mathematics, writings of the Fathers, and other productions dealing with the mysticism of the Middle Ages.
Gradually the depravity of the times brought to him the conviction that a better day would appear if the Bible were studied and preached by a clergy that knew the Scriptures. This “notably diminutive figure” with his gentility, piety, and scholarly achievements, “bent over by much study,”
possessing an earnest, gentle, and beautiful face, became “the first of the French Humanists who led the way to heresy.”
The keynote of his life lay in his love for Christ. Through humble submission this love, he believed, would guide, elevate, and make the seeker one with the divine personality of the Christ.
“His eloquence, his candor, his amiability, captivated all
hearts..His lessons and the zeal of his disciples formed the most striking contrast to the scholastic teaching of the majority of the doctors, and the irregular and frivolous lives of most of the
students.” — J. H. Merle d’Aubigne, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, vol. 3, pp. 382,388.
Soon he developed a clear procedure of Biblical interpretation which in time was followed by other Reformers, ultimately reaching the Lutherans, Anglicans, Calvinists, and others. Thomas More said that English students of the period were indebted to him, Luther in his early lectures used Lefevre’s text, and Zwingli listed his commentaries on the Psalms among his favorite books for study.
Some of his greatest achievements lay in the work of the men who were his disciples. Among them may be listed Francois Vatable, the Hebraist and one-time teacher of Calvin; Bude, the distinguished master of classical letters; Farel, the evangelist to Switzerland; Postel, the orientalist; Louis de Berquin, who died as a Protestant martyr; and the bishop of Meaux, who later became a cardinal. Besides these he had many others from different countries.
“The scholars who came to learn of him in Paris all loved him, and of the opponents he soon aroused, none seems to have felt
anything but respect for the purity and honesty of his life and the
natural kindliness of his disposition.” — Paul Van Dyke, The Age of Renascence, page 270.
Under all circumstances and among all classes his dignity held him “at manhood’s simple level.”
Jacques Lefevre was born sometime between 1450 and 1455 at Etapies, a village of Picardy. He is also known as Faber Stapulensis, the Latin name applied to him according to the custom of the Humanists.
Of his early education little is known except that it was ordinary. Later, possibly between 1486 and 1492, he seems to have been a pupil in Italy of Pico della Mirandola, who had been a disciple of Savonarola. Before going to Italy he received both his master of arts degree and his doctor’s degree.
There is also some evidence of his having reached Africa and Asia in his quest for learning. Besides holding professorships at the University of Paris, he also taught mathematics, music, and philosophy at the college of Cardinal Lemoine, perhaps about the middle 1490’s.
By 1500 he stood as one of the brilliant intellectuals of the Parisian university circle, as he lectured on justification by faith and the Psalms.
The first Frenchman with sufficient versatility in the Greek to use it effectively, he began after his fiftieth year to study the Bible in the original languages, for he wanted firsthand information. One author says that he wanted
“to preach Christ from the sources.”
— Lindsay, A History of the Reformation, page 141.
It was not, however, until 1507 that he began to devote all his time to the study of the Scriptures. The next thirteen years he spent in the abbey of St. Gerrnain-des-Pris at Paris where his friend Guillaume Briconnet was abbot. Here Lefevre studied in the monastery library.
In 1512. he produced the first edition of his commentaries on the Episdes of St. Paul, a work of translation from the Greek to Latin accompanied by a revised version of the Vulgate, which won him the distinction of being
“the most skillful commentator of the age.”
This work, stressing the doctrine of justification by faith, blasted the subtle arguments of the schoolmen, and set the tongues in the Sorbonne, the Paris theological center, to wagging.
When in 1517, or thereabouts, he published a brochure affirming, contrary to the views of the Sorbonne, that Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and the woman with the alabaster box were three persons, his teachings were pronounced heretical. Yet opposition to him did not become alarmingly vocal until the writings and opinions of Luther were circulated within the university. Up to this time Lefevre’s work had been regarded as the opinions of a mystic rather than the beliefs of a polemicist.
Lefevre’s enemies now began to harass him secretly. This, together with the Sorbonne’s charge of heresy, led him to accept the invitation of his friend Briconnet to come to Meaux. Briconnet, who was now the bishop of Meaux, believed about many things as did Lefevre, and had begun various reforms, among them widespread Bible reading among the people.
Arriving in Meaux, where had gathered a group of kindred religious spirits, sometime during late 1520 or the spring of 152I, Lefevre soon became known as its venerable Reformer. Here he preached so aggressively that by the autumn of 1521 some members of the Dominican order classified him with Luther, Erasmus, and Beuchlin as one of the four antichrists of the era.
During 1522 Lefevre completed a Latin commentary of the Gospels, accompanied by an earnest admonition for a return to pristine Christianity. The following year the New Testament in the French language reached the people. It was inferior in scholarship to the work of Luther and Tyndale, but it was, nonetheless, well received by the people.
The Sorbonne seized copies of it and threw them in the fire. Nevertheless, Lefevre became the vicar-general at Meaux and continued his work. Meaux was rapidly becoming synonymous with Wittenberg. Lefevre’s activity caused Fisher, the bishop of Rochester and one of the eminent prelates of the times, to write against him. Beda, of the Sorbonne, led the open opposition to Lefevre and the Meaux group.
Notwithstanding this hostility, the Reformers continued Bible reading, preaching, translating, writing. They eliminated from church administration
any rituals pertaining to purgatory and holy water. Then in 1525 the Battle of Pavia resulted in the imprisonment of Francis I. Almost
immediately repression came to Meaux by way of the parliament of Paris and the university theological faculty with the consent of the queen regent.
Jean Leclerc, a wool carder, became the first victim. He had declared that the pope was antichrist and had torn Pope Clement VII’s bull proclaiming a jubilee from the church doors at Meaux. For this he was captured, branded on the forehead with a hot iron, and banished. He went to Metz, where his zeal again outran his judgment, and here in July, 1525, he was burned at the stake.
Once intolerance gained the upper hand, others became easy prey. The reforming bishop of Meaux had already recanted under duress, and this left the group at Meaux without official support.
Lefevre became a marked man. Beda had written a book against him, and on August 25, 1525, parliament published a decree condemning nine theses taken from his commentaries. This decree also placed his translation of the Scriptures on the prohibited list. Lefevre realized that this meant flight or possible torture and death.
He therefore left Meaux and fled to Strasbourg, where he met Farel and other Reformers who received him warmly.
The release of Francis I in March, 1526, from imprisonment in Madrid upset the hopes of the ardent papists. The king suspended the
molestations. By his order Lefevre returned to become the monarch’s librarian at Blois and tutor to the royal household. Here he quietly worked on a translation of the Bible at the request of the king and the king’s sister Margaret, who later became the wife of the king of Navarre. This Bible, completed in 1535, with the help of Pierre Olivetan, Calvin’s cousin, became the translation commonly used by the French Protestants.
But persecution arose again. This time Louis de Berquin, twice rescued from his persecutors by Francis I, paid with his life April 17, 1529. It was said that had Francis I protected Berquin as the elector had Luther, this French nobleman would have successfully completed a French national reformation.
Lefevre spent his last days at Nerac under the protection of Margaret of Navarre, where he died in 1536.