BÉRULLE, Pierre de, (1575–1629), cardinal, diplomat, theologian, and reformer. His family, members of the legal nobility, lived in Paris, where he was educated. He studied theology and was ordained priest in 1599. In the circle around his cousin, Mme. Acarie, (later Carmelite Sr. Marie of the Incarnation) he became acquainted with mystical experiences, and he then read the works of the Rheno-Flemish mystics who mediated the thought of Dionysius the Areopagite.

     He went to Spain in 1604 and brought the reformed Carmelites to Paris: he was made their apostolic visitor and spiritual superior, which created tensions with both the Carmelite nuns and friars. In 1611 he founded the Oratory on the pattern of that established by St. Philip Neri in 1564. Though formed on the Italian model, the French Oratory differed mainly in that it is a centralized organization governed by a Superior-General.

He collaborated with Cornelius Jansen and Jean du Vergier de Hauranne (the Abbé (Abbot) of Saint-Cyran), to promote a more penitential “Augustinian” theology, in the hope that that the Oratory would encourage a more austere Augustinian ascetical theology that would displace the more humanistic pastoral approach of the “laxist” Jesuits.

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His Oratory powerfully influenced priestly formation, and unofficially initiated Tridentine Reforms in a nation whose government and ecclesiastical hierarchy was reluctant to formally establish seminaries in 1642, as a result of the efforts of Bérulle's spiritual directee, Jean-Jacques Olier, S.S., founder of the Sulpicians, and St. Vincent de Paul founder of the Vincentians/Lazarists (Congregation of the Missions)who knew and had spent time in the Paris Oratory. 

    Unlike the increasingly anthropocentric orientation of the Enlightenment, Bérulle’s spirituality was exclusively theocentric, grounded in intense reflection on the Incarnation.  He initiated a devotion to the Child Jesus.  Great prominence was given to the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as mediator of the Incarnation  in the so-called “.French school of spirituality,” of which Bérulle has come to be regarded as the founder.  His insistence that the Oratorians (in 1614) and Carmelites (in 1615) make a vow of servitude/slavery first to Mary and then to the “divinized humanity” of Jesus, was a source of controversy during his lifetime and after.

   At court, he reconciled Louis XIII with his mother in 1619 but he antagonized Richelieu by his disapproval of his foreign policy. He negotiated the dispensation necessary for the marriage of Henrietta Maria to Charles I in 1625 and accompanied her to England.  He was made a cardinal in 1627. In his main work, Discours de l’État et des Grandeurs de Jésus (1623) he expounded his Christocentric spirituality based on the Incarnation. His devotion to Christ as God-made-man led Urban VIII to describe him as the ‘Apostolus Verbi Incarnati’.  His spiritual teaching dominated the Oratory for the rest of the century.

Works ed. F. Bourgoing, Cong. Orat. (Paris, 1644); repr., with additions, by J. P. *Migne (ibid., 1856). Modern edn. by M. Dupuy, PSS (Paris, 1995 ff.). Correspondance, ed. J. Dagens (Bibliothèque de la RHE, 17–19; 1937–9), with Essai biographique in vol. 1, pp. ix–xlv. G. Harbert, La Vie du Cardinal de Bérulle (1646). M. Houssaye, M. de Bérulle et les Carmélites de France, 1575–1611 (1872); id., Le Père de Bérulle et l’oratoire de Jésus, 1611–1625 (1874); id., Le Cardinal de Bérulle et le Cardinal de Richelieu, 1625–1629 (1875). A. Molien, Cong. Orat., Le Cardinal de Bérulle (2 vols., 1947). J. Dagens, Bérulle et les origines de la restauration catholique [1952]. R. Bellemare, Le Sens de la créature dans la doctrine de Bérulle [1959]. P. Cochois, Bérulle et l’École Française [1963]. M. Dupoy, Bérulle: Une Spiritualité de l’adoration [1964]; id., Bérulle et le sacerdoce: Étude historique et doctrinale (1969), incl. unpub. texts. J. Orcibal, Le Cardinal de Bérulle: Évolution d’une spiritualité (1965). F. Guillén Preckler, Sch.P., Bérulle aujourd’hui, 1575–1975: Pour une spiritualité du Christ [1978]. S.-M. Morgain, OCD, Pierre de Bérulle et les Carmélites de France (1995). Bremond, 3, pp. 3–279; Pourrat, 3, pp. 491–515; L. Cognet, La Spiritualité Moderne, 1 (1966), pp. 210–410. A. Molien in Dict. Sp. 1 (1937), cols. 1539–81, s.v.

The French Oratory was founded in 1611 by P. de Bérulle at Paris, and approved by Papal bull under the name of the ‘Oratoire de Jésus-Christ’ in 1613. It spread quickly through France and other European countries, esp. the Netherlands. Like the institute of St Philip, it was intended for the sanctification of secular priests and for the rehabilitation of the priestly office among the laity. Though formed on the Italian model, the French Oratory differs mainly in that it is a centralized organization governed by a Superior-General. One of its chief activities was the training of priests in seminaries, run on the lines laid down by the Council of Trent. The popularity of the French Oratory was temporarily eclipsed by the Jansenist propensities of some of its members, esp. the two Superior-Generals, Père A. L. de Sainte-Marthe (1672–96) and Père de la Tour (1696–1733). The Oratory was dissolved in the French Revolution, but re-established in 1852 by L. P. Pététot and A. J. A. Gratry as ‘Oratoire de Jésus-Christ et de Marie Immaculée’.

The Oratorians, who have been excellent educationists and directors, have contributed much to the furtherance of popular devotion in France. Despite the Jansenist troubles, the Christ-centred spirituality of their founder, Bérulle, has been one of the chief characteristics of the congregation. Many of its members have been distinguished for their holiness and scholarship, e.g. C. de Condren, N. Malebranche, J.-B. Massillon, and J. Morin. St John Eudes, though he later left the Oratory to found his own congregations, was deeply imbued with the Oratorian spirit.

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