Jacques Paul Migne - Struggle With The Publishing Establishment and The Catholic Hierarchy

Struggle With The Publishing Establishment and The Catholic Hierarchy

Migne by-passed the bookselling establishment with direct subscriptions. His Imprimerie Catholique developed into the largest privately held press in France. However, for Migne, on the night of 12-13 February 1868 a devastating fire, which began in the printing plant, destroyed Migne's establishment, which was also producing religious objects. In spite of his insurance contracts, Migne was able to retrieve only a pittance.

Shortly afterwards Mgr Georges Darboy, archbishop of Paris, forbade the continuance of the business, and even suspended him from his priestly functions. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 inflicted further losses. Then from the curia of Pope Pius IX came a decree condemning the use of Mass stipends for the purchase of books, in which Migne and his publications were especially named.

Migne died without ever having regained his former prosperity, and his Imprimerie Catholique passed in 1876 into the hands of Garnier Frères.

The Patrologia Latina and the Patrologia Graeca, (along with the Monumenta Germaniae Historica) are among the great 19th century contributions to the scholarship of patristics and the Middle Ages. Within the Roman Catholic Church, Migne's editions put many original texts for the first time into the hands of the priesthood.