Life
Nicolas was born atAuthor
Nicolas employed his leisure and later his retirement to write works in defense of Christianity taken as a whole or in its most important dogmas. He lived in a period when Traditionalism still dominated many French Catholics, and this is reflected in his works. Otherwise the author addressed himself to the general public and especially to the middle classes which were still penetrated with Voltairian disbelief, and he succeeded in reaching them. He aimed no doubt at defending religion by means of philosophy, good sense, and arguments from authority; but he also often appeals to the traditions and the groping moral sense of man-kind at large. He showed his conception of apologetics by adapting to the dispositions and the needs of the minds of his time. The testimonies, however, which he cites, are often apocryphal; and frequently also he interprets them uncritically, and ascribes to them a meaning or a scope which they do not possess. His apologetics became obsolescent, when ecclesiastical and critical studies were revived in France and elsewhere. His writings also betray at times the layman lacking in the learning and precision of the theologian, and some of his books were in danger of being placed on the Index. Some bishops, however, among them Cardinal Donnet andBibliography
His books were very successful in France and in Germany, where some of them were translated. Among his works were the following: *"Etudes philosophiques sur le Christianisme" (Paris, 1841–45), a philosophical apology for the chief Christian dogmas, which reached a twenty-sixth edition before the death of the author; *"La Vierge Marie et le plan divin, nouvelles études philosophiques sur le Christianisme" (4 vols., Paris, 1852, 1853, 1861), in which is explained the ro1e of the Blessed Virgin in the plan of Redemption, and which was translated into German, and reached the eighth edition during the author's lifetime; *"Du protestantisme et de toutes les hérésies dans leur rapport avec le socialisme" (Paris, 1852, 2 vols., 8 editions) *"L'Art de croire,ou préparation philosophique au Christianisme" (Paris, 1866–67), translated into German; *"La Divinité de Jésus-Christ, démonstration nouvelle" (1864); *"Jésus Christ introduction à l'Evangile étudié et medité à l'usage des temps nouveaux" (Paris, 1875). Semi-religious and semi-political were: *"La Monarchie et la question du drapeau" (Paris, 1873); *"La Révolution et l'orde chrétien" (Paris, 1874); *"L'Etat contre Dieu" (Paris, 1879); *"Rome et la Papauté" (Paris, 1883). Works in historico-philosophic vein: *"Etude sur Maine de Biran" (Paris, 1858); *"Etude sur Eugénie de Guérin" (Paris, 1863); *"Mémoires d'un père sur la vie et la mort de son fils" (Paris, 1869); *"Etude historique et critique sur le Père Lacordaire" (Toulouse, 1886).References
;Attribution * The entry cites: **Lapeyre, ''Auguste Nicolas, sa vie'' {{morecat, date=June 2022 1807 births 1888 deaths French male writers