Jacques_de_Chevanes

Jacques de Chevanes

Jacques de Chevanes

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Jacques de Chevanes (c.1608 – 1678) was a French Capuchin polemicist. He used the pseudonyms Jacques d'Autun and Saint-Agran.[1]

He was the son of Nicolas de Chevanes of Autun, and brother of the jurist Jacques-Auguste de Chevanes.[2]

L'incrédulité sçavante et la crédulité ignorante

L'incrédulité sçavante et la crédulité ignorante: au sujet des au sujet des magiciens et des sorciers (1671) was a reply to Gabriel Naudé's Apologie pour tous les grands personnages, qui ont été faussement soupçonnés de magie.[3] This work argues against both freethought and popular misconceptions.[4]

It cites the author's personal experience during a witch-hunt in Burgundy in 1648/9.[5] It also references a 1670 interview with a woman accused of sorcery and witchcraft.[6] Chevanes quotes De civitate Dei book 15 on demonology.[7]

It was addressed to the Parlement of Dijon, and was written largely from a legalistic point of view, though with lengthy digressions, for example on astrology. Lynn Thorndike suggests that its title may derive from the English anti-sceptical work On Credulity and Incredulity in Things natural, civil and divine (1668) by Méric Casaubon[8] The appearance of this work has been noted as a milestone for the French judicial attitude;[9] it asserted that there were witches, but few of them.[10]

The work also moves to a general conclusion on the occult, namely that while it should be avoided for reasons already given by the Church Fathers, its practitioners should not be executed.[3]

Other works

  • Les Entretiens curieux d'Hermadore et du voyageur incognu (1634); defence of the regular clergy, against Jean-Pierre Camus[11][12]
  • La conduite des illustres pour aspirer à la gloire d'une vie héroïque (1639)[13]
  • Les Justes Espérances de nostre salut (1649)[14]
  • Funeral oration for the Duc de Candale (1658)[15]
  • L'amour eucharistique victorieux des impossibilitez de la nature et de la morale (1666)[16]
  • La vie de Saint François d'Assise, patriarche des frères Mineurs (1676)[17]

Notes

  1. Antoine-Alexandre Barbier (Lexicographe) (1822). Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes. p. 390. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  2. Louis Moreri; Desaint et Saillant (París) (1759). Le grand dictionnaire historique ou Le melange curieux de l'Histoire sacrée et profane ... Le Mercier, Desaint & Saillant, Jean-Thomas Herissant, Boudet, Vincent, Le Prieur. pp. 604–5. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  3. Robert Mandrou (1978). From Humanism to Science 1480–1700. translated by Brian Pearce. Pelican Books. p. 246.
  4. Lee Palmer Wandel; Robert McCune Kingdon (2003). History has many voices. Truman State Univ Press. pp. 17–8. ISBN 978-1-931112-17-8. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  5. Nicole Jacques-Lefèvre (1998). Curiosité et Libido sciendi de la Renaissance aux Lumières: Théories. ENS Editions. p. 102. ISBN 978-2-902126-54-5. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  6. D. Acke (2007). Du syncrétisme des figures mythographiques en littératures française et européenne (in French). Asp / Vubpress / Upa. p. 184. ISBN 978-90-5487-431-7. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  7. Lynn Thorndike (1 March 2003). History of Magic and Experimental Science. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 568–9. ISBN 978-0-7661-4318-0. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  8. Hélėne Celdran Johannessen (2008). Prophètes, sorciers, rumeurs: La violence dans trois romans de Jules Barbey D'Aurevilly (1808-1889) (in French). Rodopi. p. 119 note 12. ISBN 978-90-420-2353-6. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  9. McManners (1999). Church and Society in the Eighteenth-Century France. Oxford University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-19-827004-1. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  10. Neil Kenny (8 July 2004). The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany. Oxford University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-19-155658-6. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  11. Jean-Louis Bischoff (April 2001). Dialectique de la misère et de la grandeur chez Blaise Pascal. Harmattan. pp. 238–. ISBN 978-2-296-18204-2. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  12. Jacques de Chevanes (1649). Les Justes Espérances de nostre salut, opposées au désespoir du siècle. Laurent Anisson. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  13. Jacques de Chevanes (1676). La vie de Saint François d'Assise, patriarche des frères Mineurs. Jean Ressayre et Chavance. Retrieved 7 April 2013.

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