Feuillants

Feuillants, two unrelated French organizations—one a monastic order, the other a political club.

The Feuillant monastic order was founded in 1577 by Jean de la Barrière, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Les Feuillants near Toulouse, France, as a reform movement within the Order of the Cistercians. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V approved the Feuillants, and in 1592 Pope Clement VIII recognized them as a separate congregation. Feuillant monks subsisted on a diet of bread, water, and vegetables seasoned only with salt. They had no furniture. Under Barrière, their lives were spent in strict silence, prayer, and manual labor; later, their activities were expanded to include intellectual and pastoral work. The Feuillant order flourished in France and spread to Italy; in 1630 it was divided into two branches and the Italian branch took the name of Reformed Bernardines. At the height of their popularity, the two branches of the order possessed a combined total of 74 houses. During the 18th century, however, the Feuillants attracted few new candidates. Its demise in France was hastened when, in 1791 during the French Revolution, all religious orders were outlawed; the Feuillants never revived. In Italy the Reformed Bernardines disappeared early in the 19th century. An order of Feuillant nuns, known as Feuillantines, which had been founded by Barrière in 1587, also ceased to exist during the French Revolution.

The Feuillant political club was established in Paris during the early period of the French Revolution; most of its members had been members previously of the radical political club known as the Jacobins. After King Louis XVI attempted to flee France in June 1791, the Jacobins split between those who favored the establishment of a republican government and those who advocated a constitutional monarchy. The monarchist faction seceded from the Jacobins and made its headquarters in a vacated Feuillant monastery, from which the name of the club is derived. Their leaders included Antoine Barnave and Alexandre de Lameth. Identified with the king and the aristocracy, the Feuillants steadily lost power. When the monarchy was overthrown in August 1792, the Feuillant Club was abolished by the controlling Jacobin faction.