MORLOT, FRANÇOIS-NICOLAS-MADELEINE. - Cardinal, b. 28 Nov. 1795 at Langres, d. 29 Dec. 1862 at Paris. Ordained at Paris in 1820, he immediately distinguished himself by his qualities as a preacher and became vicar general in 1830.
With the appointment of Bishop Rey, a prelate disliked by the majority of the French clergy and particularly by that of Dijon because of his deference to the new state authorities, M. was, after 1832, excluded from any participation in the government of the diocese. When Rey, seeing the impossibility of administering the diocese, resigned the bishopric in 1838, M. became capitular vicar, and the following year he was appointed bishop of Orléans. In 1842 he supported, also financially, the resumption of publication of the Correspondant in periodical form. In 1843 M. was transferred to the archbishopric of Tours, where he restored the Roman liturgy and also distinguished himself by his civic courage during the floods caused by the Loire in 1856. Created cardinal of the title of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo in the Consistory of 7 March 1853, in 1857, after the assassination of Sibour, he was appointed archbishop of Paris.
BIBLI. T. Folset, Le card. M., in Le correspondant, 58 (1863), pp. 155-67; J. Maurain, La politique ecclésiastique du Second Empire de 1832 à 1869, Parigi 1930, passim; J. P. Martin, La monastère de Paris et les affaires ecclésiastiques de France sous le règne de Louis Philippe (1830-48), ibid. 1949, p. 133. Silvio Furlani