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ENFANTIN, BARTHELEMY PROSPER (1796—1864)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 403 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ENFANTIN, See also:BARTHELEMY PROSPER (1796—1864) , See also:French social reformer, one of the founders of See also:Saint-Simonism, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 8th of See also:February 1996. He was the son of a banker of Daunhiny, and after receiving his See also:early See also:education at alyceum, was sent in 1813 to the 1cole Polytechnique. In See also:March 1814 he was one of the See also:band of students who, on the heights of Montmartre and Saint-Chaumont, attempted resistance to the armies of the See also:allies then engaged in the investment of Paris. In consequence of this outbreak of patriotic See also:enthusiasm, the school was soon after closed by See also:Louis XVIII., and the See also:young student was compelled to seek some other career instead of that of the soldier. He first engaged himself to a See also:country See also:wine See also:merchant, for whom he travelled in See also:Germany, See also:Russia and the See also:Netherlands. In 1821 he entered a banking-See also:house newly established at St See also:Petersburg, but returned two years later to Paris, where he was appointed See also:cashier to the Caisse Hypothecaire. At the same See also:time he became a member of the See also:secret society of the See also:Carbonari. In 1825 a new turn was given to his thoughts and his See also:life by the friendship which he formed with Olinde See also:Rodriguez, who introduced him to Saint-See also:Simon. He embraced the new doctrines with ardour, and by 1829 had become one of the acknowledged heads of the See also:sect (see SAINT-SIMON). After the Revolution of 1830 Enfantin resigned his See also:office of cashier, and devoted himself wholly to his cause. Besides contributing to the Globe newspaper, he made appeals to the See also:people by systematic See also:preaching, and organized centres of See also:action in some of the See also:principal cities of See also:France. The headquarters in Paris were removed from the modest rooms in the See also:Rue Taranne, and established in large halls near the See also:Boulevard Italien.

Enfantin and See also:

Bazard (q.v.) were proclaimed " Peres Supremes." This See also:union of the supreme fathers, however, was only nominal. A divergence was already See also:manifest, which rapidly increased to serious difference and dissension. Bazard had devoted himself to See also:political reform, Enfantin to social and moral See also:change; Bazard was organizer and See also:governor, Enfantin was teacher and consoler; the former attracted reverence, the latter love. A hopeless antagonism arose between them, which was widened by Enfantin's announcement of his theory of the relation of See also:man and woman, which would substitute for the " tyranny of See also:marriage " a See also:system of "See also:free love." Bazard now separated from his colleague; and in his withdrawal was followed by all those whose See also:chief aim was philosophical and political. Enfantin thus became See also:sole "See also:father," and the few who were chiefly attracted by his religious pretensions and aims still adhered to him. New converts joined them, and Enfantin assumed that his followers in France numbered 40,000. He wore on his See also:breast a badge with his See also:title of " Pere," was spoken of by his preachers as " the living See also:law," declared, and probably believed, himself to be the chosen of See also:God, and sent out emissaries in a quest of a woman predestined to be the "See also:female See also:Messiah," and the See also:mother of a new Saviour. The quest was very costly and altogether fruitless. No such woman was discoverable. Meanwhile believers in Enfantin and his new See also:religion were multiplying in all parts of See also:Europe. His extravagances and success at length brought down upon him the See also:hand of the law. Public morality was in peril, and in May 183 2 the halls of the new sect were closed by the See also:government, and the father, with some of his followers, appeared before the tribunals.

He now retired to his See also:

estate at Menilmontant, near Paris, where with See also:forty disciples, all of them men, he continued to carry out his socialistic views. In See also:August of the same See also:year he was again arrested, and on his See also:appearance in See also:court he desired his See also:defence to be undertaken by two See also:women who were with him, alleging that the See also:matter was of See also:special concern to women. This was of course refused. The trial occupied two days and resulted in a See also:verdict of guilty, and a See also:sentence of imprisonment for a year with a small See also:fine. This See also:prosecution finally discredited the new society. Enfantin was released in a few months, and then, accompanied by some of his followers, he went to See also:Egypt. He stayed there two years, and might have entered the service of the See also:viceroy if he would have professed himself, as a few of his See also:friends did, a See also:Mahommedan. On his return to France, a sadder and practically a wiser man, he settled down to very prosaic See also:work. He became first a postmaster near See also:Lyons, and in 1841 was appointed, through the See also:influence of some of his friends who had risen to posts of See also:power, member of a scientific See also:commission on See also:Algeria, which led him to engage in researches concerning See also:North See also:Africa and colonization in See also:general. in 1845 he was appointed a director of the Paris &Lyons railway. Three years later he established, in See also:conjunction with See also:Duveyrier, a daily See also:journal, entitled Le See also:Credit, which was discontinued in 185o. He was afterwards attached to the See also:administration of the railway from Lyons to the Mediterranean.

Father Enfantin held fast by his ideal to the end, but he had renounced the See also:

hope of giving it a See also:local habitation and a name in the degenerate obstinate See also:world. His See also:personal influence over those who associated with him was immense. " He was a man of a See also:noble presence, with finely formed and expressive features. He was See also:gentle and insinuating in manner, and possessed a See also:calm, graceful and winning delivery " (Gent. Mag., See also:Jan. 1865). His evident sincerity, his genuine enthusiasm, gave him his marvellous ascendancy. Not a few of his disciples ranked afterwards amongst the most distinguished men of France. He died suddenly at Paris on the 1st of See also:September 1864. Amongst his See also:works are—Doctrine de Saint-Simon (written in See also:con-junction with several of his followers), published in 183o, and several times republished; Economic politique et politique Saint-Simonienne (1831) ; Correspondance politique (1835–1840) ; Corresp. philos. et religieuse (1843–1845) ; and La See also:Vie eternelle passee, presente, future (1861). A large number of articles by his hand appeared in Le Producteur, L'Organisateur, Le Globe, and other See also:periodicals. He also wrote in 1832 Le Livre nouveau, intended as a substitute for the See also:Christian Scriptures, but it was not published.

See G. Weill, L'Ecole Saint-Simonienne, son histoire, son influence, jusqu' a nos jours (Paris, 1896).

End of Article: ENFANTIN, BARTHELEMY PROSPER (1796—1864)

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