Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/23

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Laprade, Victor de, French poet and critic, b. at Montbrison in 1812; d. at Lyons in 1883. He first studied medicine, then law, and was admitted to the bsLTf but soon left it to become professor of French literature at the "Faculty des lettres" of Lyons. He lost this position in 1863 for having published ^* Les Muses d'Etat", a satire aimed at the men of the Sec- ond Empire, and from that time on he devoted all his time to poetry. In 1858 he had taken the seat of Mus- set in the French Academy. Laprade is probably the most idealistic French poet of the nineteenth century. His talent somewhat resembles that of Lamartine, whom he ^dly acknowledged as his master. His in- spiration IS always lofty, his verses are harmonious and at times graceful. God, nature, the fatherland, mankind, friendship, the family are his favourite topics. To form a correct opinion of his work, one should discriminate between the two phases of his literary career. During the first, which extends down to his admission into the Frencn Academy, he takes pains to connect the ancient with the modern world, mythology with Christianity. This is what might be termed the impersonal phase of his thought. *Tsych6" ri342), "Les Odes et Formes" (1844), "Les Podmes 6vang61iques" (1852). " Les Symphonies " (1855), be- long to this first period. Another collection of poems "L©8 Idylles h^roiquea" (1858), marks the transition from the first to the second phase. Laprade's poetical pantheism has now given place to a more Cnristian and more humane inspiration. The "poet of the summits", as he was sometimes called, had become a man of his times; filial and parental love, the coimtiy life of his dear native province (Forez), are now his topics. To this period belong " Fernet te" (1878), "Harmodius" (1870), "Les Formes civiques" (1873). It was then that, in some measure, he became popular. He was also a remarkable educational and sesthetical writer, as is shown by the following works: " Questions d'art et de morale " (1867), " Le Sentiment de la nature avant le christianisme " (1867), "L'^u- cation homicide" (1867), "L'^ducation Hb^rale"

(1873). BiRK, V. de Laprade, mvieeteee ctuvres (Paris, b. d ).

Pierre Marique.

Lapsi (Lat., labi^ lapsus) ^ the regular designation in the third century for Christians who relapsed into heathenism^ especially for those who during the per- secutions displayed weakness in the face of torture, and denied the Faith by sacrificing to the heathen gods or by other acts. Many of the lapsi, indeed the ma- jority of the very numerous cases in the great persecutions after the middle of the third century, certainly did not return to paganism out of conviction: they simply had not the courage to confess the Faith stead- fastly wl^n threatened with temporal losses and se- vere punishments (banishment, forced labour, or IX.- 1

death), and their sole desire was to preserve them- selves from persecution by an external act of apostasy, and to save their property, freedom, and life. Toe obligation of confessing the Christian Faith imder all circumstances and of avoiding every act of denial was firmly established in the Church from Apostolic times. The First Epistle of St. Peter exhorts the believers to remain steadfast imder the visitations of affliction (i, 6, 7; iv, 16, 17). In his letter to Trajan, Plmy writes that those who are truly Christians will not offer any heathen sacrifices or utter any revilings against Christ. Nevertheless we learn both from " The Shepherd " of Hennas, and from the accounts of the persecutions and martyrdoms, that individual Christians after the second century showed weak- ness, and fell away from the Faith. The aim of the civil proceedings against Christians, as laid down in Trajan's rescript to Pliny, was to lead them to apos- tasy. Those Christians were acquitted who declared that they wished to be so no longer and performed acts of pagan religious worship, but the steadfast were punished. In the "Martyrdom of St. Polycarp" (c. iv; ed. Funk, " Patres Apostolici ", 2nd ed., I, 319), we read of a Phrygian, Quintus. who at first volun- tarily avowed the Christian Faitn, but showed weak- ness at the sight of the wild beasts in the amphithea- tre, and allowed the proconsul to persuade him to offer sacrifice. The letter of the Christians of Lyons, concerning the persecution of the Church there in 177, tells us likewise of ten brethren who showed weak- ness and apostatized. Kept, however, in confine- ment and stimulated by the example and the kind treatment they received from the Christians who had remained steadfast, several of them repented their apostasy, and in a second trial, in which the rene' ^les were to have been acquitted, they faithfully confessed Christ and gained the martyrs' crown (Eusebius, "Hist. EccL". V, ii).

In genera], it was a weil-established principle in the Church of the second and the beginning of the third century that an apostate, even if he did penance, was not again tidcen into the Christian community, or ad- mitted to the Holy Eucharist. Idolatry was one of the three capital sins which entailed exclusion from the Church. After the middle of the third century, the question of the lapsi gave rise on several occasions to serious disputes in the Christtan commimities, and led to a further development of the penitential disci- pline in the Chureh. The first occasion on which the question of the lapsi became a serious one in the Church, and finally led to a schism, was the great per- secution of Decius (250-1). An imperial edict, which frankly aimed at the extermination of Christianity, enjoined that every Christian must perform an act of idolatry. Whoever refused was threatened with the severest punishments. The officials were instructed to seek out the Christians and compel them to saerifioe.