PRESSENS�, pr�'son"s�', EDMOND (DEHAULT) DE: French Protestant; b. at Paris Jan, 7, 182-1;
d. there Apr. 8, 1891. He was educated at the Col-
l�ge Bourbon and the Coll�ge 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. Pressens�'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'�glises libres �ang�liques 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 si�cles de l'�glise chr�tienne (4 vols., 1858-1877; Eng. transl.,
The Early Years of Christianity, London, 1869-78);
Discours religieux (1859);
L'Ecole critique et J�sus-Christ (1863);
L'�lglise et la r�volution fran�aise (1864, new ed., 1889; Eng. transl.,
Religion and the Reign of Terror, New York, 1869);
J�sus-Christ, sort temps, sa vie, son �uvre (1865, new ed., 1884; Eng. transl.,
Jesus Christ: His Times, Life, and Work, 4th ed., London, 1871);
�tudes �vang�liques (1867; Eng. transl.,
Mystery of Suffering and Other Discourses, London, 1868);
Le Concile du Vatican, son histoire et ses cons�quences politiques et religieuses (1872);
La Libert� religieuse en Europe d�puis 1870 (1874);
Le Devoir (1875);
La Question eccl�siastique en 1877 (1878);
�tudes contemporaines (1880; Eng. transl.,
Contemporary Portraits, New York, 1880);
Les Origines (1883; Eng. transl.,
A Study of Origins, London, 1883);
Vari�tes morales et politiques (1886);
Les �glises libres de France et la r�forme, fran�aise (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 chr�tienne, of which he was editor at the time of his death.
(EUGEN LACHENMANN.)
BiBLIOGRAPHY:
Hyacinthe Loyson, Edmond de Pressenc�, Paris, 1891; Lichtenberger, ESR, xiii. 164. A very full list of the works is found in H. P. Thieme, Guide bibliographique de la litt�rature fran�aise, pp. 324-325, Paris, 1907.
