Comte de Montalembert

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CHARLES-FORBES-RENÉ, COMTE DE MONTALEMBERT.

Born inLondon, 15 April, 1810; died inParis 13 March, 1870. His father, Marc René, had fought in the army of Condé, and had afterwards served in an English cavalry regiment; he was chosen by the Prince Regent ofEngland to announce to Louis XVIII the Restoration of the French monarchy, and he became, under the Restoration plenipotentiary minister of Stuttgart, and, later, to Stockholm. His maternal grandfather, James Forbes, belonged to a very old ScotchProtestantfamily and had made many important journeys toIndia, which he related in the four volumes of his "Oriental Memoirs", published in 1813; he also wrote in 1810 a volume entitled "Reflections on the character of the Hindus and the necessity of converting them to Christianity".

Montalembert's mother, converted by Abbé Busson and Pàre MacCarthy, made herabjuration ofheresy to Cardinal de Latil in 1822. The early years of Montalembert's life were passed inEngland; afterwards he studied at the Lycée Bourbon and at the Collàge Sainte-Barbe atParis, where out of twenty pupils in the sixteenth year of their age hardly one was a practicalCatholic. At Sainte-Barbe young Montalembert made a friend of Léon Cornudet, who was also aCatholic, and the letters the boys exchanged in their seventeenth year have remained famous. At that early age Montalembert wrote: "Would it not be a splendid thing to show that religion is the mother of liberty!", a phrase which was to become the motto of his whole life. In 1829 he wrote to Rio: "my age, my tastes, my future call me to support the new ideal; but my religiousbeliefs and moral emotions cause me to lament bitterly the bygone days, the ages offaith and self-sacrifice. IfCatholicism is to triumph it must have liberty as its ally and tributary subject". Soon after its establishment in 1829 by Carné, Cazalàs, and Augustin de Meaux, with the motto (borrowed from Canning): "Civil and Religious Liberty for the whole world", the review "Le Correspondant" had Montalembert as a contributor. In September and October, 1830, he travelled inIreland, where he met O'Connell; he was thinking of assisting the cause for which O'Connell was struggling by writing a history ofIreland, when he learned that the House of Commons had passed theIrish Emancipation Act.

While he was inIreland he received the prospectus of the new paper "L'Avenir", founded in October, 1830, byLamennais. On 26 Oct., 1830, he wrote toLamennais: "All that Iknow, and all that I am able to do I lay at your feet". On 5 November, 1830, he metLamennais inParis, and on 12 November atLamennais's house he metLacordaire. At times, Montalembert had to smooth over some of the risky thingsLamennais allowed himself to be led into writing against the royalists in the paper; on the other hand he was engaged in controversy withLacordaire, whoseidea of aristocracy and the past glory of the French nobles he considered too narrow. It was Montalembert who, the day after the sack of St. Germain l'Auxerrois by theParisian mob, published in "L'Avenir" an eloquent article on the Cross ofChrist, "which has ruled over the destinies of the modern world." He especially distinguished himself in "L'Avenir" by his campaigns in favour of freedom forIreland andPoland, and for these he received the congratulations of Victor Hugo and Alfred de Vigny. In 1831 he thought of going toPoland and joining the insurgents. When the "Agence générale pour la défense de la liberté religieuse" (Central committee for the safeguarding of religious liberty), founded by the editors of "L'Avenir", had solemnly declaredwar on the monopoly of the French University by opening a primaryschool (9 May, 1831), Montalembert was indicted. As at this time by hisfather's death on 20 June, 1831, he became a peer ofFrance, he demanded that he be tried by the House of Peers; and the famous "Free School Case" was heard before that assembly, 19 and 20 September, 1831.

The speech delivered by Montalembert on that occasion was a gem of eloquence. The trial ended in his condemnation to a fine of one hundred francs; but his eloquence succeeded in calling public attention to the question of freedom of teaching, which was destined not to be solved until 1850. When the last number of "L'Avenir" appeared (15 November, 1831), Montalembert accompaniedLacordaire andLamennais toRome. While in March, 1832,Lacordaire divined the wishes ofGregory XVI, and returned toFrance, Montalembert persisted in remaining inRome withLamennais, who insisted on a public decision by thepope concerning "L'Avenir". It was not until July that they leftRome, and theEncyclical "Mirari Vos", which overtook them atMunich, was acause of great sorrow to them. Montalembert submitted at once, and when early in 1833Lamennais announced his intention of again taking up his editorial work, excepting the field oftheology, and concerning himself only with social and political questions, Montalembert did all he could to dissuade him from so imprudent a step. WhenGregory XVI by hisBriefdated 5 October 1833, found fault with the "long and violent preface" Montalembert had written forMickiewicz's "Livre des Pélerins Polonais" and when at the end of that same yearLamennais broke away from theChurch, Montalembert passed through a period of much sorrow, during which the advice ofLacordaire helped him greatly. He tried in 1834 to dissuadeLamennais from publishing Les Paroles d'un Croyant", and in vain besought him to submit to theEncyclical "Singulari nos" of 7 July, 1834. He submitted to allGregory's decisions (8 December, 1834) and his correspondence withLamennais ceased definitely in 1836.

In 1836 he published his "Vie de Saint Elizabeth de Hongrie" which restoredhagiography inFrance and brought back toCatholics a taste for thesupernatural as shown in the lives of thesaints. On 16 August, 1836,Abbé Gerbet blessed his marriage with Mlle de Mérode, daughter of the Felix de Mérode who had taken such an important part in the insurrection of theBelgianCatholics against the government of the Low Countries, and who was descended fromSaint Elizabeth of Hungary. She was the sister of Xavier de Mérode, afterwards minister ofPius IX.

In the House of Peers, Montalembert tookpride in presenting himself as aCatholic first of all, at a time when as he himself wrote, "to profess or defend theCatholicfaith one had to face marked unpopularity". In May, 1837, he spoke in favour of the right of theChurch to ownproperty; in Dec., 1838, whenecclesiastical burial had been refused to Montlosier by Bishop Féron ofClermont, he replied in the name of liberty of theChurch to those who assailed this purelyecclesiastical act. He seconded with all his influence the re-establishment of theBenedictines byDom Guéranger, and of theDominicans byLacordaire, and in 1841 he obtained from Martin du Nord, Minister of Worship, permission forLacordaire to wear his monastic dress in thepulpit of Notre Dame. "L'Univers Religieux", a daily paper founded in 1834 by AbbéMigne, owed its solvency in 1838 to pecuniarysacrifices made by Montalembert, and it soon passed into the hands ofLouis Veuillot. In June, 1845 Montalembert questioned the government concerning the measures it was about to take against theJesuits, and a few days later, when the concessions made by theHoly See to Rossi, whom Guizot had sent toRome, had brought about the partial dispersion of theFrenchJesuits, he loudly expressed his surprise and sorrow. "You are our father, our support, our friend", wrotePère de Ravignan to him. In the House he, moreover, defended the interests of foreignCatholics; in 1845, at the time of the Lebanon massacres, he questioned Guizot as to whatFrance was doing to protectChristians in the East; in 1846 he questioned him concerning the massacres committed byAustria in Galicia, and the cruelties practised against the Poles of that province; on 11 January, 1848, he enthusiastically praised the hopesPius IX held out to the Italian people, and reproached the government ofFrance for the lukewarm support it gave the newpope againstMetternich; on 14 January, 1848 in a speech on the Sonderbund, the finest, perhaps, he ever uttered, he impeachedEuropean radicalism, and proclaimed thatFrance, in the face of Radicalism, was "destined to uphold the flag and safeguard therights of liberty". Never did a speech so carry men away, wrote Sainte-Beuve.

But it was especially to secure liberty of teaching (seeFRANCE andFALLOUX DU COUDRAY) that Montalembert devoted his efforts. In 1839 he addressed an eloquent letter to Villemain, minister of public instruction, demanding that liberty; in 1841 under pressure from the episcopate, he compelled Villemain to withdraw a bill oneducation because it was not sufficiently liberal; in his pamphlet "Du Devoir des Catholiques dans la question de la liberté d'enseignement", published in 1843, he summoned theCatholics to take part in the struggle. On 16 April, 1844, in the House of Peers, he undertook the defence of thebishops who had attacked a second bill brought in by Villemain, and he replied to Dupin, who demanded the punishment of thebishops: "We are the sons of thecrusaders; and we shall never yield to the sons of Voltaire"; then again he took an active part in the discussion of the bill, which owing to Villemain'smental infirmity was abandoned. Between 1845 and 1846 he solicited petitions among thelaity in support of liberty ofeducation, and he succeeded in having 140 supporters ofeducational liberty elected as deputies in 1846. In 1847 he renewed the attack on the bill introduced by Salvandy and declared it unacceptable. The July monarchy fell before the question was settled. The Revolution of 1848 respected therights of theChurch andPius IX, 26 March, 1848, wrote to Montalembert: "We gladly believe that it is in part owing to your eloquence, which has endeared your name to your generous countrymen, that no harm has been done to religion or itsministers".

Under the Second Republic Montalembert, in reply to Victor Hugo, who criticized the sending of a French expedition to aidPius IX, declared amid the applause of two-thirds of the Constituent Assembly that theChurch is "a mother, the mother ofEurope, the mother of modernsociety". Once more he took up the struggle for liberty ofeducation; in 1849, together withDupanloup he was the chief instigator of the negotiations between theCatholics and a number of liberals such asThiers, which resulted in spite of the sharp attacks ofLouis Veuillot in the definitive grant of liberty ofeducation by the Falloux Law. When in October, 1850, Montalembert went toRome,Pius IX congratulated him, andcaused him to be named Civis Romanis by the municipality ofRome. After the Coup d'Etat, 2 Dec., 1851 in an open letter to the "Univers", he invited theCatholics to rally toLouis Napoleon; this manifesto, which he afterwards regretted, was the result of anidea he had that it was unwholesome forCatholics to abstain from taking part in the life of the State. But when in 1852 he had appealed in vain toLouis Napoleon to abrogate theorganic articles, to grant liberty of highereducation, and freedom of association, he refused to enter the Senate. He was deputy forBesançon to the legislature of 1852-1857, but failed to be re-elected in 1857 owing to the defection of manyCatholic voters. He cut himself off entirely fromLouis Veuillot and the "Univers", which he thought accepted with too great complacency all the acts of the new government curtailing certain political liberties.

The break began in 1852 when Montalembert's pamphlet "Les Intérêts Catholiques au XIXeme Siàcle" was attacked byDom Guéranger andLouis Veuillot; it became more marked in 1855 when Montalembert, taking from Lenormant's hands the management of the "Correspondant", which had at the time only 672 subscribers, made that review an organ of the political opposition, and took up the side known as "liberal" in contradistinction to the views supported by the "Univers". As an organ of the opposition "Le Correspondant" was often at odds with the imperial government: in 1858 an article Montalembert wrote entitled "Un débat sur l'Inde au Parlement anglais" led to his prosecution, and in spite of the defence set up by Benyer and Dufaure he was sentenced to three months'imprisonment, which the emperor remitted. In 1859 his article on "Pie IX et la France en 1849 et 1859", in which he attacked the partiality of the empire towardsItaly and all the opponents of the temporal power, caused some disquiet in court circles, and won for him the congratulations ofPius IX. His two letters to Cavour, Oct., 1860, and April 1861, in which he attacked the centralizing spirit of those who were bringing about Italian unity, and took up the defence of theHoly See, drew fromPius IX the enthusiastic exclamation of "Vivat, vivat! our dear Montalembert has surpassed himself". But the hostility between the "Correspondant" and the "Univers" was growing, and in the heat of the struggle Montalembert wished to profit by the Congress ofBelgianCatholics atMechlin (August, 1863) to pour out his wholesoul concerning the future of modernsociety and theChurch.

His first speech aimed to show the necessity ofChristianizing the democracy by accepting modern liberties. His second speech dealt with liberty ofconscience, and the conclusion he drew was that theChurch could be in perfect harmony with religious liberty and with the modern state which is founded on that liberty, and that everyone is free to hold that the modern state is to be preferred to the one which preceded it. The future Cardinal Pie,Bishop ofPoitiers, the futureCardinal Ledochowski, Nuncio atBrussels, Mr. Talbot, Chamberlain toPius IX,Louis Veuillot, and theJesuits who edited the "Civiltà Cattolica" were alarmed at these declarations. On the other hand Cardinal Sterckx,Archbishop ofMechlin, the future Cardinals Guibert andLavigerie, many well-knownParisJesuits, such as Pàres de Ponlevoy,Olivaint, Matignon, and especiallyBishop Dupanloup ofOrléans, supported him and took up his defence. At the end of March, 1864, he received a letter fromCardinal Antonelli finding fault with theMechlin speeches. When, on 8 Dec., 1864, theEncyclical "Quanta Cura" and the Syllabus were issued, Montalembert resisted the advice given him by theProtestant Léon de Malleville to protest publicly against these pontifical documents as a political measure; and the commentary on the Syllabus whichDupanloup published, andPius IX approved of, 4 Dec., 1865, met with hisjoyous adhesion.

When theVatican Council drew near he feared that the council would infer from the Syllabus and define asarticles of faith certain affirmative propositions concerning liberty and touching on the State. He encouraged the authors of the Coblenz manifesto who raiseddoubts as to the opportuneness of theinfallibility question, and he drew up under the heading "Questions au futur concile" a great number of disquieting grievances which he circulated among thebishops. The three hundred pages he wished to insert in the "Correspondant" on the causes of Spanish decadence, and in which he made a lively attack on the "Civiltà Cattolica", were refused by the "Correspondant", and so Montalembert broke off his connexion with that review.

His letter to the lawyer Lallemand, published in the "Gazette do France", 7 March, 1870, was intended to reconcile his former "ultramontanism" with his present state of feeling, which had been styled Gallicanism. In that letter he spoke of "The idol which the laytheologians of absolutism had set up in the Vatican". The impression left by this letter, which Abbé Combalot in thepulpit of San Andrea della Valle styled a "satanic work, was still fresh in the mind ofPius IX, when Montalembert died, 13 March, 1870.Pius IX refused to allow a solemn service to be held for him in the Ara Coeli; but a few days later he gave orders that an office should be sung in Santa Maria Transpontina, and he attended there himself in one of the barred galleries.

The letter (published very much later) which on 28 September, 1869, he wrote to M. Hyacinthe Loyson to dissuade him from leaving theChurch, is in the opinion of M. Emile Ollivier "one of the most pathetic appeals that ever came from the human heart"; and the future Cardinal Perraud, when pronouncing the panegyric of Montalembert in theSorbonne, could say that even his latest writings, however daring they might be, were filled with "a noble passion oflove for theChurch".

A member of theFrench Academy from 9 January, 1851 Montalembert was both an orator and a historian. As early as 1835 he had planned to write a life ofSt. Bernard. He was led to publish in 1860, under the title "Les Moines d'Occident", two volumes on the origin of monasticism; then followed three volumes on themonks inEngland; he died before he reached the period of St. Bernard. But he left among his papers, on the one hand, amanuscript entitled "Influence de l'ordre monastique sur la noblesse féodale et la société laïque jusqu'à la fin du XIe siàcle", and on the other hand a work onGregory VII and theconflict of investitures; and these twomanuscripts, published in 1877 by his friend Foisset and his son-in-law the Vicomte de Meaux, made up the sixth and seventh volume of the "Moines d'Occident". His work on "L'Avenir politique de l'Angleterre", published in 1856, drew a brilliant picture of the parliamentary institutions ofEngland, and rejoiced in the ascendant march ofCatholicity in the British Empire.

Finally, Montalembert was one of the writers who did most to foster inEurope regard and taste for Gothic Art. His letter to Victor Hugo on "Vandalisme en France", published 1 March, 1833, made a strong impression everywhere, and helped to save many Gothic monuments from impending ruin.Auguste Reichensperger and theCatholics ofRhenish Prussia profited by the artistic lessons of Montalembert. In 1838 he addressed to the Frenchclergy an eloquent appeal, in which he praised the Germanschool ofOverbeck, and lamented thatFrenchChristian art was debased bypagan infiltrations. He interested himself in the dilapidated condition of theCathedral of Notre Dame, and caused the House of Peers in 1845 to vote a sum of money to repair it. His speech on vandalism in works of art, before the same assembly, 27 June, 1847, denounced the demolitions andignorant restorations carried on by government architects, and brought about a change for the better. It was partly due to him that in 1837 the Historical Committee of Arts and Monuments, for the preserving of works of art, was established; and on the other hand,churchmen laid such weight on his artistic opinions, that even from far-off Kentucky Mgr Flaget,Bishop of Bardstown, wrote to him asking him to draw up a plan for thecathedral he was about to build atLouisville.

Montalembert's "Speeches" have been published in three volumes; his "Polemics" in three volumes also.

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