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POMPIGNAN, JEAN JACQUES LEFRANC, MARQ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 58 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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POMPIGNAN, See also:JEAN JACQUES LEFRANC, See also:MARQUIS DE (1709 1784) , See also:French poet, was See also:born on the 17th of See also:August 1709, at See also:Montauban, where his See also:father was See also:president of the tour See also:des aides, and the son, who also followed the profession of the See also:law, succeeded in 1745 to the same See also:charge. The same See also:year he was also appointed conseiller d'honneur of the See also:parlement of See also:Toulouse, but his courageous opposition to the abuses of the royal See also:power, especially in the See also:matter of See also:taxation, brought down upon him so much vexation that he resigned his positions almost immediately, his See also:marriage with a See also:rich woman enabling him to devote himself to literature. His first See also:play, See also:Didon (1734), which owed much to See also:Metastasio's See also:opera on the same subject, gained a See also:great success, and gave rise to expectations not fulfilled by the Adieux de See also:Mars (1735) and some See also:light operas that followed. His reputation was made by Pbesies sacrees et philosophiques (1734), much mocked at by See also:Voltaire who punned on the See also:title: " acres ils sont, See also:car personne n'y touche." Lefranc's odes on profane subjects hardly reach the same level, with the exception of the See also:ode on the See also:death of J. B. See also:Rousseau, which secured him entrance to the See also:Academy (1760). On his reception he made an See also:ill-considered oration violently attacking the Encyclopaedists, many of whom were in his See also:audience and had given him their votes. Lefranc soon had See also:reason to repent of his rashness, for the epigrams and stories circulated by those whom he had attacked made it impossible for him to remain in See also:Paris, and he took See also:refuge in his native See also:town, where he spent the See also:rest of his See also:life occupied in making numerous See also:translations from the See also:classics, none of great merit. La Harpe, who is severe enough on Lefranc in his See also:correspondence, does his abilities full See also:justice in his Cours lilteraire, and ranks him next to J. B. Rousseau among French lyric poets. With those of other 18th-See also:century poets his See also:works may be studied in the Petits poetes See also:francais (1838) of M.

Prosper Poitevin. His fEuvres coinpletes (4 vols.) were published in 1781, selections (2 vols.) in 1800, 1813, 1822. His See also:

brother, JEAN GEORGES LEFRANC DE POMPIGNAN (1715-1790), was the See also:archbishop of See also:Vienne against whose See also:defence of the faith Voltaire launched the See also:good-natured mockery of See also:Les Lettres d'un Quaker. Elected to the Estates See also:General, he passed over to the Liberal See also:side, and led the 149 members of the See also:clergy who See also:united with the third See also:estate to See also:form the See also:National See also:Assembly. He was one of its first presidents, and was See also:minister of public See also:worship when the See also:civil constitution was forced upon the clergy. POMPONAllI, PIETRO (PETRUS POMPONATIUS) (1462–1525), See also:Italian philosopher, was born at See also:Mantua on the 16th of See also:September 1462, and died at See also:Bologna on the 18th of May 1525. His See also:education, begun at Mantua, was completed at See also:Padua, where he became See also:doctor of See also:medicine in 1487. In 1488 he was elected extraordinary See also:professor of See also:philosophy at Padua, where he was a colleague of See also:Achillini, the Averroist. From about 1495 to 15og he occupied the See also:chair of natural philosophy until the closing of the See also:schools of Padua, when he took a professorship at See also:Ferrara where he lectured on the De anima. In 1512 he was invited to Bologna where he remained till his death and where he produced.all his important works. The predominance of medical See also:science at Padua had cramped his energies, but at Ferrara, and even more at Bologna, the study of See also:psychology and theological See also:speculation were more important. In 1516 he produced his great See also:work De immortalitate animi, which gave rise to a See also:storm of controversy between the orthodox Thomists of the See also:Catholic See also:Church, the Averroists headed by See also:Agostino See also:Nifo, and the so-called Alexandrist School.

The See also:

treatise was burned at See also:Venice, and Pomponazzi himself ran serious See also:risk of death at the hands of the Catholics. Two See also:pamphlets followed, the Apologia and the Defensorium, wherein he explained his paradoxical position as Catholic and philosophic materialist. His last two See also:treatises, the De incantationibus and the De fato, were posthumously published in an edition of his works printed at See also:Basel. Pomponazzi is profoundly interesting as the See also:herald of the See also:Renaissance. He was born in the See also:period of transition when scholastic formalism was losing its hold over men both in the Church and outside. Hitherto the See also:dogma of the Church had been based on See also:Aristotle as interpreted by See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas. So See also:close was this See also:identification that any attack on Aristotle, or even an See also:attempt to reopen the old discussions on the Aristotelian problems, was regarded as a dangerous See also:heresy. Pornponazzi claimed the right to study Aristotle for himself, and devoted himself to the De anima with the view of showing that Thomas Aquinas had entirely misconceived the Aristotelian theory of the active and the passive See also:intellect. The Averroists had to some extent anticipated this attitude by their contention that See also:immortality does not imply the eternal See also:separate existence of the individual soul, that the active principle which is See also:common to all men alone survives. Pomponazzi's revolt went further than this. He held, with See also:Alexander of Aprodisias, that, as the soul is the form of the See also:body (as Aquinas also asserted), it must, by See also:hypothesis, perish with the body; form apart from matter is unthinkable. The ethical consequence of such a view is important, and in See also:radical contrast to the practice of the period.

Virtue can .no longer be viewed solely in relation to See also:

reward and See also:punishment in another existence. A new See also:sanction is required. Pomponazzi found this criterion in -roil KaXou EPeKa —virtue for its own See also:sake. " Praemium essentiale virtutis est ipsamet virtus quae hominem felicem facit," he says in the De immortalitate. Consequently, whether or not the soul be immortal, the ethical criterion remains the same: " Neque aliquo pacto declinandum est a virtute quicquid accidat See also:post mortem." In spite of this philosophical See also:materialism, Pomponazzi declared his adherence to the Catholic faith, and thus established the principle that See also:religion and philosophy, faith and knowledge, may be diametrically opposed and yet coexist for the same thinker. This curious See also:paradox he exemplifies in the De incanta tione, where in one breath he sums up against the existence of demons and See also:spirits on the basis of the Aristotelian theory of the cosmos, and, as a believing See also:Christian, asserts his faith in their existence. In this work he insists emphatically upon the orderly sequence of nature, cause and effect. Men grow to maturity and then decay; so religions have their See also:day and succumb. Even See also:Christianity, he added (with the usual proviso that he is speaking as a philosopher) was showing indications of decline. See A. H. See also:Douglas, Philosophy and Psychology of Pietro Pomponazzi (1910) ; also See also:Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie; J.

A. See also:

Symonds, The Renaissance in See also:Italy; Windelband, See also:History of Philosophy (trans. by See also:James H. Tufts, pt. 4, c. 1); J. See also:Burckhardt, See also:Die Kultur der Renaissance in Ilalien; L. See also:Ferri, La Psicologia di P. Pornponazzi. (J. M.

End of Article: POMPIGNAN, JEAN JACQUES LEFRANC, MARQUIS DE (1709 1784)

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