Descended from a family of
Breton sailors, he was born on 13 September 1843 in
Saint-Servan,
Ille-et-Vilaine, Place Roulais, now part of
Saint-Malo on the Breton coast, and was orphaned in 1849, after the death of his father Jacques Duchesne. Louis' brother, Jean-Baptiste Duchesne, settled in
Oregon City, Oregon in 1849. , c.1873–1876 Louis Duchesne was ordained to the priesthood in 1867. From 1873 to 1876, he was a student at the
École française in
Rome. He was an amateur
archaeologist and organized expeditions from Rome to
Mount Athos, to
Syria, and
Asia Minor, from which he gained an interest in the early history of the
Roman Catholic Church. In 1877, he obtained the chair of ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Institute, but left the theological faculty in 1883. He then taught at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, where he influenced
Alfred Firmin Loisy, a founder of the movement of
Modernism, which was formally condemned under
Pope Pius X. In 1895, he was appointed director of the
École française. In 1888, he became a member of the
Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, and in 1910, he was elected to the
Académie française. Abbe Duchesne was made an
apostolic prothonotary in 1900. As editor of the ''Bulletin critique du littérature, d'histoire et de théologie'', Duchesne kept up with current intellectual developments. He also wrote
Les Sources du martyrologe hyéronimien,
Origines du culte chrétien (translated as
Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution and often reprinted), ''Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule
, and Les Premiers temps de l'État pontifical
. These works were universally praised, and he was appointed a commander of the Legion of Honor. However, his Histoire ancienne de l'Église
, 1906‑11 (translated as Early History of the Christian Church'') was considered too
modernist by the Church during the "Modernist crisis" and was placed on the
Index of Forbidden Books in 1912. The London
The Tablet said,By his rigid application of scientific methods of research and judgment, by his caustic tongue and pen, Mgr. Duchesne was regarded by some as a scoffer and a vandal among pious traditions. But by those who knew him, he was regarded as a master of the sciences which are auxiliary to ecclesiastical history. He died in 1922, in
Rome, and is buried in the cemetery of
Saint-Servan. == Works ==