ALLARD, PAUL. - French historian, b. at Rouen on 15 Sept. 1841, d. at Senneville-sur-Mer in Dec. 1916. He pursued his literary studies at the John-Lambert Institute, later moving to Paris where he earned a law degree. From 1861 to 1868 he undertook a series of travels across various European countries, visiting Italy in 1863. Upon arriving in Rome, he became particularly interested in Christian antiquities under the guidance of G. B. De Rossi, already renowned for his discoveries in the Roman catacombs. Several years later, he published a French adaptation of De Rossi’s Roma sotterranea cristiana (Paris 1872; 2nd ed., with additions, 1873). His activity as a Church historian began in 1864 with a study (A propos d'un autel peint par M. Dupuy-Delaroche dans l'église Saint-Godard de Rouen, in the Revue de Normandie) that revealed his vocation for studying the early Christian period.
His numerous subsequent volumes and articles on Christian antiquity and hagiography demonstrate him as a staunch representative of the conservative tendency, which sought to find possible traces of historical truth within legendary accounts. His studies on social issues contributed, in keeping with the spirit of the time, to the rehabilitation of the Church in this field. His principal work is the *Histoire des persécutions, depuis le Ier siècle jusqu'à Dioclétien* (5 vols., Paris 1885–90; 3rd ed. 1902–1908, and a 4th ed. of vol. I in 1910; Italian trans. by E. Lari, Florence 1914 ff.), justly regarded as the first comprehensive work on the subject. Even today, despite significant advances in archaeological and hagiographical science, it retains its value as a bold portrayal of the struggle waged by the Church against the Roman Empire in the first three centuries of its existence. Also noteworthy are his *Julien l'Apostat* (3 vols., Paris 1900–1902); *Dix leçons sur le martyre*, delivered at the Catholic Institute of Paris from February to April 1905; and above all the entry *Martyre* published in the *Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique*, III, Paris 1916, cols. 334–492, which may be considered a true treatise on the subject.