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JEAN BAPTISTE HENRI LACORDAIRE (1802-...

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 53 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JEAN See also:BAPTISTE See also:HENRI See also:LACORDAIRE (1802-1861)  , See also:French ecclesiastic and orator, was See also:born at Recey-sur-Ource, Cate d'Or, on the 12th of See also:March 1802 . He was the second of a See also:family of four, the eldest of whom, See also:Jean See also:Theodore (18or-1870), travelled a See also:great See also:deal in his youth, and was afterwards See also:professor of See also:comparative See also:anatomy at See also:Liege . For several years See also:Lacordaire studied at See also:Dijon, showing a marked See also:talent for See also:rhetoric; this led him to the pursuit of See also:law, and in the See also:local debates of the See also:advocates he attained a high celebrity . At See also:Paris he thought of going on the See also:stage, but was induced to finish his legal training and began to practise as an See also:advocate (1817-1824) . Meanwhile See also:Lamennais had published his Essai sur l'Indifference,—a passionate plea for See also:Christianity and in particular for See also:Roman Catholicism as necessary for the social progress of mankind . Lacordaire read, and his ardent and believing nature, weary of the theological negations of the Encyclopaedists, was convinced . In 1823 he became a theological student at the See also:seminary of See also:Saint Sulpice; four years later he was ordained and became See also:almoner of the See also:college See also:Henri IV . He was called from it to co-operate with Lamennais in the editorship of L'Avenir, a See also:journal established to advocate the See also:union of the democratic principle with See also:ultramontanism . Lacordaire strove to show that Catholicism was not See also:bound up with the See also:idea of See also:dynasty, and definitely allied it with a well-defined See also:liberty, equality and fraternity . But the new propagandism was denounced from See also:Rome in an encyclical . In the meantime Lacordaire and See also:Montalembert, believing that, under the See also:charter of 183o, they were entitled to liberty of instruction, opened an See also:independent See also:free school . It was closed in two days, and the teachers fined before the See also:court of peers .

These reverses Lacordaire accepted with quiet dignity; but they brought his relationship with Lamennais to a See also:

close . He now began the course of See also:Christian conferences at the College Stanislas, which attracted the See also:art and See also:intellect of Paris; thence he went to Notre See also:Dame, and for two years his sermons were the delight of the See also:capital . His presence was dignified, his See also:voice capable of indefinite modulation, and his gestures animated and attractive . He still preached the See also:gospel of the See also:people's See also:sovereignty in See also:civil See also:life and the See also:pope's supremacy in See also:religion, but brought to his propagandism the full resources of a mind See also:familiar with See also:philosophy, See also:history and literature, and indeed led the reaction against Voltairean See also:scepticism . He was asked to edit the Univers, and to take a See also:chair in the university of See also:Louvain, but he declined both appointments, and in 1838 set out for Rome, revolving a great See also:scheme for christianizing See also:France by restoring the old See also:order of St See also:Dominic . At Rome he donned the See also:habit of the See also:preaching See also:friar and joined the monastery of See also:Minerva . His Memoire pour le retablissement en France de l'ordre See also:des freres precheurs was then prepared and dedicated to his See also:country; at the same See also:time he collected the materials for the life of St Dominic . When he returned to France in 1841 he resumed his preaching at Notre Dame, but he had small success in re-establishing the order of which he ever afterwards called himself See also:monk . His funeral orations are the most notable in their See also:kind of any delivered during his time, those devoted to See also:Marshal See also:Drouet and See also:Daniel O'Connell being especially marked by point and clearness . He next thought that his presence in the See also:National See also:Assembly would be of use to his cause; but being rebuked by his ecclesiastical superiors for declaring himself a republican, he resigned his seat ten days after his See also:election . In 185o he went back to Rome and was made provincial of the order, and for four years laboured to make the See also:Dominicans a religious See also:power . In 1854 he retired to Sorreze to become director of a private See also:lyceum, and remained there until he died on the 22nd of See also:November 186x .

He had been elected to the See also:

Academy in the preceding See also:year . The best edition of Lacordaire's See also:works is the fEuvres completes (6 vols., Paris, 1872-1873), published by C . Poussielgue, which contains, besides the Conferences, the exquisitely written, but uncritical, See also:Vie de Saint Dominique and the beautiful Lettres a un jeune homme sur la vie chretienne . For a See also:complete See also:list of his published See also:correspondence see L . See also:Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la langue et de la litterature francaise, vii . 598 . The authoritative See also:biography is by Ch . Foisset (2 vols., Paris, 187o) . The religious aspect of his See also:character is best shown in Pere B . Cho-carne's Vie du Pere Lacordaire (2 vols., Paris, 1866—See also:English See also:translation by A . Th . See also:Drane, See also:London, 1868) ; see also See also:Count C .

F . R. de Montalembert's Un Moine au XIXeni, siecle (Paris, 1862—English translation by F . Aylward, London, 1867) . There are lives by Mrs H . L . See also:

Lear (London, 1882) ; by A . See also:Ricard (1 vol. of L'Ecole menaisienne, Paris, 1883); by See also:Comte 0. d'See also:Haussonville (1 vol., See also:Les Grands ecrivains See also:Francais See also:series, Paris, 1897) ; by See also:Gabriel Ledos (Paris, 1901); by Dora Greenwell (1867); and by the duc de See also:Broglie (Paris, 1889) . The Correspondance inedite du Pere Lacordaire, edited by H . See also:Villard (Paris, 187o), may also be consulted . See also Saint-Beuve in Causeries de Lundi . Several of Lacordaire's Conferences have been translated into English, among these being, Jesus See also:Christ (1869) ; See also:God (187o); God and See also:Man (1872); Life (1875) . For a theological study of the Conferences de Notre Dame, see an See also:article by See also:Bishop J .

C . Hedley in See also:

Dublin See also:Review (See also:October 187o) .

End of Article: JEAN BAPTISTE HENRI LACORDAIRE (1802-1861)
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