Le principe libéral de la garantie des droits civils et le principe démocratique de la participation de tous au pouvoir public se sont de plus en plus rapprochés et mêlés. Cet essai raconte l'histoire de ce rapport complexe à travers les théories de Benjamin Constant, John Stuart Mill, Alexis Toqueville ou Mazzini.

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The biography of Mgr Lacroix (1855-1922), founder of the 'Revue du clergé français' (1894), bishop of Tarentaise (1901) then, after his startling resignation, teacher of history at the Ecole pratique des hautes études (1908), brings to light a controversial personality of religious and political history in contemporary France. The author strives to understand the atypical career that led this cleric - preoccupied by introducing Catholicism into modern society, sometime actor, standard bearer or symbol - to the gates of rebellion against the papacy. The rallying of Catholics to the Republic the effects of the law separating State and Church the intellectual and religious stakes of modernism: these constitute the principal milestones on a path that was contentious, often tumultuous and willingly provocative.