Colette of Corbie: Learning and Holiness

Introduction

introduCtion The first Vitae were written in the fifteenth century by two followers of Saint Colette – Brother Pierre de Vaux, her confessor and first biographer, and Sister Perrine, the reforming abbess’s companion in several convents. Since that time, her legend has been enriched with numerous embellishments, attributable to the cultural and religious preoccupations of later editors. Historical discipline gradually developed, forcing authors to use documentary sources. Nevertheless, the focus of the work remained hagiographic, aiming to celebrate the saint’s heroic virtues, her qualities as a miracle-worker and the extraordinary nature of her life. As the values of society developed and moved away from Christianity (particularly from the eighteenth century onwards ), the hagiography about Colette became repetitive. The main elements relating to her life, already fixed by the fifteenth century, provided more a necessary narrative framework than a meaningful system susceptible to emulation and imitation.1 However, from the end of the 1880s, a series of historical studies and publications began to appear. These witnessed to the interest of historians in Colette’s life and work and demonstrated the vigor of her influence on the numerous Colettine foundations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.2 1 A. Vauchez, “L’hagiographie entre la critique historique et la dynamique narrative,” La Vie Spirituelle (1989): 251 ff. 2 These texts, especially the most complete of them, the Vita of Pierre de Vaux, were distributed very quickly. Worth mentioning, in particular, is the fine illuminated manuscript made (after 1468) for Margaret of York, wife of Charles the Bold, and the two copies found in the library of Philippe the Good. M. Sommé, “Sainte Colette de Corbie et la réforme franciscaine,” LEARNING AND HOLINESS xviii At the same time, accounts of Colette’s life multiplied. These were of mixed worth, some being merely more or less satisfactory compilations of earlier works. Joseph Goulven’s contribution (1952) is worth mentioning because it attempts to reconcile history and hagiography and to produce a twentieth -century picture of the Colettine branch of the order. Hagiography remains fundamental, however. Daniel-Rops notes rather maliciously in his preface: “It begins just like a chapter of the Golden Legend.” In the end, the figure of Colette remains obscure, partly because of the cultural values of her biographers. There is no doubt that the “difficult times” (as the period between 1340 and 1460 is often called) left their mark on attitudes. It is from this era that the prayer, A fame, peste et bello, libera nos Domine, dates. In 1378, the deposition of Urban VI gave rise to religious upheavals, adding to existing economic and political problems . The Great Western Schism that followed lasted until 1417 when the Council of Constance elected Martin V. The confusion of those years undermined papal authority. National church authorities, often supported by political power, sometimes tried to take advantage of the situation, with the popes distributing ecclesiastical preferments in order to gain loyalty. Moreover, kings and princes more easily gained control of the Church by styling themselves defenders of reform, expressing their intention to combat the incompetence of clerics. These latter were divided into higher clergy (reserved to the nobility) and lower clergy (often characterized by ignorance and lack of discipline). The situation was made worse by tensions between secular and regular clergy , who quarreled about offices in the University and in the Church and about parish rights. Within religious orders, various currents also came into conflict. For example, the Franciscan Order was in ferment, spontaneously reacting to the decadence of religious life, and this despite the generally mediocre nature of its members. Horizons marins — itinéraires spirituels (Ve —XVIIIe siècles), I, Mentalités et sociétés (Paris, 1987): 255-64, note 58. introduCtion xix Separate movements originated in Italy, France and Spain, but had no shared links and were not always coordinated or supported by the popes. Before and during the time of Colette, the Franciscan Observance reform movement, born in Italy, significantly influenced the Order as a whole and enclosed religious women in particular. The “four pillars” of this movement were Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444), Albert of Sarteano (1385-?), Saint John of Capistrano (1386-1456) and Saint James of the Marches (1394-1476), the last two contributing to reform in Eastern Europe. Colette was to meet John of Capistrano and play her own part in these attempts at renewal. Tensions within the Church and religious...