1 Carl Schmitt, Donoso Cortés in Gesampteuropaischen Interpretation (1950), 7: Drei harte Schláge haben die Wurzel Europas gestroffen: der europaische Biirgerkrieg von 1848, der Ausgang des ersten Weltkrieges von 1918 and der glohale Weltbürgerkrieg der Gegenwart. Jedes dieser weltgeschichtlichen Ereignisse hat dazu gefiihrt, dass plótzlich in ganz Europa von Donoso Cortés gesprochen unirde.

2 Francisco Elias de Tejada, Para Una Interpretación Extremeña de Donoso Cortés (1949). One of the better bibliographies of works on Donoso is given in Dietmar Westemeyer, Donoso Cortés, Hombre de Estado y Teólogo (1957), and it is apparent there is no Latin-American response to the Donosan revival. The Spanish Cultural Index listed, especially in 1953, the lectures given at the Madrid Athenaeum, and the publication of items in English and German, as well as in Spanish.

3 Alois Dempf, Christliche Staatsphilosophie in Spanien (1937); Marcial Solana, El Tradicionalismo Político Español y la Ciencia Hispana (1951); Westemeyer, op. cit., passim. Ramiro de Maeztu has likewise been given increasing attention from a Conservative or Traditionalist point of view. A committee directed by Vicente Marrero has been directing the publication of the complete works of Maeztu. See Marrero's Maeztu (1955), probably the best of the survey volumes about him. The extensive work of Rafael Calvo Serer cannot be overlooked. See, for example, “Europa en 1949: Comentario a dos Discursos de Donoso Cortés,” Arbor, XII (March, 1949), 329ff.

4 See Obras Completas, ed. by J. Juretschke (2 vols., Madrid, 1946), II, 785-786.

5 Ellias de Tejada, op. cit., 11, refers to Donoso as the “príncipe del pensamiento extremeño del siglo XIX.”

6 See Edmund Schramm, Donoso Cortés, Su Vida y Su Pensamiento (1936), 931Í, on this point.

7 Obras, I, 65 ff. Much of the records and material of Donoso's family was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. The best contemporary source is the writing of Edmund Schramm, “Der Junge Donoso Cortés (1809-1836).” Spanischen Forschunger der Gorresgesellschaft; Reihe, Erste, Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens, Band 4 (1933), pp. 248–310 Google Scholar. Other works by Schramm are important: Donoso Cortés, Su Vida y Su Pensamiento (1936); Donoso Cortés, Leben und Werk Eines Spanischen Antiliberalen (1935).

8 See H. J. Hüfl'er, “Las Relaciones Hispanogermánicas Durante Mil Doscientos Años,” Revista de Estudios Políticos, XXXVI (1951), 71-72; Thomas P. Neil, They Lived the Faith (1951), 242-266, and the bibliography, 374-375.

9 Obras, I, 211-331.

10 Schramm, Vida y Pensamiento, 83 ff.

11 There is some difference of opinion over the “periods” in Donoso's life. The prevailing view is the idea that Donoso moved from Liberalism to Catholicism and political Traditionalism. Menéndez y Pelayo and Schramm, for example, take this view. Francisco Elias de Tejada argues there is a third and insincere period of ecclecticism between a period of Liberal passion and his extreme Traditionalism. Elias de Tejada, op. cit., 42, 59.

12 Obras, I, 333 ff.

13 Obras, I, 499.

14 Obras, I, 627ff, 641ÍF.

15 Obras, I, 765.

16 Obras, I, 810. At this time Donoso asserted in a newspaper article that despotism and revolution had come to Europe because Protestantism had twisted the course of Catholic civilization and restored the essential qualities of pagan civilization. Obras, I, 941. On the other hand, in writing to the young Isabel II, declared of age by the Cortes, Donoso said that monarchy must adjust itself to social changes and to changes of the time. Obras, I, 952.

17 Obras, II, 53.

18 Obras, II, 4.

19 Obras, II, 98ff. At this time Donoso had become very conscious of his conflict with French rationalism. He wrote Bosquejos Históricos in 1847 and his Discurso Académico Sobre la Biblia in 1848. His main attack on French thought was at this time a defense of sacred history, derived from his deep study of the Bible, in which he also defended free will, grace, and charity as elements in his theory of freedom. In this writing Donoso shows himself to be a thoughtful student of St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and Bossuet. After the events in Italy which forced the Pope to flee Rome, Donoso published a newspaper article in which he speaks of democracy as insensate, without God or law. Demagoguery has respect for nothing; it is the great evil and the absolute error; it is the enemy of human society. Obras, II, 183ff

20 Chaix-Ruy, Jules, Donoso Cortés: Théologien de l'Histoire et Prophéte (1956), 66–67.Google Scholar

21 Obras, II, 187ff, for this speech. One of the remarkable insights Donoso presented was the continued growth of the power of government, whatever the form of government, and whether or not there was a successful revolution. Cf. J. J. Chevalier, “Reflexions sur le Pouvoir, En Lisant B. de Jouvenal,” Revue Francaise de Science Politique, I (1951), 188ff. In the letters Donoso wrote after this speech, he affirmed to Montalembert, who had been impressed with the argument that impiety and dictatorship go together, that Catholic civilization stood against the civilization of philosophy, and that in principle Catholic civilization was all good, while that of philosophy was all error. Because of the fallen nature of man, free discussion leads to error. The speech and the letters provoked a vigorous and sustained controversy among Catholics, especially in France. Donoso was charged with Manicheanism, and with having rejected reason altogether, particularly because he held that evil is more likely to win in history than the good, unless aided by divine grace. Obras, II, 205ff.

Very soon after this Donoso went to Berlin as Spanish ambassador to Prussia. In his Cartas Acerca de Frusta (Obras, II, 229ff), he had become convinced that the Prussian crisis was more serious than the Spanish. He was, however, apparently unaware of the Protestant Conservative movement of F. J. Stahl. Donoso feared the “democratic volcano” represented in the Frankfurt assembly. But he also saw the end of the Latin domination of Europe and the rise of the power of the Germans and Slavs. Obras, II, 253. After his short service as ambassador to Prussia, Donoso returned to Madrid and again took an active part in parliamentary life.

22 The text of the Ensayo is found in Obras, II, 347-551. Donoso uses the word “Catholicism” in a variety of ways. In its totality it was absolute truth. But also it signified security for order, a system of Conservative ideas, a comprehensive body of doctrine, a religious and cultural power, the ideal of the state and of culture as in monarchy, and, as a system of logical connections, a weapon in ideological war. See Westemeyer, op. cit., 237ff; Dempf, op. cit., 148

23 In one of his digressions — or perhaps most of the work is digression — Donoso discusses the government of the Church. He declared the government of the Church to be a harmonious combination of democracy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and absolute monarchy. Donoso's adherence to monarchy in the state, however, led him to believe, apparently, that Church government was a model for the state. He failed, thus, to stress one of the ancient principles of Catholic pohtical thought that the people have a right to choose their form of government, and that the government of the Church is not a necessary model for the government of the state. In this he overlooked the contributions of Counter-Reformation Spanish thought to the Western world, the revival and emphasis on the right of the people to govern themselves. Francisco Suárez, for example, seems to have had no influence on him. See Obras, II, 370ff.

24 Obras, II, 396n.

25 Obras, II, 595ff. A number of writers on Donoso have seen in him a precursor of the social encyclicals, especially the Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, because of his acute realization of the problem of class struggle. His speech on the situation in Spain, December 30, 1850, and his letter to María Cristina have both been cited in this connection.

26 Obras, II, 503. The differentiation of the “isms” is continued in his long letter to Cardinal Fornari, in June, 1852. Obras, II, 613-630.

27 On this point there is some similarity between Donoso and modern Liberal critics of Proudhon, that is, that he was a precursor of a Fascist system.

28 Obras, II, 524.

29 For the letters to Metternich and for one of Metternich's replies, see Obras, II, 558ff. The recent revision of traditional estimates of Metternich, which has been carried on by a series of competent historians, should by implication suggest a greater importance to the diplomatic theories of Donoso. Metternich said to Donoso that he did not like the “isms,” since the meaning and import of words was changed. Donoso replied that he felt forced to speak the language of the world. Bela Menczer, “Metternich and Donoso Cortés,” The Dublin Review, Last Quarter, 1948, pp. 19-51.

30 Obras, II, 562. The theological controversy over the Ensayo will not be considered here. Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans induced the Abbé Gaduel to charge Donoso with grave dogmatic errors. The Ensayo was submitted to Papal criticism, and in time his work was not condemned, no doubt much to the discomfiture of the Liberal French Catholics. See Obras, II, 563. Donoso charged that his letters had been made public without his consent, and he affirmed that he had no desire to engage in public polemics. He expressed his dislike of journalists who become bishops and of bishops and priests who become journalists. In La Civiltd Cattolica of April 16, 1853, the issue was closed favorably to Donoso. Gabriel de Armas, Donoso Cortés (1950), 14, shows that Donoso's letter to Cardinal Fornari very likely influenced Pius IX in the formulation of the Syllabus of Errors.

31 The work of Schramm is particularly valuable in studying this phase of Donoso's influence.

32 Schmitt, Carl, Donoso Cortés in Gesampteuopaischer Interpretation (1950), 74.Google Scholar

33 See Ramiro de Maeztu, Defensa de la Hispanidad (5th ed., 1946), 270.

34 Salvador de Madariaga, “The Roots of the British Monarchy,” The New Leader, March 31, 1952, p. 5, has said: “With the single exception of the Swiss Confederation, all the European states that have managed to maintain a happy political life are monarchies: Britain, the Scandinavian kingdoms and the Netherlands, with Belgium a borderline case.” Madariaga apparently feels that the people must be interested in things rather than in ideas, persons, and political passions in order to maintain such regimes.

35 Schramm, Leben una Werk, 127, has observed that after his death, Donoso's ideas were associated with the Carlists (with whom he had no sympathy though his family was divided on this point) and extreme Traditionalist and clerical views. Both absolutists and radical clericals drew from the Ensayo. Recently, Luis Vives, Jaime Balmes, and Donoso have been linked together as forces in the restoration of Spanish religious thought. See Spanish Cultural Index, October, 1951, No. 69, pp. 63-64.

36 Cf. de Cossio, Alfonso, “Donoso Cortés, A Prophet of Our Times,” The Dublin Review, Spring, 1947, pp. 30–49, 39Google Scholar. M. F. Núñez (editor), Juan Donoso Cortés, Pensamientos (1934), 14.

37 One may say that in Donoso sacred history replaced or displaced what should have been an emphasis on natural law theory.

38 Donoso's own love for his neighbor has been long obscured. His great sense of charity led him to visit the poor twice a week without saying a word to anyone.