PRESSENSÉ, prê'son"sê', EDMOND (DEHAULT) DE: French Protestant; b. at Paris Jan, 7, 182-1;
d. there Apr. 8, 1891. He was educated at the Col-
lège Bourbon and the Collège Sainte Foy; and after studying theology at Lausanne (1842-45), he became, in 1847, assistant pastor of the Chapelle Taitbout in Paris, becoming pastor two years later and retaining this position until 1871. He was elected to the National Assembly for the Department of the Seine in 1871, where he joined the Republican Left, and fought with Gambetta against the monarchist and clerical restoration. On the dissolution of the assembly he retired from political life until 1883, when he became a member of the Senate for life, being president of the Left Center after 1888. Pressensé's political career did not interfere with his religious duties. Though he had resigned his pastorate in 1871 he preached continually both in his old pulpit and throughout France and French Switzerland, while he was long the president of the Commission synodale de l'union des l'églises libres éangéliques de France. An enthusiastic advocate of the free-church system, he was as catholic in church relations as in theology. Throughout his life he cultivated all forms of Protestantism, and many Roman Catholics were among his friends. Amid all his activities he found time for authorship. He published, among other works, eight
Conferences sur le ehristianisme daas ses applications aux questions sociales (Paris, 1849);
Du catholicisme en France (1851);
Histoire des trois premiers siècles de l'église chrétienne (4 vols., 1858-1877; Eng. transl.,
The Early Years of Christianity, London, 1869-78);
Discours religieux (1859);
L'Ecole critique et Jésus-Christ (1863);
L'Élglise et la révolution française (1864, new ed., 1889; Eng. transl.,
Religion and the Reign of Terror, New York, 1869);
Jésus-Christ, sort temps, sa vie, son œuvre (1865, new ed., 1884; Eng. transl.,
Jesus Christ: His Times, Life, and Work, 4th ed., London, 1871);
Études évangéliques (1867; Eng. transl.,
Mystery of Suffering and Other Discourses, London, 1868);
Le Concile du Vatican, son histoire et ses conséquences politiques et religieuses (1872);
La Liberté religieuse en Europe dépuis 1870 (1874);
Le Devoir (1875);
La Question ecclésiastique en 1877 (1878);
études contemporaines (1880; Eng. transl.,
Contemporary Portraits, New York, 1880);
Les Origines (1883; Eng. transl.,
A Study of Origins, London, 1883);
Variétes morales et politiques (1886);
Les Églises libres de France et la réforme, française (1887); and A. Vinet, d'apri's ses correspondances inedites (1890). He was also a prolific contributor to the periodical press, and in 1854 founded the
Revue chrétienne, of which he was editor at the time of his death.
(EUGEN LACHENMANN.)
BiBLIOGRAPHY:
Hyacinthe Loyson, Edmond de Pressencé, Paris, 1891; Lichtenberger, ESR, xiii. 164. A very full list of the works is found in H. P. Thieme, Guide bibliographique de la littérature française, pp. 324-325, Paris, 1907.
