To « Frenchify » the enemies

Cultural Conquests : 1500-2000, Actes du colloque, 2004
To « Frenchify » the Enemies
French Monks in the Fortified Town of Pignerol
during the Seventeenth Century
During the Modern period, religion maintained a strong influence on
the formation of States in Europe. It is well known that this was the case not
only in the internal affairs of European countries but also in their external
policies and sometimes in their military conquest. It is this kind of cultural
conquest by a religious process that this article would like to underline with
the example of the fortified town of Pignerol. This alpine city is in the old
area of the Piedmont-Savoy, situated in the north of Italy about 20 miles
southwest of Turin and near the current frontier between France and Italy.
The town is situated where the valley of La Perouse opens out. Therefore,
Pignerol was a very strategic and coveted town which belonged to this
Italian area often called the “heart of the world”1. This moniker was due to
its central position among Italy, France and Germany. The Pope, the French,
the German and the Spanish, in short, all the great powers and the most
powerful States of the seventeenth century sought to rule this part of Italy.
At the beginning of the 1630’s, the French took the city of Pignerol from the
Duke of Savoy and kept it until 16962. The conquest of the city was fast but
violent. In July 1630, the city was plundered and sacked. Louis XIII and
Richelieu were determined to take over the place and to create a kind of
bridgehead in order to control the whole area of Piedmont-Savoy. In August,
1
. On the strategic situation of Pignerol since 1574, we can see among a large bibliography:
M. VIORA, « Emanuele Filiberto e Pinerolo », in Lo stato sabaudo, al tempo di Emanuele
Filiberto, Torino, 1928, p. 21-88. S. EXTERNBRINK, Le Cœur du monde. Frankreich und die
norditalienischen Staaten (Mantua, Parma, Savoyen) im Zeitalter Richelieus (1624-1635),
Münster, 1999, p. 49 et s.; ID., « "Faire contrepoids à la puissance d’Espagne". Paul Ardier de
Beauregard (1590-1671) et la politique de Richelieu en 1633 », in Francia, Frühe NeuzeitRévolution-Empire (1500-1815), t. 27, n° 2, 2001, p. 6. And also the famous Testament
politique de Richelieu, edited by FRANÇOISE HILDESHEIMER, Paris, 1995, p. 331-332.
2
The town was first occupied by the French army from 1536 to 1574. A. PITTAVINO, Storia di
Pinerolo e del Pinerolese, Milano, 1963, t. 1. D. CARUTTI, Storia della Città di Pinerolo,
Pignerol, 1897.
2
the Marquis d’Effiat, who was the “Surintendant des Finances”, wrote :
“Souvenez-vous que, si nous ne gaignons aucune chose, pour le moins faut-il
conserver ce que nous avons, Pignerol et Briqueras estant la prunelle de nos
yeux »3. Its strategic importance is the reason why the French troops
occupied the city and partly restored its fortifications. Meanwhile, the
French King decided to carry out a cultural policy involving French monks
in order to reinforce the military occupation and further solidify the new
authority. As a result, below we should examine the specific actions of
religious orders taken to convert the enemies to the orthodoxy and to the
obedience of French Kings. In other words, this discourse aims to highlight
the impact and importance of religious processes on the submission and
withdrawal of those who were defeated.
1. To Frenchify the cloister
First of all, it’s worth turning our attention to the manner of
Frenchifying the Pignerol’s cloisters. Several ways were used to settle
French monks. The fastest was to throw out the Italian friars from their
houses. It was the case for instance of the Italian Feuillants. This group of
monks was founded in France, near Toulouse, at the end of the sixteenth
century4. It extended its influence in France and Italy where it was associated
with princes’ promotion5. In 1630, the order was divided in two national
branches, the congregation of Notre-Dame de Feuillant in France and the
Reformed Monks of Saint-Bernard in Italy6. Two years after, in September
1632, the Italian Feuillant who where in charge of the famous abbey SainteMarie thanks to the Duke of Savoy, were turned out by the French soldiers.
Immediately, French monks took their place7. The control of this site was all
3
Lettres, instructions diplomatiques et papiers d’État du Cardinal de Richelieu, recueillis et
publiés par M. Avenel, Paris, t. III, p. 812-814 (A M. d’Effiat, 3rd August 1630). We could
translate as : “Don’t forget that if we don’t go further, at least we have to keep what we have,
Pignerol and Briqueras being cherished more than anything”.
4
B. PIERRE, « La réforme des Feuillants : une relecture cistercienne à la fin du XVIe
siècle ? », in Unanimité et diversité cisterciennes : filiations, réseaux, relectures du XIIe au
XVIIe siècle, Actes du 4e Colloque international du CERCOR, Dijon, 23-25 septembre 1998,
Saint-Étienne, 2000, p. 647-663.
5
M. F. MELLANO, La controriforma nella diocesi di Mondovi (1560-1602), Torino, 1955,
p. 121; N. M. CUNIBERTI, I monasteri del Piemonte e i principali d’Italia, Chieri, 1975,
p. 319-324; Arch. Stat. Roma, Busta 2210bis, reg. n° 1, f. 28-29 and reg. n° 2, f. 157v°.
6
Arch. Stat. Roma, Cisterciensi in S. Bernardo alle Terme, Busta 2210 bis, reg. n° 2,
f. 240r°v°. Brief’s copy of the Pope Urbain VIII (22 may 1630). Regula sanctissimi Patris
Nostri Benedicti Abbatis cum constitutionibus et declarationibus congregationis monachorum
reformatorum Sti Bernardi Cisterciensis auctoritate capituli generalis anni 1667 recognitis et
emendatis, Rome, 1668.
7
BNF, ms fr. 11767, f. 279v° (10th June 1630) : « Monsieur le cardinal estant avec le roi dans
la Savoie, ayant escrit à nostre Tres Reverend Pere Dom Charles de Saint-Paul, abbé de
3
the more crucial because the spiritual influence of the abbey was strong:
indeed this abbey Sainte-Marie served as a check on the strong spirituality of
several surroundings places like Baudenasca, Buriasco superiore, Dubbione,
Perosa, Pinasca, Porte, Riva, S. Pietro Val Lemina, Talucco, Villar di Perosa,
Meano, etc....
The Récollets who belonged to the Franciscan order followed the
same process. After the capture of Pignerol, they were called to the city by
the bishop of Mende. Richelieu asked the Italian monks to leave but they
turned him down. They were forcibly expatriated in 1640 by the French
governor Malissy. The French Récollets then were settled in a monastery
called, the Madonna degli Angeli where they stayed until 1659. Another way
of establishing French religious hegemony was to build directly new
monasteries for them8.
The Visitation, for instance, was called by the Marquis of Villeroy, the
governor of the city in 16349. On 27 September of that year, six French nuns
who came from the French convent of Embrun in France, near the frontier
with Italy, were greeted with great pomp and ceremony by the new
authorities of the city10. They were accommodated by the Feuillants until
their new house was completed. We can notice that they were well protected
by whom because during the seventeenth century, their own property is
continually growing. The same case occurred with the Jesuits, who founded
a large college with the financial support of the French Kingdom. In fact, the
decision to build this college was taken in 1622 by the Duke of Savoy, but it
was built and achieved by the French government which decided to settle
some French teachers from the Company of Jesus. In 1633, several Jesuits
came also from Embrun and took the control of the new house11.
The last way of settling French monks which could be called the
“compromise attempt”, was more exceptional. Some French friars arrived at
Pignerol and tried to live in peace with their foreign counterparts. Such an
endeavour can be found with the Augustinians for instance but without
Feuillans et superieur general de nostre congregation à ce qu’il envoiast de noz religieux
françois dans l’abbaie de Pignerol au lieu des Italiens piemontois qui y residoient et que telle
estoit la volonté du roi ». The superior of the congregation sent Mathieu de Saint-Gérard, as
prior of the place. He went with Guillaume de Sainte-Marie. The settling of the French monks
was realised in 1632-1633. Army Historical Service, A1 17, n° 180 (11th August 1632) and
A1 17, n° 294 (28th September 1632). Lettres, instructions diplomatiques et papiers d’État du
Cardinal de Richelieu, op. cit., t. IV (1600-1635), Paris, 1861, p. 206-207.
8
F. MEYER, Pauvreté et assistance spirituelle. Les franciscains récollets de la province de
Lyon aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Saint-Étienne, 1997, p. 139-140. B. PAZÈ BEADA and
P. PAZÈ, Riforma e cattolicesimo in Val Pragelato : 1555-1685, Pignerol, 1975.
9
Cenni storici del Monastero della Visitazione Santa Maria di Pinerolo (1634-1970),
Pignerol, Alzani, 1971.
10
P. CAFFARO, Notizie e documenti della chiesa pinerolese, Pinerolo, 1900, t. V., p. 186-215.
11
P. DELATTRE, Les Établissements des Jésuites en France depuis quatre siècles, EnghienWetteren, 1953, t. II, c. 451.
4
knowing exactly how the cohabitation took place. The testaments kept in the
archives of Turin shows that the monastery Sainte-Brigide received the visits
of Italians and French friars12. This fact and the willingness to be associated
in the same spiritual atmosphere may reveal a cultural mixing but
unfortunately, there are not enough documents to appreciate and study this
phenomenon more precisely.
Therefore, several monasteries or cloisters of the city were involved in
this process of Frenchification. The application of Gallicanism in Pignerol
and the nomination of French to local benefices increased this ascendancy
over the city13. Until the end of the seventeenth century, most of these
religious communities were supported by the political power14. The goal was
to create a new local clergy completely devoted to the King and ready to
organise the religious life in the city and its neighbourhood under the French
control. In Early Modern Europe, religion which contributed to the
formation of States was closely linked to politics15.
2. The religious conquest
In Savoy, the French monks were responsible for converting the
enemies to the Christian orthodoxy in order to integrate them into the
Kingdom and prove that the French King was the leader of the catholic
cause16. Like in France, they received the same mission to unify the religious
12
Archivio di Stato di Torino, Corte, Materie ecclesiastiche, regolari diversi, Agostiniani,
Mazzo 2.
13
Army Historical Service, Paris (Vincennes), A1 17, n° 180 (11th August 1632). J. CROSETMOUCHET, L’Abbaye de Pignerol au bourg de Saint-Veran, Pignerol, 1845, p. 64-69.
P. CAFFARO, Notizie e documenti, op. cit., t. I, 1893.
14
Arrest du Conseil d’Estat du Roy qui ordonne que les abbayes, prieurez et autres benefices
de nomination royale, scituez tant sur les Frontieres de Champagne, dans le Luxembourg
dépendans de la generalité de Metz, que dans le gouvernement de Pignerol, payeront les
pensions de religieux lays pour la subsistance des soldats estropiez et invalides, qui sont
retirez dans l’hôtel royal construit pour cet effet, du 9 janvier 1679, Paris, Chez Frederic
Leonard, 1679, 2 p. in-fol.
15
This fundamental idea is in the heart of my thesis: B. PIERRE, Les réseaux cléricaux dans la
construction de l’État moderne. La congrégation franco-italienne des Feuillants (XVIe-XVIIIe
siècle), Thesis of the European University Institute, Department of History and Civilisation,
Florence, 2002. A version of this manuscript will be published very soon by the Publications
de la Sorbonne.
16
The Dukes of Savoy did the same in their lands. On the link between the Savoyard State
and the Counter-Reformation, see : Storia di Torino, t. III : Dalla dominazione francese alla
ricomposizione dello stato, Torino, 1998, A. ERBA, La Chiesa sabauda tra Cinque e Seicento.
Ortodossia tridentina, gallicanesimo savoiardo e assolutismo ducale (1580-1630), Roma,
1979. R. ORESKO, « The House of Savoy in Search for a Royal Crown in the Seventeenth
Century », in Royal and Republican Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe, Ed. by R. Oresko,
G. C. Gibbs and H. M. Scott, Cambridge, 1997, p. 272-350. Politica e cultura nell’età di
5
faith under the same beliefs and practices. It was the case in the surroundings
of Pignerol where the heretics were numerous.
It is worth stressing that during the seventeenth century, the whole
area of Piedmont-Savoy was known as an heretic place and became therefore
a special target for the catholic reform. Two religious minorities were
strongly settled in the surroundings of Pignerol: the Waldensians largely
converted to the Calvinist reform since the beginning of the sixteenth
century and the Protestants. In 1627, Louis XIII ordered the implementation
of the catholic faith in the Pragelat’s Valley and a few years later after
Pignerol was ruled by the French army, the fortified city became an
important place for this religious conquest17. These missions were entrusted
exclusively to the French monks principally the Récollets, the Capuchins and
the Jesuits18. But after the death of Richelieu in 1644, those from Pignerol
declined progressively. Then, the catholic missions left from other places to
convert the country, like Mentoules or Fenestrelles, two places which were
chosen because they were in a more central position than Pignerol. So, in the
second part of the seventeenth century, the cultural action of the French
monks of Pignerol was focused on the city where they were controlling and
organising the religious and educational life.
The French monks took very quickly the control of the religious life.
Let’s take the case of the main procession of the corpus domini19. This very
important ceremony brought together the abbot of Santa Maria, his vicar, the
canons of the collegiate church, the religious orders and all the social groups
of the city. Before the French invasion, the canons of Saint-Donat were in
the heart of the ceremony since they were given the responsibility of
carrying the baldaquin. Without dwelling on the details, let us note that, after
1630, the French Feuillants from the monastery Santa Maria succeeded
progressively in having the most important function in the ceremony. They
received the principal place in the procession, just before the baldaquin.
They carried the candle and the different arms of the chapter. In 1645, the
canons asked the sovereign council to be exempted from taking part in the
procession. The following year the French Feuillants arranged all the details
of the ceremony and in 1652, the canons were forced by the local justice to
accept all these changes.
Carlo Emanuele I, Convegno internazionale di studi (Torino, Parigi, Madrid), Torino, 21-24
février 1995, Torino, 1999.
17
B. PAZÈ BEADA and P. PAZÈ, Riforma e cattolicesimo in Val Pragelato: 1555-1685,
Pignerol, 1975.
18
Archivio di Stato di Torino, Corte, Versamento Gesuiti, Fenestrelle, mazzi 1 e 2. A. Monti,
La Compagnia di Gesù nel territorio della provincia torinese, I, Fondazioni antiche, Chieri
1914, p. 396.
19
P. CAFFARO, Notizie e documenti, op. cit., 1897, t. III, p. 15-46.
6
This example is significant and reflects the new evolution. We could
also have dealt with the devotion to the Madonna di Parigi (the Virginal
from Paris) which was entrusted to an Augustinian monk from Auxerre20.
We could have also taken into account the increasing place of the French
monks in predications21. All these examples show clearly that the influence
of French friars on religious practices was henceforth decisive in Pignerol
after the military occupation.
The hegemony of the French monks concerned the educational system
too. The Visitandines were put in charge of educating old maids or widows.
The Jesuits were responsible for the only college of the city22. In 1684, they
occupied a large and beautiful place which was partly financed by donations,
money and goods confiscated from the heretics in Dubbione and Tagliaretto.
In 1682, Louis the Fourteenth demanded that the city pay an annual sum of
1000 livres to maintain several teachers of rhetoric and philosophy. As for
the King, he gave them an annual pension of 2000 livres23. In the letters
patent of 1682, Louis XIV explained his choice of founding “a college in our
town of Pignerol where sciences were almost given up and the French
language was not really practised”24. Obviously, the goal of his cultural
action was above all to Frenchify the enemies by a specific cultural policy,
to be led by the French monks. Therefore, this cultural conquest was not
only intended for the French community but also for the natives. Moreover,
this action toward the inhabitants was not harmless: it aimed at reinforcing
the power of the King by moulding the patriotic feeling.
20
Ibid., t. V, p. 1-35.
Ibid., t. III, chapter 2.
22
La Compagnia di Gesù e la società piemontese. Le fondazioni del piemonte orientale, Atti
del convegno, Vercelli, 16 ottobre 1993, a cura di Bruno Signorelli e Pietro Uscello, Vercelli,
Archivio di Stato, 1995.
23
Archivio di Stato di Torino, Corte, Regolari tanta di quà che di là, Mazzo 10, Gesuiti
Pinerolo. « Conseil de cent de la ville à la requisition des sindics nommés [...], scavoir qu’il
auroit plu au Roy d’establir un college dans cette ville sous la direction des RR. PP. Jésuites
de cette residence et que Sa Majesté desire que la ville paye annuellement aux RR. PP. la
somme de 1000 livres pour l’entretien d’une partie des Régents dudit collège qui contiendra la
cinquiesme, quatriesme, troisiesme, seconde de rhétorique et philosophie ».
24
Ibid. : « Louis, par la grace de Dieu, Roy de France et de Navarre, Dauphin de Viennois,
Comte de Valentinois et Dicois, a tous presents, et avenir salut le zele que nous avons pour le
bien de nos sujets nous ayant obligé de faire plusieurs établissement de collège dans notre
royaume pour leur instruction, nous avons estimé a propos d’attendre nos mesures, soins
jusques sur les villes les plus éloignées et qui sont situées dans les extremitez de nos frontières
en fondant et establissant un college dans notre ville de Pignerol ou les sciences estoient
presque abandonnées et la langue françoise pas en usage, et d’en donner la conduite et la
direction a des Peres Jesuites comme personnes que nous avons estimés plus capables d’y
remplir que beaucoup d’autres par l’experience des bons succes qu’ont les colleges ou ils sont
establis, scavoir faisons que pour ces causes, nous de nostre grace speciale plaine puissance et
autorité royalle avons par ces presentes, signées de notre main fondé et estably, fondons et
etablissons un collège de Peres Jésuites en notre ville de Pignerol… » (August 1685).
21
7
3. The French monks and the patriotic feeling
Originally, Louis XIII and Richelieu decided to send French friars to
the monasteries and cloisters of the town with a patriotic mission. First of all,
they had to support the French community after the settlement of soldiers
and administrative staff. The religious needs of this community were all the
more important since its number had grown significantly. The functions of
the religious agents were to do the office in French and to reproduce the
same practices as in the Kingdom. They offered also the same spiritual
assistance. They prayed for their benefactors and their family. They buried
the bodies of those who signed a contract for funeral services.
The Récollets for instance, buried in their church some famous
personalities like in 1657 the secretary of the Sovereign Council, Jean Faure
who was at the time the temporal syndic of the monastery. The monks buried
also some people less known who belonged to other social groups: it was the
case of a certain Jean Deloit, surgeon master and Anne-Marie Garnier, the
wife of a merchant25. The Augustinian father Antoine Rivière, then superior
of the monastery Sainte-Brigide, did the funeral oration of the president of
Barillon in 1645. This oration was printed four years later in Paris26. We
learned that Barillon used to go to several churches in Pignerol, most of
them were kept by French religious orders: Augustinians, Jesuits,
Franciscans and so on. Some of them were Italians but they were essentially
cloisters of women. Before his death, he was confessed by a French friar,
Antoine Rivière, and two Jesuits, the father Haillan and the father La
Bouquet.
Therefore, one of the main aspects of the cultural conquest is to
reinforce the military conquest27. There is something like a synergistic
process between the two ways of domination. It is difficult to imagine indeed
an efficient military occupation without a kind of cultural logistic which
allows the occupying force to keep its own way of living. But another
mission assigned to the French friars was to control the consciousness of
natives and therefore to arouse a positive national feeling and patriotic
behaviour in the local population.
25
F. MEYER, Pauvreté et assistance spirituelle, op. cit., p. 139-140.
Les dernières actions et paroles de monsieur le president de Barillon decedé à Pignerol le
trentiesme aoust mil six cens quarante-cinq, par le R.P. Antoine Riviere, Docteur de Paris,
Prieur et Vicaire General au Couvent de S. Augustin à Pignerol, Dediées a Monsieur l’Esné,
conseiller du Roy, et auditeur en sa chambre des comptes à Paris, Paris, chez Sebastien
Martin, 1649, 31 p.
27
L. CHÂTELLIER, « Mission et conversion dans l’espace Rhénan et germanique à la fin du
XVIIe siècle », dans Les réveils missionnaires en France du Moyen Âge à nos jours (XIIe-XXe
siècle), Paris, 1984, p. 124. The author found the same case in Strasbourg. After the
“capitulations” of 1681, the French Jesuits were put in charge of converting the city and
submitting the inhabitants to the authority of Louis the Fourteenth.
26
8
After the French occupation, the influence of the monks on the
national spirit was real in the city. Some archives discovered in the
Historical Service of the Army at Vincennes, but also in the State Archive of
Turin reveal the wills of Louis XIII and Richelieu. In theses documents, the
national and “patriotic” mission was clearly defined by the French
leadership. One of theses letters has been sent to the Feuillants : “being
considered that it is important for the holiness and the rest of our State and of
our subjects not to allow the authority on consciousness of our principal
fortified towns into the hands of foreign people […] who can […] embrace
different interests opposed to ours, being bound to take care of all the
religious matters, principally in our Kingdom and in the whole area ruled by
our power, feeling particular affections for the congregation of the Feuillants
who are settled in our Kingdom with a great piety and a constant devotion to
the Kings, our predecessors […], we have decided to expel the Piedmontese
monks of the same order who lived in the abbey Santa Maria”28.
The same goals are setting out in other archives. The Récollets for
instance have to “give a good edification of their own personalities and of
the nation to the inhabitants of Pignerol”. In another document, they have to
subject the people of Pignerol to the authority of the French King. What
conclusions can be drawn from this analysis? The leadership gives a political
goal to the French monks. It becomes clear that religion was considered as
an efficient way of dominating people. We are in the heart of our subject on
cultural conquests: religion was a mean of converting people to the faith of
the King and avoiding rebellions. In this case, the cultural invasion becomes
a pacific extension of the military domination. The French monks were
involved in conquest in order to convert enemies to the obedience of the
French Kings, to further the respect of a new authority. This cultural
program aims at legitimizing the recent victory of the French army and, may
be, gradually decreasing the presence of troops. It was a religious process of
political domination.
28
Army Historical Service, Paris (Vincennes), A1 26, n° 16. « Ayant considéré, combien il
importe pour la sainteté et le repos de nostre Estat et de nos subjetz de ne pas laisser en l’une
de nos principales villes frontières l’auctorité sur les consciences entre les mains des
personnes estrangeres, lesquelles peuvent [...] embrasser des interetz differentz et contraires
aux nostres, et estant obligez de prendre soin de tout ce qui concerne la religion,
principalement en nostre royaume et en tous les pays de nostre obeissance et d’ailleurs, estans
portés d’une affection particuliere vers la congregation des Fueillantz qui a son chef en nostre
royaume, tant a cause de la pieté qui reluit parmy eux, que de ce qu’ils se sont monstrés
tousjours plein de zele et de devotion au service des Roy, nos predecesseurs [...], nous avons
faict retirer les religieux piemontois du mesme ordre qui en estoient dans l’abbaye Sainte
Marie ».
9
4.
To celebrate the authority of the French Kings
One of the main methods to celebrate the authority of the French
Kings was to pray for them in public29. These official prayers were
considered as very essential to lay down the fidelity to the monarchy. For
instance in 1631 just one year after the military conquest, all the litanies of
the saints that the monks made people sing during the plague contained a
prayer for peace and the King : Ut regi Ludovico Christinanissimo et
omnibus principus christianis pacem et incolumitatem impetrare digneris. Ut
Hoeriticorum et inimicorum nostrorum humiliationem impetrare digneris.
The French monks were also in charge of several ceremonies which
placed the King in a central position. The main example of this political
function of the French monks is probably the virginal processions of the
town and how they were transformed in favour of the Kings. In June 1630 a
few months after the French invasion, the municipal council decided to
organise a general procession with clerics and the common people. It was to
celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in honour of the town. The
religious walking would leave from the chapel of the Vergine Liberatrice
(Liberating Virgin) in the Augustinians monastery and arrive at the same
place. Then, the plague reached the city. The virginal devotion increased and
a general procession was also set out in December 1631 during the feast of
the Immaculate Conception to protect the city and implore for the divine
clemency.
But a few years later, these two marches were used by the French
government in order to celebrate its own authority and glory. In 1638 indeed,
Louis XIII made a special vow to the Virgin and consecrated his Kingdom to
her30. Since this special consecration, the nature of the virginal ceremonials
at Pignerol had changed. The processions were no longer an opportunity to
reinforce the municipal and local feeling around a common piety, but a way
of celebrating the monarchic religion. By walking in procession, the
common people, framed by the religious, prayed in favour of the Virgin but
also in favour of the French King, whose power was dedicated to the
Immaculate. In 1682, Louis XIV send a letter to the city in which he
29
Army Historical Service, Paris (Vincennes), A1 26, n° 16.
Lettre du Roy, escrite à Monseigneur l’archevesque de Paris, par laquelle Sa Majesté
déclare qu’elle a pris la très-saincte et très-glorieuse Vierge pour protectrice spéciale de son
royaume (26 mars 1638), Paris, P. Targa, 1638, 7 p. in-8°. PIERRE DE SAINT-ROMUALD, Trésor
chronologique et historique contenant ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquable et curieux dans
l’Estat, tant civil qu’ecclesiastique, depuis l’an de Iesus Christ 1200 jusqu’à l’an 1647, 3e
partie, Paris, Antoine de Sommaville, 1647, p. 937. The Dukes of Savoy did the same vow to
the Virgin: F. TESTA, « La promozione ducale dell’architettura religiosa : eremi, santuari
percorsi devozionali », in Politica e cultura nell’età di Carlo Emanuele I, op. cit., p. 439-459.
P. BUSCALIONI, La Consolata nella storia di Torino, del Piemonte e della Augusta Dinastia
Sabauda, Torino, 1938.
30
10
reminded them to go in procession the 15 of August, in execution of his
predecessor’s vow. On 20 August, the officials of the town certified that the
celebration took place as usual with a general procession, the benediction of
the Sacrament and a Te Deum in favour of the King. So under the French
domination, the religious ceremony organised by monks was transformed to
honour the Kings of France.
In conclusion, we would like to consider the actual impact of this
cultural attempt to dominate a particular land and therefore the success and
limits of such an endeavour. Many signs of resistance during the period
prove that the cultural conquest in Pignerol was at best the product of a
stimulating behaviour from the local people. There are several examples in
support of this idea: In 1632, for instance the Piedmontese clergy refused to
take the oath to the King31. And during the seventeenth century, some of
them tried to rebel against the prerogatives and domination of the French
monks. Even more significant were the measures taken by the inhabitants
after the defeat of French soldiers in 169632. The Italians decided to do like
the French at their arrival, to exclude the monks who were settled by the
French King: the same weapon was turned against the occupier. So, in this
particular case, it could be said that the cultural conquest’s attempt has ended
in failure.
Benoist PIERRE, University François Rabelais (Tours).
31
Army Historical Service, Paris, A1 20, n° 181. “Lettre du frère Charles de Sainte-Marie,
religieux de Pignerol, sur le refus de serment de fidélité au roi de France par le clergé de cette
ville ».
32
Archivio di Stato di Torino, Corte, Regolari tanta di quà che di là, Mazzo 7, Cisterciensi
Riformati, Pinerolo : « Supplica del provinciale della congregatione di San Bernardo
dell’Ordine cisterciense per far reintegrare il monastero di Pinerolo sotto il governo e
giuriditione della congragatione d’Italia e Provincia di Piemonte » and « Memoria formata dal
Gran Cancelliere per servir d’istruzione al Ministro di S.A.R. in Francia sul ponto della
reintegrazione seguita consentenza senatoria de Padri della Consolata di Torino nel possesso
del Monastero di Pinerolo ».