Others of the school were Michel Nicolas of Montauban and Gustave d'EichthaI. Nefftzer, the editor of the Temps, who was at the same time a prophet of coming political events, defended their cause in the Parisian literary world. The Revue germanique of that period, the influence of which upon French literature can hardly be over-estimated, was their sworn ally. Then came Renan and threw public opinion into a ferment of excitement. Everything in the nature of criticism, and of progress in religious thought, was associated with his name, and was thereby discredited. By his untimely and over-easy popularisation of the ideas of the critical school he ruined their quiet work. The excitement roused by his book swept away all that had been done by those noble and lofty spirits, who now found themselves involved in a struggle with the outraged orthodoxy of Paris, and were hard put to it to defend themselves. Even down to the present day Renan's work forms the greatest hindrance to any serious advance in French religious thought.
The excitement aroused upon the other side of the Rhine was scarcely less than in Paris. Within a year there appeared five different German translations, and many of the French criticisms of Renan were also translated.[1] The German Catholic press was wildly excited; [2] the Protestant press was more restrained, more inclined to give the author a fair hearing, and even ventured to express admiration of the historical merits of his performance. Beyschlag[3] saw in Renan an advance upon Strauss, inasmuch as for him the life of Jesus as narrated in the Gospels, while not, indeed, in any sense supernatural, is nevertheless historical. For a certain school of theology, therefore, Renan was a deliverer from Strauss; they were especially grateful to him for his defence, sophistical though it was, of the Fourth Gospel. Weizsacker expressed his admiration. Strauss, far from directing his "Life of Jesus for the German People," with which he was then occupied,
- ↑ Lasserre, Das Evangelium nach Renan. Munich, 1864. Freppel, Kritische Beleuchtung der E. Renan'schen Schrift. Translated by Kallmus. Vienna, 1864. See also Lamy, Professor of the Theological Faculty of the Catholic University of Louvain, Renans Leben-Jesu vor dem Richterstuhle der Kritik. (Renan's Life of Jesus before the Judgment Seat of Criticism.) Translated by August Rohling, Priest. Miinster, 1864.
- ↑ Dr. Michelis, Renans Roman vom Leben-Jesu. Erne deatsche Antwort auf eine franzosische Blasphemie. (Renan's Romance on the Life of Jesus. A German answer to a French blasphemy.) Miinster, 1864. Dr. Sebastian Brunner, Der Atheist Renan und sein Evangelium. (The Atheist Renan and his Gospel.) Regensburg, 1864. Albert Wiesinger, Aphorismen gegen Renans Leben-Jesu. Vienna, 1864. Dr. Martin Deutlinger, Renan und das Wunder. (Renan and Miracle. A contribution to Christian Apologetic.) Munich, 1864. 159 pp. Dr. Daniel Bonifacius Haneberg, Ernest Renans Leben-Jesu. Regensburg, 1864.
- ↑ Willibald Beyschlag, Doctor and Professor of Theology, Uber das Leben-Jesu von Renan. A Lecture delivered at Halle, January 13, 1864. Berlin
