COME Ds, French publicist and historian : London, England, 29 May 1810; d. Paris, 13 March 1870. He received a university educa tion at Paris; identified himself with the Liberal Catholic movement of Lamennais (q.v.) and Lacordaire (q.v.), whom he assisted in estab lishing (18 Oct. 1830) and editing L'Avenir, and in efforts to obtain the freedom of educa tion at that time impossible under the state system, and in 1831 went with these two leaders to Rome to present their cause. On his return he opened with Lacordaire and De Coux at Paris a free Catholic school, which was promptly closed by the police, while the direc tors were arraigned for infringement of the laws respecting instruction. Montalembert made a notable defense before the Chamber of Peers, but the directors were sentenced to pay the costs and 100 francs apiece in fines. When the doctrines of L'Avenir were condemned by Gregory XVI in an encyclical of 15 Aug. 1832, Montalembert duly submitted and did not pro ceed with Lamennais to final revolt. He en tered the Chamber of Peers in 1835, spoke much and eloquently pn ecclesiastical matters, and in 1836 published his (Histoire de Sainte Elizabeth de Hongrie,' which appeared in an English rendering by Hackett and Sadlier (1854). His Catholic zeal was combined with liberal ideas and after the Revolution of 1848 he was elected as a Moderate Republican to the Constituent Assembly ; but here, as in the Legis lative Assembly, where he sat from 1849 to 1857, he became more and more conservative.
In June 1851 he debated against Victor Hugo in opposition to the proposed constitutional re vision. He found himself unable to support the measures of the Empire; was known as one of the most determined opponents of Napoleon III; and for an article, 'lin Debat sur l'Inde an Parlement Anglais,' unfavorably contrasting French and British institutions, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs, though the penalty was remitted. His chief work is 'Les Momes d'Occident depuis Saint Benoit jusqu'a Saint Bernard> (1850-67; Eng. trans.), which, though of much value, has been criticized as in general too argumentative and oratorical in manner to fulfil the highest demands of history. He wrote many pamphlets, the last of which, 'La Vic toire du Nord aux Etats-Unis' (1865; Eng. 1866), was an appreciation of the triumph of the Union cause in the Civil War. He opposed in a letter of 28 Feb. 1870 the opportuneness of the definition of the doctrine of papal infallibility, but acquiesced at once when the dogma was published. Consult the memoir by Mrs. Oliphant (London 1872) ; the study by De Meaux (Paris 1897) ; Craven, 'Le Comte de Montalembert> (London 1873) ; Lecanuet, 'Montalembert d'apresses papiers et su cor respondence> (3 vols., Paris 1895-1905).