Jacques Le Fèvre was a French Roman Catholic theologian and controversialist.

Life

He became archdeacon

Archdeacon

An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...

 of his Lisieux and vicar-general of the Archbishopric of Bourges. In 1674 he received the doctorate in theology from the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

.

Works

His works are the following:

• "Entretiens d'Eudoxe et d' Euchariste sur les histoires de l'arianisme et des iconoclastes du P. Maimbourg" (Paris, 1674). The first of these dialogues was condemned and burned.
• "Motifs invincibles pour convaincre ceux de la religion prétendue réformée" (Paris, 1682), in which Le Fèvre endeavours to show that there is fundamental agreement between Catholic and Protestant teachings, the differences being of slight importance and mostly verbal. These conciliatory views were attacked by Antoine Arnauld
  Antoine Arnauld
  Antoine Arnauld — le Grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician...
  
  , and, in answer, Le Fèvre wrote "Réplique a M. Arnauld pour la défense du livre des motifs invincibles" (1685).

Amongst Le Fèvre's other works are

"Conférence avec un ministre touchant les causes de la separation des protestants" (Paris, 1685);

• "Instructions pour confirmer les nouveaux convertis dans la foi de 1'église" (Paris, 1686);
• "Recueil de tout ce qui s'est fait pour et contre les protestants en France" (Paris, 1686);
• "Lettres d'un docteur sur ce qui se passe dans les assemblées de la faculté de théologie de Paris" (Cologne, 1700). These letters were published anonymously when the work of the Jesuit Father Lecomte
  Lecomte
  Lecomte was an Olympic archer who represented France in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He took part in the Au Cordon Doré at 50 metres competition taking eighth place with a score of 25 points, six points behind the leader, Henri Hérouin.-See also:...
  
  , "Mémoires sur Ia Chine", was referred to the faculty of theology.

To Father Jacques-Philippe Lallemant

Jacques-Philippe Lallemant

Jacques-Philippe Lallemant was a French Jesuit, of whom little is known beyond his writings. He took part in the discussion on the Chinese rites, and wrote the “Journal historique des assemblées tenues en Sorbonne pour condamner les Mémoires de la Chine” , a defense of his confrère Lecomte against...

, who had defended his confrère in the "Journal historique des assemblées tenues en Sorbonne", Le Fèvre replied in his "Anti-journal historique ..."; and he also produced "Animadversions sur l'histoire ecclésiastique du P. Noël Alexandre ", the first volume of which was printed at Rouen without date about 1680; it was seized and destroyed, and the other volumes were not published.