BONALD, LOUIS GABRIEL AMBROISE, VICOMTE DE , French philosopher and politician, was born at Le Monna, near Millau in Aveyron. He emigrated in 1791, joined the army of the prince of Conde, and soon afterwards settled at Heidelberg. There he wrote his first important work, the highly conservative Theorie du pouvoir politique et religieux (1796; new ed., Paris 1854), which was condemned by the Directory. In 1806 he was associated with Chateaubriand and Fievee in the conduct of the Mercure de France. After the Restoration he was a member of the council of public instruction, and from 1815-22 sat in the chamber as deputy. His speeches were on the extreme conservative side; he even advocated a literary censorship, and was a champion of ultra-montanism. In 1822 he was made min ister of State, and presided over the censorship commission. In 183o he retired to Le Monna, where he died.
Bonald was one of the leading writers of the theocratic or tra ditionalist school, which included de Maistre, Lamennais, Bal lanche and d'Eckstein. His writings are mainly on social and political philosophy, and form a defence of political absolutism. They are based ultimately on the principle of the divine origin of language. In his own words, "L'homme pense sa parole avant de parler sa pensee ;" the first language contained the essence of all truth. From this he deduces the existence of God, the divine origin and consequent supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures, and the infallibility of the church.
His son, LOUIS JACQUES MAURICE (I cardinal (1841), was condemned by the council of State for a pastoral letter attacking Dupin the elder's Manuel de droit ecclesiastique.
Besides the Theorie above mentioned, the Vicomte de Bonald pub lished Essai analytique sur les lois naturelles de l'ordre social (1800) ; Legislation primitive (1802) ; Du divorce considers au XIX e siecle (18o1) ; Recherches philosophiques sur les premiers objets de con naissances morales (1818) ; Melanges litteraires et politiques, demon stration philosophique du Principe constitutif de la societe (1819, 1852). The first collected edition appeared in 1817-19; the latest is that of the Abbe Migne (1859) .