Juan Donoso Cortés
| Juan Donoso Cortés | |
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Juan Donso Cortés portrayed with his orders and decorations.
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| Born | Juan Donoso Cortés 6 May 1809 Valle de la Serena, Spain |
| Died | 3 May 1853 (aged 43) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Politician, diplomat, writer |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Genre | |
Juan Donoso Cortés, marqués de Valdegamas (6 May 1809 – 3 May 1853) was a Spanish author, conservative and Catholic political theorist, and diplomat. He was a descendant, through his father Pedro Donoso Cortés, of the conquistador Hernando Cortés.
Cortés was born at Valle de la Serena (Extremadura). At 11, he had finished his education in the humanities, and at 12, he had begun the study of law at the University of Salamanca; at 16, he received his degree of licentiate from the University of Seville, and at 18, he became professor of literature at the College of Caceres.
Carried away by the rationalism prevalent in Spain following upon the French invasions, he ardently embraced the principles of Liberalism and fell under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom he later characterized as "the most eloquent of sophists".
He entered politics as an ardent liberal under the influence of Manuel José Quintana. His views began to modify after the rising at La Granja, approaching a counterrevolutionary outlook and became more marked on his appointment as private secretary to the Queen Regent. His political thought found its most lucid and orderly expression in his Lecciones de Derecho Politico (1837).
Alarmed by the proceedings of the French revolutionary party in 1848–1849, Donoso Cortés issued his Ensayo Sobre el Catolicismo, el Liberalismo, y el Socialismo Considerados en sus Principios Fundamentales (1851), was written at the instance of Louis Veuillot, who was an intimate friend of the author and places Cortés in the first rank of Catholic apologists and especially Ultramontanism. It is an exposition of the impotence of all human systems of philosophy to solve the problem of human destiny and of the absolute dependence of humanity upon the Catholic Church for its social and political salvation.
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