Molière, Le Tartuffe and Anti-Jesuit Propaganda

ANDREW CALDER

Critics agree that when Tartuffe reassures Elmire that he is an expert in the science which has removed the need for conscience in Christians he is expounding his version of the probabilist casuistry made popular by the Jesuits and satirised in Pascal's Provinciales. There is general agree- ment however that Le Tartuffe is not a satire of the Jesuits particu- larly but of many kinds of religious abuse and hypocrisy.' The repressive zeal of Tartuffe and Orgon is viewed as an attack on Jansenist rigorism, and the unscrupulous machinations of Tartuffe and Monsieur Loyal are taken to reflect the conduct of the secret affairs of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement. I have come to believe, from reading anti-Jesuit pro- paganda in the seventeenth century, that the hypocrisy so skilfully turned by Moliere into a subject for high comedy was meant to be of a specifically Jesuit kind. The rigorism of the Jansenists and the little- publicised activities of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement hardly compare as subjects for popular satire with the Jesuits, who were regarded by many seventeenth-century Frenchmen as an army of papal and Spanish spies. In comparing Le Tartuffe with anti-Jesuit propaganda it is of course all too easy to talk of Moliere's play as if it were simply a polemical tract. I am aware that people who have never even heard of the Jesuits or the Jansenists can and do appreciate the genius of the play- wright who so entertainingly portrays the timeless human foibles of self- love, gullibility and hypocrisy at work. It is not my intention to oppose Moliere the satirist to Moliere the comic writer. If I concentrate on satirical elements it is because I believe that we still do not know enough about the contemporary religious abuses which nourished Moliere's comic imagination.

The case for Le Tartuffe as a satire on the Compagnie du Saint- Sacrament is expounded by R. Allier in La Cabale des dévots.2 His thesis rests heavily on the argument that ,cabale' in a religious context would normally refer in the seventeenth century to the Compagnie du Saint- Sacrement (p. 389). In fact the word was used in many contexts and was certainly used frequently in connection with the Jesuits. In one anon- 1 For a recent summary of critical opinion on Le 7?7-?//c see J. SCHERER, Stmctures de Tartx#e, 2e edition revue et augmentée, Paris, Sedes, 1974. '-' Paris, Armand Lolin, 1902. ; _ 304

ymous anti-Jesuit tract, Instruction aux Princes de la Chrestiente de la maniere de laquelle se gouvernent les jesuites, translated into French in 1620, the author says the Jesuits ,n'avancent jamais personne s'il n'est de leur cabale, & interesse comme eux..." (p. 23). Moliere's use of ,,cabale" in Le Tartuffe (lines 397 and 1705) and even more in Dom Juan (V. ii), where the hypocrite says, "je verrai, sans me remuer, prendre mes interets a toute la cabale, et je serai defendu par elle envers et contre tous", has much the same force: it simply means a group of religious people working together to promote their own interests. Another argument advanced by Allier (pp. 391-2) is that Father Rapin in his Memoires names prominent members of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement as possible models for Tartuffe; as Rapin was a Jesuit and therefore an interested party his impressions (recorded more than twenty years later) should be read with caution. The major obstacles to believing the Com- pagnie du Saint-Sacrement to be the object of Moli6re's satire are that the existence of this secret organisation was barely known to most French- men and, as Allier points out, Moli?re's hypocrite is quite different in kind from the genuinely puritanical zealots of the Compagnie (pp. 407-8). The Jesuits on the other hand were frequently the objects of popular hatred, and there was a constant flow of anti-Jesuit writing in France throughout the seventeenth century. The major cause for hostility to the Jesuits was their reputed disloyalty to France. Accusations of Jesuit dis- loyalty come under three main headings. The Society was Spanish in origin (its founder St. Ignatius of Loyola was Spanish and it flourished particularly in Spain) and the Jesuits were said to remain loyal to Spain. Secondly, because of their special vow of loyalty to the Pope they were accused of putting Roman interests before the interests of the Gallican Church; the Jesuit campaign against Jansenism which was constantly to- pical in Paris from 1656 to 1669 was seen by many as an attempt to weaken the Gallican Church and strengthen the authority of the Pope. The third and most bitter accusation was that by preaching and en- . couraging regicide they were responsible for the assassination of Henry III, for two unsuccessful attempts on the life of Henry IV and for his assassination in 1610. These and many other accusations appear over and 3 over again in anti-Jesuit tracts throughout the seventeenth century.3

3 These tracts are too numerous to attempt a full list; they include: Etienne PASQUIER, Le catechisme des Jesuites: ou examen de leur doctrine, Ville-Franche [Paris], Guillaume Grenier,1602 and 1677; Antoine ARNAULD (father of le grand Arnauld), Le franc et véritable discours du Roy sur le restablissement qui luy est demande par les j6suites, s. 1., 1602; A. ARNAULD (le grand) or F. HALLER? La theologie morale des Jesuites ... representée par leurs livres, Cologne, Nicolas Schoute, 1659. The large .number of anonymous tracts include: Memoires et advis