Jansenism

"A historical enigma" according to certain historians, "an adaptation to changing circumstances" according to others, Jansenism had an evolution parallel to that of the Catholic Church until the 19th century, without any incontestable unity to be found in it. (1585–1638), professor and of the Old University of Leuven, as well as namesake of Jansenism The term 'Jansenism' was rejected by those called 'Jansenists', who throughout history consistently proclaimed their unity with the Catholic Church. Abbot Victor Carrière, precursor of contemporary studies of Jansenism, says the following.There is perhaps no question more complicated than that of Jansenism. From the beginning, many of those who were rightly considered to be its legitimate representatives asserted that it does not exist [...]. Moreover, in order to escape the condemnations of the Church, to disarm certain attackers and win new adherents, it has, depending on the circumstances, attenuated or even modified its fundamental theses. Thus, despite the countless works devoted to it, the history of Jansenism in its entirety still remains to be written today, since the spirit of polemic has prevailed for two centuries.Jansenism was first of all a defence of Augustinian theology in a debate initiated by the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent, then a concrete implementation of this Augustinianism. The struggle against ultramontanism and papal authority gave it a Gallican character, which became an essential component of the movement. In the absolutist France of the 17th and 18th centuries, the fear of a transition from religious opposition to a general opposition justified monarchical repression of Jansenism, and consequently, transformed the movement by giving it a political aspect marked by resistance to power and a defence of the parlements. In the 18th century, a diversity of 'Jansenisms' became more evident. In France, the participation of secular society in the movement revealed a popular and miraculous component involving figurism and the phenomenon of the convulsionnaires. In northern Italy, the influence of the Austrian Enlightenment brought Jansenism closer to modernity. However in the 19th century, Jansenism was primarily a defence of the past and a struggle against modern developments in the Catholic Church. Augustin Gazier, historian of Jansenism and convinced Port-Royalist, attempts a minimal definition of the movement, removing the particularities to attribute a few common traits to all Jansenists: the subjection of one's whole life to a demanding form of Christianity, which gave a particular view of dogmatic theology, religious history and the Christian world. They harshly criticised developments in the church, but at the same time maintained an unshakeable loyalty to it.Therefore Jansenism cannot be wholly encapsulated as a fixed theological doctrine defended by easily identifiable supporters claiming a system of thought, but rather, it represented the variable and diverse developments of part of French and European Catholicism in the early modern period. The heresy of 'Jansenism', as stated by subsequent Roman Catholic doctrine, lies in the denial of the role of free will in the acceptance and use of grace. Jansenism asserts that God's role in the infusion of grace cannot be resisted and does not require human assent. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states the Catholic position that "God's free initiative demands man's free response", that is, humans are said to freely assent or refuse God's gift of grace. ==Origins==

The question of grace in the post-Tridentine period Jansenism originated from a theological school of thought within the framework of the Counter-Reformation, and appeared in the years following the Council of Trent, but drew from debates older than the council. Although Jansenism takes its name from Cornelius Jansen, it is attached to a long tradition of Augustinian thought., (AD 354–430) bishop of Hippo, Church Father, who is claimed as the progenitor of the Jansenist doctrine of grace Most of the debates contributing to Jansenism concern the relationship between divine grace (which God grants to man) and human freedom in the process of salvation. In the 5th century, the North African bishop Augustine of Hippo opposed the British monk Pelagius who maintained that man has, within himself, the strength to will the good and to practice virtue, and thus to carry out salvation; a position that reduces the importance of divine grace. Augustine rejected this and declared that God alone decides to whom he grants or withholds grace, which causes man to be saved. The good or evil actions of man (and thus, his will and his virtue) do not affect this process, since man's free will was lost as a result of the original sin of Adam. God acts upon man through efficacious grace, in such a way that he infallibly regenerates him, without destroying his will. Jansen affirmed in Augustinus that since the Fall of man, the human will is capable only of evil without divine help. Only efficacious grace can make him live according to the Spirit rather than the flesh, that is to say, according to the will of God rather than the will of man. This grace is irresistible and not granted to all men. Here Jansen agreed with Calvin's theory of predestination. The manuscript was published in 1640, expounding Augustine's system and forming the basis for the subsequent Jansenist controversy. The book consisted of three volumes: • The first described the history of Pelagianism and Augustine's battle against it and against Semipelagianism; • The second discussed the fall of man and original sin; • The third denounced a 'modern tendency' (unnamed by Jansen but clearly identifiable as Molinism) as Semipelagian. In the first decade of the 17th century, Jansen had established a fruitful collaboration with one of his classmates at the University of Leuven, the Baianist Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, later the abbot of Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne. Vergier was Jansen's patron for several years and, following the completion of their theological studies, in 1606 obtained for Jansen a position as a tutor in Paris. 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 in Bayonne, with a special focus on the thought of Augustine, until they both left Bayonne in 1617. The question of grace was not central to their works at that time. Through Angélique Arnauld, Vergier had met her brother, Antoine Arnauld, became his protector and brought him to accept Jansen's position in . Following Vergier's death in 1643, Antoine Arnauld, by then a brilliant lawyer, priest and theologian at the Sorbonne (theological college of the University of Paris), became the chief proponent of Jansenism. (1591–1661), abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs By allying with the Protestant princes against the Roman Catholic princes in the Thirty Years' War, Richelieu aroused the suspicion of the devout Jansenists, leading Vergier to condemn openly his (''R.'s'') foreign policy. For this, Vergier was imprisoned in the Bastille in May 1638. Vergier was not released until after Richelieu's death in 1642, and he died shortly thereafter, in 1643. From 1640, the Jesuits condemned Vergier's practice of renewals, which, according to them, risked discouraging the faithful and therefore distancing them from the sacraments. representing the deeply pessimistic theology of Jansenism, in which he opposed frequent Communion; arguing that a high degree of perfection, including purification from attachment to venial sin, was necessary before approaching the sacrament. Arnaud presented Jansen's ideas to the public in a more accessible form (e.g., his work was written in the vernacular, whereas Augustinus was written in Latin). His book was approved by fifteen bishops and archbishops, as well as twenty-one theologians of the Sorbonne and was widely distributed except in Jesuit circles. In 1644, Antoine Arnauld published an Apologie pour Jansenius ('Apology for Jansenius'), then a Seconde apologie ('Second apology') in the following year, and finally an Apologie pour M. de Saint-Cyran ('Apology for Saint-Cyran [i.e., Vergier]'). Arnauld also replied to Jesuit criticism with ('Moral Theology of the Jesuits'). Pinthereau also wrote a critical history of Jansenism, ('The Birth of Jansenism Revealed to the Chancellor') in 1654. During the 1640s, Vergier's nephew, Martin de Barcos, who was once a theology student under Jansen, wrote several works defending his uncle. == The reception of Augustinus in France ==

, published posthumously in 1640. The book formed the foundation of the subsequent Jansenist controversy. Augustinus was first printed in France in 1641, then a second time in 1643, and was read widely in theological circles, including in Spanish Flanders and the Dutch Republic. The debate regarding Augustinianism in France was mainly introduced by the publication of Augustinus, in which emphasis is placed on the Augustinian theory of grace and predestination. On 6 March 1642, Pope Urban VIII followed up with a papal bull titled , which condemned because it was published in violation of the order that no works concerning grace should be published without the prior permission of the Holy See. He also renewed the censures by Pope Pius V, in in 1567, and by Pope Gregory XIII, of several propositions of Baianism, arguing that they were repeated in . In eminenti was, for a time, treated as invalid because of an alleged ambiguity about the date of its publication. Jansenists attempted to prevent the reception of In eminenti, both in Flanders and in France. They alleged that it could not be genuine, since the document attested to be promulgated at Rome on 6 March 1641, whereas the copy sent to Brussels by the nuncio at Cologne was dated in 1642. In reality, the difference was between the Old Style and New Style dates which were both still in use. Thanks to the agitation of the Jansenists in the Parlement, its publication in France was delayed until January 1643. The faculty of the Sorbonne formally accepted the bull in 1644. ==The five propositions==

The opponents of Jansenism wanted Augustinus to be more thoroughly condemned, since the Jesuits especially considered Jansenism to be heretical in the vein of Calvinism. , ally of the late Richelieu, who became Bishop of Vabres, published in December 1646 a list of eight propositions taken from the Augustinus that he considered heretical. A few years later, in 1649, the syndic of the Sorbonne, Nicolas Cornet, frustrated by the continued circulation of Augustinus, drew up a list of five propositions from the work and two from De la fréquente communion, then asked the Sorbonne faculty to condemn the propositions. Jansen's name was not explicitly mentioned, but it was obvious to all that he was being condemned.The cunning cyndic was careful not to give precise statements, as loyalty made it a duty; he did not attribute these propositions to anyone, and if anyone were to pronounce the name of Jansen, he would even say that it was not a question of him, Non agitur de Jansenio, [It is not about Jansen], whereas inwardly, it was Jansen and him alone who was in question. Before the faculty could condemn the propositions, the parlement of Paris intervened and forbade the faculty to consider the propositions. The faculty then submitted the propositions to the Assembly of the French clergy in 1650. Consequently, Habert wrote to Pope Innocent X the same year, mentioning five of the initial seven propositions. In his letter, he does not directly mention Jansen, but describes the trouble caused in France by the publication of his work. The five propositions were not formally attributed to Jansen. and requested the pope to be careful not to condemn Augustinianism too hastily, which they considered to be the official doctrine of the Church on the question of grace. Among these bishops were Henri Arnauld, bishop of Angers and brother of Antoine Arnaud, and , bishop of Beauvais, who would later show fervent support for Port-Royal. At the same time, Antoine Arnaud openly doubted the presence of the five propositions in the work of Jansen, introducing the suspicion of manipulation on the part of the opponents of the Jansenists. (1574–1655), Roman pontiff who promulgated Cum occasione in 1653, condemning five propositions of Jansenism as heretical The prelates also asked Innocent X to appoint a commission similar to the to resolve the situation. Innocent X agreed to the majority's request, (that is, the request of the ninety bishops) but in an attempt to accommodate the view of the minority, appointed an advisory committee consisting of five cardinals and thirteen consultors to report on the situation. Over the next two years, this commission held 36 meetings including 10 presided by Innocent X. The supporters of Jansenism on the commission drew up a table with three heads: the first listed the Calvinist position (which was condemned as heretical), the second listed the Pelagian/Semipelagian position (as taught by the Molinists), and the third listed the correct Augustinian position (according to the Jansenists). Nevertheless, in 1653, Innocent X sided with the majority and condemned the propositions, promulgating in the form of a papal bull the apostolic constitution Cum occasione. The first four propositions were declared heretical and the fifth false. • That there are some commands of God that just persons cannot keep, no matter how hard they wish and strive, and they are not given the grace to enable them to keep these commands; • That it is impossible for fallen persons to resist interior grace; • That it is possible for human beings who lack free will to merit; • That the Semipelagians were correct to teach that prevenient grace was necessary for all interior acts, including for faith, but were incorrect to teach that fallen humanity is free to accept or resist prevenient grace; and; • That it is Semipelagian to say that Christ died for all. The bull was received favourably in France. Some Jansenists including Antoine Arnaud admitted that the propositions are heretical, but argued that they could not be found in Augustinus. They maintained that Jansen and his Augustinus were orthodox, as they espoused only what Augustine himself taught, and they believed it was impossible that the pope could have condemned Augustine's opinion. Arnauld articulated a distinction as to how far the Church could bind the mind of a Roman Catholic. He argued that there is a distinction between matters de jure and de facto: that a Roman Catholic was obliged to accept the Roman Catholic Church's opinion as to a matter of law (i.e., as to a matter of doctrine), but not as to a matter of fact. Arnauld argued that, while he agreed with the doctrine propounded in , he was not bound to accept the pope's determination of fact as to what doctrines were contained in Jansen's work. The Jansenists were therefore content with the notion that Jansen himself was not openly condemned, and further that Augustine's doctrine was still considered orthodox. This displeased the Jesuits and their supporters, who wanted a thoroughgoing condemnation of Jansenism. While the theological problem was technically resolved by Rome, hostility between the Jansenists and the Jesuits became increasingly pronounced. == The controversies between the Jansenists and the Molinists ==

Even before the promulgation of Cum occasione, tensions between Jansenists and Jesuits defending Luis de Molina's thesis, the Molinists, had begun. In August 1649, Antoine Singlin, a priest near Port-Royal, preached on the occasion of the Feast of St. Augustine in Port-Royal. In his sermon, he emphasised efficacious grace, thus violating the order of his bishop who had forbidden the issue to be discussed. The ensuing controversy involved many Jansenists, in particular Henri Arnauld, bishop of Angers. Arnauld declared that he assented to the papal condemnation in Cum occasione, but remained silent on whether the condemned propositions could be attributed to Jansen. He openly disputed the concept of 'sufficient grace' defended by the Molinists. The clarity of Arnauld's explication ironically prompted his adversaries to ask the College of Sorbonne to examine his last letter. The professors who were responsible for examining the letter were all openly hostile to Augustinianism. They extracted two propositions from the letter which were then condemned. On 31 January 1656, shockingly, Arnauld was barred from the Sorbonne, despite sixty professors having come to his defence. This event pushed Arnauld to retreat to Port-Royal, where he devoted himself to writing with a promising young theologian, Pierre Nicole. At the same time, Blaise Pascal undertook to defend him before public opinion, initiating the campaign with his Lettres Provinciales. Later that year, the French Assembly of the Bishops voted to condemn Arnauld's distinction regarding the pope's ability to bind the mind of believers in matters of doctrine (de jure) but not in matters of fact (de facto). They asked Pope Alexander VII to condemn Arnauld's proposition as heretical. Alexander VII responded, in the apostolic constitution Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem promulgated in 1656, that "We declare and define that the five propositions have been drawn from the book of Jansenius entitled Augustinus, and that they have been condemned in the sense of the same Jansenius and we once more condemn them as such." == Blaise Pascal and the campaign of the Provinciales ==

(1623–1662). The Jansenist apologia Provincial Letters, written 1656 and 1657, a literary masterpiece written from a Jansenist perspective, and remembered for the denunciation of the casuistry of the Jesuits. (1646–1733), French Jansenist nun and niece of Pascal When the censure of the Second letter to a duke and peer and the condemnation of Antoine Arnauld were certain, Blaise Pascal entered the controversy on the side of the Jansenists. He decided to devote himself to religion a little over a year before. His sister Jacqueline Pascal was one of the major figures at Port-Royal, and he himself had numerous dialogues with the Solitaires (notably the famous conversation with Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy on Epictetus and Michel de Montaigne). Pascal was invited by Arnauld to bring the matter before public opinion. On 23 January 1656, nine days before the first official condemnation of Arnauld, a fictional letter titled Lettre écrite à un provincial par un de ses amis, sur le sujet des disputes présentes à la Sorbonne ("Letter written to a provincial by one of his friends, on the subject of the present disputes at the Sorbonne"), was published secretively and anonymously. Seventeen other Provinciales followed, and on 24 March 1657, Pascal made a contribution to a work titled Écrits des curés de Paris ("Writings of Parisian priests"), in which the moral laxity of the Jesuits was condemned. In his Provinciales, Pascal denies the existence of a 'Jansenist party'. According to Augustin Gazier, "for the author of the Little Letters, it was a matter of disabusing an overly credulous public, and of bringing out in all its light the perfect orthodoxy of those whom slander represented as heretics. Pascal did not hesitate to say that so-called 'Jansenism' was a chimera, a crude and abominable invention of the Jesuits, bitter enemies of Saint Augustine and of grace effective in itself." The Provinciales were a comprehensive defence of Augustinanism and an apology for Port-Royal, but they are best known for their ironical attacks made against the Jesuits, echoing Arnauld's (although unlike Arnauld, Pascal did not accede to but believed that the condemned doctrines were orthodox. Nevertheless, he emphasised Arnauld's distinction about matters de jure and de facto). They achieved great success among the cultured who formed public opinion at that time, as they appreciated Pascals' ridicule of the Jesuits, casuists and Molinists. If the first three letters are directly linked to the convictions of Antoine Arnauld, the following ones have a different purpose, since Pascal saw his convictions justified and so went on the counterattack. He violently attacked the Jesuits accused of advocating moral laxity. These letters, described as 'divine' by Marquess of Sévigné, were a campaign to change public opinion, turning the public away from theological questions towards the denigration of the supposed moral laxity of the Jesuits. This was not received well by certain Jansenists, who saw in the attacks contained in the letters a breach of Christian charity. The placement of the letters in the Index of Prohibited Books by Rome represents a context in which Jansenism was moving away from a theological quarrel to a movement increasingly known and established in the secular world. According to Gazier, the main reason for this prohibition was not the theology (which was 'unassailable'), nor even the attacks against the Jesuits, but rather the fact that religious debates were raised in public, "the doctrinal part of the Provinciales is unassailable; they could not be censored by the Sorbonne or condemned by the popes, and if they were put in the Index, like the Discourse on the Method [of René Descartes], it was because they were disapproved of for having treated, in French, for the people of the world and for women, contentious questions of which only scholars should have been aware." The 'miracle of Saint-Épine', which occurred on 24 March 1656, was effective in reducing the attacks against Jansenism and popularising it among the public. The niece of Pascal, Marguerite Périer, a boarder at Port-Royal, was cured of a lacrimal fistula that disfigured her, after having interacted with a relic of Saint-Épine. The Jansenists saw this as divine approval, and, with the Roman Catholic Church officially recognising the healing as a miracle, they were at peace for the moment. While the Church in France had left the quarrel aside, it was on the political front that the Jansenists became seriously worried. ==Political opposition to Jansenism==

(1602–1661), Italian Catholic prelate who served as chief minister to Louis XIII and Louis XIV until his death in 1661, and prominent opponent of JansenismThough initially religious, the opposition to Jansenism quickly gained a political aspect. Upon the death of Louis XIII in 1643, Cardinal Mazarin took the same positions as his predecessor Richelieu in combatting the 'Jansenist party'. The 'Jansenist party' tended to attract former Frondeurs after the failure of their revolt in 1653. Although the Jansenists were not involved in the Fronde, they were quickly associated with the revolt because of the support they received from nobles such as Anne Geneviève de Bourbon, Duchess of Longueville (who had a house built in Port-Royal-des-Champs) and her brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti. The Arnauld family was suspected of being linked to the parliamentary Fronde. In addition, the actions of certain Solitaires to abandon worldly life and to withdraw completely from the Court worried Mazarin, who saw it as a possible source of political dissent. Mazarin did not manage to fight effectively against Jansenism; rather it would be Louis XIV who achieved the near-total suppression of the movement. Early in his reign he was haunted by the memory of the Fronde, which proved to be his strongest opponent upon his true assumption of power in March 1660. In December 1660, he brought Mazarin together with the presidents of the Assembly asked them to proceed with coercing the clergy to sign the formula. The formula was the basis of the Formulary Controversy. Many Jansenists refused to sign it; while some did sign, they made it known that they were agreeing only to the doctrine (matters de jure), not the allegations asserted by the bull (matters de facto). The latter category included the four Jansenist-leaning bishops, who communicated the bull to their flocks along with messages that maintained the distinction between doctrine and fact. This angered both Louis XIV and Alexander VII, who commissioned nine French bishops to investigate the situation. 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 constitute a renouncement of 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. (1600–1669), whose intervention in the Formulary Controversy led to a 32-year lull (1669–1701) in the controversy over Jansenism known as the Clementine Peace Under these circumstances, the papal nuncio to France recommended that Clement IX accommodate the Jansenists. Clement agreed, and appointed César d'Estrées, Bishop of Laon, as a mediator in the matter. Two bishops who had signed the letter to the pope, Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Archbishop of Sens, and Félix Vialart de Herse, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, assisted d'Estrées. D'Estrées convinced the four bishops, Arnauld, Choart de Buzenval, Caulet and Pavillon, to sign the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists (though it seems they may have believed that signing the formulary did not mean assent to the matters de facto that it contained). The pope, initially happy that the four bishops had signed, became angry when he was informed that they had done so with reservations. Clement IX ordered his nuncio to conduct a new investigation. Reporting back, the nuncio declared: "they have condemned and caused to be condemned the five propositions with all manner of sincerity, without any exception or restriction whatever, in every sense in which the Church has condemned them". However, he reported that the four bishops continued to be evasive as to whether they agreed with the pope as to the matter de facto. In response, Clement IX appointed a commission of twelve cardinals to further investigate the matter. This commission determined that the four bishops had signed the formula in a less than entirely sincere manner, but recommended that the matter should be dropped to forestall further divisions in the Church. Foreign wars also pressured Louis XIV to avoid internal conflict. The pope agreed and thus issued four briefs, declaring the four bishops' agreement to the formula was acceptable, thus instituting the Paix clémentine ('Clementine Peace') which lasted from 1669 to 1679. == The Clementine Peace ==

Although the peace of Clement IX was a lull in the public theological controversy, several clergymen remained attracted to Jansenism. Three major groups were: • The duped Jansenists, who continued to profess the five propositions condemned in ; • The fin jansénistes, who accepted the doctrine of Cum occasione but who continued to deny the infallibility of the Church in matters de facto; • The quasi-Jansenists, who formally accepted both Cum occasione and the infallibility of the Church in matters de facto, but who nevertheless remained attracted to aspects of Jansenism, notably its stern morality, commitment to virtue, and its opposition to ultramontanism, which was also a political issue in France in the decades surrounding the 1682 Declaration of the clergy of France. They served as protectors of the 'duped Jansenists' and the fins jansénistes. ('Port-Royal Bible' or 'Sacy Bible'), published from 1667 to 1696, a masterpiece of classical French form, largely written during the Clementine Peace by the Jansenist Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy During the Clementine Peace, the Jansenists tried to avoid unnecessary controversy, especially since the growing absolutism of Louis XIV made the attraction of former Frondeurs to Port-Royal and Jansenism suspect. This is why Blaise Pascal's Pensées (published posthumously in 1670) and Pierre Nicole's ''Essais de morale et d'instruction théologiques'' ('Essays on moral and theological instruction') are devoid of any theological or political controversy. The Jansenists at this time distinguished themselves by the quality of their intellectual work and by their desire to communicate matters of religion to the faithful. Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy thus published a French New Testament in 1667. Published secretively in Mons (in the Spanish Netherlands), it was condemned by the pope in 1668 because it translated the sacred text into the vernacular and with allegedly Jansenising edits. == Renewed persecution after the Clementine Peace ==

(1634–1719), whose book, Nouveau Testament en français avec des réflexions morales sur chaque verset, set off the last major recurrence of the Jansenist controversy in 1692 and was the subject of the 1713 apostolic constitution UnigenitusThe death of the Duchess of Longueville, protector of Port-Royal and the Jansenists, in 1679, as well as the signing of the Treaties of Nijmegen and of Saint-Germain the same year, left Louis XIV with a free hand to resume his persecution of Jansenism. In agreement with the king, the new archbishop of Paris, François de Harlay de Champvallon, expelled the novices and confessors (seventy people) from the monastery of Port-Royal-des-Champs and banned recruitment. Following this measure, the main Jansenist theologians went into exile: Pierre Nicole settled in Spanish Flanders until 1683, Antoine Arnauld took refuge in Brussels in 1680 and was joined by in 1685, an Augustinian Oratorian. and later Master of the Sacred Palace, fostered the condemnation of Jansenism by condemning one hundred and one propositions from the of Quesnel as heretical, and as identical with propositions already condemned in the writings of Jansen. These propositions as well as the work itself are seen as a summary of Jansenist doctrine. == The reception of the papal bull Unigenitus ==

(1674–1723), regent of France, who attempted to maintain the policy of his predecessor Louis XIV, of appeasing both the pope and the Gallican clergy in the condemnation of Jansenism By condemning the one hundred and one propositions taken from Quesnel's Réflexions morales, the papal bull Unigenitus marks a significant turning point in the history of Jansenism. Those Jansenists who accepted the bull became known as acceptants. The bull saw in the propositions listed a summary of Jansenism, but, in addition to questions relating to the problem of grace, traditional positions on Gallicanism and the theology of Edmond Richer are condemned, which brought even more theologians to oppose the Jansenists, who in turn felt threatened. The atmosphere of the final years of the reign of the aging Louis XIV was characterised by opposition to the bull. To actually be applied, the bull had to be registered with the parlement of Paris. However, the parlement refused to ratify the bull until the French bishops had taken a position on it, believing that they had no authority over religious matters deriving from their political power. At the demand of the bishops to refuse the bull, he wrote to Clement XI to request clarifications and rectifications for Unigenitus. The pope refused, appealing to his infallibility (although papal infallibility was not a dogma until its proclamation at the First Vatican Council, it was more and more often put forward and accepted during the disputes of this era). Aspiring to continuity with the reign of Louis XIV, the Regent considered himself bound to fulfill the promise of his predecessor, which was to seek a compromise that offended neither the pope nor the Gallican clergy. Augustin Gazier describes this as a fundamentally political rather than religious settlement. [The] Duke of Orléans, who was not a believer, subordinated religion to politics. He was imbued with the idea that royalty never dies, and that consequently kings are destined to make the same mistakes as their predecessors; they are in continuity with each other. [... Louis XIV] had promised the pope to receive the bull Unigenitus, and the pope insisted that the promise be strictly kept; Philippe d'Orléans therefore saw the need to satisfy Clement XI and consequently to bring the recalcitrant prelates to a compromise, if it were not absolutely impossible. == The popularisation of Jansenism ==

of the Nouvelles ecclésiastiques, an important and enduring underground newspaper of the Jansenist movement Jansenists, from the 17th century onwards, tended to rely on miracle stories to justify their cause. One of the first and most notable was the healing of Marguerite Périer in 1656 by the relic of Sainte-Épine, which occurred when Jansenism was beginning to be seriously attacked, and was followed in that century by numerous reports of other miracles. Certain Jansenists thus gained a reputation as thaumaturges and their relics were in high demand. For example, the abbot of Pontchâteau, Solitaire and 'gardener' of Port-Royal, had his coffin forced open in 1690 after a little girl was healed during his funeral. The paper ceased to exist in 1803. The Jansenist clergy developed a unique interpretation of the time of persecution they were experiencing; a hermeneutic of the Bible known as figurism, which almost certainly originates from the teaching of the Oratorian in around 1710. For Duguet, just as the Old Testament prefigured the coming of Christ, so the stories and prophecies of the Scriptures, especially the Book of Revelation, prefigure (or are figures of) current or future events. Thus the bull Unigenitus, considered an error of the pope and the Church, was the beginning of great upheavals that would announce the return of the Prophet Elijah. Following his return, Christ will reign for a thousand years with the elect and the 'Friends of the Truth' who believe in efficacious grace, also converting the Jews. This vision of time and events, mainly taught at the seminary of Saint-Magloire in Paris by Abbot d'Étemare, spread among the clergy and the public. For the Jansenists, it was a way of interpreting their persecution and status as a dwindling minority. They saw themselves as defending the cause of divine truth alone, against a church and secular authority who betrayed it. The phenomenon of the Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard imprisoned in the Bastille. This unusual expression of Jansenism also became associated with political resistance, at least in the eyes of the royal absolutist authority of 18th-century France. From 1731, the dramatic popularisation of Jansenism gave rise to the phenomenon of the convulsionnaires. Initially a series of miracles linked to the tomb of the Jansenist deacon François de Pâris in the Saint-Médard Cemetery in Paris, including religious ecstasy, the phenomenon transformed into an expression of opposition to papal and royal authority. The convulsions spread among the Parisian people including the bourgeoisie during the 1730s. The connection between the larger French Jansenist movement and the smaller, more radical phenomenon is difficult to state with precision. Brian Strayer noted, in Suffering Saints, almost all were Jansenists, but very few Jansenists embraced the phenomenon. Nevertheless, the phenomenon persisted until the 19th century. "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 convulsionnaires, which changed into an underground movement of clandestine sects. The next year "an alleged plot" by convulsionnaire revolutionaries to overthrow the and assassinate Louis XV was thwarted. The "Augustinian " were then absconded from Paris to avoid police surveillance. This "further split the Jansenist movement." According to Strayer, by 1741 the leadership was "dead, exiled, or imprisoned," and the movement was divided. The police's role increased and the parlements' role decreased "in the social control of Jansenism" but cells continued engaging in seances, torture, and apocalyptic and treasonous rhetoric. Strayer related a case of torture documented in 1757 where a woman was "beat [...] with garden spades, iron chains, hammers, and brooms [...] jabbed [...] with swords, pelted [...] with stones, buried [...] alive, [...] crucified." In another case documented in 1757, a woman "was cut with a knife numerous times" causing gangrene. By 1755 there were fewer than eight hundred convulsionnaires in France. In 1762 the criminalized some of their practices "as 'potentially dangerous' to human life." The last crucifixion was documented in 1788. == Jansenism in the parlements ==

The conjunction of Jansenism and parlementarism The parlements of the Ancien Régime, and in particular the parlement of Paris, had long been defenders of Gallicanism against Rome. From the beginning of the Jansenist controversy, the parlements tended to sympathise with Jansenists, reluctant to register the papal bulls condemning the movement. This happened upon the promulgation of the bull Unigenitus. The Attorney General, Henri François d'Aguesseau, considered the promulgation of the bull to be proof of the fallibility of the Pope. He encouraged parlementarians not to accept the bull and to wait for a reaction from the bishops. It was necessary for Louis XIV to use letters patent to force registration of the bull. Despite this, the letters Pastoralis officii were not received in 1718, which alleviated the fears of the appelants in the short term. in his Jansenism and Politics, underlines the importance of Jansenist recruitment among the parlementarians of the 18th century. According to him, Jansenism had a "bourgeois base", which dated back to the 17th century, with the Arnauld, Lemaistre, Pascal and other families who were considered Nobles of the Robe. Marie-José Michel also underlines the attraction of entire elite families to Port-Royal and Jansenism from the beginning of the movement, and writes of a "proliferating Jansenisation of elites". Taveneaux moderates this interpretation with a Marxist analysis of a "meeting ground" between Jansenism and the bourgeoisie, arguing that the bourgeois noble was free under the Ancien Régime, detached from the seigneurial hierarchy, and that this individualistic situation, was, by some, easily associated with Jansenist morality, which preferred the development of the interior life in contrast to the splendour of Tridentine liturgy, and a demanding moral rigorism rather than the easily accessible sacraments characteristic of Jesuit theology. The essentially urban basis of Jansenism also allowed this 'meeting ground' between it and the parliamentary bourgeoisie. (1703–1781), archbishop of Paris, who instituted the 'confession notes' in order to rid the French Roman Catholic Church of Jansenist elements The Jansenist cause and the revolt of the parlements The parlements, especially that of Paris, were in constant rebellion against monarchical power during the 18th century. Jansenists and appelants therefore found the parliamentarians to be a close ally. Moreover, the weapon of the Jansenists to resist both the king and the pope was legal; the 'appeal as from an abuse', in order to protest an injustice and deny the pope's or a bishop's right to exercise their authority on a specific point. The appelants brought their demands before the parlement, an organ of justice in which the Jansenist magistrates would employ their rhetoric and legal arsenal to combine the Jansenist cause with a defence of the independence of the parlements, thus winning the support of parliamentarians who were Gallicans or resistant to royal power. However, "most often, Jansenist magistrates carefully avoided any reference to religious convictions, aware that a theological discourse would have been inadmissible in an assembly of judges." An important religious event of the second half of the 18th century was the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1764, which united Jansenism and the monarchy for a time. However, Jansenism joined the side of the magistrates in their revolt against the policies of Chancellor de Maupeou and his Triumvirate to destroy the parliamentary system. The most radical members of the revolt joined what was called the 'patriot party', the spearhead of pre-Revolutionary protest. The synthesis of their struggles and demands with the theses of Jean-Jacques Rousseau was to give substance to the ideological beginnings of the French Revolution. == Jansenism and the French Revolution ==

The role of the Jansenists in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1750–1831), Jansenist priest and revolutionary leader Among the early defenders of the French Revolution were personalities known for their Gallicanism, sympathy for Jansenism and more or less marked adherence to the theology of Edmond Richer. The role of the Jansenists in the Revolution was essentially a product of the ecclesiological character of late Jansenism, which was tinged with Gallicanism. The role of Jansenising priests was noted from the beginning of the Revolution. Indeed, without the addition of a few priests to the Third Estate during the assembly of the Estates General of 1789, it would not have been able to declare itself a National Assembly on 17 June 1789. These priests were led by Abbot Henri Grégoire, whose attachment to Port-Royal and Jansenism was known. Grégoire shared with the Jansenists a figurist vision of history, which underlay his statement that the Revolution was part of the fulfilment of God's will. Around Grégoire and the priests favourable to the Revolution mainly Gallicans and other Jansenists from the parlements gathered together. Louis Adrien Le Paige was generally favourable to the Revolution. Likewise, Armand-Gaston Camus and Jean-Denis Lanjuinais, renowned parliamentarians, were heavily involved in Revolutionary events while remanining attached to the Jansenist cause. Lanjuinais was notably a member of the ecclesiastical committee which prepared the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The importance of Jansenists in the drafting of this constitution, so favourable to their demands on many points, meant that the Abbot Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès attacked those who "seem to have seen in the Revolution merely a superb opportunity to lift up the theological importance of Port-Royal and to establish the apotheosis of Jansenius over the tomb of his enemies". The Civil Constitution of the Clergy satisfied the Jansenists on many points; it put an end to practices that were widely criticised, for example the residence of bishops outside of their dioceses or non-canonical benefices. The Constitution reinstated diocesan synods, considerably reduced the influence of the pope and reproved formulas such as that of Alexander VII. Furthermore, it satisfied the wealthy fringe of the clergy by establishing election within the Gallican Church and by promoting cooperation between parish priests and prelates, rather than a relationship of subordination. For these Jansenists, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and all the ecclesiastical constitution that resulted from it were nothing other than the culmination of all the religious and parliamentary struggles of the 18th century. Dale K. Van Kley lists five points which brought together the interests of Gallican Jansenists and those of France in the early Revolution, and which Camus in particular developed. Thus, in addition to Abbé Grégoire, bishop of Blois and de facto head of the Constitutional Church, were Claude Debertier, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Saurine, Louis Charrier de La Roche and about fifteen others who, without necessarily being appelants, nevertheless identified themselves strongly with Jansenism and Richer. Laypeople and clerics joined the Société de philosophie chrétienne ('Society of Christian philosophy'), which pursued religious studies during the Revolution in a strongly Jansenist spirit. In the final years of the Revolution, the Society published the Annales de la religion ('Annals of religion'), a Gallican and Jansenist journal, which published the first version of Abbé Grégoire's Ruines de Port-Royal des Champs en 1801 ('Ruins of Port-Royal-des-Champs in 1801'). Members of the Society frequently took residences for reflection at Port-Royal-des-Champs, and were in close contact with the Italian Jansenists and Scipione de' Ricci. There were, however, a significant number of Jansenists who completely rejected the Revolution. As for clergymen, the best known were and . But others, like Abbots Mey, Dalléas and the Oratorian clergy of Lyon, were also very much in opposition to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. They were supported by canonists like Gabriel-Nicolas Maultrot, and by pious laypeople such as Nicolas Bergasse in Lyon or in Paris. Some, like , a notable Jansenist, swore the oath of loyalty to the Constitution, but only with great hesitation. (Abbé Sicard, The Old Clergy of France, 1893)Jansenism is often cited, if not as one of the causes of the Revolution, at least as having shaped the state of mind necessary for its outbreak. • Jansenism maintained a seditious spirit. Its revolts and resistance against popes and kings were a negative influence for the people, who could reproduce in politics the religious attitude of Jansenists. • Jansenism discouraged the faithful. They preferred to distance themselves from religion rather than satisfy the demands of Jansenist priests. This accusation is based on the correlation between the geographical distribution of the appelants and constitutional priests during the Revolution and the zones of dechristianisation. However this correlation is difficult to interpret. • Through its association with Gallicanism, Jansenism was a source of schism in France under the Revolution, between the constitutional clergy, favourable to a national church, and the 'refractory clergy' who followed the condemnation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy by Pope Pius VI. • Finally, Jansenism was often associated with republicanism, because it dissociated itself from court life, with the Solitaires giving an image of a 'Republic of Letters', and because leading figures during the Revolution, such as Abbé Grégoire, did not hide their attachment to Port-Royal. s being returned to the pope by France, strengthened by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789). The historical Jansenist opposition to papal bulls coincided with Revolutionary anti-clericalism. Among 19th-century republicans, who were quite favourable to Port-Royal and Jansenism as movements which fought against absolute monarchy and royal authority, there were also defenders of the theory according to which the Jansenists were largely responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution. Thus Jules Michelet, Louis Blanc, Henri Martin and Charles-Louis Chassin argued for a partly Jansenist origin of the Revolution. If it is possible to associate Jansenism and the Revolution outside the religious domain, it is because there was a tradition of protest among Jansenists and because socially, those who drove the Revolution (bourgeoisie of the legal and parliamentary worlds) were the same as those who embraced the appelant cause in the 18th century. Some (mainly among the Jesuits) were convinced of the existence of a Jansenist plot aimed at overthrowing monarchical power. At the beginning of the 20th century, historians such as Louis Madelin and Albert Mathiez refuted this Jansenist conspiracy thesis and emphasised a conjunction of forces and demands as responsible for both the outbreak of the Revolution and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The theory that the explanation of the Revolution must appeal to several causes, of which Jansenism is only one among others, is now the consensus among historians. ==Jansenism outside France==

The problem of grace concerned all Roman Catholic countries in the 17th century, and Jansenism, born outside of the Kingdom of France, did not remain confined to France. However, during the early period of Jansenism, that is the 17th century, most of the history of Jansenism took place within the kingdom. It was with the bull Unigenitus that Jansenism truly expanded outside of France. The Spanish Netherlands—Leuven As noted by Jonathan Israel Jansenism initially had strong support in the Spanish Netherlands, where Jansen himself had been active, supported by such major figures of the church hierarchy as Jacobus Boon, archbishop of Mechelen and Antonie Triest, bishop of Ghent. Though the Church in the Spanish Netherlands eventually took up the persecution of Jansenism, with Jansenist clergy being replaced by their opponents and the monument to Jansen in the Cathedral of Ypres being symbolically demolished in 1656. Nevertheless the Spanish authorities were less zealous in this persecution than the French. (1585–1638). Jansen's alma mater, the (Old) University of Leuven, became a major centre of Jansenist theology. The (Old) University of Leuven, which published Augustinus, remained Augustinian in orientation since the time of Jansen. The popes were less demanding to the university, undoubtedly because they did not have a close political relationship with it as they did with Louis XIV in France. In 1677, a Baianist faction from the theological faculty submitted 116 propositions of moral laxity for censure to Pope Innocent XI. They were textually drawn from the letter of accusation of the professors of Leuven, and thus the Roman authorities suppressed dissertations dealing with the question of the true origin of the propositions, which was regarded as ambiguous. Innocent XI selected 65 propositions from the submission and "limited himself to condemning the deviations of moral doctrine", The Holy Office previously censured 45 propositions of moral doctrine between two decrees dated to 24 September 1665, and 18 March 1666. According to Denzinger, the propositions submitted, by both the University of Leuven and the University of Paris, were "frequently taken out of context and sometimes expanded by elements that are not found in the original, so that most often one must speak of fictitious authors." Until the 1690s, it was possible to sign Formula of Pope Alexander VII without specifying one's interpretation of it regarding matters de jure and de facto. Twice the archbishop of Mechelen, Humbertus Guilielmus de Precipiano, tried to toughen the signing conditions, but he lost a lawsuit against the university. It was not until 1710 that the absolute and unqualified signing of the Formula was made compulsory. Unigenitus was accepted without question from 1715, but the letters Pastoralis officii of Pope Clement XI provoked fierce conflict between the archbishop of Mechelen and the university. After legal proceedings, episodes of refusal of the sacraments similar to what occurred in France in the 1740s and an exile of professors to the Dutch Republic, the university appeared to submit to the bull and its papal interpretation in 1730. and the hub of Jansenist Augustinian theology in Europe, with professors such as Jansen, Petrus Stockmans, Johannes van Neercassel, Josse Le Plat and especially the famous Zeger Bernhard van Espen and his students Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim or Charles Joseph Mathieu Lambrechts, professor of canon law, rector of the university in 1786, Freemason, and Minister of Justice in the French Directory under Napoleon. As Henri Francotte says, "Jansenism reigned supreme at the University of Leuven". As late as 1818, Charles Lambrechts, former rector of the university, ex-senator and minister of Napoleon, recalled the 'vexations' of the Roman Catholic Church against his predecessor van Espen.The encroachments of the Catholic clergy and their pretentions were so vexatious, that, in a time when their religion was dominant, no other remedy had been found for their abuse of power, other than the appeals in question. This is what prompted the famous van Espen to write, at the age of eighty, his treatise De recursu ad Principem, in order to put a barrier up against the ever-resurgent abuses of clerical jurisdictions; but this virtuous clergyman, who distributed to the poor all the income from the chair of canon law which he occupied at the University of Leuven, was soon obliged to resort to appeal for himself as from an abuse; still, this remedy could not entirely save him from persecution by intolerant priests. Burdened with years, glory and infirmities, he was forced to seek in Holland shelter from their vexations; he soon died in Amsterdam amid feelings of piety and resignation, after having spent his life defending the discipline and customs of the Early Church, of which he was the most zealous. In the Dutch Republic The Dutch Republic was the place of exile for many French Jansenists. They gathered first in Amsterdam, then increasingly in Utrecht. Since the 16th century, this small town had been the seat of the Dutch Mission aimed at the conversion of the Dutch who had become largely Reformed. Jansenist refugees from France and the Spanish Netherlands were made welcome, increasing the Jansenist influence among Dutch Roman Catholics. As a result, the Dutch Mission gained a strong Jansenist element in both theology and morality. Thus he introduced into his diocese the Catechism of Montpellier, which was particularly appreciated by Jansenists, distributed to his priests the Réflexions morales of Pasquier Quesnel, and finally convened a synod in Pistoia in 1786 to have his Jansenist orientation approved, along with a radical reform of the Latin liturgy. The synod and De' Ricci were firmly disavowed by Rome and he was forced to resign in 1791, while his positions were condemned by the papal bull Auctorem fidei in 1794. The Republic of Genoa was also affected by Jansenism, where Port-Royalist writings were widely distributed. A Genoese priest, , made contact with the French Jansenists at the end of the 18th century, and in particular with Henri Grégoire. At the time of the Concordat of 1801, he travelled with Grégoire throughout Europe and then settled between 1801 and 1810 at Port-Royal-des-Champs. == Jansenism in the 19th century and beyond ==

The 19th century was the last century in which Jansenism, real or supposed, was still a force that could count in the Roman Catholic Church. Under this term the spiritual and material descendants of the 17th- and 18th-century Jansenists are amalgamated: those who formed the Société de Port-Royal ('Society of Port-Royal'), and the supporters of Gallicanism who attempted one last time to establish themselves before their disappearance following the First Vatican Council. The debates over grace and the authority of the pope were ended during this council, which proclaimed papal infallibility and established ultramontanism, causing Jansenism to gradually disappear from theological discourse. Jansenism then became a way of being, a qualifier synonymous with austerity and moral rigour, rather than a theological doctrine. In 1891, Léon Séché described Jansenism and Jansenists in this way.The old quarrel of Jansenism has had its day, and the name 'Jansenist', far from harming those it names, is rather designed to win them esteem and respect. [...] Because there is a Jansenist state of mind, just as there is an Orléanist state of mind. It's quite difficult to define, but so it is. [...] In private life, if this man is even the slightest part Jansenist, he will be mysterious and withdrawn, rigid and severe in morals. Simple and straight, sober and hard on his body, he will pass nothing on to others in terms of conduct. Gullible to the point of superstition, he will draw all kinds of horoscopes from the Scriptures and see the finger of God everywhere. In politics, he can be a monarchist as well as a republican, the form of government being, in short, indifferent to him, but he will always be constitutional and liberal. Of religion, he may not practice, nor ever approach the sacraments, but believes himself to be a very good Christian.However, some wars were still being waged against ultramontanism and in defence of the memory of Port-Royal and Jansenism. Thus, newspapers appeared throughout the 19th century, defending the Gallican and Jansenist tradition of the Church in France. After the disappearance of the Annales de la religion in 1803, Henri Grégoire and a few survivors of the Constitutional Church including published between 1818 and 1821 the Chronique religieuse ('Religious chronicle'), described by Augustin Gazier as a 'combat magazine'. The tone was less forceful than in the Nouvelles ecclésiastiques or the Annales de la religion. A few years later, a defensive journal was reborn, designed with the same principle; the Revue ecclésiastique ('Ecclesiastical magazine'). This monthly review appeared from 1838 to 1848. It was designed, financed and distributed by the men of the Parisian Jansenist society grouped within the Société de Port-Royal. The organisation was very hierarchical and was based on a core of full members who delegated the writing of articles to provincial correspondants. The Revue ecclésiastique became known above all for the harsh debates it had with ultramontane publications. But it always remained within the limit of written debate, despite the widespread practice of pseudonymy for the editors of the articles. The authors based their arguments on their reading of numerous canonical, historical and theological works contained in the Parisian Jansenst libraries.The last magazine intended to defend Jansenism in the 19th century was ('The Catholic Observer'), which appeared from 1855 to 1864. It was first led by the former editors of the Revue ecclésiastique, and quickly joined by a priest with an assertive character; a defender of Gallicanism and critic of the Jesuits, . was a magazine with a strong polemical tone, which detailed in its columns what it considered to be the errors of the Church in France. Its exchanges with ''L'Univers of Louis Veuillot were coarse. The magazine also caused a scandal in 1856 by commenting at length and harshly on each of the courses on Port-Royal and Jansenism given to the faculty of theology by the young abbot Charles Lavigerie, until he abandoned his courses after two years. while the bullfighter José Tomas was described as "the Jansenist of the arena, the incorruptible of the muleta" by Télérama''. In the 21st century, one researcher has remarked that 'Jansenism' is still commonly used as a pejorative by Catholics, especially in reference to a stereotype of a "Catholic Calvinism" with a "morbid preoccupation with Hell, sexual purity, moral rigor, and clerical authority." == Jansenism in art ==

• Robert Bresson was a filmmaker influenced by Jansenism. • 1969: ''My Night at Maud's, a film by Éric Rohmer. The film deals in part with Pascalian morality and Jansenism. Rohmer returns to the subject in A Tale of Winter'' (1992). • 1969: The Milky Way, a film by Luis Buñuel, features a duel between a Jesuit priest and a Jansenist. • 1991: ''All the World's Mornings'', a novel by Alain Courneau, which features Jean de Sainte-Colombe, a follower of Jansenist philosophy. • 2006: Fragments sur la grâce, a film by Vincent Dieutre. • 2009: The Portuguese Nun, a film by Eugène Green. ==See also==