Jacques de Chevanes
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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]