Manuel Polo y Peyrolón

Family and youth

Manuel Polo y Peyrolón was born in Cañete, a village on the Western slopes of Montes Universales, a southern ridge of Sistema Ibérico. Located in the Castillan Province of Cuenca, the area bordered the regions of Aragón and Valencia and formed part of what was once known as Alto Maestrazgo. He was descendant to a petty bourgeoisie family. His father, Domingo Polo, originated from the Aragonese city of Belchite; during the First Carlist War he sided with the legitimists and served as a secretary of general José María Arévalo y Requeno. Following the Carlist defeat he had to abandon his job and settled in Cañete, practicing as a lawyer; by the end of his life Domingo entered an uspecified religious order and became a friar. Manuel's mother, María Peyrolón, was also Aragonese from Calomarde. Following her early death in 1853, Manuel and his younger brother were partially looked after by her sister Concepción. Spending most of his childhood and youth with relatives in Gea de Albarracín, he considered himself a turolense.

Manuel was brought up in a fervently Catholic ambience, politically strongly flavored by Carlism. He graduated in filosofia y letras from Universidad Central in Madrid and in derecho civil y canonico from Universidad de Valencia, guided by Miguel Vicente Almazán and obtaining later PhD laurels in philosophy. Following a brief and temporary episode as professor auxiliar of metafisica in Valencia in 1868-69, he returned to Aragón and successfully applied to Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de Teruel, where he commenced teaching Psicología, Lógica y Ética in 1870. Manuel Polo y Peyrolón has never married and had no children.

Novelist

Polo's first literary work, Realidad poética de mis montañas, appeared in 1873. Except that it was a collection of short stories instead of a novel, it revealed characteristics marking his later works: traditional themes, simple plot and clear educational purpose, with narration set in provincial milieu of Sierra de Albarracín, painted with attention to detail and with focus on local customs typical rather for an ethnographical study. All these features were developed in Polo's first novel, Los Mayos (1878), a rural love story intended as a praise of loyalty and fidelity and considered his best work, translated into Italian and German. The consecutive ones, Sacramento y concubinato (1884) and Quién mal anda, ¿cómo acaba? (1890) assumed a more militant tone, aimed against liberal and secular lifestyles. Pacorro (1905) confronted deeds of a young liberal with virtues of a young Carlist, cast against the background of a small town undergoing the turbulent period of 1868-1876. The last of Polo's major literary works, El guerrillero (1906), revealed more threads of an adventure story; set during Third Carlist War, it was heavily based on wartime recollections of his brother Florentino. Polo's shorter stories remain scaled down versions of his novels.

Among his contemporaries Polo was appreciated usually by those sharing similar traditional outlook, like Emilia Pardo Bazán and his friends Marcelinó Menéndez y Pelayo and José María de Pereda. A conservative literary review Ilustración Católica identified him as a brilliant follower of Fernán Caballero, classified his writings as "novela de familia" and hailed his prose as "restauradora de la novela castellana en los tiempos modernos". Noted for authenticity "which does not disfigure reality", his realism was appreciated as an antidote to naturalism – the trend he consciously opposed - and "the venom of Zola". By favourably disposed contemporaries he was put next to Fernán Caballero, de Pereda, Francisco Navarro Villoslada, Julio Alarcón y Meléndez, Juan Valera and padre Coloma; critics dubbed him "mamarracho literario".

Limited popularity of Polo's works hardly outlived their author. Even in the early 20th century he was only marginally mentioned by historians of Spanish literature; later on he went into oblivion, though was occasionally acknowledged in anthologies. Today he is missing even in fairly detailed studies written either by Spanish of foreign scholars, though mentioned by some dictionaries. He is usually situated in-between Romanticism and Realism, falling into the costumbrismo (or "realismo costumbrista") trend, also a good representative of "novelas de tesis". It is noted that his conventional, meager plots can hardly support the weight of nagging moralising objectives, especially given repetitive nature of his works. On the other hand, his novels are appreciated as inexhaustible sources of pefectly captured anecdotes and customs, few readers admitting even some charm. Apart from realism, he is credited for introducing new narrative techniques.

Scholar and philosopher

Polo taught Psicología, Lógica y Ética in the Teruel college for 9 years. Harassed for his pro-Carlist sympathies, he decided to leave Aragon. Following a successful application and selection process, he assumed the same chair in Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza in Valencia in 1879, where he kept teaching until the early 20th century. Member of Asociación de Catedráticos Numerarios, he was active in a number of Spanish and foreign scholarly institutions. His career was crowned in 1908, when he joined Real Academia de la Historia.

During his Valencia tenure Polo wrote textbooks for students of philosophy: Elementos de psicología (1879), Elementos de lógica (1880), Elementos de Ética (1880); Elementos de Ética o Filosofía Moral (1882), Elementos de Filosofía Moral (1889), Lógica elemental ( 1902) and Ética elemental (1902), in use also in other scholarly centres across the country. He did not develop any original philosophical contribution himself; apart from works on history and general overviews, Polo is known for confronting some trends forming the liberal educational mindset, especially krausism and Darwinism. His stance is classified as neotomismo or neocatolicismo in philosophy and as regeneracionismo político-educativo in pedagogy.

Polo's repudiation of krausism developed in course of the teaching career and stemmed from his growing interest in pedagogy and education in general. During last decades of the 19th century krausism became a philosophical powerhouse of liberal Spanish politics, represented mostly by Francisco Giner del Rios and Instituto Libre de Enseñanza. Its principal intellectual antagonist was Menendez y Pelayo. His friend Polo remained rather a proponent and did not construct an own anti-krausian theory, though his vehemence gained him the opinion of "grande enemigo de la barbarie krausista", especially as Spanish krausism, initially avoiding direct confrontation with the Church, later assumed a decisively challenging tone. Fiercely advocating Catholic integrity as a basis of public education, he nevertheless recognized the necessity of incorporating elements from the liberal mainstream; some scholars even maintain that Polo was completely integrated in the liberal system of education.

Another characteristic feature of Polo's outlook was his position towards evolutionism, though opinions on his stance differ. Some view it as an exemplary obscurantist Catholic reaction to scientific progress, dismissed as "involucionismo, integrismo, tradicionalismo e ideario reaccionario". Some suggest that his neotomism was not an abrupt rejection of advances produced by science, as Polo tried to work out a conciliatory approach. Though his stance on darwinism is portrayed as "aggressive and intolerant attack", others consider it in line with scientific standards of the era, systematic and posing questions - like those related to hereditary transmission or variability patterns – which remained unanswered until the 1920s. A detailed study suggests that Polo engaged in the discourse not so much to challenge the evolutionist theory, but to confront secularism which used it as a ram against the Spanish Catholic outlook.

Politician

Polo commenced his political career in 1870, speaking at local meetings in Sierra de Albarracín. During the Third Carlist War he supported the insurgents as an ojalatero, placed under police surveillance with most of his property embargoed. Facing restrictions and fearing for his life, he temporarily went into hiding; even following the Carlist defeat in 1876 he was longtime harassed at his workplace in Teruel.

In the 1880s he contributed to the legitimist cause mostly as a novelist, propagating Carlist virtues of his protagonists, and as a catedratico, lambasting liberal ideas disseminated by Jews and freemasonry. He lost in 1891 and 1893 campaigns to Cortes, finally victorious in 1896. In parliament he focused on education, opposing Liberal secularisation plans and promoting local languages in schools. Following defeats in successive elections he resumed parliamentary career as a senator in 1907, re-elected in 1910 and 1914. In the upper chamber he kept defending the position of Catholic church, especially during the Ley del Candado crisis; he was sort of acknowledged as dangerous opponent by procedural gimmicks, employed by his adversaries. Lambasting the others for compromising party line, he himself engaged in secret talks with the conservatives.

In the 1890s Polo emerged among the Valencian Carlist chieftains. He forged friendly relations with marqués de Cerralbo and a number of other national leaders, gradually becoming a pivotal figure. Personally introduced to Carlos VII, in 1901 he was considered a candidate for his personal secretary. Revealing interest in the emerging workers’ question he contributed to Acta de Loredan, published official Carlist program and persuaded the claimant to re-organise the party, uniting military and civil command chain. Fully aware of the need to modernise Traditionalism, he appreciated the role of efficient party structures, building a dense network of circulos.

In 1904 Polo was nominated jefe of the Valencian branch. Personally intransigent, he was resented by other Levantine leaders, Manuel Simó Marín and Joaquín Llorens Fernandez. The conflict, fuelled by strong personalities, Polo's adamant leadership style and discrepancies between legitimistas and posibilistas, continuously plagued his Valencian tenure. Also on the national scene, bedeviled by intrigues among Carlist pundits, Polo's relations deteriorated, including those with Carlos VII and especially his wife Berthe de Rohan. He considered his resignation, handed to the new Carlist king Jaime III, a purely procedural gesture, and was shocked to see it accepted, though as a senator he was appointed to national executive, Junta Nacional Tradicionalista, in 1912.

With no close family, surrounded only by books, moths and butterflies, personally intolerant and sour up to acrimony, by the end of his life Polo grew into a misanthrope and passed into living memory as "grumpy old man". He became increasingly pessimistic as to the future of Traditionalism, highly skeptical of its political leaders and the claimant himself. At one point he considered himself close to Integrism, though until his death he remained loyal to the Carlist dynasty.

Works

Carlism and politics

Catholicism and ethics

Law and science

Novels and tales