Monnard, Charles

Monnard, Charles a noted Swiss literary character, deserves our attention specially on account of his humanitarian struggles in Switzerland. He was born at Berne in 1790, and was educated first at the academy in Lausanne, and then at Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of the truly great, though himself a youth. In 1817 he returned to Lausanne, to become professor of French literature, and quickly rose to distinction for his great erudition, and the enthusiasm with which he approached his subject. He had taken orders, expecting to enter the service of the Church, but, turned aside by this appointment, he now devoted his leisure hours to the study of ecclesiastical and civil law. That Monnard largely profited by the knowledge thus acquired was manifest shortly after, when the obnoxious law passed, May 30, 1824, depriving men of the free exercise of the dictates of their conscience, intended, of course, mainly to stay the inroads which new Protestant doctrines were making in Switzerland, particularly those of the Momiers (q.v.). Monnard came forward as a defender of religious liberty, and declared the law unconstitutional. He enjoyed at this time the intimate association of the learned Swiss divine, Alexandre Rodolphe Viniet (q.v.), and brought out for this friend the treatises De la liberte des cultes (1826), and Observations sur les sectaires (1829). This action resulted in Monnard's suspension from his professorship and removal to Geneva, where, however, he soon found as warm friends as he had left at Lausanne, both among the learned and those seeking knowledge. Political changes finally permitted his return to Canton Vaud, and he was publicly honored, and called to fill several civic offices. After the revolution of 1845, Monnard retired altogether from political life. It was supposed by his friends that he would now enter the Church; but he, having found that much ill-feeling still existed against him among the clergy for the position he had taken in behalf of the Momiers, finally resolved to quit Switzerland, and accepted a chair in the University of Bonn, which he held until his death, January 12, 1865. See Journal de Geneve, January 13, 1865; Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, February 1865. (J.H.W.)