florida state university college of visual arts, theatre and dance ...

One of the key contributions of this study is the recognition that Louis XIII supported
churches as a means of achieving his political goals. The king first became a patron to secure
loyalty to his person and to the state. In 1623 he named the church of the French Oratory as his
new royal chapel, decreeing that state funds be provided to help with construction costs.
Although the fathers of the congregation had previously enjoyed the patronage of Maria de’
Medici, Louis’s decision to support the church was not a gesture of goodwill towards his mother.
Instead I have argued that it was a challenge to the conservative French Catholics known as the
dévots, a group with close ties to Maria de’ Medici and the Oratorian congregation. Fearing that
the supporters of the Oratory sought to undermine his authority by looking to Rome for
leadership and favoring alliances with other Catholic powers, Louis XIII appropriated the
church, transforming it into a sign of royal authority. By tying the church of the French Oratory
to royal power, the king sent a message to the dévots reminding them of his sovereign rights.
Saint-Louis-des-Jésuites, begun in 1627 by the Society of Jesus, posed many of the same
problems. The goal of my research has been to show that Louis XIII, responding to a Jesuit
publication challenging monarchical authority and to popular beliefs alleging the society’s
subversive activities, diverted royal funds to the construction of the church and commissioned
medals for the foundation stone showing images of model rulers with absolute power. To affirm
their loyalty to the monarchy, the Jesuits incorporated within their church an artistic program
venerating French Kingship, of which a similar tactic was adopted by Cardinal Richelieu for the
building’s façade.
By 1629 when the Augustins Déchaussés began plans to build Notre-Dame-des-
Victoires, Louis XIII was well known in the capital for his support of reformed religious orders,
prompting the reformed Augustinians to seek royal assistance. After agreeing to become the
founder of the monastery and placing the first stone of the church, the king neglected to direct
any further support to the religious group. Instead he chose from the early 1630s onwards to
focus his spending on churches with established connections to the state, specifically the Sainte-
Chapelle, Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, and the chapel of the Sorbonne. As my research suggests,
by supporting ecclesiastical architecture with long histories associated with the French kingdom,
Louis XIII moved away from using churches as tools to promote his authority over potentially
subversive religious groups. No longer was he as concerned with using churches as tools to
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