Charles Bémont

“ To Thierry belongs the credit for inaugurating in France the really critical study of the communal institutions, and we cannot make him responsible for the neglect into which it relapsed after his death. The last years of his life were clouded by domestic griefs and by illness. In 1844 he lost his wife, Julie de Quérengal, an intelligent woman, who had been to him a collaborator as capable as she was devoted. The revolution of 1848 inflicted on him a final blow. ”

“ As Gaston left only daughters, the viscounty passed at his death to the family of Foix, from whom it was transmitted through the houses of Grailly and Albret to the Bourbons, and they, in the person of Henry IV., king of Navarre, made it an apanage of the crown of France. It was not formally incorporated in the royal domains, however, until 1620. None of these political changes weakened the independent spirit of the Béarnais. From the 11th century onward, they were governed by their own special customs or fors. ”

“ The title of count of Agenais, which the kings of England had allowed to fall into desuetude, was revived by the kings of France, and in 1789 was held by the family of the dukes of Richelieu.
There is no good history of Agenais; that published by Jules Andrieu in 1893 (Histoire de l’Agenais, 2 vols.) . being quite inadequate. The Bibliographie générale de l’Agenais, by the same author (1886–1891, 3 vols.) , may be found useful. ”

“ His artistic talent as a writer makes the weaknesses and deficiencies of his scholarship less obvious. This work, the preparation of which had required several years of hard work, cost Thierry his eyesight; in 1826 he was obliged to engage secretaries and in 1850 became quite blind. Notwithstanding, he continued to produce works. In 1827 he republished his Lettres sur l'histoire de France, with the addition of fifteen new ones, in which he described some of the more striking episodes in the history of the rise of the medieval communes. ”

“ Charged with the supervision of a large collection of documents bearing on French history, analogous to Rymer’s Foedera, he published the first volume (Diplomatat. Chartae, &c., 1791) . The Revolution interrupted him in his collection of Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les lettres, et les arts des Chinois, begun in 1776 at the instance of the minister Bertin, when fifteen volumes had appeared. ”

“ The history of the forgeries committed in the interests of the house of Bouillon forms a curious and instructive episode in the history of French scholarship in the time of Louis XIV. It is to be found in the Manuel de diplomatique by A. Giry; and above all in a note to the Œuvres de Saint-Simon by M. de Boislisle (vol. xiv. pp. 533-558) . The bibliography of Baluze’s researches has been made by M. René Fage (1882, 1884) and his Life told by M. Émile Fage (1899) . To these we must add an amusing book by G. Clément-Simon, La Gaieté de Baluze ”

“ These rogues were skilful enough, for they succeeded in duping the most illustrious scholars; Dom Jean Mabillon, the founder of Diplomatics, Dom Thierry Ruinart and Baluze himself, called as experts, made a unanimously favourable report on the 23rd of July 1695. But cardinal de Bouillon had many enemies, and a war of pamphlets began. In March 1698 Baluze in reply wrote a Letter which proved nothing. Two years later, in 1700, Jean de Bar and his accomplices were arrested, and after a long and searching inquiry were declared guilty in 1704. Baluze, nevertheless, was obstinate in his opinion. ”

“ But his tastes led him in a different direction; not content with a knowledge of books, he wished to know the world and men. During a period of ten years he seized every opportunity for profitable travel. ”

“ It was conquered by the Vascones in the 6th century, and in 819 became a viscounty dependent on the dukes of Aquitaine—a feudal link which was broken in the 11th century, when the viscounts ceased to acknowledge any suzerain. ”

“ In the Grands écrivains series he was responsible for Montesquieu (1887) and Mme de Staël (1891) ; the portrait which he draws of Montesquieu is all the more vivid for he intellectual affinities which existed between him and the author of the Lettres persanes and the Esprit des lois. Later, in Bonaparte et Hoche en 1797, he produced a critical comparison which is one of his most finished works (1896) ; and in the Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs he prepared vol. i. dealing with Austria (1884) . ”

“ He was, however, thought too liberal for the government of Charles X., and his lectures were stopped, with the result of securing him, after the revolution, the important post of prefect of the Haute-Saône, which he held eight years. During this time he published nothing. In 1838 he was transferred to the council of state as master of requests, which post he held through the revolution of 1848 and the coup d'état till 1860, when he was made senator — a paid office, it must be remembered, and, in effect, a lucrative sinecure. ”

“ His object was to produce a purely scientific and unbiassed work, and for this reason he wrote it in Latin, giving it as title Historia sui temporis. The first 18 books, embracing the period from 1545–1560, appeared in 1604 (1 vol. folio) , and the work was at once attacked by those whom the author himself calls les envieux et les factieux. The second part, dealing with the first wars of religion (1560–1572) , was put on the Index librorum prohibitorum (Nov. 9, 1609) . ”

“ Though he did not renounce his Liberal friends, he sought the conversation of enlightened priests, and just before his death he seems to have been disposed to enter the pale of the Church. He died in Paris on the 22nd of May 1856, after several years of suffering endured with heroism. ”

“ Elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres in 1759, he contributed an Histoire de Posthume empereur des Gaules (vol. xxx., 1760) to the collected works of that illustrious society, and also a Mémoire sur l’établissement de la religion et de l’empire de Mahomet (vol. xxxii., 1761–1763) . ”

“ Before his death he succeeded in returning to Paris, where he died unconvinced of his errors on the 28th of July 1718. Was he dupe or accomplice? The study of his correspondence with the cardinal gives the impression that he was the victim of clever cheats. ”