FREPPEL, CHARLES-ÉMILIE. — French bishop and writer, b. at Obernai (Alsace) on 10 June 1827; d. at Angers on 22 Dec. 1891. Having graduated in 1854, the following year he obtained, as a substitute, the chair of eloquence at the Sorbonne, of which he became a full professor in 1858, remaining there for 10 years. It was during this period that he published his patristic works, written more as an orator than as a professor. Called to Rome by Pius IX as a consultor for the Vatican Council, he distinguished himself as an advocate of papal infallibility. Towards the end of 1869 he was raised to the episcopal see of Angers, where in 1875 he founded the Catholic University. From 1880 until his death he was deputy for Brest in the French Chamber. An indefatigable pastor, he was called “the most complete bishop of the 19th century.” A fighter for the cause of God, in Parliament he courageously denounced the sectarian aims of the masonic government for the secularization of the State in general and of schools in particular; just as he had denounced to France and the world the penetrating poison of Renan’s works.
His works are numerous: *Examen critique de la Vie de Jésus-Christ de M. Renan* (Paris 1863); *Examen critique des Apôtres de M. Renan* (ibid. 1866); *Œuvres oratoires* (7 vols., ibid. 1866-88); *Études sur les Pères des trois premiers siècles* (11 vols., ibid. 1870); *Œuvres polémiques* (9 vols., ibid. 1874-88); *La Révolution Française à propos de cette naissance de 1889* (ibid. 1889); *Bossuet et l'éloquence sacrée au XVIIe siècle* (3 vols., ibid. 1894).