CHEFFONTAINES (Latin: A Capite Fontium), Christophe de. - Franciscan theologian, b. ca. 1532 at St-Pol-Léon (Brittany), d. at Rome in 1595. An Observant Minorite from his earliest youth, he devoted himself to preaching, fighting the Calvinists. In 1571, elected general of the Order, he became, upon the cessation of that office, auxiliary bishop of Card. de Pellevé, archbishop of Sens.
He wrote in French and translated into Latin the following works: Fides maiorum defensio, qua haereticorum sacculi nostri stratagemata deteguntur (Antwerp 1575); De libero arbitrio et meritis bonorum operum (ibid. 1575); Defensionis fidei maiorum l. II, in quo veritas corporis Christi in Eucharistiae sacramenta plusquam 350 rationibus probatur (Rome 1576, more complete Cologne 1587); Defensio perpetuae virginitatis B. V. ac s. Ioseph (Lyons 1578), and other minor ones. All were placed on the Index "donec expurgentur". His singular opinions had made him suspect: summoned to Rome in 1586, he was confined in the prison of the Holy Office. The outcome of his trial is not well known. Instead, the three works: Novae illustrationes christianae fidei contra impian etc. (Paris 1583); Varii tractatus et disputationes de necessaria correctione theologiae scholasticae (ibid. 1586); De missae Christi ordine et ritu (ibid. 1586), were condemned absolutely and inserted in the appendix to the Index Tridentinus, because in them it was taught that when Jesus said: "Hoc est corpus meum" the consecration had already taken place through the external gesture of the blessing (benedixit). In the same way such words, in the canon of the Mass, have a narrative value, although they are necessary, given the express order to repeat them. The true consecratory form is given by the words of the epiclesis. In the Latin Mass the epiclesis is found in the Quam oblationem that precedes the account of the Supper; in the Greek Mass it is one of the prayers that follows the narrative (v. EPICLESI).
This doctrine had been clearly formulated in the other work: De la vertu des paroles par laquelle se fait la consécration (Paris 1585). Recently all of C.'s works have been expunged from the Index.
Bibliography6 works
Antonio Piolanti