Charles de Montalembert

Charles Forbes Rene, count de Montalembert , born the April 15th 1810 with London, deceased the March 13rd 1870 with Paris, was a Journaliste, historian and politician French. Even of France in 1831, member of Parliament of the assemblies constituent and legislative of the Second Republic after the revolution of 1848, member of the legislative Body of the Second Empire, it was favorable to a Constitutional monarchy and liberal.

One of the principal theorists in France of the liberal Catholicism, it defended the Freedom of the press and the Right of association, supported the right constantly oppressed nationalities and was one of the authors of the law of 1850 on the freedom of teaching (law Falloux).

Biography

Youth and formation

A gifted aristocrat

The family of Montalembert, originating in the Angoumois, could make go up her genealogy until the 13th century; charters made it possible to go still two centuries higher. The family tradition was that of the military career, in which had been illustrated the majority of the ancestors of Charles de Montalembert, in particular, at the 18th century, the marquis de Montalembert, general and engineer French, his great-uncle.

During the Revolution, the father of Charles de Montalembert, Marc-Rene de Montalembert, in 1792 pennies the Terreur is exiled, and fights at the sides of the royalists emigrated in the Armée with Cop, then in the British cavalry. In 1808, he wife Elects Forbes Dew, girl of James Forbes, explorer in India and Africa, scientist and artist, resulting from an old Scottish Protestant family. April 15th, 1810, their oldest son, Charles, is born in London. Until 1819, it is high in England, with Stanmore by his maternal grandfather.

After the fall of the Empire, in 1814, the count de Montalembert returns to France to the sides of the king Louis XVIII. In 1816, it is named ambassador plenipotentiary with Stuttgart, then, as from 1820, seat with the Chambre of the pars, Paris. His/her son continues his studies in Paris, initially with the college Bourbon, then, as from 1826, at the institution Holy-Bores, street of the Stations. Dedicated student and of a great intellectual precocity, marked by the example of the British political system , Charles de Montalembert then develops political ideas liberal. In parallel, the conversion of his/her mother to the Catholicisme in 1822 reinforces its religious faith.

Its studies do not prevent it from developing an important circle of intellectual and fashionable relations: the young man attends then the living room of Madam de Davidoff, that of Delphine Gay, attends the courses of the philosopher Victor Cousin, with whom it binds friendship, just as with François Rio, Louis-the-Large professor of history with . But his/her closest friends are then Leon Cornudet, future to advise State, and Gustave Lemarcis, which it met in September 1827 with the Château of the Rock-Guyon, where it remained at the abbot-duke of Rohan.

Romanticism, liberalism, Catholicism

Like all its generation, Montalembert is influenced then by the romantic ideas , dream of sublime, genius and Sacrifice. At the fifteen years age, it takes the solemn resolution to serve at the same time God and freedom of France:

“While living for our fatherland, we will have obeyed the voice of God who orders to us to like the ones the others; and how could we better love our fellow-citizens than in their devoting our whole life? We will have thus lived for what there is moreover in vain and of larger in the world, the religion and freedom. ”

After having obtained its baccalaureat the August 2nd 1828, as well as a price of Rhetoric to the open Competition, it leaves on August 26th to join his/her parents in Sweden, with Stockholm, where, in 1827, Marc Rene de Montalembert had been appointed ambassador plenipotentiary. The young Viscount of Montalembert admires Stockholm then and the political institutions Swedish, but mistaken the king Charles XIV, because of his origins commoners and imperial. Rejected then by the reading of Kant, of which it translates for Cousin the Critique of the reason practices , it discovers with enthusiasm works of the idealistic thinkers and mystical German, Schelling, Zimmer, Baader, which leads it to disavow little by little the eclecticism of Victor Cousin.

Of return to Paris in 1829, it starts at the same time as its studies of right its career of journalist, by writing articles on Sweden for the French Revue , directed by Guizot, Broglie and Barante, and while collaborating in the Corresponding , sheet weekly founded in March 1829 by Carné, Cazalès and Augustin of Meaux. In the literary field, Montalembert is favorable to the young romantic school against the “encrusted traditional old men”. The countess of Montalembert, her mother, frequently receives Lamartine, Martignac, Delphine Gay. Charles de Montalembert admires Vigny, Holy-Beuve, and, over all, Victor Hugo, of which it supports ardently Hernani , that it sees like a manifestation of freedom in the theater. He then attends assiduously the poet, who makes him discover the religious architecture of the Moyen-âge through the preparation of Notre-Dame de Paris .

Political commitment

The Irish example

The July 25th 1830, Charles de Montalembert leaves for the England. It is with London during the Révolution of July. Initially favorable to the fall of Charles X, culprit according to him to have violated the Charter, base of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitutional monarchy, it rejects then excesses anti-monk of the liberals.

From England, it leaves for the Ireland. It meets there Daniel O' Connell, the founder of the catholic Association ( Catholic Association ), which obtained in 1829 the political emancipation of the catholics of Ireland and which personifies with the eyes of Montalembert triumphing freedom and the faith, as well as a peaceful victory, based on the right and not on violence. Montalembert is then allured by the Catholic church of Ireland, “free and poor as with its cradle”, since the government takes there no share with the nomination of the bishops, and that she saw only gifts of her faithful, situation which contrasts extremely with that of the Church of France, whose situation is regulated by the Concordat of 1801 and the articles organic: traditionally plain with the government of the Restoration, under the new mode of the Monarchy of July, it is in hillock with the liberal opposition.

the Future and beginnings of liberal Catholicism

Montalembert impatiently waits since its adolescence to be committed defending the civil liberty and the freedom of the Catholic church. A long time, it feels insulated in this way. In dissension with the ideas reactionaries of the majority of the catholic aristocrats that he attends, he thus declares into 1827 that:

“In the name of a religion which introduced true freedom into the world, one preaches me the arbitrary one and the old mode. But today I do not despair to find men who take for mobile of their control God and freedom. ”

At the conclusion of the revolution of 1830, its meeting with the Félicité abbot on Lamennais provides him finally the occasion to begin to defend its ideas, and to develop in the newspaper the Future the theses which will form the base of the liberal Catholicisme, mixing the doctrines traditional Contre-révolution naire such as had developed Joseph de Maistre and the liberal thought inherited the Lights and the French revolution.

Launched in October 1830 by Lamennais, in a context very anticlerical, the new newspaper Marie Ultramontanisme (defense of the absolute sovereignty of the religious matter pope) and Liberalism (defense of the Freedom of conscience, Freedom of expression), democratic aspirations and Catholicism. Its editor association is Lamennais, assisted by the abbots Gerbet and Lacordaire, which quickly becomes one of the friends closest to Montalembert. December 7th, 1830, the writers of the Future summarize their claims: they ask the freedom of conscience, the Separation of the Church and the State, the Liberté of teaching, the Freedom of the press, the Right of association, the administrative Décentralisation and the extension of the elective principle.

The contributions of Montalembert in the Future relate to mainly the freedom of teaching and the defense of the rights of the oppressed people. It supports the emancipation of European nationalities indeed, in the name of the right of the people and the communities to be had themselves. Allured by the example of the fights of Ireland, of Belgium, Poland, where the Catholic church plays a paramount role in the combat for the freedom of the nations, Montalembert dreams then, following Lamennais, to establish a spiritual sovereignty of the Pape on the plain and free Christian people of Europe.

He thus supports with eloquence catholic Ireland of Daniel O' Connell, as well as Belgium, raised the August 15th 1830 against the Dutchmen who controlled it since the Congrès of Vienna of 1815. But its most dramatic accents are devoted to Poland: quartered at the 18th century, she revolts in November 1830. The December 2nd 1830, the Russians are driven out of Warsaw. Montalembert even then thinks of leaving to fight at the “proud one and generous Poland, so much calumniated, so much oppressed, so much cherished of all the free and catholic hearts. ” the Future then calls, without success, the French government to support the insurgent Poles. Finally, the Polish insurrection is crushed on September 12th, 1831, and Montalembert then writes in the Future : “Catholic! Poland is overcome. Let us kneel close to the coffin of these betrayed people; he was large and unhappy. ”

In addition, in order to defend the freedom of teaching, in-outside monopoly of the Napoleonean University, in accordance with their interpretation of the Charter of 1830, the journalists of the Future found in December 1830 the general Agency for the defense of the religious liberty, and open, the May 9th 1831, a private school, street from the Art schools, in Paris. At the sides of Lacordaire and the economist Charles de Coux, Montalembert improvises schoolmaster then. After a resounding lawsuit in front of the Room of the pars, which is completed by the judgment of this initiative and the closing of the school, the Future is suspended by its founders the November 15th 1831. In hillock with the opposition of a majority of the French bishops, traditionally gallicans, they decide to call of it directly with the judgment of the Pape Gregoire XVI.

The failure of the Future and rupture with Lamennais

December 30th, 1831, Lacordaire, Lamennais and Montalembert, the “pilgrims of freedom”, thus go to Rome. Initially trustful, it déchantent quickly vis-a-vis the reserved reception which is granted to them. The August 15th 1832, the pope, without naming them, condemns their liberal ideas by the Encyclique Mirari Your . Condemned subject themselves and give up making reappear the title.

After a painful rupture with Lamennais, condemned once again by the pope in 1834 following the publication of the Words of a believer , Montalembert written in 1835 a History of holy Elisabeth , duchess of Thuringe at the 13th century. In this book, the marvellous one impresses and of a romantic and idealized vision Moyen-âge, it renews the kind of the Hagiographie. The book is an important best-seller throughout the 19th century.

After the publication of the History of holy Elisabeth , whereas, allured by the monastic life with the Abbey Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, encouraged in this direction by Lacordaire and Guéranger, Montalembert hesitates to choose this way, it meets Marie-Anne de Mérode. Girl of the count Felix de Mérode, hero of the independence of Belgium in 1830 and adviser of the king Léopold, and Rosalie de Grammont, whose father, the marquis de Grammont, of the principal shareholders of the Future was one, Anna de Mérode is 18 years old in 1836. The two husbands are plain on August 16th, 1836 with Trélon, in the castle of the family of Mérode in Hainaut French, at the time of a ceremony chaired by the abbot Gerbet. A honeymoon in Germany and Italy follows. Received by Manzoni with Milan, the young husbands leave then for Rome. Montalembert, several times received goes down for hearing by the pope Gregoire XVI, protests then in front of him of its fidelity in its connection, completes to disavow Lamennais and its Affaires of Rome , critical the archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur de Quélen and the gallicans French, and pleads of it the causes of Gerbet and Lacordaire.

Parliamentary career

In 1837, Montalembert begins truly its parliamentary career. Even if he hardly appreciates the Monarchie of July, that he regards as an individualistic, middle-class mode and materialist, with the detriment of social cohesion and national union, he decides to support this constitutional monarchy and liberal, in the legislative work led to the Room of the pars. He defends two main themes inlassablement there: the defense of the Right of the people to lay out of themselves and that of the religious liberties, through the official re-establishment of the congregation S nuns and the Freedom of teaching.

Thus, it supports in Spain the partisans of the queen Isabelle, favorable to a Constitutional monarchy, and defends with constancy the cause of the Poland. He fights especially for the freedom of Belgium, from which he had greeted stamping in 1830: in 1838, at the time of the diplomatic crisis of the Luxembourg and the Limbourg, it tries at the sides of his father-in-law, Felix de Mérode, but without success, to convince the king Louis-Philippe and his minister, Mathieu Molé, to defend the Belgian territorial claims of the king Léopold against the king of the Netherlands.

The constitution of the “catholic Party”

However, the essence of the action of Montalembert during the years 1837-1850 aims to the constitution of a unified “catholic party”, federating the action of the French catholics around the defense of the interests of the Church and the Liberté of teaching, while making sure of the support of the bishops, which the men had cruelly missed the Future .

The action to be carried out is immense, with the measurement of the division of the French catholics: the ones are faithful to the deposed mode in 1830, the Gallicanisme, and regard king Louis-Philippe as a usurper. At their head is Monseigneur de Quélen, the Archevêque of Paris, supported by the abbot Dupanloup. The other fraction, supported by the pope Gregoire XVI, gathers part of the catholic young generation, under the direction of Lacordaire, Ozanam, and Montalembert. liberal Ultramontanes and , they undertakes then, each one with their manner, to reconcile the Catholic religion and the French company post-revolutionist, by detaching the French Catholicism of the traditions legitimists and gallicanes: while Frederic Ozanam turns to the charitable action, bringing closer the popular classes to the Catholic church, that Lacordaire preaches freedom with Notre-Dame de Paris, Montalembert defends the religious liberties through its political action.

For this purpose, it repurchases in 1836 the newspaper the Universe , rested by the abbot Migne, to make of it a body of combat to the service of freedoms of the Church. He then seeks to make replace the old generation of bishops legitimists by men independent of the royal capacity and favorable to the liberal ideas, and supports near the king several important nominations: those of Bonald to Lyon, of Worthy Sibour to , of Denys Affre with Paris, of Thomas Bracket with Rheims, and of Doney with Montauban.

Montalembert supports also the restoration of the religious orders, removed in France by the French revolution, which they are the Bénédictins, reconstituted by Prosper Guéranger, or of the Dominicains, restored by his/her friend Henri Lacordaire. In 1848 he saw the fall of Louis-Philippe to which he had always been hostile. He had a seat with the House of Commons then to the Legislative Body until in 1857, but was then obliged to withdraw itself in the private life, always recognized like a frightening adversary of the Empire. Its liberal ideas had been worth some irreconcilable enemies to him among the ultramontanes. Louis Veuillot, in his newspaper, the Universe , was opposed to him. Montalembert answered by ressuscitant a review of which it had some time stopped the publication, the Correspondent (1855), in whom it fought the fanatic partisans of the pope Pie IX and the liberals more or less free-thinkers of the Revue of the two Worlds .

It took a great interest at the beginnings of the liberal Empire, at the same time as it tried to avoid the blow which the ultramontanes wanted to carry to the liberal ideas by the proclamation to the Concile of the Vatican of the Dogme of the pontifical Infaillibilité. But once again he refused to separate from the pope and he ceased his relationship with the Père Hyacinthe as he had done with Lamennais; he died before the proclamation of the new dogma but one can believe that at the end of the day he would have subjected himself. However it was broken, obliged to fight continuously against people belonging to her own religion and it died prematurely.

Montalembert was not only one eloquent speaker, he wrote in a coloured, sharp and sought style. It was impassioned for the Middle Ages, but its enthusiasm mingled narrowly with its faith. Its first historical work, the Life of holy Elisabeth of Hungary (1836) is less one history that a religious proclamation, and it made much to return its dignity to the hagiography. Success was sharp; but Montalembert had all the same to await the fall of the Monarchie of July to enter to the French Academy on January 9th, 1851, where it succeeded François-Xavier-Joseph Droz.

As from this time it devoted much of its time to a great work on the Monachisme in Occident. It was initially attracted by the character of holy Bernard and a volume devoted to him; thereafter, however it gave up this work on the council of its friend Dupanloup and the whole edition was destroyed. It widens its original plan then and published the first volumes of its Moines of occident (1860), admirably written work and which was accepted with much admiration in these circles where the language was appreciated than the study itself. The work, unfinished with died of the author, was supplemented thereafter using some long fragments found among its papers (flights. VI and VII, 1877).

Montalembert had married Anne de Mérode, sister of one of the ministers of Pie IX. His/her daughter, Elisabeth de Montalembert, married the Viscount of Meaux, a catholic statesman and distinguished writer.

Its nephew, Jules had (by his marriage with the baroness of Brigode) a castle in North with Annappes. This building does not exist today any more, there made place with a top-of-the-range allotment. Jules de Montalembert was the father of Geoffroy de Montalembert (deceased the 3/2/1993) who was the senior of the Senate, senator of the Seine-Maritime.

Quotations

“ the long memories makes the large people. The memory of last becomes importunate only when the conscience of the present is ashamed. ”

“ You in vain do not occupy you of policy, the policy deals with you all the same. ”

“ the long memories makes the large people. ”

“ One also victorious nor as is never overcome as one thinks it. ”

“ There is even less difference between the order of the things destroys in 1789 and the modern society, which enters the Christendom of the Middle Ages and the old mode. ” monks.

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