Jansenism

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Jansenism was an

The origins of Jansenism lie in the friendship of Jansen and Vergier, who met in the early 17th century when both were studying Christian theology at the University of Leuven. Vergier was Jansen's patron for several years, getting Jansen a job as a tutor in Paris in 1606. Two years later, he got Jansen a position teaching at the bishop's college in Vergier's hometown of Bayonne. The two studied the Church Fathers together, with a special focus on the thought of Augustine of Hippo, until both left Bayonne in 1617.

Vergier became

This manuscript, published in 1640 as Augustinus, expounded Augustine's system and formed the basis for the subsequent Jansenist controversy. The book consisted of three volumes:

1. The first described the history of
   Semipelagianism
   ;
2. The second discussed the fall of man and original sin;
3. The third denounced a "modern tendency" (unnamed by Jansen but clearly identifiable as
   Semipelagian

Jansenist theology

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Even before the publication of

Augustinus was widely read in theological circles in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 1640, and a new edition quickly appeared in Paris under the approval of ten professors at the College of Sorbonne (the theological college of the University of Paris).

On August 1, 1642, however, the

Alexander VII died in 1667 before the commission concluded its investigation and his successor, Pope Clement IX, initially appeared willing to continue the investigation of the nine Jansenist-leaning bishops. However, in France, Jansenists conducted a campaign arguing that allowing a papal commission of this sort would be ceding the traditional liberties of the Gallican Church, thus playing on traditional French opposition to ultramontanism. They convinced one member of the cabinet (Lyonne) and nineteen bishops of their position, these bishops argued, in a letter to Clement IX, that the infallibility of the Church applied only to matters of revelation, and not to matters of fact. They asserted that this was the position of Caesar Baronius and Robert Bellarmine. They also argued, in a letter to Louis XIV, that allowing the investigation to continue would result in political discord.

Under these circumstances, the

1. The duped Jansenists, who continued to profess the five propositions condemned in Cum occasione;
2. The fins Jansénistes, who accepted the doctrine of Cum occasione but who continued to deny the infallibility of the Church in matters of fact;
3. The quasi-Jansenists, who formally accepted both
   Declaration of the clergy of France
   .

The quasi-Jansenists served as protectors of the "duped Jansenists" and the fins Jansénistes.

The tensions generated by the continuing presence of these elements in the French church came to a head in the Case of Conscience of 1701. The case involved the question of whether or not absolution should be given to a cleric who refused to affirm the infallibility of the Church in matters of fact (even though he did not preach against it but merely maintained a "respectful silence"). A provincial conference, consisting of forty theology professors from the Sorbonne, headed by Noël Alexandre, declared that the cleric should receive absolution.

The publication of this "Case of Conscience" provoked outrage among the anti-Jansenist elements in the Catholic Church. The decision given by the scholars was condemned by several French bishops; by Cardinal

Louis XIV and his grandson, Philip V of Spain, now asked the pope to issue a papal bull condemning the practice of maintaining a respectful silence as to the issue of the infallibility of the Church in matters of the dogmatic fact.

The pope obliged, issuing the apostolic constitution

In 1717, four French bishops attempted to appeal Unigenitus Dei Filius to a general council; the bishops were joined by hundreds of French priests, monks, and nuns, and were supported by the parlements. In 1718, Clement XI responded vigorously to this challenge to his authority by issuing the bull Pastoralis officii by which he excommunicated everyone who had called for an appeal to a general council. Far from disarming the French clergy, many of whom were now advocating conciliarism, the clergy who had appealed Unigenitus Dei Filius to a general council, now appealed Pastoralis officii to a general council as well. In total, one cardinal, 18 bishops, and 3,000 clergy of France supported an appeal to a general council. However, the majority of clergy in France (four cardinals, 100 bishops, 100,000 clergymen) stood by the pope. The schism carried on for some time, and it was not until 1728 that Louis Antoine de Noailles submitted to the pope and signed Unigenitus Dei Filius.

Factionalism

Jansenism persisted in France for many years but split "into antagonistic factions" in the late 1720s.

One faction developed from the convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard, who were religious pilgrims who went into frenzied religious ecstasy at the grave of François de Pâris, a Jansenist deacon in the parish cemetery of Saint-Médard in Paris. The connection between the larger French Jansenist movement and the smaller, more radical convulsionnaire phenomenon is difficult to state with precision. Brian Strayer noted, in Suffering Saints, almost all convulsionnaires were Jansenists, but very few Jansenists embraced the convulsionnaire phenomenon.^[12]: 236

"The format of their seances changed perceptibly after 1732," according to Strayer. "Instead of emphasizing prayer, singing, and healing miracles, believers now participated in 'spiritual marriages' (which occasionally bore earthly children), encouraged violent convulsions [...] and indulged in the secours (erotic and violent forms of torture), all of which reveals how neurotic the movement was becoming." The movement descended into brutal cruelties that "clearly had sexual overtones" in their practices of penance and mortification of the flesh. In 1735 the parlements regained jurisdiction over the convulsionary movement, which changed into an underground movement of clandestine sects. The next year "an alleged plot" by convulsionnaire revolutionaries to overthrow the parlements and assassinate Louis XV was thwarted. The "Augustinian convulsionnaires" were then absconded from Paris to avoid police surveillance. This "further split the Jansenist movement."^{[12]: 257–265}

According to Strayer, by 1741 the leadership was "dead, exiled, or imprisoned," and the movement was divided into three groups. The police role increased and the parlements role decreased "in the social control of Jansenism" but cells continued engaging in seances, torture,^[e] and apocalyptic and treasonous rhetoric. By 1755 there were fewer than 800 convulsionnaires in France. In 1762 the parlements criminalized some of their practices "as 'potentially dangerous' to human life."^{[12]: 266–269, 272} The last crucifixion was documented in 1788.^[12]: 282

Jansenists continued to publish anti-Jesuit propaganda through their magazine Nouvelles ecclésiastiques and played a central role in plotting and promoting the expulsion of the Jesuits from France in 1762–64.^[13]

In the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic

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As noted by

Where Jansenism persisted longest as a major force among Catholics was in the Dutch Republic, where Jansenism was actively encouraged and supported by the Republic's authorities. Jansenist refugees from France and the Spanish Netherlands were made welcome, increasing the Jansenist influence among Dutch Catholics. Politically, the Dutch Jansenists were more inclined than other Catholics to reach accommodation with the Protestant authorities and sought to make themselves independent of Papal control. Moreover, theologically the Jansenist doctrines were considered to be closer to the dominant Dutch Calvinism. Indeed, Dutch Jansenism (sometimes called "Quesnelism" after Pasquier Quesnel, who emerged as a major proponent of Jansenism in the 1690s) was accused by its opponents of being "Crypto-Calvinism within the Church". The controversy between Jansenists and anti-Jansenists (the latter naturally led by the Jesuits) increasingly tore up the Dutch Catholic Church in the late 17th and early 18th century – with the authorities of the Dutch Republic actively involved on the one side and the Papacy and Kings of France, Spain, Portugal, and Poland – on the other. Moreover, some Dutch Catholics seeking greater independence from Papal control were identified as being "Jansenists", even if not necessarily adhering to the theological doctrines of Jansenism.

Things came to an open split in April 1723, with the adherents of what would come to be known as the

Unigenitus Dei Filius marks the official end of toleration of Jansenism in the Church in France, though quasi-Jansenists would occasionally stir in the following decades. By the mid-18th century, Jansenism proper had totally lost its battle to be a viable theological position within Catholicism. However, certain ideas tinged with Jansenism remained in circulation for much longer; in particular, the Jansenist idea that Holy Communion should be received very infrequently, and that reception required much more than freedom from mortal sin, remained influential until finally condemned by Pope Pius X, who endorsed frequent communion, as long as the communicant was free of mortal sin, in the early 20th century.

In 1677, a pro-Baianism faction from the theological faculty at Louvain submitted 116 propositions of moral laxity for censure to

At the pseudo-Synod of Pistoia, a proposition of Jansenist inspiration, to radically reform the Latin liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, was passed. This proposition along with the entire Synod of Pistoia was condemned by Pius VI's bull Auctorem Fidei several years later.^[16]

Jansenism was a factor in the formation of the independent

• Antoine Le Maistre
• Molinism
• Dale K. Van Kley
• Crypto-Protestantism
• Jean Racine
• Saint-Medard, Paris

Notes

References

1. ^
   ISSN 1776-0755. Archived
   from the original on 11 November 2008.
2. Catholic Historical Review
   93/2 (2007), pp. 265-299.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e}  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Forget, Jacques (1910). "Jansenius and Jansenism". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
4. ISBN 2253132772
   .
5. ISBN 0-385-50819-0
   .
6. ^ ^{a b} Jervis, Lady Marian (1872). Tales of the boyhood of great painters. T. Nelson and Sons. pp. 386–387. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
7. ^ Jervis 1872, p. 386–387.
8. ^ "Jansenism: a movement of great influence". Musée protestant.
9. OCLC 493191187
   .
10. ^
    ISBN 978-0898707465
    .
11. ^ Miranda, Salvador (ed.). "Selleri, O.P., Gregorio". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Florida International University Libraries. Archived from the original on 2005-05-02. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
12. ^
    ISBN 9781845195168
    .
13. ^ Dale Van Kley, The Jansenists and the Expulsion of the Jesuits from France 1757–1765
14. ^ Jonathan Israel, "The Dutch Republic, Its Rise, Greatness and Fall", Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995, pp. 649-653, 1034-1047)
15. ISBN 9780199295814
    .
16. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1911). "Synod of Pistoia" . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
17. ^ "Refus Global by Paul-Émile Borduas". Archived from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

Further reading

• Abercrombie, Nigel (1936). The Origins of Jansenism. Oxford Studies in Modern Languages and Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  OCLC 599986225
  .
• Hamscher, Albert N. (1977). "The Parlement of Paris and the Social Interpretation of Early French Jansenism". Catholic Historical Review. 63 (3). Catholic University of America Press: 392–410.
  JSTOR 25020157
  .
• Doyle, William (1999). Jansenism--Catholic Resistance to Authority from the Reformation to the French Revolution. Studies in European History. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  ISBN 9780312226763
  .
• Hudson, David (1984). "The 'Nouvelles Ecclésiastiques', Jansenism, and Conciliarism, 1717-1735". Catholic Historical Review. 70 (3). Catholic University of America Press: 389–406.
  JSTOR 25021866
  .
• Ogg, David. Europe in the 17th Century (8th ed. 1960): 323-364.
• Schmaltz, Tad M. (Jan 1999). "What has Cartesianism to do with Jansenism?". Journal of the History of Ideas. 60 (1). University of Pennsylvania Press: 37–56.
  S2CID 170706121
  .
• Van Kley, Dale (Fall 2006). "The Rejuvenation and Rejection of Jansenism in History and Historiography: Recent Literature on Eighteenth-century Jansenism in French". French Historical Studies. 29 (4). Duke University Press: 649–684.
  ISSN 0016-1071
  .
• Strayer, E. Brain, Suffering Saints: Jensenits and Convulsionaries in France, 1640–1799 (Eastborne, Sussex Academic Press, 2008)
• Crichton. D. J., Saints or Sinners?: Jansenism and Jansenisers in Seventeenth Century France (Dublin, Veritas Publications, 1996)
• Swann Julian, Politics and the Parliament of Paris under Louis XV 1754–1774 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995)
• Doyle William, Jansenism: Catholic Resistance to Authority from the Reformation to the French Revolution: Studies in European History (Basingstoke, Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jansenism.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jansenism.

• Provincial Letters by Blaise Pascal (1656)