Félicité Robert de Lamennais

Félicité Robert de La Mennais (or Lamennais, French: [lamnɛ]; 19 June 1782 – 27 February 1854) was a French Catholic priest, philosopher and political theorist. He was one of the most influential intellectuals of Restoration France. Lamennais is also considered the forerunner of both liberal Catholicism and Modernism.

His opinions on matters of religion and government changed dramatically over the course of his life. He initially held rationalistic views, but in part due to the influence of his elder brother, Jean-Marie, came to see religion as an antidote for the anarchy and tyranny unleashed by revolution. He derided Napoleon, in part because of the Organic Articles, in which France acting unilaterally amended the Concordat of 1801 between France and the papacy. Lamennais vocally assailed both Gallicanism and Caesaropapism, views that demanded a completely subservient relationship by the Church to the State, and he was for a time a staunch defender of the independence of the Church.

Lamennais was ordained a priest in 1817, the same year he published Essai sur l'indifférence en matière de religion. In 1830, he founded L'Ami de l'ordre (precursor of L'Avenir) with Montalembert and Lacordaire. His social ideas embraced an enlarged suffrage, separation of church and state, universal freedom of conscience, instruction, assembly, and the press. His radicalism distanced him from a number of his friends. In 1833, he broke with the Church and the following year published Paroles d'un croyant, which Pope Gregory XVI condemned for its philosophical theories.

He served as a deputy for Paris to the Constituent Assembly; his draft for a Constitution was rejected as too radical. He died in Paris in 1854.