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Policy‐making in the Religious Orders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Léo Moulin
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Extract

The religious Orders are, together with the Catholic Church, the oldest political institutions in the West and the only ones to have developed without any break in continuity. St Benedict, the ‘Father of Europe’, founded his first monastery when the Angles, Jutes and Saxons were invading Britain. The Benedictine rule still exacts obedience from thousands today. The Camaldolese and the Vallombrosians existed before the battle of Hastings, the Carthusians date from the same time (1084): both live today by the same rule, according to the same constitutions, clothed in the same habit as their distant predecessors. Exactly one hundred years before Magna Carta, the system of supranational parliamentary assembly was in operation – a system which still governs the monks of citeaux and which, in one form or another, has served as a model for all the religious institutes which have followed.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , 01 October 1965 , pp. 25 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1965

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References

1 On the history and constitutional structure of the religious Orders as seen by a political scientist, agnostic moreover, cf. Moulin, Léo, Le monde vivant des religieux, Paris, 1964 Google Scholar.

2 Knowles, Dom David, The Monastic Order in England, a History of its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 943–1216, Cambridge, 1950 Google Scholar; Helyot, P.H., Histoire des Ordres tnonastiques, religieux et militaires et des Congregations siculiires, Paris, 8 vols, 2e edit., 1792 Google Scholar; Heim-buchers, M., Die Order und Kongregationen der Katholischen Kirche, Paderborn, 3 vols, 1932 Google Scholar; Escobar, M., Ordini e Congregazioni religiose, Turin, 2 vols, 1951 Google Scholar.

3 ‘Chrestomathie des Droits de l’Homme’, in Politique, Revue Internationale des doctrines et des institutions, 1960, Nos. 9 and 10.

4 These words describe the Acta capitularia or decisions of the Assembly general - called Capitulum, ‘Chapter’, to which we shall come later.

5 Jombart, E., Manuel de droit canon, Paris, 1958 Google Scholar; Creusen, J.: Religieux et Religieuses d’apris le droit eccUsiastique, Paris, 1950.Google Scholar

6 Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, see Government.

7 In Revue Historique de Droit Français et Etranger, 1958, No. 2, pp. 210–59.

8 Moulin, Léo, ‘Les origines religieuses des techniques electorates ét délibératives modernes’, Revue Internationale d’Histoire politique et constitutionnelle, avril-juin, 1953, pp. 106–48.Google Scholar

9 It seems that the word was first used by the Dutch revolutionaries of 1784–7 and by the Belgian revolutionaries of 1789–91, before the French. See Palmer, R.R., ‘Notes on the use of the word “Democracy”’, Political Science Quarterly, 06 1953, No. 2, pp. 205–6Google Scholar.

10 From the article by W. J. Shepard in Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, see Government. It is significant that this encyclopaedia contains no article specifically consecrated to the idea of opposition.

11 Ad. de Vogué, La Communauté” et Abbé dans la Règie de Saint Benoît, Paris, 1961.

12 Expositio Historica Iuris Partictdaris Congregationis SS. Crucis et Passionis D.N.I.C., 1946, p. 88, art. 137.

13 Règie de S. Benoît, Chap. LXIII.

14 Jassmeyer, P. Joachim, Das Mitbestimmungsrecht der Untergebenen in den Alteren Mannerordensverbänden, Munich, 1954 Google Scholar. Léo Moulin, ‘El concepto de los “Derechos del Hombre”, en la doctrina y en la práctica de las Ordenes religiosas’, Revista del Instituto de Ciencias Sociales, 1964, Vol. 4, pp. 103–11. ‘L’habitude de rédiger de solonnelles (et trés souvent emphatiques) Déclarations des Droits de l’Homme date de la fin du XVIIIe siècle’, says Professor Pelloux (Essai sur les Droits de l’Homme en Europe, Bibliothèque Européenne de l’lnstitut Universitaire d’Études Européennes de Turin, 1959 and 1961) who quotes among ‘Les ancêtres vénérables’: the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Bill of Rights of 1689. Can it be that the world of the Middle Ages modelled as it was upon religious, that the Constituants of 1789, all pupils of the Oratorians or nearly all, could have been unaware of these monuments of wisdom and political equilibrium which the constitutions of the religious Orders were and continue to be ?

15 F. Congar, op. cit

16 Ibid.

17 L’obeissance et la religieuse d’aujourd’hui, Paris, 1951, p. 55.

18 According to Chastonay, Father de, Les Constitutions de VOrdre dejesuites, Paris, 1941, p. 210 Google Scholar, this expression ‘is to be found already in the gentle St Francis of Assisi. As for the picture of the stick in the hands of the old man, it has been borrowed from the oldest monastic writers.’

19 On the percentage of schizophrenics attracted by the contemplative life, see a curious article which appeared in La Vie Spirituelle of 15 May 1954. L. Moulin, op. cit., pp. 53–4.

20 On the respective powers of the Chapter and of the Superior see: Fr Marinus of Neukirchen, De Capitulo Generali in Primo Ordine Seraphico, Rome, Inst. of the Order of Friars Minor Cap, 1953, pp. 406–16.

21 See art. 82 of the Constitutions of the Priests of Picpus: ‘The Chapter General represents the whole Congregation (of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary) and in the last resort decides upon all that concerns it.’

22 In the case of the Friars Minor (art. 405) ‘all the general offices … are vacant during the Chapter’, ‘vacant’ meaning naturally that their holders may be replaced but meanwhile have complete authority. The Superior in reality merely holds ordinary vicarial power throughout the period which separates the meetings of the Assembly.

23 But the infrequency of the General Congregations is compensated for by the assembly, every three years, of the Congregation of Proctors (Epitome, art. 723) who are the delegates elected by the Provinces (art. 724). They do not have a comprehensive mandate but are empowered to call an assembly of a General Congregation (art. 725, §1). This is clearly a safety-valve for a constitutional system which, from all the evidence, wishes to avoid, so far as possible, the opportunities for intrigue and self-advancement which are the plague of too frequent assemblies at set intervals (Const, art. 720).

24 The religious Orders have always been governed by a single Chamber system. The only, but important, exception being the remarkable arrangement of successive assemblies (3 and even 5) set up by the Dominicans, by which Assemblies of different kinds followed one another every three years: ‘a cathedral of constitutional law’. See: Moulin, Léo, Le pluricaméralisme dans I’Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs, Res Publica, 1960, Vol. I, pp. 50–66Google Scholar.

25 Bentham considered this form of opposition to be contrary to the most elementary idea of morality.

26 Bilan de la deuxième Session, Paris, Edition du Seuil, 1961, pp. 306ff.

27 The opposition remains a minority respectful of the rules of the game: ‘agree how to disagree’, and tries to ‘convert the majority to its principles’, ‘to become the majority by virtue of its principles and not by its supporters’ and not ‘to allow itself to be overcome by the majority’. Dictionnaire Politique, Paris, 1842, cf. ‘Opposition’.

28 On the history, the organization, the transformation and the deficiencies of the Chapter General, cf. Hourlier, J., Le Chapitre Général jusqu’au moment du grand schisme, Paris, 1936 Google Scholar. Cf. J. Berthold Mahm, L’Ordre cistercien et son gouvernement des origines jusqu’au milieu du XIIIe siècle, 1110–126;, 1950. Louis J. Lekai, Les Moines Blancs, Paris, 1953. Bibliography in B. Cousin, op. cit.

29 Léo Moulin, Die Gezetzgebende und die Vollziehende Gewalt in den Religiösen Orden, 1959, 4ème partie, pp. 341–58.

30 Epitome of the Society of Jesus, art. 22, §3, 4°, ‘Formam gubernandi in Societate esse monarchicam, in definitionibus unius Superioris contentam’.

31 Paul de Chastonay, Les Constitutions des Fésuites, Paris, n.d.; Léo Moulin, ‘Une forme originale du gouvernement des hommes: le gouvernement des communautés religieuses’, Revue Internationale de droit comparé, 1955, No. 4.

32 de Valous, G., Le temporel et la situation financière des itablissements de I’Ordre de Cluny du XII au XlV e siècle, Paris, 1935, pp. 169–70.Google Scholar

33 Epit. of the Society of Jesus, arts. 785 and 786.

34 Léo Moulin, ‘Les origines religieuses des techniques électorates et délibératives modernes,’ Revue Internationale d’histoire politique et constitutionnelle, avril-juin, 1953, pp. 106–48. By the same, ‘Sanior et Major Pars, Étude sur l’ évolution des techniques électorates et déliberatives dans les Ordres religieux du VIe au XIIIe siécle’, Revue historique de droit français et etranger, 1958, Nos 3 and 4, pp. 369–97, 491–529. Cf. at the same time the excellent, although unfinished articles of L. Konopczynski in the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences: ‘Majority Rule’ and ‘Minority Rights’.

35 Still recognized as a legitimate method of election in 1179 - per quasi inspirationem divinam - this procedure open to criticism, was forbidden by the Council of Trent (1545–63). It is only allowed in the papal elections (although it has not been used for a long time) and in certain individual Orders (Jesuits, Premonstratensians, Cistercians).

36 The word ‘majority’ is never used at this time in the exact sense. In the 12th century, the expression ‘major pars’ appears. In French the word ‘majority’ in the sense of ‘plurality’ is a neologism taken from the English until the second half of the 19th century (Littré).

37 Council of Nicea (325), of Antioch (341), of Africa (418), of Chalcedon (451), of Rome (499), etc.

38 Election of St Cornelius (251), St Symmachus (498), St Silverius (536), St Vigilius (537), etc.

39 The Apostolic Constitution Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis of 8 December 1945 demands two-thirds voices plus one. Cf. Léo Moulin, ‘Sanior et Major’, op cit., No. 94, p. 388.

40 Bull of Innocent III in 1200. ‘Absentes non debent computari in numero illorum qui debent interesse in Capitulo’, Panormitanus, 1450.

41 There is an example of the vote by letter in the case of the Canons of St Saviour of the Lateran in 1453: ‘Absens potest per procuratorem eligere’, Panormitanus, 1450.

42 Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, see ‘Majority Rule’.

43 Cistercians, and not Dominicans, as E. Barker wrongly believed. The Dominican Order and Convocation, Oxford, 1913.

44 Léo Moulin, ‘Le monde vivant’, op. cit., pp. 186–94.

45 Among the most recent works, see Daniélou, J. et Marrou, H., Nouvelle histoire de I’Eglise, Paris, t. 1, 1963 Google Scholar; A. Fliche et V. Martin, Histoire de I’Eglise depuis les origines jusqué nos jours, Paris, 17 vols. P. Cousin, Précis d’histoire monastique, Paris, 1956, with extensive bibliography.

46 La Grande Chartreuse, par un Chartreux, 1964.

47 A. Dimier, Les moines bâtisseurs. Architecture et vie monastique, Paris, 1964.

48 On the opposition to the central administration of the Church, see Father I. Lepp, S J. he Monde chritien et ses malfaeons, Paris, 1956: ‘The worst obstacle to the reconciliation and to the reunion of Christendom is in Rome’ (p. 166); ‘Political intrigues proliferate there’ (p. 168), etc. On another plane, let us remember that the Encyclical Pacem in Terris, elaborated in the greatest secrecy, was not submitted to the Holy Office whose hostility to the political ‘neutralism’ of the Pope is well known (cf. the article by Father Rouquette in the Jesuit review, Études, June, 1963, p. 407).

49 A. Wenger, Vatican II. Chronique de la Deuxième Session, Paris, 1904, p. 116. Intervention of Mgr Charue.

50 See the article of Fr Delooz. ‘Pour une étude sociologique de la sainteté canonisee dans l’Eglise catholique’, Archives de Sociologie des religions, 1962, No. 13.

51 Vernet, F., Les ordres mendiants, Paris, 1933, pp. 15–34.Google Scholar

52 Cf. Wenger, Vatican II, Paris, Première Session (1963). Deuxième Session (1964). Laurentin, R., Bilan de la deuxième session, Paris, 1964.Google Scholar

53 B. Cousin, op. cit., pp. 366–7.

54 With a member of a religious Order being forbidden to listen to sermons delivered by a member of another Order, not forgetting street battles.

55 E.g. one opposition between the Hermits of St Augustine and the Canons Regular of St Augustine, cf. Vernet, op. cit., p. 113.

56 The most famous of the Regular Clergy are the Jesuits: one knows the pathological forms of opposition, closely allied to anti-semitism, which this Order has aroused. Cf. L. Moulin, ‘Le monde vivant’, op. cit., pp. 77–9.

57 Whence came the almost insurmountable difficulties encountered by attempts at fusion: examples of unhappy and rapidly dissolved unions between members of an Order of the same religious statute (that of the Regular Clergy): Somasques and Theatines (from 1546 to 1548); Doctrinaires and Somasques (1610–47). A project of union between Jesuits and Theatines (1539). Cf. R. Lemoine, op. cit., pp. 63–4, 69 and 81.

58 B. Cousin, op. cit., pp. 393–407 on the Italian reform of St Justin of Padua, the German reforms of Kastel, Melk and Bursfeld, the French reforms of Chezal-Benôitj etc. For the great reforms of the 17th century (St Vanne, St Maur, Monte Cassini, etc.), cf. Cousin, op. cit., pp. 424–49.

59 The Camaldolese who are also Benedictines have their Discalced too.

60 That ‘quarrels of monks’ of this kind have been bitter is proved by the fact that the point of departure for the Lutherans arose from the quarrel in Saxony between the Conventuals and the Observants. Cf. Vernet, op. cit., pp. 121–2.

61 L. Moulin, ‘Le monde vivant’, op. cit., pp. 256–50. Ph. Schrnitz, op. cit., pp. 97–9; cf. also Cousin, ‘Precis d’histoire monastique’, op. cit., pp. 189, 197 and passim.

62 Ph. Schmitz, op. cit., p. 117.

63 Ph. Schmitz, op. cit., p. 131.

64 Ph. Schmitz, op. cit., p. 117.

65 Schmitz, Histoire de L’Ordre de Saint Benôit, 1948, t.III, p-199.

66 Ibid.

67 Cf. Schmitz, op. cit., pp. 55–9.

68 Fernandez, P.I., A.S.C.J. De Figura Iuridica Ordinis Recollectorum S. Augustini Rome, 1938, p. 25 Google Scholar.

69 Ph. Schmitz, op. cit., t. III, pp. 66–74.

70 La Grande Chartreuse, op. cit., pp. 52–4.

71 Cousin, op. cit., p. 463.

72 Today although reunited by Pope Pius XI (1935) the Camaldolese still fall into two distinct groups: the Hermetic Monks, Camaldolese of Etruria (160 in 1957) and the Hermits of Monte-Corona (133 in 1957) whose foundation goes back to 1523.

73 Lemoine, Le Droit des religieux, du Concile de Trente aux Instituts Séculiers, Museum Lessianum, Paris, 1956, p. 78.

74 For a clear picture of the development of Jansenism in a well-defined diocese see Bochelier, A., Le Fansénisme à Nantes, Angers, 1934 Google Scholar.