Pradt, Dominique Dufour de

PRADT, DOMINIQUE DUFOUR DE. - French prelate, b. 23 April 1759 at Allanches, d. 18 March 1837 in Paris. A deputy of the clergy to the Estates General in 1789, he voted against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and left France in 1792.

He published anonymously two pamphlets against French policy (Antidote au Congrès de Rastadt, of 1798, and La Prusse et sa neutralité, of 1800). Having then attached himself to Napoleon's retinue, in 1805 he became bishop of Poitiers and the following year accompanied the Emperor to Milan, where he crowned him king of Italy. In 1808 he negotiated at Bayonne with the Spanish ministers and contributed to the dethronement of the Bourbons. Appointed archbishop of Malines by Napoleon in 1809, he was not formally recognized by the Holy See, because the papal bull of appointment, drawn up motu proprio, was withheld by the Emperor; nevertheless he administered the archbishopric of Malines until 1813, with the exception of the second half of 1812, which he spent in Warsaw as ambassador. In 1812 he was among the promoters of the National Council of Paris and was a member of the commission that went to Savona to have Pius VII approve the decrees of the Council. After Napoleon's fall, he was at first with the Bourbons, then passed over to the liberal opposition. When his attempts to resume the archbishopric of Malines proved fruitless, he retired to a property of his near Allanches and began a feverish activity as a publicist. On the Index are his Les quatre concordats, suivis de considérations sur le gouvernement de l'Eglise en général et sur l'Eglise de France en particulier depuis 1515 (decree 27 Nov. 1820); Concordat de l'Amérique avec Rome (decree 11 June 1827) and Congrès de Panama (decree 18 Aug. 1828).

Silvio Furlani