The Company of the Saint Sacrament


The Company of the Saint Sacrament is a devout and secret society founded in 1627 by the clergy and the faithful. It counts the religious and secular among its members, including many influential people such as Bossuet, the Prince de Conti or Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV. Encouraged by the Pope, who thereby sees a way of compensating for the refusal of France to establish the Inquisition, the Company of the Saint Sacrament, as with other secret societies, is an indirect means for Rome to apply a policy of repression with regard to dissidents. If the underlying goal of this Company is to propagate faith and to purify morals, that is not however what it claims to be to the world at large.
It skilfully hides behind the cloak of a charitable organisation, a foolproof screen for its covert police activities. Its methods are in line with its function, encouraging denouncements that lead to the condemnation and execution of people considered to be lacking in respect to religion. This secret society does not work with impunity in the shadows because on several occasions it is denounced. Notably in 1660, by an abbot who declares it a “ cabal ”, a name that will remain as its description. Churchmen are indignant that the defence of the faith thus becomes, for the Company, a pretext destined to serve some inglorious actions and even personal ambitions. This organisation is also a true danger for political life.
Mazarin mistrusts and investigates it and Colbert, in turn, observes its operations with attentively Louis XIV does not confront it directly but takes indirect measures against it. The arrest of one of its active members, Fouquet, for example, is a serious reverse for the Company. Therefore, the King can only be delighted when Molière, who does not hide his hatred for this organisation, gives Cléante, in Tartuffe, the opportunity to publicly describe the more or less falsely devout:
These people whose soul submits to interest,
Of devotion make profession and merchandise,
Wishing to buy praise and recognition
By sly regard and false affection,
These people, say I, believed of uncommon ardour
By the path of Heaven run toward their destiny,
Who, burning in prayer, ask by the day,
And preach retreat to all at court,
Knowing to match their goodwill and their vices,
Are swift, revengeful, faithless, full of artifices,
And to accuse man, cover with insolence
The interest of Heaven with proud resentment...

When the Company, then supported by the Queen Mother, succeeds in banning Tartuffe, Louis XIV, aware of its remaining power does not risk confrontation. He just waits for the appropriate moment, and in 1666 the Company is officially disbanded.
In 1669 Molière can again stage Tartuffe; the Queen mother is dead, removing the main support of the religious movement.