On 4 April 1814, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and the Bourbon monarch was restored under King Louis XVIII. The historian and biographer, Jean Leflon describes the reaction to the fall of Napoleon in France and especially in Provence:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fury of the people against Napoleon and his faithful followers was, nonetheless, a fiery one; it even surpassed in intensity the rapture which was then befuddling minds enthused by the king\u2019s return. Impassioned demonstrations in behalf of the legitimate dynasty were added to and intensified by others that were sharply aggressive toward the Usurper and his partisans. Frenzied mobs overturned statues of the Emperor, smashed imperial emblems on the facades of public monuments, harried anyone known to be loyal to his cause and forced generals and military and civil officials to acclaim the Bourbons. Napoleon, himself, passing through Provence on his flight to the island of Elba, ran the greatest risk.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026 Feeling she had been victimized by the Corsican\u2019s megalomania, Provence blamed him for all these ills and turned upon him, letting loose an exasperation which had been intensifying for years; the Bourbons, on the other hand, making capital of the people\u2019s hopes that the Bourbon dynasty would end all these miseries and restore peace and prosperity, assumed the role of deliverers. \u00a0(<\/em>Leflon II, pages 3-4)<\/p>\n This was also the time when Eugene was recovering from his near-death experience from typhus. Leflon continues:<\/p>\n Eugene de Mazenod\u2019s personal reactions in 1814 and 1815, like those of his fellow-Provencals, were not all of equal intensity; however, they were all equally inspired by a fiery hostility to the Napoleonic regime. The same inequality would persist in successive reactions while his deep-rooted feelings would continue to spring from that same hostility. It should be clearly under stood, nevertheless, that from the very outset, if one is to judge from existing documents, the young priest stayed clear of all political arenas and remained on priestly terrain\u2026 Undoubtedly, he was not indifferent to the claims of Provence and of his royalist friends\u2026\u00a0 but he left these purely temporal debates to others and, at that time of general reformation, devoted all his efforts to a work of spiritual regeneration which Napoleon\u2019s anti-religious policies made imperative and which his downfall now made possible. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>(Leflon II , p. 5 – 6)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 4 April 1814, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and the Bourbon monarch was restored under King Louis XVIII. The historian and biographer, Jean Leflon describes the reaction to the fall of Napoleon in France and especially in Provence: \u201cThe … Continue reading