Women, Religious Conviction and the Subversive Use of Power

Abstract This article examines the actions of female religious orders to explore the scope available to them to exercise power in the French Counter-Reformation Church. It argues that while the Ursuline and Visitandine communities accepted enclosure, which affected their ability to undertake an active charitable role outside the cloister, they nonetheless consistently sought to carve out an active role for themselves that went beyond the traditional space accorded to nuns. These nuns actively sought roles as spiritual directors to women in their local communities, to clerics and to prominent courtiers. By exercising subversive power clandestinely, they succeeded in wielding significant influence, even over doctrinal matters. In contrast, Madame Guyon challenged the right of the ecclesiastical establishment to declare her writings heretical. Similarly, the Port-Royal nuns overtly challenged the commands of Pope and King, arguing that the dictates of conscience superseded the doctrinal judgements of the religious authorities. Such overtly subversive challenges were harshly punished by the religious establishment. This article concludes that the skill with which certain orders negotiated to expand their roles without constituting an overt challenge to authority should be recognised as an exercise of subversive yet effective power rather than as an unquestioning acceptance of patriarchal authority.