New Religious Orders and Congregations

Abstract

By the late Middle Ages, French convents and monasteries had been severely weakened both spiritually and financially. Late medieval reformers wanted to restore them to their foundational ideals, but their first attempts often failed owing to poor leadership and internal resistance. Reform only began to take hold in the sixteenth century, spurred in part by the challenges posed by the Protestant Reformation and ensuing Wars of Religion but also by the revival of an intense and interiorized spirituality. Reformed congregations broke away from old orders as they struggled to reform themselves from within, while new orders emerged to meet the challenges of the times. This resurgence of Catholic institutions and spirituality was part of the broader movement often called “the Catholic Reformation.” One of the first and most successful of the new religious orders was the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), which gained papal approval in 1540 and spread to France soon after. Although not originally founded to combat the Protestant heresy, the Jesuits soon took this on as an important mission. Three more recently founded groups—the Minims, Capuchins (reformed Franciscans), and Feuillants (reformed Cistercians)—also preached ardently against Protestants during the religious wars, while inspiring admiration for their spiritual fervor and ascetic lives. Other reformed congregations followed their example in the early seventeenth century and paired an interiorized spirituality with strict conformity to their rule. At the same time, new congregations of secular priests (i.e., members of the parish clergy) aimed to extend their clerical formation by living in the community, in order to raise standards for parish clergy and improve the quality of the French priesthood. Pierre de Bérulle’s Oratorians, for example, improved educational standards for priests as directors of seminaries; Vincent de Paul’s Lazarists missionized the peasantry. Despite the Council of Trent’s insistence that female religious be strictly cloistered, women’s orders found it even more difficult than men’s orders to enact reforms amid civil and religious war. Instead, a surge of new orders occurred once peace was achieved. The Discalced Carmelites of Teresa of Avila’s reform, introduced into France in 1604, demonstrated the continuing appeal of a contemplative religious vocation. Other new and reformed orders soon followed. The Order of the Visitation, founded by Francis de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal, was among the most successful. Other women sought an active vocation teaching and catechizing girls in their towns. Loosely organized congregations of Ursulines adopted this vocation in southeastern France in the 1590s. As the movement spread, the sisters came under increasing pressure to become cloistered nuns, and the enclosed teaching order of Ursulines gradually supplanted the informal congregations. However, other congregations, most prominently the Daughters of Charity, later gained approval to work in the community having taken only simple vows.