Alfred Loisy

French ecclesiastic, a theologian, biblical scholar, linguist and founder of Modernism, a revisionist movement within the Roman Catholic Church.

He received his training at the Institut Catholique in Paris where he was heavily influenced by the teachings of L.M-O. Duchesne who studied church history in connection with scientific and archeological discoveries. After being ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1879, Loisy lectured on Oriental languages at the institute while spending much of his time studying the Bible. Deeply committed to historical and critical methods, he was a proponent of greater freedom in biblical interpretation. As a result of his ‘heretical views,’ he received a papal censure from Pope Pius X and was dismissed from the institute in 1893.

In 1902, his book, "The Gospel and the Church" was published, and this "reinterpretation of Catholic faith" touched off a raging storm of condemnation. In 1903, it was placed, along with four of Loisy’s other books, on the Church’s "Index of Forbidden Books." In 1907, Pope Pius X formally condemned Modernism as heresy. Loisy, however, refused to submit to further censure and was excommunicated in 1908. In 1909, he was appointed to the chair of history of religions at the Collège de France.

Loisy never protested his excommunication, and he never recanted his views of religion and the Bible. He died on 1 June 1940, Ceffonds, France.