Jansenism
Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century theological movement within the Catholic Church, primarily active in France, which arose as an attempt to bring together the theological concepts of free will and divine grace in response to certain developments in the Catholic Church.
It was based on the ideas of Cornelius Jansen, a Dutch bishop, and his book Augustinus. Jansenists believed that God’s grace was the only way to salvation and that human free will had no role. Jansenists provoked lively debates, particularly in France, where five propositions, including the doctrines of limited atonement and irresistible grace, were extracted from the work and declared heretical by theologians hostile to Jansen.
In 1653, Pope Innocent X condemned five ideas from Jansenism in the apostolic constitution Cum occasione. Although Jansenists had some protection under Clement XI, they later became linked to opposition to the monarchy. This made them a target of King Louis XIV and Clement XI, who took strong actions against them. In 1708, the Abbey of Port-Royal, a center of Jansenist thought, was closed. In 1713, Clement XI issued the bull Unigenitus, which further condemned Jansenist teachings.
Definition
"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.File:Cornelius Jansen by Evêque d'Ypres.png|left|thumb|Cornelius Jansen, professor and rector magnificus 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.
Taking a broader view, the estimation of Marie-José Michel is that the Jansenists occupied an empty space between the ultramontane project of . Developed from an Augustinian background very firmly anchored in France, it unfolds in parallel with the two great projects of French absolutism and the Catholic reformation . Its development by part of the French religious and secular elites gives it an immediate audience never reached by the other two systems. It is thus rooted in French mentalities, and it truly survived as long as its two enemies, that is to say until the French Revolution for one, and until the First Vatican Council for the other.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.File:Saint Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne.jpg|left|thumb|Augustine, bishop of Hippo, Church Father, who is claimed as the progenitor of the Jansenist doctrine of graceMost of the debates contributing to Jansenism concern the relationship between divine grace 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 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. Man thus receives an irresistible and dominant desire for the good, which is infused into him by the action of efficacious grace.
Medieval theology, dominated by Augustinian thought, left little room for human freedom on the subject of grace. Thomas Aquinas, however, attempted to organise a system of thought around Augustinianism in order to reconcile grace and human freedom. He both affirmed the action of the divine in each action of man, but also the freedom of man. The Scholastics of the 14th and 15th centuries moved away from Augustinianism towards a more optimistic view of human nature.
The Reformation broke with Scholasticism, with Martin Luther and John Calvin both taking Augustine as a reference, but also representing radical views. For some Augustinians, it was only necessary to affirm the omnipotence of God against human freedom, whereas Luther and Calvin saw grace as causing man to be saved. Man's free will was therefore totally denied.
To counter the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church in 1547 reaffirmed in the sixth session of the Council of Trent the place of free will, without pronouncing on its relationship with grace. Afterwards, the Roman Catholic position was not entirely unified, with the Jesuit priest Diego Laynez defending a position that his detractors described as Pelagian. Indeed, the Jesuits restarted the debate, fearing that excessive Augustinianism would weaken the role of the Church in salvation and compromise the rejection of Protestantism. In the wake of Renaissance humanism, certain Roman Catholics had a less pessimistic vision of man and sought to establish his place in the process of salvation by relying on Thomistic theology, which appeared to be a reasonable compromise between grace and free will. It is in this context that Aquinas was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1567.
File:Portret van Michel de Bay - KU Leuven Kunstpatrimonium - S022.jpg|thumb|Michel de Bay, Augustinian Roman Catholic theologian, whose theological system known as Baianism was a forerunner to Jansenism
Nevertheless, theological conflict increased from 1567, and in Leuven, the theologian Michel de Bay was condemned by Pope Pius V for his denial of the reality of free will. In response to Baius, the Spanish Jesuit Luis de Molina, then teaching at the University of Évora, defended the existence of 'sufficient' grace, which provides man with the means of salvation, but only enters into him by the assent of his free will. This thesis was violently opposed by the Augustinians, which resulted in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith banning any publications on the problem of grace in 1611.
The controversy was then concentrated in Leuven, where the Augustinian University of Leuven opposed the Jesuits. In 1628, Cornelius Jansen, then a professor at the university, undertook the creation of a theological work aimed at resolving the problem of grace by synthesising Augustine's thought on the matter. This work, a manuscript of nearly 1,300 pages with the title Augustinus, was almost completed when Jansen died suddenly in an epidemic in 1638. On his deathbed, he committed a manuscript to his chaplain, ordering him to consult with Libert Froidmont, a theology professor at Leuven, and Henricus Calenus, canon at the metropolitan church, and to publish the manuscript if they agreed it should be published, adding, "If, however, the Holy See wishes any change, I am an obedient son, and I submit to that Church in which I have lived to my dying hour. This is my last wish." 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' as Semipelagian.