SECTION I. What gave occasion to the Suits, which the Nuns of Saint Catharine make at Court against the F. Cordeliers.

THe Monastery of the Nuns of Saint Clare near Provins, was founded in the year 1237. by Theo­bald the Fourth, King of Navarre, and Earl of Brie and Champaigne. The Traditions of this Monastery say, that this Prince caus'd it to be built in ho­nour of Saint Catharine upon occa­sion of a vision, which he had in his Castle of Provins, from whence he had for several nights together seen upon the Hill, where the Monastery now stands, a bright shining light, in the middle of which he discovered a Lady of extraordinary beauty, who with the point of a Sword mark'd out the compass of this House. This Prince, who had a great devotion for Saint [Page 4] Catharine, was perswaded that it was she, that thus design'd out the place, where God would be serv'd under her good guidance. He resolv'd therefore to build a Nunnery there, to endow it, and to settle those Nuns there, whom Saint Clare, who was then living, had sent him from Assize, from whence the fame of her great Sanctity had dif­fus'd it self all over the World. These holy Maids liv'd in his Castle of Pro­vins the space of four years, at the end of which the House being com­pleatly finish'd, they at last took pos­session of it.

Theobald the Fifth, who succeeded him, had not less affection for this Mo­nastery than his Father, who had left his heart there for a pledge of his love. He gave these Nuns great en­dowments, granted them great privi­ledges, and at the sollicitation of Isa­bella the daughter of Saint Lewis, whom he had married, he procured of Pope Ʋrban the Fourth a permis­sion [Page 5]for them to take the Rule, which at the desire of Saint Lewis he had made for the Nuns of Long-Champ, who had been founded by this holy King twenty two years after the Mo­nastery of Saint Catharine. Theobald the Fifth dying as he return'd from the voyage, that he had undertaken with Saint Lewis his Father-in-Law beyond Sea, would be buried in this Monastery: The Princess Isabella his wife, who died the same year, chose likewise this place for her interment; and accordingly their ashes lie here to this day.

This is all that is known of the Hi­story of this Monastery. The seve­ral Fires that have happened, and the care that the Cordeliers have taken to make away all the Titles and Writings, hinder us from being able to give any further light into it. There is nothing but a Bull of Alexander the Fourth, which escaped them, which shall hereafter in its place be mentioned, [Page 6]and a permission from the Archbishop of Sens to beg in the Diocess for the rebuilding of the Church of Saint Ca­tharine, which had been burnt down by the English; so that one cannot precisely determine the time, when these Cordeliers first intruded them­selves into this Monastery. All that is known for certain, is, that about an hundred years since, this House having been again consumed by Fire, was a while after rebuilt by the care of the Lady Margaret de Billy, of the Illustrious House of Prunay, then Ab­bess of it, who retired in the mean while into the Castle of Provins, as her Predecessors had done upon the like occasions.

Five or six and twenty years after Madam d'Osonville being chosen Ab­bess, and finding the House in horri­ble irregularities, occasion'd by the conduct of the Cordeliers, who had made themselves Masters of it, set her self about applying some remedies a­gainst [Page 7]it. She got a Nun of Amiens, where the Rule was observ'd, to come over to her for this purpose, to teach it her Nuns, to give them the example of it, and to be assistant to her to de­ny those Fathers entrance into the House. God preserv'd her forty years in this Charge in spite of all the at­tempts, and persecutions of those Fry­ers, during all which time they fru­strated all her good designs, and all the regulations which she had made for settling the Discipline according to the advice of many learned Divines; so that as the greatest number of the Nuns were habituated to these infa­mous communications, she could never draw them out of it, notwithstanding all the precautions she could make use of: and the disorder did still much more encrease after her death, which happen'd in 1636, which was the time, when the Cordeliers bethought themselves of making the Nuns accept of the Triennial, that the Abbesses might [Page 8]be in greater dependance upon them, that they themselves might be abso­lute Masters of the Elections, and that they might with the more ease and success oppose the good designs of those that should be elected.

They exercised their Tyranny in this House till the year 1648, when many of the Nuns abhorring their ex­travagancies did make suit in Parlia­ment to be discharged of their con­duct. But Father le Fort, who was then appointed Commissary, and who rul'd all in this Monastery, imagin'd, that now was the most favourable op­portunity offer'd him to advance him­self higher in the esteem of those of his own Order, and to make himself still more absolute in this House. He thereupon gives such advice to each of the Parties, as was most proper to foment the Division; and in the Chap­ters, which he called no less than three times a day, he loaded them with such horrid and injurious language upon [Page 9]their intending to withdraw them­selves from under their direction, cal­ling them People of Sack-cloath and Cord, Souls of Brimstone and Salt-peter; That those Maids being terrifi'd with it, seeing that unless they were assist­ed in it, they could not yet shake off this so intolerable a Yoke, were con­tented to let them make some new regulations, and to let the late Mon­sieur Coqueret be named by the Parlia­ment to draw them up for them: and thus they continued under the same Government, but yet hoping with­al that the Regulations that were made for them, would give some re­medy at least to the evils that they laboured under. But these Regulati­ons were never put in practice, nor so much as communicated to the Nuns, the Cordeliers being always resolved to retain to themselves the same pow­er, and the same facility, to commit the same disorders.

At last in the year 1663, The Nuns [Page 10]seeing that the Abbess, who had then finished her Triennial, and who had never been advanced to that charge but by the factious arts of the Corde­liers, would, if she were longer con­tinu'd, wholly consume both Tempo­rall and Spiritual incomes of the Monastery to satisfie the greediness of these Fathers, were resolved to make choice of another. The Cordeliers were well aware of this design, and omitted nothing to continue this Nun in her Government. They made use of all ordinary artifices in order to it. The Provincial took those for Associates, Scrutatour, and Secretary, whom he knew to have most power over the inclinations of the Nuns. They had private conferences with them, some of which were continued till two a-clock in the morning: They used the assistance of Kindred, and Friends abroad, who openly made parties for her. They spared not for either promises, or threats. Some [Page 11]of the Nuns a great while before had by the Physitians order desired leave to go out to take the waters. They were now offered to have it upon con­dition that they would give her their vote: They had refused it them for two years before, foreseeing what use they might make of it at the time of the Election. They gave them and many others Notes to signe, that were wrot by a Cordelier to assure themselves of their votes, and of their faithfulness to what they had promised: They took away the office of Scribe from her, to whom it did belong according to the order of the House. And in fine, after all these precautions proceeding to an Election, after that the scruting had been renewed no less than nine times, without being able to overcome the resolution which the best-inclined amongst them had taken, never to con­sent to the Election of a person who was so directly contrary to the good of their House; They advised her to [Page 12]give her vote for her self, and the Provincial also gave her his, a practice never before heard of amongst them: so that of thirty three votes counting that of her own, and another of the Provin­cial's, who had no manner of right to give any, she had in all but seventeen. Although this Election was against all forme, yet they were forced to suf­fer it: but not without this provision, that the Treasurers should be joyned with the Abbess in the management of the Temporal revenue, and should signe the Acquittances: which nevertheless was never put in execution, no more than all those other things, which the Society has demanded from time to time for the settling of good Order, and which these Fathers to draw them to consent to their desires promised them, but did afterwards make sport at it, when they had obtained their ends so that all things have ever since continu­ed in greater confusion, and disorder.

But at last God being weary of the [Page 13]insolence, with which these Religious abused the easie natures of these poor Maids, did so provide, that a person un­known to them, who was deeply affected for the loss of so many Souls consecrated to God, presented a Remonstrance to the late Queen Mother, wherein was declar­ed in short to her Majesty a part of the excesses, which the Cordeliers com­mitted in their House, and the neces­sity there was of removing those Di­rectors from the Nuns. That Princess was concerned at those disorders; she testified her indignation against the Authors of them, and got a letter of the Kings Privy Seal, to command the Pro­vincial to set things in right order a­gain.

In this Remonstrance there was men­tion made of two Nuns, to whom the Cordeliers had given leave to go out of the House: My Lord Archbishop of Sens upon the scandalous reports that were spred abroad concerning them, had advised the Provincial to make [Page 14]them come home again: That Father therefore commanded them to return to the Monastery: They obeyed him. And he himself went over thither a little while after to punish them for the pretended scandal they had given. And to do it after a more exemplary manner, this severe Judge, and sage Reformer, as those Nuns themselves report it, set himself to caress them for three days together, to entertain them with a thousand expressions of fondness, & an infinite company of idle professions of love, and to turn all that had been said of them abroad into rail­lery. After all which the Secretary made them signe a paper, which upon the faith of the Provinciall they were made to believe, was a declaration of their Innocence, as indeed they had all reason to believe; since that one of them maintains, That in an entertaine, which he had with her for a good part of the night, and in which he had made her a thousand foolish caresses, so as se­veral [Page 15]times to desire to kisse her, That he had then declared to her, that he was not at all perswaded, that either she or her Companion had deserved any punish­ment, but that what he did in it was on­ly to take off all blame from their Order out of the Queen Mother's apprehension: Adding, That he would not have her trouble her self for what he should do the next morning, which he had not so much as acquainted his secretary withall; And, that the excommunication, which he must of necessity pronounce against her, should be but a formal shew, a counterfeit anger, and a piece of Mummery. But the next morning having entred the House, and called these two Nuns to a Chapter, to make them confess that they had put off their Habit, and consequently had in­curr'd the penalty of Excommunication, for which he would have them desire Absolution in full Chapter, that Nun to whom the Provincial had made so many professions of Friendship, and who made account, that she had signed [Page 16]him a certificate to the contrary, was so touched with this kind of procedure that she withdrew from them instead of coming on forwards. The Provin­cial thereupon commanded his Secreta­ry to goe and seize her, and to bring her upon his back: Those were his very words.

The Secretary pressed her with a great deal of earnestness to doe what was desired of her; and to make her more tractable, and to free her appre­hension of the fear she might have of some ill usage, he had the impudence to embrace her, and to kiss her by force in the presence of all the Nuns, and said to her aloud, My Heart, My Dear, My Friend, be our deliverer with the Queen Mother, thou wilt oblige us more than I am able to express. But seeing that all this could not incline her, he fell down on his knees before her, and protested to her, that as the Provincial had promised her all that they did was but a piece of Mummery, and that they [Page 17]would null the sentence immmediately after it was pronounced.

All these extravagant submissions not being able to overcome the resolution of this Nun, the Provincial gave sentence against her and her Compani­on, by which he deprived them of Active and Passive vote, of the offices of the Religion, of the freedom of Conversing at the grate, and this for as long a time as he and his successours should think fit, and told her particu­larly that had shown so much stiffeness, that he Excommunicated them: And in effect, the Cordelier Confessor of the House would not since that time admit them to the Sacraments.

These Nuns seeing themselves con­demned to such rigorous severities without other form of process, without bringing in either charge or informa­tion against them, and without confront­ing them with witnesses, notwithstand­ing that they pleaded that they had witnesses of their Innocency, thought [Page 18]themselves obliged to seek for redress at Court by way of appeal for redressing of abuses, and to make known their grievances there, as well for their making of factions at the Election, as for the disorderly conduct of the Cor­deliers, and the ill government of the Abbess both as to the Spiritual, and Temporall concerns of the House. Up­on these complaints the Court by a De­cree of the 15 May 1664. remitted them to my Lord Arch-bishop of Sens their na­tural Prelate, and ordained, That what­soever should be done, and ordered by him should be put in execution, not­withstanding any opposition, or appeal whatsoever to the contrary. These Nuns, in conformity to the wise pro­vision of this Decree, presented their request to my Lord Arch-bishop of Sens, that he would please to come over to them to do them justice.

Then it was that many of the Nuns in the House, who had for a long time groaned under the disorders that the [Page 19] Cordeliers had committed in their House, and who had very passionately wished, that it would please God to withdraw from under their Tyranny, now thought themselves obliged to declare them­selves, and to make use of this favour­able occasion, which God had put in­to their hands, for the regaining of their liberty. They united themselves therefore with their Sisters, and with them did unanimously present a new request to this Prelate, to beseech him, in execution of the Decree to come over to their Monastery to inform himself of the disorders of the Religious Fathers, and of the truth of those things which they had specified in their re­quest.

But neither did they stop there: Their number being encreased according as their good intentions came to be better known to their sisters, they drew up a solemn Act signed by the hands of seven­teen Nuns of the Quire the most ancient amongst them, by which they voted [Page 20]amongst themselves, To petition my Lord Arch-bishop of Sens in all humili­ty to receive them under his jurisdiction and conduct, seeing that the disorders of the Cordeliers both in their Spiritual and Temporal concerns were grown to such an height. In this Act they also mutually engaged not to separate, or disunite themselves in the good design which God had put into their minds to esta­blish good discipline in their House; and for this end to make all earnest endea­vour and suit to effect it, to give unanimous consent to all that should be thought necessary for it, and to beseech my Lord Archbishop of Sens not to for­sake them in this good design, and to give them his protection for the com­pleat execution of it.

My Lord Archbishop of Sens consi­dering the duty of his Character to watch over these Religious Maids for the good of their Souls, and that he ought to be so much the more sensible of this obligation, as they were more [Page 21]earnest in begging his assistance in their extremity, came over to their Nun­nery, began his visitation there the 3d of September 1664, drew up their Declaration; and seeing that a part of the disorders of the House proceeded from an ill management of the Tem. poral revenues, and from the driving a Trade of blanching of linnen by the Servitour-sisters for people abroad, he took care to remedy that by wise and most judicious Orders. But as it had been no great matter to have made good provisions for the Temporal, if he had not applyed his charitable cares to reform their Spiritual condition, especially after he had particular infor­mations from the Religious Nuns, of the state of their Monastery and of the danger they were obnoxious to, if they were not put into a perfect li­berty of Spirit, and if the Authors of so many horrible scandals were not re­moved from them, this Prelate thought himself obliged in Fatherly charity to [Page 22]furnish them with Divines which he approved of, who should have the care of their Consciences, who should assist them in all their necessities, and ad­minister the Sacraments to them, and to forbid the Cordeliers doing any fun­ction of their Ministery without his ex­press permission, and that under his hand.

This he did by a new Order of the 10 of February 1666 by which he en­joyned the Nuns to receive for their confessour Monsieur Bourree, Dr. of the Faculty of Paris, whose ability, life, exemplary manners, and charitable zeal were fully known to him; and commanded the Cordeliers forthwith to leave the House, which they had involved in such horrible disor­ders.

The greatest and soundest part of the Nuns submitted with joy and comfort to the Orders of their Prelate: But some others to the number of nine or ten of the Quire, engaged by no body [Page 23]knows what false Maximes, to say no worse, to the interest of the Cordeliers, made opposition against them together with the Servitour-sisters, whom the Cordeliers had managed for such a kind of design a long while before, and whom they had won over to their party by making them equall to the Religious of the Quire against all order, and by allowing them all kind of Liberties a­gainst their vowes of Confinement and Po­verty, and against the particular obliga­tions of their quality.

Upon the refusal of these nine or ten Maids, there was issued out a De­cree of the 24 of March 1666, by which it was enjoyned that the Orders of my Lord Archbishop of Sens should be put in execution according to their form and tenour. This Decree was backed with another of the 14 of April following, by which the united Nuns being received as Appealers from the abuse of a pretended obedience to the Commissary General given to F. [Page 24]Houdry a Cordelier, and of certain pretended Bulls of exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary in fa­vour of the Religious Maids of St. Clare denounced to them under the penalty of Excommunication to the pre­judice of the Decrees of the Court, the Orders of my Lord Archbishop of Sens, were confirmed a new, and the Lieu­tenant General of Provins enjoyned to give his assistance to the execution of those Orders.

Those absolute Commands, which came from an Authority which all ought to reverence, instead of open­ing the eyes of these nine or ten Religious Maids, and making them listen to the reasons that perswaded the Court so effectually to maintain the Order of my Lord Archbishop of Sens, served to no better purpose, than to make them give clear evidence of that spirit of Rebel­lion, with which the Cordeliers had inspired them. It was therefore ne­cessary to have recourse to the Lieute­nant [Page 25]Generall of Provins and that the Eldest Counsellour of that Court should come over to the Monastery of St. Ca­tharine the 18. of Aprill, in Execution of this last Decree to settle the Sieur Bourree in the Ordinary House of the Confessors of this Monastery, in spite of all the opposition of these nine or ten Nuns. Such a publick Contempt of My Lord Archbishop of Sens's Orders, and so notorious a Violation of the Just Authority of his Sacred Character, could not but raise a very reasonable In­dignation in him, and one would think should have drawn down upon the heads of these nine or ten Nuns, the Thunder which God had put into his hands. But this Prelate considering, that their Obstinacy proceeded from their Errours, and the false Maxims that the Cordeliers had instilled into them, rather than from any deliberate malice, resolved to try all possible wayes of Sweetness and Charity, to reduce them to a Sense of their duty. He therefore [Page 26]took care to have that particular obe­dience, to which they were obliged by their Vows, and the hainousness of that Sin, which making them violate those Vows would make them lose the qua­lity of the Spouses of Jesus Christ, re­presented unto them. He moreover provided to have it remonstrated unto them, how unwarrantable those strange Heats were, and that violence of spirit, which they had added to this disobe­dience, and which deserved an Exclusi­on from the graces that God has united to the Sacraments of his Church; and a separation from the Society and Com­munion of his Holy Family. And finally, he made it be declared to them, with that Fatherly Authority which God had given him for their concern, That he was most tenderly inclined for their Spiritual welfare; but withall, that he did most perfectly abhor their Rebelli­on: That he would root that out to the preservation of their Souls, and that after he had waited for their Re­pentance [Page 27]with patience, and used the admonitions which Charity required of him, he should be constrained at last to make use of the sharpest remedies to penetrate into, and so to dissipate that hard Tumour of their hearts.

But all these Charitable Remonstran­ces were wholly ineffectual. The Ser­vitour-Sisters continued their unlawfull commerce, and the nine or ten Sisters of the Quire remained still as pertinacious, and obstinate in refusing to acknow­ledge Mounsieur Bourree their Confessour. And as if the Cordeliers were afraid lest these Maids by doing their duties, and frequenting the Sacraments, should come to be sensible of the precipice they had engaged them in, they per­swaded them to absent themselves wholly from them: and all the care that My Lord Archbishop of Sens could use to make them come to these Solem­nities, and the goodness he shewed them in offering them Confessours of any of the other Religious Orders to [Page 28]draw them to it, could not prevent them from letting Easter-day passe with­out receiving the Communion. That Prelate threatned them with the penal­ties incurred by the Holy Canons, if they acquitted not themselves of a duty, which he made appear to them was so indispensible. They had three Admonitions for it according to the custome. They returned no other answer to all this, but injurious Lan­guage and Contempt. And in fine, after a tedious Expectation of their Repen­tance, having declared to them in the usual form, that they had incurred Ex­communication, they behaved them­selves so haughtily, that their Sisters, who were more sensibly affected at that violent and stubborn Deportment, with which they opposed the good Or­der that was intended to be settled in the House, than at the particular Inju­ries which they had received from them, having informed the Court of it, and presented a Petition, to which [Page 29]was joyned a Declaration of all that had passed; The Court by a Decree of the 5th. of September, 1666. remitted them to My Lord Archbishop of Sens to be redressed by him by all wayes due and reasonable, and even to the car­rying away of such Nuns as he should think fit into other Monasteries: Did enjoyn the Lieutenant General of Pro­vins, and others the Kings Officers, to assist the said Lord Archbishop with the Secular Arme, and the Kings Deputy-Attourney to give his Ayd. My Lord Archbishop of Sens, seeing himself forc'd by their obstinacy to put this Decree in Execution, did cause some of them to be carried into other Monasteries. They then began to abandon their for­mer stubbornness, and to acknowledge the voyce of their true Pastor: And as they were now no longer beset with the Cordeliers, who made them stop their Ears, and who encouraged them in this their Rebellion, they had no sooner had the taste of this happy liberty, [Page 30]which was procured them by deliver­ing them out of a place where they were held Captives, but they acknow­ledged the need that their House stood in of the Remedy which was applyed to those wounds, that the Religious Fathers had given to their Discipline; the necessity of my Lord Archbishop of Sens's Orders, and the Justice of the Decrees of the Court that had con­firmed them. They therefore presently wrot to this Prelate to beg his pardon for the disobedience which a false Zeal for their Rule had made them commit, and to assure him of the good dispositi­on they were in to submit themselves to his Orders, and to acknowledge him for their lawful Superiour. And not only those who were carried out to other Monasteries, but even those who stayed still at St. Catharines, did by publick Acts, and before Notaries, pro­test the Nullity of all that they might have done, or signed to the contrary. But the Cordeliers, who whilest these [Page 31] nine or ten Nuns did make profession of so much resolution to retain them still in their House, had several times made a shew of leaving them to themselves, not considering with themselves, that these Nuns being no longer managed by them would soon return to their duty, and would not fail to execute that themselves, which the Fathers did but make a shew of doing, betook themselves to other Artifices to main­tain themselves in the Ʋsurpation they had assumed in making themselves the Directours of this Monastery.

For this purpose they undertook two things equally contrary to the Laws of the Land, the Priviledges of the Gallicane Church, and to the Authority of Parliament: The one under the name of the Procuratour General of the Order; and the other under the name of the Nuns of St. Catharine. Under the name of the Procuratour General of the Order they addressed themselves to the Congregation of the Regulars at Rome, [Page 32]where thinking to elude the Executi­on of the Decree of the 15th. of May, 1664. and of those others issued out since, by which the Nuns of St. Catha­rine are remitted to the Archbishop of Sens, they procured a Decree bearing, That that Prelate should have a time as­signed him to be heard, That in the mean while the Censures pronounced by him should be taken off, and that the Monaste­ry should continue under the Conduct and Jurisdiction of the Cordeliers.

Under the name of the Nuns of St. Catharine, they obtained of their Ge­neral a Commission, by which Father Pinault Warden of the great Convent at Paris, is fully empowered to reform the Nuns of St. Catharine, to correct them, to govern them, and to give them Re­ligious Fathers for Confessours; And they are all commanded under penalty of Excommunication to obey him, and to acknowledge him Commissary; which is in plain terms to make all that is de­pendant, and undecided in the Court, [Page 33]to be judged at Rome by their General, without any cognizance of the cause, and without hearing of the parties.

The Religious Sisters of St. Catharine, being acquainted with the private in­trigues of the Cordeliers, met in Chapter the 5th. of February 1666. and did to the Number of twenty of them, all Nuns of the Quire, resolve to present a Petition at Court to get a Decree, by which My Lord Archbishop of Sens should be de­clared Superiour of their House, with a prohibition to all others to disturb, or hinder him in the Possession and Juris­diction of this right: And the 4th. of August the same year, it being noised abroad, That Father Pinault Warden of Paris, had got the Kings Letters Pa­tents upon the pretended Commission of the Father General, they presented a new Petition to My Lord Archbishop of Sens, signed by twenty Nuns, all pro­fessed of the Quire, to request him in all Humility, to receive them once more under his Protection, and immediately [Page 34]to come over to their Monastery, to settle the Regulations there, which he should find necessary, as he had already began to do. And that they might omit nothing, that might contribute to the procuring them so Powerful an Assist­ance against the mischiefs with which they saw themselves over-run; On the twentieth of the same Moneth, they op­posed the Registring of the Letters Pa­tents, which might have been imposed upon them upon this pretended Com­mission from the General: and on the thirteen of November they appealed as from the abuse of this same Commission; and on the seventeenth, they signified their Appeal to Father Pinault. But be­cause they had not as yet made their Appeal as from an abuse of the preten­ded Decree of the Congregation, ob­tained by the Procuratour General of the Order, not imagining that in France there ought any regard to be had to a Grant, so contrary to the rights of the Bishops, and to the Maxims of both [Page 35] Civil and Ecclesiastick Law; they pre­sented a new Petition to the Court on the 29th. of the same November, 1666. Upon which by a Decree of December the second, they were received Appeal­ants, as from an abuse of the before­mentioned pretended Decree of the Congregation: and it was ordered in these terms; That the Declaration of the Visitation, and Hearings of the said Religious Sisters made, and received by the said Archbishop of Sens. shall within a moneth be brought to the Civil Office of the Court, the Clerk to be obliged to do it by all due and reasonable ways, and in the mean while prohibited to put the said Decree of the Congregation in Execution, as also against the Archbishop's making his appearance upon any such assignations, which might be set him in vertue of that Decree; and Ordered that those under­named, Hubert, Apostolick Notary, Bru­gare and Messagio, Notaries of Provins, who signified that Decree, shall be appoin­ted to appear at Court, to answer to the [Page 36]Articles that the Attourney-General may draw up against them, for having dar'd against the Duty and Obligation of their place to signifie a Decree, which does so openly wound the Liberties of the Gal­licane Church, and the Laws of the Realm.

This is the state of the Affairs of the Nuns of St. Catharine, and whither all the suits they have made at Court for these two years do tend, that is, to be discharged of the direction of the Cor­deliers, and to return under that of my Lord Archbishop of Sens, who is their Lawful and Natural Superiour: And this is that which is here design'd to be Just­ified, by making it appear that these Two Pleas are agreeable to all the Rules of the Church, and to the particular Obligations of these Nuns: That the State and Religion are concerned in it, and that Reasons, which to them seem Invincible, and which respect the Glory of God, and the good of their Souls, will not suffer them to neglect them.

SECTION II. The first Plea of the Nuns of St. Catha­rine, which is to return under the Con­duct and Jurisdiction of My Lord Archbishop of Sens, their Lawful Prelate.

THe Nuns of St. Catharine have such powerful reasons to live under the Government and Direction of my Lord Archbishop of Sens, their lawful Prelate, that one can scarce com­prehend how they come to be engaged under any other Conductors, nor by what Charm they have been kept in subjection to that of the Cordeliers, who have made themselves Masters of the Government of their House. For besides the reasons in general, which do submit, as shall be made appear, all Religious Houses to the Bishops, they have such particular ones from the na­ture of their Order, and the Maxims of [Page 38]their Holy Founder, that the Extrava­gant disorders, which have been com­mitted in their Monastery under these Mercenary and Self-interested Pastors, as we shall afterwards show, cannot but be attributed to the Violation of all those Holy Rules.

SECTION III.

That Religious Houses cannot be with­drawn from under the Jurisdiction of the Bishops, and that whatsoever Ex­emptions have been granted them, the Bishops notwithstanding are their Lawful Superiours.

SECTION IV.

That the Order of St. Francis was in its first Institution submitted to the Bish­ops; and that it was the intention of that Holy Founder, it should always continue under that Subjection.

SECTION V.

That it is far from the mind of St. Fran­cis, that the Religious Sisters of St. Clare, should be under the Conduct of the Friers Minors.

SECTION VI.

That although the Friers Minors a little after the setting up of the Order of the Nuns of St. Clare, did insinuate them­selves into the Government of their Monastery, they were notwithstanding always under the Jurisdiction of the Bishops.

SECTION VII.

That the Nuns of St. Catharine, were at their first Institution submitted to the Archbishop of Sens.

SECTION VIII.

The Bulls alledged by the Cordeliers, to maintain their pretended Jurisdiction over the Monastery of St. Catharine, are answered.

SECTION IX. The second Plea of the Nuns of St. Ca­tharine, which is, to be discharged of the Direction of the Fathers Corde­liers.

'TIs not enough to have proved, (as has been done.) That if the Cordeliers have had any Jurisdiction in the Monastery of St. Catharine, they [Page 41]have usurped it against the Rights, which the Holy Scriptures, the Councils, and all Tradition do give My Lord Archbishop of Sens, and against the in­dispensible Obligations that lye upon the Nuns, according to the mind of St. Francis, and the Rule of their Foun­dation to live under his Conduct and Authority. It must besides be made ap­pear, that they have rendred them­selves unworthy, upon the account of those Horrible Disorders committed by them in their House, and that utter Im­possibility there is of ever resettling any good Discipline there.

SECTION X. That the Cordeliers have rendred them­selves unworthy of Governing the Nuns of St. Catharine, by reason of those horrible Disorders they have com­mitted in their Monastery.

'TIs a certain Maxim in Law, That He that abuses a Priviledge granted him deserves to lose the Power he has in vertue of that Priviledge. Privilegium meretur amit­tere, qui permissâ sibi abutitur potestate. There need then nothing else be done, but to bring into open view the abuses, that the Cordeliers have committed of this pretended Jurisdiction over the Monastery of St. Catharine, to give un­deniable proof that they deserve to lose it, although they had been law­fully possessed of it: and that they are wholly unworthy of bearing the stile of Pastours to these Holy Sisters; [Page 43]having all the Characters of those mi­serable Mercenaries, those False Pro­phets, those Thieves, those Robbers, who are mentioned in the Holy Gospel; To whom the sheep belongeth not, who are cloathed like sheep, but within are rave­ning Wolves; who enter not by the gate of the Fold, that is, by the Order of the Bishop, but climb over another way, that is, by the way of Exemptions and Priviledges, and come for nothing but to steal, devour and destroy. Fur non venit nisi ut furetur, &c.

SECTION XI. The Disorders that the Cordeliers have committed in the House of St. Catha­rine, as to the Spiritual concern.

IT were to be wish'd for the Honour of the Church which suffers by all her disorderly Children, that the Cordeliers would have made good use of the moderation, which had been ex­ercised [Page 44]towards them till now. There would then have been no necessity at this time to declare things which Chari­ty, that covers a multitude of Sins, has so long concealed, and which seemed to have kept them secret from her own view, lest Zeal should oblige her in Justice to prosecute the Authors of them. But 'tis found too plain, as it shall soon be shown, that this long Pati­ence hath served to no other purpose, than to make them the more insolent, and to give them liberty to carry their Excesses to such an height, as has ren­dred them the scandal not only of one Town, or one Province, but of the whole Church.

To be able to conceive an Idea of it in general, one need but represent to ones Fancy all the mischiefs that humane passions are capable of producing when they are cover'd with pretences of Piety, and abuse the most Holy and Sacred things to satisfie their own incli­nations, and as much as in them lies, to [Page 45] corrupt poor innocent Souls. One need but fancy all the most shameful and base ways, that may be made use of to overthrow good discipline in a Religious House. In fine, One need but imagine all the abuses, which people that are not restrained either by the fear of God or man can commit, of an Autho­rity which they have usurped, and which they employ to inspire Vicious­ness, and to set up Wickedness in full power. And one need not fear that these general Idea's should be either too high or too large, seeing that these Fathers have this unhappy advantage, That the Wit of man is not capable of imagining that which they are capable of com­mitting. For that reason, as their Ex­travagancies exceed all imagination, there shall be nothing said of their Dis­orders here, but what is faithfully drawn out of their own writings, and the depositions of a great number of the Nuns. And besides, there shall be so much condescension shown in their be­half [Page 46]as not to name them openly, when­ever it shall appear necessarily to parti­cularize any of their Disorders: and those Actions shall be suppressed, which could not be mentioned without doing violence to Modesty.

SECTION XII. Of the Disorders committed by the Cor­deliers in the Temporal concerns of the Monastery of St. Catharine.

AFter the horrible extravagancies which have been mentioned, it will not be difficult to believe, That the Cordeliers have consumed all the Temporal incomes of this Monastery. It may easily be concluded, that Religi­ous [Page 106]Fathers, who by so many diffe­rent ways have made it their business to draw off Virgins from the fidelity they owed to their divine Spouse, and to rob them of their Honour, and the Spiri­tual inheritance, which he had acqui­red for them with the price of his blood have not spared the Temporal inheritance; which they had received from the magnificent bounty of their Illustrious Founders, and the liberal Charity of their Relations.

'Tis not by this denied, but that the better disposed part of the Community, when they perceived the insatiableness and unreasonableness of the Cordeliers, did sometimes force themselves to make opposition against it, and from time to time demanded, that according to the Order of their House, and con­for mably to their Rule, they might choose a Receiver, and that the Abbess might not dispose of the income of the House but in conjunction with the Treasurers. But the Cordeliers have always frustrated all such kind of en­deavours, one while perswading the Of­ficers, whom they ruled, to take the rent themselves, and to employ faith­full and intelligent men abroad, who should be intrusted with it, and some­times [Page 113]making them take people for their Receivers, that were worth no­thing, but such as were wholly at their beck; and sometimes exciting the Abbess as particularly the last, to take all the Revenue into her own hand, and to dis­pose of it without giving account of it. So that notwithstanding all that could be done, they have still found out ways to make themselves Masters of the Re­venue of the Monastery, and to dis­pose of it to furnish them for Voyages into Italy, for the Provincials visita­tions in their Province, and to make provision for Father N's Table, which is one of the most magnificent in all the Province of Brie.

There is no mention here made of the cheats, that were usuall upon the death of the Confessours of the Mona­stery: Of the summes of money intrust­ed in the hands of these Confessours for the affairs of the House, and which after their death were carried away by the Provincialls: Of the Goods and [Page 114]Habits which the House had furnished them with, and which they caused to be conveyed away: Of the waste they made of the Wood of the Nunnery for warming & building of their Convent: Of their custom of sending such Corde­liers into the Monastery as were the particular intimates of the Nuns to en­gage their votes, and to live as they pleas­ed for two or three months together before the Elections: Of Feasts made for the Provincials at the Elections of the Abbesses, and the two last of which amounted each of them to four or five hundred livres: Of blank papers signed by the last Abbess and put into the hands of a person appointed by them for the same purpose, and of a thousand other ways that they have used to devour, and waste the whole estate of this House.

What has been related is sufficient to shew the necessity of having these Cordeliers removed from this Mona­stery, since 'tis evident they have [Page 115]made use of the access they have had into this House, and of the Jurisdiction that they have usurped, for nothing but to inrich themselves with its spoils, and to lavish out an estate, that was given for the subsistence of the spouse of Jesus Christ, in feastings, debauches, and in all sort of idle and shameful ex­pences; so that one may too justly compare these self-interested Direct­ours to those Mercenary Pastours, that Holy Scripture speaks of, who instead of taking care to lead out the sheep that God had committed to them, thought of nothing but of feeding themselves with their Milk, of clothing themselves with their Wool, and of eating up the best and fattest of them: Which made God declare by the mouth of his Pro­phet, that he would take his flock out of their hands, and would not suffer them to be any longer under their keeping, nor be made a prey of by them. Ecce ego super pastores requiram gregem meum de manu eorum &c.

SECTION XIII. That the Cordeliers are under an impos­sibility of ever establishing good Order, and Regularity in this Mona­stery.

THe Cordeliers have not only rendred themselves unworthy of the government of the Monastery of St. Catharine by the abominations that they have committed, and by the Waste they have made of the Tem­porall income; but 'tis even impossible for them to remedy the mischiefs that they have caused in this House. This is now undertaken to be made evident by shewing, That those Fathers, to whom it most appertains to maintain Regularity in the Monastery, are the persons who have committed the greatest Disorders: And that these Nuns have invincible reasons to have no [Page 117]confidence in all the Fathers of the Or­der put together.

SECTION XIV. That they are the Superiours of the Order, who have engaged the House of Saint Catharine in the Disorders it is in.

WHen the noble parts of a mans body are not affected, and that the Malady has not seized the Heart, nor the Head, we despair not of a sick person how dangerous soever the distemper may be, that he labours under. But when the whole disease is got into the Heart or the Head, or that 'tis from one of these parts it passes into the rest, he becomes in­curable, and we have no more hopes of doing him any good. 'Tis the same in Religious societies. Whilst the Dis­order is but amongst private persons there is reason to hope to remedy it. But when 'tis the Superiours that [Page 118]commit it, and that those, who are set up to prevent it, infuse it into others, the corruption in a small time becomes general, and there is no remedy to be had but by that way of Cutting off, and Casting away, that Jesus Christ pre­scribes to all the faithful in these words.—If your right eye be an occasion of of­fence to you, pull it out, and cast it from you, and if your right hand be an occa­sion of offence to you, cut it off and cast it away from you.

'Tis then with Prudence and Justice that the Nuns of Saint Catharine de­sire to have the Cordeliers removed from them, since those of the Fathers, that are stiled their Superiours, and who ought in that character to serve as Eyes to conduct them in the way to Heaven, and as hands to uphold them in the practice of their Rule, are those who have diverted them from it, and have been the greatest occasions of scandall and falling, that they ever had in their Monastery. In effect, They [Page 119]are not only private, and ordinary Cordeliers, that have committed all the horrible Disorders before­mentioned in their House: They are the Visitors, Their Deputies, The Provincial, The Commissaries Ge­neral, Their Secretaries, The Wardens, The Doctours, and the Batchelours of the Order, The most Famous among their preachers. In fine, They are those that have the greatest dignities amongst them, that are the occasions of all these Disorders, that have main­tained them, and have ever been the most pertinacious opposers of the Re­medies, which from time to time have been endeavoured after. 'Twas they that presented the young Nuns with their confidents, that wrote to them in their behalf, that engaged them to those un­lawful intercourses before-mentioned, and that took care, when they were fallen out, to reconcile them again, and to renew their wicked intimacies.

All the Superiours, the Provincials, the Confessours, have thus abused their employment, favouring, or being them­selves the cause of, the Disorders, by ad­mitting other Cordeliers into the House to engage the Nuns to these insinuating intimacies, and by this means to con­tinue themselves Masters of all. For as favours, or persecutions, were always at the disposal of the Cordeliers, ac­cording as their Beloveds were either complyant with, or inflexible to, what the Superiours would have them do, the Sisters were fain to suffer all that they pleased to have done, and to give their assistance to the furthering of all their passions: And this made the Pro­vincials, instead of imploying their Visi­tation in enquiring after the misdemea­nours that were to be corrected, to set themselves about courting and caressing the young professed Nuns, to talk to them [Page 123]of their Good friend, and to excite them to take one, that they might have the pleasure of being served by him. And in pursuance of this they authorized the Collations and Entertainments at the Grates, Gaming, lascivious Songs, breaking of Glasses, in honour of their Ladies before the eyes, and to the scan­dal, of the whole Town: And yet they always talked of, and amused the peo­ple with Reformations in paper, which they never so much as propounded, much less intended to have executed in the House.

Besides, They did not only study to engage these young Virgins in such dangerous communications, but took care also to put those into the Offices of the House, whom they judged most proper to encourage & maintain them.

Ten years since at the Election of Madam d' Osonville, the fourth Abbess of that name, they did what possibly they could to put Madam N. in her place, who had committed the Le dernier mall.last act of incontinency [Page 124]with Father N. Cordelier, and one of the reasons of their persecuting Madam d' Osonville, was because she had been pre­ferred before that other Nun.

After the death of that Abbess Father N. Provincial used great violence to hinder the Election of Madam d'Osonville her Niece, who had 25 votes against se­ven for Madam N. whom the Cordeliers would notwithstanding make Abbess by force, though she had neither desert nor birth, nor any thing more consi­derable than a passionate love for the Cordeliers, who had ordered her in her youth as they pleased.

Sister N. did very freely show about ‘the Letters wrote to her from the Cordeliers, & told all the idle fancies that they made her: she gave them access into her Chamber night and day; and in consideration of her corre­spondence she was made Mistress of the Novices.’

‘Father N. esteemed the most Re­gular of them all did not scruple the taking these kind of liberties in the [Page 125]cloyster. At four a clock in the morning he went into a garden with Sister N. his Good Friend, and gave this rea­son for it, that they were fallen out with one another, and that he had a mind to be reconciled. They were so well reconciled again, that she be­ing made Mistress of the Novices per­swaded them all to entertain the Cordeliers, so that she pressed her own Niece to receive Letters from them: she acquainted them with all the Gallantries that the Cordeliers had shown her in her youth, made them act Comedies against the express prohibition of Madam N. the Abbess. And when a Novice was fallen out with her Cordelier, she slept not till she had made them friends again.’

But in spite of all the intrigues of the Provincials, and other Superiours of the Order, they yet gave Offices to the bet­ter disposed part of the Nuns; they then maintained the other Sisters in their licentiousness and libertinisme against them, and endeavoured to raze out of [Page 126]their minds the good impressions, that these Nuns had laboured to give them.

After all this can it be denied, that the Superiours of the Order are to be charged with these Excesses that have been committed in the Monastery of St. Catharine? That they have not only tolerated them, while they were in Office, but also fomented and autho­rized them by their own irregularity: And that if the Integrity of those that command be the security of those that obey, that the visible corruption of all the Superiours of the Cordeliers is the principal cause of all the mischiefs of this Monastery.

SECTION XV. That the Religious Sisters of St. Catha­rine have invincible reasons not to have any Confidence in the Cor­deliers.

TWo things are absolutely necessa­ry to the settling of good Order [Page 131]and Regularity in a religious House, Authority, and a good esteem of that Au­thority. Now it has already been made appear, that the House of St. Catharine can hope for no good from those who have any Authority amongst the Cor­deliers. For they are the persons, that have cast it into the miserable condi­tion wherein it is. There remains then nothing, but to show that it is impos­sible they should have any Confidence in them, to make it evident; That they are in an utter impossibility of ever resettling good Orders and Regu­larity.

'Tis omitted here, to represent the injustice and violence they have com­mitted against private persons, when their consciences have not allowed them to give their Votes for those that the Fathers would have put into Office, and who were often the least regular of any, but the most linked to the in­terest of the Friers. 'Tis omitted here, to mention their refusals to allow extro­ordinary Confessours even at the point [Page 132]of death, when any Nuns for the secu­rity of their consciences have desired others than those of the Order: Their Excommunications pronounced upon very slight occasions against those, that had no other crime than the dis­allowing of their disorderly conduct: Their taking away the Right of suffrage from the young professed Nuns because one of them once signed a paper made by the greatest part of the Community in opposition to the veiling of a Ser­vitour-sister, which was solicited by Father N. Their abusing the submissions of the easie-natured Abbesses to them, making their advantages thereby to make them prefer the Servitour-Sisters before the Religious of the Quire upon several occasions, so that they them­selves laughed at them for their soft­ness. Although all these things con­cern the whole Community, seeing that there is no private person that has not reason to fear the same treatment that they have shown their Sisters, they shall however be passed over in [Page 133]silence. For that which they princi­pally insist upon, is what condition their House was in under the conduct of the Cordeliers before the time of their admission into it, In what condition they found it upon their entring it, and how they have continually seen it governed for more than these for­ty years, during the space of which they have continued their professi­on.

They themselves have painted out these Fathers so lively in their Depositions as to make all abhor them, and which one cannot consider without being sensibly affected, to see Virgins thus en­gaged, almost in spite of their wills, to live without regularity, without di­rection, without light, without in­struction, and without piety.

How then could the Religious Sisters of St. Catharine after all this with any rea­son put confidence in the Cordeliers? How could they hope to be moved by them to keep a strict observance of the hours of Divine Service, when they [Page 134]knew that ordinarily. These Fathers kept their Sisters at the Grates at that time, and often made them stay there whole nights till five a clock in the morning: so that they were forced to take the hours of Mattins and Mass to repose themselves.

How could they hope to see them re­settle the silence, that their Rule enjoyns them, in the House, when they knew, that by their continual Entertaines they had plunged it into an horrible disso­luteness, and that their Sisters were used to repeat Songs that they had learnt them, not only in the gardens, whither they came to hear them, and whither they often came to surprize them, and there passed whole nights with them; but even in the cloysters, and other con­secrated places?

How could they hope, that they should perswade them to modesty in their Habits, when they knew, that they suf­fered their sisters to dress and trick up themselves with an extraordinary nice­ness, when they were to come to visit [Page 135]them, and that they furnished them with several sorts of coloured Ribbons, with trimmed Gloves, and many other instruments of vanity.

How could they hope to be inclined by them to keep nothing in propriety, & to put all to the common stock, that they might not break their vows of Poverty, when they have always al­lowed them to take as much of their Pensions as should be sufficient to pro­vide for the Treats, that they engag­ed them to make them at the Grates, & for I know not how many other idle expences that they advised them to, even to the letting them distribute the bread to them, which they disposed of as they pleased?

How could they hope to be instructed by them in the Fidelity that they owed to their Divine Spouse, when they knew the measure of these Fathers dissolute­ness against all their vows of Chastity, and had been witnesses of all their Pro­fanations and Sacriledges?

Lastly, How could they hope to be [Page 136]assisted by them in their design of la­bouring to live conformably to their Rule, to perform the Obligations of the life that they had embraced, and to re­settle the honour of their House, when they saw that in all the conduct that they have observed in their Monastery (from the time that they first made themselves Masters of it) nothing but a base indifference for the interests of God, horrible libertinisme, and most dreadful debauchery?

Of Whom should they expect this re­medy? Of Private persons? They have an hundred times blusht at their impu­dence and impiety. Of Confessours? They have scarce seen any that have not wallowed in all kind of vice and debauchery. Of Provincials? They have committed and authorized the greatest Disorders of their House. Of Those, who are advanced to be Doctors, Batchelours, and Preachers amongst them? They have still their Letters in keeping, that are full of impurity and abominations. Of the Warden of Paris? [Page 137]There is so much disorder in his own house, that his Majesty has been forced to name Commissioners to rectifie it. Of the whole Province? They have seen an Assembly in a General Chapter, held at Provins about nine or ten years since, render themselves complices of all the extravagances that the chief of their Fathers had at that time commited in their Monastery: And besides, They know that the whole Province is in a very dismal division and disorder. Of the Cordeliers of other Provinces? Have not they learnt with horror, what passed at Desize, and in the other House of Nuns that are subject to them? And have not the Cordeliers themselves made use of it to entangle them, if they could have done it, in the same Disor­ders?

There is not then any security for the Religious Sisters of St. Catharine but by absolutely removing from them all the Fathers of the Order; and 'tis with a great deal of ground, That they have not only distrusted, but even ab­horred [Page 138]their Conduct, seeing it has been always full of corruption, and that they have with horrible licenti­ousness and scandal violated all the laws of Discipline before their eyes, which by all the obligations of the charge that they had usurped, they stood engaged, either to uphold when it began to fall, or to raise up again when it was once fallen.

SECTION XVI. The Cordeliers Reasons to colour the Dis­orders, that they have committed in the Monastery of St. Catharine, and to maintain themselves notwithstanding the Abuses they have made of the Juris­diction that they usurped, are answer'd.

THe Cordeliers perceived well e­nough, that if the Misdemea­nours they committed in the Monastery of St. Catharine came once to be dis­covered, they should be universally [Page 139]condemned by all the world, and that there would be no person of any judg­ment but would conclude them un­worthy of the conduct of these Nuns, though it had of right belonged to them. 'Tis that, that has since put them upon using all kind of arts to prepossess the Higher Powers, and to fill them with impressions to the disadvantage of the Nuns that prosecute them at Court, hoping by that means to oblige them the easier to lay hold of their Prote­ction. To this purpose they presented Petitions to their General at Rome, and to the Congregation of Cardinals; They presented others to their Majes­ties in France, and we have in our hands the copy of a Writing, made and pre­sented by them to a Minister of state. And 'tis out of all these Petitions this Writing, and also out of some of the Letters, which their Friends have wrote to the Nuns, from whence we fetch the Reasons, which we are going to set down here with all their strength, endeavouring to answer them the most [Page 140]briefly and clearly that is possible.