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The Congregation of the Oratory in France in the late Seventeenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Extract
The history of the Oratory for which Bremond hoped has not yet been written and much of it remains doubtful. André George has recently repeated his own lament that this should be so, especially as a full study ‘éclairerait singulièrement les obscurités dont sʼentourent les origines du XVIIIe siècle…’. An examination of some of the difficulties which overpowered Sainte-Marthe, the fifth Superior General of the Congregation, may enlighten these dark places and perhaps serve both as a modest contribution to the unwritten history and as a detailed illustration of the magisterial thesis of Paul Hazard. A comprehensive history of the intellectual achievements of the Oratory—which would, in these years, include a study of such giants as Quesnel, Simon, Lamy, Male-branche and Thomassin—is plainly impossible within the limits of an article, and attention will therefore be concentrated on the attempts of Sainte-Marthe himself to direct the turbulent life of the Congregation.
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References
page 46 note 1 Bremond, H., Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, 1916–36, iii. 157Google Scholar; A. George, L'Oratoire, and. ed. 1954, 240.
page 46 note 2 P. Hazard, La crise de la conscience Européenne, 1935.
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page 46 note 4 Dagens, J., Bérullé et les origines de la restauration catholique, 1953, 15Google Scholar.
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page 47 note 1 H. Bremond, op. cit., iii. 23–154. The importance of the Oratorian contribution to education will require treatment in another article. See Lallemand, P., Histoire de l'éducation dans l'ancien Oratoire de France, 1888Google Scholar.
page 47 note 2 Perraud, A., L'Oratoire de France au XVIIe et au XIXe siècle, 1865, 173Google Scholar.
page 47 note 3 The manuscript version of the proceedings may be found in the Archives de l'Oratoire, preserved in the Oratorian house at Montsoult (Carton 10). There is a printed version in AN (=Archives Nationales, Paris), M217.
page 47 note 4 Sess. ii, vi.
page 47 note 5 Sess. v.
page 47 note 6 Sess. viii, ix.
page 47 note 7 This arrangement was not fully worked out until 1658.
page 47 note 8 Bahier was Secretary for thirty years: Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Français, Nouvelles Acquisitions, 6654, fol. 35.
page 48 note 1 L. Batterel, Mémoires domestiques pour servir à l'histoire de l'Oratoire, ed. A. M. P. Ingold, 1902–11, ii. 310.
page 48 note 2 AN MM 575, fols. 6, 8; H. Gouhier, La vocation de Malebranche, 1926, 52; J. B. Bossuet, Oraison funèbre du R. P. Bourgoing, second point.
page 48 note 3 J. L. de Fromentières, ‘Oraison funèbre du R. P. Senault’, Collection intégrale et universelle des orateurs sacrés, ed. Migne, 1844–66, ix. 120–41.
page 48 note 4 V. Fouqué, Du Gallia Christiana et de ses auteurs, 1857. More than twenty-five members of the family could be listed as savants: Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Français, Nouvelles Acquisitions, 6653, fol. 593.
page 48 note 5 For Harlay, see G. d'Avenel, Les évêques et archevêques de Paris, 1878, i. 345–79. For the general background to the policies of Harlay and Louis XIV, see Judge, H. G., ‘Church and State under Louis XIV’, History, xliv (1960) 217–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
page 48 note 6 AN MM623, fol 369; Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iv. 10.
page 48 note 7 Archives de l'Oratoire, Carton 10, 14th. Ass., sess. ix.
page 48 note 8 AN MM582, fol. 109; MM604, fol. 100.
page 49 note 1 See B. Lamy, Entretiens sur les sciences, ed. 1684, 147–8. The life and writings of Lamy repay close attention: Girbal, F., ‘A propos de Malebranche et de Bernard Lamy’, Revue internationale de philosophie, xxxii (1955) 288–90Google Scholar; ‘La formation augustinienne du P. B. Lamy de l'Oratoire (1660–80)’, Société des amis de Port-Royal, 1957, viiiGoogle Scholar.
page 49 note 2 Ingold, A. M. P., Le prétendu jansénisme du Père de Sainte-Marthe, 1882Google Scholar; Orcibal, J., Port-Royal, entre le miracle et l'obéissance, 1957, 167–8Google Scholar.
page 49 note 3 Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iii. 491, iv. 27; Clair, P., ‘Le Père Thomassin et le jansénisme’, Société des amis de Port-Royal, 1957, viiiGoogle Scholar.
page 49 note 4 Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iv. 551.
page 49 note 5 AN M230.
page 49 note 6 AN MM582, fol. 49.
page 49 note 7 Lettres du Cardinal le Camus, ed. A. M. P. Ingold, 1892, 237, 246.
page 50 note 1 AN M217, 15th Ass., sess. xi.
page 50 note 2 This commendation was not included in the printed statutes of the Assembly: Archives de l'Oratoire, Carton 10, 15th. Ass., sess. xii.
page 50 note 3 L. Barbedette, “L'influence augustienne au XVIIe siècle spécialement a l'Oratoire’, Revue de l'histoire des religions, 1926, xciii. 291; Ingold, Le prétendu jansénisme, 10–11; Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iv. 436. A manuscript copy of the order has been inserted between fols. 145 and 146 in AN MM582.
page 51 note 1 There is no printed record of this Assembly in AN M217, but see Archives de l'Oraioire, Carton 10, 16th Ass., sess. vi.
page 51 note 2 AN MM623, fol. 394.
page 51 note 3 Lallemand, P., Histoire de l'éducation dans l'ancien Oratoire de France, 1888, 186Google Scholar.
page 52 note 1 Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iii. 414.
page 52 note 2 AN MM583, fol. 118. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 5782, 5–8.
page 52 note 3 AN MM583, fol. 112; AN M217, 17th Ass., sess. i; Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iv. 118.
page 52 note 4 AN M217, 17th Ass., sess. iv.
page 52 note 5 Archives de l'Oratoire, Carton 10, 18th. Ass., sess. viii. Malebranche signed: AN MM623, fol. 416.
page 52 note 6 Andrd Martin was accused of making this distinction: AN MM582, fol. 197.
page 52 note 7 AN MM583, fol. 206. For Sainte-Marthe's attitude to Quesnel, see Bibliothéque de l'Arsenal, 5781, fols. 96, 106, 107. Sainte-Marthe's enemies made much of his friendly attitude towards Quesnel: Bibliothique Nationale, Fonds Franfais, 15796, fol. 457.
page 52 note 8 ‘Plusquam ducenti numero sumus, quos pestis ista infecit’: quoted by G. Daniel, Voyage du monde de Descartes, 1690, 200.
page 53 note 3 Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iii. 377–9 and iv. 184–5.
page 53 note 2 AN MM583, fols. 85, 86.
page 53 note 3 Ibid., fol. 114.
page 53 note 4 25 March 1681: AN MM604, fol. 97.
page 53 note 5 Batterel, Mémoins domestiques, iii. 414 and iv. 32.
page 53 note 6 Sainte-Marthe wrote a full account of the episode in a letter dated 2 October: AN M235. Quesnel gave a slightly different version: Correspondance (ed. Mme. Albert le Roy), 1900, i. 173.
page 53 note 7 Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iv. 299.
page 54 note 1 These resolutions were struck out of the manuscript account by order of the king in 1696 but are still legible: Archives de l'Oratoire, Carton 10, 20th Ass., sess. vii, 21st Ass., sess. viii.
page 54 note 2 AN M217, 1st. Ass., sess. viii; Batterel, Mémoires domestiques, iv. 48.
page 54 note 3 The portrait can still be seen at the Collège Libre de Juilly (Seine-et-Marne).
page 54 note 4 AN MM583, fols. 106, 188.
page 54 note 5 Archives de l'Oratoire, Carton 8, no. 6.
page 54 note 6 AN MM623, fol. 453.
page 54 note 7 Bibliathèque Nationale, Fonds Français, Nouvelles Acquisitions, 6653, fols. 598–9.
page 55 note 1 C. E. Cloyseault, Recueil des vies de quelques prêres de l'Oratoire, ed. A. M. P. Ingold, 1883, iii. 22.