A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Jansenists

by Hannah Adams

JANSENISTS, a denomination of Roman Catholics in France, which was formed in the year 1640. They follow the opinions of Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, from whose writings the following propositions are said to have been extracted :—1. That there are divine precepts, which good men, notwithstanding their desire to observe them, are nevertheless absolutely unable to obey; nor has God given them that measure of grace which is essentially necessary to render them capable of such obedience.—2. That no person, in this corrupt state of nature, can resist the influence of divine grace, when it operates upon the mind.—3. That, in order to render human actions meritorious, it is not requisite that they be exempt from necessity; but that they be free from constraint.—4. That the semi-pelagians err greatly, in maintaining that the human will is endowed with the power of either receiving or resisting the aids and influences of preventing grace.—5. That whoever affirms that Jesus Christ made expiation, by his sufferings and death, for the sins of all mankind, is a Semi-Pelagian. Of these propositions Pope Innocent X. condemned the first four as heretical, and the last as rash and impious. But he did this without asserting that these were the doctrines of Jansenius, or even naming him, which did not satisfy his adversaries, nor silence him. The next pope however, Alexander VII. issued a bull, in which he denounced the said propositions as erroneous doctrines of Jansenius, which excited no small troubles in the Gallican church.

This denomination was also distinguished from many of the Roman Catholics by their maintaining that the holy scriptures and public liturgies should be given to the people in their mother tongue; and they consider it as a matter of importance to inculcate upon all christians, that true piety does not consist in the performance of external devotions, but in inward holiness and divine love.

It is said that Jansenius read through the whole of St. Augustine's works, ten, and some parts thirty times; from these he made a number of excerpta, which he collected in his book called Augustinus. This he had not the courage to publish; but it was printed after his death, and from it his enemies, the Jesuits, extracted the propositions above named.^[1]

Many of the Jansenists were distinguished for their strict piety, and severe moral discipline. They complained of the corruptions of the church of Rome, censured the licentiousness of the monastic orders, and insisted upon the necessity of reforming their discipline, according to the rules of sanctity, abstinence, and self-denial, that were originally prescribed by their respective founders. The celebrated Pascal, and Quesnel, men eminently distinguished for talents and piety, are ranked among the followers of Jansenius.

Original footnotes

1. Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 262. Toplady, Hist. vol. 92.