Colette of Corbie: Learning and Holiness

Chapter I: Witnesses of Colette

CHapter i Witnesses of Colette By witnesses, we mean here the contemporaries of Colette whose writings shed light on her deeds, her personality, and the kind of relationships she had in her life. The account covers her relationship with the “world” (by which we mean the laity, individuals and groups), with the Church hierarchy, and with the Franciscan Order. relationsHip WitH tHe World The House of Bourbon –Jacques de Bourbon Jacques II de Bourbon (1370-1438), the eldest of a large family, was a member of the House of France and of the cadet branch of the Bourbons. His most recent biographer was keen to stress the contrasting personality of this direct descendant of Saint Louis, making him a prototype for the princes of the first half of the fifteenth century: warriors in different parts of Europe, “at the height of grandeur and drenched in disgrace.” He was captured several times, once by one of his wives, Queen Jeanne of Naples. On his return to France, he CHAPTER I WITNESSES OF COLETTE By witnesses, we mean here the contemporaries of Colette whose writings shed light on her deeds, her personality, and the kind of relationships she had in her life. The account covers her relationship with the “world” (by which we mean the laity, individuals and groups), with the Church hierarchy, and with the Franciscan Order. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORLD The House of Bourbon –Jacques de Bourbon Jacques II de Bourbon (1370-1438), the eldest of a large family, was a member of the House of France and of the cadet branch of the Bourbons. His most recent biographer was keen to stress the contrasting personality of this direct descendant of Saint Louis, making him a prototype for the princes of the first half of the fifteenth century: warriors in different parts of Europe, “at the height of grandeur and drenched in disgrace.” He was captured several times, once by one of his wives, Queen Jeanne of Naples. On his return to France, he LEARNING AND HOLINESS 304 ended his days as a Franciscan tertiary.1 One of his bastard sons, Claude d’Aix, joined the First Order, and several of his daughters became Colettine Clarisses. Genealogical Table of the House of Bourbon Robert de Clermont, 6th son of Saint Louis (†1317) Louis (†1341), 1st Duke of Bourbon Pierre Bourbon de la Marche 2nd Duke of Bourbon (†1356) Jacques de Bourbon (†1361) Louis Jean I (†1361) 3rd Duke of Bourbon (†1410) Jean Jacques II BourbonVendôme 4th Duke of Bourbon(†1434) (1370-1438) Louis de Bourbon (†1446) married Marie de Berry married Count of Vendôme -Béatrix de Navarre -Jeanne, Queen of Naples Charles Jean II (†1478) 5th Duke of Bourbon (†1456) François (†1495) Claude d’Aix Isabeau Marie Éléonore (illegitimate) (Colettine) (Colettine) married (Colettin) Bernard d’Armagnac After his Neapolitan adventure, Jacques II returned to religion . He had in fact already experienced moments of fervor, thanks partly to the influence of his cousin Jeanne de Maillé (1331-1414), perhaps around the time of his first marriage in 1406 to the Infanta Béatrix, his cousin and daughter of King Charles III of Navarre. A witness to Jeanne’s canonization 1 A misreading of an inscription on his tombstone led to it being said that he became a Franciscan friar. John Capistrano, in a treatise De excommunicationibus , states he was a tertiary. For a full account, see F. M. Delorme, “Jacques II de Bourbon (1370-1438): fut-il frère mineur, cordelier à Besançon,” F.F., t. VIII (Paris, 1925): 455-59. Witnesses of Colette 305 process quotes the Count as among the princes of the blood who “gave (the future saint) the kiss of friendship.”2 It appears that Jacques de Bourbon first met Brother Henry de Baume at Castres upon returning from a pilgrimage to Motte Saint-Didier. Colette’s colleague came seeking permission for Jacques’s eldest daughter Isabeau to enter the convent. Earlier on, Isabeau and her sisters had been received by Jacques’s cousin, Marie de Berry, duchess of Bourbon.3 It was through his daughters, then, that the Count knew Colette. A friendship sprang up between them at once. He was deeply devoted to her, and it was on his lands that the convents of Castres and Lézignan were founded. His sonin -law Bernard, Count of Armagnac, whose father had been assassinated in Paris in 1418 on the...