Darras, Joseph-Epiphane

DARRAS, JOSEPH-EPIPHANE. - Historian, b. at Troyes in 1825, d. at Paris on 8 Nov. 1878. He studied at Troyes, where he was ordained a priest and obtained a teaching post, which he had to give up, however, because of a panegyric of the bishop of Troyes, Étienne Antoine de Boulogne, who at the Council of the French bishops (1811) had not adhered to Napoleon's proposals and had been imprisoned.

D. then found shelter with the Bauffremont family, with whom he spent his whole life, entirely devoted to his studies.

The principal works, defective from the critical standpoint, are: a translation of Pallavicino's Storia del Concilio Tridentino (1848); Histoire générale de l'Eglise (1854); Histoire de St Denis l'Aréopagite, premier évêque de Paris (1863); Histoire de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (1864); Grande vie des saints (1873-75), 25 vols. in collaboration with Collin; Histoire de l'Eglise depuis la création, of which, during his lifetime, the first 25 vols. were published, reaching as far as the 12th century (1875-77). The work was continued by J. Bareille, who carried it down to the pontificate of Clement VIII (vols. XXVI-XXVII, 1879-84), and completed by J. Fèvre with Leo XIII (vols. XXVIII-XLIV plus two of indexes; 1884-1907).