Claude Vaussin
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Claude Vaussin (* 1608 – 1 February 1670) was abbot of Cîteaux from 1643/1645 until 1670, and as such, Abbot General of the Cistercian Order.


Election as Abbot General

On 2 January 1643, when he was not yet 37 years old, Dr. Claude Vaussin was elected abbot of Cîteaux. He came from an influential but non-aristocratic family in
Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...
, had become a monk in Clairvaux and later served as
Prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...
in Froidmont Abbey. He was the successor of none other than the infamous
Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...
, who had let himself be elected to this position in 1635 in order to manipulate the warring factions in the Cistercian Order to his personal benefit. Many abbots did not accept his election. Claude Vaussin's election was rejected by the Reform movement; yet after his election had been investigated and repeated, Vaussin emerged on 10 May 1645 once again as the Abbot of Cîteaux and therefore Abbot General. It took almost four years before Vaussin received confirmation from the Holy See and the King of France, finally allowing him to take office in Cîteaux in 1649. Although validly elected, he still faced opposition from the Strict Observance. They dominated the General Chapter of 1651 and were granted a certain amount of independence by being able to form their own congregation, but that was not enough: They wanted control of the Cistercian Order. The ascetic measures initiated by the Strict Observance at the beginning of the 17th century had been encouraged by the French kings. In 1634, Cardinal La Rochefoucauld added his support to the movement, leading to much controversy and seemingly unending polemics; the ''War of Observances'' also had its political dimensions. Some supporters of the Strict Observance saw it as a way of dividing the Cistercian monks from the order's hierarchy, not least of all from the Vatican itself. The unity of the Order was in great danger.


Accomplishments as Abbot General

Claude Vaussin used
canonical visitation In the Catholic Church, a canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view to maintaining faith and discipline and of correcting abuses. A person delegated to car ...
s as a means of monitoring monastic life in Cistercian abbeys. He made two large trips through French monasteries as a visitor in 1648 and 1653. 1654 saw him visiting Swiss, German, Bohemian and Austrian abbeys. The "National Chapter" at
Rottweil Rottweil (; Alemannic: ''Rautweil'') is a town in southwest Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Rottweil was a free imperial city for nearly 600 years. Located between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alps, Rottweil has over 25,000 ...
in 1654, during which Vaussin himself presided at, improved the unity of the
Upper German Upper German ( ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area (). History In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High German time, East F ...
Congregation within its own ranks and strengthen its ties to its mother abbey of Cîteaux. The German abbots became Vaussin's strongest allies in his conflicted relations to the French abbots of the Strict Observance. The following abbatial elections in the primary abbeys of Clairvaux (1653) and La Ferté (1655) resulted in abbots who Vaussin had endorsed. But after 1656, the Strict Observance rose to new dominance. The French court continued their support, and in 1660, La Rochefoucauld declared the Reformed statutes to be binding. Vaussin canceled the General Chapter which had been called for 1661 and protested against the court's actions to the Vatican, traveling there personally in order to attain its retraction. Pope Alexander VII. (1655–1667) called a meeting of representatives of both observances to be held at Rome on 26 January 1662, (Feast of St.
Alberic Alberic (; ; , ) is a learned form of the name Aubrey. Notable people with the name include: People with the mononym * Alberic of Cîteaux (died 1109), one of the founders of the Cistercian Order * Alberic I, Count of Dammartin (died after ...
, Abbot of Cîteaux): Vaussin represented the Order, and the abbots Dominique Georges (Le Val-Richer Abbey) and Jean de Rancé (
La Trappe Abbey La Trappe Abbey, also known as La Grande Trappe, is a monastery in Soligny-la-Trappe, Orne, France. It is known for being the house of origin of the Trappists, to whom it gave its name. History The site of the famous La Trappe Abbey was for cen ...
) represented the Strict Observance. The result was the founding of a special commission to examine the dispute between the camps.Compendium of the History of the Cistercian Order (Trappist, Kentucky 1944), p. 250-251. Several years later, the special commission produced the
Apostolic Constitution An apostolic constitution () is the most solemn form of legislation issued by the Pope.New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, pg. 57, footnote 36. By their nature, apostolic constitutions are addressed to the public. Generic constitutions use ...
of 19 April 1666 titled ''In suprema''. It was accepted by all parties, including the Strict Observance. A General Chapter was held in 1667 and officially distributed and endorsed the text. The General Abbot died after 24 years of service as the head of the Order, aged 63, in Dijon.


Legacy

The next two General Chapters (1672 and 1683) continued to wrangle with the conflicts among monastic camps, until finally in 1683 the Chapter granted the Strict Observance the measure of autonomy that they had desired for so long. Vaussin did not end the Cistercian War of Observances; however, he strengthened the international unity of the Order and prohibited the isolation of French abbeys from the rest of the Order. Vaussin was also influential in the reform of the
Cistercian Rite The Cistercian Rite is the liturgical rite, distinct from the Roman Rite, specific to the Cistercian Order of the Catholic Church. Description The Cistercian Rite is to be found in the liturgical books of this reformed branch of the Benedictines ...
, which had previously been spared from the
Tridentine Reform The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been ...
s. Under his leadership, the liturgical books were adapted to the
Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...
and distributed widely among the abbeys.


References

* Louis J. Lekai: ''The Cistercians. Ideals and Reality'' (Kent/Ohio, 2. Aufl. 1989) * Louis J. Lekai (ed.): ''Nicolas Cotheret´s Annals of Cîteaux'' (Kalamazoo 1982) * Thomas Nguyen-Dinh-Tuyên: ''Histoire des Controverses à Rome entre la commune et l´etroite observance de 1662 à 1666'', in: Analecta Cisterciensia 26 (1970), p. 3–247 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaussin, Claude 1670 deaths 1608 births 17th-century French Roman Catholic priests Cistercian abbots general