Les Dames de la Ligue des Femmes françaises (1901-1914) (review)

Bruno Dumons' study of the Ligue des Femmes françaises (LFF) contributes significantly to our understanding of modern French political culture and religious history. He demonstrates that diverse paths gave French women access to the public sphere in the early twentieth century. One of those paths was intransigent Ultramontane Catholicism. Dumons' work is based on exhaustive research in national and departmental archives, and a vast periodical literature. He also had access to the personal archives of the Ligue's founder. He constructs a comprehensive portrait of the Ligue's origins, milieus, members, methods of communication, doctrines, and mentalités. This analysis reveals a group of elite women dedicated to the defense of Catholicism, eager to participate in the re-Christianization of France, hoping to transform society and the Republic.

Dumons explores the multiple contexts from which the Ligue emerged in 1901. Its founders, Jeanne Lestra and the Countess Saint-Laurent, were members of Lyons' most prominent families. This elite combined land-owning aristocrats and wealthy bourgeois. Dumons stresses that the Ligue's strength was centered in Lyons and the adjacent rural southeast. A counterrevolutionary heritage amplified and supported a vibrant commitment to intransigent Ultramontane Catholicism. For the Lyonnais elite the principal guide to this passionate faith was the Jesuit Order, which staffed the exclusive schools, organized lay associations, and provided confessors. Jeanne Lestra's personal Jesuit confessor advised her closely during the first two years of the Ligue's existence. Its growth depended on aristocratic women in rural settings with strong royalist and Catholic attachments.

The anti-Republican sentiments of these elite women were aroused in the 1890's by the Dreyfus Affair, the republicans' political success, and the Radical Republicans' promotion of anticlerical legislation. In 1900 the Chamber of Deputies began discussion of a bill that would reduce regulations on the formation of non-religious organizations, but would regularize and increase the state's control over the growing number of religious houses (Congrégations). Anticlerical republicans used this legislation, enacted in May of 1901, to close teaching orders and restrict Catholic education. The Ligue des Femmes françaises was founded in order to respond to this threat.

The Ligue permitted organized Catholic women to intervene actively in the legislative campaign of 1902 despite their exclusion from the vote. Through local committees elite women held meetings, wrote for local papers, organized petitions, demonstrated publicly, and, most important, solicited funds. The Ligue insisted that it was above politics, unaffiliated with any particular party. They distributed their not insignificant funds to any candidate who was not a Freemason and who supported the "defense of religion." This intense electoral activity led to two serious problems. The first was internal disagreements. The prestigious Paris committee sought a direct affiliation with the recently created Catholic conservative party. In 1902 the Paris committee formed a separate organization, the Ligue patriotique des Françaises, which retained its affiliation with the conservative party. The two leagues remained rivals until 1933, when under Church pressure they merged. Until then they competed for members, for funds, and especially for episcopal and papal recognition. The Lyonnais Ligue prided itself on its provincial strength, its political independence, its strong clerical ties, and its increasing commitment to spirituality.

Spirituality was the Ligue's dominant response to the second dilemma resulting from the 1902 elections—the victory of its archenemy, the Radical Republicans. Significant leadership changes followed this outcome: the Jesuit advisor was forced by his superiors in Rome to abandon his involvement, and the Ligue's founder Jeanne Listra retired from activity for three years. Following the directives of the new Pope, Pius X, elected in 1903, the LFF pursued more traditional female activities—good works and prayer. Dumons is especially successfully in exploring the spirituality practiced by the women of the Ligue. Central to the emphasis on prayer was their adoration of the Sacred Heart with its royalist tradition, increasing Eucharistic devotions...