Charles-Irénée Castel, abbé de Saint-Pierre
Born on 18 February 1658, at Saint-Pierre-Église in Normandy, Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre joined the royal court in 1693 as Chaplain to the Duchesse d'Orléans (sister-in-law of Louis XIV) and frequented the salons of Madame de Lafayette and the marquise de Lambert in Paris. Fontenelle (Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, 1657-1757) presented the Abbé de Saint-Pierre to the Académie Française in 1695. Though he had not yet published any writings, de Saint-Pierre was elected that year, to occupy the vacant Académie’s “fauteuil” (chair) No. 120.
In 1719 he published his Discours sur la polysynodie (1719; A Discourse of the Danger of Governing by One Minister), in which he stated his preference for Royal Councils (as was the case during the Regency) as opposed to the absolute and personal mode of government by the King. The work was considered a political offense and, by unanimous vote, he was crossed off the Académie members’ list. The Duke of Orléans successfully influenced the rare decision that de Saint-Pierre’s chair remain vacant until his death. He continued to frequent the “salons philosophiques” of Mme de Lambert, Mme Geoffrin, and Mme Du Deffant, and he was a member of the Club de l’Entresol (a club and discussion group founded in 1724 for the free discussion of political and economic questions; it was shut down by Louis XV in 1731).
De Saint-Pierre’s novel ideas inspired Rousseau and Kant. His works are sharp criticisms of politics, law, and social institutions, as well as proposals for administrative, political, and fiscal reforms. In 1728 he published his Projet pour perfectionner l’éducation (Project for Perfecting Education) and his Projet pour perfectionner le gouvernement des états (Project for Perfecting the Government of States) was published posthumously in 1767. His chief work, Le Projet de paix perpétuelle (1712; A Project for Setting an Everlasting Peace in Europe), proposes a European peace based on the Peace of Utrecht and assured by a European confederation, one that is a precursor of the current European Union.
When Jean-Jacques Rousseau published in 1761 his Extrait de projet de paix perpétuelle de l’abbé de Saint-Pierre, Voltaire, whose dislike for Rousseau was intense, took issue with this publication. He exclaimed in a letter to his friend Etienne Noël Damilaville, dated 19 mars 1761 (D9684): “Voilà donc Jean-Jacques politique … C’est un étrange fou.” (“so here is Jean-Jacques, now a politician … he is a strange madman.” That same year Voltaire composed his satirical (and humorous) attack, Rescrit de l'Empereur de la Chine à l’occasion du Projet de paix perpétuelle (authored by “Nous, l’empereur de la Chine”).
Ira Wade, in volume 1 of his book, The structure and form of the French Enlightenment, provides a detailed assessment of the many similarities of thought between Voltaire and de Saint-Pierre[1]. Indeed, Voltaire’s own De la paix perpétuelle (1769) is framed by references to de Saint-Pierre’s ideas:
https://voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/voltaires-de-la-paix-perpetuelle/.
The Electronic Enlightenment has only one letter from de Saint Pierre to Voltaire (dated 2 October 1769, D2085). De Saint-Pierre (then aged 81) counsels Voltaire (then aged 44) to abandon his writings for personal glory (“vos ouvrages de gloriole”) and to spend the rest of his life to educate men and those who govern.
Danielle Mihram, December 2016.
Sources:Académie Française. “Les Immortels - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre.” Web 1 Dec. 2016
http://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/charles-irenee-castel-de-saint-pierre
Frey, Daniel. “La guerre et la paix perpétuelle de l’abbé de Saint-Pierre à Rousseau.” Revue des sciences religieuses, vol. 86, no. 4, 2012, pp. 455-473.
Merle L. Perkins. “Voltaire and the abbé de Saint-Pierre on world peace,” Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, vol. 18, 1961, pp. 9-34.
Riley, Patrick. “The Abbé de Saint-Pierre and Voltaire on perpetual peace in Europe.” World Affairs, vol. 137, no. 3 (Winter 1974-1975), pp. 186-194.
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet). Rescrit de l’Empereur de la Chine à l’occasion du Projet de paix perpétuelle (1761). Reprinted in: La Gazette des Délices, No. 11, Autumn 2006. See also: OCV 51(IIB).
[1] Wade, Ira. The structure and form of the French Enlightenment. Princeton University Press, 1977 (2 vols). See Vol. 1: “Politics.”
Charles-Irénée Castel, abbé de Saint-Pierre appears in the following letters.
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