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which uses the seventeenth-century records to testify to Louis XIII’s support of the church and,
as part of the author’s larger goal, to show that the king had an active interest in the arts. While
Le Pas de Sécheval’s documentation of the king’s patronage details an important aspect of the
church, the brevity of the section on the French Oratory leaves a number of unanswered
questions, most important of which is why Louis XIII became a patron of this particular building
and how did his support impact the design? Several other studies related to the church of the
Oratory focus on elements of the interior decorative program, notably the high altar and the side
chapels. 3 Although these works help to elucidate the manner in which the arts reflected the
religious practices followed by the congregation, the function and dates of creation for these
components fall outside the scope of this study, which focuses on Louis XIII’s support during the
1620s. Further components missing from the scholarship are iconographical readings and
contextual studies of the church’s architectural vocabulary and urban placement. By merging
the previous archival studies with current analyses of early seventeenth-century religious and
political forces, my study uncovers the impact of royal support on the building and the meaning
of the resulting architectural form.
In demonstrating my thesis, I will first discuss the origins and purpose of the
congregation and analyze the architecture of the church. This will reveal the factors influencing
the design and establish the origins of the structure before Louis XIII’s involvement. I will then
examine the manner in which the king, through appropriating the building and enhancing it with
monarchical symbols, transformed the church into a royal chapel. Understanding the royal
contributions to the design will bring to light the meaning that Louis XIII wanted the church to
convey. Finally, I will investigate the political and religious context surrounding the Oratorians
and their supporters to elucidate the motives that prompted Louis’s support of the church.
The Congrégation des Pères de l’Oratoire de France and Its Church
The church of the French Oratory was built for the Congrégation des Pères de l’Oratoire
de France, a religious congregation of secular priests founded in Paris on 10 November 1611 by
the Parisian Pierre de Bérulle (fig. 5). 4 Forming part of the movement that responded to the
Council of Trent’s calls for reform, the French group was loosely modeled after Italian lay
confraternities and secular congregations such as Philip Neri’s Roman Oratory. An examination
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