 In an effort to explain the discrimination of the Daughters of Charity, Diefendorf has proposed that the originality of the Company was related to the extensiveness of its vocation in comparison to other less active orders. The sisters of the Filles de la Croix concentrated mainly on teaching girls and were to leave their house as rarely as possible, whereas the houses of the Filles de la Providence were cloistered and contained a grilled parlour modelling, thus, rather closely on contemplative institutions. The latter sisters were also in favour of leaving their house as little as possible.10 Building on Diefendorf’s argument, I suggest that the reason for the more sensitive position of the Daughters of Charity was not only the breadth and success of its mission but, most importantly, what these two characteristics made more visible than in other active Companies: the tension of the vocation of the sisters with the Tridentine stipulations. Another way to phrase the conflict is to say that the Company made visible one of the most central themes in female spirituality centuries old: the strain between the two co-existing traditions of the vita contemplativa, that is, contemplation in enclosed surroundings, and the vita activa, namely, the pursuit of a religious vocation amidst the world. The two traditions have a biblical frame in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42).11 In principle, both lifestyles had been deemed equally precious in the history of Christianity. Martha was a suitable model for laywomen – and men – practising their faith amidst everyday life. Mary, on the other hand, became a role model especially for the inhabitants of enclosed monasteries (both monks and nuns). Important to note here is that – contrary to exegetical assertions today – theologians had associated the character of Mary with that of the former prostitute Mary Magdalen since the early Middle Ages.12 8 Diefendorf 2004, 215 who aims to correct a widely held conclusion among scholars, including e.g. Wiesner-Hanks 2008, 241, about the Company of the Daughters of Charity as a forerunner. 9 Diefendorf 2004, 224, 302 note 31. 10 Diefendorf 2004, 217–219, 224–225. 11 For a historical survey on Mary and Martha, see e.g. Mason 1961; Kieckhefer 1990, 17–20; Constable 1995. 12 Saxer 1959; Jansen 2000.

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This interpretation was alive still in the seventeenth century and visible in the source material on the Daughters of Charity dealing especially with education (III.3 below). Although in theory both role models were equally valued, in practice theologians held in more esteem the ideal of the contemplative Mary since the Middle Ages.13 The ideology became also gender-specific in the late thirteenth century through a decree14 called ‘Periculoso’ issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298. The decree stipulated that for women, contemplative Mary was the holiest role model and, as a result, that all women aspiring a religious life were to pursue it the enclosure of a monastery. Although the idea was not new, the fact that it was now made into a universal church law was a significant development.15 A very likely reason why the Periculoso aimed to diminish the holiness of Martha as a role model was the upsurge of a women’s movement in the wake of the late twelfth- and thirteenth-century urbanization in which laywomen in large numbers took up the religious calling without enclosure and in ways that challenged ecclesiastical hierarchies.16 This vocation in the image of Martha resembled the nuns’ profession in many ways: women pursued a spiritual life by making the monastic vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, but, unlike in the case of nuns, the promises were not perpetual allowing the women to flexibly resume worldly life if necessary. Likewise, the women often pursued a communal life following the daily monastic rhythm and devotional practices. Their vocation, however, also frequently included an apostolic mission to help the underprivileged which, in turn, often resulted in the need to exit the communal house or the private home. In the northern parts of Europe and in the Low Countries religious laywomen were oftentimes called Beguines, whereas in Italy they were known as Penitents. Moreover, many of the women were associated with the likewise recently born mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, who also engaged in an apostolic mission among the populace as itinerant preachers.17 Despite Boniface’s decree, the religious life of women remained unreformed.18 In mid-sixteenth century, the issue was brought up by the Council of Trent, which resurrected the decree.19 Now the context of the 13 Constable 1995, 5–6. 14 Although many scholars use the term bull, it was, in fact a decree: see Makowski 1997. 15 For the decree and its commentators, see Makowski 1997. 16 Makowski 1997, 21–42. 17 For a general introduction to medieval religious laywomen, see Lehmijoki-Gardner 2006; Makowski 1997, 9–20. 18 See Makowski 2005. 19 See The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 25:5, p. 223–224.

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stipulation was even more challenging: the official anthropology of the church was not only violated by women following the ideal of Martha, but it was also abandoned altogether by a new movement of believers, the Protestants. Protestants, especially because of their will to allow priests to marry, emphasized the sacredness of the lay married state renouncing the monastic vocation of both men and women.20 Scholars have argued that, despite the stipulations of Trent, in general attitudes on the Catholic side also underwent similar changes as theologians gave more recognition than previously to the holiness of lay life,21 portrayed broadly speaking by the ideal f igure of Martha. 22 It is true that a new sensitivity to family and domestic life was experienced in early modern Catholic areas with reflections in both the profane and religious sphere. Early modern French legislation on marriage and inheritance, for instance, reinforced the paterfamilias model, which put women under the rule of their father or husband.23 This was accompanied by the upsurge of the cult of the Holy Family and especially of saint Joseph. The head of the household of little Jesus gained new vigour in the late Middle Ages becoming one of the most important cults of the Early Modern Period.24 Joseph and the Holy Family were present in the spirituality of the Daughters of Charity as Louise de Marillac would a few times encourage the sisters in their hard work by examples taken from Jesus’ native family.25 De Marillac also expressed her piety towards the Holy Family in her aquarelles.26 However, the case of the Daughters of Charity contradicts the conclusion that Catholic attitudes toward the holiness of lay life became more relaxed in the Early Modern Era. The case of Louise de Marillac and the way she 20 See e.g. Luther on Genesis 1:28 (Luther 1522, 18–19) and on monastic vows (Luther 1521, 307; for more on the issue, see also Hendrix 2000, 337–339; Plummer 2012). All in all, Luther went as far as to argue that the married lay state was superior to the monastic lifestyle. 21 See Wiesner-Hanks 2008, 31–34, 219, 230; Wiesner-Hanks 2010, 134–137. 22 The study of Giles Constable (Constable 1995) shows that there is a tradition of considering Martha a role model for not only the clergy, but also for the laity. For example a text from the eight century, attributed to both Isidore of Seville and Felix of Urgel, describes the active vocation as including marriage as well as charitable activities (p. 23–24). In the central Middle Ages several writers, such as Joachim of Fiore, considered Martha as an image of the clergy and the laity (p. 32, 36, 72, 93–94). In late medieval art, on the other hand, Martha is an independent figure portrayed often as a housewife working in the service of both man and God (p. 123). 23 Hanley 1989; Hardwick 1998. 24 Payan 2006; Payan 1997; Black 2006; Klapisch-Zuber 1985, 178–212. 25 Marillac FR, L. 575 (around 1659), p. 654; L. 642 (20 December 1659), p. 656. The patron saints of the Company’s hospital in Angers included also Joseph, mentioned second after Virgin Mary: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 270 (1641?), p. 252. 26 AFC, Aquarelles of Louise de Marillac.

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aimed to portray holiness by rejecting married life showed, as discussed in Chapter 2, the power of the ideal of the contemplative virgin. Second, the teachings of Vincent de Paul to the Daughters also portray pretentious attitudes. On the one hand, de Paul showed respect toward the institution of matrimony by urging the sisters to view their vocation as a spousal relationship to God and compare it to the heterosexual nuclear family. This began in 1647 when the Company prepared to establish the practice of making annual vows (accomplished after 1660) and, thus, reinforced the consecrated lifestyle of its members. The superior general would, for instance, offer the sisters the married couple as role model for tolerating their vocation: work with the poor and communal life with fellow sisters were to be endured in the same way as a husband and wife had to tolerate each other from year to year, in changing moods and conditions.27 According to Ulrike Strasser, the connecting of the religious vocation to profane relationships was typical also in Bavaria, where, as a result of the Catholic Reformation, the spiritual relationship of nuns with God began to model more closely on the secular marriage.28 Despite the value Vincent de Paul attached to secular wedlock as a role model for spiritual life, his overall opinion of the institution was, however, negative as is evident in one of his conferences: There are very few happily married couples. If the wife does her duty, the husband will be troublesome and debauched; he won’t bother about anything. That’s all we see in country districts. How painful for people to see themselves reduced to such misery! Aren’t you happy to be safe from all that and to have no other concern than your salvation?29

Indeed, the superior general’s idea of the role of a wedded wife was quite desolate for women. De Paul would transmit his ideas also to laywomen: there is at least one incident when de Paul in his letter, written in 1640, gave Louise de Marillac advice on what a woman about to marry should read. The woman, during a retreat at the Daughters of Charity, was to read saint Paul (c. 3-64) 27 Paul Conférences, 2 February 1653, p. 387. See also De Paul Conférénces, 2 February 1647, p. 201; 3 June 1653, p. 412–413; 6 June 1656, p. 579–580; 9 June 1658, p. 797. 28 Strasser 2004a, 125–127. For the attitudes toward marriage promulgated at the Council of Trent, see also p. 27–55. 29 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 97 (9 June 1658), p. 410. French quotation: ‘Mais ils se trouve peu de personnes qui fassent bon ménage. Si la femme fait son devoir, le mari sera fâcheux et débauché; il ne se souciera de rien. On ne voit autre chose dans les champs. Quelle peine de se voir réduites à cette misère ! N’êtes-vous pas bienheureuses d’être à couvert de tout cela et de n’avoir autre soin que de votre salut ?’ Paul Conférences, 9 June 1658, p. 802.

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and his ideas of the husband as the head of the household and the wife as his subject. The woman was to learn that a good wife was never to complain about her husband who was to be placed above everything else, right after God. De Marillac was also to offer the bride stories of good wives as role models and to encourage her to have devotion to the marriage of Joseph to Virgin Mary.30 The fact that Vincent de Paul taught the Daughters to despise secular marriage was a means to emphasize the grandeur of the spiritual betrothal. In this, de Paul was continuing a rhetorical tradition with roots extending to the Christian authors of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.31 Furthermore, his teachings make it clear that the ideal of contemplative Mary still ruled over that of Martha. This said how is it possible that the directors of the Daughters of Charity considered the unenclosed religious vocation of laywomen orthodox and the mistrust of the authorities erroneous? The answer lies in the following: in his conferences, Vincent de Paul urged the sisters to ‘accommodate Martha to Mary, and arrange your duties in such a way that both prayer and work may be reconciled’.32 Thus, the active vocation of the sisters in the image of Martha was seen as a reinterpretation of the ideal of Mary instead of an independent or an opposite vocation. By analysing the vocation of the Daughters of Charity as a reinterpretation of the contemplative calling, the study is developing further a viewpoint recently established in scholarship on early modern female spirituality. In 2005, Laurence Lux-Sterritt published a study on the seventeenth-century English Ladies and the French Ursulines and argued that the rigid juxtaposition of the active calling to the contemplative one did not exist yet and, as a result, efforts to estimate which calling had more potential for ‘feminist empowerment’ are irrelevant.33 In the case of the Daughters of Charity, it is important to note that this ideology (the reinterpretation of the contemplative calling) was one from ‘below’, shared within the Company and its dévot supporters, and not common to general religious thinking of the time for which the orthodoxy of the Company was questionable. It is 30 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 284 (March 1640), p. 269. 31 See e.g. Elliott 2012, 15–19; Newman 1995, 32–34. I thank Dr. Meri Heinonen for her remarks and advice in the issue. 32 Paul EN, vol. IX, doc. 38 (28 July 1648), p. 340. French quotation: ‘Mais il faut, mes sœurs, autant qu’il se pourra, accommoder Marthe avec Marie et disposer de vos affaires en sorte que l’action et l’oraison s’y rencontrent’. Paul Conférences, 28 July 1648, p. 287. 33 Lux-Sterritt 2005. For feminist scholarship arguing that the active vocation of the Daughters of Charity was emancipatory, see especially Liebowitz 1979. For a general bibliography of the attitude in scholarship, see note 4 in Lux-Sterritt 2005, 154. See also Lux-Sterritt 2005, 178–179.

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yet another example of the resourcefulness of the dévots and their monastic enterprises in taking initiative in the French Catholic Reformation and working in a different pace than the official church. The following subchapters turn to practice and analyse the combined ideal in depth: they examine the ways the Company of the Daughters of Charity managed the morals of the sisters to reconcile Martha and Mary in order to create an orthodox identity for the Daughter of Charity and, thus, safeguard the moral management work of the sisters with the poor. An in-depth discussion is also carried out on an important theme that has thus far gone unaddressed in scholarship: the measures called for by internal resistance. Identity-shaping was important not only to reassure church officials but also the sisters themselves expressing explicit desires for a more nun-like vocation.

2

Cloistered outside the cloister: managing spiritual position

An important aspect in the construction of the ideal Daughter of Charity as an embodiment of both Martha and Mary was the primacy of the contemplative ideal. In fact, contrary to what could, perhaps, be expected from an active community, spirituality and everyday practical life were modelled on the contemplative ideal and practices of nuns living in enclosure. This was, however, a delicate issue which, at times, demanded treading carefully the fine line between the two ideals and, in certain cases, was difficult to properly accomplish. Contemplative foundations The attachment of the Daughters of Charity to the vita contemplativa was visible already in relation to the fundamental principles of their calling: [The Daughters of Charity] are obliged […] to lead as virtuous a life as if they were professed nuns in a religious order. […] They shall do their best to follow the holy practice so much recommended by the saints and so strictly observed in well-regulated Orders, namely, to neither ask nor refuse anything relating to the matters of the world.34 34 AFC, Alméras 1672, I:2, fol. 2r; II:2, fol. 5r. French quotation: ‘[Les Filles de la Charité] sont obligées […] de mener une vie aussi vertueuse, que si elles estoient professes dans un ordre

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The contemplative model was also called upon in two other cases: first, for the legitimacy of central spiritual values, namely the virtues, especially that of obedience35, and perfection in general.36 Second, the example of professed religious was used in situations pertaining to communal life: for example, submission to the judgement of the sister in charge of the community in question, the Sister Servant, was crucial in situations of conflicting opinion.37 The Sister Servant was also to be asked for permission for extra-mural letterwriting, and she would also decide whether letters were to be sent further or not.38 Personal problems and misgivings were likewise to be conveyed privately to the superiors and never to be expressed in front of other sisters.39 All of these practices were justified by the example of contemplative and enclosed houses. 40 The centrality of the Rules was likewise emphasized in reference to the Capuchin fathers, for example, who were to inspire each Daughter to carry the Rules with her and to hear them read aloud once a month. 41 Lastly, the whole practice of holding conferences was adopted from contemplative and enclosed communities. 42 The Daughters of Charity were tightly connected, however, to the reform spirit of the Catholic Church as most of the cloistered orders the Company imitated were reformed or new orders. By far the most important order was that of the Visitation nuns founded by François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal: the sisters are mentioned 27 times in the conferences and twelve times in the letters and meditations by Louise de Marillac. De Paul paid special attention to the holy practices of the order and used the order as a contrasting example in issues pertaining to the unenclosed life of the Daughters.43 The writings of de Marillac, on the other hand, show the practicalities of the close ties and list several incidences of close cooperation on Religieuse. […] Elles feront leur possible pour se mettre dans la sainte pratique, tant recommandée par les saints, et si exactement observée dans les Communautez bien réglées, sçavoir de ne rien demander ny refuser pour ce qui est des choses de la terre’. See also Paul Conférences, 17 June 1657, p. 646. De Paul very often juxtaposed the Daughters of Charity with enclosed orders in his conferences, see e.g. Paul Conférences, 19 July 1640, p. 12–13; 20 August 1656, 60. 35 Paul Conférences, 7 August 1650, p. 343. 36 Paul Conférences, 2 November 1655, p. 565. 37 Paul Conférences, 2 February 1647, p. 202. 38 Paul Conférences, 19 April 1650, p. 332. 39 Paul Conférences, 16 March 1659, p. 884. 40 Examples in this vein are numerous: see, for example, reference to Jesuit practices in relation to the problem of one of the community members not doing her share in menial tasks. Paul Conférences, 22 October 1646, p. 198. 41 Paul Conférences, 11 August 1659, p. 898. 42 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 411 (28 June 1646), p. 397. 43 See e.g. Paul Conférences, 2 February 1653, p. 384; 8 August 1655, p. 535–536.

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a daily basis.44 The Bishop of Geneva was also an important voice in the vita of Louise de Marillac stressing the importance of de Sales in the orthodox portrayal of the devout widow. 45 It is possible that de Marillac referenced de Sales as a discursive strategy. The close ties to the Visitation nuns began 1618 or 1619 when de Paul very likely met François de Sales for the first time. As Hugh O’Donnell has suggested, de Sales quickly became the most important spiritual inspiration for de Paul. O’Donnell is convinced that, contrary to earlier views, de Paul was less influenced by his spiritual director Pierre de Bérulle despite having spent his first years in Paris with de Bérulle at the Oratory, the congregation of priests founded by the cardinal. 46 De Sales became a close friend of de Paul’s, and a colleague, as he appointed de Paul director of up to three Visitation convents. De Paul also acted as Jeanne de Chantal’s confessor after the death of de Sales. 47 The writings and conferences of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac make quite a few references in the form of edifying examples to other contemplative orders with which they had personal ties. For instance, the reformed Carmelites of saint Teresa of Avila, brought to France by Marie de l’Incarnation, also known as Barbe Acarie, and supported by the de Marillac family and Vincent de Paul; the Capuchins, the male order founded in Italy in 1520, and the female order in 1538 and established in Paris in 1602 and greatly admired by the young Louise de Marillac; the Bernardines (or reformed Cistercians), and the Carthusians some of whom were, along with de Paul, part of the parti dévot. Again, the orders in question interacted with the Daughters of Charity on a practical level: especially the Capuchins, members of a reformed Franciscan order specializing likewise in charity work and nursing, acted as confessors to the Daughters. 48 Likewise, the head of a Benedictine monastery, Saint-Étienne-de-Vaux, acted as the protector and advisor of the Daughters of Charity in the 44 See e.g. Marillac FR, L. 157 (beginning of September 1646), p. 170; L. 628 bis (15 September 1659), p. 643. 45 Descimon 2011, 2. 46 Deville 1990, 29–30. However, see also Forrestal 2009, who emphasizes the role of de Bérulle at least on the social level. 47 Duvignacq-Glessen 1994, 133–136; O’Donnell 1994, 285; O’Donnell 1995, 26. 48 See for example: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 321 (11 February 1641), p. 303 (de Paul writes to de Marillac that a Capuchin father will be helping sisters in Sedan); Marillac FR, L. 292 (5 November 1653), p. 430 (de Marillac gives permission to a sister in Serqueux to confess to a Capuchin father); Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 723 (3 August 1658), p. 828 (a sister residing in the community of Calais writes to Louise de Marillac that the local sisters confess to Capuchin fathers).

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hospital of Angers.49 In addition, the Daughters of Charity cooperated with professed nuns (affiliation not mentioned) by offering the nuns retreats at the motherhouse, and by helping them in times of war.50 Susan Dinan has pointed out that Louise de Marillac seems to have considered abbesses of enclosed orders as her equals.51 All of this proves that the Company, despite its status as an outlawed active order, operated and interacted in practice in the same religious landscape side-by-side with the contemplative orders. In contrast, it must be mentioned that other contemporary unenclosed congregations paralleling the vocation of the Daughters of Charity received only scant references here and there. One religious laywoman from the Middle Ages, however, was offered as a role model: the Dominican laywoman Catherine of Siena who had been officially recognized as a saint by the church in 1461.52 Nevertheless, her legend was not used to exemplify the vita activa. Instead, she was to be looked up to for her emotionally heavy practice of Holy Communion53 – the sacrament was reaffirmed as a central element of Catholic faith in the Council of Trent54 – and as a model in communal life. According to hagiography, Catherine experienced hard times with the woman she took to live with her, just like the Daughters of Charity faced disputes with their fellow sisters. A letter by Louise de Marillac to the sisters in Angers written in 1644 and the 1646 conference of Vincent de Paul both exhort sisters living in discord to imitate Catherine in her perfection.55 The superior offered Catherine as a role model for tolerating tribulations and hard work.56 The medieval saint also had significance for de Marillac personally: there is evidence in one of her letters to Vincent de Paul (composed in 1648) that she held Catherine as a role model for her own spirituality. In the letter, de Marillac complains about the departure of Vincent de Paul fearing the state her soul will enter if she does not see him. She continues that Catherine, if

49 See note 1 in Marillac FR, L. 12 (1640), p. 23. 50 Marillac FR, L. 597 (7 October 1658), p. 613; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 438 (1647?), p. 462; doc. 439 (1647), p. 463. 51 Dinan 2006, 72–73. 52 See e.g. Muessig & Ferzoco & Kienzle 2012 for a general introduction. On the after effect of the mystic, but only in Italy, see Luongo 2012. The cult of the saint touched, however, widely the early modern Catholic world as Catherine was praised for her work in favour of the late medieval papacy. She was, thus, an ideal symbol of the Catholic Reformation. 53 Paul Conférences, 22 January 1646, p. 158, 161. 54 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 13:1–8, p. 72–80. 55 Marillac FR, L. 105 (24 August 1644), p. 116; Paul Conférences, 19 August 1646, p. 182. 56 Marillac FR, L. 105 (24 August 1644), p. 116; L. 70 bis (September 1644), p. 118–119.

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she were alive, would also fear for her due to the lack of love in her soul.57 All in all, however, it is clear that the vita activa clearly did not present the most important model for the modus vivendi of the Daughters of Charity whose calling was deeply attached to the contemplative ideal and tradition. The inspiration of the contemplative ideal was not only present in the fundamental values and role models the directors offered the Daughters of Charity but also in the daily routines which reflected more or less the Augustinian and Benedictine Rules, completed, respectively, in the late 300s58 and in the 500s59. The former received a central place, most likely due to the powerful role of the Augustinian order in hospitals and in nursing in general. In one of his conferences, Vincent de Paul even compares the Company to the group of people Augustine of Hippo gathered around him: priests and young girls who lived, respectively, in their own communities and owned nothing.60 Augustine was also an authority for de Paul in questions pertaining to the justification of the Company: true works of God are such that the author cannot be identified, de Paul claimed referring to the ideas of the early theologian. And as the works of the Company, even the success of the Company, were inexplicable, they were, thus, divinely justified.61 The Daughters of Charity were accustomed to the contemplative tradition also in the way their daily life was organized according to the canonical hours. Arising from pagan and Judaic traditions of prayer time, the Hours in monasteries in mid-fourth century developed into a distinctive tradition emphasizing communal meditation on the Holy Scripture (psalms, hymns and prayers) instead of the celebration of communal liturgy as was typical for the canonical hours performed in cathedrals. A few centuries later Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547) in his Rules fixed the number of the Hours to seven: Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.62 The sisters celebrated the first two canonical hours early in the morning, as soon as they woke up between four and five. A couple of hours later they went to hear Mass. The fourth officium was taken up around noon, and the fifth in the afternoon. The sixth moment of prayer was scheduled around six o’clock. The last hours were celebrated right before bedtime, between 57 Marillac FR, L. 225 (October 1648), p. 265. 58 Lawless 1987 (includes the Latin Rule and its English translation). 59 The Rule of Saint Benedict 2011. 60 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 658 (27 July 1656), p. 752. 61 Paul Conférences, 22 January 1645, p. 142; 25 December 1648, p. 301; 24 February 1653, p. 398. 62 Schnitker 2001.

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eight and nine.63 Although the Benedictine rule included working hours,64 the work load of the Daughters of Charity was significantly heavier. Moreover, the source material reveals that the contemplative ideal of Mary was not only reinforced by the directors onto the spirituality of the Daughters of Charity. The sisters themselves were also in favour of moulding their active vocation in the image of Mary. However, the examples likewise disclose just how fine a line the Company had to walk in its internal moral management activities and image creation: the active interpretation of Mary was to be done cautiously so as not to lead to opposite results harming the Company. Martha was not to be abandoned completely as too much accommodation to Mary would send a signal to the authorities that the sisters were nuns who required enclosure. On the other hand, the examples also testify that the directors, in order to protect the active mission of the Company, did not only have to deal with the suspicions of authorities, but also had to be cautious because of the desires of the sisters themselves for a more enclosed lifestyle. Furthermore, treading the line was further complicated by the fact that the directors, Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul, were not always unanimous in their views. Despite the close ties of the Company with cloistered orders, interaction was also a problematic issue. Fearing the lure of greater prestige offered by enclosed convents, de Marillac and de Paul ordered the Daughters to avoid befriending nuns, as Susan Dinan has pointed out.65 Internal resistance did not stop here, however. Vows, an integral part of the contemplative vocation, were another delicate issue. Already in 1640, but also for example in 1649 and 1659, the sisters expressed willingness to make perpetual vows or at least to renew them more than once a year.66 Since 1642 the Daughters could make annual vows of chastity, obedience, poverty, and service of the poor – the three first ones being common-place vows of professed nuns and the last typical for the reformed hospital orders of the seventeenth century67 – but were not obliged to make them before the death of the founders. The reason for this was Vincent de Paul’s reluctant attitude – Louise de Marillac seems to have been more favourable towards the idea. By the late 1650s, the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March, had become the most popular day to renew 63 AFC, Alméras 1672, IX:1–15, fols 35–41. Cf. Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 180–183. 64 Cf. The Rule of Saint Benedict 2011, e.g. Chapter 48 on daily manual labour, p. 160–163. 65 Dinan 2006, 72–73. 66 Paul Conférences, 19 July, 1640, p. 17; Marillac FR, L. 481 (29 June 1649), p. 292; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 754 (12 February 1659), p. 861. 67 Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 105.

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vows, and in 1669, a year after recognition from the Holy See, the practice was finally made official.68 A similar pattern is visible in the question of whether the Company’s houses should be better protected from interaction with the outside world. In 1646, the Daughters, with the support of Louise de Marillac, brought to the attention of Vincent de Paul their desire for a parlour with a grille, found in every enclosed monastery. The reasoning behind the wish was to stop all sorts of people from entering the houses and seeing the communal life, and to prevent expected visitors from seeing other sisters apart from the one he or she had come to meet. Vincent de Paul replied that he approved of the parlour but resolutely rejected the grille to safeguard the unenclosed vocation of the Company: It is not expedient that there are grilles because when one sees them he would say: ‘There is nothing left but to close the door’. And perhaps after a while one of the sisters would say: ‘We would be much better off nuns’.69

The appellation of the Company was likewise a sensitive issue. In a letter written in 1659, Louise de Marillac confided to the superior general that some ‘delicate spirits’ in the Company disliked the name confrérie and would prefer société or communauté. Again, this was considered a threat to the unenclosed vocation: ‘I took the liberty, de Marillac continued, of saying that this word [Confraternity] was essential: that it could be a strong barrier against innovation; that it signified our secular status [in contrast to that of professed nuns] [...]’.70 Mental enclosure through obedience One of the most central elements in the vocation of a Daughter of Charity was also one of the greatest threats for the Company and the execution of its moral management activities: the unenclosed lifestyle of its members 68 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 330–340. For the formula of the vows sometime between 1647 and 1660, see: Marillac FR, A. 44 bis, p. 774. 69 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 411 (28 June 1646), p. 406. French quotation: ‘ il n’est pas expedient qu’il y ait des grilles; car, quand on verrait cela, on dirait: ‘Il n’y a plus qu’à fermer la porte’. Et peut-être que dans quelque temps il y en aurait quelqu’une qui dirait: ‘Nous serions bien mieux d’être religieuses’.’ 70 Marillac EN, L. 609 (January 1659), p. 630. French quotation: ‘Je pris la liberté de dire que ce mot nous était essentiel et pouvait beaucoup aider à la fermeté pour ne point innover et qu’il nous signifiait sécularité [...]’. Marillac FR, L. 609 (January 1659), p. 626.

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who carried out their work in the streets of towns and villages. As the stipulations of Trent specif ically forbid women religious to exit their house, the directors of the Daughters of Charity had to take careful measures in order to ensure the continuation of the sisters’ work. The means Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul decided to employ to create an orthodox image of the sisters was to make the sisters pursue their active vocations as if they were enclosed. The famous conference of Vincent de Paul declared: [...] [The Daughters of Charity shall have] for monastery only the houses of the sick and the place where the Superior resides; for cell, a hired room; for chapel, the parish church; for cloister, the streets of the city; for enclosure, obedience [...].71

I have chosen to call this idea mental enclosure which was carried out principally through obedience and control. This is not, however, to overestimate the activeness of the active vocation of the sisters. In effect, practical life imposed significant limitations on the sisters: their workload was heavy and must have reduced the possibilities of interaction with those in the larger community to a minimum.72 Indeed, the Daughters of Charity complained frequently to Vincent de Paul about the impossibility to keep to the daily schedule due to the overload of work.73 Furthermore, the centrality of a hectic rhythm of life also limited free interaction: following centuries-old monastic traditions, idleness was a vice.74 Indeed, Louise de Marillac reminded the sisters to keep always busy. In a 1659 letter to a sister in Narbonne, de Marillac commanded her to always have her hands full, instead of being in contact with nuns and the Ladies of Charity – which the Daughter was accustomed

71 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 111 (24 August 1659), p. 530. French quotation: ‘[...] n’ayant pour monastère que les maisons des malades et celle où reside la supérieure, pour cellule une chambre de louage, pour chapelle l’église paroissiale, pour cloître les rues de la ville, pour clôture l’obéissance [...]’. Paul Conférences, 24 August 1659, p. 901. 72 See also Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 388–389, who has argued that this can be applied to French unenclosed hospital sisters in general. 73 See e.g. Paul Conférences, 2 August 1640, p. 19, 22–23; 30 May 1647, p. 218; 17 November 1658, p. 849–865. 74 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:3, fol. 11. Cf. The Rule of Saint Benedict 2011: ‘Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brothers should be occupied at set times in manual labor, and again at other set times in divine reading’. (48:1, p. 161.) ‘But we condemn everywhere, in permanent prohibition, malicious gossip, idle talk and wisecracks, and we do not permit a disciple to open his mouth for such words’. (6:8, p. 43.) See also Kaelber 1998, 64–65.

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to do – since ‘[...] [spare time] is better used in [work for the poor] than in exchanging compliments’.75 Despite the restrictions everyday life imposed on the interaction of the Daughters with the outside world in spite of their unenclosed lifestyle, the directors of the Daughters of Charity also chose to apply specific measures to limit the interaction even further: a mental form of enclosure. Interestingly, the idea of mental enclosure not only reveals the attachment of the Company to traditional contemplative ideals but also brings to light a striking parallel with earlier religious laywomen. In fact, medieval Italian Dominican penitent women aspired to create a pious state of mind while in the world. As Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner has noted, the hagiographers of Catherine of Siena, Raymond of Capua and Thomas of Siena, described the saint’s ability to gain inner freedom from exterior circumstances by using the term ‘mental cell’ (mentale cella, cella mentalis, or cella in mente).76 The idea of creating inner solitude was, however, an even older line of thought present already among the first Christians but especially since the twelfth century.77 Centuries later, as quoted above, Vincent de Paul picked up on this tradition and stated in one of his most famous conferences that obedience is the enclosure of the Daughters.78 Obedience is, thus, a good starting point for the analysis of mental enclosure. It is, indeed, a very central theme in the Rules as well as in the writings by the founders.79 An effective method to enforce obedience was the placing of the sisters within a strict social hierarchy. By this the Daughters were made to convey orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy in which they, contrary to what their active vocation might lead the authorities to assume, had as little possibility of independent action as possible. As a whole, the Company, as pictured in the Common Rules, was a construction following very closely but not fully the legitimate social order of the day and the hierarchy of enclosed monasteries: it paralleled the contemporary secular male-headed household, which was a power structure already in existence but reinforced during the Early Modern 75 Marillac FR, L. 648 bis (30 December 1659), p. 663. French quotation: ‘[...] [le temps de reste] sera mieux employé [au travail pour les pauvres] […] qu’à faire des compliments’. 76 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 73–77. 77 Constable 1996c. 78 Paul Conférences, 24 August 1659, p. 901. The idea was present in the conferences at least already in 1650: ‘ obedience serves you as walls’. (7 August 1650, p. 339.) Louise de Marillac also talked in a letter about living in cloister in the streets of Paris as well as when travelling: Marillac FR, L. 628 bis (15 September 1659), p. 643. See also Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 388–389. 79 For the ideal of obedience in the Rules, see AFC, Alméras 1672, Chapter 4. In the writings of the founders, see e.g. Marillac FR, A. 60 (between 1647 and 1660), p. 780–781; M. 69 (between 1647 and 1660), p. 795; L. 324 (1 September 1651), p. 367; Paul Conférences, 7 August 1650, p. 338–350.

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Period. This reinforcement brought, in fact, the secular and ecclesiastical spheres closer to each other as power in monasteries had always been very strongly centralized in the hands of the abbot or local bishop. In the Early Modern Period, the Council of Trent strengthened this power structure of monasteries even further.80 However, in his conferences to the Daughters of Charity, Vincent de Paul did not refer to the Tridentine stipulations or other contemporary ideologies as justification but traced the power structure of the Company to the times of the first Christians by claiming that the Company followed Paul’s writings on social order.81 This shows that at heart the power structure was not a Tridentine reflection as the Company preferred to embrace its own interpretations of the revised Catholic faith and practices. The same singularity is also present in the position of the male head, that is, Vincent de Paul. Although Trent stipulated that all religious Companies were subject to a bishop, in the case of the Daughters of Charity the highest male authority was the superior general of the Congregation of the Mission, namely, Vincent de Paul. He received this position, however, only after several petitions and negotiations with authorities.82 Susan Dinan has suggested that this power struggle was a highly important one as reform-minded local bishops were eager to enclose female orders. The active mission of the order was better safeguarded under the leadership of the Congregation of the Mission.83 The position of the Daughters, nevertheless, followed very closely the broader social order: representing the lowest social status in the Company, the sisters were positioned at the bottom, next from the poor – or even next to them, at least on the rhetorical and spiritual level.84 This position could also be described as being part of a spider’s web: the sisters had many superiors attached to them like strings demanding absolute submission and, thus, reducing the freedom in their vocation. This is of course not to say that sisters did not have any power. In their local community, they certainly exercised authority due to their important role as nurses and providers of 80 Cf. Strasser 2004a, 119–148; Strasser 2004b, 539–542; The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, e.g. 25:20, p. 227; Bergin 2009, 100, 127, 143–144. 81 Paul Conférences, 2 February 1647, p. 201. 82 In a letter to Vincent de Paul in 1646, Louise de Marillac expresses her dissatisfaction with the recently received approbation from the Archbishop of Paris stating that the Company was dependent on the Archbishop: Marillac FR, L. 130 quarter (November 1646), p. 186. It was not, however, until 1655 by the approbation given by Cardinal de Retz that the founders accomplished their goal: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 613 (18 January 1655), p. 676–678. 83 Dinan 2006, 49–50. 84 Cf. e.g. AFC, Alméras 1672, II:1, fol. 4v; II:6, fols 8–9r; Paul Conférences, 2 August 1640, p. 20; Marillac FR, letter 341 (17 February 1652), p. 389.

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poor relief. Nevertheless, in the overall hierarchy they held a particular, supervised position with obedience as a central virtue. After God and Vincent de Paul, the third highest position in the Company was held by the superior, that is, Louise de Marillac, and in her absence the assisting sister and all the other officers of their house, the sisters in charge in the parishes, and lastly physicians and the officers of hospitals. The sisters were also to obey without delay the Ladies of Charity.85 The founders also taught the sisters to consider the authorities in general as God.86 The subordinate position of the sisters was further reinforced by teaching them to prefer obedience even to the well-being of their patients: they were not to feed or medicate the needy against the will of those on whom they were dependent.87 Furthermore, even in times of personal sickness, a Daughter was not to desire delicacies instead of the ordinary food of the poor. ‘That does not suit your condition, it suits the Ladies,’ Vincent de Paul instructed them.88 The principle of obedience and submission during illness was also reinforced by means of taking it up in conferences on the virtues of deceased sisters. One of several role models is found in the conference on the virtues of the late sister Anne de Gennes, who had joined the Company in 1644. Originally noble in descent but poor in health, she was said to have demonstrated great virtue at her deathbed in 1650: despite violent stomach pains, which made food and drink very repugnant to her, she submitted to the demand of the nurse to take medication. Shortly afterward she died. ‘[S] he took it anyway, showing that she did it for the sake of obedience’, Louise de Marillac concluded according to the conference text.89 Furthermore, Vincent de Paul would motivate the sisters to respect the social hierarchy by identifying with them and creating group pressure. In one of his conferences, de Paul tells the story of Daniel in the court of the 85 AFC, Alméras 1672, IV:1–4, fols 16v-18. 86 See e.g. Marillac FR, A. 68 (7 August 1650), p. 773; M. 69 (between 1647 and 1660), 795 (the Daughters must look upon the Superior as Jesus Christ); Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 443 (20 June 1647), p.468–469 (Vincent Paul encourages the sisters to consider a certain Count as God). 87 AFC, Alméras 1672, IV:III, fol. 18; VII:3, fols 27v, 28r. See also the detailed description of the different positions within the Company by Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 240–270. 88 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 691. French quotation: ’Ce n’est pas là votre condition; cela est bon pour les dames’. 89 Paul Conférences, 9 December (s.a. but after 1650 when Anne de Gennes died), p. 355. French quotation: ‘[E]lle le prit cependant, témoignant que c’était pour obéir ‘. For another role model, see e.g. Paul Conférences, 9 December (s.a. but after 1650 when Anne de Gennes, one of the sisters treated in the conference, died), p. 356.

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King of Babylonia (Daniel 1:1–16). The King of Babylon tries to feed Daniel and three other poor young boys with food of the court, but the boys refuse to eat insisting that they will be healthier consuming their ordinary, simple food. In the end, the children are right. De Paul concludes: This is what the holy story tells about those four children […]. My sisters, we are from poor people, you and I. I am the son of a ploughman, I was fed in the style of the countryside, and as presently being the superior of the Mission [of the Congregation] I would want to overestimate myself and be treated as a gentleman! Oh, my sisters, let’s remember our condition, and we find that we have reason to praise God.90

Submissiveness to authorities was another trait frequently brought up in the discussions on the virtues of deceased sisters meant to further educate the Daughters. In 1646, Louise de Marillac praised sister Marie, who had died young after serving at Saint-Denis for only three months. According to the superior, Marie had practiced effectively all virtues and especially that of great submission. Sister Jeanne Dalmagne (1611–1644), who had left the great Carmelite convent at Rue Saint-Jacques for the Daughters of Charity in 1638, was also applauded to have behaved like a saint. She had always obeyed the Rules and submitted to the will of her superiors.91 Sister Barbe Angiboust was, however, perhaps most famous for her virtues. She was praised posthumously for her firmness in obeying all orders given to her.92 She was even said to have read all letters from her superiors on her knees.93 Angiboust, who was one of the first women to serve the Company, became one of the most distinguished sisters. One of her fellow sisters described her as so virtuous that not even eight mains (25 sheets per main) of paper was enough to describe her merits.94 After her death in Châteaudun, people of the town reported that they would have wanted to buy her body in appraisal of her virtues if they only had had the money.95 Born near 90 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 692. French quotation: ‘Voilà ce que l’histoire sainte rapporte de ces quatre enfants […]. Mes sœurs, nous venons de pauvres gens, vous et moi. Je suis fils de laboureur, j’ai été nourri rustiquement, et pour être présentement supérieur de la Mission [de la Congrégation], je voudrais m’en faire accroire et être traité comme un monsieur ! O mes sœurs, ressouvenons-nous de nos conditions, et nous trouverons que nous avons sujet de louer Dieu’. 91 Paul Conférences, 15 January 1645, p. 119, 121 and passim. 92 Marillac FR, L. 634 (13 November 1659), p. 651; Paul Conférences, 7 April 1659, p. 887. 93 Paul Conférences, 7 April 1659, p. 893. 94 Paul Conférences, 7 April 1659, p. 894. 95 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1659, p. 913.

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Chartres, Angiboust joined the Company in 1634 and took the perpetual vows in 1642. She was very committed to the Company and had a talent of organization making Louise de Marillac eager to send her to start several new communities. She worked in the important communities, such as in the parish of Saint-Paul in Paris, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in Richelieu, in Fontainebleau and with the galley convicts.96 But what was the relationship of the principles and virtuous examples to reality? How successful were the efforts of the directors of the Company in moulding the image of the Daughters as tightly bound to ecclesiastical hierarchy and, thus, the ideal of Mary? The conferences of Vincent de Paul reveal that the obedient position of the sisters at the bottom of the social hierarchy was challenged by the practical aspects of their active calling: Charity done in the right way should always be accompanied with obedience. Otherwise it will not be charity, since there cannot be charity in opposition to obedience [Vincent de Paul instructed the sisters]. […] Monsieur [says one of the sisters], let’s say I have a sick person that cannot be received, and he thinks I am the cause for it. He screams after me every time he sees me. What should I do? – My sisters, that might happen, but you have to suffer and be patient. But Monsieur [the sister insists], if I go past him ten times I will always hear the same reproach. – Does not matter, you can only complain to the good God who knows well for what intention you do it.97

The principle of rigid social hierarchy was emphasized in the 1650s as the superior general used rather severe words to justify it in his conferences. He reminded the sisters that they were not to take medication for themselves from the physicians without the permission of the superiors of the Company. These drugs, claimed de Paul, often did more harm than good. Moreover, he stated that even the Jesuits were not to consult the physician without 96 For a short biography, see Marillac FR, L. 43 (around 1636), p. 14 note 1. 97 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 690. French quotation: ‘La charité, pour être bien faite, doit toujours être accompagnée de l’obéissance; autrement, ce n’est pas charité; car on ne peut avoir de charité contre l’obéissance. […] Monsieur [dit une sœur], voilà un malade qu’on n’a pas voulu recevoir, et il croit que c’est moi qui en suis cause; il crie après moi autant de fois qu’il me voit. Que faut-il faire ? – Mes sœurs, cela peut arriver, mais il faut souffrir et baisser les épaules. Mais, Monsieur, [insiste la sœur], si je passe dix fois par là, j’entendrai toujours ce reproche. – N’importe, il ne faut rien faire que se plaindre au bon Dieu, qui sait bien avec quelle intention vous le faites’. See also, for example, Paul Conférences 11 November 1659, p. 909–910.

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permission. De Paul also emphasized that charity only brought merit to the benefactor if accompanied by obedience, and that disobedience was a source of destruction for the Company. He also underlined that the principle was part of the holy Common Rules, coming straight from God, and thus in need to be obeyed to the letter.98 The harsh and defensive tone of the conferences was very likely the result of the questioning of the principle by the sisters. It also shows that the idea of making the sisters accommodate Martha to Mary was not always possible due to practical problems. The abundant material discussing the principle does, however, prove, in my point, that it was considered very important, making it an essential part of the strategy to safeguard the work of the sisters outside the cloister. Mental enclosure through control Mental enclosure was not only acquired by means of demanding total obedience to social hierarchy and submission to superiors. It was also reinforced by implementing control which is an essential part of consecrated religious life aiming at self-renunciation. Vincent de Paul taught the Daughters that In addition to poverty, Our Lord commands us to leave self […]. To surrender your own will as soon as you come here, never to entertain a thought of being able to satisfy yourselves in any respect, to live in entire and constant dependence on the will of Superiors to go to a place, to remain, to hold this or that office—that’s total self-renunciation.99

As the statutes of 1646 and 1655 stipulated, charity done in the right way had to be well ordered.100 Vincent de Paul also stated that everyone is bound to keep the rules of the state of life he or she has chosen to assure their salvation. […] Wherever the Rules are kept properly things always go well because they indicate what must be done with regard to 98 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 690, 694–695; 11 November 1659, p. 909–910. 99 Paul EN, vol. IX, doc. 30 (30 May 1647), p. 248–249. French quotation: ‘En suite de la pauvreté, Notre-Seigneur ordonne de se quitter soi-même […]. Quitter sa volonté, dès que l’on vient, n’avoir jamais pensée de se pouvoir satisfaire en rien, être dans une entière et continuelle dépendance de la volonté des supérieurs pour aller, demeurer, avoir cet office, ou cet autre, c’est tout à fait renoncer à soi-même’. Paul Conférences, 30 May 1647, p. 210. 100 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 428 (20 November 1646), p. 443; doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p.681. See also Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 690.

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God and the neighbor. […] On the contrary, where there’s no order, there’s nothing but distress and confusion. […] Yes, Sisters, as soon as you begin to ignore your Rules, you’ll have to have the funeral of your Company.101

The source material reveals that the founders employed various means of mental control coherently from the beginning in order to mould the active vocation in the image of the contemplative: first they demanded modesty and humility in all conduct and secondly implemented extensive surveillance. Mental enclosure in the form of modest and humble conduct was especially demanded in public space.102 Sexuality was very closely tied to the issue of proper public behaviour as many of the instructions were given under the title of chastity. For example, the Common Rules, after describing how to behave in the streets, conclude that the Daughters are to avoid giving people even the slightest doubt of their chastity, as that single suspicion, no matter how falsely grounded, is more injurious to their Company and to their saintly tasks than all the other crimes falsely imposed on them.103

The connection of chastity to proper behaviour in the streets is an ancient theme in women’s history and can also be rephrased as the relationship of gender to public spaces. The issue must, however, be tackled cautiously as the rigid division of society in to the public sphere – denoting briefly speaking political activity and exclusive male participation in it – and the private sphere – referring to the household as the entourage of particularly women and their agency – did not fully develop before the eighteenth and nineteenth 101 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 70 (29 September 1655), p. 86–87. French quotation: ‘un chacun est obligé de garder les règles de l’état de vie qu’il a choisi pour s’assurer de son salut. […] Partout où l’on garde bien les règles, les choses vont toujours bien, parce qu’elles montrent ce qu’il faut faire à l’égard de Dieu et du prochain. […] Au contraire, où il n’y a point d’ordre, ce n’est que misère et confusion. […] Oui, mes sœurs, il faudra faire les obsèques de votre Compagnie aussitôt que vous tomberez dans le mépris de vos règles’. Paul Conférences, 29 September 1655, p. 538–540. Other references to the importance of order in the Company of the Daughters of Charity and in other communities: 31 July 1634, p. 7; 2 December 1657, p. 719. See also Marillac FR, A. 68 (7 August 1650), p. 773, in which de Marillac likewise stresses that disobedience causes disorder in all families and especially in communities, and that the original motive for obedience stems already from the Creation in which God subjected all creatures to obedience. 102 Cf. also the case of the English girls of Mary Ward whose apostolic mission, according to Caroline Bicks (2011, 140), also deconstructed the role of a modest daughter in substantial ways. 103 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:1, fol. 10r. French quotation: ‘ce seul soupçon, quoy que tres mal fondé, estant plus préiudiciable à leur Compagnie, et à ses saints emplois, que tous les autres crimes qui leur seroient faussement imposez’.

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centuries.104 The dichotomy is a useful tool already for seventeenth-century studies as formulated in the book of François de Sales, the Introduction à la vie dévote, read not only by the Daughters of Charity but by many other contemporaries, even Protestants. The Bishop of Geneva taught devout women about their important role in the household in the following words: Saint Paul leaves to wives the care of the household as their share. This is why many are of the opinion that the wifes’ devotion is more fruitful for the family than that of the husbands who do not ordinarily come into contact with the members of the household and, as a consequence, cannot so easily instruct them in virtue. For this reason, Solomon in his Proverbs makes the happiness of the whole household depend on the care and industry of that strong wife he describes.105

The roots of the public-private issue go as far back as to ancient Greece.106 Although early modern women still did not have formally recognized and legally accepted public power, they were able to negotiate their position in the urban economy in many ways.107 Especially bourgeois women particularly in the northern parts of Europe an integral part of the street view as they conducted their businesses as wet nurses, maids and textile workers or even had a shop or brewery of their own.108 Nevertheless, despite the more positive public role urbanization offered women in practice, the prevailing attitudes of ecclesiastical authorities toward women in public space remained negative.109 An important indicator of negative attitudes toward women and public space was the legislative measures that were taken against non-cloistered women – a phenomenon not yet present in the Middle Ages. The medieval lawmaker does not seem to have been interested 104 See Strasser 2004a, 8–10. 105 Sales 1641, 342. Original quotation: ‘S. Paul laisse en partage aux femmes le soin de la maison: c’est pourquoy plusieurs ont cette veritable opinion que leur deuotion est plus fructueuse à la famille, que celle des maris, qui ne faisans pas vne si ordinaire residence entre les domestiques, ne peuuent pas par cõsequent les addresser si aisément à la vertu. A cette consideration, Salomon en ses Prouerbes fait dépendre le bon-heur de toute la maison, du soin & industrie de cette femme forte qu’il décrit’. See also Bireley 1999, 178–181. 106 See Lefebvre 2000, 286–287, 305–307; Farmer 2003, 264. See also Duby 1985, 518, who also talks about the anatomical explanations given in the issue, and Stuard 1987, 165, for the Aristotelian polarized gender system and the concepts of masculine public space and feminine private sphere, and Classen 2009. 107 See Simonton & Montenach 2013. 108 See e.g. Peacock 2009; Simons 2001, 8; Davis 1998, 19–38. 109 See e.g. Strasser 2004a, 57–85, 149–172.

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in penalising for example the Beguines who were otherwise confronted with significant suspicion.110 Although the aforementioned straight-forward juxtaposition of medieval and early modern legal cultures is to be done cautiously, it is plausible to assume that the tightening of the norms of chastity – including the idea that presence in public space was linked to a woman’s sexual honour – in the Early Modern Period increased the interest of authorities in controlling the women religious visible in public space.111 Ulrike Strasser has suggested that the tightening of the norms was caused particularly by the transformation of marriage from a private contract to a public performance, stipulated by the Council of Trent, causing sexuality to become more severely classified as proper or improper.112 Furthermore, there were also wider societal developments accompanying the decrees of Trent. As Duane Osheim has pointed out, [t]his desire for an elastic, loosely defined status [of a religious laywoman] was running counter to perhaps the most important trend in late medieval society – the movement within both secular and ecclesiastical institutions to define the borders between secular and religious institutions and to define the relationship of individuals to institutions.113

Norbert Elias has likewise suggested in his study The Civilizing Process that the birth of the centralized state in the Early Modern Period affected codes of behaviour and modified the way the interplay of gender, religion and public space were conceived. According to this theory, the notion of civilité stiffened codes of behaviour and reinforced social differentiation.114 As Robert Muchembled has argued, civilized manners were not only of temporal concern and present solely in courtly life but that they were promoted also by religious authorities. Both temporal and spiritual authorities were interested in separating the private or intimate from the public and paid 110 Wiesner-Hanks 2008, 82; Strasser 2004a, 150. 111 The comparison of medieval and early modern lawmaking without taking into consideration chronological and geographical contexts should be conducted cautiously. Generally speaking, marking the Early Modern Period as a watershed does not in all cases match historical reality as medieval laws were often used side by side with the new laws. Furthermore, law in itself cannot always tell us about practical reality. I am grateful for Adjunct Professor Satu Lidman for her insights on the issue. See also Lidman 2018. 112 Strasser 2004a, 113. 113 Osheim 1983, 386. Religious women’s active public lives were received with mixed attitudes already in the Middle Ages. See Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 164; Blumenfeld-Kosinski 1999. 114 Elias 2000.

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special attention to the body and its functions.115 Virgins were to be closely supervised, as ‘[t]he state, like the virgin, was a hortus conclusus, an enclosed garden walled off from enemies’ in need of controlling by the male members of the family, as Peter Stallybrass has argued in reference to early modern England.116 In late renaissance Venice, as the study of Jutta Gisela Sperling has shown, the metaphor of Virgin Mary implied the political purity of the state.117 Thus, it can be concluded that women religious and their virginity was important for the functioning of the polis in early modern Europe, as Ulrike Strasser has argued.118 However, various studies have recently shown that the level of laws, norms and ideas emphasizing the need to supervise women religious and ban their presence in public space did not always match practice. In fact, the reception and interpretation of the decree of Trent was ambiguous in early modern Europe: enclosed nuns would stretch the concept of confinement by exiting their cloister anyway and by keeping up a réseau of social and political contacts with the outside world.119 Nevertheless, religious orders had to deal with the stipulations in one way or another. The Company of the Daughters of Charity were pressed to do this as the unenclosed lifestyle of its members was questioned by the authorities. The Company was forced to confront norms that made the sisters look like they were surpassing the suitable role of a supervised female body in a nunnery. This had the prospects of jeopardizing the stability and integrity of patriarchal structures; their natal households, the Company, the Catholic Church and even the state as a whole.120 I argue that the reply of the Daughters of Charity to this challenge was to make the active calling with everyday obligations in the world resemble more the normative, contemplative vocation. The directors enforced mental enclosure on the sisters by controlling their conduct in public space. Once 115 Muchembled 2006, 160–163. 116 Stallybrass 1986, 129. 117 Sperling 1999, 82–114. 118 Strasser 2004a, 5. The main idea in Strasser’s book is to reveal the role of female virginity in early modern state formation. For a general introduction to the use of body as a metaphor for society, see Wiesner-Hanks 2006, 253–265. 119 For France and lay hospital sisters, see Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 388; for Parisian enclosed convents and their profuse interaction with laywomen due to their retreat practices, see Diefendorf 2001, 478–486; for cloistered nuns’ interaction with the outside world and their agency in Germany, see Strasser 2004a; 2008; Woodford 2008; in Naples, Hills 2008; in Spain, Baade 2008; in England, Walker 2008. 120 Cf. Bicks 2011, 140 in connection to the apostolic sisters founded in 1611 by the Catholic Englishwoman Mary Ward and modelled on the Society of Jesus.

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again, in this the Company was not innovating to create consciously a more liberal lifestyle for religious laywomen. On the contrary, their aim was to create mental enclosure through control. Like their medieval predecessors, discussed below, the directors considered their active vocation merely an adaptation of the enclosed contemplative vocation. At least from the late 1650s onward, the control of the Daughters of Charity began before leaving the communal house in the form of a protective ritual: the sisters were obliged to ‘take holy water and kneel before a picture of Our Lord to ask God’s blessing and the grace not to offend Him. On their return they will do the same to thank Him [...]’, as Vincent de Paul taught.121 Furthermore, the Daughters could never escape surveillance when leaving the motherhouse. They were to have a good reason and permission from the superior for their departure.122 Peer surveillance was also enforced as the Daughters were always to be on the move in pairs,123 and even when talking to a confessor there were always to be witnesses such as another sister.124 These practices were also common among medieval religious laywomen. Italian Dominican penitent women, studied by Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, would, according to their hagiographers, also often have reputable companions with them in an attempt to secure their spiritual purity in the secular world.125 As the study of Tanya Stabler Miller reveals, the statutes of the medieval Beguines of Paris stipulated in an equal manner that the women exiting the beguinage should always do it only by permission of the superior and be accompanied with a trustworthy person.126 When the Daughters were treading the streets, visiting churches, or residing outside houses and especially when they were talking to men, they were to behave modestly, keep their eyes down and avoid looking at people.127 Communication with externs was to be kept minimal and 121 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 108 (16 March 1659), p. 504. French quotation: ‘ elles prendront de l’eau bénite et se mettront à genoux devant l’image de Notre-Seigneur pour demander la bénédiction du bon Dieu et la grâce de ne le point offenser. Au retour, elles en feront de même pour le remercier’. Paul Conférences, 16 March 1659, p. 879. 122 Common Rules in AFC, Alméras 1672, III:5, fol. 12; Paul Conférences, 30 December 1657, p. 748–750. 123 Common Rules in AFC, Alméras 1672, III:5–6, fols 12–13r; Marillac FR, L. 11 (26 October 1639), p. 22; Paul Conférences, 16 August 1640, p. 24. 124 Common Rules in AFC, Alméras 1672, III:7, fol. 13; Paul Conférences, 2 February 1647, p. 204–205; 23 December 1657, p. 739–740. 125 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 88–89. 126 Miller 2014, 39–40. 127 Common Rules in AFC, Alméras 1672, III:2, fol. 10; III:8–9, fols 14–15r; statutes of 1646 in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 428 (20 November 1646), p. 444; statutes of 1655 in

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phrases short.128 Even communication with priests and confessors was to be conducted only in a church or in the entrance hall of a house and never unexpectedly.129 All itineraries also included ‘check-points’ of control in the form of churches: every time passing a church, the Daughters were to go in and show respect to the Blessed Sacrament.130 In this case control was spiritual the supervisor being God. Medieval religious laywomen also used similar practices. The Italian Dominican Penitents would also keep their eyes fixed on the ground or the heavens when walking in the streets, avoid excessive talking or remain completely silent.131 The statutes of the medieval Beguines of Paris stipulated that male visitors, such as confessors, should likewise be received in public places like the refectory or the chapel.132 The directors of the Company of the Daughters of Charity aimed to further reinforce the practices by giving the sisters examples of exceptionally virtuous conduct with men found among their peers. One of the most talented sisters in this regard seems to have been Barbe Angiboust. Once, when a priest wanted to meet her, she asked a sister to tell him that she was not home. De Paul praised this little white lie saying that confidence in the confessor could lead to bad habits due to the maliciousness of human nature. He urged the sisters to keep their room closed just like nuns keep their cloisters shut from the outside world.133 On another occasion when a priest tried to enter her house, Angiboust was applauded to have had no respect humain in defending the Rules. Reportedly she had grabbed the man’s arm saying: ‘What! Monsieur, would you really want to enter a place where there are only sisters!’134 Angiboust was also ready to face physical violence for the sake of order. Once, when the sisters Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p. 681; Paul Conférences, 9 February 1653, p. 393; 18 November 1657, p. 715. See also Bernos 2003, 64–67 on the importance of regulating the sight. 128 Common Rules in AFC, Alméras 1672, III:2, fol. 10; III:4, fol. 11v; III:8, fol. 14; statutes of 1646 in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 428 (20 November 1646), p. 444; statutes of 1655 in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p. 681; Paul Conférences, 16 August 1640, p. 24; 7 August 1650, p. 339; 30 December 1657, p. 747–748; Marillac FR, e.g. L 367 (19 June 1653), p. 419. 129 Common Rules in AFC, Alméras 1672, III:7, fols 13–14r; Paul Conférences, 2 February 1647, p. 204–205; 15 November 1654, p.497–49; 23 December 1657, p. 736, 739–740; Marillac FR, L. 627 (3 September 1659), p. 642. 130 See e.g. Paul Conférences, 16 March 1659, p. 879. 131 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 87–88. 132 Miller 2014, 39. 133 Paul Conférences, 27 April 1659, p. 891–892. 134 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1659, p. 911. French quotation: ‘Quoi ! Monsieur, voudriez-vous bien entrer où il n’y a que des filles !’

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had already gone to bed, one of the priests’ servants wanted to enter the house to light his candle. Angiboust determinedly resisted the attempt of the insistent man who finally hit her. A little bit later he came back to apologize. Angiboust would also vigorously evict lay men and prevent all sorts of people from visiting the house, despite harsh criticism expressed by the expelled. She also worked hard to separate male patients from the female.135 But what was the relationship of the stipulations and examples of ideal conduct to reality? How closely were the Daughters able to follow the image of Mary in their conduct? The answer is: not fully because of practical issues. The notes on the conference of Vincent de Paul in 1656 reveal that hearsay told that some of the sisters had trouble following the rule of avoiding close interaction with men. One problem was the conflict with good manners if communication with the priest was to be conducted at the gate. Another inconvenience was encountered with doctors who for practical reasons were to be let into the chamber to write prescriptions for the patients. In his reply to the sisters, Vincent de Paul insisted that confessors were to be met at the church, and that bells could be installed so that the Daughters could come down to meet the priests instead of them searching for the sisters in their chambers.136

3

Moderate Magdalen: devotional practices and social status

Valuing contemplative ideals and practices and ensuring enclosure-like behaviour in public space were not the only measures taken to accommodate Martha to Mary and create an orthodox image of a good common Catholic woman. In fact, an important part of the moral management activities aimed at the members of the Company was the creation of a particular social image of the sisters, which contrasted with that of enclosed nuns. The following subchapter looks at the significance of learning and bodily mortifications in the Company of the Daughters of Charity and examines how the controlling of these two aspects was critical in managing the morals of the sisters in order to create an orthodox image of them and safeguard the execution of their work. Preventing illusions of grandeur: catechization and education [To] turn this [sophisticated catechization of the poor] into an essential function in the Company of the Daughters of Charity would be to enter 135 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1659, p. 911–912. 136 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 652 (25 June 1656), p. 741–7842.

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on the pathway to its destruction. At the very least, it would divide it into two bodies. Those who would judge themselves capable of this employment would be the dominant group and, in their illusions of grandeur, they would fulfil the functions of Saint Mary Magdalen. They would compromise and they would lord it over those employed in visiting the sick. Little by little, poor girls would be prevented from entering the Company and the others would soon become ladies. This is already the pretence of several sisters.137

As the note of Louise de Marillac written in 1660 reveals, the contemplative ideal of Mary Magdalen – who had been identified as Martha’s sister since the early Middle Ages138 – was considered a less pleasing role model for the Daughters of Charity in relation to the instruction of the poor. The good Daughter of Charity was not to resemble too much the ideal of Mary in her apostolate. This is not say, however, that the saint was renounced altogether; she was, indeed, evoked as a role model, but on other occasions: she was to be considered a model for listening carefully to wise words, for trusting in God for help, for doing penance and for cherishing the poor.139 I suggest that the reason for the rejection of the saint in connection to sophisticated religious teaching was related not only to practical issues but also to the fear of resembling too closely elite nuns. In her writing, Louise de Marillac fears that too intensive engagement with evangelization would leave the poor unattended. This can be interpreted in two ways. First, intensive teaching of the elements of faith would have been time taken away from physical help for the poor. Menial work such as nursing the wounded and feeding the starving was certainly important as the sisters worked in a time with peaking economic and social problems and war. Second, it can also be interpreted as a means to avoid too close resemblance to elite nuns. Susan Dinan has already brought up that for bishops, 137 Marillac EN, A. 100 (1660), p. 832–833. French quotation: ‘Faire un capital de cette fonction dans le Corps des filles de la Charité, est un acheminement à le détruire, ou au moins mettre deux corps en un, savoir que celles qui seraient jugées capables de cet emploi, seraient le corps dominant, exerçant dans leur prétentions les fonctions de Sainte Madeleine, et commettraient et tiendraient au-dessous d’elles qui seraient employées à la visite des malades, et petit à petit, les pauvres f illes n’auraient plus d’entrée à la Compagnie, et le reste deviendrait bientôt les Dames, et c’est la prétention déjà de plusieurs’. Marillac FR, A. 100 (1660), p. 820–821. 138 Saxer 1959; Jansen 2000. 139 Paul Conférences, 31 July 1643, p. 3; 16 March 1659, p. 884; 17 April 1653, p. 405; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 455 (6 August 1647), p. 490.

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catechization was a ministry compatible with enclosure as in the case of the Ursuline and Visitation orders. This meant that too sophisticated evangelization especially in public spaces might have triggered authorities to impose enclosure also on the Daughters of Charity.140 Building on Dinan’s line of thought, I argue that not only the act of catechization itself was a sensitive topic, but also the level of education its execution demanded from the sisters. Intellectually demanding teaching in the footsteps of Mary Magdalen was impossible without high quality education of the future teachers. In my point, the directors paid careful attention also to the level of education of the Daughters of Charity to prevent excessive evangelization. An erudite woman religious was typically a cloistered nun,141 making an ambitious educational programme a potential threat for enclosure. In the Company, the most educated woman was Louise de Marillac. Nevertheless, the extent of her erudition was concealed and her employees were offered only very basic education. Although we know that Louise de Marillac was the author of several important spiritual and theological treatises, these writings were only partially distributed to the sisters142 and omitted completely from the hagiography by Gobillon. The official hagiography does include a fifth chapter called ‘Pensées de Mademoiselle Le Gras, Recueillies des ses Meditations & de ses Conferences,’143 but, as B. Martínez has shown, it is composed mainly of summaries and reformulations of Vincent de Paul’s conferences and includes also invented material.144 As a whole, the f ifth chapter aims to portray the spirituality of Louise de Marillac as strictly orthodox with a practical orientation. The more theological writings deal with rather basic issues such as the mysteries of the life of Christ; the sacraments of Baptism, Penance and Eucharist, and Virgin Mary. Almost as many pages are devoted to the proper spirituality 140 Dinan 2006, 89–93. 141 Although there were, naturally, geographical and individual differences in the depth of erudition, some of the most brilliant female intellectuals were nuns: the German abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), for example, wrote not only about spiritual issues but also about natural history and medicine in addition to composing music and plays. See e.g. Maddocks 2001; McInerney 1998. About medieval female intellectuals in general, see e.g. Winston-Allen 2004; Dronke 1984. In the Early Modern Period, famous erudite nuns included for example the Mexican Hieronymite nun Juana Inés de la Cruz, who wrote philosophical treatises, plays, and composed music (see e.g. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 2005). The founder of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, Teresa of Avila, was declared Doctor of the Church in 1970 as a tribute to her theological treatises (see e.g. Bilinkoff 1989). 142 Charpy 1995, 89–90. 143 Gobillon 1676, V:1–7, p. 188–333. 144 Cited in Delgado 2010.

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and communal life of the Daughters of Charity (for example ‘Pensées sur la vocation des Filles de la Charité’, ‘Pensées sur les voeux’). The curriculum of the sisters included the learning of only the very basic concepts of faith. Teaching was given at the motherhouse although sometimes the sister in charge of the seminary went to the sisters in the parishes. The first two weeks or so were dedicated to learning to say the rosary at the time when the rest of the community began their prayers to the Virgin and Joseph. The first weeks were also the time when the director of the seminary studied the personalities and skills of the newcomers in order to determine together with Louise de Marillac the suitable placement and training of the sisters. Around six o’clock the newcomers were given lessons in their faith, the things necessary for salvation and Christian obligations. During the second month of seminary, the women were taught mental prayer step by step. One article of the Rule was likewise explained to them each day. One o’clock was the time to learn to say ‘Our Father’ or another prayer for those who did not know it. At two, but only for a week’s time, the directress taught about the Sacraments, how to prepare for a good confession and Communion and to respect the confessor. In addition, the sisters were trained to behave properly toward other sisters in order to cherish unity, and always to remember their modest and humble status as servants of the poor.145 Reading and writing seem to have been skills that not all sisters were obliged to learn. The Common Rules, for example, specify that sisters who have been given the right to learn letters can do it for half an hour in the morning and in the afternoon on weekdays and once on Sundays. Furthermore, the Rules state that texts, such as the Rule, should be read or heard read, indicating that not all sisters were assumed to know how to read.146 Given the diverse social composition of the Daughters – many were village girls, daughters of artisans but some also of noble descent –147 it is very likely that the level of literacy varied quite greatly within the Company. Thus, it is not surprising that neither a library nor an inventory of books at the motherhouse has survived from the seventeenth century.148 The letters of Louise de Marillac give some hints of the more erudite reading practices of the sisters – which were, nevertheless, modest. Mandatory reading for all sisters was the Rule, which was to be read or at least heard once 145 Marillac FR, A. 91 bis (between 1633 and 1647), p. 751–753. 146 AFC, Alméras 1672, IX:3, fol. 36r; IX:11, fol. 39v; IX:16, fols 41v-42; IX:18, fols 43v, 44r, 44v. 147 For an analysis of the mixed social backgrounds of the Daughters of Charity, see Peake 2019. 148 According to the archivists at the motherhouse. Some remedy books have survived, but are not considered here as proof of higher intellectual ambitions.

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a month.149 In addition, the only other customary reading were the works of the Bishop of Geneva, François de Sales, and especially his Introduction à la vie dévote.150 The letters of the superior mention also other books which were not, however, obligatory reading but rather suggestions for further reading for able and interested sisters: the Imitation de Notre-Seigneur by Thomas à Kempis151 and the Paroissienne Charitable by ‘Monsieur notre Curé’ Nicolas de Lestoc, published in 1660 which motivates charitable work in very much the same way as the Daughters of Charity did.152 The sisters also had access to common prayer books153 and other spiritual literature such as the saints’ lives, which sister Barbe Angiboust was said to have read to the people of the Hôtel-Dieu.154 I have not found evidence that the sisters themselves composed texts; their mission was primarily practical. Compared to the majority of medieval religious laywomen, the Daughters of Charity were far less educated. For example, Beguines such as Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1207 – c. 1282/1294) and Marguerite Porete (burned at the stake in 1310) were interested in obtaining, composing and circulating religious texts. A book culture also existed at the medieval beguinage of Paris, although no books belonging to these Beguines have been identified. However, there have been tombstones depicting Beguines wearing girdle books, or purse-like book holders, denoting knowledge, learning and wealth.155 In the Low Countries the hagiography of individual Beguines testifies to a high level of education although no library catalogues have survived. On the other hand, the Beguines did not have collective libraries.156 In Italy, on the contrary, Dominican penitent women seem to have been mostly illiterate owning books only exceptionally.157 Likewise, the Beguine communities of Douai and Lille in French Flanders seem to have been illiterate or at least poorly equipped with books – although the situation was the opposite in the neighbouring community of Tournai.158 What explains this radical difference in education between medieval religious laywomen and the Daughters of Charity? I suggest, once again, 149 AFC, Alméras 1672, IX:18, p. 44r; Marillac FR, L. 383 (13 November 1653), p. 433. 150 Sales 1641. 151 Marillac FR, L. 383 (13 November 1653), p. 433. 152 Marillac FR, L. 651 (10 Janaury 1660), p. 668; De Lestoc 1660. 153 Marillac FR, L. 461 (November 1655), p. 491. 154 Paul Conférences, 27 August 1659, p. 893. 155 Miller 2014, 103–109. 156 Simons 2001, 80–85. 157 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 110–120, especially 111. 158 Galloway 1999, 117–118.

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that the answer lies in the confusing positioning of religious laywomen and the pronounced importance of social status in the Early Modern Period. In order to safeguard the work of the Company it was very likely more important than before to create an image differing from the traditionally highly learned nun. From animals toward interior angels: mortification If you want to lead an animal existence, all you have to do is to follow your passions because to live according to your inclinations and disordered affections is to live like an animal. If, however, you want to lead the life of a Christian woman and a good Daughter of Charity, make up your mind to work constantly at mortifying yourself, even if you should have only one more day to live.159

Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac taught the Daughters of Charity consistently since the early 1630s until 1660 about the mortification of the senses. There were exterior and interior senses which were to be continually mortified if one desired to live a good Catholic life. Perseverance was important as the senses were thought to be always alive in the human being; thus, it was a question of subduing the senses, over and over again, day after day, rather than killing them.160 However, just like in the case of education, Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul closely controlled acts of mortif ication in order to manage a social status suitable for the Daughters of Charity balancing between the active and contemplative vocation. According to the directors of the Daughters of Charity, the exterior senses included sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, the interior ones referring to the passions of the soul. Of these interior passions, all together eleven, the most important ones to subdue were love, hate, and despair. In addition, the three faculties of the soul were to be mortified: memory, comprehension, and will.161 Together the senses and passions formed potential windows 159 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 79 (6 January 1657), p. 202. French quotation: ‘Si vous voulez vivre en bête vous n’avez qu’à suivre vos passions, pource que vivre selon les inclinations et affections déréglées, c’est vivre en bête. Mais, si vous vouler mener une vie de chrétienne et de bonne Fille de la Charité, il faut vous résoudre à travailler continuellement à vous mortifier, quand vous n’auriez plus qu’un jour à vivre’. Paul Conférences, 6 January 1657, p. 632. 160 See e.g. Marillac FR, A. 67 (3 Janaury 1655), p. 789; Paul Conférences, 3 January 1655, p. 505, 508; 17 June 1657, p. 652–653. 161 Paul Conférences, 6 January 1657, 629–630.

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for the devil, the world, and the flesh to enter the heart.162 To de Paul, the spirit of the world – the world being described as ‘that big machine that composes the universe’163 – was the spirit of its inhabitants in general, of mundane people who pursued pleasure and vanity leading the soul to total destruction.164 By flesh de Paul was indicating the Pauline idea of the state of human beings after the Fall. In the view of Louise de Marillac, mortification of one’s own judgment will and curiosity benef itted the Company socially by nurturing unity and mutual cordiality among the sisters.165 Mortif ication was deemed, however, particularly important for sexual purity as the Rules mention mortification in the chapter on chastity.166 In the conferences of Vincent de Paul, the mortif ication of sight was considered crucial in regard to the Daughters’ presence in public space. They were not to observe the world too closely particularly in the streets and when meeting people, especially men. They were also to avoid curiosity in church. This was, thus, a means to diminish the activeness of their vocation. Hearing was likewise a dangerous sense through which bad influences were believed to flow into the heart. Hence, the Daughters were to turn their ears away from the slandering of their mission. The prohibition of good smells taught them to keep to their low social status: good odours were not to be enjoyed, and the mere thought of adding scents to clothes or linen was a serious mistake. The mortification of taste helped to cope with the poor diet: the less pleasing bread was to be eaten and a grand appetite was never to be shown at the table.167 Eating and chastity were interconnected issues not only in the spirituality of the Daughters of Charity but also in the work of François de Sales who very likely served as source of inspiration or at least support in the issue. De Sales taught the devout that sex should be conducted like eating: the married couple should not eat for the pleasure of it nor converse about the 162 Paul Conférences, 9 July 1640, p. 15. 163 Paul Conférences, 25 August 1648, p. 293. French quotation: ‘cette grande machine qui compose l’univers’. 164 See e.g. Paul Conférences, 25 August 1648, p. 293. 165 Marillac FR, A. 67 (3 January 1655), p. 788–789. 166 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:11, fols 15v-16. 167 Paul Conférences, 9 July 1640, p. 15–16. See also Paul Conférences, 3 January 1655, p. 507–508; 17 June 1657, p. 651–655; de Paul’s conference in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 652 (25 June 1656), p. 740; and de Paul’s advice to de Marillac on what to teach about mortification to the first Daughters of Charity: Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 107 (end of 1633 – beginning of 1634), p. 102.

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delights encountered at the table, but rather wash their hands and mouth immediately after the dinner to dispose of all the smells and tastes.168 An interesting characteristic in the speeches of Vincent de Paul on mortification is the comparison to animals: he justified the practice of mortification to the Daughters by claiming that it was an important means to ‘subject nature to grace’,169 to fight the animal side in the human being. This comparison was not uncommon, as Erica Fudge has claimed, ‘thinking about humans in the Early Modern Period is thinking about animals’.170 In the case of the Daughters of Charity, the comparison had, however, specific ends: the superior general used the animal as an anti-thesis of the good Catholic common woman in order to strengthen the Daughters’ desire to mortify themselves and maintain their chaste image despite their modus vivendi outside the cloister. Moreover, this rhetorical strategy connects the anthropology of the Company to both centuries-old as well as contemporary philosophical and theological debates on the human nature. Vincent de Paul stated that there were two parts in the human being, an inferior one and a superior one. The former state resembles that of animals who want to eat, drink, move about and rest, or seek after honours and reputation. The superior part resembles that of angels who aspire heavenly things – this part also separates humans from animals such as pigs who physically have the same body parts; lungs, heart and liver, and share the same exterior senses. Unlike pigs, though, humans have the ability to try to master the inferior part that, according to de Paul, has been trying to rule over the soul ever since Adam sinned. When Adam refused to subject himself to God, the soul lost its power to control the passions. The role of mortification, then, was to strengthen reason, and, as a result, help the Daughters to persevere in their vocation. The sisters ‘who are well instructed and exercized in mortification do not obey the inferior part’171, and thus, it will be easier to keep to the rule of not having any visitors in the rooms, getting up early although the night’s rest has not been good and it is cold, going to church to hear Mass, cherish mutual cordiality, and resist the temptation of having possessions.172 168 Sales 1641, 345–349. 169 Paul Conférences, 3 January 1655, p. 504. French quotation: ‘assujettir la nature à la grâce’. 170 Fudge 2006, 186. Fudge’s emphasis. In her book, Erica Fudge looks at the animal in early modern English philosophy especially before Descartes. 171 Paul Conférences, 3 January 1655, p. 506. French quotation: ‘qui sont bien instruites et exercées en la mortification n’obéissent pas à la partie inférieure’. 172 Paul Conférences, 3 January 1655, especially p. 504–507. See also Paul Conférences, 11 November 1644, p. 111. For more of de Paul’s views on the subservient role of animals in relation to man, see Paul Conférences, 7 December 1643, p. 90.

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A likely source of inspiration or at least of support for de Paul was his friend François de Sales who also wrote about the idea of the two-level human soul with the inferior one resembling that of animals. As Hélène Michon has argued, de Sales’ ideas were, however, firmly rooted in tradition and based especially on the thinking of Augustine of Hippo but also of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274, canonized 1323), although already Paul talked about animal bodies and human bodies, heavenly bodies and earthly bodies.173 The two men might have also read the works of the first monastic leaders of late antiquity, such as Basil of Caesarea (c. 329-379), who likewise wrote about the idea of the human as caught between the states of animal and angel.174 The notion of the inferior part of the human soul as bestial and, thus, the connection of animals to undesirable qualities extends its roots, however, beyond late antiquity and, on the other hand, was further developed in the philosophical debates of the seventeenth century. The Bible with its story of the Fall of humankind initiated by the serpent describes the crumbling of harmony between all creatures and the rise of the human being as the master of fauna. There was, however, also a counter-idea, the ‘Edenic vision’ of harmony, running parallel to this line of thought: certain medieval hagiography, such as that of Francis of Assisi, portray animals as holy or even describe saints as taking on the form of an animal.175 Furthermore, de Sales’ Introduction à la vie dévote also includes very positive images of animals, such as of the elephant, ‘the most honourable beast’, whose sexual behaviour was to be imitated in the marital bed.176 Nevertheless, the question of soul distanced man significantly from animals. Christian theologians, influenced by Greek thought and especially Plato (c. 427-347 BC), accorded animals a soul – but merely a material and mortal one attached to the body. Only humans had an immortal and immaterial soul due to their intelligence.177 Thus, as a whole, the animal was conveyed as an inferior, irrational being. In the seventeenth century this idea was further reinforced by René Descartes (1596–1650) and his idea of animal automatism which totally divested animals of psychic capacities. He also denied the possibility of a soul in animals. However, the Early Modern Period was not as Cartesian in its attitudes toward animals as has previously been suggested as Cartesian automatism was challenged especially by Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) and his 173 Michon 2008, 115–129. See also 1 Corinthians 15:38–49. 174 Constable 1996a, 11–12. 175 Lopez 2003, 15–16. 176 Sales 1641, 349. 177 Lopez 2003, 11–20. See also Bynum 1991, 226–227.

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followers. The Gassendists, following Epicurus (341–270 BC) and Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), were ready to accord some level of reason to brutes in addition to sensitivity, memory and imagination in the same way as Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) had done, making animals resemble humans. But as the seventeenth century was not ready to give up the prerogatives assigned to humans by the church, the Gassendists did not grant the animal soul full equality with the human soul. Instead, they successfully promulgated the idea of a two-level human soul incorporating the animal- and the angel-like. This conception also safeguarded scholastic theories and was thus more orthodox than Descartes’ ideas.178 Turning back to Vincent de Paul’s and Louise de Marillac’s teachings on mortification, important to note is the emphasis on interior mortification, which was deemed the most important type of mortification, although both, interior and exterior, practices existed in the Company. This way of thinking had been present in Christian philosophy already since the Early Church, but especially since the twelfth century, partly in reaction against the extreme manoeuvres of some monastic reformers. According to Giles Constable, the writings of twelfth-century theologians form the basis of all later thinking on inner solitude.179 Thus, the Daughters of Charity were, again, following on a path of established tradition, which is something Vincent de Paul taught the Daughters. De Paul aimed to motivate the sisters by saying that all saints were versed in interior mortification and that if the sisters wanted to attain perfection, the mortification of passions, inclinations, and especially of one’s own will were essential.180 In her old age, Louise de Marillac, for her part, wrote in her spiritual meditations that interior mortification came always before the bodily one. In fact, de Marillac saw that sometimes some acts of bodily mortification helped to remain vigilant and perseverant with the mortification of interior passions.181 Chastising the body according to social standing Despite the preference of interior mortification, a regime of corporal austerities also existed in the Company of the Daughters of Charity. As these kinds of devotional practices were typical for contemplative monastic spirituality their existence in the Daughters of Charity gives further evidence of the 178 Lopez 2003, 20–26; Busson 1948, 165–190. 179 Constable 1996c. 180 Paul Conférences, 3 January 1655, p. 507. See also AFC, Alméras 1672, III:11, fol. 16v. 181 Marillac FR, A. 67 (3 January 1655), p. 789.

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significance of the contemplative ideal in the sisters’ vocation. However, bodily mortifications were also a delicate issue to be tackled cautiously in order not to convey a too contemplative image of the sisters. Furthermore, the analysis also sheds more much needed light on the characteristics of female spirituality in the Early Modern Era.182 Corporal practices became regulated in the Company in 1641 when Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul decided on the general guidelines: the Daughters of Charity were to keep to the church fasts and Friday abstinence, and, health permitting, wear the belt Monday mornings and take the discipline on Fridays.183 Voluntariness was emphasized especially with the latter austerity.184 At least by 1672, the times for fasting were further defined in the Rules compiled by René Alméras: the midweek holidays of Christ and the Virgin, every Friday except from Easter to Pentecost, and on the feast days of the patron of one’s local parish, or when there is another fast on the same week. The Daughters were also to do abstinence on all the Wednesdays of the Advent and every Monday and Tuesday of the Quinquagesima (meaning the period starting from the Sunday before Lent and lasting until Easter Sunday or referring to the first week of this period). Exceptions to the rule were made in the case of sick sisters, those doing hard physical work or those nursing the sick poor who were allowed to take a piece of bread or a little bit of something else in the morning as medication.185 The Daughters were also allowed to use hair shirts and to sleep on hard surface186 – although there is evidence of at least one instance in which Louise de Marillac disapproved of sleeping on straw. In 1642, she considered it rather a shadow than reality of mortification, at least in the case of that particular sister in question.187 In addition to general guidelines, penitential practices were also assigned individually.188 Again, at least by 1672 but possibly already during the lifetime of the founders, the Rules ordered that the superior (Louise de Marillac in her lifetime) was to be asked for permission to do ‘ordinary’ corporal austerities, and the superior general (Vincent de 182 Scholars have dwelled widely on the characteristics of medieval women’s spirituality and paid special attention to the role of the body in devotional practices. For inspiring studies, see e.g. Bynum 1988; Bynum 1991; Finke 1988; Lochrie 1991; Kay & Rubin 1994; Hollywood 1995; Hollywood 1999. 183 Marillac FR, L. 66 (7 August 1641), p. 56–57. 184 Paul Conférences, 8 August 1655, p. 533. 185 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:11, fols 15v, 16r. 186 Marillac FR, L. 59 (July 1641), p. 55; Paul Conférences, 9 December 1657, p. 727. 187 Marillac FR, L. 55 (3 January 1642), p. 66. 188 Marillac FR, L. 66 (7 August 1641), p. 56–57; L. 55 (3 January 1642), p. 66.

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Paul in his lifetime) for the ‘extraordinary’, without further definition of the meaning of ordinary and extraordinary.189 However, austerities, as well as other extreme devotional practices, such as ecstasies and raptures during prayer,190 were not to be inflicted on the body too excessively as it might have endangered the execution of the work of the sisters. Extensive devotional rituals would have hindered the carrying out of the demanding practical work with the poor. As the Rules presented, ‘[...] the continual labours of the Daughters of Charity do not allow for them to do a lot of corporal penance and austerities [...]’.191 Louise de Marillac, whose personal regime of mortification during her time as the superior of the Company was likewise moderate,192 also wrote about the inconveniences of strict observance of fasts as it at times complicated the sisters’ work with the sick poor.193 However, I would like to put forward the hypothesis that moderate chastising of the flesh was crucial also in regard to the tension between the ideals of Martha and Mary the Company aimed to reconcile. In fact, the conferences of Vincent de Paul bring forth the image of a seventeenth-century French cloistered nun as a master of bodily mortifications: Look at the Carmelite nuns, who are so austere. They fast eight months a year, do not wear any underwear, get up at midnight, pray almost unceasingly. The Sisters of Saint Thomas do almost the same […]. Their usual dinner consists of a couple of eggs, and, in addition, members of both Orders take the discipline, wear a hair shirt and a cilice very often. The Sisters of Sainte-Marie, although a less austere Order, are obliged by their rules to take the discipline together every week on Friday.194

In another conference de Paul also told the Daughters that the French Carmelites usually did not wear any shoes either, only sometimes sandals. 189 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:11, fol. 15v. 190 Paul Conférences, 2 August 1640, p. 20. 191 AFC, Alméras 1672, III:11, fol. 15v. French quotation: ‘[...] les continuels travaux des Filles de la charité ne leur permettent pas de faire beaucoup de penitences et d’austeritez corporelles [...]’. 192 For a discussion on the devotional path of Louise de Marillac, see Chapter 2. 193 Marillac FR, L. 55 (3 January 1642), p. 66. 194 Paul Conférences, 8 August 1655, p. 533. French quotation: ‘Voyez les Carmélites, qui sont si austères; elles jeûnent huit mois de l’année, ne portent point de linge, se lèvent à minuit, prient presque sans cesse. Les f illes de Saint-Thomas font presque la même chose […]. Leur dîner ordinaire est d’une couple d’œufs, et les unes et les autres se disciplinent, portent la haire et le cilice fort souvent avec tout cela. Les filles de Sainte-Marie, quoique d’un Ordre plus doux, sont obligées par leurs règles de prendre la discipline, le vendredi de chaque semaine, en commun’.

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In Spain they did not even wear sandals and would sleep on straw, in all seasons.195 Noteworthy here is the type of order in question: all of the mentioned groups were reformed. Moreover, de Paul’s speech was not mere rhetoric: Laurence Lux-Sterritt’s study shows that the devotional practices of another fairly recent order connected to the Catholic reform, the Parisian Ursulines after their enclosure, would include sleeping on the bare floor or on a thin straw mattress, flagellation with iron belts and chains and the splattering of one’s blood over the walls of the cell thereafter and immersion in cold water up to the point of hypothermia. The Ursulines would also metaphorically nurse the wounds of Christ by kissing and licking sick people’s wounds and sores excreting pus and blood.196 However, the speeches of Vincent de Paul not only connected spiritual position to extreme bodily austerities but also emphasized social status as they stated that extreme asceticism was typical for nuns of condition. The Carmelites and the Sisters of Saint-Thomas, mentioned above, were all from the elites, ‘accustomed to live a sophisticated life in the world’.197 Thus, the Daughters of Charity were exhorted to avoid extreme practices in order not to convey a too nun-like image; an image that by the seventeenth-century was distinctively an elite one. This connection of social status and enclosure in my source material supports the findings of Elizabeth Rapley, who has found that at least at some point in the seventeenth century elite families put half of their daughters to monasteries.198 An important source for this status-centred thinking in relation to corporal austerities is the Introduction à la vie dévote by François de Sales according to which bodily acts were to be performed. The most important advice was that all Christians were to discipline their bodies, but only according to their social status.199 Moreover, the importance of keeping to one’s social status becomes even more understandable when contextualized with the overall development in mores in the Early Modern Period. The so called Civilising Process (Norbert Elias) and the moral management activities of the seventeenth-century Catholic Church were able to spread also to the populace in the seventeenth century the idea of social segregation by means of control of the body. The higher the rank the more controlled the 195 Paul Conférences, 18 October 1655, p. 550. 196 Lux-Sterritt 2005, 171–173. See also Diefendorf 2004. For an imaginative, queer interpretation of the devotion to the wounds of Christ in the writings of medieval mystics, see Lochrie 1997. 197 Paul Conférences, 8 August 1655, p. 533. French quotation: ‘accoutumées dans le monde à vivre délicatement’. See also Paul Conférences, 11 December 1644, p. 113; 18 October 1655, p. 550. 198 Rapley 2001, 36, 272–273. 199 Paul Conférences, 9 December 1657, p. 727. See also Sales 1641, 147–161.

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body. Thus, absent or moderate corporal discipline was a trait of the lower segments of society and, I argue, the most desirable social identifier to the Daughters of Charity.200 In this respect, Ulrike Strasser’s argument on another unenclosed active congregation from the early seventeenth century is not fully applicable to the case of the Daughters of Charity. According to Strasser, the Bavarian section of the English Ladies of Mary Ward, by means of its communal disciplined life, made the ‘vulnerable’ common female body resemble more that of the elites, which had self-discipline as its leading attribute.201 Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul, on the other hand, were careful not to associate their sisters too much with the elites and avoided the extensive use of corporal austerities.202

4

Superior saint of Jerome – justifying the mixed vocation

The exhortation to accommodate Martha to Mary was a demand that made the creation of images of the Daughters of Charity at times challenging. On the one hand, the previous subchapters argued that the fundamental values, daily rhythm and behaviour in public space were issues in which Mary was to be looked up to. On the other hand, the sisters had to be careful not to imitate her too much: in terms of the image they conveyed of their level of education and practices of mortification, the sisters were to approach the ideal of Martha distancing themselves from the contemplative ideal. This meant that treading the line between Martha and Mary was a difficult task causing sometimes even resistance. Moreover, as there is evidence that the sisters also explicitly desired a more enclosed modus vivendi, it meant that Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul also had justify the mixed vocation in order to safeguard the active mission of the Company and the execution of its moral management activities. The source material shows an extensive discourse of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul on the justifications of the vocation aiming at reassuring the sisters about the orthodoxy and holiness of their vocation. The means the directors employed included a comparison first to nuns and secondly to some of the most orthodox figures in the history of Christianity. 200 More about corporal discipline of the populace in Chapter 4 (on the poor). 201 Cf. Strasser 2004a, 150. 202 See also Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 313–315 writing about corporal discipline after the death of the founders.

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Superior to nuns, equal with first Christians [The Daughters of Charity can] consider their state fortunate and superior to that of religious [nuns]. Not that they should regard themselves as much superior, but I don’t know any religious Company more useful to the Church than the Daughters of Charity, if they really enter into their spirit for the service they can render their neighbor. […] In that you do what Our Lord did.203

Despite the suspicious and blurry status of the Daughters as religious laywomen combining the ideals of both Martha and Mary, the directors of the Daughters of Charity taught the sisters that their vocation denoted unequivocally ‘a gesture of ultimate sacrifice’ to the church. The expression is borrowed from the study of Laurence Lux-Sterritt who has made the same discovery in relation to the ideas of the members of the teaching congregations of the English Ladies and the Ursulines.204 First, Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul claimed that the nature of the vocation demanded much more from the Daughters of Charity than from any other order of the church. The renouncement of self was more complete and more continual: When a nun might want to do something wrong, the grille is closed; she can’t do it; the occasion is removed from her. But no one goes among the people like the Daughters of Charity do and are so much at risk as you, Sisters.205

In the end, both Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac were convinced that the vocation of the Daughters of Charity was more rewarding than that of professed nuns: to have as monastery the homes of the poor was to 203 Paul Conférences, 2 February 1653, p. 385. French quotation: ‘[...] elles estimeraient leur condition heureuse et au-dessus de celle des religieuses. Non pas qu’elles ne doivent s’estimer beaucoup au-dessous; mais je ne sache pas une Compagnie religieuse plus utile à l’Église que les Filles de la Charité, si elles entrent bien dans leur esprit pour le service qu’elles peuvent rendre au prochain. […] Vous faites en cela ce que Notre-Seigneur faisait’. 204 Lux-Sterritt 2005, 179. 205 Paul EN, vol. X, doc. 111 (24 August 1659), p. 527. French quotation: ‘Quand une religieuse voudrait mal faire, la grille est fermée; elle ne le saurait; l’occasion lui en est ôtée. Mais il n’y a personne qui aille parmi le monde comme les Filles de la Charité et qui a tant d’occasions comme vous, mes sœurs’. Paul Conférences, 24 August 1659, p. 899. See also Paul Conférences, 6 January 1658, p. 764, in which de Paul talks about the additional burden the sisters have to bear as they mingle with people of all sorts – unlike nuns. See also Paul Conférences, 30 May 1647, p. 210.

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resemble the way Jesus Christ lived,206 and the good and strong resolutions to lead a virtuous life enabled the Daughters of Charity to become great saints.207 This line of justification and persuasion was by no means a new one. It was present already among religious laywomen of the middle ages: the hagiographers of Italian Dominican Penitents, for example, would emphasise the women’s calling as more demanding and thus holier than that of monastics.208 Birgitta of Sweden, for her part, claimed that it was only by means of combining the active and the contemplative vocations that one could be an ideal Christian.209 The rhetoric in favour of legitimizing the work of the Company did not only include conveying the adapted active vocation as superior to the contemplative one, but contained also historical justification. History was also used to motivate the Ladies of Charity bringing to light, once again, the close cooperation and the two-way relationship of elite women and poorer sisters within the organization. In the discourse of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, work for the poor performed by religious yet non-cloistered common women was something that had not been taken on after the times of the Early Church. Vincent de Paul repeated this idea consistently from the beginning. In 1660, Vincent de Paul elaborated to a Lazarist priest the connection of the mission of the Daughters of Charity to that of the first Christians: [The work of the] Daughters – just like ours – is meant for the salvation and relief of the neighbour. And if I say like ours, I will not contradict the Gospel but rather conform to the customs of the Early Church. Our Lord took care of a few women that followed him, and we see in the Canon of the Apostles that they administered food to the faithful and that they had a relation to the apostolic tasks.210

In his conferences to the Daughters of Charity, de Paul further clarified his point: the sisters were the successors of Virgin Mary, saints Mary Magdalen, 206 Paul Conférences, 24 August 1659, p. 902. 207 Marillac FR, L. 473 (24 April 1656), p. 502. 208 Lehmijoki-Gardner 2005, 15; Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 67–73. 209 Salmesvuori 2014, 50–51. 210 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 783 (7 February 1660), p. 900. French quotation: ‘ ces filles sont appliquées comme nous au salut et soulagement du prochain; et si je dis avec nous, je ne dirai rien de contraire à l’Évangile, mais fort conforme à l’usage de la primitive Église, car Notre-Seigneur prenait soin de quelques femmes qui le suivaient, et nous voyons dans le Canon des Apôtres qu’elles administraient les vivres aux fidèles et qu’elles avaient relation aux fonctions apostoliques’.

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Martha and Mary in addition to Salome, Susanne and Joanna, wife of Chuza, who all humbly served the poor with the love of God.211 In her draft for the Rule from before 1645, Louise de Marillac also described the vocation of the sisters as imitation of the work of the girls and women who helped Jesus and his disciples.212 Paul was also evoked several times in the conferences. For example, social hierarchy was to resemble that written about by Paul.213 Likewise, also the Common Rules emphasised the first Christians as role models especially in poverty.214 Vincent de Paul seems to have been particularly keen on comparing the whole organization – the Congregation of the Mission of Lazarist priests, the Ladies of Charity and the Daughters of Charity all together – to the times of Augustine of Hippo. As Vincent de Paul taught the sisters, Augustine gathered around him a group priests, girls and women with the aim of reviving the spirit of the Early Church. Apparently the superior general was making a reference to the monastic communities under Augustine’s supervision. De Paul made the Augustine community a model for the Daughters especially in relation to poverty: no one had any personal possessions as all property was given in the hands of the superior and shared.215 ‘Well, if this was done in the times of saint Augustine, is it not reasonable that we do the same?’ de Paul inquired.216 De Paul would also reinforce the teachings in his conferences by praising late sisters who, in the superior general’s mind, exemplified the virtuous spirit of the Early Church in such a manner that Jerome himself, de Paul was convinced, would have written about the lives of the women if he had known them. For example, a sister who would get up from her own sickbed to tend to the poor would have been, in de Paul’s mind, worth an entry in Jerome’s martyrologue.217

211 Paul Conférences, 19 July 1640, p. 14. 212 Marillac FR, A. 54 (before 1645), p. 723. 213 Paul Conférences, 2 February 1647, p. 201. For other references in the Conférences to the Daughters of Charity as post-Early Church ‘pioneers’, see for example Paul Conférences, 5 July 1640, p. 10–11; 16 August 1640, p. 25; 13 February 1646, p. 166; 6 January 1658, p. 764; 9 June 1658, p. 801. 214 AFC, Alméras 1672, II:1, fol. 4v. 215 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 658 (27 July 1656), p. 752; Paul Conférences, 20 August 1656, p. 603–604; 26 August 1657, p. 675. 216 Paul Conférences, 20 August 1656, p. 603. French quotation: ‘Or, si, du temps de saint Augustin, cela s’observait, n’est-il pas raisonnable que nous le fassions ?’ 217 See for example Paul Conférences, 25 December 1648, p. 304; 23 December 1657, p. 746; 9 June 1658, p. 801–802.

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Discourse in the same vein was offered also to the Ladies of Charity to encourage them in their patronage of the Daughters of Charity. De Paul declared that up to the times of Charlemagne (768–814) there had been a tradition of deaconesses obtaining a public role in church by means of taking women to church and instructing them. This custom ceased, as de Paul put it, due to the secret working of Divine Providence, leaving women without a role for eight hundred years or so. Everything changed, however, in the seventeenth century when Divine Providence restored women the possibility of helping the poor gain salvation, de Paul and de Marillac both declared.218 In comparison to the discourse intended for the Daughters of Charity, the talk to the Ladies of Charity emphasized slightly more the educative role of the women in helping the poor. This is in line with the more erudite and spirituality-oriented nature of their work as discussed in above in Chapter 2. The question of medieval predecessors and early modern models The abundant comparisons to Early Church figures as role models is rather perplexing as the study has revealed several incidences in which the practices of the Daughters of Charity resembled those in use by medieval religious laywomen. Why did Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul ignore the medieval tradition? For example, Vincent de Paul would talk about Catherine of Siena, but never in connection to her active vocation.219 Furthermore, a medieval saint especially important for Louise de Marillac was Birgitta of Sweden, a famous proponent of the combined modus vivendi of both Martha and Mary.220 She was never, however, discussed in connection to the active lifestyle. The superior general also offered the medieval king Louis IX (1226–1270) as a model for charity work,221 but never mentioned the king’s relationship to the Parisian Beguines who received royal recognition in 1254. As the study of Tanya Stabler Miller has shown, the beguinage had close ties not only to the royal court, but also to the university and local industries, up to the 1480s when Louis XI (1461–1483) decided to transfer it

218 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 198 (11 July 1657), p. 809–810. See also Louise de Marillac’s speech to the Ladies in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 558 (August 1653), p. 623 and Goyau 1918, 14–15. 219 Paul Conférences, 22nd January 1646, p. 158, 161. See also section 2 above. 220 See Salmesvuori 2014, 50–51. Louise de Marillac owned a copy of Birgitta’s Vita. See Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 255 (1639), p. 237. 221 Paul Conférences, 31 July 1634, p. 9.

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to a group of Franciscan tertiaries called the Filles de l’Ave-Maria.222 Despite their tertiary status, the nuns seem to have lived in strict enclosure.223 Moreover, seventeenth-century Paris housed also other semi-religious communities, which could have served a more practical example for the Daughters of Charity. There were for example religious confraternities called charités in which men and women had nourished the needy since the late middle ages. Likewise, the Italian penitent movement emphasizing charitable deeds had been established in Paris in 1583.224 There were also so called grey sisters and black sisters that had been serving the poor in hospitals and in the homes of the poor since the late middle ages. Colin Jones emphasizes, however, that these communities were few and little known.225 Likewise, the Filles de Sainte-Avoye, founded in the late thirteenth century, and the Haudriettes from the early fourteenth century maintained hospices for poor widows without subjection to a formal Rule.226 Barbara Diefendorf has also pointed out that the charity work by elite women had models and predecessors in the sixteenth century.227 But if the Daughters of Charity themselves did not acknowledge the medieval tradition in their vocation, is it completely irrelevant to point out the ways in which the Company resembled this tradition? Indeed, this line of thought seems to have been adopted by very many early modernists who repeat the discourse of the sources: the active vocation is presented as a novelty that offered unprecedented possibilities to seventeenth-century women outside the enclosure of the monastery.228 I would like to suggest that the dismissal of medieval role models was very likely deliberate and constituted yet another means to safeguard the work of the sisters and, thus, the execution of the moral management activities among the poor. In fact, the discharge of all tradition after the first Christians has been a common place in the history of Christian reforms, including also those of the early modern period, both Protestant and Catholic.229 This was the case also with the hagiographers of medieval religious laywomen who, nevertheless, 222 Miller 2014. 223 See Diefendorf 2004, 52, 56–58. 224 Venard & Bonzon 2008, 57–60. 225 Jones 1989, 95. 226 Diefendorf 2004, 51–52. 227 Diefendorf 2004, 229. 228 See for example Dinan 2006, 57, 61; Lux-Sterritt 2005, 179; Diefendorf 2004, 14; Brockliss & Jones 1997, 271; Rapley 1990, 6; Jones 1989, 90; Liebowitz 1979. 229 For the use of the teachings of the first theologians as defence in the Catholic reform, see Keen 1997. For the use by the Protestants, see the articles by Manfred Schulze (on Luther), Irena Backus (on Zwingli and Bucer) and Johannes van Oort (on Calvin) in Backus 1997.

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would also emphasize the eremitical tradition as a model for the lifestyle of their penitents.230 In a like manner, I believe the directors of the Daughters of Charity dismissed medieval tradition in order to promote the sisters’ vocation as orthodox and to criticize post-Early Church customs up to the birth of the Company. One source of inspiration for this was very likely François de Sales who used the practices of the Early Church as an argument in favour of keeping the Visitation order unenclosed.231 Furthermore, de Paul explicitly motivated the success of the mission of the Daughters of Charity particularly in the seventeenth century by the spiritual crisis of the church. Speaking to the Lazarist priests in August 1658, the superior general was very worried about Oliver Cromwell’s (1599–1658) anti-Catholic action first in England, Scotland, Ireland and now also in Flanders. Four Daughters of Charity were sent to Calais the same day.232 The tightening attitudes toward religious laywomen at the eve of the early modern period very likely further explain the absence of medieval role models in discourse. On the other hand, the discharge of contemporary religious lay communities – and, in fact, of almost all non-reformed enclosed orders as discussed in III.2, above – by Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul might also lay in the fact that the communities truly were far from an imitable state. According to Barbara Diefendorf, before the monastic revival, there were only few nunneries in Paris and its vicinity with only one of them being well ordered: the Filles de l’Ave-Maria, housed in the former beguinage (somewhat ironically). Diefendorf has suggested that the Filles de l’Ave-Maria was able to maintain its original vocation due, for example, to its location within the city walls safeguarding it from the pillages of armies, and, as a consequence of the strict observance of the vow of poverty which insulated it from fluctuations in prices and rents.233 Although the conferences of Vincent de Paul on imitable role models are dominated by Early Church characters, the superior general did also make references to some carefully selected early modern personae conforming to the practices of the militant Catholic Church. This, I suggest, further strengthened the image of the Company as conforming to official Catholic doctrines. One such imitable character was Pope Clement VIII (1536–1605), 230 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 72–73. 231 Rapley 1990, 37. 232 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 725 (4 August 1658), p. 831; Paul Conférences, 4 August 1658, p. 827–828. 233 Diefendorf 2004, 51–58.

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who had helped to put an end to the Wars of Religion. De Paul claimed that he had said that whoever lived in a community and observed the Rules had nothing to fear.234 Another early modern role model was Marie de l’Incarnation, or Barbe Acarie, the elite Parisian dévote who established the Discalced Carmelites in France and, after the death of her husband, joined the order also personally. 235 De Paul praised her for advancing very far in perfection by means of relating the content of her prayer to her maid.236 Leaving the rhetoric of orthodox tradition aside, there is also another contemporary point of reference to keep in mind. Although not that much puffed in the writings of the directors of the Daughters of Charity themselves, recent scholarship has suggested that the capital of the Catholic Church and its institutions were significant in the creation of the Daughters of Charity. This shows that the directors not only wanted to present the Company as an approved Catholic community but that at heart it truly also was a creation modelled on orthodox institutions. Barbara Diefendorf and Alison Forrestal have argued that the whole Congregation of the Mission with its subdivisions (the Daughters of Charity and the Ladies of Charity) was most importantly modelled on the Hospitaller order of St. John of God. Founded by the Portuguese João Duarte Cidade (1495–1550, canonized as John of God in 1690) in Spain around 1535, the confraternity of lay brothers aimed to help the sick and mentally ill. After Cidade’s death, Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585) allowed a hospital to be established in Rome in 1584. Hospitals were erected likewise in Naples, Milan and Florence. The confraternity became recognized as a religious order following the Augustinian rule in 1596. Queen Marie de’ Medici invited the order, the Frères de la Charité, to Paris in 1601. By 1660, the Frères directed fifteen hospitals in France. Vincent de Paul’s first encounters with the order date to the first decade of the seventeenth century when he visited the hospital in Rome and helped the patients of the Frères in the faubourg Saint-Germain. A further manifestation of the superior general’s close ties with the Company was the royal donation of 15 000 livres to the order given in the name of de Paul in 1611. De Paul was very likely linked to the donation due to his work in the hospital of the order and his position as an almoner of one its principal patrons, Marguerite de Valois (1589–1599).237 Six years later, 234 Paul Conférences, 31 July 1634, p. 6. 235 See for example Diefendorf 2004, 77–100. 236 Paul Conférences, 31 July 1634, p. 3. 237 Forrestal 2009, 190–196; Diefendorf 2004, 207–208.

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when establishing the first Charity for women in Châtillon-les-Dombes238, de Paul declared: ‘The confraternity will be called the confraternity of Charity, in imitation of the hospital of Charity in Rome’.239 In one of his early conferences, de Paul also mentions Italian sisters hospitallers and their laudable formula of vows.240 Alison Forrestal has argued that by imitation de Paul was not merely referring to the adoption of the name charité but also to the practices of the Frères de la Charité. Forrestal’s close inspection and comparison of the two rules shows that de Paul did, indeed, base his rule on that of the Frères. The rules even share small details such as the order of the two main meals. The rules diverge, however, in situations where it was not convenient or necessary for the non-religious women of Châtillon to follow the Augustinian rule made for hospital circumstances.241 Noteworthy is, likewise, the gender of the followers of the Rule: de Paul adapted a male rule to a female community. For example, François de Sales also held exemplary a Roman institution, but it was a female community, the Tor de’ Specchi. Founded by Frances of Rome (1384–1440, canonized 1608), the members of this Benedictine Oblate congregation did not follow strict enclosure, made only simple vows and focused on charity work.242 Despite the plausible argumentation of Forrestal and Diefendorf, I believe there is still one domestic role model, which should be given more credit: the Visitation order. As has already been discussed in III.2, above, the order, among all contemporary orders, was by far the most important point of reference in the conferences of Vincent de Paul. The writings of Louise de Marillac, on the other hand, testified to close cooperation with the order on a daily basis. Furthermore, Nicolas Gobillon in his hagiography on Louise de Marillac in 1676 is explicit on the issue as he dedicates a whole chapter on the subject. He begins the account by stating that in the beginning the Visitation order was unenclosed and composed of a group of ladies who wanted to help the poor under the direction of Madame de Chantal and under the name Filles de la Visitation. According to Gobillon, the organization caught the 238 The town is situated close to Lyon and Mâcon and is known today by the name Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne. 239 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 126 (November and December 1617), p. 423. French quotation: ‘Ladite confrérie s’appellera la Confrérie de la Charité, à l’imitation de l’hôpital de la Charité de Rome’. 240 Paul Conférences, 19 July 1640, p. 17. 241 Forrestal 2009, 193–195. 242 Rapley 1990, 36; Stopp 2002, 122–123. See also http://www.tordespecchi.it/public/index. php?Storia:Il_monastero (13 August 2019).

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attention of the Archbishop of Lyon only after it had grown and spread, and, as a result, became transformed into an enclosed community. The hagiographer describes the reaction of François de Sales, consenting to the will of the prelate, as an expression of extraordinary humility and trust in divine Providence. However, God soon showed his true will, as Gobillon put it, by letting the original mission of the Visitation order vanish only to bring it to life in another community, the Daughters of Charity. ‘The work planned by the holy bishop’, he concluded, ‘was carried out by Vincent de Paul, and God used his ministry to form, under the direction of Mademoiselle Le Gras, the Daughters of Charity which had been begun under the guidance of Madame de Chantal’.243 Before assessing the account further, it is important to note here that Gobillon’s view of the phases and original mission of the Visitation order differs from the conception present scholarship has on the subject.244 The value of Gobillon’s narration is not diminished by inaccuracy, however, as the main idea remains unquestionable: he considered the Daughters of Charity as the heir, if not even a more authentic version of the great order. And as mentioned above, this was not only dishonest image propping, but something that echoes with the thoughts of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul present in the source material. On the other hand, Louis Abelly’s hagiographies of Vincent de Paul, written in 1664 and 1667, trace the origins of the Company to the Confréries de la Charité with no reference to the Visitation order.245 Could it be that nine years were significant in the portrayal of role models? What if it was possible only for Gobillon, writing in the 1670s, thus, several years after the official recognition of the Daughters of Charity, to finally acknowledge the Salesian inspiration and criticize the Visitation order as a failure in regard to the original mission Gobillon supposed it had? Of course, the fact that Vincent de Paul himself named the HispanoRoman Hospitaller order of St. John of God as the model for the Confréries de la Charité weakens the argument. However, I would like to suggest that perhaps also this was imitation: de Paul might have named the Roman 243 Gobillon 1676, IV:4, p. 168. French quotation: ‘[I]l fit achever par Vincent de Paul, l’ouvrage dont ce saint Evêque avoit tracé le plan; & il se servit de son ministere, pour former sous la conduite de Mademoiselle le Gras la Congregation des filles de la Charité, qui avoit été commencée sous la direction de Madame de Chantal’. 244 See Diefendorf 2004, 174–183 who argues that the original mission of the Company was not as active as has been traditionally believed and that, as a result, the shift to enclosure was not such a radical event. 245 Abelly 1664, I:24, p. 110; Abelly 1667, I:29, p. 209.

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institution as the model for his confraternity in imitation of the example given by the bishop of Geneva leaning on the Tor de’ Specchi. The two men did meet, after all, around the time de Paul was crafting his set of Rules, that is, around 1618 or 1619. De Paul might have chosen a male community instead of the female one referred to by de Sales for strategic reasons: as the Visitation order had been enclosed since 1615, de Paul might have planned to avoid the same fate by naming a male order as model.

4

Portrait of the Underprivileged: Managing the Ignorant Substitute of Christ Abstract The fourth chapter tackles the means and contents of moral management aimed at the poor the Company of the Daughters of Charity helped. Focusing on the ideas and attitudes of the Company toward their benefactors, the chapter examines prejudice and love as motives in charity work and argues for the prevalence of the latter. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the contents of this moral management and finds that only a certain group of people were helped, the so called deserving poor, who were educated to become chaste and working members of society. This was not only in line with contemporary thinking of social order, but also part of the survival strategy that separated the order from erudite cloistered orders. Keywords: poor relief; social inequality; social order; saintly poverty; lower strata of society; education

[Sister Marie Lullen] had great charity toward the little children she was in charge of instructing. […] I saw her kissing their feet a couple of times, saying that she thought she was kissing the feet of infant Jesus.1 […] [Sister Barbe Angibouste] had a great affection for children and said that she saw little Jesus in them. She never complained about the trouble she went through for them and even held them in her arms in the night if there was no cradle.2 1 Paul Conférences, 9 December 1649 (?), p. 355. French quotation: ‘[Sœur Marie Lullen] avait une grande charité pour les petits enfants qu’elle était chargée d’instruire. […] Je lui ai vu quelquefois baiser leurs pieds, disant qu’elle pensait baiser les peids de l’enfant Jésus’. 2 Paul Conférences, 27 April 1659, p. 895. French quotation: ‘[Sœur Barbe Angiboust] avait grande affection pour les enfants et disait qu’elle regardait en eux le petit Jésus, ne plaigant

Peake, R.-M., The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789462986688_ch04

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The previous chapters have analysed the organizational backgrounds and ideals attached to what it was to be a good Catholic inside the Company of the Daughters of Charity. It is now time to turn to the most explicit target group of moral management: the poor who were the raison d’être of the Company. It was dedicated to their loving care as is visible in the memoirs of virtuous sisters quoted above. Susan Dinan and Elizabeth Rapley have discussed extensively the contents of the teaching and orphanage service provided by the Daughters of Charity and other teaching congregations of the century.3 This chapter will, thus, mainly focus on the ideological level and attitudes of the Daughters of Charity toward the poor and connect it to wider contemporary ideas of social order. It asks, what was good Catholic life like in the margins of society? What were the motives for the work and, thus, what kinds of attitudes did the Company attach to the target group of their benevolence and why? Furthermore, the chapter also discusses how these attitudes and ideals were related to the survival of the Company of the Daughters of Charity. The chapter opens with a discussion on the attitudes conventionally attached to seventeenth-century poor relief and examines the significance of prejudice in the work of the Daughters of Charity. Subchapter two, then, turns to opposite attitudes and explores the idea of Imitatio Christi and the point of view of self-sacrifice in the moral management. The chapter is concluded by an assessment of the image of the ideal underprivileged Catholic the Company aimed to create and promote.

1

Ignorant soul to be saved: motivation through prejudice

Before plunging into the details of the moulding of the ideal poor Christian, the overall attitudes and motives of the moral management pursued by the Daughters of Charity and aimed at the poor deserve an analysis. Why did the Company want to help the poor? A widespread but challenged argument about poor relief and charity in the seventeenth century is that created originally by Michel Foucault and supported later by many other scholars: the authorities wanted to get the marginal populace out of sight by means of locking them up in special institutions in defence of public order and in disgust of uncontrolled

point sa peine pour eux, jusques à les tenir la nuit entre ses bras, faute de berceau’. 3 Dinan 2006, 82–117; Rapley 1990; 2001.

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masses. 4 Thus, seventeenth-century poor relief has been seen for a long time as connected to the power structures of the society. Prejudice was indeed an integral (although not the sole) part also of the mission of the Daughters of Charity and, thus, an element impossible to dismiss in this discussion. Catholic conversion to gain salvation As the Common Rules of the Daughters of Charity state, the main reason for the existence of the Company was the physical and spiritual assistance to the poor.5 In this, the Daughters of Charity were sharing in a long Christian tradition. Although the Beguines of medieval Paris seem to have pursued a rather intellectual active apostolate among the clerics of the Sorbonne,6 or at least that is how surviving source material portrays them, charity work was fundamental to the calling of medieval religious laywomen. The Italian Dominican penitent women also aimed to alleviate sufferings from thirst, hunger, homelessness, nakedness, or destitution. This fits into the biblical frame which is found in Matthew 25:35–36.7 In the Low Countries, on the other hand, charitable endeavours were central to the Beguine calling until the end of the Ancien Régime.8 However, the conferences of Vincent de Paul testify that for the Daughters of Charity physical aid was only secondary to religious education: It is indeed something to help the poor in terms of their body. However, in reality, it was never the plan of Our Lord when he created your Company that you would only take care of the body, because we do not lack people for doing that. In fact, the intention of Our Lord was that you help the souls of the sick poor. […] A Turk, an idolater, can assist the body. This is why Our Lord had to establish a Company for this single purpose, nature obliging enough to do it.9 4 Foucault 1972. See e.g. Strasser 2004b for a general overview of recent scholarship in this vein. This view has also been further advocated in a recent monograph on French history from 1629 to 1715 by Drévillon 2011, 84–93. 5 AFC, Alméras 1672, I:1, fol. 1. 6 Miller 2014, 81–125. 7 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 109. 8 Simons 2001, 76–80. 9 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 687. French quotation: ‘C’est bien quelque chose d’assister les pauvres quant à leur corps; mais, en vérité, ce n’a jamais été le dessein de NotreSeigneur en faisant votre Compagnie, que vous ayez soin du corps seulement; car il ne manquera pas de personnes pour ce sujet; mais l’intention de Notre-Seigneur est que vous assistiez l’âme des pauvres malades. […] Un Turc, un idolâtre peuvent assister le corps. Voilà pourquoi Notre-Seigneur

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As the quotation above reminded the sisters, the poor were primarily to be seen as souls to be mended rather than malnourished bodies to be fed. Thus, nursing and feeding the needy was only done to prepare them for the Catholic conversion, which is an important difference in relation to the principles of poor relief in the twenty-first-century welfare state. The principal was not, however, a unique one in seventeenth-century France: it was also promoted in the charity work of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement.10 The priority of spiritual service seems to have been a central issue in the Company from rather early on, or at least starting from the time of institutionalisation: Vincent de Paul talks about the practice for the first time in 1640, Louise de Marillac in 1645.11 However, the official statutes and regulations of the Company of 1646 (approved by the Archbishop of Paris) and 1655 (approved by Cardinal de Retz) do not make this distinction; the corporal and spiritual service are described as practices to be preferred to all personal devotional exercises but are not in any way compared to each other.12 Thus, it seems like the importance of spiritual service was voluntarily played down in official contexts, perhaps, I would like to suggest, to convey a lay image in contrast to the enclosed vocation. On the other hand, preaching and teaching were not typical for women, and, thus, the directors might have wanted to avoid over emphasizing catechizing in public contexts. Despite the official wordings, spiritual service was a very important element in the everyday life of the Company. The Daughters were taught that spiritual issues could be approached whenever and wherever meeting the poor. For example, Barbe Angiboust, one of the most appreciated Daughters of Charity, would sometimes draw an audience of up to 60 listeners at the Hôtel-Dieu in the faubourg Saint-Denis. Girls and women would come to hear her lessons in catechism and at times also her reading of the lives of saints.13 n’aurait eu que faire d’instituer une Compagnie pour cette seule considération, la nature obligeant assez à cela’. 10 Gutton 2004, 21; Tallon 1991; Tallon 1990, 145. 11 Paul Conférences, 19 July 1640, p. 14; Marillac FR, A. 124 bis (around August 1645), p. 131. Other mentions: e.g. Paul Conférences, 9 March 1642, p. 40; 13 February 1646, p. 170; 19 October 1659, p. 906; 11 November 1659, p. 908; Marillac FR, L. 160 (October 1646), p. 181; A. 100 (in 1660), p. 821. See also e.g. Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 695, in which De Paul prays to God, ‘the real physician’ (‘le vrai médecin’). 12 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 428 (20 November 1646), p. 445; doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p. 682. 13 Paul Conférences, 27 August 1659, p. 893.

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Spiritual education could also be given discretely amid everyday encounters with the destitute. In one of his conference on the Common Rules de Paul suggested a couple of icebreaker phrases for these kinds of situations: Well, my brother, how were you thinking of making the trip to the other world? […] Well, my child, you surely want to unite yourself with God, don’t you? You surely want to make a good confession to dispose yourself to dying in a good way, don’t you? You surely want to go see Our Lord, don’t you?14

Vincent de Paul also instructed the sisters in the style with which the poor were to be addressed. He advised them that spiritual discussions should always be conducted with great prudence and patience. Information should be delivered little by little and the listeners should be compared to little children at the teat: ‘you see, they are given to drink only a little at a time’.15 The comparison to children is a common place for the superior general: in the same conference he taught that in devotion the poor are children (‘enfants en dévotion’), albeit also great persons, the members of Jesus Christ. Later in the same text he stated that the poor who have not been instructed in spiritual matters are, in effect, just like sixteen-year-olds: — Does not matter, there is no salvation without that [instruction in spiritual matters]. Saint Thomas and Saint Augustine say that there is no salvation for a soul that does not know that there is a God in three persons, that the second one was incarnated, and the other main things it has done for the benefit of our salvation.16

Whereas the poor, whether truly or symbolically minors, were to be perceived as children, the sisters were to adopt a motherly role. They were to treat their patients with kindness, cordiality and compassion, listening to their little 14 Paul Conférences, November 11 1657, p. 686. French quotations: ‘Eh bien ! mon frère, comment pensez-vous faire le voyage de l’autre monde ? […] Eh bien ! mon enfant, ne voulez-vous pas bien vous unir à Dieu ? Ne voulez-vous pas faire une bonne confession générale pour vous disposer à bien mourir ? Ne voulez-vous pas bien aller voir Notre-Seigneur ?’ 15 Paul Conférences, November 11 1657, p. 686. French quotation: ‘ vous voyez qu’on ne leur donne à boire que peu à la fois’. 16 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 688. French quotation: ‘— N’importe, il n’y a point de salut sans cela. Saint Thomas et Saint Augustin tiennent qu’il n’y a point de salut pour une âme qui ne sait pas qu’il y a un Dieu en trois personnes, que la seconde s’est incarnée, et le reste des principales choses qu’elle a faites pour notre salut’.

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complaints ‘like a good mother should do, because they [the poor] see you as their wet nurse mothers and as persons sent from God to assist them’.17 In comparing the sick poor to children and the daughters to mothers, Vincent de Paul was undeniably placing all of them on a social ladder. The sisters were standing tallest and knew what was best for the poor standing below them. In Foucauldian terms, de Paul was creating otherness and enforcing social differentiation.18 In this sense, the motive behind the management of morals was coloured by prejudice in the form of spiritual motherhood which was an ideology much promoted by contemporary philosophers and theologians and which had medieval roots.19 Furthermore, the idea that the poor were helped because of personal salvation is likewise vividly present in the source material: Oh, my sisters, what a joy it is that God has offered you such a saintly assignment! Is there anything more beautiful and more amiable than a person who leaves everything to give herself completely to God for the service of the poor! Oh, how beautiful that is! If we could see a Daughter of Charity who serves well the sick, who takes care of their salvation, who works as much as she can for her perfection, to make herself pleasing to God, my sisters, […] there is nothing more beautiful than that soul. We do not see that right now, but we will in heaven.20

Vincent de Paul’s 1657 conference quoted above was by no means the only instance where the ideology of personal salvation through poor relief was 17 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 686. French quotation: ‘comme une bonne mere doit faire; car ils vous regardent comme leurs mères nourrices et comme des personnes envoyées de Dieu pour les assister’. Spiritual motherhood in the case of orphans, see also 7 December 1643, p. 88. 18 Foucault 1972, especially 56–123, 373–400. 19 For spiritual motherhood in the Early Modern Era, see Brockliss & Jones 1997, 268. For the medieval roots, see e.g. Bynum 1982, especially p. 110–169. Influential literature for the directors of the Company in the issue was very likely that of François de Sales and Madame Fouquet, or Marie de Maupéou (1590–1681), a friend of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul, who edited and published a collection of pharmaceutical recipes. See e.g. Marillac FR, L. 307 (June 1651), p. 356 and Fouquet 1685. 20 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 688–689. French quotation: ‘Ah ! mes sœurs, quel bonheur que Dieu vous ait donné un si saint emploi ! Qu’y a-t-il de plus beau et de plus aimable qu’une personne qui quitte tout pour se donner entièrement à Dieu pour le service des pauvres ! Oh ! que cela est beau ! Si nous pouvions voir une Fille de la Charité qui sert bien les malades, qui a soin de leur salut, qui travaille de tout son pouvoir à sa perfection, pour se render agreeable à Dieu, mes sœurs, […] il n’y a rien de beau comme cette âme. Nous ne le voyons pas maintenant, mais nous le verrons au ciel’.

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present. In fact, the ideology cut across the early years of the Daughters of Charity. The first mention appears in the 1634 conference by de Paul. The first reference to the topic in the writings of de Marillac is found in a letter to two sisters serving at Richelieu in 1639. Both of them return to the subject several times during the following two decades.21 The same idea is repeated in the Common Rules. They remind the sisters that in order to save their souls and receive all the rewards God has granted to the servants of the poor, they must always keep in mind three virtues: all exercises, corporal as well as spiritual, and especially when serving the poor, were to be performed in the spirit of humility, simplicity and charity. The Daughters were also promised an increase in their merits for their hard work.22 The emphasis on personal salvation stemmed from the canons of the Council of Trent. In their meeting, the heads of church conf irmed the tradition of good works performed personally as an important means of salvation.23

2

Jesus nursed: motivation through love

The belittling of the poor, the agenda of Catholic conversion and the assigning of an instrumental role to the poor in the quest for personal salvation are undeniably prejudicial elements in the moral management of the Daughters of Charity. However, the subject that received most attention in the writings and teachings of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul was love as the greatest motivation behind the activities. In fact, not only the Daughters of Charity, but also other prior and contemporary communities attached sanctity to poverty. Indeed, the Company, following the tradition of perceiving poverty as a holy state, assigned to the poor the most central role as members of Jesus Christ. By helping the poor, the Daughters imitated the work of the Saviour. In what follows, the study is building on revisionist scholarship by scholars such as Jean-Pierre Gutton and Alain Tallon. Gutton has pointed out that the numerous charitable organization run by pious women proves 21 Paul Conférences, 19 July 1634, p. 14–15; 31 July 1634, p. 1, 6; 13 February 1646, p. 170; 30 May 1647, p. 211–212; Marillac FR, L. 11 (26 October 1639), p. 20; L. 131 (in 1646), p. 759; L. 347 (1 June 1651), p. 353; L. 398 (16 February 1654), p. 440; L. 618 (30 April 1659), p. 634; L. 620 (13 May 1659), p. 636. 22 AFC, Alméras 1672, I:1, 3–4, fols 1, 2v-3r. 23 The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent 2011, 6: canons 11–12, 24, 32, p. 43–46.

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that the spiritual and temporal care of the poor was a honourable task in seventeenth-century France.24 Tallon has brought to light the religious but also contradictory motives by means of examining the charity work of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement.25 Saintly poverty in the early modern context The respect the Daughters of Charity showed toward the underprivileged was not unique – in fact, there are plenty of representations of the saintliness of the poor in early modern culture suggesting that prejudice, although it unarguably existed, was only one side of the coin. The tradition of depicting the underprivileged as holy is rooted in early Western Christendom, but it was not until the late twelfth century that the dichotomist idea of poverty sharpened signif icantly, as Jean-Pierre Gutton has argued. As rural traditions began to break, economic crises ravaged communities and urbanization gained more momentum, but negative attitudes toward poverty in general strengthened and formed a sharp contrast to the idea of saintly poverty.26 Many great preachers and theologians of the seventeenth century promoted the saintly image of the poor and of poverty. As mentioned in the chapter on the image of Louise de Marillac, voluntarily changing one’s lifestyle from affluence to poverty was a means to perform saintliness for the dévotes. One promotor of this practice was François de Sales. As Jean-Pierre Gutton has brought to light, Bossuet, for his part, preached that the poor have the right to claim the excess riches and live off the fortunes of the wealthy. Bossuet explained his thesis by saying that in the beginning God had given all people equal rights to the goods necessary for survival. The desire to accumulate riches destroyed this harmony and led to fights over property. Bossuet also stated that the poor represented Christ on Earth. Similar ideas are found also among such theologians as Jean Le Jeune (1592–1672) and Jean-Baptiste Massillon.27 In addition, secular literature dealt with the question of saintly poverty. A passage in the Journal of the diarist and collector Pierre de L’Estoile, declares that the chasing of the poor out of Paris is the same as driving God 24 Gutton 1970, 375. See also Gutton 2004. 25 Tallon 1991; 1990. 26 See Gutton 1970, 215–218 for a general discussion on the double tradition. See also Mollat 1966. 27 Gutton 1970, 365–367.

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away. Likewise, the Serées of the collector and writer Guillaume Bouchet (1514–1594) states that it is better to give alms to two or three false beggars than not to give any to a true beggar. The subject is addressed in the speeches of the physician and journalist Théophraste Renaudot (1586–1653) who makes one of the debaters in his text remind the others about Christ’s words: one’s afterlife is dependent on one’s generosity in alms to the poor.28 Not only literary culture, but also early modern art provides evidence for the positive and respectful attitude toward the poor. Art historians have traced a development towards a moralistic understanding of poverty and a will to educate the populaces in distinguishing between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ poor. Robert Jütte has noted that since the sixteenth century depictions of the poor started to centre on the moral and physical condition of the pauper. Thus, the objects of the tableau were portrayed as begging or in an otherwise pathetic condition. Earlier, artists denoted impoverishment most often by a physical deformity and, hence, the disabled man was a commonplace.29 The paintings of the French artist Sébastien Bourdon (1616–1671) offer an example of rather repugnant or ambiguous depictions of the poor and incorporate a certain moralistic dimension (for example Halte de bohémiens or Les Mendiants, at the Louvre). On the other hand, an interesting characteristic in some early modern artistic depictions of the poor is the broad landscape evoking the idea of freedom of the impoverished. Sometimes physical liberty was also combined with mental freedom from social obligations as marginal populace was portrayed in the middle of cheerful merry-making.30 In relation to the saintly portrayals of the poor, the Le Nain brothers deserve a special mention. Paris-based since 1630, the siblings Louis, Antoine and Mathieu collaborated in a series of paintings, miniatures and portraits that charmed contemporaries. For the case of the Daughters of Charity, the most interesting series of paintings are the ones depicting poor peasant life which, as Pierre Deyon has aptly analysed, are very religiously charged, and, as I would like to add, provide a lesson in Catholic morality among the underprivileged. In the most famous tableau Famille des paysans dans un intérieur and especially in the quickly and widely copied Repas des paysans (both found in the Louvre), the focus is on a familial gathering of poor people around a table. Instead of a realistic depiction of rustic cuisine, the composition incites a religious interpretation. 28 Gutton 1970, 362–363. 29 Jütte 2001, 14–17. 30 Jütte 2001, 18–19.

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Especially in the Repas the meals consists solely of wine and bread – a symbol of the Eucharist, which was one of the central doctrinal focuses of the Catholic revival. The central figure, very likely the father of the family, holding onto his chalice, is depicted as enlightened by the playing of the violin by presumably his son. The painting brims with a sense of dignity and piety.31 Jean-Pierre Gutton has also brought forth the motives of several groupements charitables, or charitable organizations of the dévots, which were likewise interested in approaching poverty in ways other than that of confinement.32 In fact, members of one of these groups, the dévots of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, not only considered the poor as a danger to social order, but also saw them as images of Jesus, as the research of Alain Tallon has revealed.33 For example the hagiography of sœur Marguerite du Saint-Sacrement (née Parigot, 1619–1648), a Carmelite closely associated with the Compagnie,34 claims that the nun had suffered because of the contempt shown toward the deprived. In fact, she had claimed that as the poor were never haughty or ostentatious, the Son of God had made them his images.35 The case of the Daughters of Charity offers a deeper understanding of the attitudes of these groups toward the poor. This means examining extensively the discourse of saintly poverty in one of the most influential charitable organizations in seventeenth-century France functioning (almost completely) outside the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement and formulating its value system during the first half of the century. The Daughters of Charity in imitation of Christ As for your conduct toward the sick, may you never take the attitude of merely getting the task done. You must show them affection; serving them from the heart; inquiring of them what they might need; speaking to them gently and compassionately; procuring necessary help for them without being too bothersome or too eager. Above all, you must have great care for their salvation, never leaving a poor person or a patient without having uttered some good word.36 31 Deyon 1967a, 141–147. 32 See Gutton 1970, 370–393; Gutton 2004. 33 Tallon 1990, 141–146. 34 See also Marx 2005, 1152–1153. 35 Amelote 1655, V:6, p. 188–192. 36 Marillac EN, A. 85 (1647), p. 773–774. French quotation: ‘Pour ce qui est de votre conduit vers les malades, oh ! qu’elle ne soit pas par manière d’acquit, mais très affectionnée, leur parlant et

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The mission to gain personal salvation was not the only central concern for the Daughters of Charity: they genuinely also aimed to save the souls of the poor through their moral management activities. A lot of attention was likewise paid to the kind treatment of the poor, as is made obvious in the letter quoted above and written by Louise de Marillac to the sisters in the newly established community of Montreuil in 1647. In fact, it was advice that de Marillac repeated over and over again in her letters to the members of the Company, especially in the 1640s.37 It was also an attitude coherently promoted by Vincent de Paul38 and consolidated in the official regulations of 165539 as well as in the Common Rules40. The cordial, kind and loving treatment of the poor was one of the main virtues of a Daughter of Charity, 41 and also a frequently reported one in the case of deceased sisters. 42 The motive for compassionate service is worded vibrantly in the spiritual meditation of Louise de Marillac composed in 1657: I shall strive, with the help of His grace, to overcome my idleness and to make use of a practice which was recommended in a reading: to regard all occasions for doing some good for my neighbour not only with a view to the recompense which God has promised as such acts are considered to be done to Himself, but also in light of the idea that Our Lord has been substituted by my neighbour by means of a love which His goodness knows and has made heard to my heart, although I am not able to say it.43 les servant de cœur, vous informant très particulièrement de leurs besoins, leur parlant avec douceur et compassion, leur procurant sans être importunes, ni empressées, le secours de leurs nécessités, mais surtout ayant un grand soin de leur salut, ne sortant jamais d’avec un pauvre, ni malade sans leur avoir dit un bon mot’. Marillac FR, A. 85 (1647), p. 766. 37 Marillac FR, A. 91 (after 14 June 1643?), p. 735–736; L. 124 bis (around August 1645), p. 131; L. 144 (July 1646), p. 153; L. 200 bis (1647), p. 208; L. 251 (18 June 1649), p. 290; L. 352 (around the end of 1649), p. 302. 38 See e.g. Paul Conférences, 31 July 1634, p. 4; 19 August 1646, 175–187; 9 February 1653, p. 391; 11 November 1657, p. 686; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 487 (April 1647), p. 544. 39 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p. 680. 40 AFC, Alméras 1672, VII:1, fols 26v-27r. 41 See e.g. Marillac FR, L. 547 (around August 1642), p. 81; L. 390 (around 1650), p. 315–316; L. 361 (June 1653), p. 420; L. 578 (1658), p. 601. Paul Conférences, 9 December (s.a. but after 1650 when Anne de Gennes, one of the sisters treated in the conference, died), p. 355. 42 Paul Conférences, 15 January 1645, p. 118 (Jeanne Dalmagne); 9 December (s.a. but after 1650 when Anne de Gennes, one of the sisters treated in the conference, died), p. 355 (Marie Lullen), 357 (Marguerite Bossu); 27 April 1659, p. 895 (Barbe Angiboust). 43 Marillac FR, A. 26 (1657), p. 810. French quotation: ‘ J’essaierai moyennant sa grâce de me tirer de mes paresses, et de me servir d’une pratique qu’une lecture m’a enseignée: de considérer toutes les occasions de faire quelque bien à mon prochain que ce ne soit pas seulement en vue

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The poor were, thus, treated with utmost care because of the spiritual conviction that they were the substitutes of Christ. This principle was also made a key element in the Common Rules: ‘it is not so much to them [the poor] they are rendering service than to Jesus Christ [...]’. 44 In fact, the poor were to be treated as lords to whom the Daughters were submissive. 45 This was, and still is, one of the central concepts in the so called Vincentian spirituality, and has its scriptural basis especially in the New Testament. 46 The concept is present in the remaining conferences of Vincent de Paul coherently from the beginning all the way up to the late 1650s, 47 and in the writings of Louise de Marillac from the early 1640s onwards. 48 Furthermore, the Rules also reminded the sisters that they should not expect to be treated any better than their masters, that is, the poor, not even during illness. 49 In effect, the ideology of serving the poor in honour of Jesus was one of the most established ideologies within the Company: Louise de Marillac wrote about the importance of giving oneself to the service of the underprivileged in the image of Jesus Christ as early as around 1633 50 and altogether 21 times. For example, in 1644, she reminds the sisters in Angers that the beautiful virtues of charity and gentleness are nurtured in the individual by treating the underprivileged in the image of Christ.51 Nine years later, she rejoices in a reply to sister Jeanne Delacroix (entered the Company 1645): ‘Oh, how true it is that souls who seek God will find Him everywhere but especially in the poor! How I cherish your thoughts on this subject! They gave me great cause to praise God’.52 Later in 1657 in de la récompense qu’il promet comme si on le faisait à lui-même, mais que ce prochain m’est subrogé en la place de Notre-Seigneur par un moyen d’amour que sa bonté sait lui-même, et qu’il a fait entendre à mon cœur, quoique je ne le puisse dire’. 44 AFC, Alméras 1672, VII:1, fol. 26v. French quotation: ‘ce n’est pas tant à eux qu’à Jesus-Christ qu’elles rendent service [...]’. 45 AFC, Alméras 1672, II:1, fol. 4v. 46 For example Matthew 5:2–11; 25:34–40. See also Maloney 1995, 7–8, 19–20, 88. 47 Paul Conférences, e.g. 31 July 1634, p. 5; 2 August 1640, p. 20; 14 July 1643, 79; 11 November 1657, p. 696. 48 Marillac FR, L. 441 (June 1642), p. 76; L. 200 bis (in 1647), p. 208; L. 284 bis (4 May 1650), p. 319; L. 341 (17 February 1652), p. 389; A. 44 bis (possibly in the 1650s), p. 774. 49 AFC, Alméras 1672, II:6, fol. 8r. 50 Marillac FR, A. 8 (around 1633), p. 715. 51 Marillac FR, L. 104 bis (26 July 1644), p. 112. 52 Marillac EN, L. 292 (5 November 1653), p. 431. French quotation: ‘Oh ! qu’il est vrai que les âmes qui cherchent Dieu le trouvent partout, mais particulièrement dans les pauvres. Que j’aime votre pensée sur ce sujet, elle m’a donné sujet de louer Dieu’. Marillac FR L. 292 (5 November 1653), p. 430.

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a spiritual writing, de Marillac hopes to imitate the Saviour as much as possible in the person of the poor and all people close to her.53 The conferences of Vincent de Paul show likewise that the principal was a commonplace and a practice consistently taught. For example, in March 1642, he made the Daughters give him motives for serving the poor. This was, in fact, a typical teaching method for Vincent de Paul who would often begin the conference by naming the subject of it and then ask his listeners to explain the meaning of the subject to him. For all of the sisters, the idea that they were serving Christ in the poor was a very strong motive: The f irst motive, said one sister, is that the poor have the honour to represent the members of Jesus Christ, who considers services done to them as done to him. The second [motive] is that the souls of the poor have in them the image of God, and therefore we must honour the Holy Trinity in them. […] The thought that the poor are members of Our Lord was a strong motive for all of them [the sisters] to serve them [the poor] with more concern and charity than ever. […] And [one] sister, like most of the others, was very humiliated, thinking about the grace God had bestowed on her calling her to such a saintly vocation.54

In fact, helping the poor for the love of Christ and in His image was not only typical for the Daughters of Charity. It was already practiced by the Ladies of Charity who always had Jesus as their patron saint, in addition to Virgin Mary.55 Nor was it a practice born in the early seventeenth century, as it was common to the religious laywomen of the Middle Ages too. As Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner has showed, Italian Dominican penitent women would also understand that they were nursing Jesus Christ in the poor and imitating His passion in their work.56 53 Marillac FR, A. 26 (1657), p. 809. See also de Marillac’s letter to sister Barbe Angiboust in 1655 on the same subject: Marillac FR, L. 424 (around May 1655), p. 466. 54 Paul Conférences, 16 March 1642, p. 41–42. French quotation: ‘’Le premier motif, dit une sœur, est que les pauvres ont l’honneur de représenter les membres de Jésus-Christ, qui tient les services qu’on leur fait comme faits à lui. Le deuxième, que les âmes des pauvres ont en elles l’image de Dieu, et partant que nous devons en eux honorer la Sainte Trinitié’. […] La pensée que les pauvres sont membres de Notre-Seigneur a été pour toutes un puissant motif de les server avec plus de soin et de charité que jamais elles n’ont fait. […] Et [une] sœur, comme la plupart des autres, s’est fort humiliée, en pensant à la grace que Dieu lui avait faite de l’appeler à un si sainte vocation’. See also e.g. Paul Conférences, 19 July 1640, p. 13; 18 October 1655, p. 549, 551. 55 See e.g. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 2 (November 1617), p.  3 (regulations for the charity of Châtillon); doc. 30 (1630), p. 31–32 (regulations for the charity of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet). 56 Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 106–110.

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Contrary, it seems, to medieval mentalities, the Daughters of Charity considered their charitable service to be more than merely a spiritual exercise and, thus, were also concerned with the impact of their efforts on the beneficiaries.57 Furthermore, Imitatio Christi, or the desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ who voluntarily remained poor and personally helped the underprivileged, is a centuries-long central idea behind all spiritual vocation. Devotion to the humanity of Christ surpassed meditation on the deity of the Saviour in terms of popularity as early as in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This was also the time when Christ outstripped all other role models and became the most important ideal for the Christian way of life.58 A real trend in the imitation of Christ was, however, experienced in the age of affective mysticism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by which time the devotional idea had filtered down from the ecclesiastical elite to the masses.59 Early modern Catholicism further embraced the imitation of Christ as a central devotional practice. In France, especially Pierre de Bérulle contributed to the creation of a Christocentric spirituality by the 1620s.60 In the case of the Daughters of Charity, the theology of François de Sales ruled over that of de Bérulle.61 It was especially de Sales’ image of Christ that appealed to Vincent de Paul the most. As Hugh O’Donnell has noted, de Bérulle’s God was too far away – contrary to the conviction of de Paul of seeing God in every action and face, especially in those of the poor.62 De Paul also adopted from de Sales the important concept of l’amour affectif – l’amour effectif, affective versus effective love. The first type of love refers to love of the heart toward God or one’s children, for example, whereas the second denotes love with acts. An example of this given by Vincent de Paul is a father who has two children. He shows affective love to the younger one by caressing him and playing with him. The older sibling does not receive the same warmth from his father but receives effective love: he is made the inheritor, meaning that the father shows him love through the act of inheritance arrangements.63 57 Cf. Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 123. 58 Constable 1995, 169, 175, 179–180. 59 Duffy 1992, 234, 265; Kieckhefer 1987, 112, 118. 60 Bergin 2009, 317–318. 61 For a discussion of the role of de Bérulle and de Sales in the spirituality of Vincent de Paul, see Chapter 3. 62 O’Donnell 1994. 63 Paul Conférences, 24 February 1653, p. 395–396 (for one of many examples); Dodin 1960, 128–133; Maloney 1995, 163–165.

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In general, Imitatio Christi took on two forms of devotion: the bodily and the spiritual, which were not mutually exclusive. This can be seen in the spirituality of the Daughters of Charity whose spiritual exercises included meditation on the sufferings of Christ and the physical imitation of them in daily life by means of dedication to poverty and the service of the poor. In theological terms, one interpretation of the idea behind the imitation of Christ is that it was a means to gain a personal understanding of the ordeals of Christ who suffered for humankind as an act of love. This leads to the conclusion that God is love. Through Imitatio one was supposed to appreciate fully the human trials of Christ and hence his human nature. The next step was, ideally, that one would start wondering about the reason for the voluntary bearing of such scourges. This consideration, in turn, would lead one to realize the immense dimensions of the love Jesus showed to humankind, which was a sign of His divine nature. By understanding the motivation for this love, the Resurrection was to be comprehended as a joy and bliss, not only for Christ but also for all human beings after death.64 An enlightened practical example of applying the idea of the Imitatio Christi is the work of the Daughters of Charity with children. In his conference to the Daughters of Charity, Vincent de Paul expressed clearly his opinion about this kind of work: Your vocation [helping children], like that of the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu, is one of the greatest I know of in the Church. And God has chosen you, poor ignorant young women, for such a great work. Don’t be so amazed at this to the point of feeling proud of it; for, as a rule, God chooses the most uncouth and unsuitable persons to do great things.65

As de Paul put it, the running of the orphanage was one of the greatest occupations in the whole church. Furthermore, the narratives of the virtues of deceased sisters contain incidences from practical life attesting to it. For example, Marie Lullen was said to have valued greatly the task of teaching small children: sometimes she even kissed the little feet saying that she was kissing the feet of Jesus.66 Sister Barbe Angiboust was likewise praised 64 Ross 1993, 48–51; Kieckhefer 1987, 89. 65 Paul EN, vol. IX, doc. 16 (7 December 1643), p. 114. French quotation: ‘Votre vocation, avec celle des religieuses de l’Hôtel-Dieu, est des plus grandes que je sache en l’Eglise. Et Dieu vous a choisies, vous pauvres filles ignorantes, pour un si grand œuvre. Ne vous en étonnez pas au point d’en avoir de l’orgueil, car c’est l’ordinaire que Dieu choisit les sujets les plus grossiers et les plus incapables pour faire de grandes choses’. Paul Conférences, 7 December 1643, p. 93. 66 Paul Conférences, 9 December 1649 (?), p. 355.

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for having special affection for taking care of children: she would never complain about her painstaking efforts with them and would even hold them in her arms the whole night if there was no cradle available. She too saw Jesus in the children.67 It seems like discipline at the schools and with the enfants trouvés was fairly moderate compared to the child-rearing practices in contemporary pious families. The daughters of Barbe Acarie, alias Marie de l’Incarnation, for example, praised their mother for having trained them to total submissiveness and negligence of their own will. The eldest daughter Marie related that when she was ten her mother would make her eat repeatedly a particular food she disliked until she could eat it without showing any sign of distaste. Marie’s sister Marguerite received an even harsher training as her mother had noticed spiritual tendencies in her very early on. To accustom Marguerite to mortification, Acarie would feed her only the crudest food. Whenever the child betrayed too great an appetite for the nourishment, Acarie would take her plate away, make her stand by the table and watch the rest of the family eat.68 Furthermore, the attitude of the Daughters of Charity towards children confirms the views of current scholarship on views on early modern childhood. After the studies of the French historian Philippe Ariès claiming that parental instincts were missing among medieval parents,69 and his English colleague Lawrence Stone, arguing that affective intimacy in parenting did not spread to all segments of society before the nineteenth century,70 recent scholarship, using a broader range of sources, has showed that children were valued and had a precious role in the life of early modern families. In fact, the turn to naturalism in Italian painting during the Renaissance brought to the front the affective intimacy of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, and early modern authors produced excessively manuals on upbringing and education.71 The case of the Daughters of Charity confirms this line of argument and shows that the Catholic Reformation had a positive impact on the issue by advancing devotion to the suffering Christ. This was reflected in the way the women religious cherished children as images of Christ. Serving the poor in the image of Christ created, I argue, an ethics surpassing the Foucauldian scheme. Through Imitatio Christi the Daughters 67 Paul Conférences, 27 April 1659, p. 895. 68 Diefendorf 2004, 72–73. 69 Ariès 1960. 70 Stone 1977. 71 Miller & Yavneh 2011, 3–5.

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were very likely able to create a personal and committed relationship to their beneficiaries. This devotional principle also assigned the poor a very important and precious role adding a touch of humanness and altruism to the motives of moral management. Self-sacrifice and philosophical motives Another argument contra the idea of moral management as an expression of aversion toward the deprived masses is that of self-sacrifice. Looking at the way the members of the Daughters of Charity were willing to risk their own health and safety for the poor, it is plausible to claim that love had more to do with the issue than prejudice. The burden taken on by the sisters was heavy already in normal circumstances. In times of crisis the hardship was extreme. The letters of Louise de Marillac from the turbulent civil war year of 1652 testify to the severe situations the sisters put themselves in – voluntarily. Sometime in July de Marillac reported to Vincent de Paul about the panic in the motherhouse caused by the troops of the prince of Condé (Louis II de Bourbon-Condé, 1621–1686) and of the King Louis XIV marching by: Several of our sisters would very much like to make their confession today, and I fear a priest from Saint-Laurent will not be available to us. If that be the case, I beg you to do us the charity of sending us one this afternoon.72

The sisters were also struggling with feeding their starving little foundlings. There was no wheat in the neighbouring villages, but due to dangerous roads the sisters were afraid to travel further to buy it. In addition, Louise de Marillac was pondering whether to do as the majority of their neighbours and move out of the quartier. She was, however, hesitant to make the Daughters travel the dangerous roads to safer places without food.73 The shortage of food also forced the sisters to make morally difficult decisions. In July, Louise de Marillac received a tearful sister working for the galley slaves: she had been asked to compose a list of prisoners to be excluded 72 Marillac EN, L. 348 (July 1652), p. 398. French quotation: ‘Plusieurs de nos Sœurs souhaiteraient bien se confesser aujourd’hui, et je crains que nous ne puissions avoir de prêtre de Saint-Laurent. Si cela ne se peut, je vous supplie nous faire la charité de nous en donner après-dîner’. Marillac FR, L. 348 (July 1652), p. 396–397. For more about the difficult situation in Paris, see also Marillac FR, L. 353 (11 June 1652), p. 395. 73 Marillac FR, L. 348 (July 1652), p. 397.

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from help.74 It was also the duty of de Marillac to let down the Daughters from other parishes and regions asking for help from the motherhouse. There were unprecedented numbers of impoverished people and a decreasing number of sisters as many of them fell ill and died. Even before the civil battles, between 1633 and 1642, more than one in ten sisters died young in their twenties or thirties.75 In a letter to Sister Julienne Loret residing in Chars, de Marillac wrote in 1652: I am greatly distressed by our dear Sister Philippe’s illness, both for your sake and hers. I am likewise dismayed at not being able to send any one to relieve you because, apart from the difficulty of the roads, we have never had so few sisters and been so pressed to send them to various areas. We just cannot furnish sisters because of the soup we are distributing everywhere. Here, nearly 2 000 bowls are served to the shamefaced76 poor. The same is being done in all parts of the city. Three or four of our sisters are very ill […]. I recommend all of them to your prayers. I also ask you to pray for the repose of the soul of our dear deceased Sister Perrette, the elder, who died in the care of our sisters at the Hôtel-Dieu, a week after she was taken there because of her apprehension at staying here.77

The imitation of God served as an important motivation for the Daughters who helped the deserving poor despite the suffering. A Daughter of Charity was to identify with the passion of Christ – although suffering should never be an end in itself and self-imposed crosses were to be avoided.78 Other stimulus arose from the theological-philosophical explanation given for crisis: war and other horrors were basically caused by the sins of humanity. According to Louise de Marillac, suffering along with their masters, the poor, 74 Marillac FR, L. 408 (11 July 1652), p. 398. 75 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 183. 76 Translation by author. Available translation reads ‘bashful’. 77 Marillac EN, L. 349 (14 July 1652), p. 401–402. French quotation: ‘J’ai grande douleur de la maladie de notre chère Sœur Philippe, et pour vous et pour elle; et un grand déplaisir de ne vous pouvoir envoyer personne pour vous soulager car, outre la difficulté des chemins, nous ne fûmes jamais si pauvres de filles, et si pressées d’en bailler en plusieurs endroits que nous saurons y fournir, à cause des potages que l’on fait partout. Il s’en fait chez nous près de 2000 écuellées pour les pauvres honteux, et ainsi en tous les quartiers. Nous avons trois ou quatre de nos Sœurs bien malades […]. Je les recommande toutes à vos prières, et le repos de l’âme de défunte notre chère Sœur Perrette l’ancienne, qui est trépassée avec nos Sœurs de l’Hôtel-Dieu, huit jours après qu’elle y fut menée, à cause de l’appréhension qu’elle avait chez nous’. Marillac FR, L. 349 (14 July 1652), p. 400. 78 See the discussion in Maloney 1995, 37–44.

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was only fair. Besides, she continued, all of us are obliged to bear our share of the scourges God inflicts on humanity in general. The ways of Divine Providence must always be honoured and accepted. The evil question ‘why me?’ should be avoided at all times, since the sisters are God’s chosen ones and will anyway in the end receive many graces.79 In a letter from June 1652 de Marillac offers the following words of consolation to the sisters in Brienne: In the name of God, my very dear Sisters, do not be impatient with your trials, and at seeing yourselves as receiving no other consolation but God’s. […] In fact, you will see a great amount of misery that you cannot relieve. God sees it as well and does not want to give those who suffer greater abundance. Share their trials with them; do all you can to provide them with a little assistance and remain at peace. Perhaps you share in this need; in that is your consolation because, if you had plenty, your hearts would be troubled to use it while seeing our lords and masters suffering so. Since God chastises His people for our sins, is it not reasonable for us to suffer with the others? Who are we to think that we should be exempt from public evils?80

Sin was also offered as an explanation for illness. In his conferences, Vincent de Paul instructs the sisters to explain to the sick poor that illness was sent to them by God who wanted the sisters to intercede, ‘since often in health we only work for the benefit of the body without any concern for our salvation’.81 Again, De Paul offers advice on a very practical lever by suggesting convenient phrases to be pronounced to the sick: My dear brother or My dear sister, in your great pains think about those of the Son of God, pray him to unite yours with his and to offer them to his Father for your sins. 79 See e.g. Marillac FR, L. 341 (17 February 1652), p. 389; L. 210 bis (6 May 1652), p. 393. 80 Marillac EN, L. 353 (11 June 1652), p. 396. French quotation: ‘Au nom de Dieu, mes très chères sœurs, ne vous ennuyez pas de vos peines, ni de vous voir sans consolation que de Dieu. […] Et bien, vous voyez quantité de misères que vous ne pouvez secourir. Dieu les voit aussi et ne veut pas leur donner plus grande suffisance. Portez avec eux leurs peines, faites votre possible pour leur donner quelque peu d’aide, et demeurez en paix. Peut-être que vous avez votre part de la nécessité; c’est là votre consolation, car si vous aviez abondance vos cœurs auraient peine d’en user, et voir tant souffrir nos (Seigneurs) et nos Maîtres. Et puis, Dieu châtie son peuple pour nos péchés, est-il pas raisonnable que nous souffrions avec les autres ? Qui sommes-nous, pour nous croire devoir être exemptes des maux publics ?’ Marillac FR, L. 353 (11 June 1652), p. 394. 81 Paul Conférences, 16 March 1642, p. 43. French quotation: ‘car souvent dans la santé nous ne pensons qu’à travailler pour la vie du corps et n’avons aucun soin de notre salut’.

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[…] My dear patient, […] consider also that God has allowed your body to fall ill in order to heal your soul [...]. […] You see, my brother, this illness that God has sent you will perhaps help you avoid the pains of hell that last for eternity.82

This philosophy of crisis – that horrors were caused by the sins of humanity – also applied to the directors of the Company. In a letter to de Paul in July 1652, Louise de Marillac was devastated. She was convinced that her sins, the indolence of her spirit included, were the cause of the desertion of the Company as almost all of the sisters in the parishes of Paris were sick and many had died.83 The philosophy of crisis upheld by the Daughters of Charity echoes in some respects German nuns’ explanations for the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War. Charlotte Woodford, looking at the history writing of the Cistercian abbess Elisabeth Herold living near Augsburg and the Dominican nun Maria Anna Junius living close to Bamberg, has argued that the two women were influenced by the belief in evil forces, Divine Providence and neo-stoicism. Bad things happened because of the play of evil forces in the world and the will of God and were to be dealt with constancy.84 Peace of mind and steadfastness is also something Louise de Marillac advised the sisters to acquire in Brienne in 1652. Stoicism was revived and rendered compatible with Christianity by Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) in the wake of the French Wars of Religion of the sixteenth century and became a central element of early modern European thought.85 Although there are no direct references to Lipsius or stoicism in the sources for the Daughters of Charity, it might as well be that Lipsius’ ideas had also reached the Company. Philosophy and religion were not, however, the only refuge and comfort for the Daughters of Charity. In fact, despite their belief in Providence and the obligation to bear with constancy the sins of humanity, the two founders 82 Paul Conférences, 16 March 1642, p. 43. French quotation: ‘Mon cher frère ou Ma chère sœur, dans vos grandes douleurs pensez à celles du Fils de Dieu, priez-le d’unir les vôtres aux siennes et de les offrir à son Père pour vos péchés […]. Mon cher malade, […] [s]ongez aussi que Dieu a permis que votre corps soit malade pour la guérison de votre âme […]. Voyez-vous, mon frère, cette maladie, que Dieu vous a envoyée, vous aidera peut-être à éviter les peines de l’enfer, qui dureront une éternité’. See also Paul Conférences, 11 November 1657, p. 687. 83 Marillac FR, L. 408 (11 July 1652), p. 398. 84 Woodford 2008, 256–260. 85 Papy 2011.

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did not hesitate to take also practical measures and exploit their impressive social network. In a tragic letter, yet again from the year of the Fronde of the Princes, Vincent de Paul thanks Madeleine de Lamoignon (1608–1687) and her brother Guillaume (1617–1677), who held a high position at the Parlement, for their arrangements to better accommodate the foundlings disturbed by the fighting of the prince of Condé and the royal army. From the eleventh to 12 May 1652, the troops of the prince of Condé and of the King fought in the faubourg Saint-Denis in northern Paris in the district of the Hôpital des enfants trouvés. Seeing men being killed in front of their eyes, the wet nurses panicked. They decided to flee the house and take only the infants along. The older children, sleeping in their beds, were left behind.86 Later in the same year, de Paul also solicited the Pope himself asking him to intervene in the ever-worsening situation in France.87

3

Creating the ideal underprivileged to protect the Company: substance of the moral management

Turning from the motives and attitudes related to the moral management pursued by the Daughters of Charity to the contents of the activities and the means by which it was disseminated, it is time to ask what was the good underprivileged Catholic like in the mind of the Company and why? The following subchapter analyses the target group of the benevolence and looks at what the poor were taught: in general wherever they were met, and, secondly, in schools and at the orphanage. Only shamefaced The most explicit phrasing of what a good poor Catholic was like is found in the opening of the Common Rules which describe the target group of the benevolence: the Company only catered for the sick, children and prisoners in addition to ‘[...] other who because of shame do not dare to express their needs’. 88 This wording shows that for the Daughters of Charity there were different groups of people, some of which were eligible for education in morals and thus, salvation, whereas others, those 86 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 540 (14 May 1652), p. 607. 87 Paul FR, vol. IV, doc. 1539 (16 August 1652), p. 455–457, French translation p. 458–459. 88 AFC, Alméras 1672, I:1, fol. 1. French quotation: ‘[...] autres, qui par honte n’osent faire paroistre leur nécessité’.

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who were ‘shamelessly’ poor, were considered completely hopeless for attaining a good Catholic life. Thus, a good Catholic in the lower ranks of society was shamefaced to start with. But what was, in fact, meant by the expression shamefaced poor? What kind of a poor was one who expressed shame? And who was she or he who was deemed to have no shame at all in his or her actions? The expression shamefaced poor refers to a dichotomist understanding of poverty which also included terms such as the worthy and the disabled (equivalent of the French term invalide); and the unworthy and the ablebodied (equivalent of the French term valide) as their negative counterpart. The people in the first category were victims of circumstances such as war, natural catastrophe, disease or death of a husband; people who had previously been well off but had now fallen to poverty by accident. The negative counterpart of this group of people was held personally responsible for its misery. In fact, for example beggars, vagabonds, rebels and prostitutes were treated with increasing disgust and deprived of all aid by the social reformers and administrators of the seventeenth century.89 Moreover, in his doctoral thesis on the poor in early modern Lyon, Jean-Pierre Gutton identified persons that had fallen to poverty due to sickness or old age as a category apart from the pauvre honteux.90 The source material for the early Charities or the predecessors of the Daughters of Charity does not coincide, however, with Gutton’s additional categorization – this suggests that there might have been regional differences in the way the poor were identified. What is certain, though, is that for the Daughters of Charity a prostitute or a beggar was never a good Catholic. Shame was related to the first category of poor. Sudden poverty caused, in contemporary eyes, humiliation for the impoverished. The Daughters of Charity aimed to take this into account in their endeavours: writing to the sisters establishing a new community in Narbonne in 1659, Louise de Marillac urged them to protect the shamefaced poor from being taken to a public hospital. Going to a hospital, de Marillac stressed, was something they would never do no matter what pressures were put on them.91 Tracing the origins of the term in the thinking of the founders of the Company is not, however, straight forward. Despite the wording in the Common Rules, written in 1672, the term is not found in the official 1646 and 1655 approbations of the Company, which only speak of the pauvres 89 Jütte 2001, 8–12. See also Gutton 1970, 23–38. 90 Gutton 1970. 91 Marillac FR, L. 628 bis (15 September 1659), p. 644.

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malades, the sick poor.92 Likewise, the founders of the Company most often referred to the people helped simply as les pauvres, the poor. However, the term is not completely missing: it is found altogether eight times in the writings of the founders, for the first time in the 1640s. It figures in the conferences and letters of Vincent de Paul in 1645, 1647 and 165293 whereas de Marillac mentions the pauvres honteux for the first time in a letter in 1649 and after that in 1652, 1654, 1656, and 1659.94 There is also at least one indirect reference to the deserving poor in a conference held in 1659: de Paul reminds the Daughters that they are not to help ‘creatures who lead a bad life because usually they are in bad places. Who knows whether some man might come in? For illness does not ordinarily stop them’.95 By these ‘creatures’ de Paul was most likely referring to prostitutes, vagabonds and beggars, making the shamefaced poor the only desirable target group of help. These scarce traces of the term pauvres honteux leads one to ponder if the rigid categorization of the target group took place only after the approbation of 1655, or possibly even in the 1670s when Alméras compiled the Common Rules. In other words, was the strict categorization absent in the thinking of the two founders and thus a later innovation? In my view, the answer is no. After a close reading of the sources, I suggest that the scarceness of the term was caused by the fact that the target group had become self-evident by 1633. Furthermore, the marked resurgence of the term in the late 1640s and in the 1650s is, I claim, very likely explained by the emergence of many shamefaced poor during the two decades in question. During these two decades, the Thirty Years’ War and the domestic upheavals of the Fronde caused previously well-to-do people to fall into poverty in large numbers. This, in turn, I propose, is reflected in the source material as an increase of writings on the subject, a burning topic. There is also evidence in a context outside the direct affairs of the Daughters of Charity that Louise de Marillac and likely Vincent de Paul 92 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 428 (20 November 1646), p. 441–445; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 614 (18 January 1655), p. 679–682, respectively. 93 Paul Conférences, 15 January 1645, p. 124; Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 442 (19 June 1647), p. 464 or Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 159 (19 June 1647), p. 629; vol. IV, doc. 1512 (23 June 1652), p. 409. 94 The term pauvre(s) honteux is found only in the following letters: Marillac FR, L. 252 (23 July 1649), p. 294; L. 349 (14 July 1652), p. 400; L. 376 (December 1654), p. 457; L. 497 (13 October 1656), p. 521; L. 628 bis (15 September 1659), p. 644. 95 Paul Conférences, 25 November 1659, p. 916. French quotation: ‘créatures de mauvaise vie, parce que, d’ordinaire, elles sont en mauvais lieux. Que sait-on s’il ne viendra point quelqu’homme ? Car ordinairement le mal ne les empêche pas’. See also the wording in the Common Rules: AFC, Alméras 1672, II:3, fol. 13.

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had certainly internalized the dichotomy of poverty: the will of Louise de Marillac composed in 1645 and ratified in 1653 and 1656. On the one hand, the document mentions the pauvres honteux of the town of Montferrand in Central France to whom money shall be donated. On the other hand, the will also directs funds toward the pauvres mendicants, the poor beggars, who, on the first Sunday or feast day after the death of de Marillac, shall be preached a homily in the church of Saint-Laurent, at La Chapelle or at Saint-Lazare in order to teach them about the good and bad poor and how their condition affects their salvation.96 But on what grounds is it possible to argue that the term had become self-evident by the time the Daughters of Charity was established? I believe the answer lies in the documents related to Vincent de Paul and pertaining to the early times of the Ladies of Charity, from which the Company later sprung. In fact, the late 1610s to the 1630s was the time when Vincent de Paul described the target group of benevolence in at least some detail. He did this in the several regulations or rules he drew up for the Ladies serving in the Confréries de la Charité. Later, I believe, the Daughters of Charity followed on the footsteps of the Ladies on a path that was by then already firmly established. Moreover, a comparison of the rules for the charités to those for the Daughters show, I argue, a shift in focus from giving general guidelines of the functions of the Company to detailed instructions on proper behaviour and obedience of its members. Simply put: if the regulations for the charités mainly answer the question ‘what is the aim of the Company and in what ways is it accomplished?’, the rules for the Daughters answer an additional question and make it a central issue: ‘what is a good Servant of the Poor like?’ This new emphasis welled most likely from the organizational structure: a quickly spreading Company with individual communities. The lifestyle of the members was independent and mobile, as they founded new communities and were prepared to be on the move again with short notice. The situation was quite the opposite in many cases for the Ladies of Charity, who were fewer in number and would work in their home region. The centralized form of administration – that is, Louise de Marillac and her letter writing from the motherhouse in Paris – meant that the members were often far away from the watching eyes of the founders. All of this was very likely reflected in the rules, which focused on implementing control over the sisters and managing their morals rather than describing in detail issues like the target group. 96 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 847 (15 December 1645), p. 994–996.

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The first mention of a deserving poor prior to the Daughters of Charity is found in the general regulations for the Confréries de la Charité for women, an undated document but very likely pertaining to the early years of the charité. In the description of the duties of the superior, it is specified that the officer in question is responsible for the admittance of the shamefaced poor and that beggars, on the contrary, are to be sent to the Hôtel-Dieu.97 In the 1617 regulations for the Confrérie de la Charité of women in Châtillonles-Dombes98, the Prioress is urged to admit ‘those sick people that really are poor, and not those who have means of taking care of themselves’.99 In Mâcon in the early 1620s, Vincent de Paul founded a charity with the aim of helping the poor of the town. According to father Desmoulins, superior of the Oratorions of the town, cited in the hagiography of Vincent de Paul in 1664, the poor were registered in a catalogue and treated in the following manner: They are given alms on certain days, and if they were found begging in the churches or at people’s homes, they would be punished and it would be forbidden to give them anything. Itinerants are lodged for one night and sent off the next day with two sous. The shamefaced poor of the town are assisted in their illnesses and provided with suitable nourishment and remedies, as in the other places where the Charity has been established.100

Another later historian of Mâcon, Abbé Laplatte, sums up the works of Vincent de Paul and his Charity in the town in seven points. Four points are of specific interest: 97 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 124 (s.a.), p. 418. 98 The town is situated close to Lyon and Mâcon and is known today by the name Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne. 99 Quotation from the original manuscript found at the archives of the Daughters of Charity of Châtillon, extracts of which are published in Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 58–61. Quotation on p. 59: ‘ les mallades vrayement pauvres et non ceulx qui ont moyen de se soulager’. The manuscript has also been published in Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 126 (November and December 1617), p. 423–439, but contains errors (Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 58; Forrestal 2009, 196 note 2). It has also been published in Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 2 (November 1617), p. 2–11, but without notice of source. 100 Abelly 1664, I:15, p. 62. French quotation: ‘ À ceux-là on donneroit l’aumône à certains jours, & que si on les trouvoit mandier dans les Eglises, ou par les maisons, ils seroient punis de quelque peine, avec defenses de leur rien donner: que les passans seroient logez pour une nuit, & renvoyez le lendemain avec deux sols; que les pauvres honteux de la Ville seroient asistez en leur maladies, & pourveûs d’alimens & de remedes convenables, comme dans les autres lieux où la Charité estoit établie’.

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(4) All those who were found begging in the streets and at the churches during the week, or about whom the Ladies had made justifiable complaints, would receive nothing the following Sunday. (5) Poor passers-by would be put up for one night and sent off the next day with two sous. (6) The shamefaced 101 poor identif ied by the Ladies or other upright persons were to be assisted discreetly and provided in their illnesses with adequate food and remedies to expedite their recovery, if possible. (7) Lastly, since the assembly did not want to encourage laziness among the able-bodied poor or their families, they were to be given only what was necessary to supplement the modest salaries from their work.102

In his conclusions, Abbé Laplatte cites the above-mentioned father Desmoulins: People were no longer badgered either at the church or in the streets by those able-bodied beggars who were doing nothing all day long except to pursue their livelihood, with no respect for the churches, no regard for persons who merit it, and no consideration for those who were unwilling to give in to their demands.103

The charitable œuvre of Vincent de Paul was greeted with open arms by municipal officials. According to the town hall registers of Mâcon in 1621, the officials believed that social disorder of the town was mainly caused by the unorganized and liberal distribution of alms to beggars at the churches and at people’s homes. This, in turn, they concluded, resulted in general 101 Available translation reads ‘bashful’; I prefer to use the term ‘shamefaced’. 102 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 133 (September 1621), p. 69–70. French quotation: ‘4° Que tous ceux qu’on trouverait mendier pendant la semaine dans les rues et dans les églises, ou dont les dames auraient fait de justes plaintes, n’auraient rien le dimanche suivant. 5° Que les pauvres passants seraient logés une nuit et renvoyés le lendemain avec deux sols. 6° Que les pauvres honteux indiqués par les dames ou autres personnes de probité seraient assistés sans éclat et pourvus dans leurs maladies des aliments et remèdes convenables pour accélérer leur guérison, s’il était possible. 7° Qu’enf in l’assemblée ne voulant pas fomenter la paresse des pauvres valides, ni de leur famille, on ne leur donnerait que ce qui serait nécessaire pour suppléer aux modiques salaires de leurs travaux’. Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 133 (September 1621), p. 494. 103 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 133 (September 1621), p. 71. French quotation: ‘On ne se vit plus obsédé, soit à l’église, soit dans les rues, par ces mendiants valides, qui ne sont occupés le jour entier qu’à chercher leur vie, sans respect pour les églises, sans égards pour ceux qui en méritent, sans ménagement pour ceux qui ne veulent pas céder à leurs importunités’. Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 133 (September 1621), p. 495.

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laxity in the poor making even the able-bodied poor unwilling to work. The investigation and registration of the poor was a measure that the officials deemed promising, as the experiment of confining the poor in a hospice had failed a couple of years earlier. During the inspection of the institution, only half of the inhabitants had been willing to admit their poverty so as to be freed.104 The idea of locking up the poor in a hospice was by no means a novelty or a measure typical only for Mâcon. In fact, in France, this strategy of marginalization was born towards the end of the sixteenth century and during the reign of Henry IV. The model for the notorious Parisian Hôpital général, or the General Hospital of Paris confining the poor since 1656 was actually the Hôpital de la Trinité run by the Grand Bureau des pauvres. In 1546, the hospice began receiving poor children of the minimum of five years of age. The children were cut off from the exterior world and made to work and pray. They were also taught to read, write, and the basic concepts of faith. A similar institution was opened for adults eight years later. Attempts to detain the poor were also made in Rouen and Lyon, the biggest city closest to Mâcon, in the second decade of the seventeenth century. However, all of these undertakings failed; in many cases possibly for the same reasons as mentioned in the documents for Mâcon.105 In fact, it was not until the reign of Louis XIV that confinement became an official policy all over the kingdom.106 Nevertheless, scholars such as Jean-Pierre Gutton and Joseph Bergin have argued that not even then was the extent of the measure a vast one, contrary to the view expressed by Michel Foucault: the existing practices of domiciliary assistance by the dévots reached far more people than the Hôpital général.107 Perhaps this was something that Vincent de Paul, a member of the milieu dévot but also of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement behind the Hôpital général, had realized: he refused to take charge of the spiritual service of the Hôpital as it was offered to him. He did arrange, however, chaplains for the hospital, and sent a couple of Daughters of Charity to work there for a short period.108 104 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 134 (September 1621), p. 498. 105 Gutton 1970, 295–303. 106 Gutton 1970, 327; Gutton 2004, 65–79. See also Jütte 2001, 169–177. 107 Bergin 2009, 384; Gutton 2004, 70; Triboulet 1991, 226–227. Cf. Foucault 1972. See also Brockliss & Jones 1997, 255 in which the authors give f igures for the staff of the corporative medical community (less than 25 000 members) and the clergy (200 000 to 250 000 members) in the seventeenth century. 108 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 558 (August 1653), p. 623, note 2.

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Returning to Mâcon, Vincent de Paul managed to convince the town council. Instead of confinement, the council deemed the charitable endeavour of de Paul necessary in order to provide for them [the poor of Mâcon], show them the kind of behavior and way of living that is desired for their good and salvation, see that a fund of voluntary alms is set up for a granary and storeroom, and have the young children learn some trades in order to give them the means of earning their own living.109

The shamefaced poor were also mentioned as the primary target group in the regulations for the charité of women of the parish Saint-Nicolasdu-Chardonnet in Paris in 1630. In matters concerning money, the Ladies were ordained to pay the expenses of the sick and the fees of the doctor, pharmacist, surgeon and nurse. If more than 1 100 livres were left over, the surplus was to be distributed to the poor persons, ‘always giving preference to any sickly shamefaced110 poor before those who can earn their own living’.111 In another, undated document of regulations of an unnamed charité, the aim of the charity work is expressed very clearly: ‘to act in such way that we do not have among us any poor person who are begging [...]’, and thus, ‘the towns are freed of many depraved idlers and profit from the sale of the work done by the poor’.112 A Barbara Diefendorf has pointed out, the choosing of beneficiaries might have been more of a practical solution than an elite initiative to discipline the masses. The source material for the charitiés reveals that some dévotes felt that the increasingly difficult situation and insufficient funds made them choose and prefer the ‘good’ destitute over the ‘wicked’.113 109 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 134 (September 1621), p. 75. French quotation: ‘pour y pourvoir et leur faire entendre la forme des déportements et vies que l’on désire pour leur bien et salut, aviser de faire un fonds à aumônes volontaires pour un grenier et cellier, et faire apprendre quelques métiers aux jeunes enfants pour leur donner moyen de gagner leur vie’. Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 134 (September 1621), p. 499–500. 110 The original translation reads bashful, which I have replaced with the more appropriate term shamefaced. 111 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 141 (1630), p. 530. French quotation: ‘préférant toujours les pauvres honteux valétudinaires à ceux qui prennent peine à gagner leur vie’. 112 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 136 (s.a.), p. 80, 84. French quotations: ‘de faire en sorte que nous n’ayons point de pauvres qui mendient, entre nous [...]’, ‘les villes seront délivrées de plusieurs fainéants, tous vicieux, et méliorées par le commence des ouvrages des pauvres’. Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 136 (s.a.), p. 505, 510. 113 I am grateful to Barbara Diefendorf for sharing her conference paper from 2013 on the subject.

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The deserving poor as women’s responsibility The idea of a deserving or worthy or shamefaced poor was not by any means an invention of the Catholic Reformation. However, the view that this group of poor were specifically the responsibility of women was, I claim, a phenomenon of the Early Modern Period. The history of the dichotomist understanding of poverty in Western Christendom can be traced back as far as the first Christian theologians of late antiquity. Their ideas were picked up in the urbanizing Middle Ages by Thomas Aquinas and Gratian among others. The dichotomous understanding of poverty was also reinforced through the reform of poor relief starting in the sixteenth century. In order to reorganize urban relations and to make the coexistence of the privileged and the underprivileged tolerable, a gradual secularization of the Hôtels-Dieu and other hospitals took place and new forms of non-ecclesiastical poor relief were created. In sharp contrast to the old and more anonymous and universal institutions of poor relief, the main aim of the reform was to efficiently categorize the needy into the deserving and the undeserving. This was done by means of examining and cataloguing the poor, just like in Mâcon at the time of Vincent de Paul, as mentioned above.114 This development was also present in Protestant countries, such as in Sweden.115 But what role did shame play in poverty? The stigma of poverty is presumably of universal nature. In locating its roots in Western Christendom, an important starting point is late antiquity. At that time shame was connected to the desperation of the elites in particular. Later in the Middle Ages, stories of poverty-stricken people of high social standing going to extremes in order to avoid accepting alms became a commonplace in popular hagiography.116 What was typical for the Early Modern Period was the fervour with which the authorities described and labelled deviant behaviour. The undeserving poor were morally despised as being lazy, sexually loose and work-shy. And all of this, the authorities assumed, without even feeling ashamed. Modesty due to shame was, in fact, an important characteristic of a deserving poor. To reinforce moral stigmatization many European towns and cities since the Middle Ages forced the poor and other marginal persons to carry badges 114 Ricci 1983; Chartier 1998b, 221–228. 115 Alaja 2013, 87–198. 116 In the legend of Saint Nicholas of Myra (or Bari), for example, the saint helps financially an impoverished noble man. Without this intercession, the man would have prostituted his daughters, since he considered himself unsuitable for work because of his social standing. Jacobus de Voragine 1998 [1255], 19. See also Ricci 1983.

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or other symbols.117 Other strategies of marginalization included expulsion and segregation. The former was in very extensive use almost all over early modern Europe and in France especially in the regions of Normandy and Picardie during the fifteen years preceding the Fronde.118 Large-scale segregation, on the other hand, was never effectively accomplished in the bigger European cities during the Ancien Régime – except for the late-medieval Jewish ghetto. Early modern society was far too complex and unsettled for fully accomplishing the project of segregation, Robert Jütte has argued.119 The final important question to answer in relation to the concept of the shamefaced poor is of course why? Why were the poor divided in two categories, why were some of them excluded from help and perceived as unworthy of it? The explanation stems from the ideas of social order. Starting from late antiquity, the masterless, such as vagabonds, were disapproved because they escaped hierarchy. The economic mechanisms behind poverty, such as depression, unemployment or harvest failure, were not understood and thus poverty was seen as a God-given condition. Compared to the Early Modern Period, the Middle Ages still considered the poor as a natural part of society. From the sixteenth century onwards, however, governments perceived the unworthy poor increasingly as a threat and did not hesitate to act accordingly.120 This change in mentality was largely due to the modernizing process of the state, which started in the late fifteenth century: as kings began to centralize power in their own hands, the need for social homogeneity and thus social order increased. Population growth that outstripped resources and thus contributed to the growing numbers of the poor also added pressure to better control the populace. Interestingly, as mentioned earlier, the early history of the Daughters of Charity from its founding in 1633 to the death of its first leaders in 1660 matches the peak of the country’s social problems.121 The role of mercantilism is likewise an important one: in the late sixteenth century and during the reign of Henry IV, unemployment became a significant problem. The King was eager to reduce dependence on import by supporting domestic industry – and industry, on the other hand, demanded workforce. Thus, in the eyes of political and economic theorists, idleness and begging became despicable and a problem to be solved as 117 Jütte 2001, 158–165. 118 Jütte 2001, 165; Deyon 1967b, 349–352. 119 Jütte 2001, 165–169. 120 Jütte 2001, 11–12; Deyon 1967b, 352–354. 121 Bergin 2009, 382–383; Ranum 2002, 3, 274–276, 316–317.

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efficiently as possible in order to make France prosper.122 As a result, the two-fold concept of a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ poor was reinforced. Although Giovanni Ricci claims that medieval third orders and other religious lay organizations catered to the shamefaced poor by visiting them discreetly in their homes instead of hospitals or other public institutions,123 the Early Modern Period seems to have embraced the idea more fully. According to Jean-Pierre Gutton, the group of the shamefaced poor was well acknowledged and taken care of in the seventeenth century especially by the circles of the dévots.124 Furthermore, the source material for the Daughters of Charity confirms the suggestion of Laurence Brockliss and Colin Jones: the shamefaced poor were especially the field of female charitable organizations.125 References in this vein are also found in the regulations for the Confréries de la Charité. In the regulations for the charities in Folleville, Paillart and Sérévillers (close to Amiens) composed in 1620, it is stated: Because the men’s association and that of the women is one same association, having the same patron, purpose and spiritual exercises, and only the ministries are divided—the care of the able-bodied being assigned to the men and that of the disabled 126 to the women—and because our Lord draws no less glory from the ministry of women than that of men, and the care of the sick even seems preferable to that of the healthy, the male Servants of the Poor will therefore show as much concern for the preservation and growth of the women’s association as for their own.127

The same division is also found in the regulations for the charity in Joigny (1621): ‘The men will take care of the able-bodied and infirm, the women 122 Gutton 1970, 305–306; Gutton 2006, 12–14; Jütte 2001, 198. 123 See Ricci 1983, 168–169. I have not, however, encountered this phenomenon in the scholarship on medieval religious laywomen (cf. Miller 2014, Simons 2001, Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999). 124 Gutton 1970, 24. 125 Brockliss & Jones 1997, 262. 126 The original translation reads ‘sick’, but I prefer to translate the French term invalides as disabled. 127 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 132 (23 October 1620), p. 52. French quotation: ‘Et pource que l’association des hommes et celle des femmes est une même association, ayant même patron, même fin, et mêmes exercices spirituels, et qu’il n’y a que les ministères qui soient divisés, le soin des valides appartenant aux hommes et celui des invalides aux femmes, et que Notre-Seigneur ne retire pas moins de gloire du ministère des femmes que de celui des hommes, voire que le soin des malades semble préférable à celui des sains, pour cela, les serviteurs des pauvres auront pareil soin de la conservation et augmentation de l’association des femmes que de la leur’. Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 132 (23 October 1620), p. 488.

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only of the sick’.128 In practice this meant that the male members were to place the poor children in a trade, give a weekly donation to the disabled poor and the elderly who cannot earn a living themselves or to those who can only partly earn their living. An officer would also make sure that the poor in question attend the catechism lessons and go to Communion. The sick poor were confided to the care of the Ladies, who would have their patients’ clothes washed, make sure they went to confession and received Communion.129 In an undated document of regulations for an unnamed charity, there are also instructions for setting up and managing a workshop for the youth in order to teach them some simple work such a making worsted stockings under the direction of a priest and a master workman. The idea was also to teach the youth Christian doctrine and piety.130 As the research of Barbara Diefendorf on the charités has pointed out, in practice gender was not always the key variable in the work and there were, at times, disputes over the spiritual authority of the women and their autonomy.131 Nevertheless, it is inarguable that the dévotes, however, occupied ideally a central position in the field of early modern French charity work and especially with the deserving poor. Able-bodied but poorly educated Catholic subject As the target group has now been identified, what were the contents of the moral management activities pursued among the shamefaced poor? What was taught to the shamefaced poor, or, in other words, what was considered as proper behaviour and a good life for the poor? A letter of Louise de Marillac to the sisters in Angers crystallizes the idea: the poor should be made to ‘hate sin and love virtue [...]’. 132 The Common Rules, describing the nature of the service of the poor, further explicate the idea: f irst, the Daughters are reminded to say a good word to the benef iciaries every now and then in order to ‘dispose to them to be patient, to make a good general confession, or to die and live in a 128 Paul EN, vol. XIIIb, doc. 132a (May 1621), p. 54. French quotation: ‘Les hommes auront soin des valides et impotents, et les femmes des malades seulement’. Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 128 (May 1621), p. 447. 129 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 128 (May 1621), p. 447, 449–450. 130 Paul FR, vol. XIII, doc. 136 (s.a.), p. 507–509. 131 I am grateful for Barbara Diefendorf for sharing her conference paper from 2013 on the subject. 132 Marillac FR, L. 360 bis (8 February 1653), p. 410. French quotation: ‘Faites-leur hair le péché et aimer la vertu [...]’.

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good way’. Secondly, the sisters were also to take good care that their patients learned all the things necessary for salvation, and that they received all of their sacraments in a timely fashion.133 The sisters also used images to make the beneficiaries better understand and remember the teachings.134 Thus, the good poor Catholic was above all proficient in devotional matters and the rituals of the Catholic Church whose subject she or he was to become. One of the most important and prolif ic grounds for the Company’s moral management seems to have been children at two important institutions: the school and the enfants trouvés, or the orphanage. In one of his conferences held in 1643, Vincent de Paul and the Daughters provide ample reasons for the importance of children in their mission. Sisters reasoned, for example, that a child’s soul was made in the image of God, and that also Jesus loved them dearly, making them an important target group. On the other hand, some sisters saw that the double sin the foundlings were conceived in (the original sin and the sin of being born outside marriage) made them very susceptible to the devil and thus very much in need of care.135 Children were also seen as valuable mediators: wherever the sisters met children, they were to deliver their teachings little by little, so that the mothers and fathers possibly present in the room could also benefit from the teaching without perceiving that in reality they were also subjects of the instruction. The children were asked questions like ‘how many gods are there? How many persons are there in God? Which one became man?’, and taught to pray to God on their knees every morning and every evening.136 A closer look at the substance and aims of the educational programme of the Daughters of Charity further testifies to the primary importance of religious education to the lower segments of society leaving aside all other and higher aspects of education. This education also included the control of the body to form chaste and working members of society. At the orphanage of the Daughters of Charity in Bicêtre in southern Paris and in the faubourg Saint-Denis in the northern parts of the capital, the children, both girls and boys, were numerous and divided into three categories: the first group were healthy, the second had ordinary illnesses such as a fever or a broken arm 133 AFC, Alméras 1672, VII:2, fol. 27. French quotation: ‘pour les disposer à la patience ou à faire une bonne confession generale, ou à bien mourir, ou à bien vivre’. 134 See e.g. Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 683 (29 May 1657), p. 781. 135 Paul Conférences, 7 December 1643, p. 85–88. 136 Paul Conférences, 11 November 1659, p. 909. French quotation: ‘combien y a-t-il des dieux ? Combien de personnes en Dieu ? laquelle s’est fait homme?’

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or leg, whereas the third group had more serious maladies and needed to be carefully separated from the rest.137 A typical day started with prayer in the chapel where the children were conducted after being woken up and dressed properly by a Daughter of Charity. After this the smaller children, from three to four years old, were given a simmered potage and the older ones, from five to eight years old, a piece of bread. At ten the children were gathered around the table for lunch and made to say Benedicite before the meal and grace afterwards. Three hours later, the older ones were given a lesson in the catechism and letters which was followed by a piece of bread and some sweets if available. Dinner was served around four o’clock. Five was bedtime for the smaller ones and six for the older ones as they would always, summer and winter, wake up at five in the morning.138 The sisters were to discipline the children primarily with small mortifications and gentle words to encourage them to behave better. In difficult cases the sister in charge of the house hit the children with a rod, or ordered another sister to do it. Louise de Marillac stressed that the disciplining should be done without emotion and never immediately after the incident of bad behaviour. Blows on the head were also to be avoided.139 The overall purpose was that by the age of twelve, which was one of the first milestones of adulthood in the canon law, the children and especially the boys left the orphanage to become able-bodied, or in other words, working members of society, conforming to ideal social order. This was achieved by guiding especially boys but also girls to learn a trade or to become servants.140 It seems, though, as if the age limit was not always followed and that there were children as old as sixteen years in the house.141 The vocational agenda was by no means an extraordinary one. Jean-Pierre Gutton has noted that one important aim of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrament was to encourage the founding of écoles de travail (‘work schools’) for poor girls.142 At the enfants trouvés of the Daughters of Charity, another important motive behind child rearing and emphasis on learning a trade was the will to keep the devil out. In a letter to the sisters in Chars, Louise de Marillac 137 AN, Mémoire pour les Dames, § 2. The manuscript does not contain a date, but it is highly probable that the practices described did not vary much during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 138 Marillac FR, A. 80 (around 1640), p. 731–732. 139 Marillac FR, A. 81 (around the 1650s?), p. 802. 140 Marillac FR, A. 91 (possibly after 1643), p. 734. 141 Marillac FR, A. 81 (in the 1650s?), p. 803. 142 Gutton 2004, 101; Gutton 1970, 385–386.

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urged them to keep the girls making lace in order to avoid idleness,143 which was generally believed to allow space for the devil to enter the human being.144 At least by the 1650s clothing became a crucial issue: in her notes, Louise de Marillac underlines that the Daughters must make sure the children never wake up nude, undress completely nor go around barefoot or bareheaded. Likewise, their hair was not to be combed in open spaces such as the courtyard or in front of an open window. All of this was done ‘to habituate the children to respectability and purity as well as good health [...]’.145 Furthermore, the babies were also swaddled.146 The will to make the bodies of the poor controlled was a tradition Christianity had held for centuries, as the body was believed to be a potential niche for the devil. The work of the Daughters of Charity disseminated this ideology to a significant number of common French people making non-corporality an essential part of being a good Catholic at the margins of society. In this the Daughters of Charity reflected the ideals present in the elite secular world evolving through the process of civilization: the renaissance had witnessed the birth of manuals of good manners amid the wealthy courts in Italy, Spain and Burgundy, the most famous ones being Il libro del cortegiano written by Baldassar Castiglione (1478–1529) and De civilitate morum puerilium by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469–1536). The manuals expressed a strong interest in the control of the body as a means of creating social differentiation. Eating with a fork and knife instead of fingers or discretion in bodily functions was deemed a way to separate decent men and women from peasants and animals. The same applied to the practice of swaddling babies: although a custom common to all social ranks, it became very important for the elites fascinated with the upright posture.147 Taking into consideration the paramount importance of the elites in the work of the Daughters of Charity, I suggest that the Catholic Reformation was an important motor and medium for the elites to disseminate their ideas on proper corporal conduct. In the case of the Daughters of Charity, it seems that the group from which differentiation was sought was not the peasants, but the poorer segments in general in addition to 143 Marillac FR, L. 344 bis (20 April 1652), p. 393. 144 For the vice of idleness, see The Rule of Saint Benedict 2011, 48:1, p. 161; 6:8, p. 43; Kaelber 1998, 64–65. 145 Marillac FR, A. 81 (in the 1650s?), p. 802. French quotation: ‘tant pour les habituer à l’honnêteté et pureté, que pour le besoin de la santé [...]’. 146 AN, Mémoire pour les Dames, § 4. 147 Muchembled 2006, 160–174; Elias 2000.

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animals, as discussed in Chapter 3. Moreover, it is plausible to claim that the seventeenth century was a time when the interests of the secular world met the objectives of the church and were able to prof it from this encounter. In this, I f ind the phrasing of Ulrike Strasser most relevant: ‘nuns and monks appear not medieval antipodes to the actualized self of humanist-liberal formulations but virtual prototypes of the modern subject’.148 The schools of the Daughters of Charity are another example of the religion-centred management of the morality of the common people. The Company schooled only girls although this became an official practice only fourteen years after the erection of the Company. In October 1647, Vincent de Paul held a conference on a topic raised by Louise de Marillac: were the sisters running schools in towns and villages to accept boys? The superior was in favour of this as she pointed out that the schooling of a girl might be prevented if the mother cannot send also her son to school during her absence from home.149 A letter of de Marillac to de Paul two months earlier proves that the superior had also already made plans on how to arrange the mixed education spatially: she wrote that she had found, together with a few Ladies of Charity, a house where the girls could be placed upstairs and the boys downstairs. The only modifications the space would have needed were the construction of a door and the occluding of the windows so as to isolate the sexes from each other.150 However, in the end de Paul ruled over de Marillac and prohibited the teaching of boys. He based his decision on the orders given by the King and the Archbishop. Furthermore, he reasoned that it was not wise to accept even little boys, because the few years, from the age of six or seven up to eight, of schooling would not be of any help to them. On the other hand, de Paul also suspected that the acceptance of only little boys would cause disputes between the Daughters and the parents who might not understand the practice. The superior general was also wary that in distant communities 148 Strasser 2004, 553. The context of this quotation is that Strasser discusses the hierarchies of early modern societies and especially the need of obedience to superiors. Further on, basing her analysis on the views of Judith Butler following Michel Foucault, Strasser argues that the will to obey makes, in fact, the modern subject also an agent: the overall goal of monastic life was to construct and organize ‘distinctive emotional dispositions and capacities’. (p. 533) The pattern of total submission to superiors and a rigid social hierarchy has, of course, always been present in monasticism, which, according to Strasser, makes nuns and monks prototypes of the early modern subject. I would carefully interpret this line of thought as compatible also with the idea of corporal discipline. 149 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 458 (30 October 1647), p. 495. 150 Marillac FR, L. 192 (22 August 1647), p. 216.

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the practice might not be followed carefully, which would scandalize the whole Company.151 However, the same conference also gives striking information about the unbalanced situation of education. By 1647 and at least in the regions where the Company was active, the schooling of girls was far more advanced than that of boys: one argument presented in the conference of Vincent de Paul in favour of accepting boys was the lack of male teachers for boys. Furthermore, also the parental pressure attests to the conclusion: according to the conference, mothers and fathers frequently complained to the Daughters about the disparity in the education of their sons in comparison to their daughters.152 The fact that girls seem to have been more schooled than boys represents an important rupture in the history of female education: the situation of female education in the Early Modern Era was completely the opposite in comparison to the Middle Ages. In general, medieval girls were far less educated than boys were, especially if they were not put in a monastery. True, schooling of girls was an integral part already of the medieval religious lay movements such as the Beguines.153 Medieval Paris is known to have had a school run by Beguines offering basic teaching very much in the same way as the Daughters of Charity.154 However, the teaching offered in the Early Modern Period by active congregations was, I would like to suggest, very likely more efficient and favoured especially girls. The overall impetus behind the development was the Catholic Reformation, which aimed to intensify the church’s educational programme in order to disseminate orthodox Catholic culture and morals. In the same manner, Protestants emphasized popular education favouring the individual study of the Bible in the vernacular. An important invention of the French Catholics was the petites écoles, or little schools, which offered teaching to a greater number of pupils than previously – but mainly boys.155 The task of female 151 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 458 (30 October 1647), p. 493–495. For an affirmation of this guideline by de Paul, see also doc. 545 (s.a.), p. 612–613. 152 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 458 (30 October 1647), p. 494. 153 For the schools of Beguines in the Low Countries, see Simons 2001, 80–85. Of the Italian Dominican penitent women only Catherine of Siena seems to have adopted the practice of public teaching, very likely due to the more private nature of penitent spirituality in comparison to the Beguines. See Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 110–120. 154 Miller 2014, 103–109. 155 Muchembled 2006, 144–149. See also Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 493–498, and e.g. Compère & Julia 1984; Grosperrin 1984. For recent research bringing to light that very many petites écoles were, in fact, mixed, see Carter 2008.

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education fell to orders such as the Ursulines and the Visitation nuns156 but especially to active congregations such as the Daughters of Charity who advanced the learning of girls significantly, making girls in many cases even more instructed than their brothers, as the 1647 conference of Vincent de Paul testifies. Erudition was not, however, a central goal in the education of girls – instead, the Daughters of Charity concentrated on Christian morality. Once again, this was not exceptional, but rather a reflection of the century’s general appreciations: by the second half of the seventeenth century, it was commonly believed that schooling was a way to fight libertinage and ignorance among the poor.157 The day of a poor girl at the school of the Daughters of Charity started around eight o’clock when the sister in charge of teaching arrived. The first thing to do in the morning and the last in the evening was to kneel down and pray. At half past ten, the schoolmistress took the pupils to Mass in order to make the children familiar with the church and proper behaviour in it. After a pause of a couple of hours, the lessons were resumed and the girls were taught about the mysteries of faith in addition to good manners so that they would know right and wrong. Learning to read was secondary.158 The instruction was very likely aided by plaques displaying the alphabet placed on the walls, which was a method Louise de Marillac had seen in practice at the Ursuline houses.159 The superior, however, clarified that she did not want to use the plates to encourage the girls to write which was a skill she deemed unnecessary for them.160 Catechism was taught on Thursdays in a clear manner. Questions were to be posed in multiple ways so that the girls understood them intellectually and not just merely in the form of a routine.161 The sisters most likely used as their aid a catechism composed by Louise de Marillac herself.162 Furthermore, Louise de Marillac underlined in her letters that the catechism was to be taught alongside good manners and other ‘means to live as good Christians’ and only by using familiar 156 See Rapley 1990; 2001. 157 Gutton 2004, 100–101; Gutton 1970, 384–385. See also Rapley 1990, 154–160. 158 Marillac FR, A. 91 bis (s.a.), p. 754–755. 159 For teaching methods at Ursuline houses and other teaching congregations, see Rapley 1990; 2001. 160 See Marillac FR, L. 192 (22 August 1647), p. 216, a letter from Louise de Marillac to Vincent de Paul in which she suggests such plates to be arranged for a certain space in which she intended to establish a school. 161 Marillac FR, A. 91 bis (s.a.), p. 754–755. 162 Compagnie des Filles de la Charité, doc. 824 (the seventeenth century), p. 958–970.

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explications instead of elevated interpretations, which were not suitable for the Daughters of Charity.163 This ideology seems to have governed in the schools of the medieval Parisian Beguines. As Tanya Stabler Miller has suggested, the Beguine school very likely focused on teaching pupils proper manners in accordance with Christian virtues, basic letters as well as music and theology. In contrast to the Daughters of Charity, the Beguines catered for the urban elites whereas their seventeenth-century counterpart occupied themselves with the marginal populace. In the seventeenth century, the teaching of the well-to-do seems to have been left exclusively in the hands of the enclosed orders: in one of his conferences Vincent de Paul mentions that the schools of the great rich houses of the Ursulines were not accessible for the poor who could only turn to the Daughters of Charity.164 Thus, in comparison to the Middle Ages, the good that the semireligious Company of the Daughters of Charity did was to extend education to the lower ranks of society. This was very likely done also much more efficiently than in the Middle Ages as the more pro-educational attitude of the seventeenth century made the position of the schools of the Daughters of Charity more stable than the ones ran by the Beguines.165 On the other hand, the Company kept the education on a low level, intellectually speaking. Proper education, including fluent reading and writing skills, were the privilege of the elites taught by fully professed nuns. Thus, the Company of the Daughters of Charity reinforced social segregation by descent among the people they helped by offering only moral and practice-orientated teaching to common girls. This is not, of course, to underestimate the benefits the lower segments of society gained from learning a trade and being, thus, able to provide for themselves. It does show, however, that for the Daughters of Charity a fuller ‘emancipation’ of women was not an aim, as it rarely was for anyone before the rise of the feminist critique of social order, deemed natural and God-given, in the nineteenth century. This was rather natural considering the overall conservative anthropology of the Company. 163 Marillac FR, L. 200 bis (1647), p. 209; L. 368 (23 June 1653), p. 421 (quotation: ‘des moyens de vivre en bonnes chrétiennes’.). See also A. 100 (1660), p. 820. For other references of the spiritual education offered to girls, see Marillac FR, L. 611 (27 February 1659), p. 629. 164 Paul Conférences, 9 February 1653, p. 392. 165 Miller 2014, 107–108, and note 32 on p. 228 with mention of the want to close down the Beguine school. For Beguine education in general and for Northern France, see also Galloway 2000. For the delicate issue of women as teachers (women were institutionally prohibited from preaching), see e.g. Lehmijoki-Gardner 1999, 111–112.

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Then again, the educational regime could be interpreted as the result of the cautious attitude the leaders of the Company had adopted in regard to status: the offering of higher education would have been, once again, a trait shared with cloistered orders. Perhaps the founders thought that, if picked up by ecclesiastical officials, it might have led to the enclosure of the Company that was sincerely interested, at heart, in advancing the position of the saintly substitutes of Christ.



From Conservative Moral Management to Survival: Conclusions Abstract The conclusion brings together the main findings of the book. It argues that as a whole the book has shown that the value system the Daughters of Charity promoted through their moral management was rather conservative and attached to medieval mentalities. The chapter points out that although most religious companies operate on the principles of moral management, the Daughters of Charity were unique in their systematic and holistic implementation. This is one very important reason for the survival of the Company well into the 21st century. Louise de Marillac was canonized in 1934, and the Company employs today more than 14 000 sisters in 94 countries. It is one of the most important Catholic organizations in France. Keywords: early modern Catholicism; canonization; moral management; religious identity; medieval mentalities

For one reason or another, early modern historiography has been widely preoccupied with novelty: the Reformations, both Protestant and Catholic, along with the societal and legal changes brought about by the gradual emergence of the modern state are often seen as important watersheds concluding the Middle Ages and initiating a new era in European history. This study, however, challenges this outlook. By discussing the way the French Catholic Company of the Daughters of Charity shaped identities and society through its moral management activities during the first half of the seventeenth century, the study found that it was rather tradition and conservatism instead of novelty and innovation that characterized the mentalities of the Company. Conservative moral management was not, however, an end in itself. The study suggested that it was an important means to safeguard the active

Peake, R.-M., The Power of Religious Societies in Shaping Early Modern Society and Identities. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789462986688_concl

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mission of the Company and hence its survival. Judging by the success of the Company, these activities were carried out wisely. Louise de Marillac is the only canonized founder of an unenclosed seventeenth-century French female community and her Company the most dynamic one to have survived into the twenty-first century. The characteristics of moral management and image moulding were not unique to the Daughters of Charity. Most religious communities operate on Rules and speeches delivered by the directors aiming to implement a certain value system. The Daughters of Charity were the only unenclosed Company to implement their value system by means of a systematic method. Moral management was executed extensively on all levels of the organization: in regard to the directors and especially Louise de Marillac, the sisters and the poor that were the object of charitable activities. Management was also meticulous as it encompassed behaviour and actions of all sorts. The rich source material that has survived is unique and reveals the ingenious method of moral management exercised in the Company and studied in depth in this book. One of the main assertations of the study was that the need for moral management arose from both external and internal pressures. Not only ecclesiastical authorities (as discussed extensively in previous scholarship) but also the Daughters themselves put pressure on the directors to tailor and justify the unenclosed mission to suit contemporary norms and preferences. Concerning the suspicions of authorities, the most crucial issue in the existence of the Company was its liminal status between a lay organization and a religious order. The Daughters of Charity carried out an extensive active apostolate among the poor, outside the cloister, which was officially unacceptable. As a result, the Company received official recognition fairly late. That this was finally achieved was, the study suggests, due to the strategically wise moral management that aimed at portraying the Company, its superior Louise de Marillac, its members in addition to the poor people and the work done among them as saintly and in line with Catholic tradition and the stipulations of Trent. The active vocation was not self-evident for the Daughters themselves either, which is a theme that has escaped scholarly attention until now. There is evidence that the sisters would have wanted to pursue their career in a more enclosed mode and that the directors used a lot of energy to assure the sisters and make them preserve in their vocation. The study argued that the vocation of the Daughters was like treading a fine line giving ample possibilities for missteps: desires for a higher and more erudite status in addition to a more intensive programme of devotional practices were, in the minds of the directors, possible threats to the active vocation. On the

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one hand, such desires would have hindered the practical carrying out of the labours of the sisters and, on the other hand, made them resemble too closely cloistered nuns. Thus, these aspects of religious life had to be carefully managed or even suppressed. The examination of the image building project of the Daughters of Charity also shed more light on the disorderly process of the French Catholic Reformation. The devout elites of Parisian society were able to establish female congregations, which existed, at least seemingly, outside official ecclesiastical ideologies, structures, initiatives, and approval. The study confirmed the argument of Barbara Diefendorf that the monastic revival in Paris was, indeed, very strongly in the hands of the local dévots, and of them especially the women. This, in fact, marked a break in tradition compared to the heterogeneous backgrounds of the supporters of medieval religious lay organizations. The study argued that the paramount importance of the dévotes is also a key to understanding the role and the motivation behind the managing of the image of Louise de Marillac. Although scholarship in the past has been eager to emphasize the illegitimate status of de Marillac and the practical and psychological distress it caused her, the study argued that she was a fully accepted member of the family. This gave her important social assets and networks among the dévotes who would provide the resources for the work of the Company. The ladies did this, however, in close collaboration with the poorer sisters of the Company, as is also important to recognize in order to fully grasp the dynamics of the Catholic Reformation in France. All in all, the study discussed – and in some cases also contradicted – certain important issues and assumptions in the historiography of the French Catholic Reformation and female spirituality. The study highlighted the importance of social status: it proposed that by the seventeenth century, social standing had become an important definer of French women’s religious vocations with the enclosed vocation becoming a distinctively elite endeavour. At the same time, social status could also be used as a strategic instrument when negotiating an orthodox active vocation. The study also emphasized the importance of gender: the Catholic Reformation offered women important ways to perform ideal Catholic womanhood and thereby create authority and use power. Furthermore, especially charity work among the shamefaced poor was deemed a chiefly feminine enterprise, a fact stressed by the reassessment of the central role of Louise de Marillac in the functioning of the Daughters of Charity. Moreover, the Catholic Reformation not only offered opportunities for the elites but also for poorer women with whom the elites cooperated. Nevertheless, harsh corporal austerities request further research. Although they very likely were a practice more common

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to women than men (who had also other means, such as preaching, to demonstrate and develop their piety), a thorough, systematic examination of seventeenth-century vitae would shed more light on the issue. Another issue the study highlighted was religious convictions in seventeenth-century poor relief. The study claimed that the idea of the shamefaced poor as holy substitutes of Christ proves that social order and the eviction of undesirables off the streets were not the leading motives in the charity work of the Daughters of Charity. This alternative motive could be examined in other similar communities in order to decipher comprehensively Catholic mentalities toward the poor in the Early Modern Period. In addition, especially the analysis of the ideal Daughter of Charity accentuated the need to revise assumptions made about the history of religious laywomen. Contrary to the widely held view among early modernists, the active vocation and the religious laywoman were not new nor groundbreaking ideas, not in terms of the existence of earlier similar identities among the medieval Beguines, for example, and certainly not in the minds of the directors of the Daughters of Charity. The Daughter of Charity was a reinterpretation of the contemplative ideal of Mary and, as such, followed the example of the first Christians and was superior to the ‘full Mary’, that is, the nun. This also bolsters the claim of Laurence Lux-Sterritt who argues that the active and contemplative vocations in the early modern era should not be viewed as the two extremes of a dichotomy, because the contemplative ideal dominates also the active. Yet, in the case of the Daughters of Charity, this was ideology from ‘below’, conflicting with general religious conviction. Jodi Bilinkoff has argued that before the 1750s the ideal of a good Catholic as a withdrawn ascetic was not seriously challenged.1 The history of the Daughters of Charity shows subtle change in the ideal identity. There was growth of active orders in Paris especially after 1633, which was very likely due to the proper launching of the Catholic Reformation in France: the church was now preoccupied with the re-evangelization of the populace, which coincided with the mission of the active orders. On the other hand, attitudes toward the laity had become more relaxed providing a more accepting atmosphere for the religious laywoman. Thus, it seems like the tradition of active orders which had begun in the thirteenth century was challenged only temporarily in the fifteenth and the sixteenth.2 In fact, 1 Bilinkoff 2005, 6. 2 With the exception of at least the Low Countries as argued by Craig Harline who shows in his article written in 1995 that the Beguine communities remained vigorous all the way up to modern times.

From Conservative Moral Management to Survival: Conclusions

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the seventeenth century, at least in France, seems to have been an age of revival and strengthening of the religious laywoman ideal.3 There is, however, still need for more research not only on French but also on other Catholic active communities. In the case of the Daughters of Charity, full recognition was still centuries away. An important milestone on its path was the receiving of papal authorization in 1668 and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 banning Protestant faith and, as a result, boosting the growth of Catholic communities with moral management activities. All of this moved the Company to an era of intensive growth. The age of Enlightenment continued to enhance the growth of charitable institutions, 4 with the rather perplexing exception of hospital sisters.5 The growth of the Daughters of Charity continued after a drop caused by the Revolution. Important milestones were the Second Vatican Council and especially the Code of 1983 which finally recognized the religious lay identity by grouping the communities under the name Societies of Apostolic Life.6 This development is also echoed in the memory of Louise de Marillac: she did not receive canonization until 1934 and was named the protector of social workers only in 1960.7

3 For scholarly views emphasising the seventeenth century as creating the religious laywoman identity, see Dinan 2006, 57, 61; Lux-Sterritt 2005, 179; Diefendorf 2004, 14; Brockliss & Jones 1997, 271; Rapley 1990, 6; Jones 1989, 90, Liebowitz 1979. 4 Brejon de Lavergnée 2011, 378–381. For lists of establishments, see AN, List of establishments; Individual communities; AFC, List of establishments. On a more general level it has been shown that the Catholic Reformation in Europe flourished especially in the first half of the eighteenth century. See e.g. Beales 2003, 8–9, 28–29. 5 Dinet-Lecomte 2005, 165. 6 Bonfils 1990. 7 McNeil 1992. See also Renoux 1993.

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Websites DePaul University. ‘History & Timeline’. Accessed 13 August 2019. http://www. depaul.edu/about/history-and-timeline/Pages/default.aspx Famvin. ‘Gondi Family’. Accessed 13 August 2019. http://famvin.org/wiki/ Gondi_Family Filles de la Charité. ‘Who we are, where we are’. Accessed 13 August 2019. http:// filles-de-la-charite.org/fr/who-we-are/where-we-are/ Paroisse Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs. ‘Sainte Louise de Marillac (1591–1660)’. Accessed 13 August 2019. https://asaintnicolas.com/paroisse/saint-nicolas-des-champs/ sainte-louise-de-marillac-1591–1660/ Tor de’ Specchi. ‘Il monastero’. Accessed 13 August 2019. http://www.tordespecchi. it/public/index.php?Storia:Il_monastero Vincentian heritage collections. Gobillon, Nicolas 1676 La vie de Mademoiselle Le Gras, fondatrice et premiére supérieure de la compagnie des filles de la charité servantes des pauvres malades. (Paris: Andre Pralard). Accessed 13 August 2019. https://via.library.depaul.edu/gobillon/ Vincentian heritage collections. ‘Life and works of Louise de Marillac’. Accessed 13 August 2019. https://via.library.depaul.edu/ldm_1591–1660/ Vincentian heritage collections. ‘Life and works of Vincent de Paul’. Accessed 13 August 2019. https://via.library.depaul.edu/lcd



Note on Vocabulary

The study employs several specific terms. When describing the religious changes of the Early Modern Period, the study prefers to refer to the development launched by Martin Luther (1483-1546) by the term the Protestant Reformation and talk about the Catholic Reformation in connection to the reorganization of the Catholic Church. The study has excluded the use of the term Counter-Reformation which is a nomination overemphasising the role of the Protestant Reformation in the development. In fact, a widely held view in modern scholarship on the upheavals of the Catholic Church in the Early Modern Era is that the process had begun already in the late Middle Ages and was not, thus, merely a reaction to the Protestant Reformation (implied to by the term Counter-Reformation).1 The focal point of the study is the idea of the human being, which is a term that could also be replaced, by the more commonly used idea of man. This term is deemed, however, outmoded and unsuitable in relation to a twenty-f irst-century study mainly on women. Another more neutral expression found in the study is Christian or Catholic anthropology. The Catholic community of the Filles de la Charité is referred to by its English name the Daughters of Charity. This is done to follow an established practice in scholarship2 and in the world outside academia: the community, which spread to North America in the early nineteenth century,3 is widely known especially in the USA under the anglicized name. 4 The memory of the founders and especially of the spirituality of Vincent de Paul is disseminated in the English language in North America also through the DePaul University in Chicago founded in 1898.5 The study also refers to the Daughters of Charity often as the Company following a practice established by the most important secular Anglophone 1 Other less charged terms launched by scholars include the French renaissance catholique in addition to terms such as the refashioning of the Catholic faith or Church, the Catholic revival or renewal and early modern Catholicism. See Bireley 1999; O’Malley 2000; Delumeau 2010. 2 An exception to this is the work of Diefendorf 2004 in which all seventeenth-century Catholic communities for women in Paris (including the Filles de la Charité) are referred to by their original French names. This is logical and useful for the cohesion of the book as most of the communities never spread to the Anglophone world and thus, do not have established anglicized names. 3 See Hannefin 1989. 4 Virtually every American I have encountered during the process of writing this study has known the work of the Daughters of Charity. 5 See http://www.depaul.edu/about/history-and-timeline/Pages/default.aspx (13 August 2019).

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THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS SOCIE TIES IN SHAPING EARLY MODERN SOCIE T Y

historian of the community, Susan Dinan,6 and conforming to the usage found in the sources themselves. Other appellations include community and confraternity – although the latter appellation is not to be confused with the tradition of guild and parish associations.7 However, the study has chosen not to anglicize the forerunner of the Daughters of Charity, the Confréries de la Charité, as the name Confraternities of Charity or the charities is mainly used in Vincentian scholarship, that is, among scholars studying the legacy of Vincent de Paul at the American DePaul University. Furthermore, the confréries do not play such a central role in the study that Anglicization would significantly benefit the reading experience either. Very central concepts in the study are also those of an active order or active community and the active vocation or the vita activa – in contrast to a contemplative order or contemplative community and the contemplative vocation or the vita contemplativa. Synonyms include unenclosed, noncloistered, semireligious and secular, in contrast to enclosed, cloistered, fully professed and regular. These terms relate to a central theme especially in female spirituality, namely, the embracing of religious life either in the contemplative, enclosed monastery or amidst every day, active life. Important to note is that some active orders, such as the teaching order Ursulines, pursued their mission in enclosure making them cloistered active orders. Connected to these concepts is the religious laywoman who is a person engaging in the vita activa. Without completely leaving her secular life, she aims to lead her life as if she were a nun, that is, a woman engaged in the vita contemplativa. Although she might live in a communal house, it is not necessarily enclosed allowing her to occupy herself for example in apostolic work among the poor. Furthermore, reversion back to full lay life is usually flexible as she often vows to keep to the religious lifestyle only for a year at a time. The study considers the members of the Daughters of Charity religious laywomen and refers to them as sisters or Daughters. A general term used of women engaged in either the active or the contemplative vocation is that of the woman religious. A close relative of the religious laywoman in seventeenth-century France is the dévot and especially the feminine form dévote, a devout, or pious, woman. The dévote also leads a semireligious life, especially after losing her husband and becoming a widow, but comes primarily from the upper segments of society. Moreover, the term also carries a connotation of the devout political circles of the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion. 6 Dinan 2006. 7 For a more detailed discussion on the subject, see Chapter 1.

Note on Vocabulary

239

An essential source for the study is the speeches of Vincent de Paul held regularly to the Daughters of Charity at the motherhouse in Paris. These speeches, which were intended to teach the sisters the basic principles of the community and of faith, are referred to as conferences so as to follow an established tradition especially in Vincentian scholarship.



Index

Abbé de Vaux 88, 127 Acarie, Barbe 114, 127, 165, 184 active vocation, vita activa 13, 15, 29-31, 37-39, 45, 68, 75, 81, 98, 118-122, 124, 128-130, 132-134, 137, 139, 141, 158, 160, 167, 171, 205-206, 210-213 dismissal of medieval tradition of 162-164 Alacoque, Marguerite Marie, saint 102 André, Jean 62 Angela of Foligno, saint 80, 82 Angiboust, Barbe, sister 10, 136-137, 144-145, 149, 169-170, 172, 179, 181, 183 animals, non-human 40, 100, 150 comparison to human animals 89, 94, 152-154, 203 Anne of Austria 15, 44, 61, 63, 72, 120 Aquinas, Thomas, saint 153, 197 asceticism 38, 76, 81, 83, 94, 96-98, 157, 212; see also penitence Attichy, Anne de, comtesse de Maure 59, 87 Augustine of Hippo, saint 79, 153, 161, 173 as a role model for the Daughters of Charity 129 Bailly, Barbe, sister 58, 83-84, 91, 99 Bal, Mieke 16 Basil of Caesarea, saint 94, 153 Beguines, religious lay women’s movement 140, 149, 212 of medieval Low Countries 14, 68, 121, 149, 171, 205, 212 of medieval Paris 67-69, 143-144, 149, 162, 164, 171, 205, 207 Benedict of Nursia, saint 129 Benedictines of Val-de-Grâce, order 37 Bernardines, order 127 Bernini, Gian Lorenzo 96 Bérulle, Pierre de 22, 60, 91, 127, 182 Bilinkoff, Jodi 114, 212 Birgitta of Sweden, saint 20, 26, 52, 160, 162 as a role model for Louise de Marillac 80-81 Bollandists 78 Bossuet, Jacques 22, 78, 176 Bourbon, Anne-Geneviève de, duchesse de Longueville 72 Bourdon, Sébastien 177 Brejon de Lavergnée, Matthieu 28, 32, 45-46, 48, 58-59, 61-62 Brigittines, order 80-81 Bruant, Libéral 110

Camus, Jean Pierre 54, 58, 82-83, 85, 107-108 canonical hours 93, 129 canonization 78, 80 of Louise de Marillac 25-26, 30, 210, 213 Capuchins, order 37, 61, 83, 85, 96-97, 126-127 Carthusians, order 127 catechization see education Catherine of Genoa, saint 80 Catherine of Siena, saint 83, 133, 162, 205 as a role model for the Daughters of Charity 128 as a role model for Louise de Marillac 80, 128-129 Chantal, Jeanne 38, 86, 109, 112, 126-127, 166-167 charity work see poor relief Charpy, Élizabeth 8, 24-25, 27-28, 46, 105 chastity 37, 39, 41, 51, 89, 115, 121, 130, 139, 141, 151-152, 201 childhood 44, 55-57, 82, 86, 101, 136, 173, 182, 184; see also orphans, school Clement VIII 164 cloistered orders 14, 16, 29-30, 66, 72, 98, 120, 126, 130, 142, 147, 156, 169, 208, 211, 238 Daughters of Charity as superior to 159-162 Collège des Bons-Enfants 87 Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement 44, 110, 172, 176, 178, 195 Confréries de la Charité 39, 54, 59, 69-70, 76, 102, 107, 167, 192-193, 199, 238 Congrégation de la Mission, Congregation of the Mission 15, 21-24, 27, 39, 41, 49, 52, 60, 63, 65, 73, 87, 101, 103, 111-112, 114-115, 134, 136, 160-161, 164-165 Constable, Giles 94, 154 contemplative vocation, vita contemplativa 13, 15, 31, 37, 47, 66, 69, 72, 75, 81, 97, 120-121, 123-124, 133, 139, 142-143, 145-146, 150, 154-155, 158, 160, 212, 238 adaption of by the Daughters of Charity 125-131 control 17-19, 32, 35, 48, 104, 114, 132, 150, 152, 157, 192, 198, 201, 203 ‘check-points’ of 144 mental 138-145 Corneille, Pierre 34 Council of Trent 12-13, 19, 26, 30, 36, 45, 75, 78, 91, 98, 113, 119-122, 128, 132, 134, 141-142, 175, 210

calling vision 52, 79 Camus, Antoinette 57-58

Dames de la charité see Ladies of Charity Day of Dupes 60, 98

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THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS SOCIE TIES IN SHAPING EARLY MODERN SOCIE T Y

death 41, 56, 63, 68-69, 81-82, 85-87, 93, 101, 108-109, 112, 127, 136, 139, 165, 183, 190 cult of 102-103 of Louise de Marillac 26, 91-92, 99, 102-104, 106, 114, 192 Delacroix, Jeanne, sister 180 Democritus 154 Descartes, Renée 153-154 dévotes 31, 42-46, 54, 61-74, 78, 86, 96, 105-106, 108, 110-112, 165, 176, 196, 200, 211, 238 Deyon, Pierre 32, 177 Diefendorf, Barbara 15, 31, 37, 42, 44, 72, 96-98, 105, 119-120, 163-166, 196, 200, 211 Dinan, Susan 28-30, 32, 56, 60, 68, 105, 128, 130, 134, 146-147, 170, 238 Dinet-Lecomte, Marie-Claude 45, 48 disability 177, 190, 199-200 Discalced Carmelite nuns 37, 40, 60-61, 72, 80, 97, 127, 136, 147, 156-157, 165, 178 Doni d’Attichy, Octavien 59, 61 Duval, André 114 Edict of Nantes 46 revocation of 213 education of the Daughters of Charity 148-149 of Louise de Marillac 57, 105, 147-148 of medieval religious lay women 149-150 offered by the Daughters of Charity 145-147 Elias, Norbert 17, 141, 157 Elizabeth of Hungary, saint 80 enclosure, monastic 13-14, 30, 39, 45, 48, 81, 98, 118, 121, 125, 130, 147, 157, 163, 166-167, 208, 238 defence of 144-145 desire of 131 mental 131-145 English Ladies, religious Company 124, 158-159 Epicurus 154 erudition see education ‘fallen women’ 37, 68, 87-88, 110, 120, 190-191, 197 ‘family martyr’ paradigm 82 Fayet, Geneviève, Madame Goussault 61, 65, 70-71, 73-74 Feuillantines, female order 97 Feuillants, male order 38, 97 Filles de l’Ave-Maria, religious Company 163-164 Filles de la Croix, religious Company 14-15, 120 Filles de la Visitation, order see Visitation of the Holy Mary Filles de Sainte-Avoye, religious Company 163 Filles de Saint-Joseph, religious Company 15, 120 first Christians 76, 82, 94, 96, 133-134, 212

as role models 160-162, 164 Forrestal, Alison 28, 54, 165-166 foundlings see orphans Frances of Rome, saint 166 Francis of Assisi, saint 77, 95, 153 Fronde 40, 47, 63-64, 189, 191, 198 galley slaves 41, 185 Gassendi, Pierre 153-154 Gobillon, Nicolas 26, 56, 58, 83-86, 93, 103-105, 107-108, 147, 166-167 Gondi family 54-55, 57 Gondi, Jeanne de 57 Gondi, Marguerite de, marquise de Maignelay 64, 112 Gondi, Philippe-Emmanuel de 54 Granada, Louis of 73-74, 85 Gratian 197 Gregory XIII 165 Guiche, Marie de la, duchesse de Ventadour 62, 104 Gutton, Jean-Pierre 32, 85, 98, 175-176, 178, 190, 195, 199, 202 hagiography 27-28, 30, 56, 58, 73, 82-84, 93, 97, 104, 112, 114, 128, 133, 143, 147, 149, 153, 160, 163, 166-167, 178, 193, 197 and methodology 25-26 as offering role models 78-81 Haudriettes, religious Company 163 Hennequin, Isabelle, Mademoiselle du Fay 59-60 Henry IV 35, 195, 198 Hillman, Jennifer 31 Holy Family 122 Hôpital des enfants trouvés 40, 189 Hôpital général, General hospital of Paris 44, 110, 195; see also Salpêtrière Hôtel-Dieu 48, 63, 71, 149, 172, 183, 186, 193 identity 9-11, 14-16, 18, 20-21, 55, 74, 81, 92, 98, 106, 117, 125, 212-213 illness 17, 83, 85-86, 94, 101-102, 108, 135, 180, 186-188, 190-191, 193-194, 201; see also suffering Jacobins, order 38 Jerome, saint 86, 113, 158, 161 Jesuits, order 43, 61, 72, 87, 114, 137 Jesus 39, 66, 73, 76, 85, 91, 93, 103-104, 122, 160-161, 169, 173, 175, 178, 180-181, 183-184, 201 Imitatio Christi, Imitation of Christ 73, 77, 85, 95, 170, 178-185, 186 John of the Cross, saint 37, 80 John of God, saint 165 Jones, Colin 29, 163, 199 Jütte, Robert 32, 177, 198

Index

Kempis, Thomas à 73, 149 Ladies of Charity 39-40, 55, 60, 104, 110-111, 132, 160-161, 165, 181, 192, 204 and cooperation with the Daughters of Charity 65-69, 135 as patrons of the Daughters of Charity 6265, 69-71, 162 social composition of 62 LaFleur, Kathryn 105 Lamoignon family 62 Lamoignon, Guillaume de 189 Lamoignon, Madeleine de 189 Lazarists see Congregation of the Mission Le Camus, Marguerite 56 Le Clerc, Gabrielle 88 Le Gras, Antoine 53, 59, 62, 70, 82, 85, 91, 93, 108 Le Gras family 84 Le Gras, Louise, Mademoiselle see Louise de Marillac Le Gras, Louise-Renée 88 Le Gras, Michel-Antoine 59, 85-88, 109 Le Jeune, Jean 176 Le Nain brothers 177 Le Vau, Louis 110 Lehmijoki-Gardner, Maiju 7, 14, 133, 143, 181 Lipsius, Justus 188 living saint 75 Louis II de Bourbon-Condé, prince of Condé 185, 189 Louis XI 162 Louis XIII 15, 60, 120 Louis XIV 36, 46, 185, 195 Lullen, Marie, sister 169, 179, 183 Lumague, Marie, Mademoiselle de Pollalion 65, 68, 86 Luther, Martin 12, 237 Lux-Sterritt, Laurence 124, 157, 159, 212 Madelonnettes, convent 87-88 Marais 22, 35, 38, 52-53, 59, 79, 87 Marguerite du Saint-Sacrement, mystic 178 Marie de France 57 Marie de l’Incarnation see Barbe Acarie Marillac, Louis de, Marshal of France 59-60 Marillac, Louis de, lord of Farainvilliers 5558, 84 Marillac, Louise de administrational talent of 108-112 and mental health 105-108 and networks 33-34, 53-74 and relationship to husband 58-59 and relationship to son 86-88 and relationship to Vincent de Paul 104-115 and spiritual authority 74-104 education of 56-58

243 financial resources of 58-59 genealogy of 61 illegitimate status of 55-57 Marillac, Michel de 58-60, 107-108 marriage 13, 56, 58-61, 67, 79-81, 86, 89, 109, 113, 122-124, 141, 201 repentance of 82-84 spiritual 124 Mary Magdalen, saint 113, 120, 146-147, 160 as model for contrition 90-91 Massillon, Jean-Baptiste 22, 176 Maupéou, Marie de, Madame Fouquet 99, 174 Mechtild of Magdeburg, mystic 149 Medici, Catherine de’ 59 Medici, Marie de’ 44, 59-60, 72, 165 Monica, saint 79 Montaigne, Michel de 154 Montmorency, Charlotte Marguerite de, princess of Condé 27, 40, 62-63, 72 moral management definition of 16-19 means of 21-25 as a methodological tool 19-20 motherhood 52, 54-60, 72, 79, 83, 86-88, 93, 109, 114, 184, 201, 204-205 spiritual 66, 99-101, 173-174 motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity 10, 15, 21-24, 34, 38, 40-41, 52, 65, 67, 71-72, 100, 104, 128, 143, 148, 185-186, 192, 239 Muchembled, Robert 141 Newman, Barbara 82 Noret, Françoise Paule, sister 86, 100 nursing 29, 34, 48-49, 68, 71, 127, 129, 146, 155, 172, 181 obedience 23, 37, 39, 51, 121, 130-138, 192, 204 O’Donnell, Hugh 127, 182 Orléans de Longueville, Antoinette de 97 Orléans, Marie Louise de, duchesse de Montpensier 62 orphans 15, 40-41, 60, 63, 110, 120, 170, 174, 183-185, 189, 201-204 Paris as capital of luxury lifestyles 34-35, 38, 77-78 as cradle of the French Catholic Reformation 36 faubourg Saint-Denis 40-41, 172, 189, 201 faubourg Saint-Germain 38, 165 faubourg Saint-Honoré 77 faubourg Saint-Jacques 37-38, 72 faubourg Saint-Lazare 9, 65 monastic revival in 36-38 reorganization of 34-38 parti dévot 60-61, 110, 127 Paul, saint 123-124, 140, 153, 161

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THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS SOCIE TIES IN SHAPING EARLY MODERN SOCIE T Y

Paul, Vincent de 10-11, 15, 18, 21-24, 26-30, 3334, 37-41, 46, 49, 51-55, 59, 61-63, 65, 68-71, 73, 76, 79-80, 83, 87-88, 91, 93-95, 97-101, 103-112, 114-115, 118-119, 123-124, 126-138, 143-145, 147, 150-162, 164-168, 171-175, 179-183, 185, 187-189, 191-197, 201, 204-207, 239 penitence and gender 97-98 and type of religious vocation 98, 156-158 bodily or corporal austerities of the Daughters of Charity 154-158 of Louise de Marillac 92-94 cilice, penitential belt 93-94, 97, 155-157 discipline, penitential whip 97 fasting 80, 93-95, 155-156 flagellation 91 hair shirt 93-94, 97, 155-156 kissing wounds 157 mortification, internal 150-154 penitential culture 113 sleeping on hard surface 155 walking barefoot 156-157 see also asceticism penitent-confessor relationship 112-115 Penitents, religious lay movement 14, 121, 133, 143-144, 149, 160, 163, 171, 181, 205 performance 20, 78, 104, 141 Pizan, Christine de 57 Plato 153 poor relief 169-208 motivated by proselytization 171-175 motivated by Imitatio Christi 175-185 value system transmitted in 200-208 see also underprivileged Pope 13, 15, 36, 71, 81, 121, 164-165, 189 Porete, Marguerite, mystic 149 poverty saintly 75-78, 176-178 power structure of between Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul 104-115 structure of between the Daughters of Charity and the Catholic Church 134 structure of within the Daughters of Charity 133-138 prisoners 39, 41, 100, 185, 189 Protestants 12-13, 46, 48, 60, 78, 102, 122, 140, 163, 197, 205, 213 public space and women 139-143 Rapley, Elizabeth 31, 157, 170 Reformations 12 Catholic 12, 30-31, 36, 43, 45-46, 52, 65, 67, 110-111, 118, 123, 125, 128, 184, 197, 203, 205, 209, 211-213, 237 Protestant 96, 209 reformed Cistercians of Port Royal, order 37

Richelieu, Cardinal 40, 60 rhetorical strategies 22, 46, 114-115, 124, 152 Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes, order of the Discalced Carmelite fathers 37, 61 Saint-Laurent, church 104, 192 Saint-Lazare, headquarter of the Congregation of the Mission 41, 87-88, 100, 102, 192 Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, church 52, 79 Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet charity of 181 college of 87 parish of 39, 196 sainthood see hagiography Sales, François de 12, 38, 73-74, 79-80, 83, 8586, 89, 99, 103, 109, 111-112, 114, 126-127, 140, 149, 151, 153, 157, 164, 166-168, 174, 176, 182 Salmesvuori, Päivi 20, 25-26 Salpêtrière, hospital and church 110; see also Hôpital général Santa Maria della Vittoria, church 96 Schools of the Daughters of Charity 11, 32, 41, 48, 110, 204-208 petites écoles 41, 205, 205 see also education Second Vatican Council 21, 52, 213 servants 73, 85, 87, 92, 145, 148, 175, 192, 199, 202 Silly, Francoise Marguérite de 54, 64 social order 19, 21, 62, 66, 68, 100, 133-134, 170, 178, 198, 202, 207, 212 subversion of 89-90 social problems 46-48 social roles 67 of saints 29 Societies of Apostolic Life see active vocation spiritual retreat 65, 67, 71-74, 79, 83, 85, 123, 128, 142 Stabler Miller, Tanya 67, 143, 162, 207 stigma, stigmata 95 St. John of God, hospitaller order, Frères de la Charité 165, 167 Strasser, Ulrike 19, 123, 141-142, 158, 204 suffering 56, 74, 81, 90-91, 93-95, 101-104, 137, 171, 178, 183-184, 186-187; see also illness Suso, Henry 76 Tallon, Alain 32, 175-176, 178 teaching orders 32, 238 Teresa of Avila, saint 37, 80, 96, 114, 127, 147 Thirty Years’ War 47, 188, 191 Tor de’ Specchi, order 166, 168 travelling concepts 16 underprivileged love for 100-101, 175-189 preferred group of, shamefaced and deserving 189-194, 196-200

245

Index

undesirable group of, undeserving 191, 195-198 see also poor relief Ursulines, order 37, 61, 124, 147, 157, 159, 206-207, 238 Valois, Marguerite de 165 Vignerot, Marie de, duchesse d’Aiguillon 40, 61-62, 111 Virgin Mary 66, 82, 88-89, 93, 102, 104, 122, 124, 142, 147-148, 155, 160, 181, 184 virgins, virginity 82-83, 86, 89, 123, 142

Visitation of Holy Mary, Visitation nuns, order 38, 97, 102, 109, 112, 126-127, 147, 156, 164, 166-167, 206 vita activa see active vocation vita contemplativa see contemplative vocation vows, monastic 12, 37, 39, 51, 81-82, 119, 121-123, 130-131, 137, 164, 166, 238 Wars of Religion 33, 37, 43, 47, 165, 188, 238 widowhood 10, 44, 52, 54-55, 60, 62-63, 76, 79, 86, 91, 93, 127, 163, 238 Zarri, Gabriella 20