LASAULX, Peter Ernst von. - Thinker and politician, b. March 16, 1805 at Koblenz, d. May 9, 1861 at Munich. He studied classical philology and philosophy at Bonn and Munich (1824-30); he traveled in Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Palestine (1830-34). Having returned to his homeland, he received his doctorate at Kiel (1835). In the same year he was appointed professor of philology at Würzburg.

When, in 1837, the archbishop of Cologne was imprisoned in the fortress of Mindeln (Dec. 20), L. protested against the Prussian government and against the diplomat Josiah Bunsen with the writing: Kritische Bemerkungen über die kälner Sache, and he urged Görres, his uncle, to write the Athanasius. In 1884 he moved to the University of Munich. Three years later, having contributed to the fall of the minister Abel and having justly criticized the private conduct of Louis I of Bavaria, he was placed on the retired list (Feb. 28, 1847). Nevertheless he continued his activity in Parliament unchanged.

Although of a profoundly Christian spirit, L. in his writings indulges in a form of religious relativism that provoked the condemnation of four of his books (decr. Holy Office, Aug. 7, 1861). He studied the philosophy of the ancient religions, hostile to Aristotelian thought, and clothes Christianity in a semi-pantheistic Platonism; he places Hellenism above Judaism and holds that Socrates is a figure of Jesus, closer than the biblical persons of the Old Testament are (Des Socrates Leben, Lehre u. Tod nach den Zeugnissen der Alten dargestellt [1857]; placed on the Index, decr. Aug. 7, 1861).

Notable among his other works: Das Sühnopfer der Griechen u. Römer u. ihr Verhältnis zu dem einen auf Galgatha (1841); Studien des klass. Altertums (1854); Der Untergang des Hellenismus u. die Einziehung seiner Tempelgüter (1854); Neuer Versuch einer alten, auf die Wahrheit der Tatsachen gegründeten Philos. der Ges. (1856); Über die theol. Grundlage aller philos. Systeme (1856); Die prophet. Kraft der menschl. Seele in Dichtern u. Denhern (1858; all three on the Index, decr. Aug. 7, 1861); Die Philosophie der schönen Künste (1860).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: H. Holland, Erinnerungen an L., Munich 1861; R. Stölzle, E. v. L., Münster 1904; A. Döberl, in Hist. Pol. Bl., 1918, pp. 205-11, 296-309; A. Koether, E. v. L. Geschichtphilos. u. ihr Einfluss auf J. Burchhardt's 'Wegschl. Betrachtungen', diss., Münster 1937.

Michelangelo Alessandri

@incollection{ec7_lasaulx_peter_ernst_von, author = {Alessandri, Michelangelo}, title = {Lasaulx, peter ernst von}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {923--924}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lasaulx-peter-ernst-von} }

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Lasaulx, Peter Ernst von

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