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Bérulle, Vincent de Paul, Olier, and Bossuet." (Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University,
1971); Stéphane-Marie Morgain, La théologie politique de Pierre de Bérulle (1598-1629) (Paris:
Publisud, 2001); Williams, French Oratorians.
5 Klevgard, "Society and Politics," 120-21; Williams, French Oratorians, 81-87.
6 In addition to Pierre de Bérulle, the founding members included Jean Bence and Jacques
Gastaud, two doctors of theology from the Sorbonne, Paul Métezeau and François Bourgoing,
two bachelors of theology from the Sorbonne, and Nicolas Caron, the curate of Beaumont. For
this list, see Archives Nationales MM 624 f. 1.
For a characterization of the Congregation’s perceived state of the secular clergy, see Houssaye,
Père de Bérulle, 3-6.
7 Examples of the lay confraternities include Bernardino da Feltre’s Oratory of Saint Jerome in
Vicenza and Gian Antonio Bellotti’s Oratory of Eternal Wisdom in Milan; examples of clerks
regular include the Theatines in Rome (1524) and the Barnabites in Milan (1530). For further
information on the influential historical models, see Dagens, Bérulle, 90-91.
8 Williams, French Oratorians, 84.
9 Bérulle learned about Philip Neri’s Oratory from Brûlart de Silléry, the French ambassador to
Rome, and from François de Sales. For further information, see Houssaye, Bérulle et les
Carmélites, 249; Williams, French Oratorians, 71.
10 The Hôtel de Petit-Bourbon was torn down during the building of the Val-de-Grâce.
11 Other religious houses in the faubourg included the Carmelites and the Ursulines. For more on
the popularity of the area with religious orders, see Barbara B. Diefendorf, "Contradictions of the
Century of Saint: Aristocratic Patronage and the Convents of Counter-Reformation Paris,"
French Historical Studies 24, no. 3 (2001): 477. For Bérulle’s search for a new house, see
Houssaye, Père de Bérulle, 32.
12 Archives Nationales MM 623 f. 31, 32. The congregation’s new site consisted of the buildings
and property comprising the Hôtel du Bouchage.
13 A debate exists in the scholarship over whether Métezeau or Lemercier was the first architect
of the church. The most recent interpretation is by Alexandre Gady, who argues that Métezeau
provided the original design at the end of 1620 or the bginning of 1621 and that except for
designing a square apsidal chapel his plan corresponded to the church as it was built. In 1622
when the walls were raised above the ground Chancellor Nicolas Brûlart de Silléry, a protector
of the congregation, found fault with the current design and requested that Lemercier replace
Métezeau. Because the foundations had already been placed, the new architect’s only
modification to the plan was replacing the square chapel with an oval rotunda. The remainder of
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