LA HAYE, JEAN de (SAPIN). - French Franciscan theologian, b. March 20, 1593, d. October 15, 1661 at Paris. He professed the Franciscan Rule in Andalusia, then taught theology in France and was preacher to Queen Anne and King Louis XIII. As procurator general of the Order and of the Holy Land in France, he was an indefatigable compiler of vast biblical exegetical works, not always free from error and lacking in critical sense.
His *Commentarius litteralis in Genesim* (3 vols., Lyons 1638) and *Commentarius litteralis in Exodum* (Paris 1639) were especially useful to preachers, as was the *Commentarius in Apocalypsim* (2 vols., ibid. 1644-47). The *Biblia Magna* (5 vols., ibid. 1643), containing biblical commentaries by Gagno, Estius, Sa, Menocchio, and Tirinus, paved the way for the *Biblia Maxima* (19 vols., ibid. 1660), which includes, in addition to the aforementioned commentaries, the Postilla of Nicholas of Lyra and the Prolegomena of L. H., as well as numerous versions of biblical texts from Oriental languages, all in Latin. The same commentaries were published with notes by J. B. Bossuet in the *Biblia veneta* (28 vols., 1745-57).
L. H. also published: *Opusculum de casibus reservatis Ioannis a Trinitate* (Paris 1617); *Opera s. Bernardini Senensis* (ibid. 1635-36); *Opuscula s. Francisci* (ibid. 1641); *Alexandri Halensis commentarius in Apocalypsim* (ibid. 1647), though this is not by Alexander of Hales but by Alexander of Alexandria (cf. L. Veuthey, *Alexandre d'Alessandrie*, in *Etudes franciscaines*, 43 [1931], p. 158); *Antonii Patavini opera* (Lyons 1653).