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7. César-Guillaume La Luzerne
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César-Guillaume La Luzerne ‒ A Respected Scholar-Bishop 23 One of the few greatly admired bishops of France in his time, César-Guillaume La Luzerne had a distinguished career in the Church before the Revolution, was for a while a leader in the Revolution before going into exile, and wrote several books on religious and political topics, including a closely reasoned defense of the Gallican Declaration .1 A gifted member of a noble family of Normandy , La Luzerne became agent-general of the Clergy of France in only three years after ordination and was made bishop of Langres by Louis XV in .2 When the Revolution began, La Luzerne, though devoted through- . The one readily available source on the life and work of La Luzerne is L. Marchal’s article in DTC, .:–. H. Hurter, S.J., offers a brief entry on him in Nomenclator literarius recentioris theologiae catholicae (Oenoponte: Libraria AcademicaWagneriana, ), :–. . Concerning the role of the agent-general of the Clergy of France, see John McManners, Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France (NewYork: Oxford University Press, ), :–. Much interesting information on this is given in Louis S. Greenbaum, Talleyrand, Statesman Priest:The Agent-General of the Clergy and the Church of France at the End of the Old Regime (Washington,D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, ). See also Roland Mousnier, The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, – (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ), :–. out his life to the traditional monarchy, concurred with many of the demands of the revolutionaries.3 He knew that there had been many injustices and abuses of power and that France deserved and needed better government. Unlike many other monarchists, he understood that calling for the reform of abuses does not mean that one wants to undermine authority. Rather, to want reform means to want the authority “to be respected, blessed, cherished, and no longer the object of murmurs and the pretext of complaints,” but “to be more stable and strengthened.”4 For a few months in he served as president of the new National Assembly, but as the Revolution steadily became more radical, with more tendencies toward violence, he resigned and soon went into many years of exile. He refused to return to France during Napoleon’s rule, for he could not accept the emperor as the legitimate ruler of France. Finally returning in , he was welcomed back to his see and was greatly honored by Louis XVIII, who persuaded PiusVII to make him a cardinal in . La Luzerne keenly pursued many intellectual interests all his life and devoted his writing talents especially to defending the Catholic faith in an age of turmoil and unbelief.The enforced leisure of exile enabled him to write extensively. Some of his major works include his Dissertations sur la vérité de la religion, sur les prophéties, sur l’existence et attributes de Dieu, etc. ( vols., Langres, –) and his Explication des évangiles ( vols., Lyons, ). Recognized as an eloquent defender of the Church and of the primacy of spiritual values over political , Cardinal La Luzerne was also respected as an able proponent of the Gallican ecclesiology. Edgar Hocedez notes that as “a zealous prelate and orator of renown,” he was “among the most illustrious defenders of this doctrine.”5 In particular, Henri Maret, one of the few defenders of Gallicanism left by the time ofVatican I, considered César-Guillaume La Luzerne . Joseph Charonnot, Mgr. de La Luzerne et les serments pendant la Révolution (Paris: August Picard, ), esp. –. . Charonnot quotes these ideas from La Luzerne but does not cite the specific source. . Edgar Hocedez, S.J., Histoire de la théologie au XIXe siècle (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, ), :. [3.238.228.191] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:06 GMT) La Luzerne second only to Bossuet in this respect and cited him frequently in his book on the general council. He was especially impressed by the cardinal’s “merciless criticism” (critique impitoyable) of the notion of ex cathedra pronouncements.6 Joseph Charonnot is apologetic about the Gallicanism of La Luzerne and urges his readers to remember that the bishop was really always very devoted to the Holy See, especially against its revolutionary and schismatic enemies.“By word and example,” he says in a summary sentence, “La Luzerne was an apologist for the rights and jurisdictional primacy of the Sovereign Pontiff.”7 He says that Pius VII recognized the piety and zeal of La Luzerne and quite willingly acquiesced in the king’s request...