RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Labarum Lacordaire
Lachmann, whom Gotz von Berlichingen entreated to serve as his pastor's colleague at Neckarzimmern on occasion of a disputation with an overbearing barefoot friar.
In the Peasants' War Lachmann proved his Evangelical moderation, his courage, and his patriotism. In a written appeal (Apr. 5, 1525), he fearlessly admonished the insurgent peasants to obey the sovereign authority and return home. When the peasants entered the town (Apr. 18) the council turned to Lachmann, who induced the peasant leaders to moderate their demands, and also to renounce Heilbronn's cooperation, thus preserving his native place from grievous injuries. While the reaction fancied that it held the stakes of a game already won, Lachmann carried the council step by step, demanding the appointment of an Evangelical preacher, more frequent preaching, inauguration of the Evangelical communion, suppression of the numerous holidays, strict moral discipline, and Evangelical care of the poor. In 1526 he even dared to enter into wedlock with the daughter of the burgomaster, dreading neither the bishop's jurisdiction nor the revilements of the old school of believers. He earnestly grappled with irregularities in public worship and in moral matters, and prompted the young schoolmaster Kaspar Greter (q.v.) to undertake the religious instruction of youth. Communion was observed according to the Evangelical rite for the first time on Apr. 28, 1528; and in 1529 the German rite of baptism was also introduced.
At the Diet of Speyer in 1529, Heilbronn joined the Protestants, and also adopted the Schwabach Articles, with the exception of the seventeenth, but, at Lachmann's advice, in common with Hall, Nuremberg, and Brandenburg — Ansbach declined to enter the Schmalkald League. For the diet at Augsburg, Lachmann prepared a memorial intended to give the emperor a clear view of the Reformation and of the state of the Church in Heilbronn (Cf. ZKG, xxv., 1904, pp. 318-328, 460-474). The emperor was to see that the pastor remained unprejudiced in his pastoral rights, notwithstanding that Lachmann, together with the deacons, followed the regular Lutheran form of public worship, communion, and baptism, with daily preaching on week-days. Congregational singing in German alternated with the Latin singing by the school choir. After both councils and the entire citizenship had pledged themselves to fidelity toward their native town, the diet's decision was rejected, Dec. 8, 1531, and the Reformation was approved by the whole congregation. Thereupon all priests, cloisters, and the commander of the Teutonic Order were summoned to accept the Reformation. The priests complied; the cloister churches and that of the Teutonic Order were closed, on refusing their support of the Reformation. A new Evangelical liturgy was introduced Aug. 22, 1532. To relieve Lachmann from overwork the council resolved to call a second preacher and tried unsuccessfully to secure Erhard Schnepf. On May 20, 1533, Menrad Molther (q.v.) of Augsburg was called; and in 1536, Lachmann's faithful colleague, Johann Bersich, was appointed pastor.
Lachmann, an ardent follower of Luther and an intimate friend of Johann Brenz, had taken part, with perfect conviction, in the Syngramma Suevicum (1525); and, with Brenz and Schnepf, he had constantly upheld Luther's aims. There was no need of Melanchthon's warning him on June 3, 1530, against Zwingli (CR, ii. 30). In 1532 when Butzer was reassuring his adherents in Kraichgau and gaining new ones, Lachmann, with Brenz, assembled the friends of Luther at Heilbronn.
Lachmann early sacrificed his strength to his fidelity in office. He was a finely cultivated, humane, and spirited man, of inflexible courage, holy zeal against everything evil and vulgar, and glowing love of country. G. Bosseet.
Bibliography: C. Jager, Mittheilungen zur schwabischen und frankischen Reformationsgeschichte, Stuttgart, 1828; H. Titot, Kirchengeschichtliche Beitrage ilber Stadt und Oberamt Heilbronn, Heilbronn, 1862; T. Pressel, Anecdota Brentiana, iii. 164-165, Tubingen, 1868; F. Diirr, Heilbronner Chronik, Heilbronn, 1895; Beschreibung des Oberamts Heilbronn, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1901-03; Monumenta Germaniae paedagogica, vol. xxii., Berlin, 1903; ADB, xvii. 469; Duncker, in ZKG, xxv. 308-328; J Lachmann als Patriot im Bauernkrieg nach seinen Briefen, in Wurttemb. Jahrbiicher, 1908, pp. 44-76. Letters from Melanchthon to Lachmann are in CR, ii. 82, 871.
LACORDAIRE, la"cer"dar', JEAN-BAPTISTE HENRI: French preacher and theological writer; b. at Recey-sur-Ource (135 m. s.e. of Paris), department of Cote d'Or, Mar. 12, 1802; d. at Soreze (14 m. s.w. of Castres), department of Tarn, Nov. 21, 1861. He was educated at Dijon, where as a law-student he came under the influence of Rousseau's writings and was a pronounced deist. Beginning to practise his profession in Paris in 1822, he was stirred by Lamennais' Essai sur Vindifference, and within two years was convinced that Christianity was the indispensable basis of modern social life. He entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in 1824, was ordained priest in 1827, declined the position of auditor of the Rota at Rome with the idea of devoting himself to preaching, and began as almoner of the Convent of the Visitation in Paris and also, a little later, at the College Royal Henri IV., where his impatience with the old-fashioned Gallicanism of the university body became more and more excited. With Lamennais and Montalembert, enthusiastic over the prospect of freedom offered by the revolution of 1830, he opened a school without seeking the sanction of the privileged state university. It was closed by the police and its projectors were fined; and almost at the same time their newspaper L'Avenir was condemned by the pope. Lacordaire went to Rome and submitted unconditionally. On his return to Paris, he took up the defense of the Church's doctrine in a course of public addresses or conferences, which were enthusiastically listened to by great crowds and set forth the Ultramontane view of history in its most dazzling form. He now conceived the idea of bringing back the Dominican order, banished since the Revolution, to France. With this end in view, he visited Rome again in 1838, and early in the next year published his Memoire pour le retablissement en France de Vordre des Freres Precheurs. With two other Frenchmen, he entered the order on
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