Background
He was the son of Nicolas de Chevanes of Autun, and brother of the jurist Jacques-Auguste de Chevanes.
He was the son of Nicolas de Chevanes of Autun, and brother of the jurist Jacques-Auguste de Chevanes.
He used the pseudonyms Jacques d"Autun and Saint-Agran.: au sujet des au sujet des magiciens et des sorciers (1671) was a reply to Gabriel Naudé"s Apologie pour tous les grands personnages, qui ont été faussement soupçonnés de magie. This work argues against both freethought and popular misconceptions.
lieutenant cites the author"s personal experience during a witch-hunt in Burgundy in 1648/9.
Chevanes quotes De civitate Dei book 15 on demonology. Lynn Thorndike suggests that its title may derive from the English anti-sceptical work On Credulity and Incredulity in Things natural, civil and divine (1668) by Méric Casaubon The appearance of this work has been noted as a milestone for the French judicial attitude.
lieutenant asserted that there were witches, but few of them. The work also moves to a general conclusion on the occult, namely that while it should be avoided for reasons already given by the Church Fathers, its practitioners should not be executed.
lieutenant was addressed to the Parlement of Dijon, and was written largely from a legalistic point of view, though with lengthy digressions, for example on astrology.