At the Cradle: Gender and Power in Seventeenth-century Parisian Society

Author(s):  
Rose-Marie Peake

The chapter offers an overview of the historical context that gave birth to the Company of the Daughters of Charity. It argues that the urban development of Paris is a crucial backdrop: the contents and direction of the Company and its moral management were always handled from the motherhouse in Paris. Vital support for the Company came likewise from the devout networks of powerful elite Parisian women (the dévotes). Understanding the institutional changes in poor relief and nursing likewise sets the stage further for the analysis of the organization, execution, and contents of the moral management of the Daughters of Charity.

Author(s):  
Rose-Marie Peake

The chapter introduces the subject, approach, and focus of the book. The book offers a new insight into the history of the unenclosed Catholic Company the Daughters of Charity (les Filles de la Charité) by focusing on the contents and implementation of its value system in the first half of the seventeenth century. The chapter discusses the backbone of the book, the methodological concept of moral management which is a ‘travelling concept’ (Mieke Bal) utilized here for the first time in research on seventeenth-century Catholicism. Moral management is defined as the implementation, within the organization and its charitable activities, of a specific value system that is expressed in actions, behaviour, and mentalities, and that aims at securing the survival of the Company threatened by its perplexing religious identity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 131-201
Author(s):  
Inga Mai Groote ◽  
Dietrich Hakelberg

Recent research on the library of Johann Caspar Trost the Elder, organist in Halberstadt, has led to the identification of a manuscript with two unknown treatises on musica poetica, one a lost treatise by Johann Hermann Schein and the other an unknown treatise by Michael Altenburg. Together they offer fresh insights into the learning and teaching of music in the early modern period. The books once owned by Trost also have close connections to his personal and professional life. This article situates the newly discovered manuscript in the framework of book history and Trost’s biography, and discusses the two treatises against the background of contemporary books of musical instruction (Calvisius, Lippius, or Finolt). The historical context of the manuscript, its theoretical sources and its origins all serve to contribute to and further the current understanding of musical education in early modern central Germany. An edition of the treatises is provided.


Author(s):  
Rose-Marie Peake

The fourth chapter tackles the means and contents of moral management aimed at the poor the Company of the Daughters of Charity helped. Focusing on the ideas and attitudes of the Company toward their benefactors, the chapter examines prejudice and love as motives in charity work and argues for the prevalence of the latter. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the contents of this moral management and finds that only a certain group of people were helped, the so called deserving poor, who were educated to become chaste and working members of society. This was not only in line with contemporary thinking of social order, but also part of the survival strategy that separated the order from erudite cloistered orders.


2021 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
Stefania Tutino

This chapter introduces the main protagonist of the book: Carlo Calà Duke of Diano, a jurist and high-ranking official in the viceregal administration. This chapter also sets the historical context of the story of the forgery by describing the main political, economic, social, and religious characteristics of the Kingdom of Naples in the seventeenth century. More specifically, this chapter explains the social, cultural, and intellectual advantages that a noble pedigree conferred to the Neapolitan non-aristocratic elites; explores the main sources of tension between the papacy and the Neapolitan viceroy; sheds light on the power dynamics between the Roman Inquisition and the local ecclesiastical leaders; and introduces the complexities of the liturgical and devotional life of early modern Catholics.


Author(s):  
Rose-Marie Peake

The aim of the chapter is to put Louise de Marillac fully in the spotlight. It reassess her role in the success of the Company of the Daughters of Charity and examines her significance in the organization of the Company’s moral management activities. The first subchapter examines the role of Louise de Marillac’s family and dévote networks in the founding and funding of the Company of the Daughters of Charity. The following subchapters turn to the image of Louise de Marillac and study the ways her image as a living saint and a passive penitent of Vincent de Paul were critical in creating spiritual authority and an orthodox image of the Company as a whole.


Author(s):  
Rose-Marie Peake

The conclusion brings together the main findings of the book. It argues that as a whole the book has shown that the value system the Daughters of Charity promoted through their moral management was rather conservative and attached to medieval mentalities. The chapter points out that although most religious companies operate on the principles of moral management, the Daughters of Charity were unique in their systematic and holistic implementation. This is one very important reason for the survival of the Company well into the 21st century. Louise de Marillac was canonized in 1934, and the Company employs today more than 14 000 sisters in 94 countries. It is one of the most important Catholic organizations in France.


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