Encyclopædia Britannica, First Edition/Jansenists

Jansenists, in church-hiſtory, a ſect of the Roman-catholics in France, who followed the opinions of Janſenius, biſhop of Ypres, and doctor of divinity of the univerſities of Louvain and Douay, in relation to grace and predeſtination.

In the year 1640, the two univerſities juſt mentioned, and particularly father Molina and father Leonard Celſus, thought fit to condemn the opinions of the Jeſuits on grace and free-will. This having ſet the controverſy on foot, Janſenius oppoſed to the doctrine of the Jeſuits the ſentiments of St. Auguſtine, and wrote a treatiſe on grace, which he entitled Auguſtinus. This treatiſe was attacked by the Jeſuits, who accuſed Janſenius of maintaining dangerous and heretical opinions; and afterwards in 1642, obtained of pope Urban VIII. a formal condemnation of the treatiſe wrote by Janſenius: when the partiſans of Janſenius gave out that this bull was ſpurious, and compoſed by a perſon entirely devoted to the Jeſuits. After the death of Urban VIII. the affair of Janſeniſm began to be more warmly controverted, and gave birth to an infinite number of polemical writings concerning grace; and what occaſioned ſome mirth, was the titles which each party gave to their writings: one writer publiſhed, The torch of St. Auguſtin, another found ſnuffers for St. Auguſtin’s torch, and father Veron formed a gag for the Janſeniſts, &c. In the year 1650, ſixty eight biſhops of France ſubſcribed a letter to pope innocent X. to obtain an enquiry into, and condemnation of the five following propoſitions, extracted from Janſenius’s Auguſtinus: I. Some of God’s commandments are impoſſible to be obſerved by the righteous, even though they endeavour with all their power to accompliſh them. II. In the ſtate of corrupted nature, we are incapable of reſiſting inward grace. III. Merit and demerit in a ſtate of corrupted nature, does not depend on a liberty which excludes neceſſity, but on a liberty which excludes conſtraint. IV. The ſemipelagians admitted the neceſſity of an inward preventing grace for the performance of each particular act, even for the beginning of faith; but they were heretics in maintaining that this grace was of ſuch a nature, that the will of man was able either to reſiſt or obey it. It is ſemipelagianiſm to ſay, that Jeſus Chriſt died, or ſhed his blood, for all manking in general.

In the year 1652, the pope appointed a congregation for examining into the diſpute in relation to grace. In this congregation Janſenius was condemned, and the bull of condemnation, publiſhed in May 1653, filled all the pulpits in Paris with violent outcries and alarms againſt the hereſy of the Janſeniſts. In the year 1656, pope Alexander VII. iſſued out another bull, in which he condemned the five propoſitions of Janſenius. However, the Janſeniſts affirm, that theſe propoſitions are not to be found in this book; but that ſome of his enemies having cauſed them to be printed on a ſheet, inſerted them in the book, and thereby deceived the pope. At laſt Clement the XI. put an end to the diſpute by his conſtitution of July the 17. 1705; in which, after having recited the conſtitutions of his predeceſſors in relation to this affair, he declares, “That in order to pay a proper obedience to the papal conſtitutions concerning the preſent queſtion, it is neceſſary to receive them with a reſpectful ſilence.” The clergy of Paris, the ſame year, approved and accepted this bull, and none dared to oppoſe it.

This is the famous bull Unigenitus, ſo called from its beginning with the words Unigenitus Dei Filius, &c. which has occaſioned ſo much confuſion in France.