Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples: Pioneer of French Reform
This article by Rev. Angus Stewart examines Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (c. 1455-1536), a French humanist scholar who pioneered reform ideas in France, particularly emphasizing justification by faith and the study of Paul's Epistles, though he remained in the Roman Catholic Church until his death. Stewart addresses the historiographical challenge of understanding Lefèvre's role as a pre-Reformation figure and explains his significance for understanding the intellectual currents that prepared the way for the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation.
Rev. Angus Stewart As his name would indicate, Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (c. 1455-1536) was a Frenchman from Étaples, a coastal town south of Calais, in Picardy. His surname is sometimes given as Fabry or Fabri, and he is also known by the Latin form of his name: Jacobus Faber Stapulensis. Although this sounds complicated, it is worth bearing in mind if you look him up on-line or in books and articles dealing with the Reformation, and the men and ideas that prepared the way for it. Unlike the...