Bonald, Louis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de

BONALD, LOUIS GABRIEL AMBROISE, VICOMTE DE: French political and philosophical writer; b. at Monna, near Millau (130 m. w.n.w. of Marseilles), Aveyron, Oct. 2, 1754; d. there Nov. 23, 1840. He emigrated in 1791 and settled at Heidelberg; returned to France in 1797, lived in concealment for a time, and then was allowed to proceed to his estates; in 1808 he was appointed councilor of the Imperial University, and, after the Restoration, member of the Council of Public Instruction; from 1815 to 1822 he was member of the chamber of deputies, in 1822 minister of state, and in 1823 was made a peer of France; after 1830 he retired to private life. He was one of the leaders of the reactionary school to which belonged De Maistre, d’Eckstein, Ballanche, Lamennais, and others, which started with the principle that revelation and not observation is the true ground of philosophy; absolutism in politics and ecclesiastical despotism in religion were in his view the natural and desirable order of things. The most noteworthy of his many writings were Théorie du pouvoir politique et religieux (3 vols., Constance, 1796); La Législation primitive (3 vols., Paris, 1802); Recherches philosophiques sur les premiers objets des connaissances morales (2 vols., 1818). His collected works were published in twelve volumes in 1817–19 and again in three volumes in 1859. His second son, Louis Jacques Maurice, b. at Millau Oct. 30, 1787, d. at Lyons Feb. 25, 1870, became bishop of Puy in 1823, archbishop of Lyons in 1839, cardinal in 1841; he was a strong Ultramontane.

Bibliography: Victor de Bonald, De la vie et des écrits du vicomte de Bonald, Avignon, 1853 (by his son); J. Blanchon, Le Cardinal de Bonald . . ., sa vie et ses œuvres, Lyons, 1870.