Product Code Database
Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne (; 13 September 1843 – 21 April 1922) was a French priest, philology, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and Catholic Church.
Louis Duchesne was ordained to the priesthood in 1867. He taught in Saint-Brieuc, then in 1868, went to study at the École pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. From 1873 to 1876, he was a student at the École française in Rome. He was an amateur archaeology and organized expeditions from Rome to Mount Athos, to Syria, and Asia Minor, "Louis Dechesne", Academie Francaise from which he gained an interest in the early history of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1877, he obtained the chair of ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Institute, but left the theological faculty in 1883. He then taught at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, where he influenced Alfred Firmin Loisy, a founder of the movement of Modernism, which was formally condemned under Pope Pius X. Pascendi Dominici Gregis In 1895, he was appointed director of the École française.
In 1887, he published the results of his thesis, followed by the first complete critical edition of the Liber Pontificalis. At a difficult time for critical historians applying modern methods to Church history, drawing together archaeology and topography to supplement literature and setting ecclesiastical events with contexts of social history, Abbé Duchesne was in constant correspondence with like-minded historians among the , with their long history of critical editions of hagiography. He gained fame as a demythologizing critical historian of the popular, pious lives of saints produced by Second Empire publishers. Strenski, Ivan. Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice, BRILL, 2003, p. 220
In 1888, he became a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, and in 1910, he was elected to the Académie française. Abbe Duchesne was made an apostolic prothonotary in 1900.
As editor of the Bulletin critique du littérature, d'histoire et de théologie, Duchesne kept up with current intellectual developments.Mayeur, Jean-Marie. "Monseigneur Duchesne et l'Université", Monseigneur Duchesne et son temps: acts du colloque organisé par L'École Française de Rome, 23-25 Mai 1973
He also wrote Les Sources du martyrologe hyéronimien, Origines du culte chrétien (translated as Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution and often reprinted), Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, and Les Premiers temps de l'État pontifical. These works were universally praised, and he was appointed a commander of the Legion of Honor. However, his Histoire ancienne de l'Église, 1906‑11 (translated as Early History of the Christian Church) was considered too modernist by the Church during the "Modernist crisis" and was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1912.
The London The Tablet said,
He died in 1922, in Rome, and is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Servan.
By his rigid application of scientific methods of research and judgment, by his caustic tongue and pen, Mgr. Duchesne was regarded by some as a scoffer and a vandal among pious traditions. But by those who knew him, he was regarded as a master of the sciences which are auxiliary to ecclesiastical history.
Works
Gallery
Notes
External links
Categories: 1843 Births, 1922 Deaths, Writers From Saint-malo, French Philologists, 19th-century French Historians, 20th-century French Historians, Historians Of The Catholic Church, Liturgists, French Medievalists, Members Of The Académie Française, Members Of The Académie Des Inscriptions Et Belles-lettres, 19th-century French Roman Catholic Priests, Commanders Of The Legion Of Honour, 20th-century French Roman Catholic Priests, Academic Staff Of The École Pratique Des Hautes études, Modernism In The Catholic Church, Corresponding Fellows Of The British Academy, Clergy From Saint-malo, French Recipients Of The Legion Of Honour
|
|
