Éditions du Cerf

20th century

Éditions du Cerf was founded in 1929 at the request of Pius XI by the Dominican Marie-Vincent Bernadot (1883–1941), whose thinking was close to that of the pontiff. The name "Cerf" refers to the opening of Psalm 42:

In 1919 Father Bernadot had already founded the journal La Vie spirituelle to return Christian spirituality to its sources: Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the great mystics. In 1928—supported by Pope Pius XI, who instructed the Master of the Order to transfer him to Paris—Bernadot founded La Vie intellectuelle with Father Étienne Lajeunie and other intellectuals such as Jacques Maritain. The aim was to provide an alternative to the influence of Charles Maurras and his movement Action Française, condemned by Rome in 1926, and of which he was "convinced of the intrinsically perverse character."

A year after the launch of the journal—which marked a departure within the Order from the highly scholastic Thomism of theologian Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange—and with capital provided by friends, Bernadot founded the joint-stock company Les Éditions du Cerf on October 11, 1929 (1929-10-11). It shared the ambition to "counter the influence of Action française".

The company set up with a small group of Dominicans in a house in Juvisy-sur-Orge.

From 1934 the publisher brought out Sept, a weekly whose editorial line was close to that of La Vie intellectuelle but aimed at a broader audience. Sept was published in Paris but written in Juvisy. To remedy this, Father Bernadot acquired a building at No. 29 Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, which soon housed a Dominican convent as well as the publishing house. He installed the paper's headquarters there and moved the team at the turn of 1936–1937.

Éditions du Cerf was then above all a "house of journals," which sometimes published books but for a long time was known mainly for the "Unam Sanctam" series, developed from 1937 by the Dominican theologian Yves Congar. The catalogue consisted largely of periodicals; in twenty years Bernadot developed no fewer than eight: to the existing titles were added the supplement to La Vie spirituelle, the Documents de La Vie intellectuelle, and Chrétienté, among others.

Positions taken in Cerf publications—often seen as nonconformist by Catholic opinion largely marked on the right—attracted increasing criticism. Sept was forced by the Holy Office to cease publication in August 1937. In 1939, when the newly elected Pius XII suspended the sanctions against L’Action française, Bernadot felt disavowed and resigned as publisher and prior in July 1939.

After the declaration of war he resumed the post of his successor, Pierre Boisselot, who was mobilized and then deported to Germany. In poor health and demoralized, Bernadot died at fifty-eight on 25 June 1941. For the rest of the war, teams were dispersed and publications suspended, with the exception of La Vie spirituelle.