Woman in Religion
The entire religious agitation of the seventeenth century was due to
women. Port-Royal was the centre from which issued all contention—the
centre where all subjects were discussed, where the most important
books were written or inspired, where the genius of that great century
centred; and it was to Port-Royal that the greatest women of France
went, either to find repose for their souls or to visit the noble
members of their sex who had consecrated their lives to God—Mère
Angélique, Jacqueline Pascal. Never in the history of the world had
a religious sect or party gathered within its fold such an array of
great minds, such a number of fearless and determined heroines and
_esprits d'élite_. A short account of this famous convent must precede
any story of its members.
The original convent, Port-Royal des Champs, near Versailles, was
founded as early as 1204, by Mathieu of Montmorency and his wife, for
the Cistercian nuns who had the privileges of electing their abbess
and of receiving into their community ladies who, tired of the social
world, wished to retire to a religious asylum, without, however, being
bound by any religious vows. Later on, the sisters were permitted to
receive, also, young ladies of the nobility.
These privileges were used to such advantage that the institution
acquired great wealth; and through its boarders, some of whom belonged
to the most important families of France, it became influential to an
almost incalculable degree. For four centuries this convent had been
developing liberal tendencies and gradually falling away from its
primitive austerity, when, in 1605, Sister Angélique Arnauld became
abbess and undertook a thorough reform. So great was her success in
this direction that, after having effected similar changes at the
Convent of Maubuisson and then returned to Port-Royal des Champs, the
latter became so crowded that new and more commodious quarters had to
be obtained.
The immense and beautiful Hôtel de Cluny, at Paris, was procured, and
a portion of the community moved thither, establishing an institution
which became the best known and most popular of those French convents
which were patronized by women of distinction. The old abbey buildings
near Versailles were later occupied by a community of learned and
pious men who were, for the most part, pupils of the celebrated Abbé
of Saint-Cyran, who, with Jansenius, was living at Paris at the time
that Mère Angélique was perfecting her reforms; she, attracted by the
ascetic life led by the abbé, fell under his influence, and the whole
Arnauld family, numbering about thirty, followed her example.
Soon "the nuns at Paris, with their numerous and powerful connections,
and the recluses at Port-Royal des Champs, together with their pupils
and the noble or wealthy families to which the latter belonged, were
imbued with the new doctrines of which they became apostles." The
primary aim was to live up to a common ideal of Christian perfection,
and to react against the general corruption by establishing thoroughly
moral schools and publishing works denouncing, in strong terms, the
glaring errors of the time, the source of which was considered, by
both the Abbé of Saint-Cyran and Jansenius, to lie in the Jesuit
Colleges and their theology. Thus was evolved a system of education in
every way antagonistic to that of the Jesuits.
At this time the convent at Paris became so crowded that Mère
Angélique withdrew to the abbey near Versailles, the occupants of
which retired to a neighboring farm, Les Granges; there was opened
a seminary for females, which soon attracted the daughters of the
nobility. An astounding literary and agricultural activity resulted,
both at the abode of the recluses and at the seminary: by the recluses
were written the famous Greek and Latin grammars, and by the nuns, the
famous _Memoirs of the History of Port-Royal_ and the _Image of the
Perfect and Imperfect Sister_; a model farm was cultivated, and here
the peasants were taught improved methods of tillage. During the
time of the civil wars the convent became a resort where charity and
hospitality were extended to the poor peasants.
"The mode of life at Port-Royal was distinguished for austerity. The
inmates rose at three o'clock in the morning, and, after the common
prayer, kissed the ground as a sign of their self-humiliation before
God. Then, kneeling, they read a chapter from the Gospels and one from
the Epistles, concluding with another prayer. Two hours in the morning
and a like number in the afternoon were devoted to manual labor in the
gardens adjoining the convent; they observed, with great strictness,
the season of Lent." Their theories and practices, and especially
their sympathy with Jansenius, whose work _Mars Gallicus_ attacked
the French government and people, aroused the suspicions of Richelieu.
When in 1640 the Port-Royalists openly and enthusiastically received
the famous work, _Augustinus_, of Jansenius, the government became the
declared opponent of the convent. Saint-Cyran had been imprisoned
in 1638, and not until after the death of Richelieu, in 1642, was
he liberated. After the appearance, in 1643, of Arnauld's _De la
Fréquente Communion_, in which he attacked the Jesuits for admitting
the people to the Lord's Supper without due preparation, two parties
formed—the Jesuits, supported by the Sorbonne and the government, and
the Port-Royalists, supported by Parliament and illustrious persons,
such as Mme. de Longueville.
In 1644, the nuns were dispersed by order of Louis XIV., against whose
despotic caprices two Jansenist bishops had fought in support of the
rights of the pope. The Paris convent remained closed until 1669, when
it and the one at Chevreuse, near Versailles were made independent
of each other, a proceeding which resulted in the two institutions
becoming opponents. In 1708 the Convent of Port-Royal des Champs
was suppressed, and, a year later, the beautiful and once prosperous
community was destroyed, the buildings being levelled to the ground.
In 1780 the Paris convent was abolished; five years later the
structure was converted into a hospital, and in 1814 it became the
lying-in asylum of _La Maternité_.
In those two convents, which were practically one, was fomented and
developed the entire religious movement of the seventeenth century,
to which period belong the general study and development of theology,
metaphysics, and morality. Such great, good, and brilliant women as
the Countess of Maure, Mlle. de Vandy, Anne de Rohan, Mme. de Brégy,
Mme. de Hautefort, Mme. de Longueville, Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La
Fayette, and Mme. de Sablé were inmates of Port-Royal, or its friends
and constant visitors.
Port-Royal may have been the cause of the civil war waged by the
Frondists against the government. It did bring on the struggle between
the Jesuits, who were all-powerful in the Church, and the Jansenists.
The latter denied the doctrine of free will, and taught the absolutism
of religion, the "terrible God," the powerlessness of kings and
princes before God—a doctrine which brought down upon them the wrath
of Louis XIV., for whom their notion of virtue was too severe, their
use of the Gospel too excessive, and their Christianity impossible.
In its purest form, Port-Royalism was a return to the sanctity of the
primitive church—an attempt at the use, in French, of the whole body
of Scriptures and the writings of the Church Fathers; it aimed to
maintain a vigorous religious reaction in the shape of a reform, and
that reform was vigorously opposed by the Catholic Church.
One family that is associated with Port-Royal gave to its cause no
less than six sisters; the latter all belonged to the Convent of
Port-Royal and were attached to the Jansenist party; of them, the
Archbishop of Paris said that they were "as pure as angels, but as
proud as devils." They were related to the one great Arnauld family,
of which Antoine and his three sons—Robert, Henri, and the younger
Antoine, called "the great Antoine"—were illustrious champions of
Port-Royal.
Marie Jacqueline Angélique, the oldest among the three abbesses, was
born in 1591, and, at the early age of fourteen, was made abbess
of Port-Royal des Champs; it was she who, after having instituted
successful reforms at Port-Royal, was sent to reform the system of
the Abbey of Maubuisson, thus initiating the important movement which
later involved almost all France. She became convinced that she had
not been lawfully elected abbess and resigned, securing, however, a
provision which made the election of abbesses a triennial event. To
her belongs the honor of having made Port-Royal anew. She was a woman
capable of every sacrifice,—a wonderful type in which were blended
candor, pride, and submission,—and she exhibited indomitable strength
of will and earnest zeal for her cause.
Her sister, Agnes, but three years younger than Marie, also entered
the convent, and, at the age of fifteen, was made mistress of the
novices; during the absence of her sister, at Maubuisson, she was
at the head of the convent; from that time, she governed Port-Royal
alternately with her sister, for twenty-seven years. Her work, _The
Secret Chapter of the Sacrament_, was suppressed at Rome, but without
bringing formal censure upon her.
The last of those great abbesses was Mère Angélique, who lived through
the most troublous and critical times of Port-Royal (1624 to 1684). At
the age of twenty she became a nun, having been reared in the convent
by her aunt, Marie, who was the most perfect disciple of Saint-Cyran.
Mère Angélique was especially conspicuous for her obstinacy, and when
the nuns were forced to accept the formulary of Pope Alexander VI.,
she, alone, was excepted, because of that well known characteristic.
Upon the reopening of Port-Royal (in 1689), her powerful protectress,
Mme. de Longueville, died and the persecutions were renewed; Mère
Angélique endeavored to avert the storm, but all in vain; amidst her
efforts, she collapsed. She was also a writer, her _Memoirs of
the History of Port Royal_ being the most valuable history of that
institution.
Thus, about those three women is formed the religious movement which
involved both the development of religious liberty, free will, and
morality, and of the philosophical literature of the century—a
century which boasts such writers and theologians as Nicole, Pascal,
Racine, etc.
The mission of Port-Royal seems to have been preparation of souls for
the struggles of life, teaching how to resist oppression or to bear it
with courage, and how, for a righteous cause, to brave everything,
not only the persecutions of power—violence, prison, exile,—but
the ruses of hypocrisy and the calumny of opposing opinion. The
Port-Royalist nun combated and taught how to combat; she lacked
humility, but possessed an abundance of courage which often bordered
upon passion.
One of the most pathetic and striking illustrations of the fervent
devotion which was a characteristic product of Port-Royal, is supplied
by Jacqueline Pascal, sister of the great Blaise Pascal. Young,
_spirituelle_, very much sought after and the idol of brilliant
companions, at the age of twenty-six she abandoned the world to devote
herself to God. At thirty-six years of age she died of sorrow and
remorse for having signed an equivocal formulary of Pope Alexander
VI., "through pure deference to the authority of her superiors." The
papal decision concerning Jansenius's book, already mentioned, was
drawn up in a formula "turned with some skill, and in such a way
that subscription did not bind the conscience; however, the nuns of
Port-Royal refused to sign." Jacqueline Pascal wrote:
"That which hinders us, what hinders all the ecclesiastics who
recognize the truth from replying when the formulary is presented to
them to subscribe is: I know the respect I owe the bishops, but my
conscience does not permit me to subscribe that a thing is in a
book in which I have not seen it—and after that, wait for what will
happen. What have we to fear? Banishment and dispersion for the nuns,
seizure of temporalities, imprisonment, and death if you will; but
is not that our glory and should it not be our joy? Let us either
renounce the Gospel or faithfully follow the maxims of that Gospel
and deem ourselves happy to suffer somewhat for righteousness' sake.
I know that it is not for daughters to defend the truth, though,
unfortunately, one might say that since the bishops have the courage
of daughters, the daughters must have the courage of bishops; but,
if it is not for us to defend the truth, it is for us to die for the
truth and to suffer everything rather than abandon it."
She subscribed, "divided between her instinctive repugnance and her
desire to show herself an humble daughter of the Catholic Church."
She said: "It is all we can concede; for the rest, come what
may,—poverty, dispersion, imprisonment, death,—all those seem to
me nothing in comparison with the anguish in which I should pass the
remainder of my life, if I had been wretch enough to make a covenant
with death on the occasion of so excellent an opportunity for proving
to God the sincerity of the vows of fidelity which our lips have
pronounced." According to Mme. Périer, the health of the writer of the
above epistle was so undermined by the shock which all that commotion
had caused her, that she became dangerously ill, dying soon after.
Thus was sacrificed the first victim of the formulary.
Cousin says that few women of the seventeenth century were as
brilliantly endowed as Jacqueline Pascal; possessing the finesse,
energy, and sobriety of her brother, she was capable of the most
serious work, and yet knew perfectly how to lead in a social circle.
Also, she was most happily gifted with a talent for poetry, in
relation to which her reputation was everywhere recognized; at
the convent, she consulted her superiors as to the advisability of
continuing her verse making; and upon being told that such occupation
was not a means of winning the grace of Jesus Christ, she abandoned
it.
Cousin maintained that the avowed principle of the Port-Royalists was
the withdrawal from all worldly pleasure and attachment. "'Marriage is
a homicide; absolute renunciation is the true régime of a Christian.'
Jacqueline Pascal is an exaggeration of Port-Royal, and Port-Royal is
an exaggeration of the religious spirit of the seventeenth century.
Man is too little considered; all movement of the physical world comes
from God; all our acts and thoughts, except those of crime and error,
come from and belong to Him. Nothing is our own; there is no free
will; will and reason have no power. The theory of grace is the source
of all truth, virtue, and merit—and for this doctrine Jacqueline
Pascal gives up her life."
Among the great spirits of Port-Royal, the women especially were
strong in their convictions and high in their ideals. They naturally
followed the ideas of man and naturally fell into religious errors;
but their firmness, constancy, and heroism were striking indeed. Their
aspiration was the imitation of Christ, and they approached their
model as near as ever was done by man. In an age of courtesans, when
convictions were subservient to the pleasure of power, they set a
worthy example of strength of mind, firmness of will, purity, and
womanliness. M. du Bled says:
"Port-Royal was the enterprise of the middle-class aristocracy of
France; you can see here an anticipated attempt of a sort of superior
third estate to govern for itself in the Church and to establish a
religion not Roman, not aristocratic and of the court, not devout
in the manner of the simple people, but freer from vain images and
ceremonies, and freer, also, as to the temporal in the face of worldly
authority—a sober, austere, independent religion which would have
truly founded a Gallican reform. The illusion was in thinking that
they could continue to exist in Rome—that Richelieu and Louis XIV.
would tolerate the boldness of this attempt."
A celebrated woman of the seventeenth century, one who really belongs
to the circle of Mme. de Longueville and Mme. de La Fayette, but who
early in life, like Mme. de Longueville, devoted herself to religion
and retired to live at Port-Royal, and is therefore more intimately
associated with the religious movement, was Mme. de Sablé, a type of
the social-religious woman.
Mme. de Sablé is a heroine of Cousin, whom we closely follow in this
account of her career. According to that writer, she is a type of the
purely social woman, a woman who did less for herself than for others,
in aiding whom she took delight, a woman who was the inspiration of
many writers and many works.
Mlle. de Souvré married the wealthy Marquis of Sablé, of the house of
Montmorency, of whom little is known. He soon abandoned her; and she,
most unhappy over unworthy rivals, fell very ill, retired from society
for a time, and then reappeared; her career as a society woman then
began. At an early age, by force of her decided taste for the high
form of Spanish gallantry, then so much in vogue, and her inclination
to all things intellectual, she became one of the leaders of the
Hôtel de Rambouillet. She, Mmes. de Sévigné, de Longueville, and de La
Fayette formed that circle of women who idealized friendship.
Within a few years she lost her father, husband, two of her brothers,
and her second son; and after putting her financial affairs into
order, she and her friend, the Countess of Maure, took up their
quarters at the famous Place Royale; there they decided to devote
their lives to letters, and there assembled their friends, men and
women, regardless of rank or party, personal merit being the only
means of access. Mmes. de Sablé and de Rambouillet were called the
arbiters of elegance and good taste.
To her friends, Mme. de Sablé was always accommodating and showed no
partiality; well informed, she was constantly approached for counsel
and favors; discreet and trustworthy, the most important secrets were
intrusted to her—a confidence which she never betrayed. During the
Fronde she remained faithful to the queen and Mazarin, but did not
become estranged from her friends, so many of whom were Frondists, and
who chose her as their counsellor, arbitrator, and pacifier.
About 1655 she began to realize her unsettled position in the world
and to long for a place where she might, modestly and becomingly,
spend her declining years. She was then fifty-five years of age. The
ideas of Jansenism had so impressed the great people of the day, that
she decided to retire to Port-Royal, to end her days with sympathizers
of the spiritual life around her and her former friends whenever she
desired them. There she gathered about her the most exclusive and
aristocratic people of the day: La Rochefoucauld, the Prince and
Princess of Conti, Condé, Monsieur,—brother of Louis XIV.,—Mme. de
La Fayette, Mme. de Hautefort, and others.
At her apartments, not only were religious and literary affairs
discussed, but the most delicate and delicious dishes were prepared
and elixirs and remedies for disease compounded. Famous people were
led to seek her, through her reputation and influence, and through
friendship, for she seldom left her house. Mme. de Sablé possessed all
the qualities that attract and hold, nothing extraordinary or rare,
but abundant politeness and elegance.
It was not long before she began to withdraw from even her friends,
still continuing, however, her fine cuisine, the remarkable care
of her health, and her medical experiments. Her dinners became
celebrated, and invitations to them were much in demand; about them
there were no signs of opulence, but her gatherings were distinguished
for refinement and taste. Her friends were constantly asking her for
her recipes, of the preparation of which no one but herself knew the
secret.
At the salon of Mme. de Sablé originated many famous literary works,
such as the _Conférences sur le Calvinisme_, works on Cartesian
philosophy, the _Logique de Port-Royal_, _Questions sur l'Amour_, _Les
Maximes_, etc. She will be remembered as the initiator of many maxims,
in the composition of which she excelled. A number of her sayings
concerning friendship have been preserved. Two treatises, in the
form of maxims, on the education of children and on friendship,
respectively, are supposed to have come from her pen; from them La
Rochefoucauld conceived the ideas he utilized in his famous _Maxims_.
La Rochefoucauld's maxims were composed according to the chance of
conversation, which gave rise to various subjects and led to his
serious reflection upon them. Cousin even goes so far as to say that
the _Pensées_ of Pascal would never have been published in that
form had not the _Maxims_ enjoyed such favor. Pascal often visited
Port-Royal and naturally followed the general reflective tendency
of its society. His _Discours sur les Passions de l'Amour_ possibly
originated at the salon of Mme. de Sablé, because the subject of which
that work treated was one much discussed there. La Rochefoucauld was
in the habit of sending his maxims to Mme. de Sablé with the message:
"As you do nothing for nothing, I ask of you a carrot soup or mutton
stew."
When La Rochefoucauld entered the society of Mme. de Sablé, he had
seen much of life, was familiar with most of the adventures and
intrigues of the Fronde and the society of the time; he himself had
acted his part in all, and at the age of fifty was ready to put his
experience into a permanent form of reflection. His _Maxims_ created
a stir, through the clearness and elegance of their character, their
fine analyses of man as he was in the seventeenth century, and through
their truthfulness and general applicability to men of every country.
From all the illustrious women of the day, either he or Mme. de
Sablé received letters of criticism or suggestion—eulogies and
condemnations of which he took notice in his next edition. This
shows the intense interest felt in the appearance of any new literary
production.
Cousin says that the whole literature of maxims and reflections issued
directly from the salon of a kind and good woman who had retired to a
convent with no other desire than to live over her life, to recall
her past and what she had seen and felt therein; and upon her society,
that woman impressed her own tastes, elegance, and seriousness. Her
great act of benevolence was her protection of Port-Royal. When, after
the death in 1661 of Mother Angélique Arnauld, that institution became
the object of persecution and its tenants were either imprisoned or
compelled to seek refuge in the various families of Paris, Mme. de
Sablé remained faithful to its principles; she lived with her friends,
Mme. de Longueville and Mme. de Montausier, until 1669, when, with the
coöperation of Mme. de Longueville, who exerted all her influence for
Port-Royal, she finally succeeded in bringing about its reopening. At
least, Cousin ascribes this result to Mme. de Sablé, but he may have
somewhat exaggerated her influence in this respect. From her retreat
at Port-Royal, she kept up a constant correspondence with her friends
all over France; she lived there until 1678, with but one intimate
friend, Mme. de Longueville.
Mme. de Sablé had remarkable gifts; her mission in politics, religion,
and literature seems to have been to excite to action, to stimulate
and to bring out to its fullest value, the talents and genius of
others. In her modest salon, she inspired the great and illustrious
work which will keep her memory alive as long as the _Maxims_ and
_Pensées_ are read. Her name will be connected with that of Mme.
de Longueville, because of their ideal friendship, and with that of
Port-Royal because of her ardent and self-sacrificing support of it
in the time of its direst persecution, when any exhibition of sympathy
was dangerous in the extreme; and finally, her name will always be
connected with that small circle of French society of the seventeenth
century, which was noble, moral, and elevating to an unusual degree.
Somewhat later in the century a different movement was started by a
woman, which involved many of the highest in rank at court. This took
the form of a kind of mystical enthusiasm, running into a theory of
pure love, and was instigated by Mme. Guyon, a widow, still young, and
gifted with a lofty and subtile mind. After losing her husband, whom
she had converted to her religious views, she went, in 1680, to Paris
to educate her children. Becoming interested in religion, she went
to Geneva, where she became very intimate with a priest who was
her spiritual director, and whom she soon wholly subjected to her
influence. On account of their views on sanctification, they were
ordered to leave.
After travelling over Europe for a number of years, and writing
several works, including _Spiritual Torrents_ and _Short and Easy
Method of Making Orison with the Heart_, the widow returned to Paris,
with the intention of living in retirement; but so many persons of all
ranks sought her out, that she organized, for ladies of rank, meetings
for purposes of prayer and religious conversation. The Duchess of
Beauvilliers, the Duchess of Béthune, the Countess of Guiche, the
Countess of Chevreuse, and many others, with their husbands, became
her devoted adherents.
According to Mme. Guyon, prayer should lose the character of
supplication, and become simply the silence of a soul absorbed in God.
"Why are not simple folks so taught? Shepherds, keeping their flocks,
would have the spirit of the old anchorites; and laborers, whilst
driving the plow, would talk happily with God. In a little while, vice
would be banished and the kingdom of God would be realized on earth."
Thus, her doctrine was directly opposite to the theories of the
Jansenists.
At that time, 1687 to 1688, all religious movements, however quiet,
were condemned at Rome; and the teachings of Mme. Guyon were found to
differ very little from those of the Spanish priest Molinas. The first
arrest, that of her friend Lacombe, was soon followed by that of
Mme. Guyon herself, by royal order; she was released through the
intercession of Mme. de Maintenon, who was fascinated by her to the
extent of permitting her to teach her doctrines at Saint-Cyr, Upon the
appearance of her _Method of Prayer_, an examination was instituted
by Bossuet and Fénelon, who marked out a few passages as erroneous—a
procedure to which she submitted. However, Bossuet himself wrote a
treatise against her _Method of Prayer_, in which he cast reflections
upon her character and conduct; to that work Fénelon refused to
subscribe, which antagonistic proceeding brought on the great quarrel
between those two absolute ecclesiasts. In fact, Fénelon became imbued
with the doctrines of Mme. Guyon.
She was imprisoned at various times; and when a letter was received
from Lacombe, who had been imprisoned at Vincennes for a long time,
exhorting her to repent of their criminal intimacy, Mme. Guyon's cause
was hopeless. She was sent to the Bastille, her son was dismissed
from the army, and many of her friends were banished. In 1702 she was
released from prison and banished to Diziers; she passed the remainder
of her life in complete retirement at Blois.
Fénelon had written a treatise, _Maxims of the Saints_, which was
said to favor Mme. Guyon's doctrines, and which was sent to Rome for
examination. He defined her doctrine of divine love in the following
maxim, which was condemned at Rome:
"There is an habitual state of love of God, which is pure charity
without any taint of the motive of self-interest. Neither fear of
punishment nor desire of reward has, any longer, part in this love;
God is loved, not for the merit, but for the happiness to be found in
loving Him."
Such a doctrine made repentance unnecessary, destroyed all effort to
withstand evil, and did not acknowledge the need of a Redeemer. This
the great Bossuet foresaw; consequently, he, as the supreme religious
potentate of his inferior in rank, Fénelon, demanded the condemnation
by the latter of the works of Mme. Guyon. The refusal cost Fénelon
exile for life. To Mme. de Maintenon he wrote a letter which shows the
sincerity of his devotion to a friend in disgrace, even though his own
reputation was thereby endangered:
"So it is to secure my own reputation that I am wanted to subscribe
that a lady—my friend—would plainly deserve to be burned, with all
her writings, for an execrable form of spirituality which is the only
bond of our friendship. I tell you, madame, I would burn my friend
with my own hands, and I would burn myself joyfully, rather than
let the Church be imperilled; but here is a poor, captive woman,
overwhelmed with sorrows; there is none to defend her, none to excuse
her; all are afraid to do so. I maintain that this stroke of the pen,
given from a cowardly policy and against my conscience, would render
me forever infamous and unworthy of my ministry and my position."
Thus, in the seventeenth century, religious agitations and religious
reform were the work preëminently of women; but that reform and those
agitations were productive of good results to a far greater degree
than was any similar movement in any other century, with the possible
exception of the nineteenth. The seventeenth century was, as mentioned
before, a century of stability, one that toned down and crushed all
violations and abuses of the standard established by authority. Woman,
in her constant striving for the complete emancipation and gradual
purification of her sex, rebelled against the power of established
authority; she did not consciously or intentionally violate law and
order, but in her intense desire to act for good as she saw it, and
in her noble efforts to ameliorate all undesirable conditions, she
created commotion and confusion. The seventeenth-century woman is
conspicuous as a champion of religion, moral purity, and social
reform; therefore, her influence was mainly social, religious, moral,
and literary, while that of the woman of the sixteenth century was
mainly political. This difference was the result of the greater
advantages of education and training enjoyed by the females of the
later period.
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, young girls were granted
greater privileges and received more attention from men and society
than did their predecessors; they thus had more opportunities for
mental development, more occasion to become aware of the temptations
and injustices of life, without falling prey to them. Such young girls
as Julie d'Angennes, Mlle. d'Arquenay, and Mlle. de Pisani, took
part in the balls, fêtes, garden parties, and all amusements in which
society indulged. They met young men of their own age and became
intimately acquainted with them, morals were purer, marriages of
affection were much more frequent, and the state of married life was
much more congenial, than in any other century. Young men paid
court to the older ladies, to refine their manners and sharpen their
intellects, but not for any immoral purpose. To a certain extent
women were more world-wise when they reached the marriageable age, and
inspired respect and admiration rather than passion and desire as in
the next century.
Young girls of the seventeenth century were early placed in a convent,
and when they left it they were ready for marriage; in the meantime,
they frequently visited home and associated with their parents and
brothers; at the convents intellectual intercourse with people of high
rank and men of letters was encouraged. Yet the discipline at those
institutions was very rigid, the boarders being more carefully watched
then than later on; two nuns always accompanied them on their walks,
and when not busy with their studies, to prevent the mind from
wandering, they were kept busy with their hands; "the transports of
the soul of the young girl, as every reflection of the intelligence,
are watched and held in check, every one of her inclinations opposed,
all originality suppressed."
At first the convents were reproached for stifling all culture and
development and applying only correction and mortification of the
flesh. Mme. de Maintenon opposed such a state of affairs, but her
methods discouraged true independence. The happiness of her charges
was her one aim, but they had no voice in the matter. When of
marriageable age, they were given a trousseau and a husband; however,
they were taught to be reasonable.
In that century, the young girl, mixing more generally in society,
received greater consideration—hence, she became more active and
conspicuous. It will be seen that the rôle played by the eighteenth
century woman was not so much played by the young woman as it was
by the woman of mature years, of the mother, the counsellor—the
indispensable element of society. There were three classes of
women—young women, mature women who sought consideration, and old
women who received respect and deference, and who, as arbiters of
culture, upheld the principles already established.
A young man making his début had to find favor with one of those
classes which decided his future reputation and the extent of his
favor at court, and assigned him his place and grade, upon which
depended his marriage. All education was directed to the one
end—social success. The duty of the tutor charged with the
instruction of a young son was to give a well-rounded, general
education; by the mother, he was taught politeness, grace,
amiability—a part of his training to which more importance was
attached than to the intellectual portion. Whenever a young man was
guilty of misconduct toward a woman, his mother was notified of
the occurrence, on the same evening, and he promptly received his
reprimand. This spirit naturally fostered that rare politeness,
exquisite taste and tact in conversation, in which the eighteenth
century excels.
But where did the young girls receive the education which gave them
such prestige—that consummate art of conversation exemplified in
Mme. de Boufflers, Mme. de Luxembourg, Mme. de Sabran, the Duchess
of Choiseul, the Princess of Beauvau, the Countess of Ségur? The sons
were educated in the usages of the _bonne compagnie_ by the mothers,
but the daughters did not enjoy that attention, for, at the age of
five or six years, they were sent to the convent; there the mother's
influence could not have reached them, and they never left the convent
except to marry. The middle class imitated the higher class, and
family life became practically impossible. All men of any importance
had a charge at court or a grade in the army, and lived away from
their families. A large number of women were attached to the queen,
spending the greater part of their time at Versailles; the little time
passed at their homes was entirely occupied in preparation for the
evening _causeries_ at the salons, in reading new books, acquiring
information upon current events, and in superintending the making of
the many necessary and always elaborate gowns; as M. Perey so well
says, "as the toilettes and hairdressing took up the greater part
of the morning, they devoted the time used by the _coiffeur_, in
constructing complicated edifices that crushed down the heads of
women, to the reading of new books."
Nearly every large establishment kept open house, dining from twenty
to thirty persons every day. They dined at one, separated at three,
were at the theatre at five, and returned with as many friends as
possible—the more, the greater the reputation for hospitality and
popularity. Under such circumstances, the mother had no time for the
daughters, nor were the conversations at those dinners food for
young, innocent girls—and innocence was the first requirement of a
marriageable young woman.
The great convents were the Abbaye-aux-Bois and Penthemont, where the
daughters of the wealthiest and highest families were educated. In
those convents or seminaries, strange to say, the young girls were
taught the most practical domestic duties, as well as dancing, music,
painting, etc. Such teachers as Molé and Larrive gave instruction in
declamation and reading, and Noverre and Dauberval in dancing; the
teaching nuns were all from the best families. The most complete
costumes, scenic decorations, and other equipments of a complete
theatre were supplied, special hours being set aside for the play.
However, much intriguing went on there, and many friendships and
lifelong enmities were formed, which later led to serious troubles.
Often, from the midst of a group of young girls of from ten to fifteen
years of age, one would be notified of her coming marriage with a man
she had never seen, and whom, in all probability, she could not
love, having given her heart to another. If it turned out to be an
uncongenial marriage, a separate life would be the result, and, while
still absolutely ignorant of the world, those young married women
would fall prey to the charms of young gallants or men of quality, and
a liaison would follow.
The difference between a liaison of the seventeenth century and one
of the eighteenth led to one essential difference in the standards
of social and moral etiquette; in the former period, a liaison meant
nothing more censurable than an intimate friendship, a purely platonic
love; the lover simply paid homage to the lady of his choice; it was
an attraction of common intellectual interests and usually lasted for
life; in the eighteenth century, a liaison was essentially immoral,
rarely a union of interests, but rather one of passions and physical
propensities. Such relations developed and fostered deceit, intrigues,
infidelity, and rivalry, one woman endeavoring to allure the lover of
another; affairs of that nature were the chief topic of conversation
in social circles, and were soon reflected in every phase of the
intelligent world. This will be seen in the study of the eighteenth
century.