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 MONTALEMBERT

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MONTALEMBERT

with Dupanloup he was the chief instigator of the negotiations between the Cathohcs and a number of liberals such as Thiers, which resulted in spite of the sharp attacks of Louis Vcuillot in the definitive grant of liberty of ciluiation by the Falloux Law. When in October, lsr), Montalembert went to Rome, Pius IX congratulated liini, and caused him to be named Civis Romanus by the municipality of Rome. After the Coup d'Etat, 2 Dec, 1851, in an open letter to the "Univers", he invited'the Catholics to rally to Louis Napoleon; this manifesto, which he afterwards re- gretted, was the result of an idea he had that it was un- wholesome for Catholics to abstain from taking part in the life of the State. But when in 1852 he had ap- pealed in vain to Louis Napoleon to abrogate the or- ganic articles, to grant liberty of higher education, and freedom of association, he refused to enter the Senate. He was deputy for Besan^on to the legislature of 1852- 1857, but failed to be re-elected in 1857 owing to the defection of many Catholic voters. He cut himself off entirely from Louis Veuillot and the "Univers", which he thought accepted with too great compla- cency all the acts of the new government curtailing certain political liberties.

The break began in 1852 when Montalembert's pamphlet "Les Int^rets Catholiques au XlXeme Siecle" was attacked by Dom Gudranger and Louis Veuillot; it became more marked in 1855 when Mon- talembert, taking from Lenormant's hands the man- agement 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 sup- ported by the "Univers". As an organ of the oppo- sition " Le Correspondant" was often at odds with the imperial government: in 1858 an article Montalem- bert wrote entitled "Un debat sur I'Inde au Parle- ment anglais" led to his prosecution, and in spite of the defence set up by Berryer 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 towards Italy and all the op- ponents of the temporal power, caused some disquiet in court circles, and won for him the congratulations of Pius 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 the Holy See, drew from Pius 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 strug- gle Mdiilalciiihcrt wislieil to profit by the Congress of Hclniaii C;itli(.lics;it Mechlin (August, 1863) to pour out his whole soul concerning the future of modern society and the Church.

His first speech aimed to show the necessity of Christianizing the democracy by accepting modern liberties. His second speech dealt with liberty of conscience, and the conclusion he drew was that the Church could be in perfect harmony with religious lib- erty 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 pre- ceded it. The future Cardinal Pie, Bishop of Poitiers, the future Cardinal Ledochowski, Nuncio at Brussels, Mgr. Talbot, Chamberlain to Pius IX, Louis Veuillot, and the Jesuits who edited the "CiviUA Cattolica" were alarmed at these declarations. On the other hand Cardinal Sterck, Archbishop of Mechlin, the fu- ture Cardinals Guibert and Lavigerie, many well- known Paris Jesuits, such as Peres de Ponlevoy, Oli- vaint, Matignon, and especially Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans, supjiiirted him and took up his defence. At the end of March, 1864, he received a letter from Car- dinal Antonelli finding fault with the Mechlia

speeches. When, on 8 Dec, 1864, the Encychcal "Quanta Cura" and the Syllabus were issued, Monta- lembert resisted the advice given him by the Protes- tant I^eon de Malleville to protest pufjlicly against these pontifical documents as a political measure; and the commentary on the Syllabus which Dupanloup published, and Pius IX approved of, 4 Feb., 1865, met with his joyous adhesion.

When the Vatican Council drew near he feared that the council would infer from the Syllabus and define as articles of faith certain affirmative propositions con- cerning liberty and touching on the State. He en- couraged the authors of the Coblenz manifesto who raised doubts as to the opportuneness of the infallibil- ity question, and he drew up under the heading "Ques- tions au futur concile" a great number of disquieting grievances which he circulated among the bi.shops. The three hundred pages he wLshed to insert in the "Correspondant" on the causes of Spanish decadence, and in which he made a hvely attack on the "CiviltA 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 de France", 7 March, 1870, was in- tended 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 lay theologians of absolutism had set up in the Vatican". The impression left by this letter, which Abb(5 Combalot in the pulpit of San Andrea della Valle styled a "satanic work", was .still fresh in the mind of Pius IX, when Montalembert, died, 13 March, 1870. Pius IX refused to allow a solemn ser- vice to be held for him in the Ara Cceli; 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 the Church, is in the opin- ion of M. Emile Ollivier "one of the most pathetic ap- peals that ever came from the human heart": and the future Cardinal Perraud, when pronouncing the pane- gyric of Montalembert in the Sorbonne, could say that even his latest writings, however daring they might be, were filled with "a noble passion of love for the Church".

A member of the French Academy from 9 January, 1851, Montalembert was both an orator and a histo- rian. As early as 1835 he had planned to write a life of St. Bernard. He was led to pubhsh in 1860, under the title "Les Moines d'Occident", two volumes on the origin of monasticism; then followed three volumes on the monks in England; he died before he reached the period of St. Bernard. But he left among his papers, on the one hand, a manuscript entitled "Influence de I'ordre monastique sur la noblesse feodale et la soci<5t6 laique jusqu'^ la fin du Xl^me siecle", and on the other hand a work on Gregory VII and the conflict of investitures; and these two MSS., 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 po- litique de I'Angleterre", published in 1856, drew a brilliant picture of the parliamentary institutions of England, and rejoiced in the ascendant march of Cath- olicity in the British Empire.

Finally, Montalembert was one of the writers who did most to foster in Europe regard and taste for Gothic Art,. His letter to Victor Hugo on "Vanda^ lisme en France", published 1 March, 1833, made a strong impression everywhere, and helped to save many Gothic monuments from impending ruin. Auguste Heic-hensperger and the Catholics of Rhenish Pru.ssia j)roiil<'il by the artistic lessons of Mdulalein- bert. In 1838 he addressed to the French clergy an