Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples

French theologian

• Born: c. 1460
• Birthplace: Étaples, Picardy, France
• Died: 1536
• Place of death: Nérac, France

Lefèvre was an influential early French Humanist who admired and adhered to Desiderius Erasmus’s methods of textual criticism. These methods laid the groundwork for one of the most heralded Renaissance accomplishments: a modern scholarly approach to secular and religious writings that constituted a rupture from common medieval practices of glossing, which neglected the actual text. This return to the source was instrumental in justifying the Reformation.

Early Life

Little is known about the early life of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (leh-fehvruh day-tawpleh). He moved to Paris from Étaples at some point and enrolled at the Collège du Cardinal Lemoine. After obtaining his degree, he taught philosophy there until about 1509. At that time, Lefèvre was already well known in Humanist circles, and Guillaume Briçonnet, the abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, invited him to live at the abbey and support his efforts of reformation there. This enabled the Humanist to concentrate exclusively on his studies. Lefèvre quickly became one of the most famous representatives of early French Humanism .

His intellectual development can be divided into three major parts: his studies and teaching position at the Collège du Cardinal Lemoine, which made him a student of philosophy, his interest in medieval spirituality and patristics, and his exclusive devotion to the Holy Scriptures.

Life’s Work

In 1490, Lefèvre completed his first major work, an introduction to Aristotle’s Metaphysica (335-323 b.c.e.; Metaphysics, 1801). The text aimed at renovating Aristotelianism by restoring Aristotle’s original teachings (and thus rejecting the prevailing scholastic approach of preferring glosses and commentaries to the actual text).

Two main events in 1491-1492 opened new horizons for Lefèvre’s thinking: first, he was deeply affected by the Spanish theologian Raymond Lull’s Contemplations, and second, he took his first trip to Italy two more were to follow in 1500 and 1507 which put him in touch with the Italian philosophers Ermolao Barbaro (an Aristotelian), Marsilio Ficino (a Platonist), and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , whose work combined both schools of thought. These eminent Humanists introduced Lefèvre to ideas and concepts that would greatly determine the future direction of his work. He would study ancient texts (including the Holy Scriptures) using methods based on syncretism and contemplation, which were frequently informed by the works of the Syrian mystic and speculative theologian Dionysus Areopagite (c. 500). He also came to study the Hermetic writings and the Platonist school (although he quickly distanced himself from the latter).

In the light of such influences, it was not surprising that, on his return to Paris in 1492, Lefèvre decided to publish Aristotle’s collected works. His modern critical edition following Barbaro’s method of providing new Humanist translations and scholarly comments based on a thorough Humanist education was meant to contribute substantially to a better understanding of the philosopher’s writings, especially for students, which underlines Lefèvre’s pedagogical concerns. Editions of many other authors and texts were to follow. The most important of these were the works of Areopagite (1499), the Hermetica (1505), and Raymond Lull’s work (1505).

In the first decade of the 1500’s, a circle of intellectuals formed around Lefèvre, named the Fabristae. Two of them stood out at this juncture. The first was the editor and publisher Josse Bade, who collaborated on the edition of Aristotle’s works, as well as on numerous other texts on music, mathematics, logic, mysticism, and patristics. The second was Charles de Bovelles, who rediscovered Nicholas of Cusa’s work. Initially attracted by the mathematical grounding of Nicholas’s thinking, it was in focusing on Nicholas’s principle of docta ignorantia “learned ignorance,” which identifies God as the synthesis of all worldly contradictions and thus helps surpass the incompatibility of worldly appearances that Lefèvre found the metaphysical framework for the syncretism of Greek wisdom and Christian faith for which he had been searching.

Lefèvre’s oversight of a three-volume edition of Nicholas’s works (1514) marked a highlight of his critical approach. It was also a clear indicator that Lefèvre would henceforth concentrate exclusively on biblical exegesis. All of his studies seemed to have been devoted to this final goal: to make use of modern scholarly methods to come to a better comprehension of the Bible, first as a commentator, then as a translator, and finally as a predicator.

One of the most important influences on Lefèvre in this domain was Desiderius Erasmus’s Enchiridion militis Christiani (1503; The Manual of the Christian Knight , 1533), which proclaimed a purification of Christianity based on a return to its original source, the Bible. The great Dutch Humanist’s method thus applied to the Scriptures what Lefèvre held to be the only acceptable means of scholarly textual criticism. Two years later, Erasmus edited Lorenzo Valla’s Annotations on the New Testament and explained his ideas of textual criticism based on philological and historical methods. Even before Erasmus’s New Testament, Lefèvre provided his own illustration of this approach in one of his main works, the critical edition of the Quintuplex Psalterium (1509; fivefold Psalter), a comment on five Latin translations of the Psalter. Then he turned his attention to the epistles of Saint Paul, which he edited and provided a new Latin translation based on the original text (1512).

Despite Lefèvre’s penchant for mysticism, pure faith had regained its central position in his model, replacing the elaborate rituals of the contemporary Church. Following this logic, reformation was not only necessary but also inevitable to purify Christianity. This would lead to a reestablishment of the primitive Catholic Church, liberated from all the addenda of a millennium of falsification, a cleansing process that corresponded to Lefèvre’s principles of textual purification.

The next significant event in Lefèvre’s life was the publication of Erasmus’s edition of the New Testament (1516), which clearly defined the rules of modern exegesis and therefore developed into a manifest for the Reformation movement. A struggle with the Dutch Humanist over the interpretation of a phrase from Hebrews 2:7 had somewhat alienated the two scholars, however. In Lefèvre’s mind, modern scholarly methods reached their limits when they conflicted with faith, a conviction that he did not think Erasmus shared. The Dutch Humanist responded by pointing out his opponent’s mediocre mastery of Greek, but tempers soon calmed down. Lefèvre’s scholarly inferiority was obvious and his acknowledgment of Erasmus’s major achievement confirmed his own personal convictions of the benefits of modern textual criticism. It was around that same time that he also began to admire Martin Luther’s writings (1517). The condemnation of the new doctrines by the Faculty of Theology in Paris (1521) would not change these convictions, and Lefèvre left Paris that same year to help Briçonnet in his attempt to reform the diocese of Meaux.

Lefèvre was surrounded by friends and disciples in Meaux, particularly Gérard Roussel, and his work would take on a new dimension. Frequent attacks and attempts at censorship by the Faculty of Theology were usually thwarted by the benevolence of King Francis I , his sister Marguerite de Navarre , and the French scholar Guillaume Budé, who was Francis I’s royal librarian. The call for the reestablishment of the primitive Catholic Church and the predominance of pure faith were strongly defended in Lefèvre’s Commentarii initiatorii in quartuor Evangelia (1522; commentaries on the four Gospels) and repeated in his Epistres et evangiles des cinquante-deux dimanches (1525; Epistles and gospels for the fifty-two Sundays), the latter work openly proclaiming a break with ecclesiastical tradition in the name of purified faith. Conservative Catholicism saw its chance to deal a blow to the Reformation movement when Francis I was captured by Charles V (1525), which necessitated Marguerite’s voyage to Spain to negotiate for her brother’s release. Lefèvre and Roussel avoided capture by fleeing to Strasbourg. On his return to France (March, 1526), Francis I quickly ended the persecution and recalled the fugitives. He appointed Lefèvre head of the Royal Library in Blois and preceptor of his children. On his return trip, the Humanist stopped in Basle, where he met Erasmus, who had supported him during his exile.

It was toward the end of his stay in Blois that Lefèvre completed his translation of the Bible into French (based on the Vulgate). Its publication in 1530 coincided with an invitation to move to Marguerite de Navarre’s court in Nérac, a haven for the evangelical and Reformation movements. He met John Calvin and Clément Marot there. He died in 1536.

Significance

Lefèvre belonged to the first generation of French Humanists who prepared the ground for the movement’s celebrated achievements in the following decades. His appeal for an objective scientific approach to textual criticism(as long as it did not contradict faith) and the return to original sources (following Erasmus’s and Budé’s lead) provided a theoretical foundation for the Reformation and became a principle of modern scholarship. The translation of the Bible into French was a significant milestone French became the country’s official administrative language in 1539 as it made the Scriptures available to many more people, an indispensable condition for the success of his call for a return to a purified Christian faith. The emancipated reading public was now able to make its own decisions in matters of faith based on an independent reading and interpretation of the Bible.

Bibliography

Backus, Irena. “Renaissance Attitudes to New Testament Apocryphal Writings: Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and His Epigones.” Renaissance Quarterly 51, no. 4 (1998): 1169-1198. Study of sixteenth century reception of New Testament Apocrypha; sheds light on Lefèvre’s editorial approach.

Cottrell, Robert D. “Lefèvre d’Étaples and the Limits of Biblical Interpretation.” Œuvres & Critiques 20, no. 2 (1995): 79-95. Useful essay explaining Lefèvre’s attitude in the conflict between faith and reason.

Hughes, Philip Edgcumbe. Lefèvre: Pioneer of Ecclesiastical Renewal in France. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. E. Eerdmans, 1984. First and only English book-length study on Lefèvre, which presents the Humanist’s work as groundbreaking for the Reformation.

Lefèvre d’Étaples, Jacques. The Prefatory Epistles of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Related Texts, edited by Eugene F. Rice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. English edition of Lefèvre’s theoretical texts; useful introduction.