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LOISY, ALFRED FIRIIIIN (1857– )
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See also:LOISY, See also:ALFRED FIRIIIIN (1857– ) , See also:French See also:Catholic theologian, was See also:born at Ambrieres in French See also:Lorraine of parents who, descended from a See also:long See also:line of See also:resident peasantry, tilled there the See also:soil themselves. The physically delicate boy was put into the ecclesiastical school of St Dizier, without any intention of a clerical career; but he decided for the priesthood, and in 1874 entered the See also:Grand Seminaire of Chalons-sur-See also:Marne. Mgr Meignan, then See also:bishop of Chalons, afterwards See also:cardinal and See also:arch-bishop of See also:Tours, ordained him See also:priest in 1879. After being cure successively of two villages in that See also:diocese, Loisy went in May 1881, to study and take a theological degree, to the Institut. Catholique in See also:Paris. Here he was influenced, as to biblical See also:languages and textual See also:criticism, by the learned and loyal-minded
See also:Abbe Paulin See also: 25th, 1893), and then by Loisy himself, in his See also:paper "La Question biblique et l'See also:inspiration des Ecritures" (L'Enseignement biblique,Nov.–Dec. 1893), promptly led to serious trouble. The latter article was immediately followed by Loisy's dismissal, without further explanation, from the Institut Catholique. And a few days later See also:Pope See also:Leo XIII. published his encyclical Providentissimus See also:Deus, which indeed directly condemned not Abbe Loisy's but Mgr d'Hulst's position, yet rendered the continued publication of consistently See also:critical See also:work so difficult that Loisy himself suppressed his Enseignement at the end of 1893. Five further instalments of his Synoptiques were published after this, bringing the work down to the See also:Confession of See also:Peter inclusively. Loisy next became See also:chaplain to a Dominican See also:convent and girls' school at Neuilly-sur-See also:Seine (Oct. 1894-Oct. 1899), and here ma -ired his apologetic method, resuming in 1898 the publication 01 longer articles, under the pseudonyms of Despres and Firmin in the Revue du clerge See also:francais, and of Jacques See also:Simon in the See also:lay Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuscs. In the former See also:review, a striking paper upon development of See also:doctrine (Dec. 1st, 1898) headed a See also:series of studies apparently taken from an already extant large apologetic work. In October 1899 he resigned his chaplaincy for reasons of See also:health, and settled at Bellevue, some-what farther away from Paris. His notable paper, " La See also:Religion d'See also:Israel " (Revue du clerge francais, Oct. 15th, 1900), the first of a series intended to correct and replace Renan's presentation of that See also:great subject, was promptly censured by Cardinal See also:Richard, See also:archbishop of Paris; and though scholarly and zealous ecclesiastics, such as the Jesuit Pere See also:Durand and Monseigneur See also:Mignot, archbishop of See also:Albi, defended the See also:general method and several conclusions of the article, the aged cardinal never rested henceforward till he had secured a papal condemnation also. At the end of 'goo Loisy secured a See also:government lectureship at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Pratiques, and delivered there in See also:succession courses on the Babylonian myths and the first chapters of See also:Genesis; the See also:Gospel parables; the narrative of the See also:ministry in the synoptic Gospels; and the See also:Passion narratives in the same. The first course was published in the Revue d'histoire et de litlerature religieuses; and here also appeared instalments of his commentary on St See also: Yet in October 1902 he established a " See also:Commission for the Progress of Biblical Studies," preponderantly composed of seriously critical scholars; and even one See also:month before his death he still refused to sign a condemnation of Loisy's Etudes evangeliques. Cardinal Sarto became Pope See also:Pius X. on the 4th of See also:August 1903. On the 1st of October Loisy published three new books, Autour d'un See also:petit livre, Le Quatrieme Evangile and Le Discours sur la Montagne. Autour consists of seven letters, on the origin and aim of L'Evangile et l'Eglise; on the biblical question; the criticism of the Gospels; the Divinity of Christ; the Church's See also:foundation and authority; the origin and authority of dogma, and on the institution of the sacraments. The second and third, addressed respectively to a cardinal (Perraud) and a bishop (Le See also:Camus), are polemical or ironical in See also:tone; the others are all written to See also:friends in a warm, expansive See also:mood; the fourth letter especially, appropriated to Mgr Mignot, attains a grand See also:elevation of thought and See also:depth of mystical conviction. Le Quatrieme Evangile, one thousand large pages long, is possibly over-confident in its detailed application of the allegorical method; yet it constitutes a rarely perfect sympathetic See also:reproduction of a great mystical believer's imperishable intuitions. Le Discours sur la Montagne is a fragment of a coming enlarged commentary on the synoptic Gospels. On the 23rd of See also:December the pope ordered the publication of a decree of the See also:Congregation of the See also:Index, incorporating a decree of the Inquisition, condemning Loisy's Religion d'Israel, L'Evangile el l'Eglise,Etudes evangeliques, Autour d'un petit livre and Lc Quatrieme Evangile. The pope's secretary of See also:state had on the 19th December, in a letter to Cardinal Richard, recounted the causes of the condemnation in the identical terms used by the latter himself when condemning the Religion d'Israel three years before. On the 12th of January 1904 Loisy wrote to Cardinal Merry del Val that he receivedthe condemnation with respect, and condemned whatever might be reprehensible in his books, whilst reserving the rights of his See also:conscience and his opinions as an historian, opinions doubtless imperfect, as no one was more ready to admit than himself, but which were the only form under which he was able to represent to himself the See also:history of the Bible and of religion. Since the See also:Holy See was not satisfied, Loisy sent three further declarations to See also:Rome; the last, despatched on the 17th of March, was addressed to the, pope himself, and remained unanswered. And at the end of March Loisy gave up his lectureship, as he declared, " on his own initiative, in view of the pacification of minds in the Catholic Church." In the See also:July following he moved into a little See also:house, built for him by his See also:pupil and friend, the Assyriologist See also:Francois Thureau Dangin, within See also:time latter's See also:park at Garnay, by See also:Dreux. Here he continued his important reviews, notably in the Revue d'histoire et de lilterature religieuses, and published Morceaux d'exegese (1906), six further sections of his synoptic commentary. In See also:April 1907 he returned to his native Lorraine, to Ceffonds by Montier-en-Der, and to his relatives there. Five See also:recent Roman decisions are doubtless aimed primarily at Loisy's teaching. The Biblical Commission, soon enlarged so as to swamp the See also:original critical members, and which had become the See also:simple See also:mouthpiece of its presiding cardinals, issued two decrees. The first, on the 27th of See also:June 1906, affirmed, with some significant but unworkable reservations, the See also:Mosaic authorship of the See also:Pentateuch; and the second (29th of May 1907) strenuously maintained the Apostolic Zebedean author-See also:ship of the fourth Gospel, and the strictly historical See also:character of the events and speeches recorded therein. The Inquisition, by its decree Lamentabili sane (2nd of July 1907), condemned sixty-five propositions concerning the Church's magisterium; biblical inspiration and See also:interpretation; the synoptic and fourth Gospels; See also:revelation and dogma; Christ's divinity, human knowledge and resurrection; and the historical origin and growth of the Sacraments, the Church and the Creed. And some forty of these propositions represent, more or less accurately, certain sentences or ideas of Loisy, when torn from their context and their reasons. The encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (See also:Sept. 6th, 1907), probably the longest and most argumentative papal utterance extant, also aims primarily at Loisy, although here the vehemently scholastic redactor's determination to piece together a strictly coherent, See also:complete a priori See also:system of " Modernism " and his self-imposed restriction to See also:medieval categories of thought as the vehicles for describing essentially See also:modern discoveries and requirements of mind, make the See also:identification of precise authors and passages very difficult. And on the 21st of November 1907 a papal motu proprio declared all the decisions of the Biblical Commission, past and future, to be as binding upon the conscience as decrees of the Roman Congregations. Yet even all this did not deter Loisy from See also:publishing three further books. Les Evangiles synoptiques, two large 8vo volumes of 1009 and 798 pages, appeared " chez 1'auteur, a Ceffonds, Montieren-Der, Haute-Marne," in January 1908. An incisive introduction discusses the ecclesiastical tradition, modern criticism; the second, the first and the third Gospels; the evangelical tradition; the career and the teaching of Jesus; and the literary form, the tradition of the text and the previous commentaries. The commentary gives also a careful See also:translation of the texts. Loisy recognizes two See also:eye-See also:witness documents, as utilized by all three synoptists, while See also:Matthew and See also:Luke have also incorporated See also:Mark. His See also:chief peculiarity consists in clearly tracing a strong Pauline See also:influence, especially in Mark, which there remodels certain sayings and actions as these were first registered by the eye-witness documents. These doctrinal interpretations intro-duce the See also:economy of See also:blinding the See also:Jews into the parabolic teaching; the See also:declaration as to the redemptive character of the Passion into the sayings; the sacramental, institutional words into the See also:account of the Last Supper, originally, a solemnly simple Messianic See also:meal; and the formal See also:night-trial before Caiaphas into the original Passion-See also:story with its informal, See also:morning decision by Caiaphas, and its one See also:solemn condemnation of Jesus, by See also:Pilate. Mark's narratives of the sepulture by See also:Joseph of Arimathea and of the empty See also:tomb are taken as posterior to St See also:Paul; the narratives of the See also:infancy in Matthew and Luke as later still. Yet the great bulk of the sayings remain substantially authentic; if the historicity of certain words and acts is here refused with unusual assurance, that of other sayings and deeds is established with stronger proofs; and the redemptive conception of the Passion and the sacramental interpretation of the Last Supper are found to See also:spring up promptly and legitimately from our See also:Lord's work and words, to saturate the Pauline and Johannine writings, and even to constitute an See also:element of all three synoptic Gospels. Simpler Reflexions sur le decret Lamentabili et sur l'encyclique Pascendi, I2mo, 277 pages, was published from Ceffonds a few days after the commentary. Each proposition of the decree is carefully tracked to its probable source, and is often found to modify the latter's meaning. And the study of the encyclical concludes: " Time is the great teacher . . . we would do wrong to despair either of our See also:civilization or of the Church." The Church authorities were this time not slow to See also:act. On the 14th of February Mgr Amette, the new archbishop of Paris, prohibited his diocesans to read or defend the two books, which " attack and deny several fundamental dogmas of Christianity," under See also:pain of See also:excommunication. The abbe again declared " it is impossible for me honestly and sincerely to make the act of See also:absolute retractation and submission exacted by the See also:sovereign pontiff." And the Holy See also:Office, on the 7th of March, pronounced the See also:major excommunication against him. At the end of March Loisy published Quelques Lettres (December 1903–February 1908), which conclude: "At bottom I have remained in my last writings on the same line as in the earlier ones. I have aimed at establishing principally the historical position of the various questions, and secondarily the See also:necessity for reforming more or less the traditional concepts." Three chief causes appear jointly to have produced M. Loisy's very absolute condemnation. Any See also:frank recognition of the abbe's even general principles involves the See also:abandonment of the identification of See also:theology with See also:scholasticism or even with specifically See also:ancient thought in general. The abbe's central position, that our Lord himself held the proximateness of His second coming, involves the loss by churchmen of the See also:prestige of directly divine See also:power, since Church and Sacraments, though still the true fruits and vehicles of his life, death and spirit, cannot thus be immediately founded by the .earthly Jesus him-self. And the Church policy, as old as the times of See also:Constantine, to crush utterly the See also:man who brings more problems and pressure than the bulk of traditional Christians can, at the time, either See also:digest or resist with a See also:fair discrimination, seemed to the authorities the one means to See also:save the very difficult situation. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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