Louis Veuillot
Louis Veuillot (October 11, 1813–March 7, 1883) was a French journalist and author who helped to popularize ultramontanism (a philosophy favoring Papal supremacy).
He was born of humble parents in Boynes (Loiret). When he was five years of age, his parents relocated to Paris. With little education, he gained employment in a lawyer's office, and was sent in 1830 to serve with a newspaper of Rouen, and afterwards to Périgueux. He returned to Paris in 1837, and a year later visited Rome during Holy Week. There he embraced extravagant ultramontane sentiments, and became an ardent champion of Catholicism. The results of his conversion were published in Pélerinages en Suisse (1839), Rome et Lorette (1841) and other publications.
In 1843 he joined the staff of the newspaper Univers religieux, and soon helped make it the leading organ of ultramontane propaganda as L'Univers. His methods of journalism, which made great use of irony and ad hominem criticism, had already provoked more than one duel, and he was imprisoned for a brief time for his polemics against the University of Paris. In 1848 he became editor of the newspaper, which was suppressed in 1860, but revived in 1867, when Veuillot resumed his ultramontane propaganda, causing a second suppression of his journal in 1874. Veuillot then occupied himself by writing polemical pamphlets against moderate Catholics, the Second French Empire and the Italian government. His services to the papal see were recognized by Pope Pius IX, on whom he wrote (1878) a monograph.
Some of his papers were collected in Mélanges religieux, historiques et littéraires (12 vols., 1857–1875), and his Correspondance (6 vols., 1883–85) has great political interest. His younger brother, Eugène Veuillot, published (1901–1904) a comprehensive and valuable life, Louis Veuillot.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Dr. John C. Rao. "Louis Veuillot: Icon and Iconoclast". http://jcrao.freeshell.org/LouisVeuillot.
