VABRES, DIOCESE of: V. RODEZ, DIOCESE of. VACANDARD, ELPHÈCE FLORENT. - Church historian, b. 10 Apr. 1849 at Melleville, d. 23 Oct. 1927 at Rouen.
Ordained priest in 1873, from 1877 onward he was chaplain of the Lycée Corneille in Rouen. He devoted himself particularly, and with a rigorous critical method, to the study of Church history and was a regular contributor to the Revue des questions historiques and the Revue du clergé français, as well as to the DThC.
His most important works are the Vie de Saint Bernard (Paris 1895, 7th ed. 1920); St Victrice évêque de Rouen (Paris 1903); La confession sacramentale dans l'Eglise primitive (ibid. 1903); La pénitence publique dans l'Eglise primitive (ibid. 1903); and the history of the Inquisition (L'Inquisition. Etude historique et critique sur le pouvoir coercitif de l'Eglise, ibid. 1907, 5th ed. 1914). From 1905 to 1923 he published the Etudes de critique et d'histoire religieuse in four series.