Gender, class and vocation: The development of the Daughters of Charity in seventeenth-century France

This dissertation poses two fundamental questions. First, it asks how the Company of the Daughters of Charity was able to create an alternative form of religious life, one that was unenclosed and active, for women in seventeenth-century France. Second it examines how the Daughters of Charity both challenged and cultivated the ideals of the Catholic Reformation. Both questions lead to a broader one that asks how women in France experienced the Catholic Reformation. This dissertation argues that opportunities available to some women increased because of the vocations offered by active communities that were an expression of Catholic Reformation spirituality.;The Daughters of Charity avoided enclosure because the Company proved itself a competent provider of social services. It possessed a membership of noble Ladies and artisan and middle-class Daughters who together created a well-organized and socially well-connected organization. The dual class structure of the Company permitted the Ladies and Daughters to perform tasks deemed suitable to women of their rank. Therefore, the Company did not challenge the existing social hierarchy. The Company also identified itself as a lay confraternity and not a religious order. This distinction was critical because female religious orders were required to accept clausura after the Council of Trent, whereas confraternities were not.;The Daughters of Charity were able to work as nurses, teachers and social workers because they circumvented the Tridentine decree demanding the enclosure of all religious women. Yet they used their freedom from the cloister to educate the poor of urban and rural France about Catholic Reformation ideology. What does the experience of the Daughters of Charity say about the age of the Catholic Reformation in France? In part, it indicates that Catholic Reformation spirituality, and indeed the Tridentine church itself, was somewhat malleable and willing to accept the innovations of some early modern Catholics. The Catholics Reformation, as it was expressed in France, was characterized by a tension between innovative local initiatives and the institutional efforts to reform and control the church. The bishops and cures performed a balancing act as they attempted to reconcile popular enthusiasm for religious activism with social and religious stability.