Isaac le Febvre

Isaac le Febvre
Born	around 1648 (Château-Chinon (Ville))
Deceased	June 13, 1702 (Marseille)
Holiday	June 12 ( Evangelical calendar of names )

Isaak le Febvre , also written Isaac Le Febvre or Isaac Le Fèvre (* around 1648 in Château-Chinon , Nivernais , France ; † June 13, 1702 in Marseille ), was a French lawyer and Evangelical Reformed Christian ( Huguenot ). Since he was imprisoned for a long time for his beliefs and died because of the poor prison conditions, he is sometimes viewed as an evangelical martyr .

family

Isaak le Febvre was the first child of Paris- born, also Protestant-Reformed Pierre le Febvre and his first wife Marie Elinard. His mother died early. His grandparents, who died in old age, were also members of the Evangelical Reformed Church. He had three sisters and a half-brother and three half-sisters from a second marriage by his father. Isaac was brought up in the spirit of the Reformed faith, with his parents serving as role models for him throughout his life.

Pierre le Febvre died of a stone and colic disease, which at first half paralyzed him. Even in this situation he is said to have radiated a deep confidence in faith and comforted visitors. As one visitor judged: "I came to edify and comfort a sick person, but he edified and comforted me." Isaac le Febvre helped his father by carrying him from bed to bed, as he was always in sight of his Wanted to stay son. Eventually, an additional stroke caused a four-day agony. Isaak le Febvre later reported that when his father died he said: "Lord Jesus, take his spirit into your hands!"

Life

education

Isaak le Febvre was considered very educated. From 1663 he studied philosophy in Geneva , later he completed a law degree in Orléans . In Paris, after presenting his certificates to Advocate General Talon, he was promoted to lawyer at the Paris Court of Justice. Isaak le Febvre practiced his work as a lawyer mainly in Nevers .

Work for the Marquise of Saint-André-Montbrun

Isaak le Febvre entered the service of the rich, also Protestant Marquise of Saint-André-Montbrun . She was the widow of the first captain of the Grands-Mousquetaires . The scattered property of the Marquise brought long and numerous journeys le Febvres with it, including to Poitou and Saintonge . There he was suspected of trying to morally support his evangelical brothers and sisters in faith on these trips and was summoned to appear before the directors of Rochfort. He followed the summons despite suffering from a fever and was acquitted.

Repeal of the Edict of Nantes

On October 18, 1685, the Edict of Nantes was repealed. The Huguenots were therefore considered outlawed. At precisely this time, Isaak le Febvre was on his way from the artistic director to Paris. When he heard of the edict, le Febvre went to Burgundy to inform the Marquise and then fled abroad.

The marquise was pressured to renounce her belief, under threat of loss of her property and freedom and the threat of personal suffering. Monchanin de Monceau served her in this situation, in which she initially played for time, but then gave in, as a messenger.

Enmity between the Intendant of Rochfort and the Bishop of Autun

The general manager announced to Monchanin that he would send a dozen archers to arrest Isaac le Febvre. Gabriel de La Roquette, the Bishop of Autun , was also very interested in the arrest of le Febvre. In view of le Febvres' trip to Poitou, which allegedly had been aimed at the support of the evangelical Christians there, they feared that he would continue to make such trips, to the provinces of Nivernais and Berry .

Monchanin tried to defend le Febvre by saying that he was not an evil person; if it is a crime to adhere to one's religion, everyone is a criminal. When he went further into the harsh measures against the evangelical Christians, the director Monchanin interrupted with the words: “What are you complaining about? They have not yet resisted to the blood. ”This phrase made a strong impression on le Febvre when he found out about it, as he later wrote. They came from Heb 12.4, but, as le Febvre judged, they were meant here more in the sense of Julian Apostatas , who responded to the complaints of the persecuted Christians: “You should endure it, because your master foretold that it would come . “Le Febvre felt that his assessment of state power was confirmed as anti-Christian.

Journey of the bishop to La Nocle

Monchanin informed Isaak le Febvre that the intendant had entrusted the lieutenant general and the royal lawyer in Autun with the execution of his orders, and that the bishop accompanied them with a company of dragoons from Dijon and Autun and his usual company on the way to him to La Nocle. Monchanin advised le Febvre to flee.

The Marquise spoke out against le Febvre's attempts to flee, because she felt he had left her in the lurch and any attempt to escape abroad was severely punished. She said, “Where do you want to go, sir? They are not fit for the galleys. Are You Prepared To Be A Martyr? Two weeks in captivity would kill her. Do the same. ”Le Febvre replied that he did not have the spirit of a martyr, but that God would give strength and that he could not do the same, for he feared eternal punishment.

Le Febvre left La Nocle on horseback two hours before his pursuers arrived. He rode to his sister in Château-Chinon , who was urged by the envoy of the Bishop of Nevers , Edouards I Valot, the pastor and her own husband to convert to the Roman Catholic Church, and wanted to meet her brother urgently. He then had to travel to Nevers to renew a lease for the marquise. In the meantime, the Bishop of Autun le Febvre's sister and all of La Nocle made threats and promises to convert. After he was fed in the castle of the Marquis of Montbrun, the bishop left satisfied. The Marquise of Saint-André-Montbrun wrote le Febvre to Nevers that the bishop was very fond of him and regretted that he had not met him, that he had not done anything to him and that he was not harmed in his diocese.

Summons before the bishop

It turned out to be the opposite: the pastor of La Nocle tried to persuade Isaak le Febvre to visit the bishop in his palace in Autun. When le Febvre refused, the prelate wrote angry letters to the Marquise:

“If this man does not comply within four days, then the ambassadors of the Dijon and Nevers Intendants have orders to arrest him wherever he may be found, even if it is in your house. That will bother her, madame. So far I've prevented that. Both divine and human law require him to do what you have done; and you should force him to do it or drop him. "

arrest

On the run again, Isaak le Febvre was arrested on February 14, 1686 near Portarli in Burgundy when he tried to escape to Switzerland accompanied by the Swiss La Tour . He was taken to Besançon , mistreated, handcuffed and stripped of all his property. His weapons and a watch worth 23 Louis d'or were taken from him, the manager gave the archer his horse as a reward, and the rest was distributed. On the other hand, it was customary to collect personal property and return it.

judgment

After three weeks in prison with a few others who were released after renouncing their faith, Isaak le Febvre was taken to the council chamber and tried. One lawyer observed that walking in iron shackles was difficult for him and scoffed at his weakness: "If a man is convinced that he belongs to the true religion, he should give himself up in everything, even death itself." Le Febvre felt himself through this Shout, as he later wrote, actually strengthened and agreed. He was sentenced to life in the galley .

Imprisoned in Besançon

The next day, Isaac le Febvre was taken to a dungeon, where he remained handcuffed day and night for two months. There were constant attempts to get him to convert. Since it was feared that le Febvre might strengthen his fellow believers, he was closely guarded so that he could not communicate with them. No one was allowed to enter his dungeon for a period of several weeks. By changing cells, the prison conditions became more and more uncomfortable. He refused a supply of money that was sent to him, saying that his property should be returned to him, and he also noted that it would soon be taken to the galley. He was suggested to write a petition for the restitution of his property and to ease the conditions of detention, but he declined so that no one could say that everything he wanted was done for him. In a letter he expressed how his faith had given him strength and that he had compassion for his persecutors because they believed they were serving God, which he knew better.

A Jesuit brought him the news from the intendant (this office was to be handed over to the Jesuits) that he would soon be the only prisoner brought onto the galley. He also informed him that his sister, who had withstood all Roman Catholic attempts at conversion, had been taken to a monastery in Moulins in Bourbonnais near Nevers. Le Febvre exclaimed: “Holy Father! Keep us in your name! Here is the faith and patience of the saints. "

It was recommended to him to address a pardon to the king, on the one hand, as he said, because it could not be clearly demonstrated to him that he wanted to leave the country, on the other hand, because it was hoped to get him out Fear of further suffering to convert. Both his judges and people whom friends had sent him as messengers tried to get him to do this.

Detention in Dijon

Isaak le Febvre was brought from Besançon to Dijon, which he reached on May 30, 1686. As he drove in the jerky car, his iron shackles were so hard on him that he could hardly use his aching limbs. He was fixed in an uncomfortable position and the bodies of other prisoners weighed down on him. He said later that if his fetters had not been loosened in Aussone, after which he was put on a horse, he would have died.

The conditions of detention in Dijon were much better than in Besançon. There were no shackles or dungeons here. His friends sent him more money than he needed, but he did not want to receive more than necessary, since abundance is a burden for him. Partly his brother-in-law was supposed to reimburse the donors with the surplus, and partly he passed it on to fellow prisoners in need. In Dijon he was strongly advised to ask the intendant to lessen the galley penalty. But he felt it was cowardly to be treated preferentially over his fellow prisoners. He wrote that he was less afraid of punishment than of fellowship with criminals punished for other reasons. He was often visited by the Jesuit Corbigni de l'Orme from Vézelay .

In chains to Marseilles

After two months in prison in Dijon, Isaak le Febvre was brought to Chalon-sur-Saône with some fellow sufferers . The chain for the galley convicts was also brought there from Paris. Chain hoists of 200 people were common, of whom more than 100 were often punished for their evangelical faith. At first, le Febvre was chained together with the dragoon officer Bonvalet, who was of the Roman Catholic faith but was treated like a Reformed man because he had let some evangelicals escape. Since le Febvre had to suffer from the weight of the chain in his position in the chain hoist on the first night, he was given a place at the end of the train with de Marolles. During the trip, the guards thought Le Febvre, who was seriously suffering, to be dead. He later said that without a stay in Avignon he would have actually died. Some of the convicts were transported by water.

Arrival in Marseille

Around August 20th the train reached Marseille . Isaak le Febvre and de Marolles were immediately admitted to the hospital for galley slaves, where they stayed until at least September 13th, where they could strengthen each other as bed neighbors. They were forbidden to meet other Protestant galley slaves or to send anything to them. With regard to his illness, le Febvre suffered constant relapses. Here too, he later wrote, he was close to death. He couldn't walk for two days.

On the galley

When his condition had improved only slightly, Isaak le Febvre, who could not stand, was separated from de Marolles, who could just walk again, and taken to the galley La grande réale against the doctor's wishes . The doctor asked the general manager of the galleys, Bégon, to extend his sick leave, but this was refused. The prisoners were taken to a distribution point on the galley that never set sail, where their names, occupations and original locations were recorded. Le Febvre was chained.

Visitors were denied entry to the galley. Nobody dared go near or speak to le Febvre. His letters were confiscated and delivered to the artistic director in Marseilles. For a small sum of money the galley slaves could buy themselves out of the big chain, which le Febvre was strictly refused to do. He was not allowed to read or write. He described a letter from his pastor, which he was still able to answer, as a foretaste of heavenly joys. He had to sleep on a board that was barely two feet wide, he was not allowed to have a blanket, and other prisoners gave him theirs. He was plagued by parasites.

From time to time most of the prisoners were taken to a public place, the so-called "park" on the coast and selected in the presence of the intendant, the general commissioner, the galley masters and their officers. The strongest were taken to the armed galleys as row slaves, the rest were brought back to the La grande réale . In one of these selections, one of the captains turned to le Febvre and Bonvalet, which of them was the lawyer. Le Febvre answered, but in a voice so weak and suffering that this captain did not choose him to row.

Some friends of le Febvres managed to arrange for le Febvres to be transferred to this galley through a friend of the captain of the galley La Magnifique . There the conditions were much better for him due to the instructions of the captain to his officers regarding le Febvres. Due to the efforts of the missionaries and chaplains, however, le Febvre could not expect that he would be able to stay there. Nevertheless, he is said to have prayed for his opponents.

After two days, his detention conditions actually deteriorated: he was more closely guarded than ever before. Both personal and written contact with his friends both on and off the galley was forbidden. Furthermore, he was now permanently chained and treated with great severity. In this situation the Bishop of Marseilles, Charles Gaspard, had Guillaume de Vintimille du Luc sent for him; Due to his poor health, the meeting was canceled, as reported by le Febvre in a letter dated October 14, 1686. Another time he was brought before the bishop, where he was urged to change his faith; the consideration is his freedom. The conversation only seemed to solidify him in his belief. His detention conditions became even harsher afterwards.

Before he was moved from the galley to the dungeon, he managed to receive and answer a letter from his pastor. In it, he reported on how he had to sleep without a blanket in cold weather, was verbally abused and threatened with bludgeoning, and contracted a fever. Above all, he expressed how much he felt comforted by God in his situation.

He spent almost a year on the galley.

Life imprisonment in Fort Saint-Jean

Isaak le Febvre was physically unable to do the hard work on one of the armed galleys. He stayed there only until August 1687 and was instead interned in Fort Saint-Jean at the entrance to the port of Marseille. It is unclear whether this was due to his poor health as he was not taken back to the hospital. Another reason could be that he should be further isolated and the conditions of detention should be tightened. Further attempts were made in vain to urge him to change his denomination. He was placed in solitary confinement in a dungeon. According to le Febvre, the court had obliged the bishop and the intendant to do so.

When he entered his cell, le Febvre was searched. The only book he had left was taken from him. The captain explained to him that he would have to pay for his own expenses and that the king would not finance him. So he was allowed to write bills, but not inform anyone about his state of health or his situation.

Isaak le Febvre spent 15 years of his life in the irregularly shaped, very damp, underground vault that had once served as a stable. Because of the high humidity, however, it was concluded that it was unsuitable for keeping horses because of the health hazard for the animals. The room still had a feeder. Light only got in through a double barred opening in the upper part of the door, so the room was very dark. Opposite the opening there were iron bars that were anchored in the wall in the upper area. The air was unhealthy and had a bad smell. Everything in the room tended to rot or mold. The water tanks and cisterns were above the cell. A fire was never lit in the room, except for the candle flame. This description is based on le Febvre's own information.

For the first two or three nights le Febvre slept in a damp crib, then for over a month in a short and very narrow box. Two straw chairs, which were higher than the box, served as supports for his head and feet. He was covered with nothing but the day clothes the king had allowed him. He often caught colds. His physical condition was very poor and he contracted several dangerous illnesses. There was severe cramping in his chest. He suffered from severe lumbar pain, gum discharge, rheumatism, wandering neck and shoulder pain, tinnitus, and finally fever. He sank into lethargy and lost weight. Le Febvre wrote that this led him to devotion to God.

He was now cut off from any connection to the world. Le Febvre received no visitors; his friends rarely heard from him. The delivery of letters proved extremely difficult and costly. Much of the money earmarked for him and his companions was used to pay for those who did the dangerous job of delivering letters. Few were ready. It could be a year before a safe opportunity arose again.

A few days after he was so completely isolated, a missionary named Guiraud visited him with another cleric. Guiraud had visited him before but said he would not see him again until the last day. The discussion he was now having with le Febvre was unsuccessful; Guiraud was puzzled by le Febvre's argument.

Le Febvre often complained about the poor quality and contamination of its putrid food. Often he had neither clothes nor bed linen. Twice he received a shirt from an unknown source. The same people sent him a pillow and other items. When the proposal was made to give a present to the citadel captain so that he would be better looked after, he refused, as it was too dangerous for him and the others involved.

Despite his situation in life, le Febvre described himself as happy. In his spiritual practices, he recited and sang Psalm 35 and Psalm 130 , which he found very suitable for his situation. He tried to eat, drink and rest at set times. Money intended for him did not get to him.

In this situation, le Febvre wrote a book on the necessity of suffering. His case also became known abroad and caused several rulers to stand up for him. As a result, no more messages were allowed to leave or enter his cell. He died in complete solitude on the night of June 13 or 14, 1702.

Remembrance day

June 12th in the evangelical name calendar .

Before the introduction of the official name calendar, the day of remembrance was already listed in:

Theodor Fliedner : Book of Martyrs , Kaiserswerth 1849/1859, Vol. 4, pp. 1399-1404
Ferdinand Piper : Evangelical Calendar in Witnesses of Truth , Berlin 1874/1875, Vol. 1, pp. 14-25
Prussian Evangelical Oberkirchenrat: Calendar of names for the German people , Berlin 1876
Jörg Erb : The Cloud of the Witnesses , Kassel 1951/1963, Vol. 4, pp. 508-520

Web links

literature

personal data
SURNAME	le Febvre, Isaac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	le Febvre, Isaac; Le Fèvre, Isaac
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Huguenot
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1648
PLACE OF BIRTH	Château-Chinon , Nivernais , France
DATE OF DEATH	June 13, 1702
Place of death	Marseille