THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Geschichte des franzosischen Calvinismus, iii., Beilage 6, pp. 434 sqq., 5 vols., Gotha, 1857-69; J. F. A. Gillet, Crato von Crafftheim, Frankfort, 1860; O. Scholz, Hubert Languet als kursachsischer Berichterstatter und Gesandter in Frankreich 1660-72, Halle, 1875.
LANIGAN, lan'i-gan, JOHN: Irish Roman Catholic; b. at Cashel (13 m. e.n.e. of Tipperary) 1758; d. at Finglas (3 m. n.n.w. of Dublin) July 7, 1828. After a brilliant career at the Irish College in Rome he became professor of Hebrew, ecclesiastical history, and divinity at the University of Padua in 1789, but returned to Ireland in 1796 and secured the chair of sacred history and Hebrew in the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth. A dispute with the bishop of Cork, who suspected him of being a Jansenist, soon resulted in his resigning his professorship. He was then engaged by the Royal Dublin Society as assistant librarian, and was later promoted to the post of librarian and general literary supervisor. In 1813 he began to show symptoms of cerebral decay, and in 1821 he was removed to a private asylum at Finglas. His principal works are the unfinished Institutiones Biblicce (vol. i., Paria, 1793); and An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland to the Beginning of the Thirteenth
Century (4 vols., Dublin, 1822; 2d ed., 1829).
Bibliography: W. J. Fitzpatrick, Irish Wits and Worthies, including Dr. Lanigan, his Life and Times, Dublin, 1873; DNB, xxxii. 135-136.
LANSDELL, HENRY: Church of England; b. at Tenterden (17 m. s.e. of Maidstone), Kent, Jan. 10, 1841. He studied at St. John's College, Highbury, 1865-67, and became curate of Greenwich in 1867, metropolitan associate secretary of the Irish Church Missionary Society in 1869, and was curate of St. Germans, Blackheath, 1880-82. He was honorary secretary of the Church Homiletical Society 1874-86, curate of St. Peter's, Eltham, 1885-86, and lecturer at St. James', Plumstead, 1890-91. Since 1892 he has been chaplain of Morden College, Blackheath, London. He has been an extensive traveler, not only touring the world, but also penetrating deeply into Central Asia, and has done amateur missionary work in northern Europe, Hungary, and Armenia. He has written: Through Siberia (2 vols., London, 1882); Russian Central Asia, including Kuldja, Bokhara, Khiva, and Merv (2 vols., 1885); Through Central Asia (1887); Chinese Central Asia (2 vols., 1893); and The Sacred Tenth: or, Studies in Tithe-Giving, Ancient and Modern (1906).
LAODICEA, le-od"i-si'a, SYNOD OF: A Phrygian synod held about 360, its acts being placed between those of Antioch in 341 and Constantinople in 381. The date may be somewhat more closely defined by the seventh canon, which mentions the Photinians between the Novatians and the Quartodecimans; compare the eighth, which alludes to the Montanists. The number of those present is not given, but Gratian speaks of thirty-two bishops, and names as the chief author of the canons Theodosius, who is rightly identified with a Eunomian or Semiarian bishop of the Lydian Philadelphia in 363-364 according to Philostorgius (viii. 3) and in 359, according to Epiphanius (Haer. lxxiii. 26). The Laodicean canons are concerned with penance
(i.-ii.), the conditions and requirements of the clerical office (iii.— v.; cf. xi.-xii., xl.-xliv., liv.lviii.), relations with heretics (vi.-x., xxxi.-xxxiv.) divine worship (xiii.-xxviii.), preparation for baptism and fasting before Easter (xlv.-lii.), and the relation of Christians to Jews and Gentiles (xxix.xxxix.). The mention of female elders in the seventh canon and of " visitors " in the fiftyseventh is also noteworthy. The repetitions in the canons (cf. xxxi. with x., xxxiii. with vi., xliii. with xxii., and xxxiv. with ix.) show that they are a compilation or compend of an older collection.
(Edgar Hennecke.)
Bibliography: Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, i. 746 sqq., Eng. transl., ii. 295 sqq.; T. Zahn, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, ii. 193 sqq., Leipsic, 193 sqq,; DCA, ii 928-930.
LAOS. See Siam.
LAO-TSZE, la'6"-tse": The reputed founder of the Chinese religion called " Taoism." He was born about 604 B.C., near the present Kwei-te, in Ho-nan province, China; d. at an unknown place and time, probably at a great age. In 517 b.c. he met Confucius, so that he was alive at that time. He was keeper of the archives at the court of Chau, and it was to learn something about the ancient rites and ceremonies of Chau that Confucius came to him. Foreseeing the downfall of Chau, Lao retired to a far country, stopping, however, long enough with Yin Hse, the warden of the gate, to write for him the remarkable volume, in five thousand characters, on the subject of Tao (the " Way ") and Teh (" Virtue "), called Tao Teh King. Lao was a philosopher, as his name (" the Old Philosopher ") implies. His great work, Tao Teh King, is translated in Legge's Chinese Classics, in Chalmer's Speculations of the " Old Philosopher " Lau-tsze, and in Carus' Lao Tsze. It is, however, not throughout intelligible even to native Chinese scholars, much less to other readers. It may be briefly described as an ethical treatise, in which the duties of the individual and the State are set forth. It lays great stress upon humility and upon gentleness, and, in one sentence at least, approaches Christian ethics. " It is the way of Tao not to act from any personal motive, to conduct affairs without feeling the trouble of them, to taste without being aware of the flavor, to account the great as small, and the small as great, to recompense injury with kindness." Lao seems to stand for extreme simplicity, even for the restriction of learning, since when people have too much knowledge they are difficult to govern; even the use of knotted cords as means of record seemed better than written characters. His connection with Taoism is supposititious. The founders of that religion simply used his name and part of the title of his book to give their ideas and practise currency. iSee China, I., 2.
Bibliography: S. Julien, Le Livre de la voie et de la \ ertu, Paris, 1842; J. Chalmers, The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity and Morality of the " Old Philosopher." London, 1868; T. Watters, Lao-Tsze. a Study in Chinese Philosophy, Hong Kong, 1870; P. Carus, Lao Tsze, Chicago, 1903; I. W. Heysinger, Lao Tsze, the Light of China, Philadelphia, 1903.
LA PLACE, JOSUE DE. See Placeus, Josua.