Jansénisme

The jansénisme is catholic doctrines derived from the thought of Augustin d' Hippone (Holy Augustin). It was developed by Cornélius Jansen (1585 - 1638) known as Jansénius , bishop of Ypres, in Belgium, (a diocese now disappeared) in the Augustinus , published in 1640 in Leuwen. Jansénisme is registered in reaction against the Humanisme and the Molinisme. These doctrines caused controversy great in the catholic world at the 17th century.

Origin of jansénisme

The jansénisme term, invented by the adversaries of Port-Royal-of-Fields, was used a long time as a convenient term to indicate the Augustinisme such as included/understood it and diffused it Jansénius and Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbot of Saint-Cyran of France.

Like all the words claiming to define a theological thought , it is inadequate because reducing. One prefers speech today “Augustinisme of Port-Royal”. This augustinism was diffused in France thanks to Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbot of Saint-Cyran, friend of Jansénius, with which it shared long years of study and research with Camwood-of-Prats close to Bayonne.

When Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbot of Saint-Cyran, became director of the monastery of Port-Royal, the augustinism which he professed found a favorable ground to open out by the means of the spiritual direction. But the influence of Saint-Cyran was not limited to the monastery of Port-Royal; the group of the Recluses, then the Small Schools, finally the many relations and friendships as it maintained, as well in the ecclesiastical world as in the mediums of the nobility and the parliamentary mediums, made of him a sought director, at the point to worry the capacity in the person of Richelieu, which had formerly been his/her friend.

Stopped in 1638 and imprisoned nearly five years to the keep of Vincennes, Saint-Cyran dies a few months after his release, in October 1643.

Its directed and his/her friends ensure the perenniality of his augustinism by printing their own mark to him: the first Port-Royal then is left. Another history starts, which falls certainly under the continuity of Saint-Cyran, but adopts as positions as this one had not entirely approved.

Doctrines

Jansénisme revêt a doctrinal form, that of Jansénius, and a form applied, that of Port-Royal, and in that it belongs to the French catholic Reform.

the man is completely deposed in consequence of the Original sin , it tends towards the Evil in a natural way. This vision of the man is close to that of the Calvinisme.
Seule the grace of God can push it towards the Good and divert it “terrestrial delight”.
This grace requires those which receive it a faith with any test and a daily combat against the Evil: “to the morals of the honest man, the Jansenists oppose that of holiness” (Rene Taveneaux).
the Jansenists require their penitent perfect contrition to give them the discharge. One finds here the ideal of intransigence of Calvin, in practice of the faith.
In the doctrines Jansenist, the Election is very restrictive. It should be understood by Élection, the idea that one was chosen by God, because of the acts, sincerity, the manifestation of the truth, and precisely the Grace which one expresses.
the problem of the Prédestination is very important in Jansénisme. That implies that Signs, related to this Grace and this Election, are expressed in the Spirit and by the Spirit and of the fact “of the Plans of God” and of the Divine Revelation. But, provided that, since these principles were applied, one is led to adopt an attitude favourable with the Divine Reception, to purify and with being Humble.
It should well be understood that, in spite of attitudes pointing out the Calvinisme, Jansénisme remains a typically catholic movement and gallican. In particular, he révère the saints and practical all the sacraments of the catholic life, in particular the Confession and the '' attends communion ''.

Nevertheless jansénisme is not static doctrines, it was linked with various influences. There exists, in fact, not jansénisme but several.

Jesuits and Jansenists

Jesuit S and Jansénistes was highly opposed throughout the 17th century. Their visions are diametrically opposite: the Jesuits insist on the personal freedom in any decision, whereas the Jansenists are fatalistic and think that all is written in advance.

The Jansenists diffuse their theory via the Small schools and have famous disciples and sympathizers like Racine and Pascal. Their proselytism in fact of the famous pedagogs.

Following a dissension between the Sorbonne and Antoine Arnauld, leader of the Jansenists since the death of Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, the Jansenists sought a defender in the person of Pascal. It is the origin of the series of letters known as Provincial the , by Pascal, where he was opposed with strength to the Jésuite S (1656) of which some, by an abuse the Casuistique, fell into what one called the Jésuitisme. The letters of Pascal had a great literary success. But the virulence of the quarrel and the theses Jansenists displease with the Pape Innocent X and with Louis XIV which wants to unify the Christians by éradiquant jansénisme and the Protestantisme. In March 1656, the government issues the closing of the Small schools. The December 19th 1657, the king holds a Lit of justice to promulgate the bubble AD Sacram of Alexandre VII condemning officially the theses Janséniste S.

The impact will be serious on the image of the Jésuite S and the Catholic church. Marc Fumaroli note:

The king will order the closing and the displacement of the nuns Jansenists of the abbey of Royal Port the October 29th 1709, then the abbey will be shaven in 1711 to avoid making a place of pilgrimage of it.

In particular, the Jansenists were condemned by the bubble Vineam Domini .

Posterity of jansénisme

The destruction of Port-Royal and the dissolution of the religious orders which were the incarnation made these doctrines a symbol of passive resistance and non-violent to the royal arbitrary . Indeed, while in the religious plan the Quiétisme of a Fénelon relayed near the aristocracy the alternative to the devout left (mistaken of the Casuistique, interior conviction), the glare of the Jansenists was preserved intact:

near the small people of the cities, as show it the events of the Convulsionnaires of Saint M3edard's Day (1727-1732);
near the Noblesse de robe composing the Parliaments: after death of Louis XIV, and throughout the XVIIIe century, these magistrates will claim jansénisme, and will obtain finally Louis XV the expulsion of the Jésuites of France (1763).

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