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Fontevrault looks back to her founder: reform and the attempts to canonize Robert of Arbrissel*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

J. M. B. Porter
J. M. B. Porter*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

The abbesses of Fontevrault recognized the work of their founder, Robert of Arbrissel, in a number of different ways. It has been suggested by modern scholars that the first abbess of the Order, Petronilla of Chemillé, was dissatisfied with the vita written by Baudry of Dol and commissioned a new one from a Fontevrist canon who has long been thought to have been Robert’s personal chaplain. However this second vita may have been produced for other reasons, and it may not have been originally written to further the cause of his canonization.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 33: The Church Retrospective , 1997 , pp. 361 - 377
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1997

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Footnotes

*

A bursary from the Society for the Study of French History made it possible for me to visit a number of French archives; a bursary from the Ecclesiastical History Society made it possible for me to attend the conference at which this paper was given: it is a pleasure to acknowledge their financial support. I am indebted to Prof. Bernard Hamilton for his advice and encouragement, and to Inge Verstraeten, who provided a place to write the initial draft of this paper and saved me from making a number of mistranslations. I should also like to thank Berenice Kerr for sending me a copy of a paper she presented at Oxford in February 1995, and Simon Ditchfield, Colin Heywood, Elisabeth Stopp, and Anthony Wright for their many helpful suggestions and comments. Many ideas for this paper were first developed over croquet with the late Andrew Martindale at the Nottingham Conference of this Society in 1994.

References

1 The most important studies of Robert of Arbrissel are by Bienvenu, Jean-Marc, L’Étonnant fondateur de Fontevraud (Paris, 1981)Google Scholar; Dalarun, Jacques, Robert d’Arbrissel, fondateur de Fontevraud (Paris, 1986)Google Scholar; and idem, L’Impossible sainteté’ (Paris, 1985), which has a comprehensive bibliography. Two shorter studies provide a good introduction to the life and works of Robert of Arbrissel in English: Jaqueline Smith, ‘Robert of Arbrissel: Procurator mulierum’, in Derek Baker, ed., Medieval Women, SCH.S 1 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 175–84; and Gold, Penny Schine, The Lady and the Virgin (Chicago, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the medieval canonization process, see Kemp, Eric W., Canonisation and Authority in the Western Church (London, 1948), pp. 36–81 Google Scholar.

2 Baudry of Dol, Vita B. Roberti de Arbrisello [hereafter, VP], in PL, 162, cols 1043–58; Andrew of Fontevrault, Vita Altera B. Roberti de Arbrisello [hereafter VA], in PL, 162, cols 1057–78.

3 Geoffrey of Vendôme, ep. 6, in PL 171, cols 1480–92.

4 His exact date of birth is a matter of some controversy: see Smith, ‘Procurator mulierum’, p. 176.

5 Catalogue des Actes de Foulque Nerra, Geoffroi Martel, Geoffroi le Barbu, et Foulque le Réchin, in Louis Halphen, Le Comté d’Anjou au Xle siècle (Paris, 1906), no. 293, p. 330.

6 VP, 7: PL, 162, col. 1047.

7 VP, 9: PL, 162, cols 1048–9.

8 VP, 14: PL, 162, cols 1050–1; cf. Acts 17, Matt. 13.3-8.

9 J. M. B. Porter, ‘Preacher of the First Crusade? Robert of Arbrissel after the Council of Clermont’, paper presented at the Second International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 1995.

10 VP, 26: PL, 162, col. 1058.

11 For an examination of hagiography as a literary form, see Thomas Head, Hagiography and the Cult of the Saints (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 102–34. Among the miracles attributed to Robert was the ability to raise the dead: see VP, 23: PL, 162, col. 1055.

12 Fragments of these statutes survive: see PL, 162, cols 1080–5. See also Gold, The Lady and the Virgin, pp. 98–101.

13 This argument is put forward by Gold, The Lady and the Virgin, p. 96.

14 VA, 4–6: PL, 162, vols 1059–60.

15 VA, 8: PL, 162, col. 1061.

16 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, 164.

17 Segal, D.-A., L’Homme et le miracle dans la France médiévale (Paris, 1985), pp. 223–5 Google Scholar.

18 Regulae Sanctimonialium, 31: PL, 162, col. 1081.

19 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, pp. 161–9.

20 VA, 33: PL, 162, cols 1073–4; Suzanne Tune, ‘Après la mort de Robert d’Arbrissel; le conflit entre l’abbesse et l’évêque’. Le Moyen Age, 98 (1992), p. 382.

21 VA, 33: PL, 162, cols 1073–4.

22 Dalarun, L’Impossible sainteté, pp. 294–5; Geary, Patrick J., Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relies in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, N.J., 1978)Google Scholar.

23 For the reform of the Order, which began in 1459, see Abbé F. Uzureau, ‘La Réforme de l’ordre de Fontevrault, 1459–1641’, Revue Mabiilon, 13 (1923), pp. 141–6; for the reforms of the latter abbesses, see Patricia Lusseau, L’Abbaye royale de Fontevraud aux XVII et XVIII siècles (Paris, 1986).

24 In charters and early statutes the men are described zsfratres, not monks or canons: see the Fontevrault chartulary, BN, MS nouv. acq. lat. 2414, and the early statues for Fontevrist men, Prœcepta recte vivendi: PL, 162, cols 1083–4.

25 Webster, Raymund, ‘Fontevrault’, in Catholic Encyclopedia, 6 (London, 1909), p. 130 Google Scholar.

26 J. A. Bergin, ‘The crown, the papacy and the reform of the old orders in early seventeenth-century France’, JEH, 33 (1982), pp. 239–41.

27 Ibid., p. 240.

28 See Aldous Huxley, Grey Eminence: A Study in Religion and Politics (London, 1941), pp. 88–93; and Henri Bremond, Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, 11 vols in 12 (2nd edn, Paris, 1967–8), 2, pp. 186–92. Fr Joseph, a Capuchin, was aided in his reform of Fontevrault by the young Bishop of Luçon, Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu.

29 Michel Cosiner, ed., Fontis Ebraldi Exordium, complectens opuscula duo, cum notationibus de vita B. Roberti de Arbrissello. Fontebraldensis ordinis instituions, et quaestionibus aliquot de potestate abbatissae (La Flèche, 1641). According to Bienvenu, this edition, which was the basis for the versions published in the Acta Sanctorum (henceforth ActaSS) and PL, was censored, probably on the instructions of Abbess Jeanne-Baptiste, to remove any reference to the fact that Robert’s father was a priest from a family of priests: Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, p. 17.

30 These works include Honorât Nicquet, S.J., Histoire de l’ordre de Font-Evraud contenant la vie et les merveilles de la sainteté de Robert d’Arbrissel et l’histoire chronologique des abbesses (Paris, 1642); Jean Chevalier, S.J., and Sébastien Ganot, La Vie du bienheureux Robert d’Arbrissel, fondateur de l’ordre de Fontevrault (La Flèche, 1648); and Jean Lardier’s manuscript, La Saincte Famille de Font-Evraux, vol. 3, which was written for the library of St John of the Habit of Fontevrault in 1650, and is now Château-Gontier, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 12.

31 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, pp. 170–1.

32 Jean Chevalier, S.J., and Sébastien Ganot, Les gloires ou les eminentes vertus de Robert d’Arbrissel, fondateur de l’order de Fontevrauld (La Flèche, 1648). This prediction appears in the dedication by Ganot; the remainder of the text was written by Chevalier.

33 Sirmond, Jacques S.J., Goffridi abbatis Vindocinensis S. Priscae, cardinalis, epistolae, opúsculo, sermones (Paris, 1610)Google Scholar.

34 For a discussion of this ascetic practice, known as syneisaktism, virgines subintroductae, or mulierum consortia, as practised in Brittany, see Roger E. Reynolds, ‘Virgines subintroductae in Celtic Christianity’, HThR, 61 (1968), pp. 547–66; Louis Gougaud, ‘Mulierum consortia, étude sur le synéisaktisme chez les ascètes celtiques’, Eriu: Journal of the School of Irish Learning, 9 (1921-3), pp. 147–56; and Dominique Iogna-Prat, ‘La Femme dans la perspective pénitentielle des ermites du Bas-Maine (fin Xle-début XIIe siècle)’, Revue d’histoire de la spiritualité, 53 (1977), pp. 47–64.

35 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, p. 172.

36 ActaSS, Feb. Ill (25 Feb.) (Antwerp, 1658), cols 593–616.

37 Balthazar Pavillon, La Vie du bienheureux Robert d’Arbrissel, patriarche des solitaires de la France et instituteur de l’Ordre de Fontevrault, divisée en deux parties et justifiée par titres rares, tirés de divers monastères de France (Paris and Saumur, 1666).

38 Chasteignier de la Roche-Posay, Roberti Abrissellenis Ordinis Fontis Ebraldi conditoris vita, transitus, elogia et miracula ex variis scriptoribus et aliis quampluris inpenum collectis et evitis (Rouen, 1668).

39 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, p. 173; see also Paul Sonnino, Louis XIV’s View of the Papacy (1661-1667) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966). For two accounts of the seventeenth-century canonization process see Simon Ditchfield, ‘How not to be a Counter-Reformation saint: the attempted canonization of Pope Gregory X’, Papers of the British School at Rome, 60 (1992), pp. 379–422; Elisabeth Stopp, St Francis de Sales: A Testimony by St Chantal (London, 1967).

40 Huxley, Grey Eminence, pp. 88–93; Bremond, Histoire littéraire, 2, pp. 186–92; Webster, ‘Fontevrault’, p. 130.

41 See Suzanne Tune, ‘L’Autorité d’une abbesse: Gabrielle de Rochechouart’, RHE, 87 (1992), p. 81.

42 Mainferme, Jean de la, Clypeus nascentis Fontebraldensis Ordinis contra priscos et novos calumniatores, 3 vols (Paris and Saumur, 1684-92)Google Scholar.

43 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, p. 175.

44 Peter, Joseph and Poulet, Charles, Histoire religieuse du Department du Nord pendant la Révolution (Lille, 1930), pp. 29–30 Google Scholar.

45 Webster, ‘Fontevrault’, p. 130.

46 Gibson, Ralph, A Social History of French Catholicism 1789–1914 (London, 1989), p. 36 Google Scholar. For the Enlightenment’s views on the monastic life, see the entry for religieuse in Diderot’s Encyclope’die, 14 (Neufchastel, 1765), pp. 77–8.

47 Jean Desobry, ‘Un Aspect peu connu de la Révolution française de 1789 à Amiens: le Monastère des Clarisses’, Me’moires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, 56 (1986), pp. 64–5.

48 Aulard, Alphonse, La Révolution française et les congrégations (Paris, 1903), p. 14 Google Scholar; Elizabeth Rapley, ‘“Pieuses contre-révolutionnaires”: the experience of the Ursulines of Northern France, 1789–1792’, French History, 2 (1988), pp. 453–5.

49 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, p. 176; Gibson, Social History, p. 36. The declaration of the Ursulines of Lille, made on 13 Oct. 1790, is perhaps typical: the nuns desired ‘conformément à leurs voeux, vivre et mourir dans la Maison’. Lille, Archives Départementales du Nord, 149H6, cited in Elizabeth Rapley, ‘“Pieuses contre-révolutionnaires”’, p. 462.

50 Misermont, Lucien, Les bienheureuses Filles de la Charité d’Arras (Paris, 1920), p. 101 Google Scholar.

51 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, p. 176.

52 Price, Roger, A Social History of Nineteenth Century France (London, 1987), p. 319 Google Scholar; Guillaume de Bertier de Sauvigny, The Bourbon Restoration (Philadelphia, Penn., 1966), p. 301.

53 Chateaubriand, F. R. de, Genie du Christianisme, 4 vols (Paris, 1829), 4, pp. 155–6 Google Scholar. It is certainly conceivable that Chateaubriand’s romantic vision may have been encouraged by his mistress, the Comtesse de Beaumont, who was educated at Fontevrault before the Revolution: see Evans, Joan, Chateaubriand, a Biography (London, 1939), p. 128 Google Scholar.

54 For this and what follows, see Webster, ‘Fontevrault’, p. 130; for the rebirth of the female religious Orders after the Revolution in general, see Gibson, Social History, pp. 104–5, 117–27. I have not been able to consult Abbé G. Chalubert, Un prieuré de Fontevrault au XIXème siècle: Sainte Marie de Chemillé (Angers, 1897) or the history written by the nuns of Boulour after their exile to Spain: Histoire de l’Ordre de Fontevraud, 1100–1908, 3 vols (Auch, 1911–15).

55 Webster, ‘Fontevrault’, p. 131.

56 Michelet, Jules, Histoire de France, 2 vols (Paris, 1835), 2, pp. 297–301 Google Scholar; Smith, ‘Procurator mutierum’, pp. 176–7; see also Bezzola, Reto R., Les Origines et la formation de la littérature courtoise en Occident, 5 vols in 3 (Paris, 1960), part 2, 2, pp. 275–92 Google Scholar; Pernoud, Régine, La Femme au temps de cathedrals (Paris, 1984), pp. 129–69 Google Scholar.

57 The status of pre-Revolutionary nuns has been examined by J. Michael Hayden, ‘States, Estates and Orders: the Qualité of female clergy in early modern France’, French History, 8 (1994), pp. 51–76. The teaching Orders of the nineteenth century are thoroughly explored in Calude Langlois, Le Catholicisme au féminin: les congrégations françaises à supérieure générale au XIXème siècle (Paris, 1984).

58 Bienvenu, L’Étonnant fondateur, pp. 178–9. I have been unable to consult X. Barbier de Montault, ‘Étude hagiographique sur Robert d’Arbrissel, fondateur de l’Ordre de Fontevrault’, Répertoire archéologique de Maine et Loire (1863).

59 Although Robert has never been officially beatified, he is usually granted this title as a courtesy: see, for example, Donald Attwater and John Cumming, A New Dictionary of Saints (Tunbridge Wells, 1993), pp. 274–5.