Venues for Clerical Formation in Catholic Reformation Paris: Vincent de Paul and the Tuesday Conference and Company

In the eulogy he delivered at Vincent de Paul's memorial service in November 1660, the bishop of Puy, Henri Maupas du Tour, praised his subject for having "virtually changed the face of the Church by Conferences, by instructions, by seminaries . . . it is he who re-established the Clergy's glory in its first splendor, by ordinands' exercises, by spiritual Retreats, by the opening of his heart and house." 1 It has since become commonplace to credit de Paul with the lion's share of praise for the transformation of the French clergy during this period of Catholic Reformation. While admitting that de Paul "did not inaugurate a movement destined to end in the regeneration and organisation of the clergy," his principal modern biographer, Pierre Coste, concludes adamantly that "he was, in the hands of God, the instrument that most powerfully contributed to its success."