MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES-LOUIS DE SECONDAT, Baron of—Jurist and philosopher, born at La Brède on 18 January 1689, died in Paris on 10 February 1755. Of a noble family of magistrates, he completed his studies at Juilly with the Oratorians (1700–1705). He then studied law at Bordeaux, where he became a lawyer in 1708; he completed his legal training in Paris (1709–1713). Councillor at the Parliament of Bordeaux in 1714, in 1716 he inherited from an uncle the name and barony of M., as well as the office of président à mortier at the Parliament of Bordeaux. Yet he devoted his attention more to historical and scientific problems than to law. In 1716 he became a member of the Académie des sciences of Bordeaux.
He presented numerous memoirs on various subjects to the aforementioned Academy, among which important was the Observations sur la politique des Romains dans la religion (1717), in which, anticipating the Considérations, he evaluates religion as a social fact. There were numerous scientific writings, such as Sur la cause de l'écho; Sur l'usage des glandes rénales (1718); Sur la pesanteur des corps (1720), etc., though of little value; nevertheless, they left an indelible mark on M.’s mind, accustoming him to the patient analysis of facts. But fame came to him with the publication of the Lettres Persanes (1721), which were received with tremendous favor. Against an often conventional Oriental background, M., through the voices of two Persian travelers, describes the society of the regency, with the eye of a moralist attentive to exposing the license of morals and spiritual and political anarchy. Beneath the moralist’s irony, the scholar’s passion is keenly felt: hostility to despotism, love of tolerance, and the search for a general law governing human development founded on equilibrium and freedom—principles informing the Lettres, which anticipate the profound analysis of the Esprit.
The success of the work opened to M. the best-known salons of Paris, those of M.me de Lambert and M.me de Tencin, where he formed connections with Fontenelle, Maupertuis, D’Alembert, and Helvétius. Returning to his studies, he read at Entreval a Dialogue de Sylla et d’Eucrate (1724), planned a Traité général des devoirs de l’homme, and wrote a piquant little novel, Le temple de Guyde (1725). At the same time, however, he was engaged in his major work: the interpretation of the general laws governing social life. For this reason, having sold his office in 1726, after being elected a member of the Académie Française in ’28, he set out on a long journey in search of direct experience of institutions and customs. From 1729 to 1731 he traveled throughout Europe. His stay in England was important, as it enabled him to see the problem of political freedom in a new light. In 1734 the Considérations sur la grandeur et la décadence des Romains appeared in Amsterdam, a true philosophical interpretation of the history of Rome, in which he regarded love of country, freedom, and work, as well as the balance between institutions and the greatness of the country, as the surest guarantees of a State’s prosperity.
In 1748 the Esprit des lois was published anonymously in Geneva and received with great acclaim. The work, in 31 books, seeks to provide a scientific systematization of social institutions and is divided into three parts: in the first (books I–XIII), the various forms of government are studied together with their animating principles, to which all institutions are related. In book XI, devoted to the English Constitution, the theory of the separation of powers is set forth. This is followed (books XIV–XIX) by an examination of the influence of physical and moral factors on laws, the first example of a positive sociological inquiry. M. then examines the economic, demographic, and religious aspects of the life of peoples (books XXI–XXV); these are followed by particular studies of the development of Roman, French, and feudal law. The political ideal that emerges from the Esprit is an ideal of freedom, though not determined in a rationalistic manner; rather, it is derived from a careful study of historical and environmental conditions. For this reason he carefully studies feudal forms, since he finds in them the historical conditions for the development of French freedom, consecrated by the participation of the privileged estates in power. Thus, although animated by a lively desire for reform, M. is the champion of conservative liberalism, and his work will consequently be set aside by democratic currents. In 1750, in response to accusations of Spinozism and deism, he wrote the Défense de l’Esprit des lois, in order to avoid condemnation by Rome. As a sign of his submission, he wished to have a priest at his deathbed.
Sergio Cotta
The works of M. included in the Index are: Les Lettres Persanes (decree of 26 May 1762), on account of its antireligious spirit, which foreshadows the philosophical movement of the eighteenth century; openly anti-Catholic, it approves divorce, maintains the equality of religions, satirizes dogmas, and mocks submission to the pope; it declares every question of doctrine vain, reducing all religion to social morality; L’esprit des lois (decree of 29 Nov. 1751), in which, perhaps out of fear of censorship, he is more cautious, much less caustic, and does not fail to praise the Church’s social role; nevertheless, he continues to condemn celibacy and to proclaim all religions equal; he assigns laws a purely relative value, dependent on climate, customs, culture, and the different utility that these elements come to create in society; he pursues a social utilitarianism, according to which political vices are not moral vices, and moral vices are not political vices; proclaiming a clear and absolute division between morality and politics (cf. C. Costantin, s. V. in DThC, X, cols. 2377–88).