RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Jansen
In 1654 a priest at St. Sulpice, in Paris, refused
absolution to the duke of Liancourt because of his
protection of a priest who had refused
4. Arnauld subscription. Thereupon Antoine Arand Pascal, nauld (q.v.) published his Lettre a une
personne de qualite, from which two propositions were immediately extracted by his opponents: (1) The grace of God, without which we can not do anything good, had left Peter at the time when he denied the Lord; (2) since not everybody can convince himself that the five condemned theses are in Jansen, a submission of respectful silence under the papal decision suffices; the submission of faith can not be required for the fact. Arnauld was expelled from the Sorbonne (1656), and eighty doctors went out with him rather than sign his excommunication. At this time Blaise Pascal (q.v.) sent forth his Lettres a un provincial, in the first of which he attacked the Thomists for opposing the teachings of Jansen and Arnauld, while they themselves, according to him, with their mechanical view of predestination, really shared their views. In the following letters he attacked the casuistry and moral theology of the Jesuits. But Louis XIV was intent upon thoroughly eradicating Jansenism. In 1660, at an assembly of the French clergy, a formulary was prepared which condemned the five propositions of Jansen, and subscription was again required not only from the clergy, but now from nuns as well. Those who refused were imprisoned, De Sacy, one of the most excellent men of the Port Royal group, in the Bastile. Arnauld insisted upon the distinction between fait and droit, though in 1656 Alexander VII., in the constitution Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem, had again laid down the " fact " that Jansen had taught the five theses in an objectionable sense. In 1664 he issued a new constitution in which he required all clergy to accept by a new signature the papal pronouncements of 1642, 1653, and 1656. Four bishops would promise no more as to the fact, and a number of others signed with reservations intended to protect the doctrine of Augustine. The strength of the opposition impressed both the Curia and the king. After some hesitation, the distinction between fait and droit and the possibility of a " respectful silence " was admitted by Pope Clement IX. in 1668, and thus a temporary peace was established. This " peace of Clement IX." was evidently a defeat for the Curia, which practically admitted that the situation was beyond its control unless it was supported by the secular arm.
The dissensions were revived by the publication
of Quesnel's Nouveau Testament en francais avec des
reflexions morales (1693), which was
5. Quesnel. dedicated to Noailles, at that time The Bull bishop of Chalons. But before the
Unigenitus. development of this new stage, Jansenism of the older period had come to an end. Louis XIV became more and more jealous of his authority and inclined to assure the pardon of his sins by the persecution of heretics. He availed himself of a dissension which had broken out among the Jansenists themselves, by urging Pope Clement XL to adopt severe measures against them. The pope was glad to seize an opportunity VI— 7
to assert his authority over the Gallican Church, and issued the bull Vineam Domini (1705) in which the five theses of Jansen were unconditionally condemned. The nuns of Port Royal refused to subscribe the bull, and their convent was suppressed in 1709 and destroyed a year later. In the mean time Cardinal de Noailles had become archbishop of Paris. By his protection of Quesnel's " New Testament " he had incurred the hatred of the Jesuits, who influenced the pope to condemn certain propositions which Le Tellier, the Jesuit confessor of the king, had selected from the New Testament of Quesnel. Thereupon the pope issued, in 1713, the bull Unigenitus, in which 101 propositions from Quesnel were condemned as Jansenistic or otherwise heretical. Among these, however, were not only some which may be found almost literally in Holy Scripture and in Augustine, but even some substantially identical with the decrees of the Council of Trent, as, for instance, the second, " The grace of Jesus Christ is necessary for all good works; without it nothing (truly good) can be done "; the twenty-sixth, " No grace is imparted except through faith "; the twenty-ninth, " Outside of the Church no grace is given "; and the fifty-first, " Faith justifies when it is operative, but it is operative only through love." The bull was laid before the assembly of the French clergy and accepted by the majority. Noailles prohibited the book; but before he accepted the bull, he asked the pope for several explanations. The parliament obeyed the order of the king to enter the bull in the laws of the kingdom, with the reservation, however, that its views regarding excommunication should not interfere with loyalty to the king. The Sorbonne split into different parties, and some of its most prominent teachers were banished from Paris or lost their right of voting. The king, intolerant of resistance, thought of settling the matter by a national council, but the pope would not hear of so risky a measure; and at his death in 1715, Louis XIV left the Jansenist question in the greatest confusion and bitterness of feeling.
The successor of Louis XIV., the frivolous duke
of Orleans, cared for neither party, considering the
principles of both equally foolish. The
6. Accept- exiles were allowed to return, and the ants and Sorbonne withdrew its half-hearted ac-
Appellants. ceptance of the bull Unigenitus. Accordingly, the pope threatened Noailles with deprivation and even excommunication. But now a number of hitherto submissive bishops began to ask for explanations, and in 1717 several of them appealed from the pope and his bull to a future general council. These were called Appellants, in distinction from the Acceptants, who accepted the bull. Almost twenty bishops, the faculty of Paris and two other theological faculties, and a large part of the secular and monastic clergy joined the cause of the Appellants. They were stigmatized as Jansenists by their opponents, though in some cases unjustly. Noailles also took the part of the Appellants, after a vain attempt at mediation. The party of the Acceptants was headed by Mailly, archbishop of Reims. But Dubois, the favorite of the regent, was ambitious of a cardinal's hat,
Jan sen Jansenist Church