Eugène Portalié

Eugène Portalié SJ (3 January 1852 – 20 March 1909) was a French Roman Catholic priest and professor of positive theology at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. He took an active part in the modernist polemics against Loisy, Tyrrel and Turmel, while trying to avoid the conservatism of the Integralists.

Biography

Eugène Portalié was born in Mende, Lozère. Portalié studied at the Collège de Mende, which was run by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at the time. When the Jesuits left the Mende boarding school, he followed them to Saint-Affrique.

He was not yet 16 when he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 31 December 1867, where his novice master was Paul Ginhac (1824–1895), whom he met again in 1886-1887 as third-year instructor.

In 1872, he was appointed professor of the cinquième at the school of Sarlat. For the next two years he taught the fourth year. In 1875, he became a teacher in a juniorate for young Jesuits coming out of the novitiate, first in Toulouse for 6 years, then, after 1880, in Uclés. He taught classical languages and literature.

In 1881, he switched from teaching to studying theology. He was ordained a priest in 1884. Noted for his hard work and intellectual gifts, he spent two years studying theology at Uclés under Giuseppe Maria Piccirelli (1841–1919). In 1886, he was invited to support a great act of Universa Theologia presided over by the nuncio in Madrid, Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, accompanied by his secretary, the future Pope Benedict XV. He spent a year training under Paul Ginhac, studying the ascetic authors. He continued his training at the Gregorian University in Rome for a year and returned to Uclés in 1888.

From 1888 to 1897, he was lector vespertinus of theology first in the house of study of the Society of Jesus in Uclès, then in Spain. In 1897, the lull in the "new spirit" allowed the scholastics of Uclés to return to Vals-près-le-Puy. His teaching provided an in-depth knowledge of doctrine and its history, and in particular of the different theological systems. He put forward original positions on the treatises of faith and grace, between the different theories seeking to explain dogma. During his years outside France, he studied the history of theology, the works of the various schools of the Middle Ages and Francisco Suárez. As the scholasticate librarian, he built up a rich collection of theologians from different schools.

In 1896–1897, he denounced the mystification of the Diana Vaughan affair in a pamphlet entitled The End of a Mystification. He also published articles on hypnotism in the Middle Ages, Avicenna and Richard of Middleton.

In November 1899, he was appointed professor of positive theology at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. Pierre Batiffol was appointed director of the Institute in 1898. He contributed to the Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique published by the Institute. He took part in the controversies sparked by the publications of Alfred Loisy, the school of immanence, George Tyrrell and modernist theology, which were to be condemned. He was their opponent in his articles in the journals Études and Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique. In his final years, he also contributed to the Dictionary of Catholic Theology.

His last interventions with Father Henri Saltet, during the illness that was to take his life, were against the forgeries signed A. Dupin and E. Herzog in articles included in the brochure La question Herzog-Dupin et la critique catholique, in 1908, and to criticise the theses of Joseph Turmel.

Eugène Portalié died in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda at the age of 57.

Works

• "Thomistes et Molinistes. À propos de Thomisme et Molinisme du R. P. Hippolyte Gayraud et de Bannésianisme et Molinisme du P. Théodore de Regnon", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 27e année, tome 49 (1893), pp. 659–69.
• "L'hypnotisme au moyen âge. Avicenne et Richard de Middletown", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 27e année, tome 49 (1892), pp. 481–99, 577–97.
• "Le R. P. Frins et la Revue thomiste", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 30e année, tome 59 (1893), pp. 37–64.
• "La Franc-maçonnerie, synagogue de Satan", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 30e année, tome 59 (1893), pp. 489–501.
• "Le Parlement des religions à Chicago et les programmes d'union religieuse", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 31e année, tome 63 (1894), pp. 5–32, 188–215.
• "Un nouveau traité De Deo", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 32e année, tome 64 (1895), pp. 496–505.
• "La crise du protestantisme français. La situation au moment du synode de Sedan (2 juin 1896)", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 33e année, tome 68 (1896), pp. 301–21, pp. 598–611; tome 69 (1896), pp. 34–52.
• "Le Congrès antimaçonnique de Trente et la fin d'une mystification", Études religieuses, philosophiques, historiques et littéraires, 33e année, tome 69 (1896), pp. 381–98.
• "Une question de morale à propos du dernier roman de Diana Vaughan," Études, 34e année, tome 70 (1897), pp. 162–74.
• La fin d'une mystification. Paris: Victor Retaux libraire-éditeur (1897).
• "Le troisième centenaire du bienheureux Canisius (21 décembre 1897)", Études, 34e année, tome 73 (1897), pp. 759–77.
• "Le centenaire du bienheureux Canisius et l'Allemagne protestante", Études, 34e année, tome 74 (1898), pp. 195–214.
• "Les fêtes de Nantes et l'impopularité du protestantisme", Études, 35e année, tome 76 (1898), pp. 145–63.
• "La liberté et la conservation de l'énergie," Études, 35e année, tome 76 (1898), pp. 745–66.
• "L'action protestante en France, jugée par les protestants eux-mêmes", Études, 37e année, tome 84 (1900), pp. 721–43; tome 85 (1900), pp. 27–48.
• "À propos d'eschatologie", Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique (1901), pp. 101–19.
• "Le rôle doctrinal de saint Augustin," Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique (1903), pp. 33–57.
• "Le dogme et l'histoire, au R. P. Hummelauer, membre de la Commission biblique," Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique (1904), pp. 62–143.
• "L'explication de la morale des dogmes. Réponse à la “Quinzaine”," Études, 42e année, tome 104 (1905), pp. 145–73.
• "L'Évolutionnisme religieux condamné par le Saint-Siège", Études, 44e année, tome 112 (1907), pp. 393–412.
• "Qu'est-ce que la foi? d'après M. Mallet", Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique (1907), pp. 204–25.
• "La Question Herzog-Dupin" et la critique catholique," Études, 45e année, tome 116 (1908), pp. 335–59.
• "La Question Herzog-Dupin" et la Critique de M. Turmel", Études, 45e année, tome 116 (1908), pp. 506–38, 605–38, 763–94.
• "La critique de M. Turmel. Lettre de M. l'abbé Dubois et réponse de M. Portalié", Études, 45e année, tome 117 (1908), pp. 76–82.

Contributions to the Dictionary of Catholic Theology

• "Abélard (Vie et Œuvres d')", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 30–43.
• "Abélard (articles condamnés par Innocent II)", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 43–48.
• "Abélard (École théologique d')", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 49–55.
• "Adoptianisme au XIIe siècle", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 413–18.
• "Adoptianisme nouvelles controverses depuis le XIVe siècle", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 418–21.
• "Alexandre III canoniste et théologien", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 711–14.
• "Augustin (saint). Vie, œuvre et doctrine", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 2268–2472.
• "Augustianisme. (École et système des augustiniens)", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 2268–2501.
• "Augustinisme (Développement historique de l')", Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 1, A (1909), col. 2501–2561.

Translated into English

• A Guide to the Thought of Saint Augustine (1960)

References

• "M. Eugène Portalié", Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique, tome 10 (1909), pp. X–XIX.
• "Le R. P. Eugène Portalié," Études, 46e année, tome 119 (1897), pp. 297–302.
• Cavallera, Ferdinand (1935). "Portalié, Eugène." In: Alfred Vacant, Eugène Mangenot, Émile Amann, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, tome 12, 2e partie, Philosophie-Prédestination. Paris: Letouzey et Ané éditeurs, col. 2590–2593.

External links

• Works by Eugène Portalié at Open Library