LE FÈVRE D'ÉTAPLES, JACQUES. - Born at Étaples around 1455, died at Nérac in January 1536. A writer and exegete, he began to model his thought along the lines of the reborn humanism following a stay in Italy (1492).

In 1498 he published the Theologia civilificans, with the subtitle Cibus solidus, a Latin edition of three works of Pseudo-Dionysius: Caelestis Hierarchia, Ecclesiastica Hierarchia, Divina nomina. In the following decade he printed "pro piorum recreatione" many Greek and Latin opuscules such as the Theologia Damascei [*De fide orthodoxa], the Adversus Eunomium and the Exumeron of St. Basil, the Contemplationes of Lull, the De Trinitate of Richard of St. Victor, etc. In 1507 he went to live at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, of which his disciple Guillaume Briçonnet had become abbot. In contact with the monks he brought to maturity the final development of his thought, going back to the first source of Christian knowledge, Holy Scripture. In 1509 he published the Psalterium quintuplex, enriched with sober exegetical-spiritual notes. This work was known and annotated by Luther. In the celebrated work Sancti Pauli epistolae XIV ex vulgata editione (1512), he seeks to reconcile faith and works. According to some exegetes he does not accept the dogma of original sin and believes in total human freedom. Le F.'s strong desire to "return" to the Scriptures is parallel to, but not coincident with, Lutheranism. His contact with Protestantism was in any case notable: in 1514 he defended Reuchlin against the Sorbonne; he is esteemed by Luther; according to some Protestant interpreters he is close to the theories of the Reformation in believing that the Mass is only an act of commemoration and in his opposition to the cult of the Saints and of the Virgin. Centering his teaching on Scripture (his translation has remained classic) and directing his devotio* toward an imprecise dogmatic definiteness, he is among the initiators of so-called evangelism. The undervaluation of the hierarchical element, the tendency to vulgarize the Bible and the evident infiltration of certain Lutheran ideas among the members of the group of Meaux (Farel was there), exposed him to the attacks of the Sorbonne, to avoid which he fled, toward the end of 1525, to Strasbourg. According to some Catholic interpreters he did not depart from orthodoxy precisely because his thought, so rich in nuances, must be interpreted according to the modes of evangelism. Le F. died as a guest of Margaret of Navarre, by whom he had been named librarian of Blois.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: P. Imbert de la Tour, Les origines de la réforme, 3 vols., Paris 1905-14, passim: A. Renaudet, Préforme et humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d'Italie (1294-1517), ibid. 1916, passim: J. Vienot, Histoire de la réforme française des origines à l'Édit de Nantes, ibid. 1926, passim: P. Polman, L'élément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle, Gembloux 1932, see index. On the climate of his era: L. Febvre, Autour de l'Hepsaméron, Paris 1944; id., Le problème de l'incroyance au XVIe siècle. La religion de Rabelais, ibid. 1947. See also F. Simone, La coscienza della rinascita negli umanisti francesi, Rome 1949, passim.

Massimo Petrocchi

@incollection{ec7_le_fevre_d_etaples_jacques, author = {Petrocchi, Massimo}, title = {Le Fèvre d'Etaples, jacques}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1018--1019}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/le-fevre-d-etaples-jacques} }

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Le Fèvre d'Étaples, Jacques

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