Les Particularitez des Ceremonies Observees en la Majorite du Roy… Paris, 1651.
Call Number: SpC. 944.033 P273x1651
A full-text version of this text may be found here.
The height of Vincent de Paul’s political influence occurred during the regency of Anne of Austria when he served on the famous “Council of Conscience” which advised the Queen Mother on the ecclesiastical appointments which were a matter of royal prerogative. This national role and influence at court began with Vincent’s presence at the deathbed of Louis XIII in May 1643. The new king, Louis XIV was not yet five years old.
The following December in a conference to the Daughters of Charity, Vincent told them, “Recently I was in a place where the King was taking a walk, ‘Sire,’ said his governess to him, when she saw the Chancellor arriving, ‘Sire, give your hand to the Chancellor,’ ‘O mon Dieu!’ cried the Chancellor, making a profound bow, ‘I’m very careful not to touch the King’s hand; I’m not God.'”1 Vincent’s point to the sisters was that they should treat the foundlings with the same sense of respect that the Chancellor, Pierre Segiuer, had shown to the king. Vincent shared this profound respect for the person and authority of the king, and his loyalty to the monarchy was unquestioned and richly rewarded.
Supported by the ministry of Cardinal Mazarin, the regency of Anne of Austria introduced a period of great political instability as the nobility and the Parlement of Paris maneuvered to increase their power and influence in the kingdom. These struggles led to the famous civil wars of the so-called Fronde. As long as the king was a minor, the Frondeurs could and did frame their opposition as loyalty to the true interests of the king and the kingdom. They were careful to focus their attacks on Mazarin and the queen. These were expressed in the famous pamphlets called Mazarinades.
In 1651, the young king marked his thirteenth birthday, which was the age at which his majority could be declared. This ceremony was a legal one, and so for the first time the king presided over the Parlement seated on his lit de justice.2 With this ceremony the regency officially ended, and the Frondeurs lost one of their major weapons. The tide turned in favor of the monarchy. It was not until the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661 that the king was able to step up to the era of his personal rule, but by this time Bourbon absolutism was firmly established.
The present volume is a contemporary account of the ceremony of the declaration of the young king’s majority at the Parlement of Paris.
1Vincent de Paul, Correspondence, Conferences, Documents, Vol. 9. (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 2004), 107.
2Instead of being seated on a throne, the king followed medieval custom of being seated on a number of cushions as he presided over Parlement. Any time the king came to Parlement to preside, and order the registration of law that was his will, the session was called a lit de justice.
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St. Vincent’s Reading List is a recurring blog series exploring texts known to have been read and recommended by Saint Vincent de Paul, those which can be presumed to have been read by him, and works published during his lifetime (1581-1660) illustrating his world. All materials discussed are held by DePaul’s Special Collections and Archives. The entire series may be viewed here.