26 January 1690 A.D. Bossuet v. Jouarre’s Women
Graves, Dan. “Bossuet v.
Jouarre’s Women.” Christianity.com. May 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1601-1700/bossuet-vs-jouarres-women-11630177.html. Accessed 26 Jan 2015.
What authority should women exercise in the church?
This has been a highly charged issue throughout church history. In Medieval times, some
abbesses were granted a great deal of power, taking tithes, judging civil
disputes, and commanding neighboring monks. One abbey with such powers was
Jouarre in France.
Jouarre was founded under the
inspiration of a visit by Columban, the sixth century Irish monk who dotted
Europe with monasteries. Relatives of the nobleman and clergy with whom
Columban stayed founded male and female abbeys at Jouarre near the river Marne.
The female house was predominant and its abbesses enjoyed autonomy from the
nearby Bishop of Meaux, answering directly to the pope. The monks who lived at
Jouarre and later at nearby Rebais, were under the jurisdiction of these women.
Ermentrude, a diligent abbess,
gathered many relics at Jouarre, making it a center for the awe-inspired, the
curious, and the sick. So famous was the abbey that Pope Innocent II visited it
in 1131. Its facilities were large enough to host a church council in 1133.
Five-hundred years after the
founding of the abbey, the bishop of Meaux contested the right of the abbey to
control the local churches, clergy, and people. Pope Honarius II ruled in favor
of the bishop, but Jouarre presented a strong defense and Innocent II reversed
the decision. The sparring continued for almost a century. Abbess Eustache was
forced to publicly submit to the bishop of Meaux. Her successor, Agnes I,
refused to swear her oath to the Bishop, however, and was excommunicated. The
next abbess, Agnes II traveled to Rome, bearing documents that proved the
abbey's historical exemption. Pope Innocent III was convinced and restored
Jouarre's ancient rights. And so matters rested until after the Protestant
Reformation when the Roman Catholic church cracked down on independents.
Jouarre's nemesis was the new bishop of Meaux, Jacques Bossuet.
Jacques Benigne Bossuet's
eloquent histories and sermons ornament the literature of the age and his deeds
show him as an active participant in the ecclesiastical and political affairs
of the day. He squelched the Jansenists and was a driving force behind the Four
Articles that rejected papal dominion over the French church, asserting the
ancient "Gallican liberties." He rejoiced at the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes which had protected the Huguenots and did nothing to ameliorate
harassment of the French Calvinists. Many Protestants have heard of him only as
the persecutor of mystical Madame Guyon and suppressor of the mild
fellow-Catholic François Fénelon. When he was appointed bishop of Meaux in
1681, a showdown with Jouarre loomed.
Seizing on weaknesses in the
throne (which was dependent on Bossuet as champion of Gallican rights) and the
papacy (which was hesitant to interfere in the French church, because of the
Gallican controversy) Bossuet accused the abbey of simony. Simony is the
attempt to buy spiritual office. Five hundred years earlier, as a gesture of
peace, Jouarre sent a gift of grain to the Bishop of Meaux. According to
Bossuet, Jouarre bought its rights with that gift! The charge was so absurd
that it quickly collapsed.
Bossuet shifted his ground. The
abbey's privileges were not authentic, he claimed. Even if authentic, he argued
(incorrectly), the councils of Trent and Vienna had revoked such privileges.
Jouarre defended itself vigorously, showing that as late as 1631 Parliament had
confirmed its rights. But Jouarre argued in vain. On this day, January 26,
1690, the men won the skirmish; the judges ruled in Bossuet's favor. A month
later Bossuet led his followers to the abbey and demanded entrance. He was
barred. On March 2nd, he again sought submission. The following day he forced
the locks, entered, and celebrated mass in the chapel dressed in the full
splendor of a bishop. Henrietta of Lorraine, the reigning abbess, resigned. The
next abbess, Marguerite de Rohan, submitted to Bossuet, but refused
consecration at his hands, waiting ten years to receive it from his successor.
Bibliography:
1. Durant, Will and Durant, Ariel. The Age of Louis XIV. The Story of
Civilization. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.
2. Morris, Joan. The Lady Was a Bishop. New York:
Macmillan, 1973.
Last updated May,
2007.
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