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The Council of State and the Clergy During the Reign of Louis XIV: An Aspect of the Growth of French Absolutism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
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Historians of ancien régime France frequently pay tribute to the statebuilding capacities of that most talented and successful architect of absolute monarchy, Louis XIV. And it has long been recognised that, of the many institutions either created or inherited by the French Crown which were wont to claim a share in the handling of the daily affairs of the realm, the Council of State became, during the personal rule of Louis XIV, the chief vehicle for dispensing the royal will. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of matters dealt with by the Council has tended to discourage historians from making it the object of intensive study. More important is the fact that the machinery of Council after 1661 reflected two apparently contradictory tendencies: the peculiar personal and informal nature of Louis XIV's government, and the incipient formalism and bureaucratisation which were to become dominant factors in the government of late eighteenth-century France. The consequent flexibility and complexity of the system have certainly been important characteristics which have so far precluded a full and detailed explanation of the forms and functions of the Council and, more generally, its overall significance in the administration of absolute government.
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References
page 245 note 1 The best modern works on the Council of State are: Mousnier, R., ‘Le conseil du roi de la mort de Henri IV au gouvernement personnel de Louis XIV’, Etudes d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, I. (1947), 29–67Google Scholar; Antoine, M., Le conseil du roi sous le règne de Louis XV, Geneva 1970, 43–77.Google Scholar
page 245 note 2 Antoine himself deplores (43) the lack of adequate governmental and administrative studies for the period of Louis XIV's personal rule.
page 246 note 1 After 1661, ‘ministers’ of the Crown did not receive letters or brevets of appointment. They became ‘ministers’ only when the king's huissier called them to the Council, and they ceased to be ‘ministers’ when they were no longer called.
page 246 note 2 Cf. Dent, C. A., ‘The French Church and the Monarchy in the Reign of Louis XIV: an Administrative Study’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1967)Google Scholar; and Cans, A., L'organisation financière du Clergé de France à l'époque de Louis XIV, Paris 1909.Google Scholar
page 247 note 1 The Sovereign Courts' ability to obstruct royal legislation was effectively denied by the Ordonnance Civile of April 1667, and a Déclaration of 24 February 1673. Cf. Néron et Girard, Recueil d'édits et d'ordonnances royaux sur le fait de la justice et autres matières les plus importantes Paris 1720, ii. 116–17.
page 247 note 2 Dent, op. cit., 13–100.
page 248 note 1 .Cf. particularly the Règlements of 26 August 1626 and 3 January 1628, cited in Guillard, R., Histoire du Conseil du Roy depuis le commencement de la monarchie jusqu'à la fin du règne de Louis le Grand, Paris 1718, 50–1.Google Scholar
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page 249 note 1 Guillard, op. cit., 85.
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page 250 note 3 A.N. E 1770, fols. 3–21: Règlement of 3 January 1673; Guillard, op. cit., 61.
page 251 note 1 Mousnier, Conseil, 61–7.
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page 252 note 3 E.g., B.N. Arréts du Conseil d'Etat, F. 47060–9, and 5003 (412–2755).
page 253 note 1 Antoine, op. cit., 54; de Boislisle, A., ‘Les conseils du roi sous Louis XIV’, in Saint-Simon, Mémoires, ed. de Boislisle, A, Lecestre, J., de Boislisle, J., Paris 1923–1928, iv. 377–439Google Scholar; v. 437–82; vi. 477–512; vii. 405–44, see particularly v. 437–64; Guillard, op. cit., 85.
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page 253 note 3 A. de Boislisle, v. op. cit., 468.
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page 254 note 1 A.N. E 1700, fols. 3–21: Règlement of 3 January 1673; E 1776: Règlement of 27 October 1674; Guillard, op. cit., 61–83.
page 254 note 2 Obviously a computer would be necessary to produce a thorough systematic study. Lacking this, I have concentrated on the huge collection of unbound arréts in the Bibliothèque nationale, and a selection from the Archives nationales. Cf. F. 5003 (412–2755), 21044, 21047, 21266, 21267, 21270, 21276, 21278, 21617, 21747, 23435, 23612, 23636, 23639, 23640, 23641, 47060–47069; MSS. français 6902, 6904, 20736, 21600, 21616, 21617, 21747, 21791, 22071; Z Choisy 7, 26.
page 255 note 1 B.N. Arréts du Conseil d'Etat, F. 47064 (15): Arrét du Conseil Privé of 16 November 1660.
page 255 note 2 E.g. B.N. Arréts de Conseil d'Etat, F. 23639 (913).
page 255 note 3 E.g. B.N. Arréts de Conseil d'Etat, F. 47062 (43): Arrét de Conseil d'Etat of 26 April 1657; F. 47065 (29): Arrét du Conseil d'Etat of 23 October 1663.
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page 256 note 1 Duranthon, A., Collection des procès-verbaux des Assemblées Générales du Clergé de France, depuis l'année 1560 jusqu'à présent (1775) rédigés par ordre de matières et réduits à ce qu'ils ont d'essentiel, Paris 1767–1778 (cited as P.V.), iii, pièces justificatives, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar
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page 256 note 3 B.N. Actes royaux, F. 47010 (5 and 6), doct. cit.
page 257 note 1 Moreover, the Edict of 1695 gave to the Sovereign Courts jurisdiction over ecclesiastical matters which had been specifically denied them by the Declaration of 1666. Cf. Néron et Girard, op. cit., ii. 265–70.
page 257 note 2 E.g., B.N. Arréts du Conseil d'Etat, F. 47064 (37): Arrét du Conseil d'Etat of 7 April 1661; F. 47064 (39): Arrét de Conseil d'Etat of 12 April 1661.
page 257 note 3 For example, a number of arréts ruled that ecclesiastics who refused to sign the Formulary would be punished by seizure of their temporal possessions. Cf. A.N. E 1714, fol. 23: 9 February 1661; fol. 28: 16 February 1661; fol. 43: 17 March 1661; fol. 66: 20 April 1661; fol. 71: 7 May 1661; E 1712, fol. 384: 4 July 1661; E 1714, fol. 89: 27 October 1661.
page 257 note 4 A.N. E 1713, fols, 51–4: Arrét du Conseil d'Etat of 13 April 1661.
page 257 note 5 E.g., A.N. G8* 657a, fols. 342 ff., cited in Blet, P., Le clergé de France et la monarchie, Etude sur les assemblées générales du clergé de 1615 à 1666, Rome 1959, ii. 308.Google Scholar
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page 258 note 1 B.N. Arréts du Conseil d'Etat, F. 47062 (2, 7, 8, 9, 26, 33); 47064 (11, 25, 26, 27, 29, 41); 47066 (9, 16); 47068 (5, 7, 17, 23, 24, 33, 39, 44).
page 259 note 1 There are a few arréts signed by the chancellor, Harlay de Champvallon, and Père de La Chaize. Cf. A.N. E 1855: 23 January 1690; 1869: 18 April and 10 May 1692; 1894: 8 January and 7 February 1695; 1907: 16 September 1697. A de Boislisle claims that these are arréts of the Conseil de Conscience (cf. op. cit., vii. 409, n. 7). This is possible. On the other hand, it is equally possible that they were the product of the extraordinary bureau conducted by Harlay to deal with matters sent to it by the Conseils de gouvernement.
page 259 note 2 Mousnier, Conseil, 50.
page 259 note 3 A. de Boislisle, op. cit., viii. 407–8.
page 260 note 1 Etat de la France, 1694, Paris 1694, ii. 394.
page 260 note 2 B.N. MSS. français 10484; Gams, P.B., Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae, Leipzig 1931, 541, 639, 597.Google Scholar
page 260 note 3 B.N. MSS. français 10484; Gams, op. cit., 613, 597.
page 260 note 4 B.N. MSS. français N.A. 9683; Baluze, op. cit., 327; Gams, op cit., 597, 615.
page 260 note 5 P.V., iv. 460; v. 5, 170, 290, 559, 640; vi. 85. In theory the President of the General Assembly of the Clergy was freely elected. In fact, however, after 1670 the king determined that Harlay should be President although the fiction of election was preserved.
page 260 note 6 B.N. Clairambault 489, fols. 61–9, cited in Esmonin, E., Etudes sur la France des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris 1964, 355–66.Google Scholar
page 261 note 1 The Edict of 1695 was drawn up during a series of conferences held at the archbishopric of Paris. Those present were Harlay de Champvallon, the chancellor (Boucherat), and Achille de Harlay, Premier Président of the Parlement of Paris. Cf. L. Legendre, Mémoires, ed. Roux, Paris 1863, 197.
page 261 note 2 Cf. Judge, H. G., ‘The Congregation of the Oratory in France in the late seventeenth century’, in this Journal, XII (1961), 46 ff.Google Scholar
page 261 note 3 From 1658 until the end of the century these posts were held by members of both the secular and regular clergy, including archbishops, bishops, deacons and abbots. Cf. Etat de la France, 1694, ii. 397; Etat de la France, 1708, iii. 27–9; A. de Boislisle, iv. 393 n. 2.
page 262 note 1 M.C., ii. 1203–11: Arrét du Conseil d'Etat of 10 February 1690.
page 263 note 1 Etat de la France, 1694, ii. 376–8.
page 263 note 2 E.g. M.C., ii. 1006–7: Arrét du Conseil d'Etat of 15 November 1670.
page 263 note 3 Cf. B.N. MSS. français 6903, fols. 109, 179, 183, 192, 194; 6901, 6902, 6904, 6905, passim; 11635, fols. 43–50; 13801, passim.
page 264 note 1 Legendre, Mémoires, 26.
page 264 note 2 Etat de la France, 1694, ii. 394; cf also Legendre, op. cit., 26, and A. de Boislisle, op. cit., vii. 409.
page 264 note 3 Guitton, G., ‘Un conflit de direction spirtuelle, Madame de Maintenon et le Père de la Chaize’, XVIIe siècle, No. 29 (1955), 378–95, see especially 383; cf. also A de Boislisle, op. cit., viii. 409.Google Scholar