ABSTRACT

During the first part of 1904, following Charles Poussielgue's decision to work with Dom Pothier on new publications supposedly free of copyright pitfalls, and then in the wake of Poussielgue's sudden death in April 1903, Auguste Pecoul had been actively supporting Mme Poussielgue's continuation of her late husband's projects. Pecoul begged De Santi for some kind of official announcement to clarify the situation and stop the rumours – an announcement which Mgr Foucault was able to supply on behalf of Pius X himself, to the 1200 assembled delegates at the Vatican's Gregorian Congress on 9 April. Auguste Keufer was simply grateful for Pecoul's interventions, keeping in touch with him until at least 1910; and at government level there is no evidence that Dumay and his Republican colleagues ever realized that in addition to facilitating a protectionist battle they had been vehicles in a monastic one.