Jansenism

One of a number of theological tendencies within early modern Catholicism, Jansenism derives its name from Cornelius Jansen (b. 1585–d. 1638), bishop of Ypres. The term, coined by Jansen’s Jesuit critics, came into general use only in the 1640s, when his Augustinus (1640) was posthumously published in Leuven. Its appearance marked a fresh outbreak of an ancient dispute within Western Christianity concerning the nature of divine grace and its operation in both the individual believer and the Christian community. Jansen’s supporters intended the book as a rebuttal of a doctrine of grace, which was traced to the 5th-century heretic Pelagius, and which they ascribed to the Jesuits and their sympathizers. The Augustinus, and the reaction to it, crystalized a range of theological positions that, over the following decades, garnered support among clerical and lay Catholic groups in Flanders, France, Rome, and further afield. It is impossible to reduce those either accused of or professing Jansenism to a common set of doctrines, but they did share certain attitudes. The doctrinal authority of the Church Fathers, particularly Augustine, was supreme; their religious anthropology was pessimistic; their moral views were rigorist; and they were sensitive to issues of authority and conscience. Over the following two centuries, the efforts by theologians, pastors, and spiritual directors to define the role of individual conscience under the influence of divine grace involved Jansenists in successive contestations of papal, episcopal, regal, and civil authority. Although Jansenism’s cradle was Flanders, it is more usually associated with France, where it influenced religious and political life until the Revolution. Rome was another Jansenist theater, where pressure groups alternately supported and anathematized it, leading to a number of ill-conceived, politically motivated, and highly publicized papal condemnations of Jansenist texts. The movement found sympathizers all over Catholic Europe, especially in zones of religious tension like England, Holland, and Ireland. Later, versions of Jansenism became popular with reforming Catholic administrations in the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Portugal. In the late 18th century, French clerics and laity with Jansenist sympathies contributed to the suppression of the Jesuits. They also supported religious reforms intended to undermine both royal and papal authority. The failure of these schemes, together with the success of Napoleon’s 1801 Concordat, ended Jansenist-inspired political activities. Jansenist sympathies, however, survived; the 19th century saw the literary retrieval of the movement, especially in its Port-Royal version. From the mid-20th century, the study of Jansenism shed some of its denominational and romantic baggage to become a useful if not always well-used category for the study of early modern Catholicism.

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