de Maistre, Joseph
de Maistre, Joseph (1753–1821), French *Ultramontane writer. He was born at Chambéry in Savoy and educated by the *Jesuits. At first influenced by the 18th-cent. rationalists, after the Revolution of 1789 he became a reactionary, who saw in the Church the safeguard of political stability. In 1802 he