Newsnote: Vincentian Research Library Purchase: Saint-Lazare as a juvenile detention center

The Vincentian Research Library in Special Collections at DePaul University’s Richardson Library has recently purchased a 1696 manuscript entitled: “Arrests de la Cour de Parlement pour la correction des Enfans mineurs.” This document summarizes parlement’s decrees governing the incarceration of minors by their parents or guardians in Paris. The documents summarizes the decrees issues on 13 March 1673, 14 March 1678, and 27 October 1696. When Saint Vincent agreed to take possession of old Saint-Lazare in 1632 the Congregation of the Mission inherited seigneurial responsibilities for the administration of justice. In addition to wayward clerics, Saint-Lazare became a house of correction for juvenile youth. This fascinating document gives us new insights into Saint-Lazare as a penal institution during the Ancien Regime. The introduction to the document reads: “ARRESTS DE LA COUR DE PARLMENET…..Portant reglement general pour les Enfans mineurs que les Peres peuvent faire constituer prisonniers par correction dans la prison pour ce destinee, qui est a present celle de l’Officialite au lieu de Villeneuve sur Gravois, ou dans la Maison de Saint Lazare, jusques a l’age de vingt cinq ans, si ce n’est que les Peres ayent convole a de secondes noces; auquel case il ne le peuvent faire, non plus que les Mere tutrices & autres parens; sans l’Ordonnance de Lieutenant Civil du Chastelet; lequel pourra (si il le judge a propos) prendre l’avis de quelques uns des parents plus proches, tant du coste paternerl que maternel desdits Enfans mineurs.”