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JANSENISM , the religious principles laid down by See also:Cornelius See also:Jansen in his Augustinus. This was simply a See also:digest of the teaching of St See also:Augustine, See also:drawn up with a See also:special See also:eye to the needs of the 17th See also:century. In Jansen's See also:opinion the See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
church was suffering from three evils. The See also:official scholastic See also:theology was anything but evangelical. Having set out to embody the mysteries of faith in human See also:language, it had fallen a victim to the excellence of its own methods; language proved too strong for See also:mystery. Theology sank into a See also:branch of See also:dialectic; whatever would not See also:fit in with a logical See also:formula was See also:cast aside as useless. But See also:average human nature does not take kindly to a See also:syllogism, and theology had ceased to have any appreciable See also:influence on popular See also:religion. See also:Simple souls found their spiritual pasture in little mincing " devotions "; while robuster minds built up for themselves a naturalmoralistic religion, quite as See also:close to See also:Epictetus as to See also:Christianity. All these three evils were attacked by Jansen. As against the theologians, he urged that in a spiritual religion experience, not See also:reason, must be our See also:guide. As against the stoical self-sufficiency of the moralists, he dwelt on the helplessness of See also:man and his dependence on his maker. As against the ceremonialists, he maintained that no amount of church-going will See also:save a man, unless the love of See also:God is in him. But this capacity for love no one can give himself. If he is See also:born without the religious See also:instinct, he can only receive it by going through a See also:process of " See also:conversion." And whether God converts this man or that depends on his See also:good See also:pleasure. Thus Jansen's theories of conversion melt into See also:predestination; although, in doing so, they somewhat modify its grimness. Even for the worst miscreant there is See also:hope—for who can say but that God may yet think fit to convert him? Jansen's thoughts went back every moment to his two spiritual heroes, St Augustine and St See also:Paul, each of whom had been " the See also:chief of sinners."
Such doctrines have a marked See also:analogy to those of See also:Calvin; but in many ways Jansen differed widely from the Protestants. He vehemently rejected their See also:doctrine of See also:justification by faith; See also:con-version might be instantaneous, but it was only the beginning of a See also:long and See also:gradual process of justification. Secondly, although the one thing necessary in religion was a See also:personal relation of the human soul to its maker, Jansen held that that relation was only possible in and through the See also:Roman Church. Herein he was following Augustine, who had managed to couple together a high theory of church authority and sacramental See also:- GRACE (Fr. grace, Lat. gratia, from grates, beloved, pleasing; formed from the root cra-, Gr. xav-, cf. xaipw, x6p,ua, Xapts)
- GRACE, WILLIAM GILBERT (1848– )
grace with a strongly personal religion. But the circumstances of the 17th century were not those of the 5th; and Jansen landed his followers in an inextricable confusion. What were they to do, when the outward church said one thing, and the inward See also:voice said another? Some See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time went by, however, before the two authorities came into open conflict. Jansen's ideas were popularized in See also:France by his friend Du Vergier, See also:- ABBOT (from the Hebrew ab, a father, through the Syriac abba, Lat. abbas, gen. abbatis, O.E. abbad, fr. late Lat. form abbad-em changed in 13th century under influence of the Lat. form to abbat, used alternatively till the end of the 17th century; Ger. Ab
- ABBOT, EZRA (1819-1884)
- ABBOT, GEORGE (1603-1648)
- ABBOT, ROBERT (1588?–1662?)
- ABBOT, WILLIAM (1798-1843)
abbot of St Cyran; and he dwelt mainly on the See also:practical See also:side of the See also:matter—on the See also:necessity of conversion and love of God, as the basis of the religious See also:life. This brought him into conflict with the See also:Jesuits, whom he accused of giving See also:absolution much too easily, without any serious inquiry into the dispositions of their penitent. His views are expounded at length by his See also:disciple, See also:Antoine See also:Arnauld, in a See also:book on Frequent Communion (1643). This book was the first manifestation of Jansenism to the See also:general public in France, and raised a violent See also:storm. But many divines supported Arnauld; and no official See also:action was taken against his party till 1649. In that See also:year the See also:Paris University condemned five propositions from Jansen's Augustinus, all relative to predestination. This censure, backed by the signatures of eighty-five bishops, was sent up to See also:Rome for endorsement; and in 1653 See also:Pope See also:Innocent X. declared all five propositions heretical.
This See also:decree placed the Jansenists between two fires; for although the five propositions only represented one side of Jansen's teaching, it was recognized by both parties that the whole question was to be fought out on this issue. Under the leadership of Arnauld, who came of a See also:great See also:family of lawyers, the Jansenists accordingly took See also:refuge in a See also:series of legal See also:tactics. Firstly, they denied that Jansen had meant the propositions in the sense condemned. See also:Alexander VII. replied (1656) that his predecessor had condemned them in the sense intended by their author. Arnauld retorted that the church might be infallible in abstract questions of theology; but as to what was passing through an author's mind it knew no more than any one else. However, the See also:French See also:government supported the pope.
In 1656 Arnauld was deprived of his degree, in spite of See also:Pascal's Provincial Letters (1656-1657), begun in an See also:attempt to save him (see PASCAL; See also:CASUISTRY). In 1661 a formulary, or See also:solemn renunciation of Jansen, was imposed on all his suspected followers; those who would not sign it went into hiding, or to the See also:Bastille. See also:Peace was only restored under See also:Clement IX. in 1669.
This peace was treated by Jansenist writers as a See also:triumph; really it was the beginning of their downfall. They had set out
to reform the Church of Rome; they ended by having to fight hard for a doubtful foothold within it. Even that foothold soon gave way. See also:- LOUIS
- LOUIS (804–876)
- LOUIS (893–911)
- LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
- LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian
Louis XIV. was a fanatic for uniformity, See also:civil and religious; the last thing he was likely to tolerate was a handful of See also:eccentric recluses, who believed themselves to be in special See also:touch with See also:Heaven, and therefore might at any moment set their See also:conscience up against the See also:law. During the lifetime of his See also:cousin, Madame de See also:Longueville, the great protectress of the Jansenists, Louis stayed his See also:hand; on her See also:death (1679) the reign of severity began. That summer Arnauld, who had spent the greater See also:part of his life in hiding, was forced to leave France for good.
Six years later he was joined in See also:- EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap, consul, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)
exile by See also:Pasquier See also:Quesnel who succeeded him as See also:leader of the party. Long before his See also:flight from France Quesnel had published a devotional commentary—Reflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament—which had gone through many See also:editions without exciting official suspicion. But in 1695 Louis Antoine de See also:Noailles, See also:bishop of Chalons, was made See also:archbishop of Paris. He was known to be very hostile to the Jesuits, and at Chalons had more than once expressed official approval of Quesnel's Reflexions. So the Jesuit party determined to See also:wreck archbishop and book at the same time. The Jansenists played into their hands by suddenly raising (1701) in the Paris divinity school the question whether it was necessary to accept the condemnation of Jansen with interior assent, or whether a " respectful silence " was enough. Very soon ecclesiastical France was in a See also:blaze. In 1703 Louis XIV. wrote to Pope Clement XI., proposing that they should take See also:joint action to make an end of Jansenism for ever. Clement replied in 1705 with a See also:bull condemning respectful silence. This measure only whetted Louis's appetite. He was growing old and increasingly superstitious; the affairs of his See also:realm were going from See also:bad to worse; he became frenziedly anxious to propitiate the wrath of his maker by making See also:war on the enemies of the Church. In 1711 he asked the pope for a second, and still stronger bull, that would See also:tear up Jansenism by the roots. The pope's choice of a book to condemn See also:fell on Quesnel's Reflexions; in 1713 appeared the bull Unigenitus, anathematizing no less than one-hundredand-one of its propositions. Indeed, in his zeal against the Jansenists the pope condemned various practices in no way See also:peculiar to their party; thus, for instance, many orthodox Catholics were exasperated at the heavy See also:blow he dealt at popular See also:Bible See also:reading. Hence the bull met with much opposition from Archbishop de Noailles and others who did not See also:call themselves Jansenists. In the midst of the conflict Louis XIV. died (See also:September 1715); but the freethinking See also:duke of See also:- ORLEANS
- ORLEANS, CHARLES, DUKE OF (1391-1465)
- ORLEANS, DUKES OF
- ORLEANS, FERDINAND PHILIP LOUIS CHARLES HENRY, DUKE OF (1810-1842)
- ORLEANS, HENRI, PRINCE
- ORLEANS, HENRIETTA, DUCHESS
- ORLEANS, JEAN BAPTISTE GASTON, DUKE
- ORLEANS, LOUIS
- ORLEANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE JOSEPH
- ORLEANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE ROBERT, DUKE
- ORLEANS, LOUIS PHILIPPE, DUKE OF (1725–1785)
- ORLEANS, LOUIS, DUKE OF (1372–1407)
- ORLEANS, PHILIP I
- ORLEANS, PHILIP II
Orleans, who succeeded him as See also:regent, continued after some wavering to support the bull. Thereupon four bishops appealed against it to a general See also:council; and the See also:country became divided into " appellants " and " acceptants " (1717). The regent's disreputable See also:minister, See also:Cardinal See also:Dubois, patched up an abortive truce in 1720, but the appellants promptly " re-appealed " against it. During the next ten years, however, they were slowly crushed, and in 1730 the Unigenitus was proclaimed part and See also:parcel of the law of France. This led to a great See also:quarrel with the See also:judges, who were intensely Gallican in spirit (see See also:GALLICANISM), and had always regarded the Unigenitus as a triumph of See also:ultramontanism. The quarrel dragged indefinitely on through the 18th century, though the questions at issue were really. constitutional and See also:political rather than religious.
Meanwhile the most ardent Jansenists had followed Quesnel to See also:- HOLLAND
- HOLLAND, CHARLES (1733–1769)
- HOLLAND, COUNTY AND PROVINCE OF
- HOLLAND, HENRY FOX, 1ST BARON (1705–1774)
- HOLLAND, HENRY RICH, 1ST EARL OF (1S9o-,649)
- HOLLAND, HENRY RICHARD VASSALL FOX, 3RD
- HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT (1819-1881)
- HOLLAND, PHILEMON (1552-1637)
- HOLLAND, RICHARD, or RICHARD DE HOLANDE (fl. 1450)
- HOLLAND, SIR HENRY, BART
Holland. Here they met with a warm welcome from the Dutch See also:Catholic See also:body, which had always been in close sympathy with Jansenism, although without regarding itself as formally pledged to the Augustinus. But it had broken loose from Rome in 1702, and was now organizing itself into an See also:independent church (see See also:UTRECHT). The Jansenists who remained in France had meanwhile fallen on evil days. Persecution usually begets See also:hysteria in its victims; and the more extravagant members of the party were far advanced on the road which leads to apocalyptic prophecy and " speaking with See also:tongues." About 1728 the " miracles of St Medard " became the talk of Paris. This was the See also:cemetery where was buried See also:Francois de Paris, a See also:young
Jansenist See also:deacon of singularly See also:holy life, and a perfervid opponent of the Unigenitus. All sorts of miraculous See also:cures were believed to have been worked at his See also:tomb, until the government closed the cemetery in 1732. This gave rise to the famous See also:epigram:
De See also:par le roi, defense a Dieu
De faire See also:miracle en ce lieu.
On the miracles soon followed the rise of the so-called Convulsionaries. These worked themselves up, mainly by the use of frightful self-tortures, into a See also:state of frenzy, in which they prophesied and cured diseases. They were eventually disowned by the more reputable Jansenists, and were severely repressed by the See also:police. But in 1772 they were still important enough for See also:Diderot to enter the See also:- FIELD (a word common to many West German languages, cf. Ger. Feld, Dutch veld, possibly cognate with O.E. f olde, the earth, and ultimately with root of the Gr. irAaror, broad)
- FIELD, CYRUS WEST (1819-1892)
- FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY (18o5-1894)
- FIELD, EUGENE (1850-1895)
- FIELD, FREDERICK (18o1—1885)
- FIELD, HENRY MARTYN (1822-1907)
- FIELD, JOHN (1782—1837)
- FIELD, MARSHALL (183 1906)
- FIELD, NATHAN (1587—1633)
- FIELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON (1816-1899)
- FIELD, WILLIAM VENTRIS FIELD, BARON (1813-1907)
field against them. Meanwhile genuine Jansenism survived in many country parsonages and convents, and led to frequent quarrels with the authorities. Only one of its latter-See also:day disciples, however, See also:rose to real See also:eminence; this was the See also:Abbe See also:Henri See also:Gregoire, who played a considerable part in the French Revolution. A few small Jansenist congregations still survive in France; and others have been started in connexion with the Old Catholic Church in Holland.
End of Article: JANSENISM
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