- François Vavasseur
François Vavasseur (b. at
Paray-le-Monial ,8 December 1605 ; d. atParis , France16 December 1681 ) was a FrenchJesuit humanist and controversialist.He entered the Society of Jesus, 25 October 1621, taught humanities and rhetoric for seven years, then
positive theology and Scripture at Bourges, and later at Paris. His first work was aparaphrase of the "Book of Job " in Latinhexameter s (1637), resumed and accompanied by a commentary in 1679.He published also "Theurgicon" (1644), on the miracles of Christ, "Elegiarum liber" (1656), "De ludicra dictione" (1656); took an active part in the
Jansenistic controversy ("Cornelius Jansenius Iprensis suspectus", Paris, 1650), and defended himself against the charge of having written pamphlets concerning theCalaghan affair (De libello supposititio dissertatio, 1653). In this last writing he defined accurately the style of thePort Royal writers before the "Provinciales ":, monotonous and burdened with complicated periods. He wrote a sharp and learned criticism of the "Epigrammatum delectus" of Port-Royal (1659), "De epigrammate liber et epigrammatum libri tres" (1669), showing knowledge ofCatullus ,Martial , and theGreek anthology .He was sensitive on this subject and took issue with his confere
René Rapin , who had practically declared that no modern had written a goodepigram (Remarques sur les nouvelles réflexions du R.P. Rapin Jésuite, touchant la poétique, 1675).Guillaume de Lamoignon , Rapin's protector, had Vavasseur's pamphlet suppressed. "Pere Vavasseur was a learned man, one of those critical and severe minds which find something to bite even in good works, and which let nothing pass" (Sainte Beuve , "Port-Royal", III, 528).His other works include sermons, a commentary on
Osee , and a dissertation on the beauty of Christ. All his writings were collected by the theologian Jean Leclerc (Amsterdam, 1709). His Latin writings had appeared previously in Paris (1683).References
*
Sommervogel , "Bibl. de la compagnie de Jesus", VIII (Paris, 1898), 499
*Sainte-Beuve , "Port Royal", III, 49, 28, 625.External links
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15317a.htm Source]
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