François Vavasseur (''English: Francois Vavasseur''; 8 December 1605, at Paray-le-Monial – 16 December 1681 at Paris, France) was a French

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

humanist and polemicist. 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 a paraphrase of the ''

Book of Job The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...

'' in Latin hexameters (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 the Calaghan affair (De libello supposititio dissertatio, 1653). In this last writing he defined accurately the style of the

Port Royal Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...

writers before the ''

Provinciales The ''Lettres provinciales'' (''Provincial letters'') are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte. Written in the midst of the formulary controversy between t ...

'':, 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 of Catullus,

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...

, and the

Greek anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Pa ...

. He was sensitive on this subject and took issue with his confere René Rapin, who had practically declared that no modern had written a good

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

(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 Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he se ...

, "Port-Royal", III, 528). His other works include sermons, a commentary on

Osee In the Hebrew Bible, Hosea ( or ; he, הוֹשֵׁעַ – ''Hōšēaʿ'', 'Salvation'; gr, Ὡσηέ – ''Hōsēé''), son of Beeri, was an 8th-century BCE prophet in Israel and the nominal primary author of the Book of Hosea. He is the ...

, 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 *

, ''Port Royal'', III, 49, 28, 625.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vavasseur, Francois 1605 births 1681 deaths People from Paray-le-Monial 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers 17th-century French Jesuits French humanists