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MONTALEMBERT, CHARLES FORBES RENE DE ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 751 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MONTALEMBERT, See also:CHARLES See also:FORBES RENE DE (1810-1870) , See also:French publicist and historian, was See also:born on the 15th of See also:March 1810. The See also:family was a very See also:ancient one, belonging to See also:Poitou, or rather to See also:Angoumois. See also:Direct descent is said to be traced back to the 13th See also:century, and charters carry the See also:history of the See also:house two centuries further. For some generations before the historian the family had been distinguished; not merely in the See also:army, but for scientific attainments. Montalembert's See also:father, Marc Rene, emigrated, fought under See also:Conde, and subsequently served in the See also:English army; he married Elise Rosee Forbes, and his eldest son, Charles, was born in See also:London. At the Restoration of 1814 Marc Rene returned to See also:France, was raised to the See also:peerage in 1819, and became See also:ambassador to See also:Sweden (where Charles completed his See also:education) in 1826. He died in 1831, a See also:year after the overthrow of the legitimate See also:monarchy. Charles de Montalembert was too See also:young to take his seat as a peer (twenty-five being the necessary See also:age), but he retained other rights, and this, combined with his See also:literary and intellectual activity, made him a See also:person of some importance. He was a Liberal, in the English sense, and had he not resolutely separated himself from the new regime on the religious question he would have approved of the policy of the See also:golden mean represented by See also:Louis Philippe. He wished to see the See also:Church See also:free from the See also:control of the See also:state, and passionately attacked the See also:monopoly of public instruction by which the monarchy fortified its position. This latter See also:scheme first brought Montalembert into See also:notice, as he was formally charged with unlicensed teaching. He claimed the right of trial by his peers, and made a notable See also:defence, of course with a deliberate intention of protest (1832).

On the other See also:

hand, he thought that the Church should not obstinately oppose new ideas. He had eagerly entered into the plans of his See also:friends, See also:Lamennais and See also:Lacordaire, and collaborated with them in the newspaper l'Avenir. The Ultramontane party was roused by their boldness, and Montalembert and his two friends then See also:left for See also:Rome. This famous See also:pilgrimage proved useless to mitigate the See also:measures which the See also:Roman See also:curia took against the l'Avenir. Its doctrines were condemned in two encyclicals (Mirari vos, 1832, and Singulari vobis, 1834), and Montalembert submitted. He still clung to his See also:early Liberalism, and in 1848 saw without regret the end of a See also:government towards which he had always been hostile. He had a seat in the Chamber of Deputies till 1857, but to his See also:great regret was then obliged to retire into private See also:life. He was still, however, recognized as one of the most formidable opponents of the See also:empire. Meanwhile his Liberal ideas had made him some irreconcilable enemies among the Ultramontanes. Louis See also:Veuillot, in his See also:paper, L' Univers, fought desperately against him. Montalembert answered by reviving a See also:review which had for some See also:time ceased publication, the Correspondant (1855), in which he set himself to fight both against the fanatical party of See also:Pius IX. and the See also:Syllabus, and the more or less free-thinking Liberals of the Revue See also:des deux mondes. He took great See also:interest in the debuts of the Liberal empire, whilst trying to See also:parry the See also:blow which the Ultramontanes were preparing to See also:deal to Liberal ideas by proclaiming in the Vatican See also:council the See also:dogma of papal See also:infallibility.

But once again he would not allow himself to be seduced from obedience to the See also:

pope; he now severed his connexion with Pere Hyacinthe (Loison) as he had with Lamennais, and made the submission expected of him to the council. It was his last fall. Broken down by the trial of these continued fights against See also:people of his own See also:religion, he died prematurely on the 13th of March 1870. In addition to being an eloquent orator, Montalembert wrote a See also:style at once picturesque, fiery and polished. He was an ardent student of the See also:middle ages, but his See also:medieval See also:enthusiasm was strongly tinctured with religious sentiments. His first See also:historical See also:work, La See also:Vie de Ste Elisabeth de Hongrie (1836), is not so much a history as a religious manifesto, which did much to restore the position of hagiography. It met with great success; but Montalembert was not elected a member of the Academie Francaise till later, after the fall of the See also:July monarchy (See also:Jan. 9, 1851). From this time he gave much of his See also:attention to a great work on monachism in the See also:West. He was at first attracted by the figure of St See also:Bernard, and devoted one See also:volume to him; this was, however, afterwards withdrawn on the See also:advice of his friend See also:Dupanloup, and the whole edition was destroyed. He then enlarged his See also:original See also:plan and published the first volumes of his Moines d'occident (186o), an eloquent work which was received with much admiration in those circles where See also:language was more appreciated than learning. The work, which was unfinished at the time of the author's See also:death, was completed later from some See also:long fragments found among his papers (vols. vi. and vii., 1877).

Montalembert married Mlle de Merode, See also:

sister of one of Pius IX.'s ministers. His daughter married the vicomte de See also:Meaux, a Roman See also:Catholic statesman and distinguished writer.

End of Article: MONTALEMBERT, CHARLES FORBES RENE DE (1810-1870)

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