Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 16.djvu/67

 LANIGAN

51

LATHROP

Louis, he was ordained for the Diooose of Alton in 18.59. During the Ci^nl War he was chaplain to the Eighteenth Regiment of Illinoi.<; Infantry (1861-.3), and was under fire in many engagements, inchiding the battle of Shiloh. From 1863 to 1,868 he was on the mi.ssion at Cairo and Shawneetown, Illinois, and later at Seneca Falls and Waterloo in New York. When the Paulist Fathers established their house of studies at New York, Lambert was given the chair of moral theologj". From 1890 till his death he was pastor of Scotts\'ille, New York. For many years Dr. Lambert devoteid his efforts to the upbuilding of the Catholic Press; he founded and edited the "Catholic Times" of Buffalo (1S74-80), which was amalgamated with the "Catholic llnion", and became chief of the editorial staff of the Philadelphia "Cath- olic Times" (18S0-.S2), and New York "Freeman's Journal" (1894-1910). When the Buffalo papers were amalgamated Dr. Lambert was engaged to contribute a series of articles to the "CathoUc Union"; he selected as his theme the teachings of . Robert IngersoU, the leading .\merican agnostic. Ingersoll, though quite ignorant of even natural theology or the principles of logic, wild in his asser- tions, and badly informed, was, notwithstanding, gifted with an eloquent, witty tongue and facile pen and had WTOught great havoc among the j-ounger generation of Americans, and the learned attempts of non-Catholic writers to silence him were unavaiUng. In his series of articles, published later in book form as "Notes on IngersoU", Dr. Lambert pointed out in familiar language the agnostic's multitudinous errors in religion, history, science, and even grammar. His method was simple, suited to the mental capacity of his untrained readers and so to Ingersoll's. The latter failed to reply, and as a result his immense popularity waned at once. Since then, wherever the agnostic's WTitings have been propagated, the "Notes of IngersoU" has provided an excellent antidote, and has been utilized largely by non-Catholics. Dr. Lambert wTOte later his "Tactics of Infidels" (Buffalo, 1887), a more scientific work, exposing the methods resorted to by the opponents of Chri.stianity. In addi- tion he compo.sed "Thesaurus biblicus", a handbook of Scriptural references, and "A Reply to Inger-soU's Christmas Sermon"; edited "Catholic Belief" by Faadi Bruno; and translated "The Christian Father", and "Instructions on the Gospels of the Year"; but his memory is best assured by his simple and com- plete refutation of Ingersoll. In his last illness he WTote for the Eucharistic Congress of Montreal (1910) a paper on "Some popular Objections to Belief in the Real Presence", which was read in his absence and received the highest praise from the delegates.

Brief biographira! notice in Notes on Ingersoll (London, 1884J: Smith in Are Maria, LXXI (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1910), 705-10,

A. A. MacErle.\x.

Lanigan, Joh.v, church historian, b. at Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1758; d. at Finglas, Dublin, 8 July, 182.5. He was one of the Ui Langa- chain of Hy Coonagh, near the Crotta Cliach, and the eldest son of Thomas Lanigan, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Mary .Vnne Dorkan. He received his early training from his father and in a private Prot- estant Cla-ssical school at Cashel, similar Catholic schools being forbidden in Ireland at that time hy law. In 1776 he went to the Irish College at Rome to study for the priesthood, and after a r.apid and brilliant course was ordained. By the advice of Pietro Tamburini he left Rome and accei)ted the chair of ecclesiastical history and Hebrew in the University of Padua. In 1786 he refused to take part in the famous diocesan Synod of Pistoia, though offered the position of theologian to the synod. In 179.'} he published his " In.stitutionum biblicarum pars prima" (Pavia), a learned work containing much

valuable matter concerning the history of the books of the Old and New Testaments; the two other parts which he h.ad planned were not written. On 28 June, 1794, he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from his university. On the Napoleonic invasion two years later he retvirned to Ireland, arriving at Cork destitute. His application to Bishop Moylan of Cork for pecuniary assistance was unheeded, prob- ably because the bishop suspected him of Jansenism owing to his association with Tamburini and the Pavian clergj-. A similar result following his efforts to be accepted in his native archdiocese, he wandered on to Dublin, where he was taken in as an assistant priest by the vicar-general, leather Hamil, a fellow student of his Roman days. Soon afterwards he was appointed professor of Scripture and Hebrew in May- nooth CoUege on the recommendation of the Arch- bishops of Armagh and Dublin. Dr. Moylan, however, raised difficulties; he proposed that Lanigan should first sign a formula used to test the Cathohcity of the numerous French clergy who were taking refuge in Ireland at that time. Lanigan, seeing no justification for this proposal, refused and resigned.

On 2 May, 1799, Lanigan accepted a position aa assistant librarian and foreign correspondent of the Royal Dublin Society, and began to work on hia "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland from the first in- troduction of Christianity among the Irish to the beginning of the thirteenth centurv", which was not, however, published till 1822 (4 vols., 8vo, Dublin). This masterly work, still the leading authority on its subject, did much to ex-pose the inaccuracies of Archdall, Ledwich, Giraldus Cambrensis, and other writers on Irish church history. In it Lanigan supports the theorj' of the pagan origin of the Irish round towers. In 1808 he assisted Edward O'Reilly, William Halliday, and Father Paul O'Brien in found- ing the Gaelic Society of DubUn, the first effort in recent times to save the Irish language. He wrote frequently to the Press in favour of religious equality for Cathohcs, and fought vigorously against the proposed Royal \'eto in connexion with Irish episcopal elections. In 1813 his health began to fail, and he returned to his home at Cashel; he recovered sufficiently to resume his duties in Dublin, but eventually had to enter a sanatorium at Finglas, where he died. His grave in the neighbouring country churchyard is marked by a cross, bearing an Irish and a Latin inscription, erected in 1861 by his Uterary admirers. Besides his writings mentioned above we may cite: "De origine et progressu hermeneuticEe sacrse" (Pavia, 1789); "Saggio suUa maniera d'inscgnare ai giovani ecclesiastici la scienza de' libri sacri" (Pavia), written in vigorous and eloquent language; "The Present State. . .of the Church of England and the Means of effecting a Reconcilation of the Churches", prefaced to the "Protestant Apologv for the Roman Catholic Church" (Dublin, 1809), by "Christianus" [Wm. Talbot]. He prepared for publication the first edition of the Breviarv' printed in Ireland, and edited .\lban Butler's "Meditations and Discourses" (which appeared in 184.5). That the humiliation and suffer- ing he underwent as a restilt of Dr. Moylan's suspicions of his orthodoxy were imdeser\-ed is apparent from Lanigan's writings as well as from the testimony of his intimate clerical friends.

FiTzp.\TRicK. Irish Wits (inH Worthies (Dublin, 187.3) ; Coopek, in Diet. Xat. Biog., a. v.; Dublin Review (Deo., 1847), 489.

A. A. MacErlean.

Lathrop, George Par.sons, poet, novelist, b. at Honolulu, Hawaii, 2.5 Aug., 18.51 ; d. at New York, 19 Apr., 1898. He was educated at New York and Dresden, Germany, whence he returned to New York, and decided on a literary career. Going to England on a visit he was married in London, 1 1 Sept., 1871, to Ro.se, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1875 he became associate editor of the " Atlantic