Les sacrements dans la France des XVIIeet XVIIIesiècles. Pastorale et vécu des fidèles (review)

Although this study’s title suggests a comprehensive consideration of sacramental belief and practice in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, its primary focus, in fact, is the sacrament of penance, particularly as revealed in the countless confession and examination-of-conscience manuals that guided Catholic clerics during this period. To the extent that the other six sacraments are discussed, it is usually within the context of their relationship to the penitential rite. Within such constraints, Marcel Bernos argues for a reinterpretation of French sacramental belief and practice during this period. Placing a human face on a Catholicism often characterized as extremely rigorous, repressive, and intransigent, the author contends that the manuals exemplify flexibility, sensitivity to human frailty, and a respect for personhood. Bernos thus presents the manuals as more appealing to contemporary sensibilities than most scholars have indicated.

The author holds that previous studies of these manuals are flawed in one of two ways: Either the analyses are based on an incomplete examination of manuals and their content, or their conclusions are guided by the inappropriate application of contemporary values to the past. Setting the record straight, Bernos places the manuals in the correct context by establishing their relationship to the Council of Trent’s teachings on the sacraments. Undoubtedly the biggest influence on French manuals was Charles Borromeo’s Instructions to Confessors, which was first published in France in 1648. Although acknowledging this tract’s inherent rigor, Bernos maintains that the French manuals Borromeo’s writings inspired nonetheless advised confessors to be “physicians of souls” more than judges or inquisitors. Separate chapters on nobles, soldiers, and women allow Bernos to illustrate how the expectations and the examinations of sinfulness varied according to the penitent’s station in life. At the same time, however, the author dismisses the notion that women were held to stricter spiritual or moral standards than men. Indeed, throughout this study Bernos asserts that Tridentine penitential beliefs and practices in France were highly respectful, if not more emancipating, of women than they were repressive. He also refutes claims that French clerics were preoccupied with sexual immorality, in part by showing how few pages of these manuals were devoted to concupiscence. The second half of the book includes a discussion of problematic topics such as sacramental administration among the physically and mentally disabled. On such issues Bernos consistently finds the counsel provided in confessional manuals prudent, balanced, and proportional.

Probably the study’s best attribute is Bernos’s thorough and comprehensive examination of the many manuals in question. His detailed attention to issues such as sacramental care for the disabled and to reports of stillborn infants who allegedly came to life briefly and miraculously so that they could be baptized provides us with invaluable glimpses of ordinary life that otherwise would remain unknown. Somewhat disappointing, however, is the absence of more chronological context in Bernos’s study; frequently missing is any discussion of how these manuals evolved over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly in the light of the Jansenist struggles, to say nothing of the Enlightenment. Although Bernos’s corrective to overly harsh assessments of Tridentine sacramental beliefs and practices is cogently argued, that so much of the book centers on how clerics understood and administered the sacrament of penance seems to confirm, as Jean Delumeau contended, a clerical fixation with sin and guilt. Not only is this aspect of Tridentine Catholicism unpalatable to most today but also—in stark contrast to Bernos’s argument—it proved highly repressive to French penitents and ultimately corrosive to their sacramental lives.