Pierre de Berulle

Pierre de Bérulle was a French Catholic priest, cardinal and statesman in 17th-century France. He was the founder of the French school of spirituality, who could count among his disciples Vincent de Paul and Francis de Sales, although both developed significantly different spiritual theologies. He was educated in theology by the Jesuits and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He published his first work, his Bref Discours de l'abnegation interieure, in 1597. Soon after his ordination as a priest in 1599, he assisted Cardinal Duperron in his public controversy with the Protestant Philippe de Mornay, and made numerous converts. With the co-operation of his cousin, Madame Acarie (Marie of the Incarnation), in 1604 he introduced the Discalced Carmelite nuns of the reform of Teresa of Ávila into France. In 1611 he founded in Paris the Congregation of the French Oratory, on the model of the one founded in 1556 by Philip Neri at Rome. The French congregation, however, varied in important respects from the Italian Oratory. The Oratorians, a congregation of priests with no binding vows, founded new seminaries, improved preaching, promoted theological studies, and ultimately caused a general revival of the French clergy. Bérulle’s Oratory served as a model for those new congregations of priests that characterize the religious history of 17th-century France—the Lazarists, the Sulpicians, and the Eudists. He exercised a decisive influence on the religious development of the Abbé de Saint-Cyran and so, through him, on Port-Royal, the centre of Jansenism and of literary activity in 17th-century France. Bérulle was a chaplain to King Henry IV of France, and several times declined his offers to be made a bishop. He obtained the necessary dispensations from Rome for Henrietta Maria's marriage to Charles I, and acted as her chaplain during the first year of her stay in England. In 1626, as French ambassador to Spain, he concluded the favourable Treaty of Monzón, to which his enemy Cardinal Richelieu found objections. After the reconciliation of King Louis XIII with his mother, Marie de Medici, through his agency, he was appointed a councillor of state, but had to resign this office, owing to his pro-Habsburg policy, which was opposed by Richelieu. For religious reasons, Cardinal Bérulle favored the allegiance of France with Austria and Spain, the other Catholic powers, while Cardinal Richelieu wanted to undermine their influence in Europe. He was made cardinal by Pope Urban VIII on 30 August 1627, but never received the red hat. Pierre de Bérulle died October 2, 1629 in Paris, while celebrating Mass, and was buried in the chapel of the Oratorian College of Juilly. He expressed his personal spirituality in a series of devotional writings, the best known of which is the Discours de l’état et des grandeurs de Jésus (1623; “Discourse on the State and Greatnesses of Jesus”). His interest in meditation and prayer also found its way into his educational policies and became a major part of the clerical reform.