page_title: Paris in the 17th century
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Paris in the 17th century / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Jean-François de Gondi (1594-1654), first archbishop of Paris Français&#160;: Portrait de Jean-François de Gondi (1594-1654), premier archevêque de Paris
context_page_description: Paris in the 17th century was the largest city in Europe, with a population of half a million, matched in size only by London. It was ruled in turn by three monarchs; Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV, and saw the building of some of the city's most famous parks and monuments, including the Pont Neuf, the Palais Royal, the newly joined Louvre and Tuileries Palace, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Garden. It was also a flourishing center of French science and the arts; it saw the founding of the Paris Observatory, the French Academy of Sciences and the first botanical garden in Paris, which also became the first park in Paris open to the public. The first permanent theater opened, the Comédie-Française was founded, and the first French opera and French ballets had their premieres. Paris became the home of the new Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and of some of France's most famous writers, including Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, La Fontaine and Moliere. Urban innovations for the city included the first street lighting, the first public transport, the first building code, and the first new aqueduct since Roman times.
context_section_description: For most of the 17th century Paris was governed by two Cardinals, Richelieu and Mazarin, and Paris was a fortress of the Roman Catholic faith, but it was subject to considerable religious turmoil within. In 1622,  after centuries of being a bishopric under the control of the Archbishop of Sens, Paris was finally given its own Archbishop, Jean-François de Gondi, from a noble and wealthy Florentine-French family. His elder brother had been Bishop of Paris before him, and he was succeeded as Archbishop by his nephew;  members of the Gondi family were the bishops and archbishops of Paris for nearly a century from 1570 to 1662. The hierarchy of the Church in Paris were all members of the higher levels of the nobility, with close connections to the royal  family. As one modern historian noted, their dominant characteristics were "nepotism...ostentatious luxury, arrogance, and personal conduct far removed  from the morality they preached."
  While the leaders of the church in Paris were more concerned with high political matters, the lower levels of the clergy were agitating for reform and more engagement with the poor. The Vatican had decided to create seminaries in Paris to give priests more training;  the Seminary of Saint-Nicolas-de-Chardonnet was opened in 1611, the Seminary of Sant-Magliore in 1624, the Seminary of Vaugirard in 1641, before moving to Saint-Sulpice in 1642; and the Seminary of Bons-Enfants also opened in 1642.  The seminaries became centers for reform and change. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Vincent de Paul,  the parishes became much more actively involved in giving assistance to the poor and the sick, and giving schooling to young children.  Confreries or brotherhoods of wealthy nobles, such as the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, were formed, to assist the poor in Paris, to convert Protestants,  and to send missions abroad to convert the inhabitants of new French colonies.
  More than eighty religious orders also established themselves in Paris;  sixty orders, forty for women and twenty for men, were established between 1600 and 1660. These included the Franciscans at Picpus in 1600, the Congregation of the Feuillants next to the gates of the Tuillieries palace in 1602; the Dominican Order at the same location in 1604, and the Carmelites from Spain in 1604 at Notre-Dame des Champs.  The Capuchins were invited from Italy by Marie de' Medici, and opened convents in the faubourg Saint-Honoré, and the Marais, and a novitiate in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. They became particularly useful, because, before the formation of a formal fire department by Napoleon, they were the principal fire-fighters of the city. They were joined by the Dominicans and by the Jesuits, who founded the College of Clermont of the Sorbonne, and built the opulent new Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis  next to their headquarters on rue Saint-Antoine.  The arrival of all these new orders, directed from Rome and entirely out of the control of the Archbishop of Paris, caused the alarm and eventually the hostility of the Paris church establishment.
  Followers of the church in Paris were divided by a new theological movement called Jansenism, founded by a Dutch theologian named Cornelius Jansen, who died in 1638.  It was based at the Port-Royal-des-Champs Abbey, and was based on variations of the doctrines of original sin and predestination which were strongly opposed by the Jesuits.  Followers of the Jansenists included the philosopher Blaise Pascal and playwright Jean Racine. Cardinal Richelieu had the leader of the Jansenists in Paris put in prison  in 1638, and  the  Jesuits persuaded Pope Innocent X to condemn Jansenism as a heresy in 1653, but the doctrines spread and Jansenism  was broadly tolerated by most Parisians, and contributed to undermining the unquestioned authority of the church which followed in the 18th century.
  Henry IV had declared a policy of tolerance toward the Protestants of France in the Edict of Nantes in 1598.  On August 1, 1606, at the request of his chancellor, Sully, Henry IV granted the Protestants of Paris pe
caption: Jean-François de Gondi, the first Archbishop of Paris. Members of the Gondi family  were the bishops and archbishops of the city from 1570 to 1662.
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