César Guillaume de La Luzerne

César-Guillaume La Luzerne (1738, Paris-1821, Paris) was a French cardinal.

Life

He studied at the Collège de Navarre, and rose, through the influence of his kinsmen Lamoignon, to the See of Langres (1770), thus becoming duke and peer of France. In that capacity he took part in the Assemblée des Notables (1788) and in the Etats-Généraux (1789). The futility of his efforts to keep the "Constituante" within the limits of moderation caused him to withdraw from that body.

In 1791, he refused to take the constitutional oath and emigrated to Constance and Venice, where he gave hospitality to French exiles and wrote extensively. Under the Restoration he returned to France, became cardinal and state minister (1817) and was re-appointed to the See of Langres which he had resigned at the time of the Concordat.

Works

An excellent apologist and a lucid expounder of Catholic faith and Christian ethics, La Luzerne, like Denis-Luc Frayssinous, Talleyrand-Périgord and Bausset, was a belated representative of the old Gallicanism. His efforts to revive it failed, owing partly to the fall of the Bourbons and partly because of the writers who, in "L'Avenir" and other publications, gave to France a definite Roman orientation.

His principal works are: "Oraison funèbre de Louis XV" (Paris, 1774); "Considérations sur divers points de la morale chrétienne" (Venice, 1795–1799); "Explication des évangiles des dimanches et des fetes" (Venice, 1807); "Considérations sur la déclaration du clergé de France en 1682" (Paris, 1821).

References

• Vie de la Luzerne in Migne, Demonstrations Evangeliques
• Deimie in Encyclopedie du XIX Siecle, s. v.
• Rohrbacher, Histoire de l'Eglise,, ed. Gaume, IV (Paris, 1869), 623
• Belamy, La theologie Catholique au XIXe siecle (Paris, 1904
• Baunard, Un siecle de l'Eglise de France (Paris, 1902)

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "César-Guillaume La Luzerne". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

Persondata
Name	Luzerne
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Date of birth	1738
Place of birth
Date of death	1821
Place of death