Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/90

 LACORDAIRE doubtless, prepared his return to the Catholic faith, his aim being to revive society by the instrumentality of religion and the church. While in the seminary his ardent piety was alike dissatisfied with the Cartesian philosophy and the Gallican liberties, the former granting too much to human reason, the latter verging to schism, neither being absolute enough. Yet he preserved in his new calling all the love of liberty which had animated his youth, linking it with the vital idea of Christianity, and his peculiar tendencies attracted the notice of his superiors both before and soon after he was ordained to the priesthood in 1827. He was appointed successively chaplain in a convent, in the college of Juilly, and in that of Henry IV. At Juilly he formed the acquaintance of Lamennais, who then advocated extreme ultra- montanism in religion and radicalism in poli- tics ; and his doctrines had such an influence on Lacordaire, that he has been called " one of Lamennais's best works." In 1830 Lacordaire and Montalembert associated themselves with Lamennais in founding ISAvenir, a journal whose motto was Lieu et la liberte, and which was devoted to the maintenance of the abso- lute authority both of the pope and the people. The -bold theories and violent tone of this jour- nal caused the editors to be brought before the civil courts, where Lacordaire's eloquence ob- tained a verdict of acquittal. He thereupon demanded that his name should be placed on the list of advocates ; but the court decided that this was not consistent with his priestly functions. With Montalembert and De Coux he immediately opened a free school without the authorization of the government. The school was closed by the police, and Montalembert, happening just then to become by his father's death a peer of France, was summoned togeth- er with his associates before the chamber of peers, to answer for their infraction of the law. They spoke each in his own defence, and were sentenced to pay a fine. The political and re- ligious reforms advocated by L'Avenir were condemned by Gregory XVI. in September, 1832. Lamennais, who had gone to Rome with the other editors for the purpose of averting this blow, replied to it shortly after- ward by publishing his Paroles d'un croyant. But the others submitted to the papal sentence, and Lacordaire, separating himself for ever from Lamennais, wrote a pamphlet declaring his unqualified obedience to the Roman see. In 1834 he began his first course of lectures (conferences) in the chapel attached to the col- lege Stanislas. Though severely censured by many, their impression on young men par- ticularly was so great that Archbishop De Qu61en invited the preacher to deliver the Lenten course in the cathedral of Notre Dame in 1835. His sermons were admired not less for their literary excellence and a sort of ro- mantic tone, than for their religious fervor. "He knows more of literature," said a se- vere critic, "than of history, more of history than of philosophy, and more of philosophy or even politics than of religion;" and in his conferences all the social questions which had recently agitated France were discussed with an ability and splendor of style that attracted the most eminent men of letters. After two years of success, he again went to Rome in 1836, for the purpose, as was said, of study- ing theology, and there wrote his Lettre sur le mint siege, a solemn argument and protest r'nst the doctrines of ISAvenir. He had ady conceived the plan of reviving or founding 'a religious order in France, and after preaching in 1838 in Notre Dame he returned again to Rome, entered the order of the Do- minicans and the convent of the Minerva, passed his novitiate in the convent of Quer- cia, wrote his Vie de Saint Dominique (Paris, 1840 ; new ed., 1858 ; translated into Span- ish, Polish, and German), and in 1841 resumed his chair at Notre Dame, a friar preacher with shaved head and white robe. He preached afterward in the principal cities of France, reestablishing the order of Dominicans, and displaying a new style of eloquence, which excited at once surprise and enthusiasm. On the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, be- ing elected to the constituent assembly, he ap- peared there in his Dominican habit, and took his place on "the mountain," two benches from Lamennais, but soon gave in his resig- nation when he found that his reconstruc- tive theories would have little chance in the conflicts of partisan politics. On Feb. 10, 1853, he preached a charity sermon in the church of St. Roch in behalf of the city poor schools. His theme was the formation of true manhood by education. He said toward the conclusion: "He who uses base means even for a good purpose, even for the salva- tion of his country, is still a scoundrel. There is no need of an army to stop my speech ; a single armed man is sufficient. But God has given me, for defending my words and the truth that is in *hem, a something which can withstand all the empires of earth." He was commanded forthwith to quit Paris. He re- signed shortly afterward his office of pro- vincial of the Dominicans in France, ceased to preach in public, and devoted himself ex- clusively to the direction of the college of So- reze, which belonged to himself. He wrote in 1858 that the new provincial and the general of his order had completely set him aside, and were laboring to ruin his influence among the French Dominicans. After the death of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lacordaire was elected his suc- cessor by the French academy ; and in his in- augural discourse, Feb. 2, 1860, he made a glowing panegyric of American free institu- tions. Till the end of his life he united with Montalembert and Bishop Dupanloup in de- nouncing Louis Veuillot's manner of defend^ ing the interests of the Roman Catholic church. Among his works are : Considerations philoso- pUques sur le systeme de M. de Lamennais