Antoine Legrand

Antoine Legrand (* 1629 in Douai , then Spanish Netherlands ; † August 7, 1699 in London ; also Antoine Le Grand or Antonius le Grand ) was a Dutch friar and missionary and author of philosophical and theological works.

biography

Around 1649 Legrand joined the so-called recollects , a reform branch of the Franciscan order , which had dedicated itself to mission and recatholicization. He received his training at the Saint Bonaventura convent in Douai, where he was appointed professor of philosophy in 1655. Legrand also worked in Douai at the Collège Anglais , an educational institution for Catholic religious refugees from England. This activity led to his being sent on a mission to England in 1656. His task was not without danger, since after the breakaway of the Anglican Church in England, Catholic priests and religious were persecuted and in some cases even executed. In England Legrand took over offices within the order, but was also active as a philosophy and theology teacher, as a house chaplain, as a tutor for long-established Catholic families and as a philosophical and theological writer. Legrand mainly worked in London and Oxfordshire . In 1698 Legrand was elected Superior Provincial of the Franciscan Order in England. He died of a stroke in 1699 shortly after returning from a trip to his homeland.

Services

The literary work of Legrand was in the foreground over the missionary work. Legrand published his works in French until 1669, later only in Latin. The peculiarity of Legrand's works is that he linked his work as a Franciscan with his writing as an advocate of Descartes' philosophy and saw no contradiction in this. He was considered a staunch advocate of Cartesianism in England.

Works

Philosophical and scientific works

• Le sage de Stoiques ou l'Homme sans Passions . La Haye 1662; engl. Translation 1675. (Treatise on the stoic teaching that only the wise man who overcomes affects can attain virtue. The work is dedicated to King Charles II .)
• L'Épicure Spirituel or L'Empire de la Volupté sur les vertus . Douai, Paris 1669; English translation London 1676 (five essays on aspects of Epicurean philosophy.)
• Scydromedia Seu sermo quem Alphonsus de la Vida habuit coram comite de Falmouth de Monarchia . London 1669, Nuremberg 1680. (A neo-Latin utopia to be classified in the tradition of the utopia of Thomas More; it describes the social system of the fictional state Scydromedia. It is one of the few royalist utopias of the 16th century, and yet at the same time opposes the current political and religious conditions in England. A modern edition with commentary appeared in 1991.)
• Philosophia Veterum e mente Renati Descartes more scholastico breviter digesta . London 1671. (On Cartesian Philosophy.)
• Institutio Philosophiae secundum Principia D. Renati DesCartes, Nova Methodo adornata et explicata. In usum juventutis Academicae . London 1672 and various other editions. (An important work of Cartesianism of great popularity. 1709 placed on the " Index librorum prohibitorum " by the Church .)
• Historia Naturae Variis Experimentis & Ratiociniis Eleucidata secundum Principia Stabilita In Institutione Philosophiae edita ab eodem authore . London 1673, various other editions. (Treatment of natural phenomena according to the Descartes system; references to many ancient and contemporary philosophers.)
• Dissertatio de carentia sensus et cognitionis in Brutis . London 1675. (Another Cartesian work of wider circulation.)
• Apologia per Renato Descartes contra Samuelem Parkerum . London 1679. (Defense against a criticism of Cartesianism by the Anglican Bishop Samuel Parker (1640–1687) from 1678, in which he alleges that Descartes was actually an atheist. Placed on the church index in 1719.)
• Curiosus rerum abditarum Naturae; Arcanorum Perscrutator . Nuremberg 1681. (Scientific writing.)
• Dissertatio de ratione cognoscendi et appendix de mutatione formali […] . London 1698. (Reply to an essay by a John Sergeant on the Nature of Ideas and Other Aspects of Metaphysics.)

Theological works

• Encomium Sapientiae humilis, seu Scotus humilis elucidatus . Douai 1650. (A study paper on aspects of scholastic theology.)
• Historia Sacra a mundi exordio ad Constantini Magni imperium deducta . London 1685.
• Missae sacrificium Neo-Mystis succincte expositum . London 1695.
• Historia Haeresiarcharum a christo nato ad nostra usque tempora […] . Opus Posthumus, Duoai 1702. (History of Heresy .)

literature

• Ursula Greiff: Preface, introduction and editorial comments on: LEGRAND, Antoine: Scydromedia . Ed., Trans. u. come over. v. Ursula Greiff. Peter Lang, Bern et al .: 1991, pp. 7-32 (= Bibliotheca Neolatina 5), ISBN 3-261-04306-7
• Beate Lüsse:  Legrand, Antoine. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 1359-1361.
• J. Max Patrick: Scydromedia, A forgotten Utopia of the seventeenth century . In: Philological Quarterly 23 (1944), Vol. 3, pp. 273-282.
• John K. Ryan: Anthony Legrand (1629-1699): Franciscan and Cartesian . In: The New Scholasticism 9 (1935), pp. 226-250. [Contains basic information on Legrand's life and work.]
• Ders .: Scydromedia: Anthony Legrand's ideal commonwealth . In: The New Scholasticism 10 (1936), pp. 39-55.
• Richard A. Watson: The Downfall of Cartesianism 1673-1712. A study of epistemological issues in late 17th century cartesianism . Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1966 (Archives internationales d'histoire des idees, 11). [Includes u. a. a classification of the importance of Legrand for Cartesian philosophy.]

Web links

• Literature by and about Antoine Legrand in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Antoine Legrand  in the German Digital Library
• Patricia Easton:  Entry in Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Publications by and about Antoine Legrand in VD 17 .