The New Student's Reference Work/Renan, J. Ernest

Renan (re-nän′), J. Ernest, one of the most eminent authors of the 19th century,
ERNEST RENAN was born at Tréguier, France, Feb. 27, 1823. In his sixteenth year he was taken by Abbé Dupanloup to his seminary at Paris to be educated for the priesthood. After three years at this seminary, he entered St. Sulpice, the great seminary of the diocese of Paris. At St. Sulpice his attention was mainly turned to the study of Hebrew, and to this study, of his own accord, he added that of German. The result of these studies was to destroy his faith in the supernatural or miraculous element in Christianity, and he therefore abandoned all idea of the priesthood and resolved to devote himself to literature. In 1860 Renan was appointed by Louis Napoleon a member of the commission to study the remains of Phœnician civilization. During this mission he visited Syria and Palestine and obtained acquaintance with the latter country, which enabled him to give such a vivid local coloring to his Life of Jesus, published two or three years after his return. In 1861 he was chosen professor of Hebrew at the College de France in Paris, but on account of his religious views was not fully established in that position until after the fall of the empire in 1870. Renan's published works are quite numerous, but the one by which he is most widely known is his Life of Jesus, which has been translated into the languages of all civilized nations. Renan died at Paris, Oct. 2, 1892.