LA HAYE, JEAN de (SAPIN). - Franciscan theologian, b. 20 March 1593 and d. 15 Oct. 1661 in Paris. He professed the Franciscan Rule in Andalusia, then taught theology in France and was preacher to Queen Anne and King Louis XIII. Procurator general of the Order and of the Holy Land in France, he was an indefatigable compiler of extensive works of biblical exegesis, not always free from errors and displaying little critical sense.
His Commentarius litteralis in Genesim (3 vols., Lyons 1638) and Commentarius litteralis in Exodum (Paris 1639) are especially useful to preachers; likewise the Commentarius in Apocalypsim (2 vols., ibid. 1644-47). The Biblia Magna (5 vols., ibid. 1643), containing the biblical commentaries of Gagneo, Esto, Sa, Menocchio, and Tirino, foreshadowed the Biblia Maxima (19 vols., ibid. 1660), which contains, in addition to the aforesaid commentaries, the Postillae of Nicolò da Lira and the Prolegomena of L. H., as well as a great many translations of biblical texts from Oriental languages, all in Latin. The same commentaries were published with the notes of I. B. Bossuet in the Venetian Bible (28 vols., 1745-57).
Moreover, L. H. 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), which, however, is not by Alessandro di Ales nor by Alessandro d'Alessandria (cf. L. Veuthey, Alexandre d'Alexandrie, in Etudes franciscaines, 43 [1931], p. 158); S. Antonii Patavini opera (Lyons 1653).