DECHAMPS, ETIENNE. - Jesuit, controversialist, also known by the name of Agar de Champ, b. at Bourges on 2 Sept. 1613, d. at Paris on 31 July 1701. Professor of philosophy and theology, rector of several colleges, thrice provincial, confessor to the Prince of Condé, he distinguished himself in the struggle against Jansenism, displaying particular acumen and lively readiness in response and rebuttal.
His best work remains: De haeresi Ianseniana (Paris 1654), in which he justifies the condemnation of Jansenism. Earlier he had defended human freedom against it in a Disputatio theologica de libero arbitrio (ibid. 1645). It is also worth citing: Quaestio facti (ibid. 1659) on probabilism, against Pascal’s Provinciales.
BIBL.: Sommervogel, II, cols. 1863-69; Hurter, IV, col. 773 sq.; A. de Meyer, Les premiers controverses jansenistes, Louvain 1917, pp. 197 sqq.