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153-553: Raymond Janin , A.A. (31 August 1882 – 12 July 1972) was a French Byzantinist . An Assumptionist priest, he was also the author of several significant works on Byzantine studies . This article about a French historian or genealogist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Augustinians of the Assumption Born in Le Vigan on August 30, 1810, Emmanuel d'Alzon received his initial formation in

306-666: A Frenchman living in the United States, places the emphasis on the deeply Trinitarian inspiration of d'Alzon's writings, articulated around themes and actions which champion the rights of God. History of the Catholic Church in France#Defeat of Catholicism The history of the Catholic Church in France is inseparable from the history of France , and should be analyzed in its peculiar relationship with

459-771: A Lutheran plot; an inquiry was ordered, and seven Lutherans were condemned to death and burned at the stake in Paris. Eminent ecclesiastics like du Bellay , Archbishop of Paris, and Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras, deplored these executions and the Valdois massacre ordered by d'Oppède, President of the Parliament of Aix, in 1545. Laymen, on the other hand, who ill understood the Christian gentleness of these prelates, reproached them with being slow and remiss in putting down heresy; and when, under Henry II , Calvinism crept in from Geneva,

612-601: A chance to gain possession of ecclesiastical property, the kings of France, thanks to the concordat, were already in legal possession of those much-envied goods." "When Charles V became King of Spain (1516) and emperor (1519), thus uniting in his person the hereditary possessions of the House of Austria and German as well as the old domains of the House of Burgundy – uniting moreover the Spanish monarchy with Naples, Sicily, Sardinia,

765-805: A committee and were encouraged to equip two hospital ships to aid the fishermen. The vessels were wrecked twice, but replaced. In 1925, the Assumptionists absorbed the English branch of the Fathers of St. Edmund , also known as the Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, founded in 1843 by Dom Muard . On 11 November 1952 at the central prison of Sofia, Bulgaria three Assumptionist priests (Augustinians of

918-473: A concordat, and overtures in this sense were made to Eugene IV . Eugene replied that he well knew that the Pragmatic Sanction – "that odious act" – was not the king's own free doing and a concordat was discussed between them. Louis XI (1461–83), whose domestic policy aimed at ending or weakening the new feudalism which had grown up during two centuries through the custom of presenting appanages to

1071-452: A contemporary describes him, made kings so beloved that from that time dates the royal cult, so to speak, which was one of the moral forces in olden France, and which existed in no other country of Europe to the same degree. Piety had been for the kings of France, set on their thrones by the Church of God, as it were a duty belonging to their charge or office; but in the piety of St. Louis there

1224-595: A crisis arose between the Holy See and Louis XIV which led to thirty-five sees being left vacant in 1689. The policy of Louis XIV in religious matters was adopted also by Louis XV . His way of striking at the Jesuits in 1763 was in principle the same as that taken by Louis XIV to impose Gallicanism on the Church, the royal power pretending to mastery over the Church. The domestic policy of the 17th-century Bourbons, aided by Scully, Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louvois, completed

1377-540: A few hundred obstinate heretics , he revoked the Edict of Nantes (1685) and began an oppressive policy against Protestants, which provoked the rising of the Camisards in 1703-05, and which lasted with alternations of severity and kindness until 1784, when Louis XVI was obliged to give Protestants their civil rights once more. The very manner in which Louis XIV, who imagined himself the religious head of his kingdom, set about

1530-571: A few priests, were infatuated with Lutheran ideas. Until 1534, Francis I was almost favorable to the Lutherans, and he even proposed to make Melanchthon President of the Collège de France ." However, "on learning, in 1534, that violent placards against the Church of Rome had been posted on the same day in many of the large towns, and even near the king's own room in the Château d'Amboise, he feared

1683-491: A friend of Louis VI and minister of Louis VII (1137-80), developed and realized this ideal of kingly duty. Louis VI, seconded by Suger and counting on the support of the towns – the "communes" they were called when they had obliged the feudal lords to grant them charters of freedom – fulfilled to the letter the rôle of prince as it was conceived by the theology of the Middle Ages. "Kings have long arms," wrote Suger, "and it

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1836-500: A large share of responsibility in the odious massacre of St. Bartholomew . There were eight of these wars in the space of thirty years. The first was started by a massacre of Calvinists at Vassy by the troopers of Guise (1 March 1562), and straightway both parties appealed for foreign aid. Catharine, who was at this time working in the Catholic cause, turned to Spain; Coligny and Condé turned to Elizabeth of England and turned over to her

1989-834: A modest-sized congregation. In 1941 it incorporated the Sacramentine Sisters of Marseille , founded in 1639 by Antoine Le Quien. In a booklet, entitled, "Origins of the Religious Families of the Assumption," Pierre Touveneraud (1926–1979), former general archivist of the congregation, summarized in 1972 the common patrimony of the six original branches of the Assumption which, while fully respecting their particular vocations, their autonomous governing structures, and their apostolic works, bears witness to their common history strengthened by spiritual friendship, apostolic support, and fraternal collaboration. Some of

2142-589: A papal bull to be published in France until his Parliament decided whether it interfered with the "liberties" of the French Church or the authority of the king. And in 1682 he invited the clergy of France to proclaim the independence of the Gallican Church in a manifesto of four articles, at least two of which, relating to the respective powers of a pope and a council, broached questions which only an ecumenical council could decide. In consequence of this

2295-630: A physician, theologian, and ethicist, was born in 1958 in Chauny, France. He studied medicine in Reims, France , and simultaneously began his formation as a candidate for the Assumptionist priesthood in seminary, studying philosophy and sacred theology. He entered the Assumptionists in 1991 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1995. According to the 2012 Annuario Pontificio , the Augustinians of

2448-503: A policy of persecution was inaugurated. From 1547 to 1550, in less than three years, the chambre ardente , a committee of the Parliament of Paris, condemned more than 500 persons to retract their beliefs, to imprisonment, or to death at the stake. Notwithstanding this, the Calvinists, in 1555, were able to organize themselves into Churches on the plan of that at Geneva; and, in order to bind these Churches more closely together, they held

2601-495: A political power by recognizing them for eight years as master of about one hundred towns which were known as "places of surety" ( places de sûreté ). Under favour of the political causes of the Edict Protestants rapidly became an imperium in imperio , and in 1627, at La Rochelle, they formed an alliance with England to defend, against the government of Louis XIII (1610–43), the privileges of which Cardinal Richelieu ,

2754-582: A series of large-scale pilgrimages both within France and to the Holy Land which developed into such current endeavors as the popular national pilgrimage to Lourdes every year on the occasion of the feast of the Assumption , gathering thousands of pilgrims. Their activities at the time of the Dreyfus Case aroused controversy. The Assumptionists actively promoted the conspiracy theory that unnamed Jews were destroying French institutions, in particular

2907-446: A suppression of the appropriation for religious worship, which, he asserted, cost the republic "100,000,000 livres annually". The Jacobins opposed this scheme as premature, and Robespierre declared it derogatory to public morality. During the first eight months of its existence the policy of the convention was to maintain the "Civil Constitution" and to increase the penalties against "refractory" priests who were suspected of complicity on

3060-588: A synod in Paris in 1559. There were in France at that time seventy-two Reformed Churches; two years later, in 1561, the number had increased to 2000. The methods, too, of the Calvinist propaganda had changed. The earlier Calvinists, like the Lutherans, had been artists and workingmen, but in the course of time, in the South and in the West, a number of princes and noblemen joined their ranks. Among these were two princes of

3213-514: Is of note in the history of the Church, and in that of France; in the one because the solemn adhesion of Louis VI to Innocent II assured the unity of the Church, which at the time was seriously menaced by the Antipope Anacletus II ; in the other because for the first time Capetian kings took a stand as champions of law and order against the feudal system and as the protectors of public rights. A churchman, Suger, abbot of St-Denis,

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3366-583: Is their duty to repress with all their might, and by right of their office, the daring of those who rend the State by endless war, who rejoice in pillage, and who destroy homesteads and churches." Another French churchman, St. Bernard , won Louis VII for the Crusades; and it was not his fault that Palestine, where the First Crusade had set up a Latin kingdom, did not remain a French colony in the service of

3519-601: The Holy Roman Empire , forming the political and religious foundations of Christendom and establishing in earnest the French government's longstanding historical association with the Roman Catholic Church. The Treaty of Verdun (843) provided for the partition of Charlemagne's empire into 3 independent kingdoms, and one of these was France. A great churchman, Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims (806-82),

3672-694: The Paris Foreign Missions Society , but his informal alliance with the Ottoman Empire was criticised by the British for undermining Christendom. "Under Louis XIV a new policy was inaugurated. For twenty-five years the king forbade the Protestants everything that the Edict of Nantes did not expressly guarantee them, and then, foolishly imagining that Protestantism was on the wane, and that there remained in France only

3825-526: The War in the Vendée . A decree dated 18 March 1793 punished with death all compromised priests. It no longer aimed at refractory priests only, but any ecclesiastic accused of disloyalty ( incivisme ) by any six citizens became liable to transportation. In the eyes of the revolution, there were no longer good priests and bad priests; for the sans-culottes every priest was suspect." "From the provinces, stirred up by

3978-587: The a terrible beast in nearby Tarascon . Pilgrims visited their tombs at the abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy . In the Abbey of the Trinity at Vendôme , a phylactery was said to contain a tear shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. The cathedral of Autun , not far away, is dedicated to Lazarus as Saint Lazaire . The first written records of Christians in France date from the 2nd century when Irenaeus detailed

4131-658: The charism : the Assumption was born of Augustinian inspiration as evidenced, among other things, by its name, its rule, the institute it founded (Les Etudes augustiniennes), the number of references to Augustine in the founder's writings (he once wrote that The City of God should be for the Assumption "a kind of second revelation"), and the many Assumptionist authors in the Augustinian tradition (Cayré, Edgar Bourque, Marcel Neusch, Goulven Madec, Ernest Fortin , George Folliet, Rémi Munsch, etc.). Athanase Sage (1896–1971), analyzed d'Alzon's writings comprehensively and edited

4284-500: The Écrits spirituels , a compendium of the basic writings of the founder. Sage focuses on the thought of the founder and using themes constitutive of his thinking, of his spiritual life, and his apostolic work: Kingdom, Mystical Incarnation, Christocentrism, the Augustinian tradition, and the influence of the French school of spirituality (Bérulle, Bossuet, Olier, etc.), which d'Alzon shared with Mother Marie Eugénie. Assumptionist systematic theologian, George Tavard (1922–2007),

4437-538: The 11th century, prepared France to play an important part in the reformation of the Church undertaken in the second half of the 11th century by a monk of Cluny, Gregory VII , and gave the Church two other popes after him, Urban II and Pascal II . It was a Frenchman, Urban II, who at the Council of Claremont (1095) initiated the Crusades which spread widely throughout Christendom. "The reign of Louis VI (1108-37)

4590-602: The 16th century by treaties called capitulations, the first of which was drawn up in 1535. The spirit of French policy has changed, but it was always on France that the Christian communities of the East rely, and this protectorate continued to exist under the Third Republic, and later with the protectorates of the Middle East." "The early part of the 16th century was marked by the growth of Protestantism in France, under

4743-428: The 1870s, the Assumptionists established "La Bonne Presse" which issued periodicals, pamphlets, and books in great numbers and expanded into one of the largest Catholic publishing houses in the world, Bayard Presse . They founded one of the oldest and most influential daily newspapers in France, La Croix . In English-speaking countries its best known publication is Catholic Digest . In 1873 these religious also began

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4896-464: The 18th century, with the famous Renversement des Alliances. This century is filled with that struggle between France and England which may be called the second Hundred Years' War, during which England had for an ally Frederick II, King of Prussia, a country which was then rapidly rising in importance. The command of the sea was at stake. In spite of men like Dupliex, Lally-Tollendal, and Montcalm, France lightly abandoned its colonies by successive treaties,

5049-532: The Armenian coasts (1365–67), sung of by the French trouvère , Guillaume Machault , the crusade of John of Nevers, which ended in the bloody battle of Nicopolis (1396) – in all these enterprises, the spirit of St. Louis lived, just as in the heart of the Christians of the East, whom France was thus trying to protect, there has survived a lasting gratitude toward the nation of St. Louis. In the days of St. Louis

5202-461: The Army and the Catholic church, and oppressing the people. One of many examples of their unsourced anti-Semitic polemic can be taken from their widely-circulated daily newspaper, La Croix , for 2 February 1898: No proof of these assertions is given and no Jewish person or organisation is identified. This overt hate campaign no doubt contributed to the subsequent laws which curtailed the activities of

5355-531: The Assumption Family took place in the 20th century and not all of them bear the name "Assumption" even if they owe their origin to an Assumptionist. Especially since the 1970s, the various congregations of the Assumption Family have highlighted in a more visible way their common origins and their similarities of spirit and life. These efforts have led to greater exchanges and shared programs: inter-novitiates, assemblies, get-togethers of young members of

5508-497: The Assumption Family, colloquia, annual meetings of the general councils of the congregations, joint foundations, collaboration on a provincial level, and the joint preparation of two magazines (Assomption et ses oeuvres and Itinéraires Augustiniens). In 1993, a series of articles gathered under the title, The Spirit of Assumption according to Emmanuel d'Alzon described Assumptionist spirituality. Augustinian scholar, Fulbert Cayré (1884–1971), who holds to an Augustinian definition of

5661-452: The Assumption number 882 religious , of whom 541 are priests, in 125 communities. There are thirteen religious congregations which, in one capacity or another, trace their roots either directly to the three major founding figures (Théodore Combalot, 1797–1873, Marie-Eugénie de Jésus Milleret de Brou , 1817–1898, and Emmanuel d'Alzon, 1810–1880) or indirectly under the inspiration. Members are present in over 60 countries throughout

5814-556: The Assumption), Kamen Vitchev, Pavel Djidjov and Josaphat Chichov were executed by firing squad by the Communist regime. All three have since been beatified as martyrs for the faith. The current Rule of Life of the congregation draws its inspiration from that of Augustine of Hippo . This international congregation is present in nearly 30 countries throughout the world, with the most recent foundations being established in 2006 in

5967-572: The Assumption). D'Alzon resigned from his post as vicar general in 1878 after 43 years of service. With his first disciples he undertook bold apostolic goals: the foreign missions (Australia, eastern Europe), education, the press, and pilgrimages. He died on November 21, 1880, in Nîmes and was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II in December 1991. The congregation had its origin in the College of

6120-475: The Assumption, established in Nîmes, France, in 1843, by d'Alzon, vicar-general of that diocese. Organized in 1847, the members took their public vows at Christmas of the next year. A second house was established in Paris, and they continued their work there. The congregation was formally approved by a Brief of 26 November 1864. The chief objects of the congregation are to combat the spirit of irreligion in Europe and

6273-469: The Assumptionists in France. When the Republican party came to power, it required religious orders to be reorganized and registered . Some organizations, including the Assumptionists, refused and went into exile instead. In 1900 the congregation was suppressed within French territory, this action being based on the charge that they were accumulating a fund to be used in a royalist movement to overthrow

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6426-654: The Avignon popes did not always allow the independence of the Holy See to waver or disappear in the game of politics. Philip IV and his successors may have had the illusion that they were taking the place of the German emperors in European affairs. The papacy was imprisoned on their territory; the German empire was passing through a crisis, was, in fact, decaying, and the kings of France might well imagine themselves temporal vicars of God, side by side with, or even in opposition to,

6579-696: The Church in 1836, she met Théodore Combalot in 1837. Under his inspiration, she founded with four other women, a religious congregation, after having trained with the Benedictines of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris and with the Visitation Sisters of Mt. St. Andrew (Isère). At the age of 22, in 1839, she was elected superior of the new congregation. In 1841 d'Alzon became her spiritual guide. She made her final vows at Christmas 1844, and resigned as superior general in 1894. The mother-house

6732-455: The Church of France and its episcopate in the hands of the king. The old episcopal Gallicanism which held that the authority of the pope was not above that of the Church assembled in council and the royal Gallicanism which held that the king had no superior on the earth, not even the pope, were now allied against the papal monarchy strengthened by the Council of Trent. The consequence of all this

6885-551: The Church. The divorce of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine (1152) marred the ascendancy of French influence by paving the way for the growth of Anglo-Norman pretensions on the soil of France from the Channel to the Pyrenees. Soon, however, by virtue of feudal laws the French king, Philip Augustus (1180–1223), proclaimed himself suzerain over Richard Coeur de Lion and John Lackland, and the victory of Bouvines which he gained over

7038-484: The Civil Constitution can be gleaned from Title II, Article XXI: Before the ceremony of consecration begins, the bishop elect shall take a solemn oath, in the presence of the municipal officers, of the people, and of the clergy, to guard with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him, to be loyal to the nation, the law, and the king, and to support with all his power the constitution decreed by

7191-539: The Committee of Public Safety induced the convention to pass a decree ensuring freedom of worship, and forbidding the closing of Catholic churches. Everywhere throughout the provinces civil war was breaking out between the peasants, who clung to their religion and faith, and the fanatics of the Revolution, who, in the name of patriotism threatened, as they said, by the priests, were overturning the altars. According to

7344-718: The Devout Life , which he wrote at the request of Henry IV. Cardinal de Bérulle and his disciple de Condren founded the Oratory . St. Vincent de Paul , in founding the Priests of the Mission, and M. Olier, in founding the Sulpicians, prepared the uplifting of the secular clergy and the development of the grands séminaires . It was the period, too, when France began to build up her colonial empire , when Samuel de Champlain

7497-494: The Directory was to substitute for Catholicism the culte décadaire , and for Sunday observance the rest on the décadis , or tenth days. In Paris, fifteen churches were given over to this cult. The Directory also favored an unofficial attempt of Chemin, the writer, and a few of his friends to set up a kind of national Church under the name of "Theophilanthropy"; but Theophilanthropy and the culte décadaire , while they disturbed

7650-567: The Emperor Otto IV, backed by a coalition of feudal nobles (1214), was the first ever in French history which called forth a movement of national solidarity around a French king. The war against the Albigensians under Louis VIII (1223–26) brought in its train the establishment of the influence and authority of the French monarchy in the south of France. St. Louis IX (1226–1270), " ruisselant de piété, et enflammé de charité ", as

7803-512: The Family. There are other aspects as well which they share: the similarities of their rules of life, a missionary commitment, an insistence on certain human virtues (openness, simplicity, warmth), a balance of the three constitutive elements of religious life (prayer, community, and apostolate), emphasis on co-responsibility in governance, collaboration with the laity, and the importance of belonging to an international family. Other foundations of

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7956-416: The Italians, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure; Albert the Great, a German; Alexander of Hales, an Englishman. Among its pupils it counted Roger Bacon , Dante, Raimundus Lullus, Popes Gregory IX , Urban IV , Clement IV , and Boniface VIII . France was the birthplace of Gothic art , which was carried by French architects into Germany. The method employed in the building of many Gothic cathedrals – i.e., by

8109-436: The Missionary Sisters of the Assumption, and the Sisters of the Cross. Of the six original congregations of the Assumption, five originated in France and are made up of men only . The Congregatiion of the Religious of the Assumption was founded in Paris (Seine), Férou Street, in 1839. The foundress, Mother Marie-Eugénie de Jésus (Marie-Eugénie Milleret de Brou), was born in Metz on August 25, 1817. After being received into

8262-412: The National Assembly and accepted by the king. "The Convention (21 September 1792 – 26 October 1795) which proclaimed the republic and caused Louis XVI to be executed (21 January 1793), followed a very tortuous policy toward religion. As early as 13 November 1792, Cambon , in the name of the Financial Committee, announced to the Convention that he would speedily submit a scheme of general reform including

8415-412: The Oblate Sisters of the Assumption, an order established by d'Alzon to assist in their Oriental missions, but whose activities are not contained to that field. Until the suppression they directed the women's section in the publishing rooms of the "Christian Press" as well as the hospitals, orphan asylums, and schools. Among other works carried on by the Assumptionists in France prior to their suppression

8568-494: The Orient. His brother Charles of Valois married Catherine de Courtney, an heiress of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. The Kings of England and Minorca were his vassals, the King of Scotland his ally, the Kings of Naples and Hungary connections by marriage. He aimed at a sort of supremacy over the body politic of Europe. Pierre Dubois, his jurisconsult, dreamed that the pope would hand over all his domains to Philip and receive in exchange an annual income, while Philip would thus have

8721-407: The Philippines, Vietnam, and Togo. The congregation has long been involved in education, the press, ecumenism, pilgrimages, and the missions. At the General Chapter of 2011, a French priest Benoit Griere, was elected on 11 May to succeed Father Richard Lamoureaux- who had served the maximum of two successive six-year terms-as the 10th superior general. The religious institute 's new superior general,

8874-399: The Pyrenees (1659), Alsace, Artois, and Roussillion were annexed to French territory. In the struggle Richelieu and Mazarin had the support of the Lutheran prince of Germany and of Protestant countries such as the Sweden of Gustavus Adolphus. In fact it may be laid down that during the Thirty Years' War , France upheld Protestantism. Louis XIV, on the contrary, who for many years was arbiter of

9027-404: The Republic. Many priests went abroad; other remained in France as secular priests under the authority of local bishops. At the time of their "suppression" the Assumptionists maintained twenty Apostolic schools which were all closed. The congregation then took up the work in other quarters. Similar schools have been established in Italy, Belgium, England, and the United States. "La Bonne Presse"

9180-432: The Revocation, was only an application of the religious maxims of Gallicanism." "In the person of Louis XIV, indeed, Gallicanism was on the throne. At the States-General in 1614, the Third Estate had endeavoured to make the assembly commit itself to certain decidedly Gallican declarations, but the clergy, thanks to Cardinal Duperron, had succeeded in shelving the question; then Richelieu, careful not to embroil himself with

9333-416: The Short and Charlemagne had been proclaimed "Most Christian" by the popes of their day: Alexander III had conferred the same title on Louis VII; but from Charles VI onwards the title comes into constant use as the special prerogative of the kings of France. Philippe de Mézières, a contemporary of Charles VI, wrote: "Because of the vigour with which Charlemagne, St. Louis, and other brave French kings, more than

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9486-425: The State's ascendancy over the Church, which had actuated the ministers of Louis XIV and the adherents of Parliament – the parliamentaires – in the days of Louis XV, reappears with the authors of the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy", even as the centralizing spirit of the old monarchy reappears with the administrative officials and the commissaries of the convention. It is easier to cut off a king's head than to change

9639-463: The State, with which it was progressively confused, confronted, and separated. According to long-standing legend, Mary , Martha , Lazarus , and some companions, who were expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near Arles . Provençal tradition names Lazarus as the first bishop of Marseille , while Martha purportedly went on to tame

9792-419: The absolutism of the French kings; but internal dissensions hindered an effective patriotic defence of the country. When Charles VII came to the throne, France had almost ceased to be French. The king and court lived beyond the Loire, and Paris was the seat of an English government. Saint Joan of Arc was the saviour of French nationality as well as French royalty, and at the end of Charles' reign (1422-61) Calais

9945-402: The abuses incident to a too centralized monarchy, and the yearning for equality which was deeply agitating the French people, all prepared the explosion of the French Revolution . That upheaval has been too long regarded as a break in the history of France. The researches of Albert Sorel have proved that the diplomatic traditions of the old regime were perpetuated under the Revolution; the idea of

10098-413: The activities of the French missionaries that paved the way for the visit of the Siamese envoys to the court of Louis XIV. In 1663 the Seminary for Foreign Missions was founded, and in 1700 the Société des Missions Etrangères received its approved constitution, which has never been altered." "Religiously speaking, during the 18th century the alliance of parliamentary Gallicanism and Jansenism weakened

10251-453: The actual assistance of the faithful – bears witness to the fact that at this period the lives of the French people were deeply penetrated with faith. An architectural wonder such as the cathedral of Chartres was in reality the work of popular art born of the faith of the people who worshipped there. "Under Philip IV , the Fair (1285–1314), the royal house of France became very powerful. By means of alliances he extended his prestige as far as

10404-399: The anti-Roman work of the great councils of the 15th century. The conclusion of this concordat was one of the reasons why France escaped the Reformation . From the moment that the disposal of church property, as laid down by the concordat, belonged to the civil power, royalty had nothing to gain from the Reformation. Whereas the kings of England and the German princelings saw in the reformation

10557-464: The banners of the Reformation party or those of the League organized by the House of Guise to defend Catholicism, political opinions ranged themselves, and during these thirty years of civil disorder monarchical centralization was often in trouble of overthrow. Had the Guise party prevailed, the trend of policy adopted by the French monarchy towards Catholicism after the Concordat of Francis I would have been assuredly less Gallican. That concordat had placed

10710-417: The benefices in his kingdom. It was a fair gift indeed. But if in matters temporal the bishops were thus in the king's hands, their institution in matters spiritual was reserved to the pope. Pope and king by common agreement thus put an end to an episcopal aristocracy such as the Gallicans of the great councils had dreamed of. The concordat between Leo X and Francis I was tantamount to a solemn repudiation of all

10863-428: The blood, descendants of St. Louis: Anthony of Bourbon, who became King of Navarre through his marriage with Jeanne d'Albret, and his brother the Prince de Condé. Another name of note is that of Admiral de Coligny, nephew of that duke of Montmorency who was the Premier Baron of Christendom. Thus it came to pass that in France Calvinism was not longer a religious force, but had become a political and military cabal." "Such

11016-455: The brothers of the king, extended to the feudal bishops the ill will he professed toward the feudal lords. He detested the Pragmatic Sanction as an act that strengthened ecclesiastical feudalism, and on 27 November 1461 he announced to the pope its suppression. At the same time he pleaded, as the demand of his Parliament, that for the future the pope should permit the collation of ecclesiastical benefices to be made either wholly or in part through

11169-458: The centralization of the kingly power. Abroad, the fundamental maxim of their policy was to keep up the struggle against the House of Austria. The result of the diplomacy of Richelieu (1624–42) and of Mazarin (1643–61) was a fresh defeat for the House of Austria; French arms were victorious at Rocroi, Fribourg, Nördlingen, Lens, Sommershausen (1643–48), and by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and that of

11322-539: The civil power. The Concordat of 1472 obtained from Rome very material concessions in this respect. At this time, besides "episcopal Gallicanism", against which pope and king were working together, we may trace, in the writings of the lawyers of the closing years of the 15th century, the beginnings of a "royal Gallicanism " which taught that in France the State should govern the Church. "The Italian wars undertaken by Charles VIII (1493–98) and continued by Louis XII (1498–1515), aided by an excellent corps of artillery and all

11475-552: The convention, imposed on all religious ministers (Fructidor, Year V) the obligation of swearing hatred to royalty and anarchy. A certain number of "papist" priests took the oath, and the "papist" religion was thus established here and there, though it continued to be disturbed by the incessant arbitrary acts of interference on the part of the administrative staff of the Directory, who by individual warrants deported priests charged with inciting to disturbance. In this way, 1657 French and 8235 Belgian priests were driven into exile. The aim of

11628-473: The convention. The Commune of Paris, on 24 November 1793, with Chaumette as its spokesman, demanded the closing of all churches. But the Committee of Public Safety was in favour of temporizing, to avoid frightening the populace and scandalizing Europe. On 21 November 1793, Robespierre, speaking from the Jacobin tribune of the convention, protested against the violence of the dechristianizing party, and in December

11781-552: The country around Milan, and their influence predominated throughout the Italian Peninsula. But the dream which Charles V had for a brief moment entertained of a worldwide empire had been shattered. During this struggle against the House of Austria, France, for motives of political and military exigency, had been obliged to lean towards the Lutherans of Germany, and even on the sultan. The foreign policy of France since

11934-470: The deaths of ninety-year-old bishop Pothinus of Lugdunum ( Lyon ) and other martyrs of the 177 persecution in Lyon . In 496 Remigius baptized Clovis I , who was converted from paganism to Catholicism. Clovis I, considered the founder of France, made himself the ally and protector of the papacy and of his predominantly Catholic subjects. On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of

12087-588: The destinies of Europe, was actuated by purely religious motives in some of his wars. Thus the war against the Dutch Republic , and that against the League of Augsburg , and his intervention in the affairs of England were in some respects the result of religious policy and of a desire to uphold Catholicism in Europe. The expeditions in the Mediterranean against the pirates of Barbary have all the halo of

12240-408: The dukedoms, principalities, and baronies founded there by the House of Burgundy and Champagne. And it was in French that Rusticiano of Pisa, about 1300, wrote the record of Marco Polo 's travels. The University of Paris was saved from a spirit of exclusiveness by the happy intervention of Alexander IV , who obliged it to open its chairs to the mendicant friars. Among its professors were Duns Scotus;

12393-499: The empire by a Europe of which France was one member. Under Charles the Fat (880-88) it looked for a moment as though Charlemagne's empire was about to come to life again; but the illusion was temporary, and in its stead were quickly formed seven kingdoms: France, Navarre, Provence, Burgundy beyond the Jura, Lorraine, Germany, and Italy. Feudalism was the seething-pot, and the imperial edifice

12546-632: The establishment of the Jesuits at Smyrna , in the Archipelago, in Syria , and at Cairo . A Capuchin, Père Joseph du Tremblay, Richelieu's confessor, established many Capuchin foundations in the East. A pious Parisian lady, Madame Ricouard, gave a sum of money for the erection of a bishopric at Babylon, and its first bishop was a French Carmelite, Jean Duval. St. Vincent De Paul sent the Lazarists into

12699-485: The fancy of her contemporaries, by Christine de Pizan , and by that Venetian merchant whose letters have been preserved for us in the Morosini Chronicle, as a heroine whose aims were as wide as Christianity itself. The 15th century, during which France was growing in national spirit, and while men's minds were still conscious of the claims of Christendom on their country, was also the century during which, on

12852-496: The feudal lords, profiting by the weakness of Charles VI , had dreamed of establishing in the State. A royal proclamation in 1418, issued after the election of Martin V , maintained in opposition to the pope "all the privileges and franchises of the kingdom", put an end to the custom of annates , limited the rights of the Roman court in collecting benefices, and forbade the sending to Rome of articles of gold or silver. This proposition

13005-547: The forms of Lutheranism and of Calvinism . Lutheranism was the first to make its entry. The minds of some in France were already prepared to receive it. Six years before Luther's time, the archbishop Lefebvre of Etaples (Faber Stapulensis), a protégé of Louis XII and of Francis I, had preached the necessity of reading the scriptures and of "bringing back religion to its primitive purity". A certain number of tradesmen, some of whom, for business reasons, had travelled in Germany, and

13158-511: The galleys and prisons of Barbary, and among the islands of Madagascar , Bourbon, Mauritius , and the Mascarenes, to take possession of them in the name of France. On the advice of Jesuit Father de Rhodes, Propaganda and France decided to erect bishoprics in Annam , and in 1660 and 1661 three French bishops, François Pallu, Pierre Lambert de Lamothe, and Cotrolendi, set out for the East. It was

13311-523: The government of the Church directly with the popes over the heads of the bishops. Charles VII, whose struggle with England had left his authority still very precarious, was constrained, in 1438, during the Council of Basel, in order to appease the powerful prelates of the Assembly of Bourges, to promulgate the Pragmatic Sanction, thereby asserting in France those maxims of the Council of Basel which Pope Eugene had condemned. But straightway he bethought him of

13464-691: The great parties (the Mountain and the Girondists) equally wished, only aggravated the religious difficulty. On 19 November 1791, it decreed that those priests who had not accepted the "Civil Constitution" would be required within a week to swear allegiance to the nation, to the law, and to the king, under pain of having their allowances stopped and of being held as suspects. The king refused to approve this, and (26 August 1792) it declared that all refractory priests should leave France under pain of ten years' imprisonment or transportation to Guiana." The tone of

13617-778: The home care of the sick poor. They were first recognized in 1875 by Cardinal Guibert , the Archbishop of Paris , and by Rome in 1897 and 1901. The Sisters of Charity of the Assumption (S.C.A.) were founded as a result of a split with the Little Sisters of the Assumption in Italy in 1993. They are associated with the Comunione e Liberazione Movement . The Orantes of the Assumption (Or. A.) were founded by François Picard (1831–1903) and Isabelle de Clermont-Tonnerre, known in religion as Mother Isabelle of Gethsemani. It has remained

13770-408: The idea of religion in an atmosphere already threatened by philosophers, and although the monarchy continued to keep the style and title of "Most Christian", unbelief and libertinage were harboured, and at times defended, at the court of Louis XV (1715–74), in the salons, and among the aristocracy. "Politically, the traditional strife between France and the House of Austria ended, about the middle of

13923-644: The influence of the French epic literature in Europe was supreme. Brunetto Latini, as early as the middle of the 13th century, wrote that, "of all speech [ parlures ] that of the French was the most charming, and the most in favour with everyone." French held sway in England until the middle of the 14th century; it was fluently spoken at the Court of Constantinople at the time of the Fourth Crusade; and in Greece in

14076-735: The king's minister, wished to deprive them. The taking of La Rochelle by the king's troops (November 1628), after a siege of fourteen months, and the submission of the Protestant rebels in the Cévenes, resulted in a royal decision which Richelieu called the Grâce d'Alais: the Protestants lost all their political privileges and all their "places of surety" but on the other hand freedom of worship and absolute equality with Catholics were guaranteed them. Both Cardinal Richelieu, and his successor, Cardinal Mazarin , scrupulously observed this guarantee." Louis

14229-470: The kings of France, always use the style and title Rex Christianissimus . Furthermore, European public opinion always looked upon St. Joan of Arc, who saved the French monarchy, as the heroine of Christendom, and believed that the Maid of Orléans meant to lead the king of France on another crusade when she had secured him in the peaceful possession of his own country. France's national heroine was thus heralded by

14382-525: The later Carolingian kings was evident to all, and in 987, on the death of Louis V, Adalberon, archbishop of Rheims , at a meeting of the chief men held at Senlis, contrasted the incapacity of the Carolingian Charles of Lorraine, the heir to the throne, with the merits of Hugh, Duke of Francia. Gerbert, who afterwards became Pope Sylvester II , adviser and secretary to Adalberon, and Arnulf, bishop of Orléans , also spoke in support of Hugh, with

14535-666: The lead, that of the Dukes of Francia, descendants of Robert the Strong, and lords of all the country between the Seine and the Loire. From 887 to 987 they successfully defended French soil against the invading Northmen: the Eudes, or Odo, Duke of Francia (887-98), Robert his brother (922-23), and Raoul or Rudolph, Robert's son-in-law (923-36), occupied the throne for a brief interval. The weakness of

14688-408: The learning of its episcopal school presided over by Gerbert himself. The Church, which had set up the new dynasty, exercised a very salutary influence over French social life. It has been recently proven by the literary efforts of M. Bédier that the origin and growth of the "Chansons de geste" , i.e., of early epic literature, are closely bound up with the famous pilgrim shrines, whither the piety of

14841-435: The locality in which they happened to be, the propagandists either encouraged or hindered this violence against religion; but even in the bitterest days of the terror, there was never a moment when Catholic worship was suppressed throughout France. When Robespierre had sent the partisans of Hébert and of Danton to the scaffold, he attempted to set up in France what he called la religion de l'Etre Suprême . Liberty of conscience

14994-697: The major seminary of Montpellier (1832–1833) which he completed in Rome. A student of Félicité de Lamennais , he broke with his former mentor but remained influenced by several of his ideas. He launched numerous pastoral initiatives in the diocese of Nîmes under successive bishops : Claude Petit Benoit de Chaffoy (1822–1835), Jean-François-Marie Cart (1837–1855), Claude-Henri Plantier (1855–1875), and François-Nicolas Besson (1875–1878). D'Alzon founded two congregations, one for men (the Assumptionists) and one for women (the Oblates of

15147-468: The mental constitution of a people." "The Constituent Assembly (5 May 1789-30 September 1791) rejected the motion of the Abbé d'Eymar declaring the Catholic religion to be the religion of the State, but it did not thereby mean to place the Catholic religion on the same level as other religions. Voulland, addressing the Assembly on the seemliness of having one dominant religion, declared that the Catholic religion

15300-661: The morrow of the Great Schism and of the Councils of Basel and of Constance , there began a movement among the powerful feudal bishops against pope and king, and which aimed at the emancipation of the Gallican Church . The propositions upheld by Gerson, and forced by him, as representing the University of Paris , on the Council of Constance, would have set up in the Church an aristocratic regime analogous to what

15453-717: The most important of which was the Treaty of Paris (1763). The acquisition of Lorraine (1766), and the purchase of Corsica from the Genoese (1768), were poor compensations for these losses; and when, under Louis XVI , the French navy once more raised its head, it helped in the revolt of the English colonies in America, and thus seconded the emancipation of the United States (1778-83)." "The movement of thought of which Montesquieu , Voltaire , Rousseau , and Diderot , each in his own fashion, had been protagonists, an impatience provoked by

15606-521: The northern part of Africa, and certain lands in America, Francis I inaugurated a struggle between France and the House of Austria . After forty-four years of war, from the victory of Marignano to the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1515-59), France relinquished hopes of retaining possession of Italy, but wrested the Bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun from the empire and had won back possession of Calais. The Spaniards were left in possession of Naples and

15759-583: The number of a thousand each year; it was zealous in the cause of workmen's clubs, and of Catholic Schools, and was active in the movement in favour of the keeping of Sunday as a day of rest. Another field of missionary labour was found among the Newfoundland fishermen. Every year 12,000 or 15,000 fishermen left the coasts of France, Belgium, and Ireland, to go to the Banks of Newfoundland for codfish. The Assumptionists organized prominent catholic sailors into

15912-411: The old ideals of Christendom – ideals which in the days of Louis XIII had haunted the mind of Father Joseph, the famous confidant of Richelieu, and had inspired him with the dream of crusades led by France, once the House of Austria should have been defeated." The 17th century in France was par excellence a century of Catholic awakening. A number of bishops set about reforming their diocese according to

16065-554: The opposing religious factions to establish more securely the power of her sons. In 1561, Catherine de' Medici arranged for the Poissy discussion to try to bring about an understanding between the two creeds, but during the Wars of religion she ever maintained an equivocal attitude between both parties, favouring now the one and now the other, until the time came when, fearing that Charles IX would shake himself free of her influence, she took

16218-546: The other kings of Christendom, have upheld the Catholic Faith, the kings of France are known among the kings of Christendom as 'Most Christian'." In later times, the Emperor Frederick III , addressing Charles VII, wrote: "Your ancestors have won for your name the title Most Christian, as a heritage not to be separated from it." From the pontificate of Paul II (1464), the popes, in addressing bulls to

16371-429: The people in the provinces were anxious that the clergy should resume their functions, and "constitutional" priests, less in danger than the others, rebuilt the altars here and there throughout the country. In February 1795, Boissy-d'Anglas carried a measure of religious liberty, and the very next day Mass was said in all the chapels of Paris. On Easter Sunday, 1795, in the same city which, a few months before, had applauded

16524-509: The people resorted. And military courage and physical heroism were schooled and blessed by the Church, which in the early part of the 11th century transformed chivalry from a lay institution of German origin into a religious one by placing among its liturgical rites the ceremony of knighthood, in which the candidate promised to defend truth, justice, and the oppressed. Founded in 910, the Congregation of Cluny , which made rapid progress in

16677-716: The pope and the French kings hung in the balance. Leo X understood the danger when the battle of Marignano opened to Francis I the road to Rome. The pope in alarm retired to Bologna, and the Concordat of 1516, negotiated between the cardinals and Duprat, the chancellor, and afterwards approved of by the Ecumenical Council of the Lateran, recognized the right of the King of France to nominate not only to 500 ecclesiastical benefices, as Charles VII had requested, but to all

16830-411: The pope himself, and, together with it, the throne of France. But there was third solution possible, and the French episcopate foresaw it, namely that the abjuration should be made not to the pope but to the French bishops. Gallican susceptibilities would thus be satisfied, dogmatic orthodoxy would be maintained on the French throne, and moreover it would do away with the danger to which the unity of France

16983-427: The pope, had taken up the mitigated and very reserved form of Gallicanism represented by the theologian Duval." The lack of universal adherence to his religion did not sit well with Louis XIV's vision of perfected autocracy : "Bending all else to his will, Louis XIV resented the presence of heretics among his subjects." "Hence the persecution of Protestants and of Jansenists . But at the same time he would never allow

17136-476: The pope, whose confessor he, Baronius was, that he himself could not have absolution until he had absolved the King of France. And on 17 September 1595, the Holy See solemnly absolved Henry IV, thereby sealing the reconciliation between the French monarchy and the Church of Rome. The accession of the Bourbon royal family was a defeat for Protestantism, but at the same time half a victory for Gallicanism. Ever since

17289-484: The port of Havre. Thus from the beginning were foreshadowed the lines which the Wars of religion would follow. They opened up France to the interference of such foreign princes as Elizabeth and Philip II, and to the plunder of foreign soldiers, such as those of the Duke of Alba and the German troopers (Reiter) called in by the Protestants. One after another, these wars ended in weak provisional treaties which did not last. Under

17442-659: The propaganda of André Dumont, Chaumette, and Fouché, there began a movement of dechristianization . The constitutional bishop, Gobrel, abdicated in November 1793, together with his vicars-general. At the feast of Liberty which took place in Notre-Dame on 10 November an altar was set up to the Goddess of Reason, and the church of Our Lady became the temple of that goddess. Some days after this a deputation attired in priestly vestments, in mockery of Catholic worship, paraded before

17595-546: The resources of French furia, to assert certain French claims over Naples and Milan, did not quite fulfill the dreams of the French kings. They had, however, a threefold result in the worlds of politics, religion, and art: Louis XII, and the emperor Maximilian, supported by the opponents of Pope Julius II , convened in Pisa a council that threatened the rights of the Holy See . Matters looked very serious. The understanding between

17748-490: The responsibility of all power, which had been forgotten or misinterpreted by the lawyers of Philip IV when they set up their independent State as the absolute source of power. The election of Pope Clement V (1305) under Philip's influence, the removal of the papacy to Avignon , the nomination of seven French popes in succession, weakened the influence of the papacy in Christendom, though it has recently come to light that

17901-572: The result that he was proclaimed king. Thus the Capetian dynasty had its rise in the person of Hugh Capet . It was the work of the Church, brought to pass by the influence of the See of Reims, renowned throughout France since the episcopate of Hincmar, renowned since the days of Clovis for the privilege of anointing the Frankish kings conferred on its titular, and renowned so opportunely at this time for

18054-431: The rules laid down by the Council of Trent, though its decrees did not run officially in France. The example of Italy bore fruit all over the country. Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, Bishop of Claremont and afterwards of Senlis, had made the acquaintance of St. Charles Borromeo . Francis Taurugi, a companion of St. Philip Neri , was archbishop of Avignon. St. Francis de Sales Christianized lay society by his Introduction to

18207-476: The spirit of the League. Canonically, the absolution given by the bishops to Henry IV was unavailing, since the pope alone could lawfully give it; but politically that absolution was bound to have a decisive effect. From the day that Henry IV became a Catholic, the League was beaten. Two French prelates went to Rome to crave absolution for Henry. Philip Neri ordered Baronius smiling, no doubt, as he did so, to tell

18360-452: The spiritual head of Christendom under his influence. Philip IV laboured to increase the royal prerogative and thereby the national unity of France. By sending magistrates into feudal territories and by defining certain cases ( cas royaux ) as reserved to the king's competency, he dealt a heavy blow to the feudalism of the Middle Ages. But on the other hand, under his rule many anti-Christian maxims began to creep into law and politics. Roman law

18513-575: The spiritual vicar who lived at Avignon." But at this juncture the Hundred Years' War broke out, and the French kingdom, which aspired to be the arbiter of Christendom, was menaced in its very existence by England. English kings aimed at the French crown, and the two nations fought for the possession of Guienne. Twice during the war was the independence of France imperilled. Defeated on the Ecluse (1340), at Crécy (1346), at Poitiers (1356), France

18666-472: The spread of schism in the East. To this end the Assumptionists have devoted themselves to the work of Catholic higher and secondary education, to the spread of truth by means of the Press, to the conduct of pilgrimages, and to missionary work in the East. In addition to their college at Nîmes they established Apostolic schools where poor students were educated for the priesthood without expense to themselves. In

18819-422: The throne, in succession to Henry II who was childless, a member of the powerful House of Guise. In fact, the League had asked the Holy See to grant the wish of the people, and give France a Guise as king. Henry of Navarre, the heir presumptive to the throne, was a Protestant; Sixtus V had given him the choice of remaining a Protestant, and never reigning in France, or of abjuring his heresy, receiving absolution from

18972-402: The time of Francis I had been to seek exclusively the good of the nation and no longer to be guided by the interests of Catholicism at large. The France of the Crusades even became the ally of the sultan . But, by a strange anomaly, this new political grouping allowed France to continue its protection to the Christians of the East. In the Middle Ages it protected them by force of arms; but since

19125-524: The traders who opened postal communication over 500 leagues of countries between the French colonies in Louisiana and Canada. In China, the French Jesuits, by their scientific labours, gained a real influence at court and converted at least one Chinese prince. Lastly, from the beginning of this same 17th century, under the protection of Gontaut-Biron, Marquis de Salignac, Ambassador of France, dates

19278-520: The traits they share are: an Augustinian spirituality, Christocentrism (special emphasis on the mystical Incarnation and the Kingdom of God), love of the Church and the centrality of the Eucharist, love of Mary, strong common life, common prayer, the role of study. He also points out some of the difficulties, tensions, trials and misunderstandings that occurred over the years among the various members of

19431-417: The unwilling sanction of Louis XVI, 26 December 1790, and was condemned by Pius VI. By Briefs dated 10 March and 13 April, Pius VI forbade the priests to take the oath, and the majority obeyed him. Against these "unsworn" ( insermentés ) or "refractory" priests a period of persecution soon began. The Legislative Assembly (1 October 1791 – 21 September 1792), while it prepared the way for the republic which both

19584-546: The women's branch of the Augustinians of the Assumption. From a middle class Nîmes family, Correnson was born in Paris on July 28, 1842. D'Alzon chose her to be the first superior general. The congregation focused on Christian unity. Little Sisters of the Assumption L.S.A. were founded in Paris (Seine) in July 1865 by Etienne Pernet (1824–1899) and Antoinette Fage , known in the convent as Mother Marie de Jésus (1824–1883). The congregation, from its foundation, has been dedicated to

19737-626: The world. In addition to the Assumptionists, a number of other congregations belong to the larger Assumption Family: The Religious (Sisters) of the Assumption, the Oblates (Missionary Sisters) of the Assumption, the Little Sisters of the Assumption, the Orantes of the Assumption, the Sisters of St. Joan of Arc, the Brothers of the Assumption, the Little Sisters of the Presentation of Our Lady,

19890-617: The worship of Reason, almost every shop closed its doors. In May 1795, the Convention restored the churches for worship, on condition that the pastors should submit to the laws of the State; in September 1795, less than a month before its dissolution, it regulated liberty of worship by a police law, and enacted severe penalties against priests liable to transportation or imprisonment who should venture back on French soil. The Directory (27 October 1795 – 9 November 1799), which succeeded

20043-596: The year 1598 the dealings of the Bourbons with Protestantism were regulated by the Edict of Nantes . This instrument not only accorded the Protestants the liberty of practicing their religion in their own homes, in the towns and villages where it had been established before 1597, and in two localities in each bailliage, but also opened to them all employments and created mixed tribunals in which judges were chosen equally from among Catholics and Calvinists; it furthermore made them

20196-594: Was Mother Marie-Gertrude Henningsen (1822–1904). The current superior general is Sr Barbara Standing. There are approximately 70 religious in 10 communities. The Augustinians of the Assumption, known as the Assumptionists (A.A.), founded by Emmanuel d'Alzon at Nîmes, France. The Oblates of the Assumption (O.A.) were founded in May 1865 in Rochebelle du Vigan (Gard) by d'Alzon and Marie Correnson, known in religion as Mother Emmanuel-Marie de la Compassion (1842–1900), as

20349-403: Was a note all his own, the note of sanctity. With him ended the Crusades, but not their spirit. During the 13th and 14th centuries, project after project attempting to set on foot a crusade was made, showing that the spirit of a militant apostolate continued to ferment in the soul of France. The project of Charles Valois (1308–09), the French expedition under Peter I of Cyprus against Alexandria and

20502-552: Was a pious and devout king who saw himself as the head and protector of the Gallican Church, Louis made his devotions daily regardless of where he was, following the liturgical calendar regularly. Towards the middle and the end of his reign, the centre for the King's religious observances was usually the Chapelle Royale at Versailles. Ostentation was a distinguishing feature of daily Mass, annual celebrations, such as those of Holy Week , and special ceremonies. Louis established

20655-407: Was assented to by the young King Charles VII in 1423, but at the same time he sent Pope Martin V an embassy asking to be absolved from the oath he had taken to uphold the principles of the Gallican Church and seeking to arrange a concordat which would give the French king a right of patronage over 500 benefices in his kingdom. This was the beginning of the practice adopted by French kings of arranging

20808-560: Was by virtue of the suppression of feudal privileges, and in accordance with the ideas professed by the lawyers of the old regime where church property was in question, that the Constituent Assembly abolished tithes and confiscated the possessions of the Church, replacing them by an annuity grant from the treasury. "The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a more serious interference with the life of French Catholicism, and it

20961-433: Was crumbling to dust. Towards the close of the 10th century, in the Frankish kingdom alone there were twenty-nine provinces or fragments of provinces, under the sway of dukes, counts, or viscounts, constituted veritable sovereignties, and at the end of the 11th century there were as many as fifty-five of these minor states, of greater or lesser importance. As early as the 10th century one of the feudal families had begun to take

21114-469: Was cunning enough to secure the support of the States-General, which represented public opinion in France. In later times, after centuries of monarchical government, this same public opinion rose against the abuse of power committed by its kings in the name of their pretended divine right, and thus made an implicit amende honorable to what the Church had taught concerning the origin, the limits, and

21267-515: Was decided that henceforth the Republic would not pay the expenses of any form of worship (18 September 1794). The Convention next voted the laicization of the primary schools, and the establishment, at intervals of ten days, of feasts called fêtes décadaires . When Bishop Grégoire in a speech ventured to hope that Catholicism would some day spring up anew, the Convention protested. Nevertheless

21420-477: Was drawn up at the instigation of Jansenist lawyers. Without referring to the pope, it set up a new division into diocese, gave the voters, no matter who they might be, a right to nominate parish priests and bishops, ordered metropolitans to take charge of the canonical institution of their suffragans, and forbade the bishops to seek a Bull of confirmation in office from Rome. The Constituent Assembly required all priests to swear to obey this constitution, which received

21573-421: Was exposed by the proneness of a certain number of Leaguers to encourage the intervention of Spanish armies and the ambitions of the Spanish king, Philip II, who cherished the idea of setting his own daughter in the throne of France. The abjuration of Henry IV made to the French bishops (25 July 1593) was a victory of Catholicism over Protestantism, but nonetheless it was the victory of episcopal Gallicanism over

21726-462: Was founded on too pure a moral basis not to be given the first place. Article 10 of the Declarations of the rights of man (August 1789) proclaimed toleration, stipulating "that no one ought to be interfered with because of his opinions, even religious, provided that their manifestation does not disturb public order" ( pourvu que leur manifestation ne trouble pas l'ordre public établi par là ). It

21879-530: Was founding prosperous settlements in Acadia and Canada. At the suggestion of Père Coton, confessor to Henry IV, the Jesuits followed in the wake of the colonists; they made Quebec the capital of all that country, and gave it a Frenchman, Mgr. de Montmorency-Laval as its first bishop. The first apostles to the Iroquois were the French Jesuits, Lallemant and de Brébeuf; and it was the French missionaries , as much as

22032-444: Was located in the Auteuil mansion from 1857 till their expulsion in 1900 when they moved to Val Notre-Dame in Belgium. The generalate is located in Paris. The Missionary Sisters of the Assumption (M.S.A.) were founded in 1849 in Grahamstown (South Africa) as a result of a split with the Religious of the Assumption. The original mother-house was located in Grahamstown, but was later transferred to Johannesburg. The first superior general

22185-454: Was purchased at the time of the suppression by Paul Feron-Vrau, a wealthy manufacturer of Lisle, and all its publications were continued without any change. Much of the good accomplished by the Assumptionists was effected through this medium. No popular Catholic paper had reached a degree of circulation equal to that of "La Croix". In Chile, they publish in Spanish "Echoes from the Sanctuary of Lourdes". In their journalistic work they were aided by

22338-426: Was saved by Charles V (1364-80) and by Duguesclin, only to suffer French defeat under Charles VI at Agincourt (1415) and to be ceded by the Treaty of Troyes to Henry V, King of England. At this darkest hour of the monarchy, the nation itself was stirred. The revolutionary attempt by Etienne Marcel (1358) and the revolt which gave rise to the Ordonnace Cabochienne (1418) were the earliest signs of popular impatience at

22491-519: Was slowly re-introduced into social organization, and gradually the idea of a united Christendom disappeared from the national policy. Philip the Fair, pretending to rule by Divine right , gave it to be understood that he rendered an account of his kingship to no one under heaven. He denied the pope's right to represent, as the papacy had always done in the past, the claims of morality and justice where kings were concerned. Hence arose in 1294-1303 his struggle with Pope Boniface VIII , but in that struggle he

22644-421: Was suppressed, but atheism was also a crime. Quoting the words of Rousseau about the indispensable dogmas, Robespierre had himself proclaimed a religious leader, a pontiff, and a dictator; and the worship of the Etre Supreme was held up by his supporters as the religious embodiment of patriotism." "After the 9th of Thermidor, Cambon proposed once more the principle of separation between Church and State, and it

22797-533: Was that of the "Association of Our Lady of Salvation", a society devoted to prayer, almsgiving, and setting a good example for the reformation of the working class. This society was established in eighty dioceses, and it succeeded in drawing the higher classes of society more closely to the workingmen. It encouraged everywhere social prayer, and social and national expiation, and discouraged human respect, social apostasy, and isolation in piety. It raised funds to convey workmen, pilgrims, paupers, and sick poor to Lourdes to

22950-439: Was that the French kings refused to allow the decisions of that council to be published in France, and this refusal has never been withdrawn. "At the end of the 16th century it seemed for an instant as though the home party of France was to shake off the yoke of Gallican opinions. Feudalism had been broken; the people were eager for liberty; the Catholics, disheartened by the corruption of the Valois court, contemplated elevating to

23103-407: Was the beginning of the Wars of Religion. They had for their starting-point the conspiracy of Amboise (1560) by which the Protestant leaders aimed at seizing the person of Francis II, in order to remove him from the influence of Francis of Guise. During the reigns of Francis II , Charles IX , and Henry III , a powerful influence was exercised by the queen-mother, who made use of the conflicts between

23256-405: Was the deviser of the new arrangement. He strongly supported the kingship of Charles the Bald, under whose scepter he would have placed Lorraine also. To Hincmar, the dream of a united Christendom did not appear under the guise of an empire, however ideal, but under the concrete form of a number of unit States, each being a member of one mighty body, the great Republic of Christendom. He would replace

23409-404: Was the only spot in France in the hands of the English. The ideal of a united Christendom continued to haunt the soul of France in spite of the predominating influence gradually assumed in French politics by purely national aspirations. From the reign of Charles VI , or even the last years of Charles V, dates the custom of giving to French kings the exclusive title of Rex Christianissimus . Pepin

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