Laurentie, Pierre-Sébastien

LAURENTIE, PIERRE-SÉBASTIEN. - French publicist and historian, b. at Houga (Gers) on 21 Jan. 1793, d. at Paris on 9 Feb. 1876. Settled in Paris in 1816, he first taught rhetoric at the Collège Stanislas (1817), then literature at the École Polytechnique (1818). Appointed inspector general of studies in 1823, he lost the post three years later because of his political intransigence and his harsh polemics that appeared in the Quotidien, of which he was an editor.

In 1831 he founded and directed monarchist newspapers that championed the legitimism of the Count of Chambord, whose confidant L. was. Several works of his also remain, among them: Sur la liberté fondée sur le droit divin (Paris 1819); Etudes littéraires et morales sur les historiens latins (ibid. 1822); Considérations sur les constitutions démocratiques (ibid. 1826); De la légitimité et de l'usurpation (ibid. 1830); Théorie catholique des sciences (ibid. 1836); Liberté d'enseignement (ibid. 1843); La papauté (ibid. 1852); Philosophie de la prière (ibid. 1864), Le livre de M. E. Renan sur la vie de Jésus (ibid. 1863); Les crimes de l'éducation française (ibid. 1871).