Colette of Corbie: Learning and Holiness

Chapter 5: Colette's Other Writings

CHapter 5 Colette's otHer Writings While the Constitutions portray the official side of Saint Colette’s legislative work, her other writings are less sophisticated or of a more circumstantial character. But they were widely distributed and much used by the Colettine community . They were largely responsible for shaping the mindset of the sisters and creating a family tradition. The Testament completes the Writings, although, as we will see, it certainly does not belong to the first half of the fifteenth century. tHe SENTIMENTS: key ideas The Sentiments, finished in Orbe in 1430, are valuable in that the text completes the Constitutions. The Pontifical Chancellery or the friars removed certain passages from the Constitutions because they were of a less legal style or related to issues considered less important. The Sentiments, therefore, reflecting Colette’s thought more faithfully and in a less juridic manner, reveal a more personal expression. Colette’s particular concerns stand out within these commentaries . Issues relating to enclosure and poverty are more developed. Discussions around relations with the Church and the order demonstrate contemporary conflicts that the official document does not recognize. The portrayal of the abbess and the formation of the young, hardly touched in the Constitutions, appear to be new additions; and relations CHAPTER 5 COLETTE'S OTHER WRITINGS While the Constitutions portray the official side of Saint Colette’s legislative work, her other writings are less sophisticated or of a more circumstantial character. But they were widely distributed and much used by the Colettine community . They were largely responsible for shaping the mindset of the sisters and creating a family tradition. The Testament completes the Writings, although, as we will see, it certainly does not belong to the first half of the fifteenth century. THE SENTIMENTS: KEY IDEAS The Sentiments, finished in Orbe in 1430, are valuable in that the text completes the Constitutions. The Pontifical Chancellery or the friars removed certain passages from the Constitutions because they were of a less legal style or related to issues considered less important. The Sentiments, therefore, reflecting Colette’s thought more faithfully and in a less juridic manner, reveal a more personal expression. Colette’s particular concerns stand out within these commentaries . Issues relating to enclosure and poverty are more developed. Discussions around relations with the Church and the order demonstrate contemporary conflicts that the official document does not recognize. The portrayal of the abbess and the formation of the young, hardly touched in the Constitutions, appear to be new additions; and relations LEARNING AND HOLINESS 268 between the sisters and the abbess are discussed at length, showing how vital this subject was to the reformer. Some aspects of her spirituality emerge more clearly. There is explicit reference to the Rule, while in the Constitutions this issue is touched on very lightly. It can be seen, however , that the founder’s text underpins the Constitutions. The Sentiments actually comment on the Rule without modifying either the title or the sequence of the chapters. The Constitutions , which marked a further stage in the development of Colette’s thought, were ultimately approved by the Franciscan order and the Holy See. This approval was perhaps a definitive confirmation of tendencies already present in the Sentiments. Colette insisted on poverty in the buildings and in the construction methods used. She modified the ban on storing goods at the monastery (226): they might be received and kept for “some time through charity.” Her dominant concern, however, was for extreme poverty, including liturgical ornamentation : Christ does not like to be richer than his servants (229). Regarding enclosure, she took a stricter attitude. For instance , in chapter five, the black curtain in the parlor must not be removed, as Clare recommends, because, according to Colette, “it is necessary to submit to the circumstances of the present time, and impose this restriction.” Tensions inside the order and problems of reform in the Church become evident (211-12): Colette was careful to point out cases of “religious disobedience” towards prelates, meaning , in general, anything that conflicts with the law of God. The sisters must allow the fathers to lead them “for as long as they are under obedience to our holy mother the Church and to the father general of their order.” The fathers must also be virtuous. There is a sharp echo here of the problems between conventuals and reformed friars and the governance of the nuns by one or other...