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a more appropriate location. 11 In January 1616 the congregation moved to a new site, situated
on the right bank, off the rue Saint-Honoré and adjacent to the grounds of the Louvre palace,
where it soon began building a chapel. 12
In the summer of 1621, having outgrown the original chapel, the French Oratory began
building a new church, which would serve the congregation until it was disbanded in 1792. The
plan, begun on the design of Clément Métezeau and continued in 1622 with modifications by
Jacques Lemercier, consists of a single nave of three bays followed by a crossing with nonprojecting
transepts and a choir of three bays ending in a semicircular apse (fig. 6). 13 Bordering
each side of the choir and nave are chapels. The major features of this plan, including a single
nave, side chapels, and non-projecting transepts, were by the early seventeenth century common
elements in churches of reformed religious orders that followed the tenets of the Catholic
Reformation. 14 Examples of plans with these same features were present in Paris by the time
Bérulle’s congregation began construction, the Discalced Carmelite church of Saint-Joseph-des-
Carmes (begun 1613) being one such example (fig. 60). In addition to the numerous chapels
accommodating the priests’ need to say mass, the other principal feature found at the French
Oratory demonstrating the call for reform was the spacious nave that facilitated preaching to
large crowds. This was the result of not including the traditional rood screen, providing clear,
unobstructed views of the high altar.
Several features, however, distinguish the layout from other early seventeenth-century
designs. Among these are the three bays of equal size placed on both sides of the transepts,
creating symmetrical spaces on either side of the crossing and making the church the first
seventeenth-century example in Paris of the combination plan. 15 A second unique element is a
narrow corridor encircling all but the main façade of the ground floor. An anonymous plan from
the mid-eighteenth century shows openings in the rear walls of the chapels that allowed access to
the corridor, permitting communication between the chapels and the other parts of the church
(fig. 6). 16 Similar passageways at the church at the Escorial (1563-1584) and at the church of
San Fedele in Milan (begun 1569) could have influenced the Paris design. 17
Another distinctive feature found on the plan of the Oratory suggests a specific French
influence, the oval chapel grafted onto the apse. Clearly visible from the exterior in a lateseventeenth-century
engraving, the two-story elliptical structure rises above the low, rectangular
sacristies framing either side of the chapel (fig. 7). 18 While similar ideas could be found in
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