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The French Cardinals and Leo XIII's Ralliement Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

James E. Ward
James E. Ward
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
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Extract

One of the most noteworthy and controversial efforts undertaken during the long and memorable pontificate of Leo XIII was the so-called Ralliement policy by which the Pope sought to terminate the Church-State struggle in France which had become so acute in the eighteen-eighties. Almost from the time he ascended the Throne of Peter in 1878 Leo XIII had begun making discreet efforts to mend the widening breach between the Church and the republican regime which France had adopted in 1870 after the destruction of the Second Empire on the battlefield of Sedan. In the early eighteen-nineties this papal effort was intensified to the point where it took on the character of an official policy and helped to foster a movement—a movement opposed from the first by a resistance to which, after a limited success, it finally succumbed in the course of the Dreyfus affair at the turn of the century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1964 , pp. 60 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1964

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References

1. Baunard, Mgr., Le cardinal Lavigerie, 2 vols. (Paris, 1912)Google Scholar; Tournier, J., Le cardinal Lavigerie et son action politique, 1863–1892 (Paris, 1913)Google Scholar; Ferrata, Dominique, Mémoires: ma nonciatare en France (Paris, 1922)Google Scholar. The Cardinal Richard papers utilized in this article are preserved in the archives of the Archdiocese of Paris.

2. Ferrata, , Mémoires, pp. 43–50.Google Scholar

3. Ferrata, , Mémoires, p. 46.Google Scholar

4. Ferrata, , Mémoires, p. 51.Google Scholar

5. Lecanuet, Edouard, L'Eglise de France sous la Troisième République, 4 vols. (Paris, 1930), IV, pp. 75–77Google Scholar gives a biographical sketch of Foulon; the quotation is on p. 15. See also the Vatican directory, La Gerarchia Cattolica … per l'anno 1890 (Rome, 1889), p. 192Google Scholar. For an indication of Foulon's standing with the French government see notes kept by the Ministry of Religious Affairs at the Archives Nationales, hereafter cited as Arch. Nat., in liasse F19–2002.

6. Clément, Maurice, Vie du cardinal Richard archevêque de Paris (Paris, 1923)Google ScholarOdelin, Mgr., Le cardinal Richard, 1819–1908 souvenirs (Paris, 1922).Google Scholar

7. See Richard's dossier kept by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Arch. Nat., F19–2557.

8. Tournier, , Lavigerie, p. 254.Google Scholar

9. On Richard's arrival in Rome see Le Temps, Dec. 29, 1889, p. 3, col. 1, and Dec. 30, 1889, p. 1, col. 1Google Scholar. On Richard's departure see the cardinal's letter of Jan. 18, 1890, to Ambassador BÉhaine, appended to Béhaine to Spuller, Dispatch No. 17, Rome, Jan. 23, 1890, in the archives of the French Foreign Ministry, cited hereafter as Arch. Aff. Etr.

10. Langénieux to Richard, Rheims, Dec. 7, 1890.

11. Guédon, François, “Une étape vers le ralliement: l'encyclique Nobilissima Gallorum gens,” in Les Lettres, 02 1, 1924, pp. 167–194Google Scholar, and March 1, 1924, pp. 355–377.

12. Béhaine to Spuller, Telegram No. 6, Rome, January 13, 1890, Arch. Aff. Etr.

13. See records of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Arch. Nat., F19–2610.

14. Béhaine to Spuller, Dispatch No. 271, Rome, December 29, 1889, Arch. Aff. Efr.

15. Rampolla to Rotelli, Rome, January 15, 1890 (copy given Foreign Minister Spuller), Arch. Aff. Fir.

16. Langénieux to Richard, Rheims, January 29, 1890.

17. See Langénieux's dossier kept by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Arch, Nat., F19–2566.

18. Frewinet to Béhaine, Telegram, Paris, April 23, 1886; Charmes to Béhaine, Telegram, Paris, April 27, 1886; Freycinet to Béhaine, Telegram, Paris, May 6, 1886, Arch. Aff. Fir.

19. Tournier, , Lavigerie, pp. 255, 256.Google Scholar

20. Tournier, , Lavigerie, p. 256.Google Scholar

21. La Gerarchia Cattolica … per l'anno 1890 (Rome, 1890), pp. 65, 66Google Scholar; Tournier, , Lavigerie, p. 254Google Scholar. On Desprez's activity in the 1889 electoral campaign see Arch. Nat., F19–2610. On Desprez's confinement to Toulouse for reasons of health see Desprez to Richard, Toulouse, April 15, 1891.

22. Rampolla to Richard, Rome, February 22, 1890; Richard to Rampolla, Paris, February 26, 1890.

23. Foulon to Richard, Lyons, March 17, 1890.

24. Langénieux to Richard, Rheims, March 29, 1890.

25. Richard wrote this memorandum on his reply of April 3, 1890, at the top of the letter Foulon wrote him on Mar 17, 1890.

26. Foulon to Richard, Lyons, April 5, 1890.

27. Langénieux to Richard, Rheims, April 9, 1890.

28. Place to Richard, Rome, May 14, 1890.

29. Place to Richard, Rennes, June 10, 1890.

30. Richard to Rampolla, Paris, November 16, 1890; Ranipolla to Richard, Rome, December 2, 1890.