JANSEN
774
JANSEN
secUtious, impious, blasphemous, suspected of heresy, and also savoring of heresy itself; also favoring here- tics; heresies, and schism, erroneous, nearly allied to heres}^ often condemned; and, furthermore, also heret- ical; and sundry heresies, especially those contained in the well-known propositions of Jansenius, and that, too, in the sense in which those were condemned." The bull did not specify which of the propositi&ns belonged severally to each of these heads of condemnation. " This was the triumph of doctrinal Jesuitism : Le Tellier, the king's Jesuit confessor, arranged the terms of the bull. It seemed as if every feeling of piety towards God, and every api)rehension of his grace, was to be extinguished throughout the Papal Church— as if all who adhered at all to niany doctrines that had been regarded as ortho- dox were "to have their feelings and their consciences outraged." But the Gallican clergy was by no means agreed as to the acceptance of the bull, although the Jesuits earnestly pressed it. Some were in favor of its unconditional acceptance, others desired to make a qual- ifying declaration, and still others wished the qualifica- tion to be made by the pope himself. After much dis- putation, the king himself decided the matter by making submission to the bull binding in Church and State. From three to four thousand volumes, including pam- phlets, relating to the controversy whicli this famous bidl provoked, are found in the great Parisian library.
The death of Louis XIV left the fate of Jansenism still unsettled, while it also caused a relaxation of the repressive measures. The regent, duke of Orleans, was urged to refer the whole controversy to a national coun- cil, and the leaders of the Jansenist party appealed to a general council. The Jansenist party thus formed, which numbered four bishops and many inferior ecclesiastics, were called, from this circumstance, the Appelhmts (q. v.). The firmness of the pope, and a change in the pol- icy of the regent, brought the Appellants into disfavor. Even the Parliament of Paris was forced to submit, and registered the papd bull in a lit de justice (June 4, 1720), although with a reservation in favor of the liber- ties of the Gallican Church. The Appellants for the most part submitted, the recusants being visited with severe penalties ; and, on the accession of the new king, Louis XV, the unconditional acceptance of the bull was at length formally accomplished, so far as the general public were concerned. From this time forward the Jansenists were rigorously repressed, and their great stroiigliiild, Port-Royal, having been already, in 1709- 11. destroyed by connivances of the king and the Jesuits, a large numljcr emigrated to the Netherlands, where they formed a community, with Utrecht as a centre. (See below, Jansenists in Holland.)
"During the I8th century Jansenism degenerated in France. In 17"27 Franijois de Paris died, and was buried in the cemetery of St. jMedard, in Paris. He was of an honorable family, and had early shown a religious turn of mind. His patrimony he bestowed upon the poor, and earned his livelihood by weaving liose. In 17-20, at the age of thirty, he was made deacon of St. jMedard. Cardinal de Noailles would gladly have invested him with a higher office, but he declined. In 1722 he re- signed his deaconship, and retired to a wilderness. He sotm retunieil to Paris, where he lived in seclusion and poverty, denying himself the ordinary comforts of life, and shortening his days by self-inflicted torments. A magnificent monument was erected to his memory by his brotlier, a member of the French Parliament, who subsecpiently renounced his worldly position and prop- erty, and lived a life of seclusion and asceticism. To the grave of Francis de Paris multitudes flocked. There, in various ways, they testified their sujierstitious regard and veneration, and there marvellous cures were claimed to be wrought and miracles said to be jjcrformed. Strong religious emotions were manifested, and some were seized witli convulsions. Some were favored with the siiirit of iirophecy, and predicted the overthrow of Church and State. Such predictions were heard until ^\ ithin a
short time previous to, and even during the revolution of 1789. As late as 18-10 midtitudes of religious pilgrims still resorted to the spot, on the anni^-ersary of his death, and crowned with garlands the grave of De Paris. The superstition and fanaticism which prevailed at his grave soon after his death were not wholly confined to the common people, but were shared by a considerable num- ber of men of learning and rank. Those of the latter class who made themselves most conspicuous were Hie- ronymus N. de Paris, the parliamentary member just al- luded to ; C. Folard, widely and favorably known by his observations on the history of Polybius ; and Louis Ba- silius Carre de Montgerou, a member of Parliament, who experienced a wonderful conversion at the grave of this venerated saint, and who subsequently nan-ated the mar- vellous phenomena there witnessed, and vindicated their supernatural and divine character. These superstitious and fanatical excesses, combined with the austerities and even inhuman mortifications practiced by many of the more zealous Jansenists, tended to prejudice the more enlightened against their cause, and greatly weak- ened its moral power. Petitpied, Asveld, Kollin, and others, attempted in vain to stem the tide of superstition and fanaticism. These excesses ruined the cause of the Jansenists — at least in France, or, in the words of A'ol- taire, ' the grave of St. Francis of Paris became the grave of Jansenism,' for thenceforth the whole ecclesiastical authority lost its importance" (Hurst's Hagenhuch, ii, 420). Yet men were slow to give it up : they clung to it even in its death-hours. Such as were desirous of a reformation of the Eoman Catholic Church secretly oi openly espoused the cause of the Jansenists. Those who desired to see the arrogance of the pope checked and his power restrained favored the Jansenistic cause. All who were opposed to the Jesuits were regarded as Jansenists. Enlightened men everj'where sympathized with the Jansenists in their efforts to restrict papal en- croachments and the demoralizing influence of Jesuit- ism ; and, when its sun went down in France, the friends of reform in the Roman Catholic Church turned towards Holland, and hoped that from it would go out a great power for good. The most distinguished theologians of Italy, such as Zola, Tamburini, and others, held a reg- ular epistolary correspondence with the Jansenists at Utrecht. (See below.)