François-Xavier de Feller (1735–1802) was a Belgian Jesuit who after the suppression of his order worked as a prolific and internationally influential journalist and encyclopedist who opposed radical Enlightenment ideas on politics, religion and society, sometimes under the pseudonym Flexier de Reval.

Biography

François Feller was born on 18 August 1735 in Brussels, where his father was a government official.

In 1741, his father was ennobled by letters patent of Empress Maria Theresa.

Feller's works exceed 120 volumes. In 1773 he published, under the assumed name "Flexier de Reval" (an anagram of "Xavier de Feller"), his Catéchisme philosophique; and his principal work Dictionnaire historique et littéraire (published in 1781 at Liège in volumes, and afterwards several times reprinted and continued down to 1848), appeared under the same name. Among his other works the most important are Cours de morale chrétienne et de littérature religieuse (Paris, 1826) and his Coup d'oeil sur le Congrès d'Ems (1787). His Journal historique et littéraire was published in Luxembourg from 1773 to 1788, and in Maastricht and Liège from 1788 to 1794; a total of 62 volumes appeared, edited and in large part written by Feller.

In the late 1780s, he wrote in support of the Brabant Revolution and against the French Revolution.

References

Further reading

  • Wahre Beschaffenheit des Zwistes, welcher sich zwischen dem apostolischen Nuntius zu Kölln und den drey geistlichen Churfürsten bey Gelegenheit eines Circularschreibens an die Pfarrer ihrer Diöcesen erhoben hat: Aus dem Französischen übersetzt. – S.l., 1788. digital copy by Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf