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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
The century from the calling of the Council of Trent to the conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle stands out as one of the most creative in the pastoral history of Christian Europe. The great number of new apostolic orders, the devotional flowering in France which tamed and domesticated the mysticism of Spain for everyman, the renovation of the parish and the priestly life aspired to by Carlo Borromeo, Pierre Berulle and Vincent de Paul are all aspects of a transformation which is the spiritual face of the baroque. The practice of confession stands somewhere near the centre of this transformation. From an annual social rite concerned essentially with the restoration of peace and the guaranteeing of restitution, it became a monthly or even weekly private rite of reconciliation of the penitent with God. It became, too, the focus for the direction of souls which was now seen, supremely in the work of Francis de Sales, as a central part of the work of the priest. The Salesian tradition was to dominate the flood of devotional manuals published in every European language in the seventeenth century, and in it the practice of confession was developed beyond the juridical and canonical framework of Trent, and turned into a subtle and highly personal instrument of spiritual direction.
* Part of this paper first appeared in 1980 in a privately circulated collection of essays in honour of Dr J. C. O'Neill, of Westminster College. The argument has benefited from the characteristically generous criticisms of Professor John Bossy.
1 The best general survey in English is now Delumeau, J., Catholicism between Luther Voltaire, London 1977, esp. 175–202Google Scholar. A convenient summary of the present state of knowledge on France, with bibliography, is Lebrun, Francois (ed.), Histoire des Catholiques en France, Toulouse 1980, 111Google Scholar–19, 148–77.
2 Bossy, J., ‘The social history of confession’ iff Trans. Royal Historical Society, 5 th Series, xxv, 1975Google Scholar.
3 The best account of the Salesian tradition as a whole remains Henri Bremond's monumental Literary History of Religious Thought in France (Eng. trans., 3 vols, London 1928–36), i. passim and ii. 394–429.
4 Alberigo, G., ‘L'Ecclesiologia del concilio di Trento’, Rivista di storia delta Chiesa in Italia, xviii (1964), 227–42Google Scholar.
5 Bremond, op. cit., iii. 137–8; for Bérullisme and the priesthood, see the excellent summary in Cochois, P., Birulle et l'École Francaise, Paris 1963, 124–33Google Scholar.
6 As revealed in the work of G. Le Bras and his associates, to which the most convenient introduction is Boulard, F., An Introduction to Religious Sociology, London 1960Google Scholar.
7 Most useful narrative, Hughes, P., Rome and the Counter-Reformation in England, London 1942, 271–420Google Scholar; brief account in Aveling, J. C., The Handle and the Axe, London 1976, 68–121Google Scholar. On Smith and his French connections, Allison, A. F.‘Richard Smith, Richelieu and the French marriage’, Recusant History, vii (1964), 148–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Saint Cyran's intervention, see J. Orcibal in Dictionnaire d'Histoire el de Geographic Ecclisiastiques, xiv. cols 1216–41, especially the section ‘La Defense du berullisme', cols 1221–3. See also the useful though partisan ‘Argumentum’ prefixed to the folio Petri Aurelii Theologi Opera, Paris 1646Google Scholar.
8 Hemphill, B., The Early Vicars Apostolic, London 1954, 1–26Google Scholar.
9 Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community 1570–1850, London 1975, 11–74Google Scholar.
10 Ibid., 27–9.
11 Ibid., 29, 53.
12 The most outstanding example is the Benedictine, William Giffbrd, who became primate of France, but there were many others, including Smith himself, Henry Holden and William Clifford.
13 Neercassel's remark, Neale, J. M., A History of the so-called Jansenist Church of Holland, London 1858, 166Google Scholar; The English priest's remark (John Bennet) is in Tierney, M. (ed.), Dodd's Church History of England: V, London 1843Google Scholar, appendix cclii.
14 There is little in English on the Dutch Church. Neale, op. cit., is biased and often inaccurate, but to be preferred for the seventeenth century to Moss, C. B., The Old Catholic Movement, London 1960Google Scholar. Brachin, P. and Rogier, L. J., Histoire du catholicisme hollandais depuis le XVle sielle, Paris 1974Google Scholar, compresses much modern research. The most useful recent account is Spiertz, L., l'Église catholique des Provinces-Unies el le Saint-Siege, Louvain 1975Google Scholar. For the details cited in the text, Neale, op. cit., 200–1; Birrell, T. A., ‘English Catholics without a bishop', Recusant History, iv (1958), 142–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; E. Duffy,’ A Rubb-up for old Soares: Jesuits.Jansenists and the English secular clergy, 1705–1715', this JOURNAL, xxviii (1977), 293–4 314–5; Spiertz, op. cit., 72–6. For a comparison of England and Holland from a very different perspective, see Bossy, J., ‘Catholicity and nationality in the northern Counter-Reformation’, in Mews, S. (ed.), Religion and National Identity (Studies in Church History, xviii), Oxford 1982, 285–96Google Scholar.
15 Delumeau, Catholicism, 99–128, 161, 201; Burke, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, London 1978, 207–43Google Scholar; Bossy, J., ‘The Counter-Reformation and the people of Catholic Europe’, Past and Present, 47 (1970CrossRefGoogle Scholar),
16 Chaunu, P., ‘Jansenismeetfrontieredecatholicite’, RevueHistorique, 227 (1962), 1Google Scholar 16ff.
17 Neale, op. cit., 187.
18 Exemplified, most famously, in A. Arnauld's De Frequenti Communione Liber, Paris 1647Google Scholar, Prae/atio, 62ff.
19 Bossy, English Catholic Community, 270–1.
20 Birrell, ‘English Catholics', 163.
21 Berington, J., Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani, Birmingham 1793, 250Google Scholar. I owe the point about the Benedictine claims to my research student, Rev. Geoffrey Scott, OSB.
22 On Saltmarsh, see Duffy, ‘Rubb-up for old Soares', 300–1; Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster (hereafter cited as AAW), Ep. Var., IV, no. 66; Ep. Var. VI, no 20.
23 AAW, ‘A’ series 36, fo. 181, draft petition to Rome, June 1698.
24 AAW, Old Brotherhood papers, iii (i), no. 6.
21 Hughes, Rome and the Counter Reformation, 360–2; n. 7, above. Saint Cyran had also translated and edited Rovenius's De Missionibus, seej. Orcibal, Saint Cyran et le Jansenisme (Paris n.d.), 15.
26 Spiertz, M., ‘Pastoral problemen in de Noordnederlandse Katholieke Kerk van de zeventiende eeuw’, Historic als Vriend: opstellen voor Dr. P. S. M. Geurts OFM, Utrecht 1979, 42–7Google Scholar.
27 Bossy, English Catholic Community, 29. The archbishopric of Utrecht, so central to the Dutch secular clergy's hierarchical claims, had been established by Philip n as part of a centralising and counter-reformed programme. The Dutch vicars apostolic remained ardent supporters of Spanish influence in the Netherlands, Spiertz, L.'Eglise Catholique, passim.
28 Bossy, op. cit., 29.
29 A Treatise of the Best Kinde of Confessors By which Preists in England may see how they may be, and lay Catholicks see how they may chose the best kinde of Confessors. Compared by the most Reverend Father in God, Richard Bishop of Chalcedon, Pastor of the Catholicke in England (n.p. 1651) passim.
30 Monita quaedam utilia pro Sacerdotibus Seminaristis praesertim, Qjiando primum veniunt in Angliam (Douai 1630Google Scholar).
31 Ibid., sections 2 (Mission oath), 11 (Trent).
32 Ibid., sections 1–3.
33 Ibid., section s 4, 8.
34 An Introduction to a Devoute Life… Translated into English by I.T. (n.p. 1613).
35 A new edition of the Introduction to a Devout Life … setforth by the English Priests of Toumay College at Paris, Paris 1648Google Scholar.
36 A Treatise of the Love of God. Written in French by B. Francis de Sales… Translated into English by Miles Car Preist of the English Colledge of Doway, Douai 1630; A Draught ofEtemitie. Written in French by John Peter Camus… Translated… by Miles Car…, Douai 1632; A Spirituall Combat: A Tryall of a Faithfull Soule OR Consolation in Temptation. Written in French I. P. Camus…and Translated in English by MCP of the Eng. Coll. of Doway, Douai 1632. For Carre, seeJ. Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary ofthe English Catholics, London 1885., v. 313 Anstruther, G., The Seminary Priests, Great Wakering 1975, ii. 245–6Google Scholar.
37 Spirituall Combat, 4–5 .
38 A Spiritual Director Disinteressed According to the Spirit of B. Francis of Sales … By the most Reverend Father in God John Peter Camus, Bishop of Bellay, Rouen 1633Google Scholar.
39 Ibid., 639.
40 On the foundation of Lisbon, see Tierney's Dodd, iv. 123–33, and Sharratt, M., ‘Blacklow and Coutinho in 1633’, Ushaw Magazine, lxxxviii (1977), 16–25Google Scholar, xc (1978) 18–26. For Haynes, see Anstruther, Seminary Priests, ii. 153.
41 For White, Gillow, Dictionary, v. 578–81; Anstruther op. cit., ii. 349–54. Bossy, English Catholic Community, 62 ff.
42 A Manuall of Divine Considerations, Delivered and Concluded by the Reverend Thomas White. Translated out of the Original Latine Copie (n.p. 1655), phrases quoted from the epistle ‘To the Reader', which is by the editor, William Clifford.
43 Ibid., 159–75, quotation at 168–9.
44 On the exercises of St Lazare, and the Vincentian reforms in general, see Coste, P., Monsieur Vincent, Paris 1934Google Scholar; La Congregation de la mission, Paris 1927Google Scholar; Broutin, P., La Reforme pastorale en France au XVII siecle, Paris 1956Google Scholar.
45 Thomas Carre, Pietas Parisiensis or a short Description of the Pietie and Charities commonly exercised in Paris…, Paris 1666, 38–9Google Scholar.
46 For Gilmet, see Anstruther, Seminary Priests, ii. 295; Gilmet's letter is transcribed in the MS Liber Missionis of Lisbon College, now among the Lisbon Papers at Ushaw College, Durham. A modernised transcription was published by D r Michael Sharratt, the custodian of the Lisbon Collection, in Mount Carmel, Spring 1977, 44–52Google Scholar.
47 For Daniell, see Gillow, Dictionary ii. 9–11; Anstruther, op. cit., ii. 244–5. See Haigh, C., ‘Fro m monopoly to minority; Catholicism in early moder n England’, Trans. Royal Historical Society, 5th Series, xxxi (1981), 129–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For further examples of concern by secular clergy with the mission to the poor in th e 1630s, see M. J. Havran, The Catholics in Caroline England, Stanford and Oxford 1962, 78–9 , and refs. there cited. Haigh, cynically, attributes this growth of interest in the poor to the fact tha t by the 1620s all available gentry chaplaincies had been filled, ‘and some priests were forced to turn to the poor and adopt a more populist approach’ . Haigh seems to me seriously to underestimate the number of priests in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period who ‘assisted’ the poor, while the close links between the growth of concern for the poor in Europe and in England argued for here makes his interpretation see m inadequate because insular .
48 For Marchant, see Dictionnaire du Thiologie Catholique.
49 Liber Missionis, unpaginated.
50 I have used the second edition, Meditations collected and orderedfor the use of the English Colledge of Lisbon, by the Superiors of the same Colledge, Douai 1663Google Scholar. The appendix of meditations on priesthood is on 436–54.
51 Manila quaedam utilia pro sacerdotibus seminaristis … cui adiectum est Legatum Antonii Champnei Doctoris Sorbonici, Fratribus suis Cleri Anglicani Sacerdotibus, testamento relic-tum … Editio nova, London 1695, 107–42Google Scholar; Molina's work was translated into many languages. I have used the Latin edition, Instructio Sacerdotum Ex SS Patribus et Ecclesiae Doctoribus Concinnata… Auclore RPF Antonio de Molina Monacho Carlhusiani impressionem Latinitate donavil RPF Nicolaus lansscnius, Antwerp 1618. Th e book was in seven treatises or ‘tractates', of which the seventh ‘De Frequentatione SS Sacramenti was Arnauld's target. Tractate three, De Sancto missae sacrificio, appeared in an English translation, with additional devotions for the laity, by Smith's Jesuit opponent, Fr John Floyd, in 1623, A treatise of the Holy Sacrifice of the Masse and Excellencies therof, St Omer 1623; tractate one, De eminentinium Sacerdotum Dignitate appeared in an English translation, from the Birchley Hall press, in 1642 as The Catholike Younger Brother; OR A short Discourse, wherein the Author propoundeth unto Catholike Younger Brothers … to take upon them, the Sacred Order of Priesthood … Heerunto is adioyned…a Translation of a Treatise made by the Reverend Mons. Antonius de Molina … entitled De dignitate Sacerdotum (n.p. 1642). For Champney, see Gillow, Dictionary, i. 462–6, Anstruther, Seminary Priests, 70–1.
52 Monita…Editio nova, 134–6.
53 Ibid., 130.
54 (William Clifford) , Christian rules proposed to the vertuous soul aspiring to holy perfection, (n.p. 1655). I have used the third edition of 1665. Reference to St Vincent, 260–4, St Francis, 265. For Clifford's career, see Gillow, op. cit., i. 514–6. Anstruther, op. cit., ii. 62–3.
55 I have used the edition of 1705, A Little Manual of the Poor Man's Daily Devotions; Collected out of several Pious and Approved Authors. By W. C, London 1705Google Scholar.
56 Ibid., 268–89.
57 For Gother, Duffy, E. (ed.), Challoner andhis Church: a Catholic bishop in Georgian England, London 1981, 1–3Google Scholar, and refs. there cited.
58 Pietas Parisiensis. Most of the book is devoted to various aspects of Vincent's work; the St Lazare exercises are described, 27–43.
59 Ushaw College, Lisbon Papers, Thomas Hall to Richard Moseley, September 25 1684.
60 The presence of multiple copies of Lignum Vitae, Hortus Pastorum and Molina's Instructio Sacerdotum in the Oscott College Library, gathered largely from former mission libraries, testifies to this. A number of these works contain the signatures of seventeenth-century English clergy. A copy of Lignum Vitae, now in the possession of the present writer, belonged formerly to Edward Kyn or Kinn, the Chapter's rural dean of Worcestershire from 1667. It is probably in this context that the abortive attempts in the 1690s to establish an ‘Institute’ of secular clergy, living a common life, should be seen. The planned institute embodied many of the ideals expressed in Gilmet's letter: see Archives of the Archbishop of Birmingham C 168: ‘Mr Coles’ reason why the Institute ought not to be laied down; nor suppressed by your Lordship's authority'. C 172: ‘Reason why those who will not lay aside the Institute should not be admitted into the common fund'; AAW Old Brotherhood papers, iii (ii), no 140, John Sergeant to the Brethren of the New Institute.
61 Duffy, E., ‘Richard Challoner and the English Salesian tradition’, Clergy Review, lxvi (1981), 449–55Google Scholar.
62 For example, in Italy, cf. Mezzadri, Luigi, ‘Le Missioni popolari della Congregazione della missione nello stato della Chiesa 1642–1700’, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia, xxxiii (1979), 12–44Google Scholar. For the implementation of the reforms in France from 1660, see Lebrun, Histoire des Catholiques, 147–214.
