Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/226

 COMPAGNIE

184

COMPAGNIE

Prosper (560); St. John Orcus (565); St. Agrippinus (.568); St. Rubianus (586); St. Martinianus (615); St. Victorinus (628), opponent of Arianism as propagated by the Lombards; Alberico (1010), founder of the ,\bbey of Sant'Abondio; Rainaldo (1061), expelled by Henry IV for his loyalty to Gregory VII ; Guglielmo della" Torre (1204), builder of many churches and founder of a hospital: Benedetto Asinaga (1328), who fled from the persecution of the Rusca, Lords of Como; Lucchino Borsano (1.396), who began the new cathe- dral; the learned reformer, Gian Antonio Volpi (1559). The cathedral of Como is a splendid monument of Christian art. It was begun in 1396, and was com- pleted only in 1595; later the cupola and some small chai)els were added (1730-44). In 1528 Como was placed under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Milan. The diocese has a population of 340,000, has 325 parishes, 3 religious houses of men and 12 of women. Cappelletti, Le chiese d'Jtalia (Venice, 1844), XI, 307-443; Canttj, Sioria della cittk e diocesi di Como (Como, 1829-31); BoLDONi, Storia della Cattedrale di Como (Como, 1821); Ann. £crf. (Rome. 1907), 411-18. U. BenIGNI.

Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, a Catholic secret society which included among its members many Catholic celebrities of the seventeenth century. It was founded in March, 1630, at the Convent of the Capuchins in the Faubourg Saint-Honore by Henri de Levis, Due de Ventadour, who had just escorted his wife to the Convent of Mont-Carmel ; Henri de Pichery , officer of Louis XIII's household; Jacques Adh^mar de Monteil de Grignan, a future bishop, and Philippe d'Angoumois, the Capuchin. Amongst those who soon joined it, should be mentioned Pere Suffren, a Jesuit, confessor to Louis XIII and Marie de' Medici; the son and grandson of Coligny, the Protestant ad- miral, and Charles de Condren, General of the Orator- ians. In 1 63 1 this association was called the Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament. It was organized under the authority of a board composed of nine members, changed every three months, and which in- cluded a superior, usually a layman, and a spiritual di- rector who was a priest. The associates met weekly and their organization was simultaneously a pious confraternity, a charitable society, and a militant association for the defence of the Church.

The company was an absolutely secret one. Louis XIII covertly encouraged it but it never wished to have the letters patent that would have rendered it legal, .\rchbi.shop Gondi of Paris refused his bless- ing to the company although, in 1631, Louis XIII wrote him a personal letter requesting him to confer it. The Brief obtained from the pope in 1633 by the Count de Brassan, one of the members, was of no importance and the company, eager to secure a new one, was granted only a few indulgences which it would not ac- cept, as it did not wish to be treated as a simple con- fraternity. Guido Bagni, nuncio from 1645 to 1656, often attended the sessions of the company but its ex- istence was never regularly acknowledged by an offi- cial document from Rome. The rule of secrecy obliged members "not to speak of the company to those who do not belong to it and never to make known the names of the individuals composing it". New members were elected by the board and it was soon decided that no congri'ganisle, i. e. member of a lay congregation directed by ecclesiastics, could be eligible. Matters of an especially delicate nature were not discussed at the weekly meetings, these being fre- quently attended by a hundred members, but were reserved for the investigation of the board. The com- pany printed nothing and the keeping of written min- utes was conducted with the utmost caution. There were fifty important branches outside of Paris, about thirty being unknown even to the bishops. Among other members were the Prince de Conti, tlie Mar^chal de Schomberg, the Baron de Renty, Magistrates Lamoignon, de Mesnes, and Le FcSvre d'Ormesson;

Alain de Solminihac, Bishop of Cahors, now declared Venerable; St. Vincent de Paul, Olier, and Bossuet.

The association laboured zealously to correct abuses among the clergy and in monasteries, to insure good behaviour in the churches, to procure missions for country parishes, and it had the honour of urging the establishment of a Seminary of Foreign Missions for the evangelizing of infidels. It also endeavoured to reform the morals of the laity by encouraging the ef- fective crusade of the Marquis de Salignac-F^nelon against duelling. Moreover, it was interested in the care of the poor, the improvement of hospitals, and the administration of galleys and prisons ; and that the poor might have legal advice, it created what are to- day known as the secretariats du peuple. It protected the fraternities of shoemakers and tailors organized by the Baron de Renty and assisted St. Vincent de Paul in most of his undertakings. In 1652 when Louis XIV, conqueror of the Fronde, re-entered Paris and the city was flooded with peasants, fugitive reli- gious, and hungry priests, the members of the company multiplied their generous deeds, demanded alms from their fellow-members outside of Paris, sent priests to hear the confessions of the sick in districts that had been decimated by war, founded parish societies for the relief of the poor, and established at Paris a gen- eral storehouse stocked with provisions, clothing, and agricultural implements to be distributed among the impoverished peasants. At that time the company spent .300,000 livres (equal to 300,000 dollars) in char- ity each year. Finally, it was instrmnental in bring- ing about the ordinance establishing the General Hos- pital where Christophe du Plessis, the magistrate, and St. Vincent de Paul organized the hospitals for mendi- cants.

Even those historians to whom the secret character of this association is obnoxious, give due credit to its admirable charities, but they attack its action in re- gard to Protestants. The company laboured dili- gently to increase conversions and organized the preaching of missions for Protestants in Lorraine, Dauphin^, and Limousin and fotmded establishments in Paris, Sedan, Metz, and Puy for young converts from Protestantism. Moreover, it strove to suppress the outrages perpetrated by Protestants against the Cath- olic religion and opposed the oppression of Catholics by Protestants in a Protestant city like La Rochelle. Finally, without seeking the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Company nevertheless remained con- stantly on the alert, lest any concession be made to Protestants beyond what the formal text of the edict demanded and its members sent documents to Jean Filleau, a Poitiers lawyer, who for twenty-five years issued "Catholic decisions" from a juridical point of view, on the interpretation of the Edict of Nantes. The protestation of the general assembly of the clergy in 1656 against the infringement of the edict by Prot- estants, was the outgrowth of a long documental work prepared by the members. In 1660, Lechassier who was Maitre des Comptes and also one of the company, forwarded to all the country branches a questionnaire, i. e. a series of questions asked with a view to helping the inquiry, of thirty-one articles on the infringement of the Edict of Nantes by Protes- tants. The answers were collected by Forbin-Janson, Bishop of Digne, who took active part in the assembly of clergy, the result being that commissaries were sent into the provinces for the purpose of setting right these abuses. But, in its own turn, the company violated the Edict of Nantes (of which Art. 27 declared Hugue- nots wholly eligible to ]i\ihlic office), and, by secret manii'uvring, one day preventeil twenty-five young Protestants from being recei\ed as attorneys at the Parleiufut of Paris. "The members thought they were doing right", explained Pere de la Brii^re, " neverthele.ss, if we consider not their intention, but the very nature of their act and of their procedure, it is