-
4. Houtin’s Loisy, The Construction of a Modernist
- The Catholic University of America Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
93 C h a p te r F o u r Houtin’s Loisy The Construction of a Moder nist Harvey Hill Glory became for [Loisy] a fever with which he burned all of his life. Albert Houtin1 Fearing that their Church was becoming increasingly anachronistic, many Catholics at the beginning of the twentieth century sought to update its teachings. The ecclesiastical hierarchy condemned these efforts as “Modernism” and excommunicated the most prominent Modernists, including Alfred Loisy (1857–1940). For our purposes, the most important aspect of the Vatican’s anti-Modernist attack was its characterization of the Modernists, who were described as philosophical agnostics motivated primarily by pride and a morbid curiosity. Although Modernists posed as reformers, the papal documents claimed, they were actually enemies of the Church who remained in the Church under false pretences.2 1. La vie d’Alfred Loisy, in Alfred Loisy: Sa vie—Son oeuvre, ed. Émile Poulat (Paris: Centre national de la recherché scientifique, 1960), 11. Subsequent references to this work are embedded in the text of this chapter. 2. On the portrayal of the Modernists in the encyclical, see Émile Poulat, Critique et 94 t h e c e n t e r Like several prominent Modernists, Loisy sought to defend himself from such charges.3 Already, in 1907, the year before his excommunication , he had commissioned his friend and fellow traveler Albert Houtin (1867–1926) to write his biography. To facilitate the task, Loisy provided Houtin with private correspondence and his diary. Houtin did not produce the biography, but he did publish a history of Modernism in 1913 that included sharp criticisms of Loisy. As a result, Loisy realized that Houtin’s projected biography of him would not defend his integrity to the degree that he had hoped. Despite this realization and although he had already published his own autobiography by this time (Choses passées appeared serially in 1912 and was released integrally the next year), Loisy nonetheless continued to cooperate with Houtin, providing him with another batch of notes in 1915.4 When Houtin’s biography of Loisy did finally appear in 1960 (long after the deaths of both Houtin and Loisy), it was quite critical of Loisy and therefore initiated a new round in the debate about Loisy’s character, as Houtin had hoped and Loisy had feared it would. Scholars questioned the sincerity of Loisy’s convictions at various stages on the road to his excommunication, and Houtin’s witness was central in these debates. Particularly relevant were the numerous quotations that Houtin provided from Loisy’s diaries and letters, many of which did not appear in Loisy’s own account. Shaped as it was by a sense of personal betrayal, however, Houmystique : Autour de Loisy ou la conscience catholique et l’esprit moderne (Paris: Le Centurion, 1984), 82–88. 3. Loisy offered his perspectives on the crisis and his role in it in his autobiographical Choses passées (Paris: Emile Nourry, 1913) and Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire religieuse de notre temps, 3 vols. (Paris: Emile Nourry, 1930–1931). 4. The relationship between Loisy and Houtin is one of the oddest features of Modernism . Houtin lost all respect for Loisy in 1907, and yet he continued to act as Loisy’s friend, even campaigning on Loisy’s behalf at the Collége de France in 1908. Loisy realized that he could not trust Houtin in 1913, and yet continued to correspond and cooperate with him. Were they enemies or friends? The answer seems to be an unusual combination of both. [3.237.64.198] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:24 GMT) h o u t i n ’ s L o i s y 95 tin’s interpretation of Loisy’s life and character was unbalanced. In fact, Houtin’s biography of Loisy reveals as much about Houtin himself as it does about Loisy. The image of Loisy that he constructed was at least in part an exercise in self-justification, and it reflected both his binary mentality and his post-Catholic critical stance toward the Modernist enterprise more generally. Attention to this feature of his work on Loisy can thus clarify his own religious position and, by extension , that of the “left wing” of the Modernist movement more generally . The Mystery of Loisy’s Character In his preface to the biography, Houtin claimed to have read everything written “about [Loisy’s] undulating career and mysterious character” and to have found none of of it...