Sources

Commentators on the Rules agree that the Preface was drawn up by Father de Mazenod and is the fruit of his thought and of his life. They do, however, acknowledge a variety of influences.

In 1955, Father George Cosentino wrote: "Although it can be presented as an original work of our Founder, the Preface of our Rules [contains] a number of Sulpician traces. For example, we find some ideas which are also found in the writings of Tronson and Olier; the ideas in question deal with the priesthood and the ecclesiastical spirit instilled into the seminarians at Saint-Sulpice. As for the rest, in confirmation of this, in the conference for ordination day, delivered by the Founder on December 23, 1809 at the seminary, we find a number of ideas of the Preface. These were ideas taught to him while he was at the seminary" [8].

In 1956, Father Leo Deschâtelets compared the text of several of Eugene's lectures and letters from the period 1808 to 1818 with the Preface. He wrote: "One would think that it would be easy to find in the Preface traces of previous writings. What is certain is that they reveal to us the most intimate thoughts of the Founder, the thoughts that were most fully integrated as part of his life." [9]

Father Deschâtelets' observation confirms what Father Cosentino said. As a seminarian, Eugene read and became permeated with the writings of Tronson, Olier, etc., on the priesthood. From 1808 on, his writings reflect this thinking in as much as he assimilated them. He makes them his own and they surface in the paragraphs of the Preface when he deals with bad priests and the need to unite the strengths of good priests who are striving for perfection and wish to sacrifice their life for the salvation of the world (paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8).

In 1967, Father John Drouart made a brief study of the Rules, especially of the expression "apostolic men" as found in paragraph 4 of the Preface. In this expression, he perceived the influence of Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians which, it seems, Father de Mazenod knew well. Later on, we will examine Father Drouart's commentary on that subject, which is one of the best we have [10].

Finally, in his commentary on the Constitutions and Rules, Father Jetté stated this: "There can be no doubt that it [the Preface ] is original to Eugene de Mazenod. He it is who wrote it, while striving to live it; and he wrote it in the light of his own experience. A number of Christian persons at that time were pained at the evils that afflicted the Church and were searching for possible ways of helping her." [11]

At this point, Father Jetté copied several pages of Félicité de Lamennais' work entitled, Réflexions sur l'état de l'Eglise en France pendant le dix-huitième siècle et sa situation actuelle. Printed in 1809, the book was confiscated by order of Napoleon and was only published in 1814. However, Félicité de Lamennais had sent it to M. Emery already in 1809. No doubt, Eugene knew about it from that time on. During the summer vacations of 1809, M. Emery met with J.-M. de Lamennais and others, one of whom was Eugene. The object of the meeting was to enable a sharing of views on the situation of the Church and on this book [12].

Father de Mazenod clearly seems to have drawn inspiration from this book, especially for the first paragraphs of the Preface on the state of society and the situation of the Church and the clergy. (See the appendix with the comparative chart.)

Félicité de Lamennais' thinking was broader in scope and more developed with regard to certain issues. It made more distinctions with regard to the state of the clergy. But in the Preface, we find the same tone, several of the same ideas and sometimes the same expressions: the shameful falling away from the faith of Christians, the reprehensible conduct of the clergy the need for truly apostolic men, the power of faith, Gospel simplicity, the importance of the cross, etc.

Félicité de Lamennais stressed the religious ignorance of the country people and the importance of parish missions. The Founder gave this form of apostolate a privileged place in his priorities and those were the people he chose to evangelize, but he speaks of this especially in the articles on the main end of the Institute and on the missions. Here in the Preface, he does not mention the countryside and he mentions the missions only once, that is in paragraph 10, even if this reality is the foundation upon which he develops everything else. The content of the Preface points to its origin in that it was originally a reflection which followed the articles on the reform of the clergy - a secondary end of the Congregation.

[8] COSENTINO, George, Histoire de nos Règles..., vol. 1, Rédaction..., p. 193.
[9] DESCHATELETS, Leo, "La Préface de nos Règles et les premiers écrits de notre vénéré Fondateur" in Etudes oblates, 15 (1956), p. 193.
[10] DROUART, Jean, [Réflexions sur les Constitutions et Règles de 1828 et 1966] in Acte de visite canonique du Zaïre, 1966-1967, p. 21, typewritten.
[11] JETTÉ, Fernand, O.M.I. The Apostolic Man: A commentary on the 1982 edition of the Oblate Constitutions and Rules, Rome, General House, 1992, p. 18.
[12] See LEFLON, I, p. 364.