Description
A specialist in Christian Antiquity, director of the École Française de Rome, Mgr Louis Duchesne (1843-1922), whose Histoire ancienne de l’Église was placed on the Index in 1912, was a major figure in the modernist crisis. From the beginning of his career he maintained regular relations with the Bollandists, above all with Charles De Smedt, Hippolyte Delehaye, François Van Ortroy and Alfred Poncelet. The 122 letters edited in this volume give a full picture of the dialogue between the Frenchman and the Belgian hagiographers in their common concern to apply the principles of modern historical criticism to their discipline. At the same time they throw considerable light upon a period which was a particularly difficult one for many Catholic scholars.
