Louis de bonald biography

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more &#; all for only $

French statesman, writer, and philosopher, b. at Monna, near Millau, in Rouergue (Aveyron) 2 October, ; d. at Paris, 23 November, He was educated by the Oratorians at the College of Juilly; joined the king's musketeers, returned to his own province in , was elected mayor of Millau in , and in was chosen member of the departmental Assembly for Aveyron. He resigned in , emigrated, became a soldier in the army of Condé, and, when the army was disbanded, retired to Heidelberg, where he took charge of the education of his two elder sons.

Bonald published at Constance, in , his first work: "Théorie du pouvoir politique et religieux", which was suppressed in France by order of the Directory. In Bonald returned to France under the name of Saint-Séverin, and published "Essai analytique sur les lois naturelles de l'ordre social" (); "Du divorce" (); and "La législation primitive" (). He also collaborated with Chateaubriand and others in the "Mercurede France", contributing several articles which were published in book form with other studies in under the title "Mélanges littéraires, politiques, et philosophiques". In he declined to be a member of the Council of the University, but finally accepted in He refused to take charge of the education of the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and of the King of Rome, the son of Napoleon I.

A monarchist and royalist by nature and by principles, Bonald welcomed the restoration of the Bourbons. He was appointed a member of the Academy by royal decree in From to he served as deputy from Aveyron, and in became a peer of France. He then directed his efforts against all attempts at liberalism in religion and politics. The law against divorce was proposed by him in and passed in He took a prominent part in the law of which did away with the liberty of the press and established a committee of censure of which he was the president. In he published his "Réflexions sur l'intérêt général de l'Europe"; in , "Pensées sur divers sujets" in 2 vols. 8 vo. (2d., Paris, ); in "Recherches philosophiques sur les premiers objets des connaisances morales"; in , "Démonstration philosophique du principe constitutif des sociétés". Meanwhile he collaborated with Chateaubriand, Lamennais, and Berryer, in the "Conservateur", and later in the "Défenseur" founded by Lamennais. In he gave up his peerage and led a life of retirement in his native city. — "There is not to be found in the long career", says Jules Simon, "one action which is not consistent with his principles, one expression which belies them."