In 1628,
Cornelius Jansen, a professor at Leuven, began writing
Augustinus, a three volume treatise on
Augustine of Hippo, which conflated Jesuits with Pelagianism by highlighting Augustine's propositions.
Augustinus was published posthumously, in 1640 at Leuven, in 1641 at Paris, and in 1642 at
Rouen.
Augustinus reignited the debate appeased by the Congregatio de Auxiliis. In France,
Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu strongly opposed Jansen, in part because Jansen wrote a pamphlet,
Mars gallicus (1635), against Richelieu's anti-Habsburg policy and alliances with German states. Richelieu therefore charged , the theologian of
Notre-Dame, to preach against Pelagius. Richelieu nominated
Alphonse Le Moyne as a professor to the
College of Sorbonne in order to refute
Augustinus. Many Sorbonne theologians opposed Richelieu, as they mostly followed Augustinism's insistence on efficacious grace. But the
Jansenists of the convent of Port-Royal were Le Moyne's and Habert's main opponents. In 1638, Richelieu had its leader,
Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, incarcerated in
Vincennes. Vergier de Hauranne was a friend of Jansen. His incarceration gave him further influence as a martyr. After Richelieu's death in 1642, Jansenists replied to the attacks against Jansen, first in
Sanctus Augustinus per seipsum docens Catholicos, et vincens Pelagianos, attributed to the
Oratorian Colin du Juanet and sometimes to
Antoine Arnauld, and then, in 1644–45, by two
Apologies pour M. Jansénius (Apologies for Jansenius) by Antoine Arnauld, which enjoyed great success. Finally, Urban VIII prohibited
Augustinus in
In eminenti ecclesiae in 1642, because
Augustinus was "published in opposition" to "condemnations and prohibitions" in decrees of Paul V and Urban VIII, was expressed "with contempt toward the authority of the" Holy See, and contained previously condemned propositions.
Pope Innocent X, in a 1647 Holy Office decree, condemned the proposition, found in Jansenist
Martin de Barcos's preface to Antoine Arnauld's 1644 '''', that
Peter the Apostle and
Paul the Apostle "are two supreme pastors and governors of the Church who constitute a single head" and they "are two princes of the Church who amount to one", when the proposition is interpreted "to imply a complete equality between" Peter and Paul "without the subordination and subjection" of Paul to Peter in "power and governance". In opposition to Jansenism, a group of theological doctors from the Sorbonne extracted eight propositions from
Augustinus. These propositions concerned the relation between nature and
grace. They accused Jansen of having misinterpreted Augustine, conflating Jansenists with Lutherans – in the frame of a highly conflictual context, which had led to the
French Wars of Religion, officially ended with the 1598
Edict of Nantes. On 31 May 1653, Innocent X promulgated the apostolic constitution
Cum occasione, which condemned five propositions found in
Augustinus as heretical. In 1654, Arnauld replied to
Cum occasione by making a distinction between
de jure and
de facto:
de jure, the heretical propositions could be condemned, and he accepted this sentence; but
de facto, they could not be found in Jansen's treaty. The Sorbonne then attempted to exclude Arnauld from being a theologian. Arnauld was forced underground, while in January 1654 an
almanac attributed to the Jesuits grossly presented the Jansenists as under-cover Calvinists. Arnauld's nephew,
Louis-Isaac Lemaître de Sacy, a translator of the
Bible de Port-Royal, wrote
Enluminures, a poem, in reply to this attack. Pascal, under the
pseudonym Louis de Montalte, wrote
Lettres provinciales in 1657, in defense of Arnauld, in which he harshly attacked Jesuits and their morality, in particular
casuistry. Following publication of
Lettres provinciales, the King sent spies everywhere, condemned the librarians who had clandestinely published
Lettres provinciales and discovered the author of
Lettres provinciales. The theological debate had turned into a political affair. On 16 October 1656, Alexander VII promulgated the apostolic constitution
Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem, which judged the meaning and intention of Jansen's words in
Augustinus, and confirmed and renewed the condemnation in
Cum occasione. The Jesuits enjoyed predominant political and theological power. Their members included two personal confessors to the King of France,
François Annat and, before him,
Nicolas Caussin. Cardinal
Jules Mazarin strongly opposed Jansenists, both in Europe and abroad (with the
Jesuit Reductions and the
Jesuit China missions). Mazarin persuaded the pope to compel Jansenists to sign a formulary, to assent to
Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem, and to confess their faults. The
Assembly of the French Clergy afterwards decided to compel all priests to sign an anti-Jansenist formulary, in which each one accepted the papal condemnation. One of Pascal's last works was
Ecrit sur la signature du Formulaire (1661), in which he adamantly opposed subscribing to a formulary and radicalized Arnauld's position: Pascal equivocated that condemning Jansen was equivalent to condemning Augustine, a
father of the Church. The Jansenists of
Port-Royal, who included members of the
Arnauld family – such as
Abbess Marie Angelique Arnauld, Antoine Arnauld,
Agnès Arnauld – and
Pierre Nicole, were forced to subscribe to the
Formula of Submission for the Jansenists. Although ostensibly submitting to Papal authority, they added that the condemnation would only be effective if the five propositions were in fact found in
Augustinus, and claimed that they did not figure there. Jansenists reasoned that Innocent X and Alexander VII had the power to condemn heretical propositions, but not to make what did not figure in
Augustinus be there. This strategy would impose decades of theological disputes and debate, thus allowing them to gain time.
Lettres provinciales stimulated several responses from the Jesuits, including in 1657 the publication of the anonymous
Apologie pour les Casuistes contre les calomnies des Jansénistes, written by Father Georges Perot. It rather unfortunately claimed as its own Pascal's interpretations of the Casuists' propositions, in particular concerning controversial propositions about
homicides. This led the friars of Paris to condemn Jesuit casuistry. On 15 February 1665, Alexander VII promulgated the apostolic constitution
Regiminis Apostolici, which required, according to the
Enchiridion symbolorum, "all ecclesiastical personnel and teachers" to subscribe to an included formulary, the
Formula of Submission for the Jansenists – assenting to both
Cum occasione and
Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem. From then on, Jansenists of Port-Royal ceased publishing
Lettres provinciales, and, along with Pascal, started collaborating with the
Ecrits des curés (Friars' Writings) which condemned casuistry. Two further decrees, of 24 September 1665 and 18 March 1666, condemned the Casuists' "laxist morality".
Pope Innocent XI issued a second condemnation in a 2 March 1679 decree. In total, the Vatican had condemned 110 propositions issued by Casuists, 57 of which had been treated in
Lettres provinciales. The books added to the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum in Rome were, however, published in France. Jesuits had beforehand bypassed the Holy See's censorship by publishing controversial books there. On 16 July 1705,
Pope Clement XI promulgated the apostolic constitution ''
, which declared that "obediential silence" is not a satisfactory response to the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists''. Pascal and some other Jansenists claimed that condemning Jansen was equivalent to condemning Augustine, and adamantly refused assent to the
Formula of Submission for the Jansenists, with or without a mental reservation. This in turn led to the further radicalization of the King and of the Jesuits, and in 1661 the Convent of Port-Royal was closed and the Jansenist community dissolved – it would be ultimately razed in 1710 on orders of
Louis XIV. The controversy not only involved papal authority, but rather papal authority concerning the
interpretation of texts – something Pascal recalled by quoting the Jesuit Cardinal
Robert Bellarmine's sentences concerning the authority of religious councils concerning matters of dogma versus
de facto issues. ==See also==