001281 UNIVERSITY DOTTAWA ECOLE DES GRADUES THE FRENCH LIBERAL CATHOLICS AND LOUIS VEUILLOT FROM THE SYLLABUS OF ERRORS TO THE VATICAN COUNCIL 1864-1869 Marian Joseph Kowalski Thesis presented to the Department of History of the University of Ottawa in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Toronto, Ontario, 1966 / .^SIBIUO- UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA - SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STU DIES UMI Number: EC55421 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI® UMI Microform EC55421 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 UNIVERSITE DOTTAWA ECOLE DES GRADUES CURRICULUM STUDIORUM Marian J. Kowalski was born on 1 April 1940, in Oshawa, Ontario. He received a Certificate d'etudes francaise from the Uni- versite de Bordeaux in 1962, an Honours degree in Modern History from the University of Toronto in 1964, and a M. A. in French Litera­ ture from the University of Western Ontario in 1965. The title of his Master's essay was The Vinteuil Sonata in Marcel Proust's 'Un Amour de Swana', A Study in the Profanation of Art. UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA - SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STU Dl ES UNIVERSITE DOTTAWA - ECOLE DES GRADUES PREFACE The intellectual history of the 19th century turns on the debate between liberal and conservative, between freedom and authority. Burke and Fox in England, Pebedeneostsev and Radischev ,in Russia, Hamilton and Jefferson in America, have all been concerned with the greater or lesser degree of liberty to which the body politic ought to be accommodated. But nowhere has this dialogue been con­ ducted with greater interest than in the land of de Maistre, Collard, Blanc and Barres. Since 17 89, Frenchmen have not ceased to debate the principles enshrined in the Revolutionary document known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man. With the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and the coup d'etat of 1852, the tenets of '89' became something of a national obsession. Each change in government, of which there were many, awakened an interest in the abstract principles of political theory which form the basis of statehood. This thesis is concerned with some religious aspects of this debate. Many Catholics in the France of I860 were anxious that the Church should embrace some of the principles won by the revolution­ aries of 1789- They were the Liberal Catholics who had founded their own organization in 1855. Against this group was aligned the conser- UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES UNIVERSITE DOTTAWA ECOLE DES GRADUES probably the greatest opponent that 19th century liberalism has known. This work undertakes to study the attitude of these groups in the period 1864-1869 and attempts to ascertain the role played by Louis Veuillot in the polemics between the movements. To this end it borrows a procede from the French Catholic novelist Francois Mauriac. The author of Th*erese DesquerS^ux is in the habit of introducing his characters at a time when the plot has reached the proportions of a crisis. This thesis employs a similar methodology. It begins with the Syllabus of Errors, a document that spelled despair for the Catholic liberals and triumph for their Ultramontane adversaries. It ends with the Vatican Council of 1870, when for a brief moment the positions were reversed. With Mauriac we believe that movements, like people, are more amenable to analysis during moments of great stress. I am grateful to the following people for advice and assistance in the preparation of this thesis: Dr. R. Lebrun under whose guidance the work was begun; Dr. R. Keyserlingk under whose direction it was finished; the library staff of Saint Paul's University, Saint Michael's College, Saint Basil's Seminary, the University of Ottawa, the Uni­ versity of Toronto, and the University of Western Ontario. UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA - SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION i FIRST PART I. THE END OF THE CATHOLIC PARTY 1845-1860 1 The Catholic Party and the coup d'etat 6 The liberals breakaway 13 Polemics between the groups 15 II. LOUIS VEUILLOT 21 Early Years 21 The Conversion 21 The Univers 23 Journalist, novelist, pamphleteer 24 "Le celebre M. Veuillot" 27 "L'ecole de 1'Univers" 36 in. LOUIS VEUILLOT AND THE ULTRAMONTANE MOVEMENT 39 The New Ultramontanes 39 Pio Nono 40 Philosophy, theology, education 41 'Popery' 44 Miracles and Mariology 47 Pius IX and Louis Veuillot 50 SECOND PART IV. THE LIBERAL CATHOLICS. THE CONGRESS OF MALINES 57 The "groupe de Correspondant" 57 Their ideas 61 The strength of the movement 6l The Liberal Catholic manifesto. The Congress of Malines 64 Reaction to the speech 67 Louis Veuillot and the Malines Congress 71 THE SYLLABUS OF ERRORS 73 Reaction to the Syllabus 76 Bishop Dupanloup saves the Liberal Catholic movement 79 Louis Veuillot's intrigue 84 THE "LIBERAL ILLUSION" 90 The silence of the Liberal Catholics 97 PART THE VATICAN COUNCIL 101 The confidence of the Liberal Catholics 101 Louis Veuillot and the news of the Council 104 Louis Veuillot and the Bull of Indietion 107 The despair of the Liberal Catholics 113 THE CIVILTA ARTICLE AND PETITIONS IN THE UNIVERS 118 The Civilta article 118 Petitions in the Univers 126 LOUIS VEUILLOT AND THE HYACINTHE AFFAIR 131 The Liberal Catholic's man 131 Louis Veuillot and Father Hyacinthe 132 The Apostasy 133 Veuillot's triumph 140 RUMOURS CONCERNING THE COUNCIL 146 Preparations for the Council 146 THE LIBERAL CATHOLIC MANIFESTO ON THE COUNCIL 154 Louis Veuillot's defense of Ultramontanism 158 The history of infallibility according to Veuillot-- 161 XII. LOUIS VEUILLOT VS. BISHOP DUPANLOUP THE LAST BATTLE 166 Bishop Dupanloup's 'Observations' 167 Louis Veuillot's refutation of the 'Observations'-- 174 XIII. THE MEASURE OF VEUILLOT'S SUCCESS 180 CONCLUSION 186 APPENDIX 197 BIBLIOGRAPHY 199 ABSTRACT OF Louis Veuillot and the French Liberal Catholics from the Syllabus of Errors to the Vatican Council (1864-1869) 210 UNIVERSITE DOTTAWA ECOLE DES GRADUES _ INTRODUCTION The problems to which this thesis addresses itself are two­ fold. It attempts first of all to delineate the attitudes of two conflicting schools of political thought in the 19th century French Church. Second­ ly, it proposes to ascertain the role of Louis Veuillot, editor of the Univers, in the polemics between these two groups. The study begins with the encyclical Quanta cur a and ends with the opening of the First Vatican Council. The thesis thus covers a period of about five years - from December 8, 1864 to December 8, 1869 - although something is said in the first four chapters of earlier developments in French reli­ gious and intellectual history by way of background to the period under consideration. The terminal points of this work, the Syllabus of Errors and the Vatican Council, have been chosen with a definite purpose in mind. It is the nature of intellectual history that its development is quite often slow, even imperceptible. Sometimes it is not possible to detect where one idea ends and yet another begins. (Is naturalism the work of Com te, Bernard or Zola?) Also, intellectual notions such as Christian liberalism and Ultramontanism are often vacuous; they re­ main attitudes of mind incapable of analysis until applied to concrete UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES UNIVERSITE D'OTTAWA ECOLE DES GRADUES questions. The problem of delineating intellectual systems often in­ volves a foreshortening of our perspective, it necessitates our locating a movement at a particular moment in its development. The period from December 8, 1864 to December 8, 1869 provides such a fore­ shortening -which is neither artificial nor arbitrary. It allows us to observe the Liberal Catholics and Ultramontanes during a crisis point in their development. The news of the Syllabus caused jubilation in the camps of the conservative Ultramontanes; the same news drove the liberals to desperation. When it was announced that a Council of the Church would be held in 1869, the positions were for a moment re­ versed. The five years between these important dates witnessed an incredible activity on the part of both groups. From their corres­ pondence and personal memoirs it is possible to detect the real fears and hopes of the Liberal Catholics. The Ultramontanes party during the same period was more overt in its activities. (The personal writings and newspaper articles of Louis Veuillot say pretty much the same thing.) But the excitement caused by the Syllabus of Errors - the Ultramontanes saw it as the final vindication of their cause - led the conservative Roman Catholics to formulate their policies in the most extreme form. The last twenty years (ever since the end of the Fascist experiment) have seen an incredible interest in the ultra-conservative UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA - SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STU DIES UNIVERSITE DOTTAWA ECOLE DES GRADUES philosophies of the past. Historians of the European tradition have turned from the popular liberal figures i. e. the great reformers and revolutionaries and have begun to publish monographs on their con­ servative opposites. In French historiography there has been a con­ siderable interest in the right wing figures of the Third Republic, in Barres, Maurras, Deroulede, Boulanger, and in the movements they led, the Action Francaise, and the Ligue de la Patrie Francaise.