Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie

Abbé, professor of apologetics at the Institut Catholique at Paris, and writer on apologetic subjects, b. at Auteuil, 18 May, 1834; d. 11 May, 1895. He was the son of Achille-Victor, Duc de Broglie, and his wife, Albertine de Staël, a Protestant and the daughter of Madame de Staël. After the death of the mother, who died young, he was brought up by the Baroness Auguste de Staël, née Vernet; this aunt, although also a Protestant, exerted herself “to make a large-minded Christian of him in the Church to which she did not belong” (Monseigneur d’Hulst in “Le Correspondant”, 25 May, 1895). Entering the Navy young, Broglie was appointed Ensign in 1857 and soon after Lieutenant. While thus occupied he felt himself called to the ecclesiastical state. After taking the preparatory studies he was ordained priest, 18 October, 1870. In his numerous publications the Abbé de Broglie was always a faithful defender of Catholic dogma. At the time of his death, which resulted from the violence of an insane person, he was preparing a book on the agreement of reason and faith. His most important work is “L’histoire des religions”. Of his other writings, some of which were pamphlets and some articles in reviews, the following may be mentioned: “Le positivisme et la science expérimentale”; “Religion de Zoroastre et religion védique”; “Le bouddhisme”; “Religions neo-brahmaniques de l’Inde”; “L’islamisme”; “La vraie définition de la religion”; “La transcendence du christianisme”; L’histoire religieuse d’Israël”; “Les prophètes et les prophéties, d’après les travaux de Kuenen’; “L’idée de Dieu dans l’Ancien et le Nouveau Testament”; “Le présent et l’avenir du catholicisme en France“. Two posthumous publications, “Questions bibliques” and “Religion et critique” were edited by the Abbé Piat.