LASAULX, PETER ERNST von. - Thinker and political figure, born on March 16, 1805, in Coblenz, died on May 9, 1861, in Munich. He studied classical philology and philosophy at Bonn and Munich (1824-30); he traveled through Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Palestine (1830-34). Upon his return to his homeland, he earned his doctorate at Kiel (1835). The same year, he was appointed professor of philology at Würzburg.
When, in 1837, the Archbishop of Cologne was imprisoned in the fortress of Minden (December 20), L. protested against the Prussian government and the diplomat Louis Bunsen with the writing: *Kritische Bemerkungen über die kühner Sache*, and he urged his uncle, Görres, to write the *Athanasius*. In 1844, he moved to the University of Munich. Three years later, having contributed to the fall of Minister Abel and justly criticized the private conduct of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, he was retired (February 28, 1847). He continued, however, his activity in Parliament unchanged.
Although deeply Christian in spirit, L. in his writings indulged in a form of religious relativism that provoked the condemnation of four of his books (see, Holy Office, August 7, 1861). He studied the philosophy of ancient religions, hostile to Aristotelian thought, clothed Christianity in a semi-pantheistic Platonism; he placed elitism above Judaism and considered Socrates a figure of Jesus, closer than the biblical persons of the Old Testament (Des Socrates Leben, Lehre u. Tod nach den Zeugnissen der Alten dargestellt [1857]; placed on the Index, decree of August 7, 1861).
Notable among his other works are: *Das Sühnofer der Griechen u. Römer u. ihr Verhältnis zu dem einen auf Golgatha* (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 Gesch.* (1856); *Über die theol. Grundlage aller philos. Systeme* (1856); *Die prophet. Kraft der menschl. Seele in Dichtern u. Denkern* (1858; all three placed on the Index, decree of August 7, 1861); *Die Philosophie der schönen Künste* (1860).