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As the dévots and Maria de’ Medici, bolstered by Spain’s recent expansion into
Protestant territory, continued to threaten Louis XIII’s authority, a specific event in August 1623
made the king realize that becoming the primary benefactor of the church of the French Oratory
was one way to suppress the congregation’s supporters. On 29 August, when the church was “a
building already so advanced,” the Marquis de la Vieuville, the superintendent of finances,
commanded the treasury of France to issue an ordinance stating that construction must stop. 115
Past scholarship has argued that the superintendent’s reasons stemmed from concerns that the
church would engage the royal coffers in excessive expenses when it came time to complete the
Grand Design of the Louvre. 116 The project, along with the planned extension of the gardens to
the north of the palace, would require the space then occupied by the church (fig. 26). La
Vieuville, one of whose primary concerns was reducing state expenditures, feared that the crown
would have to reimburse the congregation for the cost of its church when the royal treasury
acquired the French Oratory’s land. 117
Although the minister certainly viewed the church of the French Oratory as an obstacle to
continued fiscal responsibility, I propose that it was primarily his political views that made him
stop construction. 118 La Vieuville was a bon français, meaning he feared Habsburg and papal
expansion. 119 He thought that the Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor were aiming at
universal monarchy and that France should work to contain these forces rather than aiding them.
Like others who shared his beliefs, he felt that France should maintain its traditional Protestant
and Catholic allies to stave off encroaching states. His convictions were so strong that in 1624
he advised the king to send a special envoy to the Southern Alps to plan a clandestine military
campaign aimed at clearing Val Tellina and Grisors of the Catholic invaders. At the same time
he courted established French connections by making alliances with Savoy and Venice,
arranging a treaty with the Dutch, and negotiating a marriage contract with England for Louis’s
sister, Henrietta. 120 La Vieuville knew that the protectors of the Oratory, specifically the dévots
and Maria de Medici, were sympathetic towards Habsburg and papal forces. His strong dislike
for the supporters’ politics combined with his ambitious approach to cutting state expenditures
led him to view the congregation’s church as a project of ardent Catholics willing to allow
foreign incursion in France to combat heresy.
Louis XIII was certainly aware of the superintendent’s actions. Shortly after the treasury
banned construction, Michel de Marillac met with the king on behalf of the congregation to
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