Sébastien Zamet
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Sébastien Zamet (* 1588 in Paris , † February 2, 1655 in Mussy-sur-Seine ) was a French Roman Catholic bishop , monastery reformer and early actor in the Jansenism dispute .
life and work
Origin and youth
Zamet came from a family who immigrated from Italy. His father (1549-1614), who had the same first name, was the richest man in France and a friend of King Henry IV. After the murder of his uncle Horace as abbot of Juilly Abbey in Juilly (Seine-et-Marne) , Zamet inherited at the age of three nominally the abbey which was then administered by his father. He studied at the Collège Henri-IV de La Flèche and at the Sorbonne , became one of the king's eight almsmen and was highly regarded as “Monsieur de Juilly” at a very young age (among others with Francis de Sales ).
Bishop of Langres (beginnings)
When he became Bishop of Langres for 40 years in 1615, he set out to implement the resolutions of the Tridentine , which had just been officially adopted by the French clergy assembly on the General Estates of 1614, in his diocese, which also included the city of Dijon , to implement. He founded the Communities of de Pierre Bérulle launched French Oratory (1616 Langres, Dijon 1621) and made in a special way to the convents ( Ursuline , Dominican , Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ). 1622 he founded a monastery of from Dijon Jane Frances de Chantal launched the Order of the Visitation .
Reform of the Tart Abbey
In the Tart Abbey of the Cistercian Sisters , he supported the reform efforts of the Abbess Jeanne de Pourlan (also: Marie-Jeanne de Courcelles de Pourlan or: Jeanne de Saint ) from 1622 (initially in collaboration with the abbot of the Cîteaux monastery , Nicolas Boucherat, 1562–1625) -Joseph, 1591-1651). For reasons of separation from the part of the monastery that was not willing to reform and following a recommendation from the Council, he moved the reform-willing nuns to the city of Dijon in 1623, where in 1624 they moved into the now-built monastery in today's Rue Sainte-Anne . When Boucherat's successor, Abbot Pierre Nivelle (1593–1661), opposed the reform in 1625 and even excommunicated Abbess Pourlan, Zamet took over the supervision of the monastery instead (officially 1627) and, as a further innovation, led the election of the abbess by the convent (for three years). The first abbess elected was Marie de Thoulorge from 1629 to 1632.
Zamet and Port-Royal (1624–1633)
In 1624 Zamet met for the first time the abbess Angélique Arnauld of the Port Royal des Champs monastery , who had been looking for a new spiritual director for the convent since the death of Francis de Sales in 1622. She and Zamet worked closely together for a good 10 years. He supported, as in Tart, the change from Port-Royal des Champs to the city of Paris (1625-1626) and pursued with her the idea of an institute of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy ( Institut du Saint-Sacrement ), the Port-Royal should unite with Tart and should be supported by the Society of the Most Holy ( Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement ) founded in 1627 by Henri de Lévis (1596–1680) . As in Tart, the election of abbesses was introduced for three years in Port-Royal in 1629. In order to better integrate the monasteries of Tart and Port-Royal, Agnès Arnauld went from Port-Royal to Tart in 1629 (and was abbess there from 1632 to 1635) and in 1630 Jeanne de Pourlan went from Tart to Port-Royal, where she became prioress.
Zamet's failure at Port-Royal (1633-1636)
In 1633 Zamet founded his Institute of the Most Holy in the Rue Coquillière in the center of Paris, into which Angelika Arnauld moved with some nuns. But Zamet suffered the first affront on the occasion, insofar as the Archbishop Jean-François de Gondi refused entry to Jeanne de Pourlan, who had also been designated by him . Next, Archbishop Octave de Bellegarde (1588–1646) von Sens had an earlier work by Agnès Arnauld entitled Le chapelet secret du Saint Sacrement (The Secret Rosary of the Most Holy) condemned by the Sorbonne as heretical , which the whole institute ( including the Port-Royal and Tart monasteries). Since the institute's honor was saved by the publication of an apology , Zamet invited the author, Jean Duvergier de Hauranne , known as Saint-Cyran, to Port-Royal, where he became spiritual director from 1634 and soon came into opposition to Zamet.
Saint-Cyran, a man of the highest theological erudition, championed the concept of extreme monastic rigor, later called Jansenist, and thus won the enthusiastic approval of Angelika Arnauld, who, in view of the Zamets reform method (which was paired with mildness and one on cleanliness, beauty and size directed striving) became increasingly uncomfortable. Zamet recognized the danger and tried to hand over his bishopric to Jean-Jacques Olier in order to be able to be present in Paris, but Olier refused. The monastery split into a Saint Cyran party and a Zamet party, a dispute that continued in public and in which the Oratorians, Vincent de Paul , the court and the Jesuits sided with Zamet. In 1636 there was a scandal when Agnès Arnauld, who had returned to Port-Royal and was elected abbess there, was personally an admirer of Zamet, and was forced by her sister to send Zamet away by letter because he was being too lenient towards the sisters. This led to the fact that Zamet withdrew to his diocese and took no further initiatives in Paris. At the same time, however, Saint-Cyran's position had become untenable, and he also returned to his Saint-Cyran monastery in Saint-Michel-en-Brenne ( Indre department ).
But that did not mean the affair was off the table, but continued to simmer and threatened (not unlike the Dreyfus affair ) to divide the public and to cause permanent strife. Richelieu therefore asked the Zamet, who was well known to him, for a statement (which remained secret until 1645 and was then made public by the Jesuits), from which it emerged that Saint-Cyran found it difficult to recognize the Council of Trent. Richelieu responded in 1638 with the arrest of Saint-Cyran (who died shortly after his release in 1643). In the same year Archbishop Gondi closed the Institute of the Holy of Holies (which Zamet no longer took care of) and brought the nuns there to Port-Royal. When defenses for Saint-Cyran and against Zamet appeared in 1645, Zamet no longer answered.
Working in the diocese and death
From 1636 until his death Zamet worked beneficially in his diocese. He founded hospitals in Langres and Dijon, the monastery of the Order of the Visitation of Mary in Langres (1653) and reformed the Rougemont Benedictine monastery in Rougemont ( Côte-d'Or department ). He had the joy of seeing the young Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (* 1627) grow up in Dijon, but also had to see the death of his long-time spiritual friend Jeanne de Pourlan († 1651). Eventually ill, he retired to the Mussy Castle in Mussy-sur-Seine (then: Mussy-L'Evesque), which belonged to the diocese , and died there at the age of 67.
Works
- Lettres spirituelles de Sébastien Zamet, évêque-duc de Langres, pair de France . Edited by Louis-Nicolas Prunel. A. Picard, Paris 1911-1912.
literature
- Louis Narcisse Prunel (1874–1932): Sébastien Zamet, évêque-duc de Langres, pair de France, 1588-1655. Sa vie et ses œuvres. Les origines du jansénisme. A. Picard, Paris 1912, online (main source of this article).
- Paul Broutin: La réforme pastorale en France au XVIIe siècle. Research on the pastoral tradition après le Concile de Trente. Vol. 1. Desclée, Paris 1956, pp. 119-136.
Web links
- Information on Sébastien Zamet in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
- Literature by and about Sébastien Zamet in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
- Entry on Sébastien Zamet on catholic-hierarchy.org
- Review of Prunel's biography of Zamet, French
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zamet, Sébastien |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French Roman Catholic bishop and monastery reformer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1588 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 2, 1655 |
| Place of death | Mussy-sur-Seine |