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Jansenism

Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), bishop of Ypres, and father of the religious revival known as Jansenism, was born of humble Catholic parentage at Accoy in the province of Utrecht on the 28th of October 1585. Jansenism, the religious principles laid down by Cornelius Jansen in his Augustinus, was simply a digest of the teaching of St Augustine, drawn up with a special eye to the needs of the 17th century. In Jansen's opinion the church was suffering from three evils. The official scholastic theology was anything but evangelical. Having set out to embody the mysteries of faith in human language, it had fallen a victim to the excellence of its own methods; language proved too strong for mystery. Theology sank into a branch of dialectic; whatever would not fit in with a logical formula was cast aside as useless. But average human nature does not take kindly to a syllogism, and theology had ceased to have any appreciable influence on popular religion. Simple souls found their spiritual pasture in little mincing "devoflons"; while robuster minds built up for themselves a natural moralistic religion, quite as dose to Epictetus as to Christianity. All these three evils were attacked by Jansen. Although the one thing necessary in religion was a personal relation of the human soul to its maker, Jansen held that that relation was only possible in and through the Roman Church.

Jansenists came into conflict with the Jesuits, who were accused of giving absolution much too easily, without any serious inquiry into the dispositions of their penitent. Half Europe was full of waverers between Protestantism and Catholicism tolerably certain to decide for the Church that offered them the cheapest terms of salvation; and even in wholly Catholic countries many, especially of the upper class, might easily be scared away from the confessional by severity. Thereby their money and influence would be lost to the Church, and their souls robbed of the priceless benefit of priestly absolution. The Jesuits were accused of handing out "cheap grace" - forgiveness without contrition - and providing moral excuses for immoral acts. Pressure from King Louis XIV and Pope Alexander VII resulted in a papal bull, Ad Sanctam Beati Petri Sedem, in 1656 which condemned Jansen. Jansenism survived in many country parsonages and convents, and led to frequent quarrels with the authorities.