Spanish traditionalism and French traditionalistic ideas of the nineteeth century in Spain

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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

SPANISH TRADITIONALISM AND FRENCH TRAD ITI ON ALIS TIC IDEAS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IN SPAIN

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES

BY GRACIANO SALVADOR

EVANSTON, ILLINOIS AUGUST, 1943

P ro Q u e s t N u m b e r: 10101914

All rights rese rv ed INFO RM ATIO N TO ALL USERS The q u a lity o f this re p ro d u c tio n is d e p e n d e n t u p o n th e q u a lity o f th e c o p y su b m itte d . In th e unlikely e v e n t th a t th e au th o r d id n o t sen d a c o m p le te m an u scrip t a n d th e re a re missing p a g e s , th e s e will b e n o te d . Also, if m a te ria l h a d to b e re m o v e d , a n o te will in d ic a te th e d e le tio n .

uest P roQ uest 10101914 Published by P ro Q u es t LLC (2016). C o p y rig h t o f th e Dissertation is h e ld by th e A uthor. All rights reserved . This work is p r o te c te d a g a in s t u n a u th o rized c o p y in g u n d e r Title 17, U nited States C o d e M icroform Edition © P ro Q u est LLC. P roQ uest LLC. 789 East Eisenhow er P arkw ay P.O. Box 1346 A n n Arbor, Ml 48106 - 1346



!to his full prerogatives, but not without urging upon him ! j Ivery strongly the virtues of kindness, wisdom, and moderaj

!tion.

Once restored to his throne, Ferdinand VII neverthe-

!

|less avenged himself very cruelly on all his enemies.

In

|this he merely considered his own personal, selfish in!terests, not those of the nation; not even those of the •! I

Itraditionalists, who had undoubtedly done much for his ! I |cause. j

A certain number of Catalan traditionalists, however,

|dissatisfied with Ferdinand's deceitful conduct, rallied |around the person of the king's brother, Don Carlos, the jheir apparent to the Spanish throne, and in August, 1827, :formed the Federacion de realistas puros.

To their great

j

jconsternation, Ferdinand remarried for the fourth time in ■1829, and, in the expectation of an heir, he abrogated the I |Salic Law and promulgated the Pragmatic Law. This was a

jdecisive blow to the rights of his brother Don Carlos, as i |the Pragmatic Law was made retroactive. |

At his death in 1833, Ferdinand VII left a child three

Iyears old, Isabel II, as the future queen of Spain, with I

her mother Maria Cristina as the Regent.

The latter, seeing

|the interests of the throne of her daughter threatened by a |great many of the traditionalists, followers of Don Carlos, |entrusted the reins of government to the liberals, recalling

Ifrom exile all the liberals her husband had previously j |banished. As a result another problem was added to Spain's jwoes:

the dynastical, which caused a civil war to rage for

Jnearly seven years, during which both parties, the Cristinos land the Oarlists,1 indulged in untold cruelties.

The civil

|

|war with its indecisive outcome, was brought to a temporary end through the Convenio or Agreement of Vergara, August 31, 1839. j

The Cadiz Constitution of 1812 was again proclaimed for

|the third time, soon to be superseded, however, by another I jone. "Mas atentos," says fi o Zabala y Lera, "moderados y i jprogresistas (liberal party divisions) a los estfmulos de la |

|ambieion que a los principios de escuela y a las demandas Idel publico, siguieron combatiendo cuando no abiertamente iluchando."^

This state of affairs continued until the Revo-

i

jlution of 1868 put an end to the reign of Isabel II, who ;fled to France.

The liberals thus realized their ideal of

(

|putting an end to "aquel imposible obstaculo tradicional ique les privaba de realizar la totalidad de su ideario po|lftico."^

But those who were united in putting down the

j|throne were too hopelessly divided among themselves to ef!feet any serious stabilization of the country's life and

then />?*?***£/yet ecl ,government.

Consequently

republics^died in

j i 1. Cristinos were those who adhered to the cause of the jRegent, Maria Cristina; Oarlists the adherents of Don Carlos. 2. Op. cit.. p. 355. I

Ibid.. p. 472.

jcradle.

A foreign king was imported in the person of Don

Amadeo de Savoya, who after three hectic years was forced to abdicate.

Finally by the grito de Sagunto. in August,

|1874, Alfonso XII, son of Isabel II, was proclaimed king, land a semblance of order was effected in the utterly dis|rupted and dislocated body of the nation.

j

Up to 1876 liberalism had only Carlism to contend with;

|but after the Alphonsine Restoration, a point was made of |injecting into traditionalism a mild dose of liberalism. I |This was in accord with the motto of Alfonso XII, “Catholic f ^as my ancestors and liberal with my century." Carlism beIgan thus to desintegrate. The death in October, 1931, of 3 tDon Jaime de Borbon, the last descendant of Don Carlos, put |

|a definite end to the dynastical problem in Spain, with iwhich for a long time traditionalism had been more or less ( I i i ijidentified. Spanish traditionalism was now, politically at jleast, exactly where it stood before fusing with Carlism. j

The importance which this matter of traditionalism

jholds in the minds and hearts of the great majority of the j

•Spanish people is quite evident, when we consider that it jibas been up to this very day both the Calvary and Colgotha of the Spanish nation.

i

The extent of the bitterness that

jhas always existed between the liberals and the traditional!

lists down to the recent civil war is evidence enough of its jimportance; for again in this last civil strife the secular conflict between traditionalists and liberals played a major ilrole.

It is undoubtedly true that "Depuis qu*un siecle

!i

sjauparavant, le souffle de dehors s ’est infiltre, sous le

9 jjregne de Charles III et de Charles IV, dans la pensee d*une |minorite cultivee, le pays ne jouit plus d*un moment de ijpaix."^

Pliratura

Mario Mendez Bejarano, in his Historia de la liteespanola en el siglo diecinueve. written as late as

I

111921, still is compelled to say: I ii t j j Parece inverosimil, pero aun estan pendientes en ij Espana los mismos problemas planteados al inaugurarse ! la pasada centuria; y aun nuestra vida politica, soI cial y artlstica se estremece al soplo de las mismas j ideas contradictorias que agitaron la cun a del siglo diecinueve.1,3 rS .'j

\\

ij Spain is the land of traditions par excellence. Its Si |traditionalism is embedded in its soil; it is an ethnical U

?jconstituent of the race. A nation has a tradition if it has ji ija past, and Spain has a past, a glorious past. Perhaps the Spaniard relies so much on his past, on his traditions, that jhe cares very little about creating for himself a worthy Ipresent that might some day be the glorious tradition of !future generations.

However true this may be, the fact re-

ij

;mains that love for traditions is very strongly entrenched 'in the Spanish race.

Thus when the Cadiz Constitution at­

tempted to alter traditional institutions, traditionalism was awakened from its secular slumber.

At first, the oppo-

jsition translated itself into a confused, silent protest; ]but by the first third of the nineteenth century, when the • i ;liberal program was taking a definite, concrete shape, tra­ ditionalism boldly asserted itself; first, in politics, atto/ 5 jli&ewise in the doctrinal or philosophical fields, and in

' 1. Joseph Camp, Jose Maria de Pereda. sa vie, ses oeuvres, ij(Paris, 1937), p. 275. 2. p. 9.

10 the literary realm.

In the political field, through the

reactions of 1814 and 1833, it culminated and fused, on the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833, with the Carlist movement. In the doctrinal or philosophical field it made itself felt through its most outstanding theorists and exponents:

Don

Jaime Luciano Balmes and Don Juan Donoso Cortes, Marquis of Valdegamas.

Finally in the literary field, a host of mili­

tant men and women lent the service of their pens to the cause of an ever-losing traditionalism. The preceding historical exposition is indispensable if one is clearly to understand this intricate problem of traditionalism and liberalism.

In short, the liberals offered

|in 1813 a formula, in the form of a Constitution, the Conj

jstitution of Cadiz, whose basic postulates are:

the nation

i

|is free and independent, and may not be the patrimony of iany one person or family. In Article III of the said Con| jstitution the Cortes declared that sovereignty resides essen£

I

jtially in the nation; consequently the nation has the exclui

isive right to establish its own fundamental laws.

I

The

jcatholic religion is declared to be perpetually the sole j

iireligion of the nation to the exclusion of all others.

In

;j

jTitulo 2, the Cortes declared that the nation chooses a he­ reditary, moderate monarchy as its political form of govern­ ment.

A division of powers, legislative, judicial, and

!i

Executive, is likewise prescribed.

In Articulo 168 the

jperson of the king is declared sacred and not subject to [responsibility; this responsibility from now on is to be jboroe by the Ministers.

Freedom of the press, granted

11 Ipreviously by the Cortes in 1810, is hereby incorporated i

!into the Constitution and made an organic part of it* | f

Icountry is divided into provinces,

The

the political government

j

|of each is to be administered by a governor appointed by I

jthe king*

Finally in Articulo 575 of the said constitution,

jit is decreed that the latter may not be amended for the jperiod of eight consecutive years from the time of its looming into effect#-*The Cadiz Constitution is presented by the liberals as |the first step in the program of regeneration of the country. The country was in sore need of regeneration indeed; but the ii

ijmajority of the Spanish people, some for personal or politijcal reasons, and others on religious grounds, set themselves jblindly to oppose every measure taken by the legislators of ; i ICadiz, even those measures, useful and beneficial, which U

1could not, honestly and sincerely, be combated on either po1

litical or religious grounds* ;j

jj l | | I ij

j ! ! ii

,fSobro corazon a Espana11, says Julio Cejador y Frauca, Hsobraronle armas, faltole cabeza* Partida en dos contrarias opiniones, por las doctrinas de la revolucion francesa, quedo ahogado el mismo esplritu triunfante de la nacion por el absolutismo reaccionario de los unos y el jacobinismo franees de los otros. La lucha enconada extremo las ideas de entrambos bandos, que llegaron a ser igualmente absolutos, intransigentes y daninos a la verdadera libertad e independencia por la cual se combatian. Ceguedad inaudita cuyos amargos frutos son los unicos cosechados hasta el dla de hoy: guerras civiles, divisiones, caciquismo, gobiernos tiranicos y absolutos vestidos de liberales y democraticos.nS

1# Constitucion polltica de la monarqu£a esnanola* promulgcada en Cadiz* a 19 de Marzo de 1813* (Cadiz* 1813) » Imprenta Hacional. j 3# Historia critica de la lengua % literatura esoanola* :(Madrid, 1935), VI, p. 335#

12 ! j

The Cadiz Constitution, which rent the political and

I

1social edifice of Spain, had introduced a new ideology as i ||a substitute for the old one* This new ideology was appa' ! ijrently in diametrical opposition to the old political and 2

|social system that for some three centuries had obtained I

jjin Spain*

The old system was based on the traditional

|principles of the Catholic Church and of the absolute mojjnarchy*

It was absolutely opposed to the separation be­

tween church and state; it was also opposed to popular

ll i fl

|jsovereignty, although this was a well established tradil i Ijtional principle in Spain. Popular sovereignty, in so far ii

las it implies the fundamental principle that the people, :;i ■i

Ijnation, or community has the inherent, exclusive right to jchoose its own form of political government,

is a well

^established tradition in the history of Spain.

The legis­

lators of Cadiz themselves admitted this principle, when, jin justification of the basic principle of popular sovereignty formulated in Article III of the said constitution, ^they cited the fact that the Catalan Cortes of 1462 had dejposed Juan II for the abuse of power, deposing Enrique IV jin 1465 for the same reason*

Likewise the Cortes of Castile

ihad attempted in 1406 to transfer their allegiance from ,Juan II to his uncle, as the minority of Juan II was deemed jharmful to the people’s interests.*^

Until the beginning of

jthe nineteenth century Spain had been loyal to the system 'I jwhich regarded principles of the Catholic Church as the ||

:1

___________________

■i|

1. Constituoion nolitica de la monarqufa espanola, pp. 8-9.

I I

Ibasis of individual, family, and public life, and which i

|considered the authority of the king as the corner-stone of |

jtiie political order.

The liberal ideology, on the other

jharw/, strove for the “europeizacion" of Spain.

The liberals

I

|desired to raise Spain to the level of Europe1s culture. I They saw in a Spain ruled by an absolute monarchy an anomaly

jI

jof the nineteenth century that would tend more and more to jperpetuate the isolation of Spain from the rest of the civiI lized world. In short, they wanted to bring the country

\

Iwithin the sphere of European thought and culture. I

|

The dual struggle between the two opposing ideologies,

ji

!begun on the floor of the Gortes and ably supported on both i

jsides by a militant press which had just been given its |freedom, was eventually taken to the battlefield for settleIment.

The battlefield, however, far from settling anything,

|only accentuated more and more the differences between the jtwo parties and dug deeper and deeper the rift between the H .j ijwarring elements. Soon the clash became general throughout »the nation, penetrating into every sphere of Spanish acti­ vity, political, social, and literary.

Editors, directors

ijcollaborators of papers and periodicals, poets, novelists, [playwrights and critics, and in fact, all the intellectual \\

:jelements of the nation played their part in this national ;|controversy.

The poet and playwright, Jose Zorrilla y Mo-

!ral, entones the most melodious hosanna of traditional ISpain. i

He devotes his entire literary career to singing

!the praises of the two most traditional principles of poliitical and social life of Spain, the religious and the

14 !monarchical. !

The theorists, Jaime Luciano Balmes and. Juan

jDonoso Cortes state ably the case of traditional Spain.

In

|

|the novel Fernan Caballero, Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, and |Jose Maria de Pereda defend very vigorously the principles jof the old order; in the drama Jose Zorrilla, Adelardo Lojpez de Ayala, and Manuel Tamayo y Baus constitute themselves i

las the champions of traditional Spain. As everyone knows, | l |men equally distinguished in all these fields championed jjust as vigorously the liberal point of view.

This state

I

jof affairs obtains, more or less, up to the present day. The reaction that developed in Spain, as a result of

jj

: ^the clash between the two opposing ideologies, was, politi­ cally considered, a reaction against the Cadiz Constitution. dlt was, therefore, typically Spanish and a pure product of ! * |]the soil. This is not so, if we look at it from the purely P

doctrinal or literary points of view, for the French tradi-

jjtionalist movement had by a few years anticipated that of (I !Spain. Indeed, already by the end of the eighteenth century, i ;

Sa reaction had started in France against the Revolution and i s lithe rationalism of the Encyclopedists. Thanks to the rejligious revival then in progress, by the early dawn of the [nineteenth century, this reaction had already found its ;j

champions in de Bonald, de Maistre, Lamennais, and Chateau­ briand, and with them and through them established its ij

charter and its creed.

As our study is, in great part, con-

ijeerned with the influence which French traditionalists m€(,y have exercised upon their Spanish followers, it will not be amiss to explain briefly the substance, import and signifi­ cance of French traditionalism.

15 Chapter X French Antecedents of Spanish Traditionalism I j

The attacks of the French traditionalists were levelled

principally against the Revolution of 1789 and especially

i

jagainst the Encyclopedists who, in the opinion of these jtraditionalists, had made possible that Revolution.'1’ The 1entire literary labor of French traditionalism had but one jaim: i 1

to undo what the Revolution of 1789 had done, and to

|break the hold that the authority of the Encyclopedists of I

|the eighteenth century had on the public mind.

Consequent-

I

j .ly, against the philosophy of rationalism, another philoso|phy, the philosophy of traditionalism, is set forth.

Domi-

Inique Parodi formulated it thus: I | Peut-etre, en effet, y a-t-il auJourd*hui deux phiI losophies de I 1action en presence et comme la lutte de p deux esprits. On pourrait les appeler, et faute de | mots meilleurs, 1*esprit traditionaliste et 1 1esprit

jThe meaning of the word “traditionalism” is explained as ! j jfollows by Marin Ferraz: ;j i < | I | jj j

Nous l'appelons traditionalisme parce qu*il combat, selon 1*expression de Joubert, les idees d*un certain temps a l*aide de celles de tous les temps, telles qu*elles apparaissent dans les traditions de tous les peuples de la terre... Nous l*appelons aussi theocratique ou ultramontain parce qu*il tend a sacrifier non seulement I'individu au pouvoir civil, mais encore le pouvoir civil au pouvoir ecclesiastique considere comme le repr^sentant de Dieu lui-meme.

I 1. See De Bonald, Recherches philosophiques, (Paris, 1853). ;pp. 36-37. ■! 2. Traditionalisme et democratie. (Paris, 1924) , p. 3. ■ 3. Histoire de la philosophic en France au XIXe siecle. (Parish 1880), vol. II, pp. 1-2.

16 i

|

The rationalists, making a tabula rasa of all past

i

\history and traditions, would build a new world, a new so—

jciety, a new religion, a new morality, and a new political |order.

The traditionalists, their no less worthy and no

i

Iless dogmatic opponents, would erase the present, if they i

!could, in order to reconstruct the past.

"Qu'on pese ces


. cit.. p. 236.

29 j i jcomme la premiere avait transforme la science en philosoIpM-ie*11^ This new religion will have its calendar and its s ' (positivist saints. Finally also Comte enthrones himself p jjas the supreme pontiff, the great priest of humanity. The ji jjnew society will be divided into three orders: intellectual |providence, material providence and general providence. The j U e w positivist church will suppress the big nations and dij >jvide the world in an infinite number of small, independent ijrepublics, each consisting of some three hundred thousand »families, governed and ruled by a board of bankers and in­ dustrialists, all, however, under the control of the supreme jpontiff of the positivist church. According to the dogmas j ! |Jof the new religion of humanity the dogmas of equality and ^liberty must yield to the dogmas of order and progress. I

'Men, according to Comte, are neither equal among themselves, ij jjnor even equivalent; hence, they can have no equal rights, ^quality of the sexes is also condemned, as likewise is ijdivorce.

Order, having become the necessary condition of

jprogress, will impose a spontaneous respect for tradition, (and a sentiment of the superiority of obedience and of sub, 1 jmission over revolt will be the result. Sterile discussions will become things of the past, and human intelligence will

ij 1. Quoted by Pierre Martino, in Histoire de la littera« Iture francaise, edited by Joseph Bedier and Paul Hazard, |vol. II, p. 236.

30 bend its efforts towards developing consequences instead of arguing about principles.1 A few words ought to be said here concerning the econo­ mist Frederic Le Play (1804-82), founder of social economy. "Le moment est venu pour la France," says Le Play, "de substituer aux luttes steriles, suscitees par les vices de I'ancien regime et par l*erreur de revolutionnaires; une entente feconde, fondee sur 1 *observation methodique des faits sociaux."^

According to Le Play, the source of misery in this

world is not in the institutions, but in the heart of man. As a result of his travels throughout the many countries he visited, Le Play concluded that the form of government and the wealth of a country do not by themselves constitute a guaranty of welfare and happiness.

The two basic needs of

man, in the opinion of Le Play, are the acquisition of the daily bread and the knowledge of the moral law.

Le Play

considers the moral law as the corner stone of social re­ form, and this moral law is the Decalog.

Conjugal fidelity,

paternal authority, respect for property, the worship of God,— all these duties and obligations govern either essen­ tially, or in some of their effects, the relations of men to each other.

Religion, family, property and all the tra­

ditions that constitute the foundation of true prosperity

1* In this treatment of positivism, much of the source material used was taken from Alphonse V. Roche, Les Idees traditionalistes en France, de Rivarol a Charles Maurras, (Urbana, 1 9 3 7 ) , PP* 52 ff. 2. La Reforme sociale. (Tours, 1887), p. vi.

: j jjare being eradicated to the great detriment of society*

31

IjThe principles of the French Revolution, in the opinion of i! Le Play, have sidetracked people* s minds. jj

l| j | j | l| j ijThe

Les Declarations des droits ne constituent en fait de vrais principes, que certaines verites traditionnelles de l'humanite. Ce qui est propre a 1789, c*est 1*abandon du Decalogue, et 1*addition de trois faux dogmes, dont 1 1application engendre plus que jamais sous nos yeux la souffranee et la barbarie.^remedy suggested by Le Play lies in the instruction and

Ieducation of the directing classes, the social authorities, ii.e*, virtuous men who have merited the esteem of their fel;

Slow men through their scrupulous practice of the Decalog, |JIn short, every social development, every social reform, to Ibe effected in this world, must have the Decalog for its !center.

l,L te t e m e l moyen de reforme," says Le Play, ”est

Ile retour au Decalogue et aux pratiques sociales dont la psuperiority est demontree a la fois par l*histoire des temps de prosperity de la race, et par les succes actuels des 2 ;autre peuples.f* !j

To the doctrinal, political, and social phases of tra-

jditionalism another is to be added, which found its highest :expression in the field of letters.

The most outstanding

;pioneer in this field was the author of Le Genie du Chris■j

Iti anisine and of Les Martyrs * two remarkable works which con!stitute two of the most memorable dates in modern French literary history*

They were intended to be apologies of the

Itraditional religion:

the Catholic religion, and, incidental­

ly, of the traditional monarchy, whose history was so closely 1* Ibid*, III, 644 2. Ibid., p. 29*

32

interwoven with that of the traditional religion.

The

G&iie du Christianisme is a glorification of this tradi­ tional religion through its eighteen centuries of existence and of its civilizing influence in the regions in which it prevailed.

In opposition to the rationalists of the eight­

eenth century who had associated Christianity with ridicu­ lous and vulgar ideas, or who maintained that Christianity was hut a tissue of absurd dogmas, disconnected fables and childish ceremonies, Chateaubriand strove to associate Christianity with ideas that were grandiose, moving and venerable.

He attempted to prove that:

f,De toutes les re­

ligions qui ont jamais existe, la religion chretienne est la plus poetique, la plus humaine, la plus favorable a la liberte et aux lettres.”^*

In order to prove his thesis Cha­

teaubriand presented all the forces of beauty, charm and |mystery which Christianity alone can provide.

He called on

its dogmas, mysteries, sacraments, its moral legislation and its ceremonies.

He called upon the magic of its majestic,

Gothic cathedrals, with their organs, their bells and their liturgies, even the tombs within their precincts.

Chateau­

briand advanced the principle that the Bible is one of the greatest masterpieces of universal, human literature; that Christianity with all its multiple institutions, as well as national sources with all their varied traditions, were the answer to the yearning and aspirations of m o d e m civiliza­ tion.

Modern civilization required a new guiding force, and

1 * Genie du Christianisme. (Paris, n. d.), vol. I, p. 10.

jthis force was to be the traditional religion from which jpeople had strayed away.

Chateaubriand pointed to Chris-

J

tianity as the only rich and inexhaustible mine of beauti1 j ful, salutary ideas and sentiments. |

Le courant se retablissait entre l*idee d'un Dieu catholique desseche au fond des coeurs, et tous les elements actifs de la vie morale... Cette communication entre le dogme catholique et toutes les parties vivantes^de l ’ame, Chateaubriand l'avait retablie en lui-meme^ 11 offrait au public les remedes dont il avait use.

j

j j

| j I j

Towards the second half of the nineteenth century still another phase of traditionalism presented itself:

j ji

1literary regionalism which later developed into political i

|regionalism. Invoking at times the principle of liberty 1 jin religion, in language, in literature, and even in poli­ tics, regionalism asserted itself and claimed its right to ;freedom of development in these various fields.

Regional-

j

|ism today means decentralization: !economic, and literary.

political, linguistic,

As a literary movement French

Iregionalism had its first concrete and spectacular manijfestation towards the beginning of the second half of the jnineteenth century, through the founders of the Felibrige. ■

jThe aims of this movement were:

to keep alive in the hearts

|of the inhabitants of Proven 9 e the respect of old customs and traditions; to perpetuate the use of the mother tongue, | so flourishing in the past; to revive and foster the deil jvelopment of the glorious Proven 9 al literature of old; to :i 1 j

---

:j 1. Gustave Lanson, Histoire de la litterature francaise, (Paris, 1894), p. 897.

34 i| |assert, in short, the right of the province to its freedom, s !to local political development, as opposed to the centralii | zation of Paris, Traditionalism in one way or another, under . 1 I this or that aspect, has since found its expression in the jliterary labor of Bourget, Barres, Bazin and Charles Maurras. i

] i

We may now recapitulate what has been said about the

various phases of traditionalism and attempt to formulate jsome sort of comprehensive idea of its intricate and complex doctrine.

In the long chain forged by the theorists of tra­

ditionalism every link is so closely knitted to its partner Sthat it is necessarily a part of it.

This becomes quite

| jevident when the theoretical operations of this doctrine are |brought into play. i

j.

The idea of tradition signifies the transmission of

|Revelation directly from God to the first man and from the first man to his descendants.

" Q u ^ s t ce que la revela-

jtion?'1 asks de Bonald. "Revelation,11 he answers, "signifies ! n |manifestation." This revelation or manifestation is, in the l jopinion of de Bonald, a fact and is believed on authority, Inot on reasoning; hence faith is to precede and 'ogfes precede jreason.

The implications which flow from this premise as a

j

jnecessary corollary are:

Revelation implies that language

f

jjwas directly communicated by God to man, and with this ijlanguage and through this language God communicated to man ■

iall the truths, dogmas, principles, laws; in short, all that lit is necessary to man for his development:

religious,

Theorie du pouvoir politique et religieux, vol. II, ijp. 4i. i

35 social, intellectual, moral, and political. says de Bonald,

f,Les hommes,"

"n'ont done pas des nouvelles lois a faire

dans une societe bien constitute...; comme si une societe politique ou religieuse eussent pu se conserver, meme un seul instant, sans les lois, et sans toutes les lois necessaires a sa c o n s e r v a t i o n . I t follows, therefore, that man is under strict obligation to accept these re­ vealed truths, principles and laws, because they were given by the only legitimate legislator, God.

Far from having

the right to legislate for himself and for society, man, de Bonald says, can only upset the order and by his inter­ ference frustrate or retard the success or outcome of the effort which nature makes in order to reach its natural o

constitution.^

With reference to the social order, doctrinal traditionalism, especially as evolved by de Bonald, considers the family and not the individual as the basic unit of society.

l,L ,3iomme,H says de Bonald, "i^existe que pour la

societe et la societe ne le forme que pour elle.**3

Tradi­

tionalism, therefore, does not consider the individual in the abstract but only as a member of society. A family ! when t&ue constituted is the necessary type for the larger

1.

Ibid..vol. I, p. 430.

2.

Ibid..vol. I, p. 101.

3*

Ibid., p. 103.

36 family, i. e., the social and political*

As a matter of fact,

in the opinion of de Bonald, “Tout systeme de constitution pour la societe politique, qu*on ne peut pas appliquer a la societe domestique en reduisant les proportions a sa mesure, est faux et contre nature. O'est la pierre de touche des 1 constitutions.11 Now there is no formal pact among the mem­ bers of the family once it is constituted, and the relations between husband and wife, between parents and children, are natural, i.e., necessary.

The authority of the father is

not shared with the other members of the family, hence it is not divided.

De Bonald insisted on the unity and indivisi­

bility of power, because of the application he makes of it to political society.

HLa premiere condition du pouvoir,"

said de Bonald, "est d*etre un; et le pouvoir n*est entre les hommes un si grand sujet de division, que parce-qu*il ne pas etre un sujet de partage."^

De Bonald compared power to

the seamless tunic of Ohrist which can not be t o m asunder. iHaving set the family, therefore, as the basic unit of so!

jciety, de Bonald applied merely its constitution to political | [society. "Ainsi," he said, "aux denominations physiques et jjparticulieres de pere, mere, enfant, comme aux families memes jidtanimaux, substituons les expressions morales et generales ij

jjde pouvoir, ministre, sujet."^ ii I I

In political society, we have,

---------------

ii 1. Pensees diverses,

(Paris, 1847), p. 413.

i 3. Principe constitutif de la societe", (Paris, 1853), p. 455. ! I

3. ----Ibid.. p. 441.

37

j

Jtherefore, the king, or general will; the ministers, or the i

-t

general power; the subject, or the general force* |

As the father is the necessary, absolute will in the

family, so is, in the words of de Bonald, the king the neces­ sary general will and the absolute ruler in the political family.

Likewise, just as the family, in order to subsist,

must be perpetual, that is to say, that the father transmits his power to the eldest son,^ so also in the political family the monarch to be perpetual, must transmit his power to his descendant.

Hereditary monarchy was, for de Bonald, the only

possible form of political government.

The fundamental laws

of society and of the political order are, according to de Bonald, unity of power and continuity of the same.

Obviously,

therefore, nationalism and centralization would be necessary jcorollaries of these laws of unity and continuity, and, con­ sequently, opposed to modern regionalism.

De Bonald, however,

is not against decentralized administration.

"La division de

l*Espagne en royaumes particuliers est une chose qu*a [sic] le plus contribue a son herofque resistance.♦.

II faut de

1,1'unite dans le gouvernement et de la diversite dans l*adu

*2

jministration.1,0 jj

De Bonald is against separation between the religious

liand political societies; for, while he recognizes both to be I

I . ' |

-------------------

1. ---Ibid.,7 p. X- 489.

j| 2. "Les revolutionnaires de la Convention,^ says Frederic jLe Play, "abolirent le droit de tester, en^declarant l'inten! tion de detruire le droit paternel, c *est-a-dire, la source meme de 1*autorite chez les peuples libres." Ojo. cit., vol. II, p. 274. j) 3. Cf Theorie du Pouvoir politique et religieux, vol. II, l!p . 468 •

38 |

equally independent, yet they both must, in his opinion, t i assist and complement each other. The church is, according

j

to de Bonald, a basic moral force, essential to the intel­ lectual satisfaction of mankind.

Its universality bespeaks

its necessity as basis of social life.***

This principle has

been recognized not only by Catholic traditionalists, but even by those traditionalists who were not of the Catholic fold, such as Rivarol, Comte, Taine, and the contemporary Charles Maurras, who see in the Catholic Church merely an instrument, a force of social discipline, a moral police, so to speak. Evidently traditionalism is diametrically opposed to Irationalism; a bottomless gap separates traditionalism from | |the French Revolution and its dogmas of sovereignty, equality [and liberty.

The war of traditionalism against the Revolu'

tion and its principles has neither ceased nor even diminished in intensity t h t f t U S h ' I n Mer Bourget still writes:

the preface to his Outre-

“Nous devons chercher ce qui reste

Jde la vieille France et nous y attacher par toutes nos |fibres♦..reconstituer la famille terrienne par la liberte i jde tester...rendre a la vie religieuse sa vigueur et sa ijdignite.. .en un mot, defaire systematiquement 1 ‘oeuvre meurjtriere de la Revolution Fran 9 aise. l i ji Traditionalism holds that man was created to live in ij

|jsociety, hence society is the necessary state of man; the j Ii-------------------- -------------i , ii 1. Fenseesdiverses, n. 325. i j — --j 2. (Paris, 1894), vol. II, pp. 319-20.

ii ji

39 laws for the guidance of society were preestablished and pro­ mulgated by God, the Creator and only sovereign legislator; and the Magna Charta of society is the Decalog*

On the other

hand, according to the principles of the Revolution, and in the words of Dominique Parodi: La societe n'est plus conpue comme ayant son principe et sa fin hors d* elle-meme... La societe resulte de n^cessites naturelles et intelligibles, sa fonction est toute humaine. Faite pour les individus...n1ayant aucun fondement surnaturel, elle ne pourra exiger legitimement leur obeissance qu'en les gersundant, q u fen leur rendant manifeste sa raison d'etre*1 And further he adds:

"On ne peut concevoir une societe rai-

sonnable et purement humaine que fondee sur la souverainete 2 nationale." The central doctrine, therefore, of the Revo­ lutionists is that political government is the outcome of a contract freely made, a consent voluntarily given by the people which may be changed at any time, as the general will of the people shall dictate*

The people is, therefore,

sovereign; all men are socially equal*

Rationalism insists

on the 1libre examen1 and has great faith in the reason of the individual* on authority.

Traditionalism, on the other hand, insists A return to authority in religion, in society,

Jand in the family is the remedy suggested by the traditiont [alists as a cure-all for the ills of modern times. De Maistre, de Bonald, and Lamennais were the theorists of traditionalism from the religious, philosophical and poli­ tical points of view; but, strictly speaking, we may say that

1* Op. cit., pp. 243 ff. Ibid.» loc. cit.

40 with de Maistre traditionalism remained religious, with de Bonald it was philosophical and political, and with Lamennais it was philosophical.

For Auguste Comte order seems to have

been the basic postulate and the axis of his traditionalism; moreover his efforts were centered on the political and es­ pecially the social field.

For Frederic Le Play, the eco­

nomic field was a focal center, whereas Chateaubriand’s tra­ ditionalism thrived^ and centered around aesthetic and senti­ mental elements• Traditionalistic ideas, principles and sentiments have b>eeN likewise, more or less, incorporated, developed, and inter­ preted in the works of novelists, playwrights, poets, and critics of the nineteenth century.

Through their charac­

terizations, their plots, their themes, their denouements, and in many other ways they demonstrated their support of these ideas, principles and sentiments.

Bourget^and Barres

are the outstanding representatives of these traditionalistic ideas in the novel; Paul Hervieu and Francois^Curel in the drama.

The supreme pontiff today of political tra­

ditionalism is the editor of 1 ’Action Frangaise, Charles Maurras.

ii

41 Chapter XC Traditionalism in Philosophy

When we speak of doctrinal traditionalism we are really discussing a philosophical system.

But speaking of philoso­

phy and of a philosophical system in Spain is like speaking of something that for very many does not actually exist. The eminent Menendez y Pelayo attempted to settle this ques­ tion some years ago.

He took up the gauntlet against the

Revillas, the Azcarates,— in fact against all Spaniards and foreigners who, belittling Spain and its intellectual de­ velopment, maintained that there was no such thing as Span­ ish philosophy nor any Spanish philosophers, not even in Spain's golden age when it boasted of such men as Raimundo Lulio, Luis Vives, Francisco Suarez and a host of others. The result of Menendez y Pelayo1s labor was the monumental work, La ciencia esnanola. in three volumes.

Yet even with

the prodigious array of learning, scholarship, and rich and abundant bibliography that he was able to muster, foreigners and even Spaniards were still skeptical, and still doubted that Menendez y Pelayo had really proved his point.

Did

^traditional^liberal prejudice have anything to do with it? We are not prepared to say.

But, whatever may be the present-

day status of the question, at least in respect to the eight­ eenth and the nineteenth centuries (with the single exception of Balmes, an

exception no one has ever denied) the answer

would have to be in the negative.

The most conclusive answer

42 to the question ought to be found, in a study of its biblio­ graphy, and its bibliography has very little to offer in the way of elucidation.

Until about the middle of the nineteenth

century, nothing had been produced that was worthy of note; not one single work of fundamental philosophy, not even one of fundamental theology. MBota la tradicion cientif ica, *! says Menendez y Pela­ yo, "desde los ultimos anos del siglo dieciocho, nada mas desmedrado y pobre que la ensenanza filosofica en la primera mitad de nuestro siglo. Hi vestigio ni sombra de originalidad, no ya en las ideas, que esta rara vez se alcanza, sino en el metodo, en^la exposicion, en la manera de asimilarnos lo extrano.tt Just as during the eighteenth century the philosophi­ cal ideas prevalent in Spain were those of Gassendi, Des­ cartes, Locke and Condillac, the philosophical doctrines prevailing in the nineteenth ce n t u r y ^ first half were those de

of Condorcet, Cabanis and Destutt^Tracy, sensualism having been supplanted by materialism. 2 El caracter mas positivo de la filosofia espanola durante el siglo diecinueve se dibuja en el exotismo. Los racionalistas miran a Alemania; a Francia los sensualistas y eclecticos; a la Gran Bretana los positivistas; los tradicionalistas a la escuela teologica ultrapirenaica; y los mismos que se titularon igaependientes obedecieron a los impulsos exoticos. Translations and adaptation of foreign books were the order of the day.

Towards the middle of the nineteenth

century there appears the lonely, but imposing figure of

1. Historia de los heterodoxos espanoles. (Madrid, 1880), p. 535. 2. Pio Zabala y Lera, Historia de Espana. edad contemporanea, (Madrid, 1925), vol. I, p. 239. ^ 3* Mario Mendez Bejarano, Historia de la filosofia espa­ nola. (Madrid, n. d.), p . 386

43 Don Jaime Luciano Balmes, the Catalan philosopher, apologist and political writer.

The first half of the nineteenth

century was so completely dominated by political struggles, both foreign and domestic, and by party dissensions from within, that there was neither place nor encouragement for any intellectual progress, with so many of both clergy and laity in prison or in exile; what could be expected to re­ sult from such a state of cruel turmoil and the forced transi tion through which the Spanish nation had to pass? We come now to a question of prime importance, namely: When did the works of the French traditionalists find their way into Spain, and did they come to be sufficiently known in the period?

According to Zabala y Lera, the Essai ana—

lytique sur les lois generales de 1 1ordre social of de Bonald had already been translated into Spanish by 1833> a transla­ tion of the Essai sur 1 1indifference en matiere de religion of Lamennais was published in Valladolid in 1826, as also was one of his La Religion consideree dans ses rapports avec I 1ordre politique et civil.

In 1825 Cardinal Pedro Inguanzo

y Rivero took under his protection and direction the Biblio— teca de la Religion which, in twenty-five neat, well bound volumes, had gathered the most noteworthy apologetic works that had been published up to that date in foreign countries, including the Du Pape of de Maistre and even the Conferences 1 jof the celebrated French preacher Frayssinous (1765-1841).

1*

oit.. p, 241.

44 That many translations of these works were being circu­ lated throughout traditionalistic Spain is well attested by Menendez y Pelayo; who, in speaking of these translations (in his opinion, very mediocre, if not altogether bad), says: ”Pero as£ y todo, gracias a ellas, no hubo espanol que por baj£simo preoio no pudiera saborear lo mas exquisito de la literatura catolica moderna, desde Las Veladas de San Peters­ burg^ . del Padre Ventura de Raulica,1 Montalembert,^ etc.1,3 The Biblioteca de Autores Oatolicos de Nicolas Malo, founded in 1789, did very much, according to the same critic, to popularize these works. Not only were these works of the French traditionalists known, translated and read in Spain, but they were also com­ bated by some and defended by others.

The Jansenist Arch­

bishop of Palmyra, Don Felix Amat (1750-1824), published in 1818 his Observaoiones pac£ficas sobre la potestad eclesiastica y; sus relaciones con la civil, in which he refutes, among other things, the Du Pape of de Maistre and calls its jauthor Ma Protestant, a fanatic and a deluded person”.4

As

f

|is well known, in his book entitled Du Pape, de Maistre es­ tablishes the principle that sovereignty and infallibility -- _ ji

i| 1. Ventura de Raulica (1792-1861) was b o m in Palermo, Italy. When 24 years of age he entered the Theatin Order, pin 1848 he came to Paris where he became a brilliant preacher. I j 2. Count of Montalembert (1810-70) was a brilliant journa­ list who collaborated with Lamennais in 1 1Avenir. but sepa­ rated from Lamennais when the latter broke with Rome. || 3. 0]D. cit.. p. 120. | 4. Angel Salcedo y Ruiz, Historia critica de la literatura lespanola. (Madrid, 1916), Vol. Ill, p. 396.

45 are inseparable; that there is no sovereignty without in­ fallibility.

This, he says, is so evident and necessary

that infallibility has had to be supposed even in the civil order, so as to have a stable and an orderly government. Every form of government, he says, must have a final arbiter, a final authority from whose sentence no appeal can be made. Understood from this point of view, the infallibility of the Pope and even that of the General Councils would be no more than a matter of simple expediency, and the basic prin­ ciple on which the infallibility of the Church stands is thereby nullified.

No one can maintain that, just because

he can not appeal from the decision of the Supreme Court, for instance, the members composing that judicial body are necessarily infallible and, hence, not liable to error... The Archbishop, however, either did not read attentively the book of de Maistre; or, if he did, he did not understand French well, in the event that he did read it in that language. De Maistre explained very well his theory in Book I, Chapter XIX of his work:

I

II ne peut y avoir de societe humaine sans g o u v e mement, ni de gouvernement sans souverainete, ni de sou­ verainete sans infallibilite, et ce dernier privilege est si absolument necessaire, qu*on est force de^supposer 1 1infallibilite, meme dans les souverainetes temporelles (ou elle n*est pas), sous peine de voir 1 1association se dissoudre. L'Eglise ne demande rien de plus que les autres souverainetes, quoiqu'elle ait^ au dessus d*elles une immense superiority, puisque I 1in­ fallibilite est d'un cote humainement supposee, et de 1*autre divinement promise.

1. Du Pape. (Toumay, 1828), p. 160.

46 As may be seen from the above, de Maistre is quite explicit in pointing out that infallibility in the civil order is humanly supposed, but that in the religious order it is divinely promised, which, of course, entirely refutes the allegations of the Archbishop of Palmyra, In 1824 the Jansenist Bishop of Astorga, Felix Torres Amat (1773— 1847), reprints again the Observaciones pac£f i— cas of his uncle, the Archbishop of Palmyra, Felix Amat, adding some observations of his own along the same line of reasoning as that of his uncle's thesis.

In 1836, Cardinal

Inguanzo y Rivero (1764-1836), the celebrated champion of traditionalism in the Cortes during the revolutionary period (1810—13), on the occasion of a heated controversy arising over de Maistre*s Du Pape, reprinted his Discurso sobre la confirmaoion de los obispos, in defence of the Pope's pre­ rogatives*^* However, except for the translation and dissemination of the works of the French traditionalists, the influence of the same, direct or indirect, on the few Spanish apologists of the period in question, is almost nil.

Not before the

middle of the nineteenth century did the doctrines of the French traditionalists bear fruit.

Towards the middle of

the century the nation, battered, almost shattered to pieces, and still bleeding, paused to consider and to meditate upon its situation.

Many of the political and literary leaders

attempted to find some formula of conciliation; it was an

1. Menendez y Pelayo, op. cit., p. 1 2 0 .

47 attempt to find a solution for an apparently hopeless situa­ tion; they tried, and quite sincerely, to fill in the deep gaps that thirty years of cruel civil wars had made between the two warring parties, liberal and traditionalist*

In

short, the masses of the nation, weary of strife, sought peace and tranquility* and of reconciliations*

Thus it was a period of appeasements The most outstanding figures and

leaders in this group were Don Jaime Luciano Balmes and Don Juan Donoso Cortes, the two most eminent theorists of Spanish traditionalism.

They really comprised within them­

selves the traditionalistic movement in Spain.

However, ex­

cept for the cause they were defending, Balmes and Donoso, as we shall see later, had nothing in common. In this chapter we shall deal with Balmes1 first, for, although he was born a year later than Donoso, he died be­ fore Donoso had taken that momentous step which changed the radical and the demagogue into an exalted traditionalist, and the rationalist into a humble and a devout son

of the

Church. That Balmes was acquainted with all the works of the French traditionalists there can be no doubt. quotations from most of their works

His numerous

sufficient evidence

1. Jaime Luciano Balmes was born in Vich (Barcelona) in 1810. At an early age he dedicated himself to the Church and became a model priest* He distinguished himself as a philosopher, theologian, mathematician, journalist and po­ litical writer. Balmes strove to compose the differences between Carlists and Isabelinos by bringing about the mar­ riage of the son of Don Carlos, the pretender, with Isabel II, but failed* In 1848 he was elected to the Spanish Academy but died before assuming his seat*

48 of this.

Whether he knew personally all the French tradi­

tionalists is, of course, an entirely different question. He did know personally Chateaubriand and with him he dis­ cussed several times the situation in Europe.^

Evidently

he could not have met de Maistre nor de Bonald, as some have suggested.

When de Maistre died in 1821, Balmes was but a

lad eleven years old.

De Bonald had left Paris by the end

of 1829 in order to live in solitude on his estate near Milhau, which, according to his biographers, he did not leave until his death in 1840. been to France.

At this time Balmes had not yet

Lamennais, we might venture to say, would

not be sought out by Balmes.

By the time Balmes came to

Paris, which was in 1842, Lamennais, the author of Paroles d 1un croyant. published in 1834, had already broken with the Church.

But Balmes did meet during his first trip to the p * % capital of France, Lacordaire, the abbe Bonetty, and the Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Affre. While Balmes, therefore, was acquainted with all the works of the French traditionalists, he preferred the reli­ gious works of de Maistre and the political and literary

1. E. Ugarte de Ercilla, Balmes. (Madrid, 1921), vol. X, p. 75. 2. Lacordaire (1802-61) was a very distinguished orator and member of the Dominican Order. Before joining the Order he had collaborated with Lamennais, together with Hontalembert, in ^ A v e n i r , but separated from Lamennais when the latter broke with Rome. 3. Auguste Bonnetty (1789-1879) was the director and edi­ tor of Annales de philosophie chretienne. He is the author jof Le Ohristianisme &t la philosophie.

49 works of Chateaubriand. easy to understand.

The reasons for this are rather

Aside from the fiery eloquenoe and the

flashy strokes of genius that characterize de Maistre and single him out from all the other traditionalists, de Maistre was likewise the author of Du Pane and this should hare been enough to endear him to the future author of Plo Mono and of El protestantismo.

For Chateaubriand, Balmes had the great­

est admiration, both as a man and as a writer; also it was Chateaubriand*s Genie du Christianisme that Balmes used as his model when he wrote his masterpiece, El protestantismo. That Balmes was a traditionalist in religion and to a great extent in politics no one who is at all acquainted with his life and works can deny.

However, in so far as

doctrinal or philosophical traditionalism is concerned, only the slightest tinge of such traditionalism can be found in his work.

Let us begin by stating what everybody knows in

connection with Balmes:

namely, that he is eminently a Car­

tesian in philosophy, and that as such, authority for him, except in matters religious, could have no importance whati [ever. Throughout his writings he never attempts, like DoI jnoso, to sway the reader by using sparkling figures of speech, i

|or to dazzle him by means of brilliant imagery or by torrents [of enchanting eloquence; neither does he try to prove by dog[i

ijmatic or theological statements any truth he can not esta­ blish by slow and sure methodic reasoning.

Balmes had one

j|of the most independent minds that Spain ever produced.

Al­

though a follower of Saint Thomas, with respect to the funda­ mental tenets of Scholasticism, yet he never hesitated to

50 j

^disagree with the Thomists and other Scholastics, whenever the weight of evidence seemed to him to be on the other side. In his philosophical, political, and religious writings, Balmes was always the harmonizer, the conciliator; hence, unlike the French traditionalists, he avoids at all times all dogmatic expressions, as well as any severe or caustic condemnation of his opponents.

He had already, in the pre­

face to his Filosof£a fundamental, set forth the guiding principle that was forever to be present in his mind through­ out his life and work: dancia del bien."

"Hay que ahogar el mal con la abun-

He was a model of tolerance, of good

sense, and of mental as well as of moral equilibrium, an equilibrium that never failed him, even in the most criti­ cal periods of Spain*s turbulent life. Philosophers throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had been preoccupied with the problem of certitude or the principle or basis of human knowledge, and each philoi

|sophical group or school asserted its own view regarding !this cardinal principle of human knowledge. For the sensui jalists sensation was the cardinal principle of man’s knowljedge; for the eclectics it was conscience; for the tradijtionalists the ’’raison generale”, tradition or language. jjBalmes was also deeply interested in this problem of certii 11 !tude, which, in his opinion, is the foundation of all philoJ jsophical inquiries, the corner stone of the philosophical i! j | edifice. Balmes very clearly distinguished between the

i

jjbasis of certitude and the method by which this certitude ||is acquired.

The basis of certitude is the object of

51 philosophy; the manner by which we acquire this certitude is, in many cases, a hidden phenomenon and not amenable to the sphere of philosophical observation.

Certitude is not

born out of reflection, but is the spontaneous product of nature.

For Balmes, reasoning must begin with a fact as a

starting point; for, if it were to begin with reasoning we would simply fall into a vicious circle. with an affirmation.

We must begin

Even reasoning in doubt, says Balmes,

implies an affirmation.

Again, in the principle of knowl­

edge Balmes distinguished two ways of looking at it:

namely,

as the source or the unit of truth, which is the origin of all other truths; or as the basic truth, the affirmation of which is absolutely necessary and a sine qua non for the other truths to follow.

In nature, according to Balmes,

there is a unique truth, the source of all truth, God; but in the human intellect there is no such truth.

Now the

sensation of the sensualists, is, in the opinion of Balmes, an individual, contingent fact; hence it can not be taken as the principle or basis of truth which must of necessity be definite, necessary and general; neither can it be the conscience of the eclectics, for, however sure and irre­ sistible may be the testimony of conscience, it has nothing jto do with evidence; it is subjective.

Neither can it be

I'fck6 raison general of the traditionalists.

To appeal to

the authority of all, in everything is to annihilate all criteria, including the one that is sought to be established as the common criterion of certitude, of truth.

For Balmes,

therefore, the principle of certitude, the criterion of

52 truth, lies in the principle of contradiction:

a thing to

he and not to be at the same time is utterly impossible* The principle of contradiction is for Balmes the foundation of the philosophical edifice Unlike French traditionalists, from whom he differs very strongly in this regard, rather than decry the aberrations of the human mind, rather than parade its failings and its unreliability, as de Bonald and Lamennais were wont to do, Balmes condemned most vehemently the common or universal consent advocated by Lamennais; appropriating the words of Leibnitz, he exclaims:

,fProscribir la razon para afirmar

la Revelacion, es arrancarse los ojos para ver mejor los satelites de Jupiter al traves de un t e l e s c o p i o . F o r Balmes the human mind is not altogether hopeless; it is, however, weak; and, as a consequence, it is in serious need of a guide.

This guide is faith.

If we deprivethe human

mind of its starting point, asks Balmes, human mind hold on?

to what

will the

"Ahi esta la historia de nuestros cono-

cimientos en ese inmenso deposito donde se hallan en confusa mezcla las verdades y los errores, la sabiduria y la locura ."3 Balmes insisted again and again on this weakness of the human mind.

So evident, he says, is this weakness,

that Providence

endowed man with a preservative, which is an instinct of faith, I I

___________________

'j

ij

Filosof£a fundamental. (Barcelona, 1848), pp. 192 ff.

j 2* Filosofia elemental. (Paris, n. d.)

p. 592.

| 3. El protestantismo. (Paris, 1849), vol. I, p. 55.

53 against the vagaries of the mind, and a deference to authority in most matters, even in those of science and politics: Desde el momento en que se pierden de vista las gran­ dee tradiciones del linage humano, que nos presentan al hombre como recibiendo del mismo Dios la inteligencia, la palabra y las reglas para conducirse en esta vida; desde el momento en que se olvida^la narracion de Moises,^ la sencilla, la sublime, la unica verdadera explicacion del origen del hombre y de la sociedad, las ideas se confunden, los hechos se trastoman. *.el investigador sufre el digno castigo de su orgullo, a manera de los antiguos constructores de la torre de Babel .n± In one point, however, Balmes definitely agreed with the French traditionalistic philosophy, and that is, in the divine origin of language* Balmes, un esprit plus sage et plus mesure (he is being compared with Donoso), subit lui aussi, a quelque degre, 1* influence de h a u t e u r de la Legis­ lation primitive* BienAqu*il se rattache au rationalisme mitige, plutot qu*au traditionalisme, il admit l !origine divine du langage. While Balmes did not expressly mention de Bonald by name in this connection, yet the similarity of their language, of their proofs and their illustrations betray quite clearly the sources of Balmes.

The following comparison may help

to illustrate the point* We have already had occasion to mention the line of I |reasoning de Bonald used to illustrate and prove his point !that language was divinely revealed.

1. Ibid** p. 81* 2* Marin Ferraz, 0^. cit** p. 353.

De Bonald, rejected

54 the opinion of those who maintained that God did not give man language, "but merely the faculty of inventing or develop­ ing language.

One of such proofs or illustrations is the

following: Or, comment admettre l 1existence d*un fitre souverainement bon, et^puissant, et su^poser que, pendant de milliers d fannees il ait laisse des creatures in— telligentes sans intelligence, et dans l*etat le plus miserable qu*on puisse imaginer, au-dessous des animaux, dont elles n*avaient pas 1 *instinct, au dessus l'homme dont elles n*avaient pas la raison......... Le recit de la Genese est tout a fait conforme a cette opinion puisque il est dit que Dieu s^ntretint avec les premiers humains... SiNl ,homme ne peut inventer la parole, le genre humain a son origine a repu d*un etre superieur a l*homme la parole .1 Balmes expressed himself thus on this same subject: En primer lugar resulta demostrado que el hombre ha nacido para vivir en la sociedad. Abandonado a sf miemo, sus facultades no se desenvuelven, o permanecen completamente adormecidas... iQue eran las ideas intelectuales y morales de esos hombres, cuya estupidez es tal, que inspiran vehementes dudas de si las tienen... Es evidente que el hombre no ha sido criado para, un estado en que sus facultades mas nobles no puedan desplegarse, en que deja, por decirlo asf, de ser hombre...; supuesto que el hom­ bre no ha podido inventar el lenguaje, ha debido aprenderlo de otro; y como no es posible contxnuar hasta lo infinito, es preciso llegar a un hombre que lo ha recibido de un ser superior. Esto oon-_ firma lo que en el principio del Genesis nos ensena Moises, sobre la comunicacion que tuvieron nuestros primeros padres con Dios, de quien recibieron el esp£ritu y la palabra. The analogy is striking. ment is the same namely:

The substance of the argu­

that man is evidently created for

society; that man*s faculties left to themselves would not

1

. Recherches nhilosophiques. pp. 43 ff.

2. Filosofla elemental, pp. 225-26.

55 develop, either physically, intellectually, or morally; that man in this condition would he below the level of the beasts; even the latter would have an advantage over man in such circumstances, since they are endowed with certain instincts and aptitudes to guide them which man lacks; that finally, such a state could not possibly be reconciled with the in­ finite goodness of God,

Moreover the immediate reference

by both de Bonald and Balmes to the Book of Genesis, in sup­ port of this theory, leaves hardly any doubt that Balmes used de Bonald as his source in this particular instance. Balmes, however, did not go as far as did de Bonald and de Maistre in asserting that man can not think without the word or that the word and thought are "two magnificent synonyms," as de Maistre called them.

That the word is use­

ful to thought, Balmes readily admitted; but that it is ab­ solutely necessary, he denied.

Rather than say that the

word is necessary if man is to think, it would perhaps be more correct to say, in the opinion of Balmes, that the word is necessary for recalling, for remembering operations.

Upon

reflecting upon a straight line or a triangle, according to Balmes, it becomes at once clear that its mere sensible repre­ sentation is sufficient, and that there is no need either to connect or to associate it with its corresponding word.^ This matter of language and of its divine origin, seems to have been the only point of contact between Balmes and the doctrinal French traditionalists. 1. Filosofia fundamental, p. 153.

56 In religious matters Balmes, as a Catholic and as a priest, could not, of course, compromise on any doctrinal point; in political matters, however, he had an open mind. Just as in philosophy the first principle of knowledge was for Balmes the principle of contradiction, so in politics his only true criterion was history supported hy keen obser­ vation. With other French traditionalists he condemned very se­ verely the French Revolution; especially because of its irre­ ligious spirit and tendency, and by reason of the many evils which :lt followed from it; but, he did say that, despite all the evils it caused, it was, however, responsible for one great benefit:

"la aficion a los estudios que tienen por

objeto al hombre y la sooiedad."^

Far from condemning entire­

ly the eighteenth century, he found in it a great deal to admire.

He was quite impressed by the intellectual and the

extraordinary mental expansion and development in all fields of human endeavour which were peculiar to the eighteenth century. ...nombrense con tono mofador las luces del siglo, pero no podra negarse, sea lo que fuere de la utilidad de sus trabajos, tal vez nunca habla desplegado el espiritu humano semejante actividad y energia, tal vez nunca se le habia visto agitado con un movimiento tan vivo, tan general, tan variado, deseado con tan excusable curiosidad e impaciencia, el levantar una punta del velo que encubre un inmenso porvenir. But while he found, therefore, something at least to

1* El protestantismo» vol. I, p. 1 * 2. Ibid., pp. 124-25.

praise in the French Revolution, considered under certain aspects, he had nothing but condemnation for the Spanish revolution, and pointed out the fundamental differences be­ tween both revolutions.

The French Revolution,

in the

opinion of Balmes, was, at least, a true social revolution, developing from the bottom up; while the Spanish revolution Jwas an artificial one, developing from the top down.

The

French Revolution, according to Balmes, was moved by a cer­ tain ideal and was based on certain deeply felt principles; the Spanish revolution was merely a servile copy of the j i French Revolution without any originality whatsoever. jSsta es una de las diferencias capitales entre nuestra revolucion^y la de otros paises.,.all! las ideas de la revolucion se apoderaron de la sociedad, y se arrojaron en seguida sobre la esfera politica; aqui se apoderaron primero de la esfera politica, y trataron en seguida de bajar a la esfera social; la so­ ciedad estaba muy distante de hallarse preparada para semejantes innovaciones, y por esto ha sido indispen­ sable rudos y repetidos choaues. In Consideraciones generales sobre la situacion de |Espana Balmes developed this point further.

In his opinion,

Jthere did not exist in any country in Europe, even in those jmost accustomed to popular government, a constitution as !popular as the Cadiz Constitution of 1812. jde mas amplio," asks Balmes,

114Que

puede haber

"en pro de las facultades popu-

lares que la Constitucion de 1812?1,2

Yet, according to him,

!there was no doubt that the will of the Spanish people was

|j

1. Ibid., p. 136.

# In Miscelanea religiosa. politica £ literaria. (Barce­ lona, 1912), p. 181. 2

never less heeded, less consulted, and its influence less felt than in the brief periods in which that constitution was in force .1

The French Revolution, says Balmes, had a

large section of the people behind it.

Moreover it had

been prepared over a long period of time* in this process of preparation:

Balmes included

the civil war between the

Catholics and the Huguenots, and the resulting decree of freedom of cults instituted in France; the Jansenist sect and the resultant free discussion and quarrels about the dogmas and teachings of the Church; all this was supported and aided, in the opinion of Balmes, by Voltaire and the Encyclopedists.

Furthermore, Balmes adds, the social and

economic disintegration had done much towards bringing about the French Revolution.

Balmes then asks, "What comparison

could there be established between the French and the Span­ ish Revolution?

The Spanish Revolution which only "pudo

entrar entre nosotros en medio de los trastomos, en medio de la confusion que trajo consigo la guerra de la independencia; en medio de la distraccion en que se hallaban los pueblos..... lo dire en una palabra: dadera s o r p r e s a . I n

the opinion of Balmes, the Cadiz

|Constitution lacked popular support. jfor its failure. | | 1. Ibid., loc. cit. I it 2. Ibid., p. 194.

aquello fue una ver-

This was the reason

59 La^revolucion propiamente dicha nunca ha tenido en Espana el pueblo de su parte; a no ser que por pueblo se entiendan algunas docenas de gritadores que aplaudian o disaprobaban en las tribunas de Cadiz en tiempo de las Cortes extraordinarias, o las que acompanaban el retrato de Riego por las calles de Madrid ."1 The fundamental principle of the political order is, |according to Balmes, that the political order should be the expression of the social order and not vice-versa.

Since

the political order has to have intelligence, morality, in­ tegrity, and force, these qualities or virtues it must take where it finds them, i.e., in society itself; appropriating the idea of de Maistre he says:

"...porque es menester ob-

servar que el poder politico no es un ser abstracto, sino muy concreto, en Intimas relaciones con la sociedad gobernap da." Hence, Balmes concluded, the Spanish Revolution, far from being the expression of the social order in Spain, was really an intruder.

That it was not the expression of the

social order is made quite evident in the following, by Balmes: En una nacion que en sus ideas, costumbres y usos, era entonces y no podia menos de serlo, altamente mo— narquica, erigir una^ley fundamental, una constitucion esencialmente democratica; en una nacion altamente ^religiosa, prodigar abiertamente a la Religion, la satira, el escarnio; en una nacion tan grave y severa, substituir a la sesuda gravedad de los consejos Caste­ llanos la precipitacion y el mas desatentado desacuerdo y todo de repente, sin mediar ninguna graduacion que pudiera influir en las ideas y costumbres . . . " 3

1. Ibid.. p. 270. 2. Escritos -politicos. (Barcelona, 1935), vol. Ill, p. 61. 3. Miscelanea religiosa. politica £ literaria. p. 194.

60 That was, in the words of Balmes, ,funa verdadera sorpresa 11 .

The country was sick, indeed, hut the remedy lay not

in a written constitution.

f,Lo que falta al hombre y a la

sociedad, no son buenas reglas, sino su aplicacion; no son buenas leyes, sino su cumplimiento; no son buenas instituciones, sino su genuina realizacion. We pass now to the problem of the origin of the civil and political order together with that of the source of civil power, a problem the interpretation of which reveals the basic difference between the ideology of the French Revolu­ tion and that of the traditionalists.

This will include a

discussion concerning the concrete form this political order or power is to take, whether it be a monarchy, a democracy, or an aristocracy; and further whether a monarchy is to be absolute or constitutional, hereditary or elective.

We find

Balmes agreeing with the French traditionalists on only one point, and totally disagreeing with them in all others. Balmes agreed with the French traditionalists, as all Chris­ tians would have to agree, namely, that, since God is the Creator of man and of the whole universe, He is the ultimate source and origin of all power, political, moral, and social. But beyond that, according to Balmes, the field of specula­ tion is wide open*

By power, of course, he meant a moral—— ,

not a physical, power or force such as the pistol of a

1. Ibid.. p. 180

61 thief, the illustration offered by Rousseau,-*confused physical force with moral power.

who thus

Physical force

is an illegitimate power and as such it is useless to look for its origin anywhere*

Power, Balmes explained,

is de­

rived from God as the source and origin of all powers, of all rights, and of all justice*

In so far as man is created

for society and his existence supposes a family and inasmuch as families need each other to subsist, order becomes abso­ lutely necessary, absolutely essential.

But order, Balmes

maintained, can not exist without justice; and justice, like order, requires a guardian, an interpreter, an executive* God, therefore, willing man's existence as well as man's preservation, willed also, as a consequence, the existence of society and the power needed for the preservation of that society.

Existence, then, of the civil and political power

is, according to Balmes, in conformity with the will and design of God*

p

Power, Balmes insisted, unless it be legi­

timate, that is, divine or having God for its source, is absolutely useless*^

If power derives its source from man,

1* "Toute puissance vient de Dieu, " says Rousseau^ f,je l'avoue; mais toute maladie en vient aussi; est-ce a dire qu'il soit defendu d'appeler le medecin? Qu'un brigand me surprenne au coin d'un bois, non— seulement il faut par force jdonner la bourse, mais quand je pourrais la soustraire, suisen conscience oblige de la donner? Gar enfin le pistolet !qu'il tient est aussi une puissance , 11 Oontrat Social* Book I ip. 1, quoted by Albert Schins, in Rousseau* vie et oeuvres, (New York, 1921), p. 322* 2* El protestantismo* vol. II, pp. 152-53, 3. Ibid.» p. 198*

62 it will cease to be power; for, if its author be the man who is physically and mentally stronger than his fellows, it will be mere force.

But, if we place the origin of power in God,

then we can more easily conceive that it is our duty to sub­ mit to it; and this submission will in no way offend our dignity; regarded in any other light it is merely tyranny.^ Respecting the doctrine which seeks the origin of power in the will of men, the result of a pact, Balmes asserted that a pact is useless and powerless to cement power; for it does legitimize neither the source of power nor the origin p

of the faculties*'"

It is evident, explained Balmes, that an

explicit pact has never existed; and, even if it did, such a pact could not possibly have obtained the consent of all individuals.

To suppose such a pact is one thing, but to

prove it is another*

History has never recorded any such

universal pact*^ Referring to the form which political and social power assumed, Balmes voiced his strong disagreement with the theo­ ries of de Bonald and of Bossuet, according to both of whom absolute monarchy is the only legitimate form of political government.^

Balmes remarked in this connection that the

Jjcatholic Ghurch could not be held responsible for the theories i i j

---------rbid*. loc. cit. 2* Ibid.* p. 201* 3* Ibid.* p. 199.

| 4* See infra, page 3 7 .

63 of any Catholic individual, no matter how exalted his posi­ tion might be.

He maintained the theory, the long-established

Spanish theory, that the people or the community have the ex­ clusive right to determine what form of government suits them best. Considerando la doctrina del derecho divino en sus relaciones con la sociedad, es menester distinguir los dos puntos principales que encierra; (l) origen del poder civil; (3) el modo con que Dios comunica este poder. Lo primero pertenece al dogma, a ningun cat 6 lico le es ifcito ponerlo en duda; lo segundo esta sujeto a cuestion; y salva la fe, pueden ser varias las opiniones. In other words, Balmes held that the Church, as deposi­ tary of divine truths, establishes the divine origin of power, but not its application.

He cited, as an illustration, re­

spect for private property, which is, he says, by divine and natural right, but added that the possession of this or that lot and the limitations and the restrictions of such posses­ sion are a matter of civil right and may be decided upon in p many different ways .*0 Concerning the manner in which God communicates His powers, whether He communicates it directly to a king, a prince, or a group of men, Balmes maintained that the tra­ ditional Catholic doctrine in this connection has always been that society determines the form of government it wants.

In

other words, society, the people, the community, have the exclusive right to communicate directly to a man or to many men the power of government, a power implicitly given to

I 1. Ibid., p. 198. ! 2. Ibid., p. 208. i

64 society by God for its existence and preservation.-

Y/ith a

brilliant array of learning, together with much minute and authentic evidence that covers centuries, Balmes, proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the theory of the divine right of kings was never taught nor held in Spain, not even during Spain*s most absolute of regimes.

He quotes the ex­

plicit, authentic authority of Francisco Suarez,^ Juan de Mariana,^ Diego de Covarrubias,^ and a host substantiation of his thesis.

of others in

Balmes begins first by quot­

ing the authority of Antonio Perez, an opponent of the In­ quisition, who in his Relaciones. published in Paris, 1634, tells of a preacher who had made before Philip II the follow­ ing statement:

”Los reyes tienen poder absoluto sobre las

personas de los vasallos y sobre sus bienes.1*

Antonio Perez

relates that the Tribunal of the Inquisition forced the same preacher to retract that proposition in the same place he had made the statement, by reading another dictated to him by the Inquisition, namely:

"Porque, senores, los reyes no

tienen mas poder sobre sus vasallos, del que les permite el

rbifl* i loc. cit. 3. Francisco Suarez (1548—1617), brilliant Jesuit philoso­ pher and theologian; author of the Defensio Fidei; De legibus and several other works of great renown. He championed the doctrine of popular sovereignty against James I of England. 3. Juan de Mariana (1536-1633), famous Jesuit historian and theologian. Author of the well known Historia de Espana and the De rege et regis institutione in which he champions in the most clear terms the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. ! 4. Diego de Covarrubias (1534-1602), eminent theologian and jurist.

65 derecho divino y humano, y no por su libre y absoluta voluntad.,f^

Balmes further quotes from the famous work of Juan

de Mariana, entitled:

De rege et regis institutione, pub­

lished in Toledo in 1599 and dedicated to king Philip III, wherein he maintains the thesis that the king receives his power from the people, and that the king may even be put to death, should he abuse his powers.^

It was because of this

statement that the work of Mariana was burned by the hand of the executioner in Paris eleven years later, when Henri IV fell under the dagger of an assassin.

Mariana, comparing

the king with the tyrant, says: Asi el rey ejerce con mucha moderacion la potestad que recibio del pueblo... Asi no domina a sus subditos como a esclavos, sino que los gobieraa corao a hombres libres, y habiendo recibido del pueblo la potes­ tad, cuida muy particularmente que durante toda su vida se le conserve sumiso de buena v o l u n t a d . ^ The great Francisco Suarez is not less explicit in this matter.

He expresses himself on the subject of the origin

of power as follows: En esto, parece que la opinion comun es, que Dios, corao autor de la naturaleza, da esta potestad; de suerte que los hombres como que disponen la materia, y forman el sujeto capaz de esta potestad; y Dios como que da la forma dando esta potestad.................. En segundo lugar, siguese de lo dicho, que la potestad civil, siempre que se la encuentra en un hombre o principe, ha dimanado por derecho legitimo y ordinario, del pueblo y comunidad, o proxima o remotamente, y que no se la puede tener de otra manera, para que sea justa.

1. El protestantismo, vol. I, p. 481. 2

. Ibid., vol. II, p. 231.

3

. Ibid., vol. II, p. 232.

4. Ibid., pp. 183—84♦

66

This same thesis Suarez puts forth in his Defensa de la f e catolioa

apostolica contra los errores de la secta an-

glicana. con una respuesta a la apologia que por el juramento de fidelidad ha publicado el serenfsimo rey de Ingla­ ter ra, Jacobo I, namely, that the power is given directly by the people to whomever is to exercise that power.-** Balmes finally quotes the Tratado de republica cristiana para prfncipes £ reyes £ para los que en el gobierno tienen sus veces. by Fray Juan Marfa, a Franciscan, published in Madrid, 1615, and dedicated to the king, wherein the' author opposes the proposition that the power of the king is abso­ lute over his subjects. Fray Juan Maria,

"De suerte que la monarqufa," writes

"para que no degenere, no ha de ir suelta

y absoluta, que es loco el poder y mando, si no atado a las leyes."^

It is interesting to note in this connection that

Balmes suggested that Bossuet may have read or known of this work of Fray Juan Maria, since the title and substance of both their respective works, Tratado de republica cristiana of Fray Juan Marfa and Politique tiree de 1 t^criture Sainte of Bossuet are in essence the same. Balmes, therefore, established the fact that the principle of "sovereignty of the people" had always been, throughout the course of centuries, the traditional and well established doctrine of the Christian church; and especially of Spain, where the many fueros of the several provinces of Spain would

1. Ibid., p. 185. 2. Ibid., p. 504.

6?

be a strong evidence against any one attempting to prove the contrary* The interpretation, however, given by Suarez and the Spanish theorists to the principle of “popular sovereignty” differs from that given to it by the men of the French Revo­ lution,

According to Suarez, Balmes says, political govern­

ment is a necessity; according to Rousseau and the Revolution men were under no moral obligation to organize themselves into a political society*

According to Suarez, political authority

is derived primarily from God, who confers it upon the people, while Rousseau and the Revolution maintain that it rests in the people ultimately and fundamentally.

In the doctrine of

Suarez, political authority rests in the people as an organic whole or community;

in that of Rousseau and the Revolution

it is merely the sum total of the rights of the individuals and is shared by each as an individual.^ While Balmes did not recognize, therefore, any special form of government as absolutely essential and the only one because divinely established, he was in favor of hereditary monarchy, just as the French traditionalists were; bw-t not on the theory of divine right or origin, but on the theory

1* Ibid.,

c/h

2. Ibid.* p. 254. It might be of interest here to note a statement made by Gaillard Hunt, formerly of the Library of Congress, to the effect that Thomas Jefferson derived from Cardinal Bellarmine substantially the wording in which he stated the famous doctrines embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Quoted by Ryan and Boland, in Catholic Prin­ ciples of Politics* (Hew York, 1940), p. 84.

68

of expediency; for he maintained that history had shown it to be the best adapted to and most beneficial for the coun­ tries where it prevailed*

In other words, Balmes was not

for hereditary monarchy in the abstract sense of the term, as the only form of government for all nations and for all peoples; rather it is to be considered only from the purely practical point of view. AGual es la mejor forma de gobierno? Muchos son los que contestan rotundamente a^sernejante pregunta; mas no creemos que esto sea lo mas acertado. Parecenos gue la respuesta debiera ser otra pregunta. £De que pueblos se trata? En efecto, nadie podra sostener que una misma forma de gobierno sea lo que conviene a todos los parses, pues que la razon, la^ historia y la experiencia demuestran lo contrario. This brings us close to de Maistre*s theory, evolved first by Montesquieu namely, that forms of government and laws should not be made for man in the abstract, but that separate governments and separate legislations should be evolved for the individual peoples and considerations should be given to the customs, climate, and the geographical and historical conditions obtaining among the individual peoples. Yet Balmes did not desire to have even this type of monarchy absolute, at least to the extent that the monarch might have the right to change the laws as he pleased, without the right­ ful intervention of the legislative assembly of the country in question.

MSegun nuestras doctrinas, el soberano, ni aun

en las monarquias absolutas, no tiene el derecho de variar

1. Escritos politicos, vol. XXVI, p. 58. Compare this with de Maistre1©: "Etant donnes la population, les moeurs, la re­ ligion, les bonnes et mauvaises qualites d*une certaine nation, trouver les lois qui lui conviennent. Considerations, p. 71.

69 por si solo laa leyea fundamentales del Estado."^

According

to Balmes, the throne is not above the constitution, but merely the child of it.

The constitution, according to Bal­

mes, is born from the ideas and customs of the land, as well as from the whole body of facts that have been accumulated throughout the course of centuries .3

For Balmes, as for the

other traditionalists, de Maistre and de Bonald, the facts of history and of experience should be the only guides in political matters, and the only criterion by which to evalu­ ate methods of political government.

How history, which,

in the words of de Maistre, is "la politique experimentale" has proved that the hereditary monarchy, especially as found in the Christian nations, has solved the thorny problem of governing civilized peoples: La monarqula, tal como se ha encontrado en los pue­ blos cristianos, pero en ninguna otra parte, ha reeuelto el dificil problema de gobernar grandes naciones donde fermentaba con vivo calor la inteligencia, donde bullia todo linaje de pasiones, donde no habia el recurso de sacar de jugo una parte de las fuerzas por medio de la esclavitud, sino formadas por millones de hombres, todos en su dignidad, todos libres.3

I

Escritos politicos, vol. XXVII, p. 118.

2. Ibid. Compare this with de Maistre*s: "La constitution n*est que le recueil des lois fondamentales, et le Roi ne peut toucher a ces lois." Op. cit.. p. 92. 3. Miscelanea religiosa. p. 138. Compare with de IIaistre»s |"L*histoire, cependant, ^qui^est la politique experimentale, demontre que la monarchie hereditaire est le gouvernement PLe plus stable, le plus ^heureux, le plus naturel a I'homme.." gssai sur le Principe generateur. in Considerations, p. 161.

70 Balmes readily admitted with the liberals that heredi­ tary monarchy, as a pure theory, is almost absurd; but he affirmed that in practice nothing is more admirable because history and experience have proved conclusively the postu­ late of hereditary monarchy, and, therefore, there is no point in fighting against conclusive facts*

Arguing against

the query of the liberals as to why the rights of the throne could not be linked up in other families, why it cannot be made elective, Balmes, appropriating the words of de Maistre, explained:

"Primero, porque una familia real no se impro-

visa,H and amplifying further this statement, he added again with de Maistre:

"Las instituciones muy grandes no son para

improvisadas.

Las personas que han de figurar en la cima es 1 menester que esten cubiertas con un velo misterioso . 11 De Maistre had already written that: souverains.*.

"L'homme ne peut faire de

Du reste il n*a jamais existe de famille sou-

veraine dont on puisse assigner l ’origine plebeienne." Of the alliance between Church and State Balmes says: "La alianza del altar y del trono absoluto podia ser neeesaria al trono, pero no lo era al altar."*"*

In the opinion

of Balmes, in so far as political forms of government are concerned, there is none that is absolutely essential to religion.

1. j

All offer advantages and disadvantages.

Estudios a-pologeticos, pp. 252-53.

2. 0]D. cit., p. 164. 3

. Miscelanea religiosa. p. 44.

Everything

71 that is human ages and must age*

’’Convenzanse de esto los

aombres religiosos, no identifiquen la causa e t e m a con nin— guna causa temporal...no es la politica la que ha de salvar a la religion; la religion es quien ha de salvar a la politica ."1

The church, Balmes adds, thrives under all sorts

of political governments, absolute monarchies, dictator­ ships, and also republics; witness the Catholic republics of Florence, Genoa, and Venice* Balmes, however, was far from thinking that all was well with the old regime in Spain, and that a return to it was the necessary solution.

On the contrary, he asserted

that the decay of Spain and the shameful reign of Charles II was evidence enough that something was rotten in the struc­ ture of the old regime; and, if anyone doubts it, let him ask himself: its factories? affairs?^

Where are the Spanish industries?

Where are

Where is the Spanish influence in the world

His support of the monarchical system rests merely

on expediency.

"El principio mon&rquico y aun mas el cato-

lico, han tenido por largo tiempo bajo su influencia a la nacion espanola; y he aqui la razon de la gran fuerza que tienen estos dos principios; he aqui porque han sobrevivido a tantos trastornos .11^

These two principles, he maintained,

were to be the axis around which the political government in Spain had to revolve, because these two principles, more

1# Escritos politicos* vol. Ill, p. 148. 2. Ibid., pp. 161-62. 3. Ibid., pp. 284-85.

than any others, have taken such deep roots in the lives of the Spanish people.

But concessions must he made to the

spirit of the time.

Balmes, with Chateaubriand, recognized

the fact that the world is changing, and that merely cling­ ing to the shadows of the past is not going to help in any way Quien desconozca la transformacion que en todas par­ tes se realiza, no ve lo que tiene delante; querer asirse unicamente de las formas pasadas, es confiar en el apoyo de un leve arbusto al bajar por una peligrosa pendiente. Respetemos lo pasado, pero no creamos que con nuestro deseo lo podamos restaurar; y, al interesarnos por los restos de lo que fue, no llevemos la exageracion hasta e^ punto de maldecir todo lo presente y lo venidero.^ Balmes favored the liberal reforms inaugurated by Pope Pius IX, and his own article entitled p£o Nono caused great dismay in the ranks of the narrow-minded retrogrades among the traditionalists who thought every concession made to the changing times was a retrogression.

The insults heaped

upon him, and, especially that of comparing him with the fallen priest Lamennais, greatly embittered and perhaps shortened his life.

Pius IX, as is known, upon assuming

the Pontificate, granted amnesty to all political prisoners To the city of Rome he granted municipal autonomy; to the State he gave a representative assembly; he also organized

1. Chateaubriand would say:^ “Donnez la main au siecle pour 1 1accompagner en le moderant. Marchez-vous derriere lui? II vous emportera. Marchez-vous devant lui? II vous foulera aux pieds." Quoted by Hubert Gillot, Chateaubriand ses idees, son action, son oeuvre, (Paris, 1934), p. 162. 2. Miscelanea religiosa— Pio Hono, p. 74.

a national militia intended for the defense of the Papal States, and ordered compulsory military service*

In the

opinion of Balmes, Pope Pius IX did the right thing by recog­ nizing the need of reforms necessitated by the changing times*

"La absoluta resistencia a toda idea de libertad,"

he cries out, "se podra defender en teorxa como el unico medio de salvacion para las naciones:

pero ello es que esta

teorla se hall a en contradiccion con los hechos."^-

If inno­

vations, Balmes continued, have destroyed many governments, it is also equally true that many governments were lost through inaction, because, being satisfied with the present, they did not attend to the needs of the future*^

What was

the task undertaken by Pope Pius IX? "Oonceder a la egoca lo justo y conveniente, negandole lo injusto y danoso; mejorar la condicion de los pueblos sin precipitarlos en la anarquia; prevenir la revolucion por medio de la reforma quitandole a la impiedad motivos, ya que no es dable impedir que tome pretextos..♦cimentar un order politico y administrativo que se sostenga por si propio*..desarrollar un espiritu publico que los prepare atravesar sin trastomos las profundas vicisitudes . "3 The mental, social,

and political progress which the

people of Europe had achieved demanded greater representa­ tion for the people in their own governments*

This the Pope

had done by granting municipal autonomy to the city of Rome, by granting the organization of an Assembly for the State,

1. Ibid*, p* 41* 2. Ibid., p. 37. 3. Ibid., p. 25.

and finally by his decree of compulsory military service which gave the people not only the right but the opportunity of defending their newly acquired rights. With the slogan of the Revolution:

equality, fraternity,

and liberty, Balmes had no quarrel, since this slogan had always been the doctrine of Christianity since its foundation, provided, of course, that it be properly understood.

The

problem is not in the declaration of contested principles, but in their practical application.

"Libertad, igualdad,

fratemidad son bell as palabras y que significan hermosas ideas; pero al escribirlas en su bandera la Republica francesa, ique garantias presenta de reducirlas a la practica? Liberty, in order to deserve its name, should mean the sub­ mission of all to the law, including those who command. Equality, unless it should mean the upsetting of the funda­ mental structure of society, could have as its only meaning that the law is to govern all with absolute impartiality. Fraternity is a word absolutely meaningless unless it mean the recinrocal love of all men. Now these three principles j jof liberty, equality, and fraternity, he avers can not be reduced to practice unless they be given religion as a basis. With religious indifference one lacks the moral restraint and the inevitable result is that the passions gain control and license replaces liberty.

Without moral restraint cor­

ruption will soon invade every phase of society; lust for power and greed for gold will petrify the hearts of men;

1* Escritos nostumos. (Barcelona, 1915), p. 26.

jthe laws of the land will "be contemned and the'unlevelling j

of all classes of society will result.

Equality will become

a by-word, a term of derision; and society will merely sig­ nify the battle of the strong against the weak.

Fraternity?

What will happen to it, unless religion check its blatant hypocrisy and silence the hollow professions of fellowship?^ Equality, as understood by Rousseau and the Encyclope­ dists, says Balmes, is impracticable and impossible.

uLas

desigualdades sociales son de necesidad absoluta, como fundadas en la misma naturaleza del hombre y de la sociedad, y son, ademas, un beneficio, porque sirven de resorte en la * p maquina de gobierno . 11'5 Equality of nature in all men, jequality of all men before God, equality of origin and of Jdestiny, granted; but equality of intelligence, of moral jand political rights is simply impossible; some must simply i jobey and others command, if the social and political organi­ sations are to operate and survive.

Certain hierarchies are

not only useful and legitimate; 3 they are necessary. "Quisose llevar el nivel por todas partes , 11 writes Balmes, f,se formo el empeno de igualar todas las clases en Francia, se acometio la empresa con osadfa in— creible, y al cabo de poco se llego a un resultado muy sencillo: desaprecieron todas^las clases, solo que se establecieron dos nuevas y unicas: verdugos y victimas.11^

! | | ij j

1. Ibid.. p. 26. Miscelanea, etc., p. 77. 3

# El nrotestantismo. vol. II, p. 292.

j 4 « Misoe 1 anea. p. 116*

76 This is almost in accord with de Bonald*s statement: 11La

liberte, l«egalite, la fraternite ou la mort, ont eu

dans la revolution une grande vogue.

La liberte a abouti

a couvrir la France de prisons; l*egalite a multiplier les titres et les decorations; la fraternite, a nous diviser: la mort seule a r^ussi."^Balmes says this of liberty:

"La palabra libertad es

para muchos hombres una palabra de escandalo; asi como el nombre de poder absoluto, es para otros sinonimo de despotismo."

The Spanish revolution, he stated, associated

liberty with all sorts of crimes, abuses, and even with rivers of blood.

This was done while the framers of the Cadiz con­

stitution were shouting the word "liberty";

in his opinion

they were merely pretending to represent the will of the people and to advocate a genuinely democratic form of govern­ ment.

It is this sort of liberty that the Spanish tradition­

alists were fighting against in the period

of 1812-1820.2

De Maistre was very popular with Balmes not only because of his political ideas but especially because of his staunch, religious beliefs as expressed in Du Pane and Soirees de S t . Petersbourg.

In the former, de Maistre makes a very brilliant

defense of the infallibility of the Pope and of the beneficial influenoe exercised by the popes in Europe; in the latter, de Maistre explains away the specious arguments against the

1. Pensees diverges, p. 346. 2. El orotestantismo. vol. II, p. 349.

77 government of Providence*

What Balmes thought of de Maistre

and of his apologetic works is best told by the biographers of Balmes,vftio assert that:

HBalmes tuvo la idea de difun-

dir, mezcladas con sus propias, las obras del conde Jose de Maistre, que le inspiraban gran a d m i r a c i o n . I t

is a

pity that the evidence given by Balmes*s biographers is not more explicit in this respect, although they do state that Balmes founded the biweekly review, La Oivilizacion, in order to defend the Primacy of the Holy See, having been moved to do so by the example of de Maistre.^

But Balmes

did plainly show his admiration for de Maistre, when he undertook to defend his name and his orthodoxy against the Bishop of Astorga, Don Felix Torres Amat, when the latter published in 1842 his pastoral, Apologia Catolica de las Observaciones Pacificas del Ilustrisimo Senor Arzobispo de Palmyra, Don Felix Amat sobre la potestad eclesiastica ^ sus relaciones con la civil *

As we have already mentioned,

the Archbishop of Palmyra had in this work called de Maistre a Protestant, a fanatic,

and a deluded person*

rz

After most

respectfully addressing the bishop of Astorga and begging him to refrain from giving the people of his diocese the example of a bishop at variance with his own superiors, who had already condemned both his first pastoral, as well as the work of his uncle, the archbishop of Palmyra, Balmes

1* E. Ugarte de Ercilla, Balmes * vol. I, p. 101. 2

* Ibid., vol. II, pp. 198-99.

3. See p.4 ^ of this dissertation.

78 adds:

"Ho tanto el honor del Conde Maistre, como el in—

teres de la verdad, nos obliga a detenernos en la aclaracion de las doctrinas del oonde de Maistre."

He goes on to state

that the importance of the matter is increased if one con­ siders that de Maistre did not intend, as the bishop implied, to establish a new form of Christianity, and to destroy the true basis of the infallibility of the Church.

In order to

convince the reader of the truth and the exactitude of his assertion, Balmes reviewed and analyzed the whole theory of the count de Maistre as given in his book, Du Pape, thus "demostrando hasta la evidencia que su intencion (that of de Maistre) era recta, su doctrina pura, asi como sincera y profunda su sumision a la autoridad de la Iglesia Catolic a ."1

Balmes, then, summarized the work of de Maistre and

sought to vindicate him of the charges levelled at him by the two bishops* The ideas and doctrines of de Maistre are interspersed here and there in the various works of Balmes.

At times he

appropriates and adapts them; at other times, he merely in­ corporates them into the body of his works, not as mere quotations but as integral parts of his writings. In his Considerations sur la France, de Maistre, speak­ ing of the anti-christian character of the French Revolution and of the "combat a outrance du christianisme et du philosophisme," develops what his editors, Rene Johannet and

1. Estudios aioologeticos. p. 326.

79 Fran 9 ois Vermale, declare to be a unique argument, used for the first time as a proof of the divinity of the Christian religion and called the argument of duration.

The argument

is as follows: Depuis dix-huit siecles le christianisme regne sur une grande partie du monde, et particulierement sur la portion la plus eclairee du globe. Cette religion ne s'arrete pas meme a cette epoque antique; arrivee a son fondateur, elle se noue a un autre ordre de chose, a une religion typique qui l*a precedee...en sorte que celle-ci^, par un enchainement qui est uii fait visible, remonte a I 1origins du monde. For the sake of comparison we shall transcribe here the same argument as given by Balmes in his Criterio: Existe una sociedad que pretends ser la unica depositaria e interprete de las revelaciones que Dios se ha dignado favorecer al linage humano. Cuenta dieciocho siglos de duracion, y estos siglos no los mira sino como un perfodo de su existencia; pues subiendo mas arriba, explicando su no interrumpida denealogfa y se remonta hasta el principioydel mundo... Que lleva dieciocho siglos de duracion, que su historia se enlaza con la de un pueblo cuyo origen se pierde en la antiguedad mas remota es tan cierto como han existido las republicas de Grecia y Roma. El Cristianismo ha contado entre sus hijos a los hombres mas esclarecidos por su virtud y sabiduria; ningun pueblo antiguo ni moderno se ha elevado a tan alto grado de civilizacion y cultura como los que le han profesado.^ Diffuseness is the chief defect which most students of Balmes have noticed in his writings. Donoso Cortes.

This is also true of

But no one can fail to see that the substance

of the argument is exactly the same in both:

namely, that

of C J?yf$ r ki 771 /-y

the eighteen centuries of f t d

but one period of

its existence, since it is connected with the Judaic religion,

1. p. 71. 2 . (Paris, n. d.), p. 24

80 whose origin extends all the way back to the very origin of the world.

Finally, he presents the fact that Christianity

prevailed in Europe, the most cultured part of the globe. In his first Entretien of his Soirees de Saint-Petersbourg de Maistre, speaking of the ills that visit the just, says: Le monde n*etant gouverne que ^ar des lois generales; vous n'avez pas, je crois, la pretention que, si les fondements de la terrasse ou nous parlons, etaient mis subitement en l'air^par quelque eboulement souterrain, Dieu fut oblige de suspendre en notre faveur les lois de la gravite, parce que cette terrasse porte dans ce moment trois personnes qui n^ont jamais tue ni vole. Voudriez-vous lorsqu*il grele que le champ du juste fut epargne, voila done un miracle .1 Now Balmes was a priest and a very learned one.

As such he

most certainly was able to answer this involved question re­ lating to the government of Providence without having ever read de Maistre.

Yet the similarity of the illustrations

and examples given is so striking as to suggest a very close connection.

i

Note how Balmes words the above argument:

El mundo esta sometido a ciertas leyes generales que la Providencia no suspende sino de vez en cuando; y que, por lo comun, envuelven sin distincion^a todos los que se hallan en las circunstancias a proposito para experimentar sus resultados. Si pasan dos hombres por la calle, uno bueno, otro malo, y se^desploma uma casa sobre sus cabezas, los dos quedaran aplasta&osj las paredes, vigas y techumbres, no formaran una boveda sobre la cabeza del hombre virtuoso. Si un aguacero inunda los campos y destruye las mieses, entre las cuales se hallan las de un propietario virtuoso, nadie exigira de la Providencia que al llegar las aguas a las tierras del hombre virtuoso, formen un muro, como en otro tiempo las del mar rojo . 1'2

1. (Paris, n. d.), vol. I, p. 24. 2. Cartas a un esceptico. (Barcelona, 1925), p. 223.

! I j

81

Again, it may be quite clearly seen that, notwithstand­

ing the diffuseness and difference of approach in the begin­ ning of the argument, the argument itself, the illustrations, and to a certain extent the wording are exactly alike and can leave no doubt as to their original source. But de Maistre*s influence on Balmes is especially visible in Badmee’s greatest work, El Protestantismo comparado con el Gatolicismo en sus relaciones con la civilizacion europea, El Protestantismo, the major work of Balmes, is built along the two models:

Du Pape of de Maistre and the Genie

du christianisme of Chateaubriand,

The framework of El Pro-

testantismo is exactly the same; but, whereas in the treat­ ment of the subject de Maistre emphasizes the religious aspect and Chateaubriand the literary and artistic, Balmes emphasizes the historical, the political, and social aspects of Catholicism.

One has but to look at the tables of con-

tents of the three works in question t o b e convinced that [all three have the same end in view, that all treat alike

i

|the same subjects but observe them under different aspects. {

jDe Maistre is writing the apology of the Papacy and its ij

||civilizing influence on the development of European society; I jChateaubriand is writing the apology of Christianity and its |civilizing influence, on all the people of the world in most Ifields of human endeavour; while Balmes is writing the apology (i !jof the Catholic faith, especially as regards the social and j

|political order in Europe.

The three writers take for their

Icriterion the contributions made by Christianity and by the

83 Papacy to tlie fuller development of the individual, of the family, and of society.

However, not only the framework of

El Protestantismo is built along the lines of the works of

■1

1

“' I'"--'

" ■ ■1

■ "inm i - i i— —

de Maistre and of Chateaubriand, but also the arguments from the two works of these two authors are incorporated into the work of Balmes as an integral part of it, as we shall now try to show. In his book^ Du Pape, de Maistre has a full chapter on »les inconveniences de la souverainetes."

In this chapter

he develops the idea that, although sovereignty has for its main and primary purpose that of being just, there are many instances where sovereignty has failed in this respect.

He

then relates what peoples have done throughout the course of time in order to protect themselves against the abuses of this sovereignty and discusses the various methods adopted or resorted to*3,

Balmes, in dealing with the same subject,

merely transcribes literally some two good pages from the above chapter of de Maistre.

2

In speaking of the long recog­

nized supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, de Maistre gives a list of titles accorded by ecclesiastical antiQuity to the Popes and to the Holy See of Rome .3

Balmes, writing about

the same subject, transcribes the whole list, order as that given

in the same

by de Maistre.^ In a chapter on 11la

1. Du Pape» Livre II, chapitre II, pp. 172-73. El Protestantismo. vol. I, Chapter XVI, pp. 342-43. 3* OH* oit., Book

I, Chap. VI, pp. 50-53.

4. Op. oit.t vol.

I, pp. 490-92.

83 liberte civile des homines, 11 de Maistre, in order to prove the benign and salutary influence the church exercised in abolishing slavery, cites the condition of Athens and of Rome and the number of slaves they had at the advent of Christianity.

De Maistre cites the example of Athens having

forty thousand slaves as against twenty thousand free men. He also relates the fact that the Roman Senate denied its slaves a special uniform lest this should give them an idea of their prodigious number and incite them to rebellion .1 Writing on the same subject Balmes repeats these two examples of de Maistre as given in the Du Pape .2

Speaking of the

General Councils and of the reasons why they are not held more often, Balmes says: ,fA esto respondere con el siguiente juicioso pasaje del conde de Maistre en su obra De Papa, lib. I. cap. 3. *En los primeros siglos del eristianismo era mucho mas faeil juntar los concilios, porque la Iglesia era menos numerosa; y la unidad de poderes reunidos en la cabeza de los Emperadores, les permitia congregar un ‘ numero de Obispos suficiente,^para imponer desde luego respeto, y no necesitar despues sino el consentimiento de los demas; y sin embargo, jque penas, que embarazos para congregarlos I 1 11 In modern times, according to Balmes, still quoting from de Maistre, the convocation of an Ecumenical Council, because 3 of the many difficulties, would take from five to six years. In dealing with the subject of the temporal power of the popes and of the use the popes made of it in contrast to what

1. P. 247. 2. Ibid., p. 169. 3#

ei Protestantismo, vol. II, p. 553.

84 other princes had done with theirs, Balmes quotes one full page from what he always called: Maistre on the same subject*

11the

immortal work of de

In short, whenever it is a

question of the Pope in whatever capacity, Balmes resorts •Very often to the Du Pape of de Maistre, quoting at times in support of his own position, at other times, simply in­ corporating de Maistre*s arguments as an integral part of his own work* El Protestantismo is undoubtedly the crowning apologetic achievement of Balmes*s labor*

It is the work that gained

for him a European reputation*

It is almost another Genius

of Christianity* not so much from the literary as from the historical, social, and political points of view.

While it

was written apparently to refute Guizot*s Histoire de la civilisation* in which the author minimizes the Catholic influence on the civilization of Europe, the model Balmes set

for himself,

in addition to theDu Pape of de Maistre,

was

the Genie of Chateaubriand* "La , 11 says Charles Mazade, "ou Chateaubriand rarnenait a 1 *ideal^religieux par 1 *imagination, se rallumant dans les ames lasses et deques les sentiments des^poe— sies de la Foi, en decrivant les merveilles des fetes chretiennes...Balmes, moins grand ecrivain assurement, va droit, pour ainsi dire, au noeud des problemes de la civilisation; il recompose une philosophie de l'histoire, qui n*a rien d*abstrait ni de superficiel, qui s'appuie au contraire, sur des realites les plus profondes et qui vient projeter une lumiere etrange sur les maladies des societes m o d e m e s , 1^

1. Ibid.* p. 484. L*Espagne moderne. (Paris, 1869), pp. 139-40*

85 It lias been said by many of tlie biographers of Balmes that the Genie du christianisme of Chateaubriand was one of the few books for which Balmes had a special predilection, and which, together with the Bible, the Summa of St. Thomas, Don Qui.iote, and the Discours sur 1 "histoire universelle of Bossuet, formed the object of his constant study.

Balmes

greatly admired in Chateaubriand not only the man but also his work.

Lest our appreciation of Balmes*s admiration for

Chateaubriand be considered somewhat hyperbolical, we shall quote from El Protestantismo itself that warm and eloquent eulogy he makes of Chateaubriand, and the role he assigns to him in the revival of the religious movement in France. ,fEl ate ismo anegaba la Franc ia en un pielago de sangre y de lagrimas, y un hombre desconocido atraviesa en silencio los mares. Extraviado por las soledades de America, pregunta a las maravillas de la creacion el nombre de su Autor......... Embriagado con los. sentimientos que le ha sugerido la grandeza de tales espectaculos...pisa de nuevo el suelo patrio. Y, que encuentra alii? la huella ensangrentada del ateismo, las ruinas y cenizas de los antiguos templos o devorados del fuego o desplomados a los golpes de barbaro martillo..... desde entonces se agitan, rebeldes en su grande alma las inspiraciones de la meditacion...y enajenado canta con lengua de fuego las bellezas de la religion; revela las delicadezas y hermosas relaciones que tiene con la naturaleza, y hablando un lenguaje divino y superior, muestra a los hombres asombrados la misteriosa-cadena de oro que une al cielo con la tierra.... Such pages resounding with brilliant oratory are very rare in Balmes.

They could only be motivated by genuine

admiration for the man he had the privilege of knowing per­ sonally as well as through his works.

Shortly before his

1. El Protestantismo. vol. I, pp. 131-22.

86 death there appeared in the periodical, La Paz, of June 18,

CO?t €XAM'C'& 1848,^in which the author

strongly deprecated

and even condemned what he called Rel Ir I o n a la moda of Chateaubriand.

Balmes came immediately to the defense of

Chateaubriand and showed that the latter was more than justi­ fied in the course he had taken.

Literature, says Balmes,

is the expression of society, and Chateaubriand gave his epoch the sort of literature for which it was yearning. Even if Chateaubriand were not extolled as an apologist of the Catholic faith, he would deserve to be praised and com­ mended as the poet and singer of the faith. In El Protestantismo Balmes draws heavily on the store of facts Chateaubriand offers in his Genie.

Speaking about

slavery, about monastic orders, about public beneficence, and many other subjects concerning Europe, Balmes quotes at great length from Chateaubriand's treatment of the same sub­ jects in his Genie. pages .2

These quotations run at times into three

In El Protestantismo Balmes devotes a whole chapter

to public beneficence; which, he claims, was unknown to pagan societies. nate?

What was then, he asks, the fate of the unfortu­

"Responderemos,H says Balmes, Ha esta pregunta con el

autor del Gehio del Oristianismo:

'tenian dos conductos para

deshacerse de ellos, el infanticidio y la esclavitud *" .3 He then summarizes the chapter of Chateaubriand on the sub­ ject.

Respecting the influence of the Catholic Church on

1. Escritos nostumos. (Barcelona, 1915), p. 77. 2. El Protestantismo. vol. II. pp. 471-73. 3.

Vol. I, p. 399.

87 European art Balmes quotes from Chateaubriand's Etudes Historiques some three full pages summing up Chateaubriand's views upon the subject.^* If one were to express in a single, comprehensive idea the whole basic theory of Balmes regarding the political and social edifice, one could do so In one word— unity.

It is

the idea of unity which is at all times the pivot around which revolves his whole plan for the reclamation of reli­ gious, political, and social order.

It is this same spirit

of unity, as embodying the chief characteristic mark of the divinity of the Catholic Church, that he, time and again, sets forth in opposition to Protestantism.

It is this unity

of the Catholic Church, he states, which alone explains its survival amidst the ruin and downfall of so many Empires. In the social and political order Balmes merely translated the idea he elaborated in the religious field.

Although he

admitted that, theoretically speaking, there is no one single form of political government which might be considered as the only one essential to order in society; his repugnance to parliamentarism and his advocacy of the monarchical form of government springs only from his fear lest the unity of power, the unity of sovereignty, and the -unity of government be bro­ ken.

He dreaded lest religious and political unity be broken

in Spain, because of the many calamities which, in his opinion, might result.

In words reminiscent of Chateaubriand he exclaims:

1. Vol. II, pp. 471-73.

88 11Ah— oprimese el alma con angustiosa pesadumbre, al solo pensamiento de que pudiera venir un dia en que desapareciese de entre nosotros esa unidad religiosa, que se identifica con nuestros usos, nuestras costumbres, nuestras leyes, que guarda la cuna de nuestra monarquia en la cueva de Oovadonga; que es la ensena de nuestro estandarte en una lucha de ocho siglos con el formidable poder de la Media Luna, que desenvuelve lozanamente nuestra civilizacion en medio de tiempos tan trabajosos, que acompana a nuestros terribles tercios cuando imponian silencio a Europa.11-1-

For Balmes as for de Maistre, the political body is a living body, a living organization, constituted of living members.

Because of this, political power must at all times,

if it is to survive, reflect the social body.

Legislatures

and laws are of themselves useless unless their force should spring from the bosom of society itself. put it:

And as he would

nNingun poder sera fuerte en el order politico si

no tiene fuerza propia en el orden social, una fuerza ante­ rior a las leyes, independiente de ellas, que nazca de la naturaleza del poder mismo.11^

Written constitutions, there­

fore, such as that of 1812 and the others that followed » eluded , are of no use, unless they be the expression of the unwritten ones. obvious.

The conclusion for Balmes is then perfectly

Catholicism and monarchy have been so closely

identified with Spanish life for so many centuries, having stood together in so many hard fought battles and having together survived so many almost insurmountable obstacles that they have been and must always continue to be the stout

1. El Protestantismo. vol. I, p. 137. 2* Escritos politicos, vol. Ill, p. 57.

89 pillars upon which alone the Spanish political edifice can safely rest.

Supported by these two pillars Spain can and

will rise again to a future even more glorious than its past.

Balmes, however, was willing to make concessions to

the ever-changing present:

HVivimos en una epoca de agi-

taciones, de zozobras," he says, "es preciso resignarse a ellas; somos navegantes en un mar inquieto . 1*1

The world

is moving forward, and the sooner we recognize this fact the better.

The only safe guide is that which every sane

philosopher would suggest:

study the lesson of history;

and, while keeping faith with the past, be not indifferent to the present and the future.

1

. Miscelanea religiosa. politica

literaria, p. 36.

90 Chapter III Juan Donoso Cortes: his traditionalistio ideas in philosophy, in politics, and in literature. His debt to French traditionalists. Whenever reference is made to traditionalism in Spain, in so far as it is a philosophical doctrine, there is one name which at once comes to the minis of most persons, a name that is almost necessarily associated with this sort of traditionalism, that of Don Juan Donoso Cortes, marquis of Valdegamas; for he and only he is the personification, so to speak, of all that is the most characteristic of doctrinal traditionalism in the politics, religion, and philosophy of Spain.

Strange indeed is the personality of this man, who

began by singing the praises of the aristocracy of reason, by extolling the beneficial influence of the Reformation which i n his opinion, emancipated the human mind from the despotic yoke of aging, decrepit Rome - as well as the benefits reaped by society thanks to t h e .Revolution of 1 7 $ 9 >

and

ended by declaring war to the death against all three: Reason, Reformation, and Revolution. We can not better

begin this study concerning Don Juan

Donoso Cortes than by quoting, first, from the distinguished critic and scholar, Don Juan Valera, who, with respect to 1. Juan Donoso Cortes, marquis of Valdegamas, was born in 1309 i*1 the province of Extremadura. He was appointed a pro­ fessor of literature in the Colegio de Humanidades at Caceres when only twenty years old. His first work, Memoria sobre la aitnafti6 n tie la. Monaraula. was published in 1^32. Elected Deputy to the Spanish Cortes he soon acquired great fame as a brilliant orator. He died in Paris in 1353 while discharging the duties of ambassador.

91 Donoso and his traditionalism, has the following to say:

V/

La flamante dootrina que presto a Donoso a sunt o para su elocuencia, fuerza es confesar que vino de Francia. Esta doctrina fu^ el tradicionalismo. Acaso haya habido tradicionalistas en Espana sin que dada dehan a los tradicionalistas franceses, pero siempre deberi'an su origen menos inmediato, al extremo sensualismo de Condillac, de donde el tradi­ cionalismo procede. Comoquiera que ello sea, lo que no puede negarse es que Donoso hubo de inspirarse, en Bonald, y en el co nde deyMaistre, pero exagero^las doctrinas de ambos y formo con todo ello el mas elocuente, atrevido » f^ntastico poema en prosa que puede imaginarse.

The reason for this traditionalistic movement in Spain /■ / which drew within its bosom, besides Donoso, Jose Maria Quadrado,

2

Francisco Navarro Villoslada,

i

and Francisco J.

Caminero,^ and a number of others of lesser merit in the period in question, is attributed

by the same critic to the

"espanto de los burgueses, alia por los anos de 1 $ 5 °> tuvo sobrada raz 6 n de ser y sobreexcit