Prairie historians uncover Catholic Reformation origins

Book revealing changes in French Church wins Catholic history prize

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Saskatoon

If you think the origins of the Catholic Reformation date back to the 17th century, think again.

In their book 600 Years of Reform: Bishops and the French Church, 1190-1789 (McGill-Queen's University Press), Michael Hayden and Malcolm Greenshields argue that the origins of the reform date as far back as the 12th century, not the 16th or the 17th century as most scholars believe.

"In France, there were efforts to reform the Church over a long period," explains Hayden, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Saskatchewan.

Bishops' reforms

"The picture of the French Church is usually that it was very much afraid of reform and very corrupt. But we show that over this long period, between 1190 and the French Revolution, there was a whole series of efforts by the bishops to reform the Church that had a positive effect."

Hayden and Greenshields, a history professor at the University of Lethbridge, recently earned the prestigious John Gilmary Shea Prize for their study of six centuries of reform in the French Church.

The Shea prize, named after a leading 19th century American Catholic historian, is given annually by the American Catholic Historian Association for a book judged by experts to have made the most original and distinguished contribution to knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church.

"We were very honoured to get that award, very, very honoured," Hayden said. "It's a very prestigious award. "

Making use of the only continuous records available - 2,553 synodal statutes and 10,464 pastoral visits - the historians introduce fresh evidence and shed new light on the medieval origins of the Catholic Reformation.

"We are saying that the ordinary picture of the Catholic Reformation in France that starts in the 17th century is just one of four reformations that took place," Hayden said.

Long-term reform

"We point out two of them in the Middle Ages and then one that starts in the late 15th century, which goes up until the middle of the 16th century, then the one that everybody knows about during the 17th century.

"So we are saying that there was a long-term reform process."

While 600 Years of Reform is neither a social history of religion in France nor a complete history of religious reform in the period, it will provide a more solid and nuanced basis for such enterprises, said Hayden, 72. "It presents a new chronology and geography of religious reform in France."

The book stresses the importance of the French bishops in starting the last reform, their failure to adapt to intellectual, social and economic change, and their role in preparing the Church to weather the late 18th century French Revolution.

"By 1690 the bishops thought that their efforts to reform people and the priests had been successful and they relaxed," explained Hayden. "In the 18th century they kept the machinery going, they kept doing pastoral visits, but they didn't catch on to the fact that the world was changing."

The result was that more and more people in France in the 18th century began to lose interest in the Church, especially the peasants who were told their practices were superstitious. "While people were walking away from the Church, the bishops thought that everything was fine."

Fortunately for the bishops, everything changed with the French Revolution, when there was a swing back to religion.

"We say that while the French bishops failed to adapt to the challenges of the Enlightenment, they helped prepare the Church to weather the storm of the French Revolution by developing a professional clerical corps," explained Hayden. "What they continued to do was to educate the clergy and to create a feeling among the clergy they were a united group. They not only developed seminaries to train the priests, they also developed a system of continual meetings of the clergy in a diocese.

Cohesive clergy

"So the clergy, for the first time, really began to feel like a cohesive group. So after the Revolution was over, the Catholic Church was able to put itself back together."

It took nearly 15 years for Hayden and Greenshields to research and write the 604-page book, which filled a series of tables and graphs and data. "I think scholars will use it for a long time," Hayden predicts.

"Our real interest was the traditional Catholic Reformation and as we were looking for its origins, that pulled us back to the 12th century. And we had to end somewhere and the French Revolution was a good place to stop (because it changed everything)."

Hayden, a native of Ohio and a Catholic, has been teaching at the University of Saskatchewan since 1966. The father of three retired in 2001 and is now a professor emeritus. Greenshields, an Anglican who teaches history at the University of Lethbridge, could not be reached for comment.

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