Early Church
The Little Church was founded after the double rejection of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) and the Concordat of 1801 by a part of the Church of France.
This is the generic term under which they gather all groups from 1801 to today rejected the concordat signed between the First Consul Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII. Recent research has identified some forty of these groups throughout France and in Belgium, French-era The "Little Church" The Little Church is the result of disaffection in some regions of France and Belgium following the Concordat of 1801 , either within the clergy, particularly on the part of some bishops Gallicans of the Ancien Regime , unhappy with the loss of their episcopal see , either within the peasantry in the provinces - particularly in areas that have been favorable to royalty - disoriented by changes such as new concordat marriage laws, changes in non-working holiday, the redistribution of dioceses, ... but especially by the fact that the pope can break the chain of apostolic succession in dismissing a bishop . Organized initially around a non-bankruptcy clergy, about forty dissident communities - often influenced by Jansenism or Augustinian theology - are well established in France including the basnieristes in the Channel , white in Burgundy , the blanchardi in the Calvados , the Clementine in Lower Seine , the floured in the Aveyron , the filochois in Indre-et-Loire , the enlightened in the Lot-et-Garonne , the Louiset in the region of ferns , the pure in Montpellier , ... A group Jansenist convulsionary Lyon led by abbots Jean-Dominique Chaix and Claude Germain also refuses the Concordat and took the name Little Church, a denomination which will gradually build to designate most of these communities, however, inconsistent and generally are unaware of each other. In the Departments together , a movement known Stevens appears in Brabant at the instigation of the priest Cornelius Stevens . These communities schismatics persisted after the Restoration and were able to count together up to 90 000 faithful. Their decline has been felt yet in the nineteenth century under the combined pressures of political authorities and the Catholic Church but also subsequent to the fading of the clergy, non-bankruptcy, the last representative died in 1852 . These communities without a priest at their sides since then, however, survive the lay organization of religious education and worship without Mass, prayers being said at home now or in the chapels (as in Poitou or Belgium). The denunciation of the Concordat in 1905 and various attempts at reconciliation would not alter the situation of these communities vis--vis the Catholic Church . Today, only four communities who remain faithful congregate around 4000: the Little Church of Deux-Sevres (3000 followers), the " stevens "Belgian (300 followers), the" whites "in Burgundy (300 followers) and Little Church of Lyons (400 followers). This is not the Mass itself, but the recitation of it, so no sacrament, with some specific improvements : The following information regarding the history of the Little Church of the Aveyron, but are very significant in the history of many other groups in this movement. The Bishop of Rodez , Bishop-Seignelay Colbert , opposed the arrangement. Following the action of the Vicar Bernard Souquires refractory particularly convinced that hid in the Lot Valley, several communities in the Aveyron followed him, including Notre-Dame-d'Ayns , Grand-Vabre , and on the other side Lot in the Cantal , Cassaniouze , Vieillevie , Ladinhac , St. Project , and later in the Cantal St. Illide. Members of these communities, led by abbots and Delhom Regis, were nicknamed Flour Face because they kept the long hair and powdered in the fashion of the ancien regime. From 1810 , for lack of priests, communities wither. Some, however, remain long outside the "big church", meeting Sunday, calling itself between them, refusing to enter churches or to host a priest for the sacrament of the sick. Oldest Flour Face presided the funeral. The Little Church was maintained at Cassaniouze, in the hamlet of Bcar until 1911 , when the bishop of Saint-Flour , Paul-Augustin Lecoeur, received the abjuration of the last true, then reinstated in the Church Roman. In Britain the resistance to the constitutional church , then in bankruptcy, are called "little Louis". The name originates from the last place of public worship gathering place for Catholics who resisted the civil constitution of the clergy , the chapel of the Hopital Saint-Louis de Fougres. The "patriarch" was the Abbot of Louiset Joseph Gore Martinis ( 1 753 - 1816 ), a priest from a noble family in the country Fougasse (you can find many details about this priest and his family in E. AUBREE " The Louisette ", Ed Perrin, Paris, 1943, pp. 15-16; Dictionary or the religious world in contemporary France, Art." Martinais of Gore ", vol. 3 The UK, pp. 162-163, Ed Beauchesne, Paris, 1990). Few months after the promulgation of the Concordat in April 1801, the Abbe Gore Martin left the chapel of St. Louis, never to celebrate with his followers in the walls of his mansion located impasse of Aumaillerie (now rue Chateaubriand). Other priests followed suit as the Abbe Fleury (1758-1832), or its successor, the abbot of Juvigny Louiset of the last priest who remained present at Ferns, where he died in 1843. These celebrated Madame Lzardire of another personality of the local aristocracy (J. DE ROINCE, "Figures of Chouans" Ed Lanore Fernand, 1980, pp. 167-169). During the Empire the civilian authorities do little to tracassrent Louisette. They formed a relatively closed and very numerous but they were never perceived as a group that could threaten public order as it might be the case in other regions (this information can be found and assessment reports Louiset with the rest of society in time Chdeville Andr, Jean Delumeau, "History of the dioceses of France, New Series, Vol. 10, diocese of Rennes, Ed Beauchesne, 1979, p. 182). With the Restoration they suffered the greatest persecution under the pressure of the clergy, determined to bring back all the flock into the ranks and seeking to impose its full authority. This hard clerical took many forms: promoting worries police went to arrest, defense trade with the Louiset or give them work (on this issue we find such an account of a trial court Rennes which was the subject of Father Juvigny in "Archives of Christianity in the nineteenth century", 11 year, in February 1827, pp. 419-421; Lib. Servier, Paris, 1828). Therefore the small world of Louiset became extremely suspicious and secretive towards any person outside the community. This distrust makes it very rare that Louiset to publicly acknowledge as such. From this period comes the habit of never talking about religion outside the family and minimize social contacts especially vis--vis 'Hate' (nickname given to the priests who had originally agreed to lend oath of "hate the monarchy during the Revolution and then allocated to all Catholics who accept the" new order of things "). He finally pushed a number of families forced into poverty or simply anxious to escape the harassment in order to keep peace in their conscience to leave Britain to reach the capital where they could more easily go unnoticed or even to emigrate to abroad, especially in Canada. This persecution led him to a climax a visceral distaste for the clergy acquired new political and religious feeling that passes from generation to generation: a classic Louiset behavior is never to admit the slightest contact with the clergy from the Revolution nor to set foot in a church during the course of a religious celebration. Few community from the outset, there is no willingness to establish any organization or an association to structure this religious sect or unite families. The Louiset ask for nothing and aspire only to be invisible to be left in peace. In addition to the horror home clergy heir of the Revolution and the Empire, and its current direction (the "dialogue with the modern world" is to them that the latest manifestation of the unacceptable spirit of compromise of the Church of France manifested in the acceptance of the Napoleonic Concordat) is added to the groups or movements which are the borders of Catholicism, without appeal cataloged as schismatic or sectarian drifts. The Louiset (like all of the Little Church Dissenter) shudder at the thought that their glorious tradition of loyalty to "the legitimate bishops of Britain" could provide a screen of respectability to religious adventurers who appear today as heirs of the Gallican Church. This religious dimension solely or even individual family is now claimed as their own identity and a guarantee of full membership in the Catholic Church. To this end, subtly, they insist they "pray for the Pope" and they generally refuse to discuss the question of the legitimacy of the clergy in France. They just say "do not resort to their ministry" and adhere to their religious life in the last pastoral provisions left by the legitimate bishops for that time of persecution, they argue, are not closed. The cult following the religious calendar of the Old Regime and the ancient observances (especially as regards the discipline of fasting). Since 1801 it has become exclusively domestic, which makes them by definition of "chamber". It is most often characterized by the presence in the house or apartment of a family "chapel," a name given to a high and wide rack placed in the best room in the house, deprived of all sacred sign outside might reveal its real destination. She usually stays closed, especially with strangers to the family. At the "Mass" or vespers and the rosary, the dean of the family opens the wardrobe and discovers a family altar in the form of a triptych whose wealth of interior contrasts with the anonymous sobriety externally. The ornaments are from the day of the drawers of the lower part (called "sacristy") and are placed on the altar. On the top of the altar, as on the internal parts of the cabinet doors, shelves can withstand more sacred images and statues of saints and chandeliers. The "chapel" the most beloved are those that also retain a "Treasure", a name given to liturgical vessels that were used by the clergy who were refractory or removed during the Revolution to protect them from being "contaminated bankruptcy in worship. " The celebration is carried out by the dean who manages to whisper the recitation of the Office of the Mass which meets the rest of the family, except consacratoires prayers that are played in total silence, punctuated at the beginning and at the end by the bearings of altar bells that signal the time of the "consecration". Eucharistic communion is spiritual (On the cult in Louiset see: Michel LAGREE "mentality, religion and history in Upper Britain in the nineteenth century, Paris, 1978, pp. 147-161, POIRIER (Dr)," The extinction of the sect of Louisette ", Bulletin and Memoirs of the Archaeological Society and historic district of Ferns, t. XX, 1981, pp. 55-58). Mixed marriages are experienced as real tragedies and result in an immediate rupture of relations with the young couple if (a) fiance (e) does not adopt the religious customs of the family ("to Louis") , Most works studying Early Church are just a few allusions to Catholic resistance movement in Britain to focus their attention almost exclusively on the Vendee region. History
The "Mass" of the Little Church
- Starting with the faithful recited the rosary,
- The Miserere and the De Profundis is then sung,
- Then came the singing of the Introit, the Kyrie, the Gloria and Credo from Mass of the catechumens,
- Sanctus, the Agnus Dei and Communion chant complement the office.
- Finally, the readings of the Epistle and the Gospel conclude the meeting, sometimes followed by another string. Little Church of Aveyron
Early Church in Britain
Little Church of Deux-Svres
References
Bibliography
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