EENAN.
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Professor of Church History ; and was rector of Breslau University, 1865-66. He was one of the four- teen professors who, at Nureinburg, protested against the Vatican de- crees in Aug., 1870. For this he was su8i)ended from his professor- ship; and in 1872 he was excom- municated by Bishop Fdrster of Breslau. Dr. Beinkens became a prominent leader of the self-styled "Old Catholics/' and was elected Bishop of the new sect, June 4, 1878, at Cologne, in an assembly consisting of twenty-one priests and fifty-six Uymen. The consecration ceremony was performed (Aug. 11) by the Dutch Jansenist Bishop Heycamp of Deventer. Dr. Bein- kens has published numerous works in German on the theological con- troversies of the day.
EENAN, Joseph Ebnest, philo- logist, member of the Institute, born at Tr^guier, Cdtes-du-Nord,- Feb. 27, 1823, was destined for the ecclesi- astical profession, and went to Paris at an early age in order to study. His abilities having attracted at- tention, he was chosen at the ter- mination of his classical studies to follow the course of theology at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, when he showed a taste for the study of languages and philosophy, and com- menced learning Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac. But his independence of thought did not accord with the necessary qualifications for the priesthood, and he quitted the seminary in order to be better able to pursue his own course. In 1848 he gained the Volney prize for a m^moire upon the Semitic languages, which has been published under the title of " Histoire Gen^rale et Sys- t^mes Compar<fs des Langues S^mi- tiques." His work, entitled " Etude de la Langue Grecque an Moyen Age," publishedin 1845, was crowned by the Institute. In 1849 he was sent to Italy on a literary mission by the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, in 1851 was attached to the department of Mannscripts
in the Biblioth^ue Nationale, and in 1856 was elected a member of the Acad^mie des Inscriptions in place of M. Augustin Thierry. At the end of 1860 he was sent on a mission to Syria. In 1862 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew, but did not permanently occupy the chair for fear of a renewal of the manifestations which occurred at his opening lecture in February. In 1863 he published his well-known "Vie de J^sus," which he wrote after his voyage to Syria, and of which numerous editions have been issued. This work was vehemently attacked by the bishops aiid clergy, the result being that the author was dismissed from his professorship. M. Duruy, the Minister of Public Instruction, endeavoured to conceal the significance of this dismissal by giving him an office in the Biblio- Ui^que Imp^riale; he, however, strongly protested against the ap- pointment, which was revoked June 11, 1861. At the elections to the Corps L^gislatif in May, 1869, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the second circonscription of the department of Seine-et-Mame. M. Benan was elected a member of the French Academy June 13, 1878, in the room of M. Claude Bernard : he defeated M. Wallon by 19 votes to 15. He attended the Congress of Orientalists held at Florence in Sept. 1878. M. Benan has, in ad- dition to the works already men- tioned, published numerous m^- moires on comparative philology, and articles in the lAbertd de Penser, the Bews des Deux Mondes, the Journal de Vlnstrudion Puhlique, the Debate, &c. Some of these were published in a collected form, under the title of " ttudes d*Histoire Be- ligieuse," in 1857. He published a translation of " Le Livre de Job," 1859, and of the "Cantique des Cantiques," I860; "Lettre k mes Coll^ffxies," 1862 ; " Mission de Phc- nicie, 1864; "Trois Inscriptions Ph^niciennes/' 1864 j " Les Apd- tres/' 1866? "Nouvelles Observa-
