Local Hospitals in Ancient Regime France

by Hickey, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780773515406
• ISBN10: 0773515402
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780773566446
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ

Summary

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the French Crown closed down thousands of local hospices, maladreries, and small hospitals that had been refuges for the sick and poor, supposedly acting in the name of efficiency, better management, and elimination of duplicate services. Its true motive, however, was to expropriate their revenues and holdings. Hickey shows how, in spite of government efforts, a countermovement emerged that to some degree foiled the Crown's attempts to suppress local hospitals. Charitable institutions, churchmen inspired by the new message of the Catholic Reformation, women's religious congregations, and community elites defied intervention measures, resisted proposed changes, and revitalized the very type of institution the Crown was trying to shut down. Hickey's conclusions are supported by a study of eight local hospitals, which allows him to measure the impact of Crown decisions on the day-to-day functioning of these local institutions. Challenging the interpretations of Michel Foucault and other historians, Hickey throws new light on an important area of early modern French history.

Table of Contents

Maps, Tables, and Figures	vii	(2)
Preface	ix	(4)
Glosssary of French Terms	xiii
Introduction	3	(12)
PART ONE BEGINNING HOSPITAL REFORM	15	(82)
1 Changes in the Organization and Direction of Town and Village Charity, 1540-1640	17	(28)
2 Transferring Poor-Relief Funds to Old Soldiers: The Order of Mount Carmel and St-Lazare	45	(24)
3 The Aftermath of Notre-Dame of Mount Carmel and St-Lazare: The Closures Continue	69	(28)
PART TWO CONSOLIDATING AND REINFORCING LOCAL HOSPITAL	97	(101)
4 The Hospital, the Church, and the Local Community: Control, Support, and Involvement	100	(34)
5 Religious Congregations and Local Hospitals: Women Working in the World	134	(41)
6 The State and Hospital Reform in the Eighteenth Century: New Directions or Continued Improvisation?	175	(23)
Conclusion	198	(11)
Appendix I: Grignan Recteurs des Pauvres, 1661-1722	209	(2)
Appendix 2: Seyne Recteurs of the Hospital, 1713-1750	211	(2)
Notes	213	(34)
Bibliography	247	(18)
Index	265