Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre (1736) On 8 October 1164,
Thomas Becket, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, after intensifying
conflict with
Henry II over his efforts to reduce the power of the church through the
Constitutions of Clarendon, was put on trial and convicted of various offenses by Henry in
Northampton Castle. Becket proceeded to flee to France where he was welcomed and hosted for six years by
Louis VII. Shortly after his return to England in 1170, Becket was famously murdered in
Canterbury Cathedral and subsequently canonized in 1173. In 1179, Louis VII travelled to Canterbury to pay his respects to the saint, making a donation of a gold chalice and an annual donation of 100
muids (~3,400
gallons) of wine for the celebration of the annual feast. When
Cardinal Fleury, the tutor and chief minister of
Louis XV, died in 1743 the king decided that his
mausoleum would be placed in Saint-Louis-du-Louvre. A competition was held for the commission to create the tomb, a landmark event in the history of 18th century French
sculpture due to its solicitation of public input.
Philibert Orry, then the director of the
Royal Buildings, solicited proposals from sculptors who were members of the
Royal Academy. Models for the tomb were offered by
Nicolas-Sébastien Adam,
Edmé Bouchardon, Charles-François Ladette, Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne, and
Jean-Joseph Vinache. The wax
maquettes of proposals were displayed at the
Salon for public response. Bouchardon won the competition though ultimately Lemoyne was given the commission by the family of Cardinal Fleury and the tomb remained unfinished at the time of the church's suppression. The church was also home to the tomb of its architect, Thomas Germain. At the time of the French Revolution the church had a
provost, a
cantor, and twenty canons with the provost, cantor and fifteen canons nominated by the archbishop, four by the
Duke of Penthièvre in this role as the Count of
Brie, and one by Les Gallichets. On 24 February 1790, the chapter declared to the revolutionary authorities annual revenues of 98,562
livres, a great sum for the time. On 11 December 1790, municipal officers came to the church to announce to the canons the suppression of their chapter and abolition of their titles. An inventory of the objects in the church was made and all the church's properties and possessions were turned over to the state.
Protestant Church In 1791, at the behest of
Jean Sylvain Bailly, the mayor of Paris, and the
Marquis de Lafayette, the empty Saint-Louis-du-Louvre was rented to the newly formed
Reformed congregation in Paris for the annual sum of 16,450 livres, with the first service held on
Easter. In 1598, Protestant worship had been forbidden in Paris by the
Edict of Nantes. In 1685, the
Edict of Fontainebleau made non-Catholic services illegal in all of France. This inaugurated a long period of persecution for French Protestants, though some in Paris were able to worship in the chapels of the Dutch and Swedish embassies. The
Edict of Tolerance in 1787 gave Protestants legal status and a congregation was formed under the pastorship of
Paul-Henri Marron, who had been serving as the chaplain at the Dutch embassy. The congregation gained permission to worship openly in 1789 during the revolution and met in a variety of places including a wine shop before gaining permission to rent Saint-Louis-du-Louve, the first building dedicated to Protestant worship in the history of Paris. For the dedication of the new church, or
temple as French Protestants referred to their buildings, Pastor Marron preached from the text,
"Soyez joyeux dans l’espérance, patients dans l’affliction, persévérants dans la prière," (be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer (
Romans 12:12)). When the mayor, Jean Bailly, attended in person on 13 October 1791 Marron chose the passage,
"Vous connaissez la vérité et la vérité vous rendra libres," (you will know the truth, and
the truth will set you free (
John 8:32)). In the
Concordat of 1801,
Napoleon came to an agreement with
Pope Pius VII to reconcile the Catholic church to the French state. The concordat also led to official recognition of, and state control over, other religious groups including Protestants. As a result, three former Catholic churches were dedicated for the use of reformed believers in Paris,
Sainte-Marie-des-Anges, the chapel of the
Pentemont Abbey, and Saint-Louis-du-Louvre. In 1806 however, Napoleon decreed an expansion of the
Louvre that would require the demolition of all existing structures between the Louvre and the
Tuileries Palace including the church of Saint-Louis. As a replacement the Reformed congregation was given the
Oratoire du Louvre, which had also been suppressed in the Revolution. The choir and some of the other woodwork was preserved and can be seen in the Oratoire, including the
misericorde seats in the choir stalls that enabled the canons to rest while standing. While most of the church was demolished in 1811, a portion remained standing until the construction of the Denon wing of the Louvre in 1850. ==References==