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Napoleon and the Revival of Female Religious Communities in Paris, 1800–14

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Gemma Betros
Gemma Betros*
Affiliation:
Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
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In December 1807, representatives from thirty-five French female religious communities wrote to Napoleon, reminding him that their associations were ‘essentially religious’. They stated that any attempt to secularize them would bring about their death and they announced their wish to remain subject to the authority of the Church in all that concerned their spiritual lives and interior regimes. These women, whom Napoleon had called to Paris especially, thereby warned the Emperor that although he may have been responsible for the official revival of their communities, he could not assume control over every aspect of their existence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 44: Revival and Resurgence in Christian History , 2008 , pp. 185 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2008

References

1 Paris, Archives nationales (hereafter: AN), F/19/6247, Adresse à Sa Majesté l’Empereur des députées au Chapitre général des Sœurs de la Charité (2 December 1807).

2 The one historian to have examined the subject in detail is Deries, Léon, Les congrégations religieuses au temps de Napoléon (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar. The second half of the book addresses female congregations. See also Bindel, Victor, Histoire religieuse de Napoléon, 2 vols (Paris, 1940), 2: 47–55 Google Scholar. More recent contributions are found in Langlois, Claude, Le catholicisme au féminin (Paris, 1984), 67–151 Google Scholar and Boudon, Jacques-Olivier, Nanoléon et les cultes (Paris, 2002), 157–63 Google Scholar.

3 Deries, for example, writes that Napoleon was ‘defeated by the nuns’. Deries, Congrégations religieuses, 221.

4 See, for example, Bindel, , Histoire religieuse, 2: 203 Google Scholar and Boussoulade, Jean, Moniales et hospitalières dans la tourmente révolutionnaire: les communautés de religieuses de l’ancien diocèse de Paris de 1789 à 1801 (Paris, 1962), 10 Google Scholar.

5 Langlois, , Catholicisme au féminin, 111 Google Scholar; and Boudon, , Napoléon, 157–63 Google Scholar.

6 Historians are often too quick to equate the anti-monastic laws of the Revolution with the end of monasticism, a point noted by Langlois himself. Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 67.

7 For a discussion of the differences between regular and secular communities, see Beales, Derek, Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650–1815 (Cambridge, 2003), 17–22 Google Scholar.

8 Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860: recueil complet des débats législatifs et politiques des Chambres françaises, Première série, XI (13 February 1790), 591.

9 Beales, Prosperity and Plunder, 258.

10 Archives parlementaires, XLVIII (18 August 1792), 350–6.

11 Paris, AN, F/7/2514, 55–708. These records, dating from 28 June to 5 December 1793, provide the names of at least 252 former nuns living in the Section de l’Observatoire in Paris. Their addresses show that many of them were living together in small groups.

12 Bernoville, Gaëtan, Les religieuses de Saint-Thomas-de-Villeneuve (1661–1953) (Paris, 1953), 182–3 Google Scholar.

13 Masson, Frédéric and Biagi, Guido, eds, Napoléon inconnu: papiers inédits (1786–1703), 2 vols (3rd edn, Paris, 1895), 1: 148–50 Google Scholar.

14 Dudon, Paul, ‘Le Concordat et les congrégations’, Etudes 86 (Jan-Mars 1901), 623–44, at 629 Google Scholar and Bindel, , Histoire religieuse, 2: 120 Google Scholar.

15 See, for example, Le Grondeur ou Le Tableau des Mœurs publiques 3 (30 November 1796), 2.

16 Deries, , Congrégations religieuses, 210–11 Google Scholar.

17 The Concordat made no mention of religious communities, although the Organic Articles (1802) suppressed all ecclesiastical establishments except chapters and seminaries and banned religious titles. ‘Articles Organiques de la Convention du 26 Messidor an IX’, reprinted in Portalis, Jean-Etienne-Marie, Discours, rapports et travaux inédits sur le Concordat de 1801 (Paris, 1845), 67 Google Scholar.

18 Paris, AN, F/19/470, Tableau des établissements que les Sœurs de la Charité occupent dans le Royaume’ (Paris, [May 1791]) and L//1054, dossier 2, pièce 52, ‘Sœurs de la Charité, Liste alphabétique de leurs établissements tant en France qu’à Paris’ ([n.d.]).

19 In April 1791 a series of attacks had been launched against the sisters in Paris and throughout France. See Paris, AN, F/19/470 ‘Note des maisons où les sœurs ont été le plus maltraitées’ [n.d.].

20 The decree is reprinted in Deries, Congrégations religieuses, 212–13.

21 Article 2 granted them the house of the Orphelines in the rue du Vieux Colombier.

22 Chaptal later wrote that ‘the re-establishment of a religious corporation contrasted with all the ideas of the time.’Jean-Antoine Claude Chaptal, Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon (Paris, 1893), 71.

23 Paris, Archives des Filles de la Charité, Dossier: Sœur Antoinette Deleau. Deleau, Antoinette, Circulaire (Paris, 2 February 1802)Google Scholar. The religious habit had been banned on 6 April 1792.

24 Ibid. (Paris, 1 February 1803).

25 Paris, AN, F/7/6291, pièce 70 (Paris, 27 germinal, year IX [17 April 1801]).

26 Ibid. ‘Maisons où sont réunies les ex-religieuses pour y vivre en communauté’ (1801).

27 Vismes, , Camille de Soyecourt, Carmélite au grand Cœur, 1757–1845 (Paris, 1938), 102–4 Google Scholar.

28 [Anon.], Notice sur Madame Henriette Aymer de la Chevalière: fondatrice des Dames des Sacrés Cœurs de Jésus et de Marie, et de l’Adoration perpétuelle du Très Saint-Sacrement de l’Autel (Paris, 1835), 16–17.

29 Paris, AN, F/19/6256, ‘Projet de décret sur les Associations religieuses’ (3 messidor, year XII [22 June 1804]).

30 The Jesuits had been dissolved in France in 1764. See Beales, Prosperity and Plunder, 153–6.

31 See, for example, Paris, AN, F/7/3001, ‘Opinion’ (2 complémentaire, year XII [18 September 1804]).

32 Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 114–15.

33 See, for example, the discussion of the importance of religious education in Paris, AN, F/19/6247, ‘Rapport général sur toutes les associations de dames charitables existantes actuellement dans l’Empire’ (30 October 1807).

34 See, for example, Paris, AN, F/19/6256, ‘Statuts des Sœurs de la Visitation’ (1 May 1806).

35 See, for example, a complaint from Cardinal Fesch about investigations into the ‘interior regimes’ of female communities. Paris, AN, F/19/6247 (Fontainebleau, 11 November 1807).

36 Ibid., ‘Rapport général sur toutes les associations de dames charitables existantes actuellement dans l’Empire’ (30 October 1807).

37 Ibid.

38 Deries, Congrégations religieuses, 220.

39 Napoleon to Portalis, Letter No. 8749 (17 May 180 5) in Correspondance de Napoléon 1er (Paris, 1958–70), 10: 519.

40 ‘Rapport à l’empereur sur les congrégations religieuses de femmes s’occupant du soin des maladies et des pauvres, 13 Prairial, An XIII’ [2 June 1805] in Portalis, Discours, 480–94, at 488–91.

41 ‘Rapport à l’Empereur sur la nécessité de ne laisser établir dans l’état d’association religieuse qu’avec l’autorisation du gouvernement et après avoir pris connaissance de ses statuts [&] (24 fructidor an XIII)’ [11 September 1805], in Portalis, Discours, 532–3.

42 Paris, AN, F/19/6247, ‘Adresse à Sa Majesté l’Empereur des députés au Chapitre général des Sœurs de la Charité’ (2 December 1807).

43 Ibid.

44 Paris, AN, F/19/6247, ‘Rapport de Madame sur le Chapitre général des Sœurs de la Charité’ (27 November 1807).

45 Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 122 and 129.

46 See for example the project of February 1814, a draft of which remains in Paris, AN, F/19/6247.

47 Deries, Congrégations religieuses, 223.

48 Langlois, Catholicisme au féminin, 132–5. The documents concerning the affair are held in Paris, AN, F/19/6 3 44.

49 Paris, AN, F/7/8071 and F/19/6293, ‘État général des congrégations religieuses de femmes’(1808). The results are discussed in Boudon, Napoléon, 161–2.

50 Paris, AN, F/19/470, ‘Etat des maisons ou réunions religieuses existantes dans Paris’ (5 March 1811).

51 Paris, AN, F/19/471 [Letter to the Minister of the Interior] (27 July 1810).

52 Boudon, Napoléon, 162.

53 ‘Rapport à l’Empereur sur la nécessité de ne laisser établir dans l’état d’association religieuse qu’avec l’autorisation du gouvernement et après avoir pris connaissance de ses statuts [&] (24 fructidor an XIII)’ [11 September 1805], in Portalis, Discours, 532–3.