Adrien Albert Marie de Mun

Adrien Albert Marie, Comte de Mun
Comte Albert de Mun
Personal details
BornFebruary 28 1841
Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux, Seine-et-Marne, Kingdom of France
Died6 October 1914(1914-10-06) (aged 73)
Bordeaux, Third French Republic
Political partyPopular Liberal Action 1901-1914

Adrien Albert Marie, Comte de Mun (French pronunciation: [adʁjɛ̃ albɛʁ maʁi kɔ̃t mœ̃], 28 February 1841 – 6 October 1914), was a French political figure, nobleman, journalist, and reactionary of the nineteenth century. An advocate of social Catholicism de Mun was initially a Legitimist, before supporting the Third Republic following Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Au milieu des sollicitudes.[1]

Biography

Early years

Albert was born at Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux, Seine-et-Marne, son of the Marquis de Mun. He became a brother-in-law of the Duke of Ursel when his sister Antonine de Mun married him and left to live in Belgium.

He entered the French Army, saw service in Algeria (1862) and took part in the fighting around Metz in 1870 (during the Franco-Prussian War). On the surrender of Metz, he was sent as a prisoner of war to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle),[2] where he met René de La Tour du Pin. While in Germany he became aware of and inspired by work the social teachings of Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler. De Man and du Pin became determined to respond to the dilemmas of the working class upon their release from prison.[3]

After the war he took part in the suppression of the Paris Commune.[2] During the suppression de Mun was appalled by the violence of both forces, impressed by the fervor of the communards, and angered by the indifference of the upper classes to the problems of the working class.[4] The following year he and du Pin organized a Catholic Workers' club, under the name "L'Oeuvre des Cercles Catholiques d'Ouvriers" (Society of Catholic Worker Circles), at the request of Maurice Maignen (founder of the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul). The clubs spread quickly throughout France. These "circles" or clubs brought together the wealthy and the workers from a given locale for prayer, socializing and lectures by members of the aristocracy.[citation needed] He also assisted in the recovery of Paris from the Paris Commune.[2]

Politics

A fervent Roman Catholic, Albert devoted himself to advocating Social Catholicism. His attacks on Third French Republic's social policy ultimately gave rise to a prohibition from the Minister of War. He thereupon resigned his commission (November 1875) and in the following February stood as Royalist and Catholic candidate for Pontivy. The influence of the Church was exerted to secure his election and, during the proceedings, he was awarded the Order of Saint Gregory the Great by Pope Pius IX. He won the next elections for the same constituency, but the result was declared invalid. De Mun was re-elected however in the following August and for many years was the most conspicuous leader of the anti-Republican party. "We form", he said on one occasion, "the irreconcilable Counter-Revolution".[2]

He was also a resolute opponent of Socialism: "Socialism is logical Revolution and we are Counter-Revolution. There is nothing in common between us."[5] Despite this stance Du Mon occasionally found common ground with the French Workers' Party who praised his 'integrity and idealism". In his inaugural parliamentary speech Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx's son in law, praised the Count for having "delivered the best socialist speech ever given in this chamber." Some anti-clerical leftists even suspected an alliance between the POF and the Social Catholic movement.[6]

The social reform de Mun supported included:[7]

  • Limiting the working week to 58 hours with all Sundays off
  • Banning night work for women
  • Four weeks of breaks for women after childbirth
  • Abolition of child labor
  • Old age pensions
  • Accident and Health insurance
  • Minimum wages for sweatshops
  • Joint arbitration councils
  • International agreements on labor legislation.


He was a prominent Anti-Dreyfusard as well as a committed antisemite who believed the Jews were plotting an international conspiracy and casually referred to them as youtres (French equivalent of "kikes").[8][9][10]

Later years

As far back as 1878, he had declared himself opposed to universal suffrage, a declaration that lost him his seat from 1879 to 1881. He spoke strongly against the exile of the French princes (after the Count of Paris gave rise to suspicions that he was preparing to claim the throne), and it was chiefly through his influence that the support of the Royalist party was given to Georges Boulanger. But as a faithful Catholic, he obeyed the encyclical of 1892, Au milieu des sollicitudes, and declared his readiness to rally to a republican government, provided that it respected religion. In the following January, he received from Leo XIII a letter commending his actions and encouraging him in his social reforms.[2] De Mun's embrace of the Republic led to a break with his old friend Édouard Drumont. In Durmont's newspaper La Libre Parole the count and Papal Nuncio Cardinal Domenico Ferrata were denounced liked common criminals.[11]

He was defeated at the general election of that year, but in 1894 was elected in Finistère (Morlaix). In 1897, he succeeded Jules Simon as a member of the Académie française, owing to the quality and eloquence of his speeches which, with a few pamphlets, form the bulk of his published work. In Ma vocation sociale (1908) he wrote an explanation and justification of his career.[2]

In order to formed a united front against the anti-clericals between French Catholics de Mun and Jacques Piou formed the Popular Liberal Action party.[12]

Legacy

Prime Minister Louis Barthou said that the count was "the collaborator and even sometimes the precursor of all the great labor laws of the Republic."[13]

References

  1. ^ Nord, Phillip (October 1984). "Three Views of Christian Democracy in Fin de Siecle France". Journal of Contempary History. 19 (4): 714-715.
  2. ^ a b c d e f  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mun, Adrien Albert Marie de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1.
  3. ^ Sister Miriam, O.S.U (March 1953). "Count Albert de Mun: His Theory of the Social Apostolate". The American Catholic Sociological Review. 14 (1): 13.
  4. ^ Sister Miriam, O.S.U (March 1953). "Count Albert de Mun: His Theory of the Social Apostolate". The American Catholic Sociological Review. 14 (1): 13-14.
  5. ^ Tuchman, Barbara W. (2011). The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series. Random House Publishing Group. p. 213.
  6. ^ Stuart, Robert (September 1999). "Jesus the Sans-Culotte': Marxism and Religion during the French Fin de Siècle". The Historical Journal. 42 (3): 714.
  7. ^ Sister Miriam, O.S.U (March 1953). "Count Albert de Mun: His Theory of the Social Apostolate". The American Catholic Sociological Review. 14 (1): 21.
  8. ^ Arnal, Oscar L. (1985). Ambivalent Alliance: The Catholic Church and the Action Française, 1899-1939. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 31–32.
  9. ^ Harris, Ruth (2010). Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 182–183.
  10. ^ Passmore, Kevin (2013). The Right in France from the Third Republic to Vichy. Oxford University Press. p. 62.
  11. ^ Byrnes, Robert F. (January 1949). "Antisemitism in France before the Dreyfus Affair". Jewish Social Studies. 11 (1): 65.
  12. ^ Sister Miriam, O.S.U (March 1953). "Count Albert de Mun: His Theory of the Social Apostolate". The American Catholic Sociological Review. 14 (1): 23.
  13. ^ Sister Miriam, O.S.U (March 1953). "Count Albert de Mun: His Theory of the Social Apostolate". The American Catholic Sociological Review. 14 (1): 20.

Further reading

  • A. M. A. “Count de Mun.” The Irish Monthly 43, no. 500 (1915): 102–5. online.
  • Martin, Benjamin F. "The Creation of the Action Libérale Populaire: an Example of Party Formation in Third Republic France." French Historical Studies 9.4 (1976): 660-689. online
  • Martin, Benjamin F., and Albert de Mun. “A Letter of Albert de Mun on the Papal Condemnation of the Sillon.” The Catholic Historical Review 64, no. 1 (1978): 47–50. online.
  • Nord, Philip G. “Three Views of Christian Democracy in Fin de Siecle France.” Journal of Contemporary History 19, no. 4 (1984): 713–27. online.
  • Sister Miriam, O. S. U. “Count Albert de Mun: His Theory of the Social Apostolate.” The American Catholic Sociological Review 14, no. 1 (1953): 13–24. online.
  • Stuart, Robert. “‘Jesus the Sans-Culotte’: Marxism and Religion during the French Fin de Siècle.” The Historical Journal 42, no. 3 (1999): 705–27. online.

External links

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