LXHHIH 1^
Uie beat Hebrew and Syrmc scholar of France in his generation, and one, moreover, who was thorouKhly
versed in Biblical science, including' the current Ger- man works thereon, whose theories he exposed and Btmngly combatted. Some lay to his uncompromising attitude the defection of Renan, which was so liarmfui to religion in France. He was as enuuent in sanctity and modesty as in science, and no doubt this contrib- uted to the extraordinary impression ho left upon his intiniates, which his writmgs (partly because they are chiefly posthumous) fail to produce. Moat students of his books would hesitate about accepting Kenan's judgment, that be "was certainly the most remark- able man in the French clergy of our day" (op. cit., 273). Le Ilir published only a few articles, which, along with others, were collected, after his death, in the two volumes entitled "Etudes Biblinues", Paris, 1S69. This work shows him at his best, m the range and solidity of his aeciuirements, and in the breadth of hia views. His other writings, all posthu- mous, and not left by him ready for the press, are studies in the translation and exegesis of certain Biblical worits: "Le Livre de Job'^ (Paris, 1873); "Les Psaumcs" {Paris. 1870); "Lcs trois Grands Prophfites, Isaie, J^rfmie, Ez6chiel" (Paris, 1876}; "LeC^nti(iucdcsCanti<iucs" (Paris, 1883).
BcRTRAND, Bibliatlitme Sulpieienne. II (Paria, 1000), with b Ien«hy dc«ription of Le Hir's writingi nwl referrocoi to arti- cled «>Dn>niiii« him; of. lusH in Via., Diet, dt la HiU,, a. v.; RilHAH.S</u«^irid'tnfimctftde/euneur(Pan3,lSSi1.221.2ea. 274. 2B8: Ibeu in Journal Aiuiliqar. XII (Paris, 1898), IS;
remimsoomea— evidnntly Joistaken — of a prclcoded judgment of Benan upon Le Hir, UtnUy st vsrioDcc with that pvva ia thfl Souimiirj and Jaumai Attaliiiur.
John F. Fenlon.
Lehnin, .•\nnEY of, founded in 1180 by Otto H,
Margrave of Brandenburg, for Cistercian monks, Sit-
natod about eipht miles to the south-east of Branden-
burg, its church was a fine example of Romanesque
architecture. It is not of great importance in history
save for the famous "Vatieinium Lehninense ", sup-
posed to have been written in the thirteenth or four-
teenth century by a monk named Hermann. Manu-
scripts of the prophecy, which was first printed in
1722, exist in Berlin, Dresden, Breslau, and Gottingen.
It begins by lamentmg the end of the Ascanian line of
the margraves of Brandenburg, «-ith the death <rf
Henry the Younger in 1319, and gives a faithful por-
traiture of several of the margraves tUl it comes to
deal with Frederick William I. Here the writer
leaves the region of safety and ceases to make any
portraiture of the people about whom he is prophesy-
ing. Frederick III, who became first King of Prussia
in 1701, he makes suffer a terrible toss, and he sends
Frederick William H to end his days in a monastery.
He makes Frederick the Great die at sea, and ends the
House of Iloheimollem with Frederick Wilham III.
A Catholic ruler, who re-establishes Lehnin as a mon-
astery (it had been seculariied at the Reformation), is
also made to restore the union of the Empire. The
work ia anti-Prussian, but the real author cannot be
discovered. The first to unmask the fraud was Pastor
Weiss, who proved in his " Vatieinium Germanicum "
(Beriin, 1746) that the pseudo-prophecy was really
written between 1688 and 1700. Even after the de-
tection of its true character, attempts were made to
use it in anti-Pruasiaa polemics. Its last appearance
was in 1848.
ZcJCKLEK in Realmcyt. far jmA. Throl. s.y. LdiriinirluWe
t, (RatJabon, 1897).
- . Urban Butlkr.
Leibnis, Sisteii op.— I. Life op Leibmz. — Gott-
fried WUhebn von Leibniz was bom at Leipzig on 21
June (1 July), 1616. In 16GI heentercd the Univer-
sity of Leipzig as a student of philosophy and law, and
in 1666 obtamed the degree of Doctor of I«.w at Alt-
dorf. The following year he met the diploniat Baron
von Boineburg, at whose suggestion he entered the
diplomatic service of the Elector of Mainz. The years
1672 to 1676 he spent as diplomatic representative of
Mainz at the Court of Louis XIV. During this time
he paid a visit to London and made the acquaintance
of the most learned English mathematicians, scien-
tists, and theologians of the day. ftliile at Paris be
became acquainted with prominent representatives of
Catholicism, and began to interest himself in the ques-
tions which were in dispute l)etween Catholics and
Protestants. In 1676 he accepted the position of
librarian, archivist, and court councillor to the I>uke
of Brunswick. The remaining years of his life were
spent at Hanover, with the exception of a brief inter-
val in which he journeyed to Rome and to Vienna for
the purpose of examining documents relating to the
history of the House of Brunswick. He died at Han-
over on 14 Nov., 1716.
As a mathematician Leibnii claims with Newton the distinction of having invented (in 1675) the differ- ential calculus. As a scientist he appreciated and en- couraged the use of obser vation and experiment: " I prefer," he said, "a Ijoeuwenlioek who tells me what be sees to a Car- tesian who tells me what he thinks." As a historian he emphasized the importance of the study of docu-
chives. As a phi- lologist he laid stress on the value of the compara- tive study of lan- guages, and made
tioos to the hbtoiy ofGerman. As a philosopher he is undoubtedly the foi«most German thinker of the eighteenth century, Kant being generally reckoned anione nineteenth-cen- tury philosophers. Finally, as a stuoent of statccr^t he realiiod the importance of freedom of conscicnoe, and made persistent, well-meant, though uusuocessful efforts to reconcile Catholics and Prolestant.4.
11. Leibniz and Catholici8.m. — When Lctbnii be- came hbiarianand archivist of the House of Brunswick in 1676, the Duke of Brunswick was Juliann Friedricb, a recent convert to Catholicism. Almost immediately Leibniz began to exert liimeclf in the cause of rec- onciliation between Catholics and Protestants. At Paris he bad come to know many prominent Jesuits and Oratorians, and now he be(;au Lis celebrated co:^ respondence with Bossuet. With the sanction of the duke and theapprovaI,not onlyof the vicar Apostolic, but of Innocent XI, the project to find a basis of agree- ment between Protestants and Calhulics in Hanover was inaugurated. Leibniz soon took the place of Ho- lanus, president of the Hanoverian Consistory, as tie representative of the Protestant claims. He tried to reconcile the Catholic principle of authority with the Protestant principle of free enquirj'. He favoured a species of syncretic Qu-istianity first proposed at the University of Helmstadt, whicn adopted for its creed an eclectic formula made up of the dogmas supposed
proval not oijy MBishop Spinola of Wiener-Neustadt,
who conducted, so to speak, the cose for the Catholics,
but also of "the Pope, the Cardinals, the Geuend of
