– on the anniversary of the death of a significant superior
P. Gorazd Cetkovský, O.Carm.
450 years ago, in December 1562, one of the most significant figures in the position of general prior of the Carmelite order – Nikolaus Audet – passed away. His life and work are interesting even today and can be a source of enlightenment for us in many ways.
Nikolaus Audet (1481–1562) was from Cyprus, thus from the Carmelite province of the Holy Land. The responsibility of the highest superior in the Carmelite order came to him completely unexpectedly; it was a surprise for him as well. In 1523, Pope Hadrian VI appointed him as the general vicar of the order because the general prior and two subsequent vicars had suddenly died within a short time. Although at that time Nikolaus Audet found himself at the head of the order for only a few months – until the next general chapter – he immediately set about reforming the order. He expressed his commitment with the words that he did not want to reform the order, but wanted to prepare the ground for reform – for the general chapter and future general prior. He was aware that it was not possible to change everything quickly. Therefore, he sought to demand only what he believed could be achieved most easily and what the subordinate brothers, convinced of the appropriateness of the established claims, would accept and implement willingly.
At that time, the order was in such a poor moral and spiritual state that many doubted its very future. Many communities consisted of only a few brothers who maintained this deplorable state intentionally to maximize individual shares of the monastery’s income. Those who could managed some personal property and thus distanced themselves from community belonging. Quite a few brothers bought academic or other titles for money and, under the guise of (thus obtained) position, arranged a comfortable life for themselves. In contrast, genuine education and often even monastic discipline and piety were rather exceptional.
Moreover, the monasteries were shaken by various influences from the secular world. Sometimes to their detriment, at other times, external calls for reform, efforts for it, or even threats of dissolution if things did not change for the better were coming in. The papal curia could not be expected to rectify conditions in the monasteries because its officials benevolently and for payment granted titles, dispensations, and benefits, which provided problematic religious with a favorable refuge. Nikolaus Audet was indeed capable of gaining and utilizing support from the Roman curia for his reform plans, but it was only possible to a certain extent. Additionally, in central and northern Europe, many religious left the order and the Catholic faith under the influence of the Protestant Reformation in search of greater fidelity to the gospel or left – sometimes based on offers from bishops – from the order and acted as diocesan priests in parishes whose pastors had fallen to Protestantism.
General vicar Nikolaus Audet not only called for the reform of the order but immediately got to work. After several months of preparation, he sent out a set of guidelines to all monasteries, imposing specific steps for correction on all members of the order and newly redefining the requirements of Carmelites' religious life. He called it Isagogicon.
Another difficulty arose. In May 1524, when the general chapter was held in Venice, the French provinces gathered for a counter-chapter in Montpellier. In Venice, Nikolaus Audet was elected as the general prior, but the French chapter elected another general prior. A schism occurred in the order, which Nikolaus Audet managed to resolve only after three years.
The general chapter in Venice, under the leadership of General Audet, immediately set to work on renewing the order. The demands of how the reform should proceed and what it should consist of were established in the document Caput unicum continens modum reformationis. The fundamental goal of the reform was the renewal of common monastic life in all communities. In addition, the chapter issued further decrees prescribing various requirements for the renewal of the order and revised the statutes of the order, which had been issued a hundred years earlier by General Prior Bl. John Soreth. All these documents, along with the writing Isagogicon, were published in book form in 1524. The reform program was set, and now it needed to be implemented.
Nikolaus Audet promoted the reform through his visitations to individual provinces and monasteries. An example of the difficult task he undertook can be found in the famous Carmelite monastery in Florence. Despite all efforts, Audet was unable to rectify the financial matters of the monastery. He sent novices who did not meet the required age away. He had walls built and all doors fitted with locks to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the monastery at any time. However, as soon as he left, the walls were breached again, and the brothers returned to their former conditions. Allegedly, he could not even be sure of his life in that monastery at that time...
Nikolaus Audet spent a year and a half visiting first in northern Italy. Then he requested further decrees from the pope confirming his powers and authorizing him to promote reform in the order, and then he visited for a year and a half in southern Italy and Sicily. In addition to resistance within the order, he faced many difficult external circumstances. At that time, there was war in Italy, which was associated with the occupation of monasteries by troops, plague that cut down even promising collaborators, etc. Thus, in many places, what Nikolaus Audet had previously built with great effort and patience was short-lived.
He then focused his visitation work on the countries beyond the Alps. He went to the French provinces and reformed them, sending suitable brothers from there to reform monasteries in Spain, Scotland, and England. He entrusted the provincial of the Lower German Province, Teodorik of Goudy, with the reform of monasteries in Saxony, Denmark, and Bohemia. He also visited his province, where he could build on the results of the reform of his predecessor Bl. John Soreth from a hundred years earlier. He could not personally visit the Upper German Province due to local political circumstances. Audet spent over three years in France and Germany and renewed monastic discipline in more than a hundred monasteries.
He summarized the current state of the order in 1531 in a report likely intended for the papal curia or the new cardinal – protector of the order, Nicola Ridolfi. (In it, he mentions the monasteries in Bohemia as destroyed by the Protestant Reformation.) In 1532, the general chapter was held in Padua, which again elected him as general prior. Audet also sought to reform those monasteries that had previously separated into various reformed branches within the order, known as congregations. The largest of these was the Mantuan congregation, which emerged as a renewal movement in the order about a hundred years earlier. However, over time, monastic discipline had also declined in it, and its monasteries now needed reform very much. Here, however, Audet faced stiff resistance. While he relied on papal mandates for implementing the reform, the congregation referred to its historical privileges. The conflict eventually escalated into a court case before the Roman Rota, which lasted six years. The matter ended with both sides stepping back from the dispute and signing a declaration that acknowledged the general's authority also over the monasteries of the congregation but greatly limited it in many ways. The movement, which had once been a source of renewal in the order, now stubbornly resisted renewal and defended only its independence... For Nikolaus Audet and his reform efforts, this was actually a bitter failure.
General Prior Nikolaus Audet earned great credit for the new flourishing of the order through his support for studies. After he removed titles from all brothers who had not gained them through study, he ensured that within the reform of the monasteries, functioning studies were established in the provinces, and that a sufficient number of brothers were sent for university studies. Within a few years, his emphasis began to bear visible and valuable fruit. The education helped the brothers, among other things, to face the Protestant Reformation. He similarly focused on the restoration of liturgical prayer in all convents. He assembled a commission from several members of reformed convents from various countries that prepared a new edition of the order's liturgical rites. The order's missal and breviary were also republished.
Audet visited the monasteries again in different parts of Italy, as one visitation was not sufficient for the restoration of a proper religious life. He called two more general chapters for the order in 1539 and 1548. Both were held in Venice, which had not been so affected by the war events. The chapter of 1548 also showcased excellent preachers, teachers, and musicians from various provinces of the order.
By that time, there were already houses in every order province living according to the reform. The best provinces with a large number of students and study houses were indeed outside Italy, but reform was also progressing in Italy. Out of a total of thirty provinces, however, six had disappeared as a result of the Lutheran Reformation. About 120 monasteries belonged to them. In Northern Europe, the number of Carmelites decreased, while in Southern Europe, the number of brothers increased.
Mikuláš Audet spent the years 1545–1547 at the first session of the Council of Trent. When in 1553, Pope Julius III initiated the preparation of a conciliar document for the reform of religious life throughout the church, Nikolaus Audet, who had been dedicated to this task in his own order for thirty years, was asked to evaluate the prepared draft text. His remarks from that time have been preserved. It is interesting that he, who so diligently and tenaciously promoted reform, was moderate and patient in his views. He realized that it is difficult to meet overly strict demands long-term. And he was wary of the danger that the reform could divide the community into several smaller groups.
After 1550, Nikolaus Audet predominantly lived in Rome. He was weighed down by the burdens of illness and old age. He completed the construction of the convent at the church of S. Maria Traspontina, which became a center of education and also counter-reformation. In the last years of his life, Giovanni Battista Rossi served as the general vicar of the order (known to us as the general prior from the biographies of St. Teresa of Avila).
Nikolaus Audet died on December 6 or 7, 1562, in Rome. His tenure as general prior was one of the longest in the history of our order. Despite many difficulties, he managed to restore the monastic life in Carmelite monasteries in all provinces from a significant decline. Our community can consider it a gift of God's providence that such a religious as Nikolaus Audet stood at the head of our order precisely in such difficult times.
