LAMY, ETIENNE-MARIE-VICTOR. - French Catholic politician and writer, b. 2 June 1845 at Cize, in the Jura, d. 9 Jan. 1919 in Paris. He studied with the Dominicans at Sorèze, where he was a pupil of Lacordaire.
Elected deputy to the National Assembly in 1871 and re-elected in 1876 and 1877, he belonged to the republican left, but broke away from it when he realized that the word republicanism was becoming synonymous with an anti-Catholic policy. This break by L. with the republicans took place in 1879, when Ferry’s bill on higher education was introduced in the Chamber. Article 7 of this bill, which prohibited religious from providing such education, was vigorously opposed by L., who declared in the Assembly that “the first disastrous result of this bill has been to substitute religious parties for political parties in the country.” Not re-elected in 1881, L. began a fruitful career as a writer. Among his books may be mentioned L'armée et la
démocratie (1885) and the Etudes sur le Second Empire (1895). President of the Electoral Federation established to unite Catholic groups in view of the 1898 elections, L. subsequently directed the Correspondant from 1904 to 1910. In 1905 he became a member of the Académie française.