Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and radical. After Georg von Podiebrad
George of Podebrady
George of Kunštát and Poděbrady , also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad , was King of Bohemia...
in his Tractatus, he was, perhaps, one of the first to propose an international organisation responsible for maintaining peace.
Life
Saint-Pierre was born at the château de Saint-Pierre-ÉgliseSaint-Pierre-Église
Saint-Pierre-Église is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.A market takes place in Saint-Pierre-Église every Wednesday.WW2:Part of the Allied invasion happened here in 1944.-References:*...
near Cherbourg where his father was bailli
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
of the Cotentin. Saint-Pierre was unsuited to a military career due to poor health and was educated by the Jesuits.
Later as an adult his family connections introduced him to the salons of Madame de la Fayette
Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de la Fayette
Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de La Fayette , better known as Madame de La Fayette, was a French writer, the author of La Princesse de Clèves, France's first historical novel and one of the earliest novels in literature.- Life :Christened Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, she was...
and of the Marquise Henri de Lambert in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
which he frequented. He was presented with the abbacy of Tiron, and was elected to the Academy
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
in 1695 although he had produced no notable work to that date. In the same year he gained a footing at court as almoner
Almoner
An almoner is a chaplain or church officer who originally was in charge of distributing cash to the deserving poor.Historically, almoners were Christian religious functionaries whose duty was to distribute alms to the poor. Monasteries were required to spend one tenth of their income in charity to...
to Madame.
He was a negotiator of the Treaty of Utrecht
Treaty of Utrecht
The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...
(1712-13), and this influenced him to develop his ideas for his project of universal peace among nations. In 1718, he published Discours sur la Polysynodie a book in which he was openly critical of the policy of the late Louis XIV, for his despotic rule and proposed the replacement of appointed ministers by elected councils. Later in 1718, in consequence of the political offence given by this work, he was expelled from the Academy.
He afterwards joined the Club de l'Entresol
Club de l'Entresol
The Club de l'Entresol |Mezzanine]] Club) was a think-tank, club and discussion group founded in 1724 by Pierre-Joseph Alary and Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre on the English model for free discussion of political and economic questions...
with Pierre-Joseph Alary
Pierre-Joseph Alary
Pierre-Joseph Alary was a French ecclesiastic and writer.-Life:Prior of Gournay-sur-Marne and sous-précepteur to Louis XV, he attended the salon of Madame de Lambert, was elected to the Académie française in 1723 and the following year was one of the founders of the Club de l'Entresol...
, an independent society suppressed in 1731. He died in Paris on 29 April 1743.
Ideas
Saint-Pierre's works are almost entirely occupied with an acute though generally visionary criticism of politicsPolitics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and social institutions. They had a great influence on Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
, who left elaborate examinations of some of them. The abbot of Saint-Pierre can be seen as perhaps the first representative of the new ideas that heralded the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
.
Saint-Pierre was possibly the earliest person to mention the possibility of a European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.
Ideas contributed by de Saint-Pierre include
- An equitable tax system, including a graduated income tax,
- Free public education, for women as well as men,
- State improvement of transportation to further commerce,
- An international court and league of states (In Projet de paix perpétuelle 1713),
- A constitutional monarchy, aided by a system of councils and an academy of experts (In Discours sur la Polysynodie 1718).
Works
- Ouvrages de morale et de politique, Rotterdam, J.-D. Beman ; Paris, Briasson, 1733-1740
- Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe, Utrecht, A. Schouten, 1713
- Discours sur la Polysynodie, Amsterdam, Du Villard et Changuion, 1719
- De la douceur, Amsterdam, Briasson, 1740
External links
- Saint-Pierre’s biography at the Academy Francais - In French, includes portrait.