LACORDAIRE, JEAN BAPTISTE HENRI (1802 1861), French ecclesiastic and orator, was born at Recey-sur Ource, Cote d'Or, on March 12, 1802. He was the second of a family of four, the eldest of whom, Jean Theodore (1801-7o), travelled a great deal in his youth, and was afterwards professor of comparative anatomy at Liege. For several years Lacordaire studied at Dijon, showing a marked talent for rhetoric. He thought of going on the stage, but was induced to finish his legal training in Paris, and began to practise as an advocate (1817-24). Meanwhile Lamennais had published his Essai sur l'Indifference,— a passionate plea for Christianity as necessary for the social progress of mankind. Lacordaire read the book, and determined to become a priest. In 1824 he entered the seminary of Saint Sulpice; four years later he was ordained and became almoner of the college Henri IV. He co-operated with Lamennais in edit ing l'Avenir. Lacordaire strove to show that Catholicism was not bound up with the dynastic idea, and allied it with a well-defined liberty, equality and fraternity. But the new propagandism was denounced from Rome in an encyclical.
In the meantime Lacordaire and Montalembert, believing that, under the charter of 1830, they were entitled to liberty of instruc tion, opened an independent free school. It was closed in two days, and the teachers fined before the court of peers. These reverses Lacordaire accepted with quiet dignity ; but they brought his relationship with Lamennais to a close. He now began the course of Christian conferences at the College Stanislas, which attracted the art and intellect of Paris; thence he went to Notre Dame, and for two years his eloquent sermons were the delight of the city. He still preached the people's sovereignty in civil life and the pope's supremacy in religion, but he brought to his doctrine the full resources of a mind familiar with philosophy, history and literature, and led the reaction against Voltairian scepticism. In 1838 he set out for Rome, revolving a great scheme for christianizing France by restoring the old order of St. Dominic. At Rome he donned the habit of the preaching friar and joined the monastery of Minerva. His Memoire pour le retablissement
en France de l'ordre des freres precheurs was then prepared and dedicated to his country; at the same time he collected the mate rials for the life of St. Dominic. When he returned to France in 1841 he resumed his preaching at Notre Dame.
Lacordaire's funeral orations are the most notable in their kind of any delivered during his time, those on Marshal Drouet and Daniel O'Connell being models of classical eloquence. He was elected to the National Assembly; but, being rebuked by his ecclesiastical superiors for declaring himself a republican, he resigned his seat ten days after his election. In 1850 he went back to Rome and was made provincial of the order, and for four years laboured to make the Dominicans a religious power. In 1854 he retired to Sorreze to become director of a private lycee, and died there Nov. 22, 186r. He had been elected to the Academy in 186o.
The best edition of Lacordaire's works is the Oeuvres completes (6 vols., 1872-73), published by C. Poussielgue, which contains, besides the Conferences, the exquisitely written, but uncritical, Vie de Saint Dominique and the beautiful Lettres a un jeune homme sur la vie chretienne. For a complete list of his published correspondence see L. Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la langue et de la litterature francaise (1897-99) vii. 598.
The authoritative biography is by Ch. Foisset (2 vols., 187o). The religious aspect of his character is best shown in Pere B. Chocarne's Vie du Pere Lacordaire (2 vols., 1866—Eng. trans. by A. Th. Drane, 1868) ; see also Count C. F. R. de Montalembert's Un Moine au XIXeme siecle (1862—Eng. trans. by F. Aylward, 1867). There are lives by Comte 0. d'Haussonville (Les Grands ecrivains Francais series, 1897) ; and by the duc de Broglie (1889). See also the Corres pondance inedite du Pere Lacordaire, edit. by H. Villard (187o) and Saint-Beuve in Causeries de Lundi. Several of Lacordaire's Confer ences have been translated into English, among these being, Jesus Christ (1869) ; God (187o) ; God and Man (1872) ; Life (1875).