Charles-Irénée Castel, abbé de Saint-Pierre (18 February 1658 – 29 April 1743) was a French author whose ideas were novel for his times. His proposal of an
international organisation
An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...
to maintain peace was perhaps the first in history, with the possible exceptions of
George of Poděbrady
George of Kunštát and Poděbrady (23 April 1420 – 22 March 1471), also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad ( cs, Jiří z Poděbrad; german: Georg von Podiebrad), was the sixteenth King of Bohemia, who ruled in 1458–1471. He was a leader of the ...
's ''
Tractatus'' (1462–1464) and
Émeric Crucé. He influenced
Rousseau and
Kant.
Biography
Saint-Pierre was born at the château of
Saint-Pierre-Église near
Cherbourg
Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Febr ...
, where his father, the Marquis de Saint-Pierre, was ''grand
bailli
A bailiff (french: bailli, ) was the king's administrative representative during the ''ancien régime'' in northern France, where the bailiff was responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in h ...
'' of
Cotentin
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...
. He was educated by the
Jesuits. The youngest of five children and unsuited to a military career owing to poor health, he became a priest.
He was introduced by family connections into the
salons of
Madame de la Fayette and the
Marquise de Lambert in Paris. He was elected to the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
in 1695, although he had previously produced no notable work; his election was an episode in the
Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns
The quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns (french: link=no, querelle des Anciens et des Modernes) began overtly as a literary and artistic debate that heated up in the early 17th century and shook the ''Académie Française''.
Origins of the ...
, Saint-Pierre being a clear representative of the latter. The same year he gained a footing at court as
chaplain to
Madame Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel
* ''Madame'' ( ...
, the king's sister-in-law. From 1703 to his death, he was abbot of
Tiron.
Contrary to a widely believed opinion, it is not while working as a negotiator of the
Treaty of Utrecht
The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne of ...
(1712–13) that he developed his project of universal peace. Saint-Pierre worked on the idea from 1708 and published early versions from 1712.
In 1718, he published ''Discours sur la polysynodie'', where he proposed that appointed ministers be replaced by elected councils. As a consequence of his criticism of the policy of
Louis XIV (died 1715) he was expelled from the Académie later the same year.
In 1723, with
Pierre-Joseph Alary
Pierre-Joseph Alary (19 March 1689, Paris – 15 December 1770) was a French ecclesiastic and writer.
Biography
Prior of Gournay-sur-Marne and sous-précepteur to Louis XV, he attended the salon of Madame de Lambert, was elected to the Acad� ...
he founded the
Club de l'Entresol
The Club de l'Entresol (, "Mezzanine Club") was a discussion group and early think tank in Paris, active from 1723 to 1731, created and primarily led by Abbot Pierre-Joseph Alary.
Name and background
The club's name came from the fact that a ...
, an early modern
think tank in Paris; the club was closed for political reasons in 1731.
He died in Paris on 29 April 1743 aged 85.
Ideas
Saint-Pierre's works are centered on an acute and visionary criticism of
politics,
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
and social institutions. He had a great influence on
Rousseau, who left elaborate examinations of some of them, and was a forerunner of
Kant's 1795 essay on
perpetual peace
''Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch'' (german: Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf) is a 1795 book authored by German philosopher Immanuel Kant. In the book, Kant advances ideas that have subsequently been associated with demo ...
. He can be seen as an early proponent of the ideas of the
Enlightenment. His which was destined to exercise considerable influence on the development of the various schemes for securing universal peace which culminated in the
Holy Alliance, was published in 1713 in Utrecht, where he was acting as secretary to the French plenipotentiary, the
Abbé de Polignac, and his contained severe strictures on the government of Louis XIV, with projects for the administration of France by a system of councils for each department of government. His works include a number of memorials and projects for stopping duelling, equalizing taxation, treating
mendicancy
A mendicant (from la, mendicans, "begging") is one who practices mendicancy, relying chiefly or exclusively on alms to survive. In principle, mendicant religious orders own little property, either individually or collectively, and in many inst ...
, reforming education and spelling, etc. It was not, however, for his suggestions for the reform of the constitution that he was disgraced, but because in the he had refused to Louis XIV the title of .
Saint-Pierre was one of the first to mention the possibility of a European union made by independent and autonomous states. His work on a European community directly inspired the idea of an international order based on the principle of collective self-defense, and was important to the creation of the
Concert of Europe, and later the
League of Nations, whose successor is the
United Nations Organisation
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
. Friederich the Great of Prussia wrote to Voltair on the 'Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe': "The Abbe de Saint-Pierre has sent me a fine work on how to re-establish peace in Europe. The thing is very practicable. All it lacks to be successful, is the consent of all Europe and a few other such small details."
Ideas contributed by 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 (''Projet de paix perpétuelle'' 1713),
* a
constitutional monarchy, aided by a system of councils and an academy of experts (''Discours sur la polysynodie'' 1718).
Works
Printed books
*
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
*
A lasting peace through the federation of Europe; and, The state of war English translation'
*
Discours sur la polysynodie'. Amsterdam: Du Villard & Changuion, 1719
* ''Projet pour perfectionner l'éducation''. Paris: Briasson, 1728
* ''Abrégé du projet de paix perpétuelle''. Rotterdam: J.-D. Bernan, 1729.
** ''An Abridged Version of the Project for Perpetual Peace'', ed. Roderick Pace, trans. Carmen Depasquale. Valletta: Midsea Books, 2009.
*
De la douceur'. Amsterdam: Briasson, 1740
* André Robinet (ed.), ''Correspondance G. W. Leibniz, Ch. I. Castel de Saint-Pierre'', Paris: Centre de philosophie du droit, 1995.
Correspondence
Saint-Pierre exchanged letters with a number of luminaries of his time, including
Voltaire. His letters often ended with the formula "Paradise to those who do good".
["Le paradis aux bienfaisants!"]
References
External links
Saint-Pierre’s biography at the Académie française – Includes a portrait.
* Franco Spoltore
Abbé de Saint-Pierre In ''The Federalist''. Year XXXVI (1994) Number 3 - Page 221.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Pierre, Charles-Irenee Castel de
1658 births
1743 deaths
Expelled members of the Académie Française
French nobility
French political philosophers
People from Manche