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emind him that at present there was only an incommodious chapel. 121 Despite the king’s
acknowledgement that he was not indisposed to the French Oratory having a church, he refused
to overturn La Vieuville’s command. Several weeks later, the superintendent convinced the king
that halting construction was not enough and that the building must be razed to avoid future costs
when it came time to complete the Grand Design. 122 While the meetings suggest that the king
was complicit with La Vieuville’s decisions, they also prove that Louis was well acquainted with
the church of the French Oratory in 1623.
La Vieuville’s actions, which brought the congregation’s church to the forefront of Louis
XIII’s attention, provided the impetus that drove the king to start supporting the French Oratory.
As Marc Fumaroli has demonstrated, the king was well aware of the power of art to convey
political messages. 123 In 1622 Louis rejected the last scene of a tapestry series representing the
Life of Constantine, which was designed by Peter Paul Rubens and intended for Maria de’
Medici’s Luxembourg Palace (fig. 27). The offending image, inspired by recent publications
chronicling papal interpretation of Constantine’s reign, illustrated an allegory of the Triumph of
Rome with the papacy and the cross as the leading forces in the iconographical program. 124 The
king and his advisors viewed the image as a celebration of the Constantine foundation myth that
promoted the temporal and spiritual supremacy of the pope. The direct reference to the primacy
of Rome in a work of art for the queen mother was further interpreted as a reflection of her
compliance to the will of the pope instead of to the king.
Just as Louis had recognized the meaning within the tapestry, he knew that a newly built
church next to his palace could likewise convey political significance. Less than a month after
the Treasury banned construction of the church, the ordinances were reversed allowing work to
resume. 125 I propose that the king, aware of the urgent need to limit the influence of both the
queen mother and the dévots, came to view the church of the French Oratory as a symbol of
those wishing to challenge his authority. To counter these forces, Louis XIII ordered La
Vieuville to rescind the prohibitions against the church, and he became the primary patron of the
French Oratory. By imposing his support on the congregation, he transformed the church into a
sign of his political will and used the building as a means to convey the sovereignty of the
nation.
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