Robin Briggs
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206033
- eISBN:
- 9780191676932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206033.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This book examines the beliefs and behaviour of the people of France (and sometimes the regions just outside the kingdom proper) in the early modern period. Shared beliefs were the ultimate ...
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This book examines the beliefs and behaviour of the people of France (and sometimes the regions just outside the kingdom proper) in the early modern period. Shared beliefs were the ultimate legitimation for the institutional role of the Catholic Church, studied in the essay on church and state. The three studies of witchcraft emphasize the crucial role of the village community in regulating the identification and persecution of this very particular class of deviants. Popular revolts involved deviance of a much more public and obvious kind, in the political rather than the religious sphere, but these episodes are particularly revealing of both communal attitudes and divisions. Evolving clerical attitudes towards families and the imposition of moral standards through confession brought confrontations with alternative values which had deep communal roots. Some further aspects of this clash of values are evoked in both the analysis of the puritanical elements in Jansenism and rigorism and in the general essay on idées and mentalités in the Catholic reform movement.Less
This book examines the beliefs and behaviour of the people of France (and sometimes the regions just outside the kingdom proper) in the early modern period. Shared beliefs were the ultimate legitimation for the institutional role of the Catholic Church, studied in the essay on church and state. The three studies of witchcraft emphasize the crucial role of the village community in regulating the identification and persecution of this very particular class of deviants. Popular revolts involved deviance of a much more public and obvious kind, in the political rather than the religious sphere, but these episodes are particularly revealing of both communal attitudes and divisions. Evolving clerical attitudes towards families and the imposition of moral standards through confession brought confrontations with alternative values which had deep communal roots. Some further aspects of this clash of values are evoked in both the analysis of the puritanical elements in Jansenism and rigorism and in the general essay on idées and mentalités in the Catholic reform movement.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The second volume of this study of the relations between the Catholic Church and society in eighteenth‐century France covers the topics of popular religion; the clergy and morals; the Jansenist ...
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The second volume of this study of the relations between the Catholic Church and society in eighteenth‐century France covers the topics of popular religion; the clergy and morals; the Jansenist controversy in its religious and political aspects; the expulsion of the Jesuits; the religious minorities and the issue of toleration; and the crisis of the ancien régime in its politico‐religious dimension. The section on the ‘religion of the people’ considers, in particular, the distinctions between the intentions of the clergy in imposing their version of Christianity on the people and how these were popularly interpreted and incorporated into the social order. The statistical evidence concerning religious practice and conviction is critically assessed. The meanings and importance of processions, pilgrimages, superstitions, hermits, confraternities, and literacy and Bible reading are discussed along with the world of magic and sorcery. The efficacy of confession and writings on morality is considered with reference to sexual mores, business practice, and the theatre. The role of religious issues in political affairs is discussed in detail, linking the Jansenist quarrel and the role of the Jesuits to the developing struggle between the crown and the parlement of Paris, giving due consideration to the role of ideas and how ecclesiastical affairs impinged upon the sovereign courts. An extended evocation of the life of the Protestant and Jewish communities introduces the debate on toleration and how it further embroiled the Gallican Church in political controversies. The final section describes the role of churchmen, from bishops to the disaffected lower clergy, in the coming of the Revolution. As in the first volume, the influence of Enlightenment thought is examined in all sections in relation to the rising force of anti‐clericalism and to tensions within the ecclesiastical establishment.Less
The second volume of this study of the relations between the Catholic Church and society in eighteenth‐century France covers the topics of popular religion; the clergy and morals; the Jansenist controversy in its religious and political aspects; the expulsion of the Jesuits; the religious minorities and the issue of toleration; and the crisis of the ancien régime in its politico‐religious dimension. The section on the ‘religion of the people’ considers, in particular, the distinctions between the intentions of the clergy in imposing their version of Christianity on the people and how these were popularly interpreted and incorporated into the social order. The statistical evidence concerning religious practice and conviction is critically assessed. The meanings and importance of processions, pilgrimages, superstitions, hermits, confraternities, and literacy and Bible reading are discussed along with the world of magic and sorcery. The efficacy of confession and writings on morality is considered with reference to sexual mores, business practice, and the theatre. The role of religious issues in political affairs is discussed in detail, linking the Jansenist quarrel and the role of the Jesuits to the developing struggle between the crown and the parlement of Paris, giving due consideration to the role of ideas and how ecclesiastical affairs impinged upon the sovereign courts. An extended evocation of the life of the Protestant and Jewish communities introduces the debate on toleration and how it further embroiled the Gallican Church in political controversies. The final section describes the role of churchmen, from bishops to the disaffected lower clergy, in the coming of the Revolution. As in the first volume, the influence of Enlightenment thought is examined in all sections in relation to the rising force of anti‐clericalism and to tensions within the ecclesiastical establishment.
Paul Helm
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199532186
- eISBN:
- 9780191714580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199532186.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
One curiosity in the history of Calvinism is the way in which later Calvinists such as Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper downplay or deny Calvin's commitment to natural law, and claim that he ...
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One curiosity in the history of Calvinism is the way in which later Calvinists such as Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper downplay or deny Calvin's commitment to natural law, and claim that he articulated instead a radically novel idea of ‘common grace’ and denied the medieval ‘dichotomy’ between nature and grace. This is puzzling in view of Calvin's commitment to natural law, which arises from Augustine, Augustine's distinction between nature and supernature, and the similarity of his position to that of Thomas Aquinas, who argues that far from the Fall leaving human nature ‘intact’ it seriously affected it. This chapter explores this opposition between natural law and common grace, and seeks to identify a rationale for it. It is argued that this can be traced back not so much to a development in Calvin, as to a change in Roman Catholicism: the adoption of the idea of ‘pure nature’ from Cajetan. Its prevalence in the Counter‐Reformation was motivated by controversy with both Jansenists and Protestants. It is this later view of ‘nature and grace’ that Bavinck and others have mistakenly assumed to be the Roman Catholic view at the time of Calvin, and they somewhat anachronistically have read Calvin's own views in terms of it.Less
One curiosity in the history of Calvinism is the way in which later Calvinists such as Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper downplay or deny Calvin's commitment to natural law, and claim that he articulated instead a radically novel idea of ‘common grace’ and denied the medieval ‘dichotomy’ between nature and grace. This is puzzling in view of Calvin's commitment to natural law, which arises from Augustine, Augustine's distinction between nature and supernature, and the similarity of his position to that of Thomas Aquinas, who argues that far from the Fall leaving human nature ‘intact’ it seriously affected it. This chapter explores this opposition between natural law and common grace, and seeks to identify a rationale for it. It is argued that this can be traced back not so much to a development in Calvin, as to a change in Roman Catholicism: the adoption of the idea of ‘pure nature’ from Cajetan. Its prevalence in the Counter‐Reformation was motivated by controversy with both Jansenists and Protestants. It is this later view of ‘nature and grace’ that Bavinck and others have mistakenly assumed to be the Roman Catholic view at the time of Calvin, and they somewhat anachronistically have read Calvin's own views in terms of it.
Owen Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 1980
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269199
- eISBN:
- 9780191600487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269196.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
An account is given of reformers of the Catholic Church in Europe in the eighteenth century, following on from The Counter‐Reformation. This starts with the Jansenists in France, and goes on to ...
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An account is given of reformers of the Catholic Church in Europe in the eighteenth century, following on from The Counter‐Reformation. This starts with the Jansenists in France, and goes on to discuss (Lodovico Antonio) Muratori (1672–1751), Pietro Tamburini (1672–1750), and Pietro Giannone (1676–1748) in Italy, the Enlightenment, Febronianism and Febronius (a pseudonym of the German anti‐Catholic Johann Chrysostomus Nikolaus von Hontheim, 1701–90), Emperor Joseph II of Austria, Pope Pius VI in Vienna, Leopold of Tuscany, Scipione de’ Ricci, the Diocesan Synod of Pistoia and the constitution of the Church (1786), the riot at Prato (1787), toleration, the attack upon celibacy, and the reform of the liturgy.Less
An account is given of reformers of the Catholic Church in Europe in the eighteenth century, following on from The Counter‐Reformation. This starts with the Jansenists in France, and goes on to discuss (Lodovico Antonio) Muratori (1672–1751), Pietro Tamburini (1672–1750), and Pietro Giannone (1676–1748) in Italy, the Enlightenment, Febronianism and Febronius (a pseudonym of the German anti‐Catholic Johann Chrysostomus Nikolaus von Hontheim, 1701–90), Emperor Joseph II of Austria, Pope Pius VI in Vienna, Leopold of Tuscany, Scipione de’ Ricci, the Diocesan Synod of Pistoia and the constitution of the Church (1786), the riot at Prato (1787), toleration, the attack upon celibacy, and the reform of the liturgy.
Owen Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 1980
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269199
- eISBN:
- 9780191600487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269196.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Traces the decline of political power in the Catholic Church in Europe from the period after the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, and the return of the Pope to Rome. In the new Europe so ...
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Traces the decline of political power in the Catholic Church in Europe from the period after the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, and the return of the Pope to Rome. In the new Europe so formed, Protestants were politically far stronger than Catholics. The different sections of the chapter cover the Austrian chancellor Metternich, the Age of the Concordats (agreements between Rome and the governments of different countries), Spain and the reaction to the revolution, the secret articles of Verona (Italy, 1822), revolution in Spanish America, reaction in Italy and the Prince of Canosa, the restored Pope, the Papal States, the Carbonari, Silvio Pellico, Pope Leo XII, the shadow of the Jansenists, the end of the campaign against celibacy, the structure of the restored Church (bishoprics, seminaries, brotherhoods), the jubilee of 1825, collegiate churches, the revival of the monks and monasteries, the revival of the Jesuits and other orders, new religious groups, virtus, and differences in parish life.Less
Traces the decline of political power in the Catholic Church in Europe from the period after the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, and the return of the Pope to Rome. In the new Europe so formed, Protestants were politically far stronger than Catholics. The different sections of the chapter cover the Austrian chancellor Metternich, the Age of the Concordats (agreements between Rome and the governments of different countries), Spain and the reaction to the revolution, the secret articles of Verona (Italy, 1822), revolution in Spanish America, reaction in Italy and the Prince of Canosa, the restored Pope, the Papal States, the Carbonari, Silvio Pellico, Pope Leo XII, the shadow of the Jansenists, the end of the campaign against celibacy, the structure of the restored Church (bishoprics, seminaries, brotherhoods), the jubilee of 1825, collegiate churches, the revival of the monks and monasteries, the revival of the Jesuits and other orders, new religious groups, virtus, and differences in parish life.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270034
- eISBN:
- 9780191600685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270038.003.0020
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The Commission des Réguliers was set up in 1765, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, to inquire into and reform the regular orders. The documentation it produced provides an impressionistic view of ...
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The Commission des Réguliers was set up in 1765, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, to inquire into and reform the regular orders. The documentation it produced provides an impressionistic view of the diversity of monastic institutions and topics, including conflicts between monks and their superiors, the influence of Jansenism, and the scholarly endeavours of the Maurists. Some small and moribund Orders were wound up and some decayed houses suppressed, but overall the limited nature of the Commission's achievements illustrates the impossibility of radical reform under the ancien régime, given the wide range of lay and clerical interests at stake.Less
The Commission des Réguliers was set up in 1765, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, to inquire into and reform the regular orders. The documentation it produced provides an impressionistic view of the diversity of monastic institutions and topics, including conflicts between monks and their superiors, the influence of Jansenism, and the scholarly endeavours of the Maurists. Some small and moribund Orders were wound up and some decayed houses suppressed, but overall the limited nature of the Commission's achievements illustrates the impossibility of radical reform under the ancien régime, given the wide range of lay and clerical interests at stake.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Outlines the seventeenth‐century origins of the Jansenist controversy and the difficulties faced by the historian in arriving at a viable definition of Jansenism. The grim theology of Cornelius ...
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Outlines the seventeenth‐century origins of the Jansenist controversy and the difficulties faced by the historian in arriving at a viable definition of Jansenism. The grim theology of Cornelius Jansen had given rise obliquely to a movement of great spirituality that posed questions about the nature of truth and the limits of secular and ecclesiastical authority. All the various aspects of Jansenism, including predestinarian theology, the questioning of papal authority, and reform of the Church involving a greater role for the laity in general and women in particular, came together in hostility to the Jesuits. In the eighteenth century it would involve the war of the parlements against the crown, the rising discontent of the lower clergy, and the convulsionist movement.Less
Outlines the seventeenth‐century origins of the Jansenist controversy and the difficulties faced by the historian in arriving at a viable definition of Jansenism. The grim theology of Cornelius Jansen had given rise obliquely to a movement of great spirituality that posed questions about the nature of truth and the limits of secular and ecclesiastical authority. All the various aspects of Jansenism, including predestinarian theology, the questioning of papal authority, and reform of the Church involving a greater role for the laity in general and women in particular, came together in hostility to the Jesuits. In the eighteenth century it would involve the war of the parlements against the crown, the rising discontent of the lower clergy, and the convulsionist movement.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The papal bull Unigenitus, issued in 1713, was intended to strike a fatal blow against the Jansenists and demonstrate papal infallibility. Its principal targets were the Réflexions morales of ...
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The papal bull Unigenitus, issued in 1713, was intended to strike a fatal blow against the Jansenists and demonstrate papal infallibility. Its principal targets were the Réflexions morales of Pasquier Quesnel and through it, Louis‐Antoine de Noailles, cardinal‐archbishop of Paris. The complicated diplomatic manoeuvring leading to its promulgation was prompted by the Jesuits and their sympathizers, enemies of Noailles, and by the aged Louis XIV, which wished to destroy the Jansenists as ‘a republican party in Church and State’, while upholding the independence of the Gallican Church.Less
The papal bull Unigenitus, issued in 1713, was intended to strike a fatal blow against the Jansenists and demonstrate papal infallibility. Its principal targets were the Réflexions morales of Pasquier Quesnel and through it, Louis‐Antoine de Noailles, cardinal‐archbishop of Paris. The complicated diplomatic manoeuvring leading to its promulgation was prompted by the Jesuits and their sympathizers, enemies of Noailles, and by the aged Louis XIV, which wished to destroy the Jansenists as ‘a republican party in Church and State’, while upholding the independence of the Gallican Church.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Unigenitus caused uproar in France, especially in Paris, where it was viewed as the result of Jesuit conspiracy, standing for papal pretensions against the Gallican Church and ...
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Unigenitus caused uproar in France, especially in Paris, where it was viewed as the result of Jesuit conspiracy, standing for papal pretensions against the Gallican Church and clerical manoeuvres against the laity, as well as being an obscurantist attack on scriptural piety, unjust to Jansenists in general and Noailles in particular. Louis XIV forced its acceptance by the bishops, the Sorbonne and the parlement of Paris, followed by the other theological faculties and parlements, but his death and the accession to power of Philippe d’Orléans as regent for the infant Louis XV changed everything. The appeal to a General Council of the Church was led by 16 bishops, backed by the Oratorians and the Maurists. Other bishops either enforced Unigenitus or accepted and then ignored it. Support for the appellants was uneven in France as a whole and centred in Paris, but for their supporters the appeal represented a defence of the Gallican Church against the presumptuousness of Rome and of political freedom against Louis XIV's absolutism.Less
Unigenitus caused uproar in France, especially in Paris, where it was viewed as the result of Jesuit conspiracy, standing for papal pretensions against the Gallican Church and clerical manoeuvres against the laity, as well as being an obscurantist attack on scriptural piety, unjust to Jansenists in general and Noailles in particular. Louis XIV forced its acceptance by the bishops, the Sorbonne and the parlement of Paris, followed by the other theological faculties and parlements, but his death and the accession to power of Philippe d’Orléans as regent for the infant Louis XV changed everything. The appeal to a General Council of the Church was led by 16 bishops, backed by the Oratorians and the Maurists. Other bishops either enforced Unigenitus or accepted and then ignored it. Support for the appellants was uneven in France as a whole and centred in Paris, but for their supporters the appeal represented a defence of the Gallican Church against the presumptuousness of Rome and of political freedom against Louis XIV's absolutism.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
By 1720, the government of the Regency, dominated by abbé Dubois, had adopted a repressive policy towards Jansenism and the appellants, a policy, which would be made even harsher under cardinal ...
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By 1720, the government of the Regency, dominated by abbé Dubois, had adopted a repressive policy towards Jansenism and the appellants, a policy, which would be made even harsher under cardinal Fleury from 1726 onwards. The parlements and the Sorbonne were brought to acceptance of Unigenitus by threats, force, and the imposition of a formulary making it appear compatible with Gallican liberties. However, the deposition of Jean Soanen, bishop of Senez, in 1727 by a council of the archbishopric of Embrun caused a huge outcry among the lower clergy and the bourgeoisie of Paris, supported in particular by the avocats of the Parisian bar. Fleury's ruthless policy succeeded in destroying the ‘old Jansenism’ of predestinarian theology and protest against Rome, but opposition to it laid the seeds for a new, politicized Jansenism.Less
By 1720, the government of the Regency, dominated by abbé Dubois, had adopted a repressive policy towards Jansenism and the appellants, a policy, which would be made even harsher under cardinal Fleury from 1726 onwards. The parlements and the Sorbonne were brought to acceptance of Unigenitus by threats, force, and the imposition of a formulary making it appear compatible with Gallican liberties. However, the deposition of Jean Soanen, bishop of Senez, in 1727 by a council of the archbishopric of Embrun caused a huge outcry among the lower clergy and the bourgeoisie of Paris, supported in particular by the avocats of the Parisian bar. Fleury's ruthless policy succeeded in destroying the ‘old Jansenism’ of predestinarian theology and protest against Rome, but opposition to it laid the seeds for a new, politicized Jansenism.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Faced with repression, the Jansenist opponents of Unigenitus had to appeal to a wider public, notably through the clandestine Nouvelles ecclésiastiques, presenting a running chronicle of friends of ...
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Faced with repression, the Jansenist opponents of Unigenitus had to appeal to a wider public, notably through the clandestine Nouvelles ecclésiastiques, presenting a running chronicle of friends of the ‘truth’ and scandal about its enemies. Doctrinal divisions were now of little importance, but Jansenism tried to give the laity, including women, a new and leading role in the Church. Paris was the ‘fortress of Jansenism’, and it was here that the cult of the Jansenist ‘saint’, François de Pâris, began with miracles at his tomb in the cemetery of Saint‐Médard, a cult, which developed into the convulsionist movement. Convulsionism, and especially its sado‐masochistic lunatic fringe, divided the Jansenists, allowing Fleury to encourage moderate Jansenist scholars to denounce the cult of deacon Pâris, while police surveillance of the convulsionaries tightened in the 1740s.Less
Faced with repression, the Jansenist opponents of Unigenitus had to appeal to a wider public, notably through the clandestine Nouvelles ecclésiastiques, presenting a running chronicle of friends of the ‘truth’ and scandal about its enemies. Doctrinal divisions were now of little importance, but Jansenism tried to give the laity, including women, a new and leading role in the Church. Paris was the ‘fortress of Jansenism’, and it was here that the cult of the Jansenist ‘saint’, François de Pâris, began with miracles at his tomb in the cemetery of Saint‐Médard, a cult, which developed into the convulsionist movement. Convulsionism, and especially its sado‐masochistic lunatic fringe, divided the Jansenists, allowing Fleury to encourage moderate Jansenist scholars to denounce the cult of deacon Pâris, while police surveillance of the convulsionaries tightened in the 1740s.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0019
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Between 1730, when Unigenitus was declared ‘a law of Church and State’, and his death in 1743, cardinal Fleury broke the power of Jansenism within the French clergy by the use of ecclesiastical ...
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Between 1730, when Unigenitus was declared ‘a law of Church and State’, and his death in 1743, cardinal Fleury broke the power of Jansenism within the French clergy by the use of ecclesiastical patronage and promotion; the issue of lettres de cachet to send troublemakers to prison, monastery, or exile; police interventions, especially against authors and publishers; and the despatch of royal commissioners to overawe the assemblies of monastic orders and theology faculties. But enforcement of Unigenitus inevitably incurred the hostility of the sovereign courts, especially the parlement of Paris, the magistrates of which saw themselves as the guardians of legal process and individual liberty. Conflict with the parlement, itself not so much Jansenist as Gallican, in the 1730s involved a strike by avocats in 1731–32, but ended in defeat for the magistrates.Less
Between 1730, when Unigenitus was declared ‘a law of Church and State’, and his death in 1743, cardinal Fleury broke the power of Jansenism within the French clergy by the use of ecclesiastical patronage and promotion; the issue of lettres de cachet to send troublemakers to prison, monastery, or exile; police interventions, especially against authors and publishers; and the despatch of royal commissioners to overawe the assemblies of monastic orders and theology faculties. But enforcement of Unigenitus inevitably incurred the hostility of the sovereign courts, especially the parlement of Paris, the magistrates of which saw themselves as the guardians of legal process and individual liberty. Conflict with the parlement, itself not so much Jansenist as Gallican, in the 1730s involved a strike by avocats in 1731–32, but ended in defeat for the magistrates.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0027
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Jansenists were still excluded from the ministry of the Church by the necessity of having to sign the formulary accepting Unigenitus, but many clergy had been formed by a Jansenist‐inspired ...
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Jansenists were still excluded from the ministry of the Church by the necessity of having to sign the formulary accepting Unigenitus, but many clergy had been formed by a Jansenist‐inspired education, and the attempts by reactionary bishops to act against Jansenists came to be seen as anachronistic. With its triumph over the Jesuits, Jansenism dwindled into insignificance as a political force. In the struggle between the crown and the parlements, culminating in the ‘Maupeou revolution’ and the temporary abolition of the parlements, the ‘Jansenist’ party, the driving force behind parlementaire petitions and remonstrances, was gradually transformed into a ‘patriot’ party. Ideas and modes of thought associated with Jansenism may still be discerned behind the calls for an Estates General in the 1780s, but by the time the Revolution began Jansenism as such was an irrelevance.Less
Jansenists were still excluded from the ministry of the Church by the necessity of having to sign the formulary accepting Unigenitus, but many clergy had been formed by a Jansenist‐inspired education, and the attempts by reactionary bishops to act against Jansenists came to be seen as anachronistic. With its triumph over the Jesuits, Jansenism dwindled into insignificance as a political force. In the struggle between the crown and the parlements, culminating in the ‘Maupeou revolution’ and the temporary abolition of the parlements, the ‘Jansenist’ party, the driving force behind parlementaire petitions and remonstrances, was gradually transformed into a ‘patriot’ party. Ideas and modes of thought associated with Jansenism may still be discerned behind the calls for an Estates General in the 1780s, but by the time the Revolution began Jansenism as such was an irrelevance.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Baptism was obligatory and universal by the laws on Church and State and the rules laid down by the Church were universally obeyed. As far as the other sacraments are concerned, the practice of ...
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Baptism was obligatory and universal by the laws on Church and State and the rules laid down by the Church were universally obeyed. As far as the other sacraments are concerned, the practice of confirmation was haphazard, but in all except the most neglected of parishes, young people preparing for the First Communion were thoroughly drilled in their catechism. A multitude of manuals for catechism were available, many reflecting Jansenist influence, but all affirming the authority of the Church and in the second half of the century adopting an increasingly moralistic tone. There was some tension between church and state over marriage; the secular law stressed the inferior status of the wife, while the Church tried in vain to moderate the folkloric practices surrounding the marriage ceremony. The church ceremonies surrounding death and social observances as much as religious practices were universally followed, despite the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers.Less
Baptism was obligatory and universal by the laws on Church and State and the rules laid down by the Church were universally obeyed. As far as the other sacraments are concerned, the practice of confirmation was haphazard, but in all except the most neglected of parishes, young people preparing for the First Communion were thoroughly drilled in their catechism. A multitude of manuals for catechism were available, many reflecting Jansenist influence, but all affirming the authority of the Church and in the second half of the century adopting an increasingly moralistic tone. There was some tension between church and state over marriage; the secular law stressed the inferior status of the wife, while the Church tried in vain to moderate the folkloric practices surrounding the marriage ceremony. The church ceremonies surrounding death and social observances as much as religious practices were universally followed, despite the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers.
John McManners
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270041
- eISBN:
- 9780191600692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270046.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The reforming clergy made considerable efforts to encourage the intelligent participation of the laity in the liturgical services. They stressed the centrality of the mass and the reverence to be ...
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The reforming clergy made considerable efforts to encourage the intelligent participation of the laity in the liturgical services. They stressed the centrality of the mass and the reverence to be shown in its practice, with the Jansenists being particularly austere in this matter. The vernacular translations of the Bible and other texts were widely available to the laity, despite the attitude of Rome and some conservative clergy. The eighteenth century was a great age of liturgical reform and simplification. New breviaries and missals, produced in considerable numbers, became objects of contention between Jansenists and their adversaries. Paris took the lead in reform, with the Parisian liturgy replacing the Roman, either wholly or in part, in most of France, while Strasbourg and Lyon were particularly strongly influenced by Jansenist ideas.Less
The reforming clergy made considerable efforts to encourage the intelligent participation of the laity in the liturgical services. They stressed the centrality of the mass and the reverence to be shown in its practice, with the Jansenists being particularly austere in this matter. The vernacular translations of the Bible and other texts were widely available to the laity, despite the attitude of Rome and some conservative clergy. The eighteenth century was a great age of liturgical reform and simplification. New breviaries and missals, produced in considerable numbers, became objects of contention between Jansenists and their adversaries. Paris took the lead in reform, with the Parisian liturgy replacing the Roman, either wholly or in part, in most of France, while Strasbourg and Lyon were particularly strongly influenced by Jansenist ideas.
Michael Moriarty
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199291038
- eISBN:
- 9780191710599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199291038.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Scholars have attempted to understand 17th-century writers’ interest in self-knowledge and self-deception in historical terms by linking it to ideological conflict with a class dimension (Paul ...
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Scholars have attempted to understand 17th-century writers’ interest in self-knowledge and self-deception in historical terms by linking it to ideological conflict with a class dimension (Paul Bénichou), or to the emergence of an absolutist state centred on the court (Jean Rohou). The stress on self-deception in a Jansenist writer like Nicole has been linked to a Jansenist hostility to mysticism. This view is queried and it is pointed out that mystical writers themselves (St François de Sales, Fénelon) are strongly aware of the perils of self-deception. Augustinian moral theology and Cartesian dualism also nourish this awareness in different ways. There is no one school of thought, ideology, or social factor that can explain 17th-century writers’ fascination with the difficulty of self-knowledge and the risk of self-deception.Less
Scholars have attempted to understand 17th-century writers’ interest in self-knowledge and self-deception in historical terms by linking it to ideological conflict with a class dimension (Paul Bénichou), or to the emergence of an absolutist state centred on the court (Jean Rohou). The stress on self-deception in a Jansenist writer like Nicole has been linked to a Jansenist hostility to mysticism. This view is queried and it is pointed out that mystical writers themselves (St François de Sales, Fénelon) are strongly aware of the perils of self-deception. Augustinian moral theology and Cartesian dualism also nourish this awareness in different ways. There is no one school of thought, ideology, or social factor that can explain 17th-century writers’ fascination with the difficulty of self-knowledge and the risk of self-deception.
Gerald O'Collins SJ and Mario Farrugia SJ
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199259946
- eISBN:
- 9780191602122
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199259941.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines the present communion with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit and the consummation of this graced life in the final kingdom. The Catholic doctrine of grace emerged through ...
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This chapter examines the present communion with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit and the consummation of this graced life in the final kingdom. The Catholic doctrine of grace emerged through two controversies. In the fourth and fifth centuries, Pelagius represented human beings as capable of achieving salvation largely through their own resources. In the sixteenth-century, Protestant Reformers highlighted the damage done by original sin, which has made human beings incapable of any good actions. In the twentieth-century, biblical, ecumenical, liturgical and patristic influences have enriched Catholic teaching on grace. The chapter ends by presenting Christ as the glorious destiny of the whole world, and by explaining the “last things”: death, resurrection, judgement, purgatory, heaven, and hell.Less
This chapter examines the present communion with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit and the consummation of this graced life in the final kingdom. The Catholic doctrine of grace emerged through two controversies. In the fourth and fifth centuries, Pelagius represented human beings as capable of achieving salvation largely through their own resources. In the sixteenth-century, Protestant Reformers highlighted the damage done by original sin, which has made human beings incapable of any good actions. In the twentieth-century, biblical, ecumenical, liturgical and patristic influences have enriched Catholic teaching on grace. The chapter ends by presenting Christ as the glorious destiny of the whole world, and by explaining the “last things”: death, resurrection, judgement, purgatory, heaven, and hell.
Richard Parish
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596669
- eISBN:
- 9780191729126
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596669.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This is again a two-chapter topic, dealing first here with the most notorious divergent spiritual movement of the period, known as Jansenism. It examines certain theories which serve to explain the ...
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This is again a two-chapter topic, dealing first here with the most notorious divergent spiritual movement of the period, known as Jansenism. It examines certain theories which serve to explain the phenomenon, and to assess its elements of conformity and divergence from perceived orthodoxy. It stresses the givenness of the Christian revelation, and the tensions involved in its articulation, usually condemned by their opponents as heresy. It considers the incomplete Écrits sur la grâce by Pascal in the light of theories of grace, free will, and predestination, strongly indebted to St Augustine, but above all stresses the polemical attack on the Jesuits (the Society of Jesus) in the domains of confession and communion as the central point of conflict, and suggests a possible reason for the attractiveness of Jansenism.Less
This is again a two-chapter topic, dealing first here with the most notorious divergent spiritual movement of the period, known as Jansenism. It examines certain theories which serve to explain the phenomenon, and to assess its elements of conformity and divergence from perceived orthodoxy. It stresses the givenness of the Christian revelation, and the tensions involved in its articulation, usually condemned by their opponents as heresy. It considers the incomplete Écrits sur la grâce by Pascal in the light of theories of grace, free will, and predestination, strongly indebted to St Augustine, but above all stresses the polemical attack on the Jesuits (the Society of Jesus) in the domains of confession and communion as the central point of conflict, and suggests a possible reason for the attractiveness of Jansenism.
Lucien Jaume
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152042
- eISBN:
- 9781400846726
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152042.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter considers the supposed Jansenist leanings of Tocqueville. For generations, scholars have been arguing that Tocqueville had deep sympathy for Pascal and perhaps for Jansenism. However, it ...
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This chapter considers the supposed Jansenist leanings of Tocqueville. For generations, scholars have been arguing that Tocqueville had deep sympathy for Pascal and perhaps for Jansenism. However, it remains to be seen what effects meditation on Pascal had on Tocqueville's writing. Furthermore, we cannot speak of “Jansenism” without examining what the public image of Jansenism (one of the most controversial schools of thought in French intellectual history) was in the 1830s and 1840s. And finally, we will need to say something about Tocqueville's stance with respect to that image. The chapter argues that Tocqueville was neither devout nor militant. He had no intention of publicly advocating a religious dogma, although he was in favor of publicly censuring materialism. For those who would like to enlist Tocqueville in the cause of religious revival, a letter to Kergorlay will set things straight. In it he explains that, from the standpoint of civic virtue, a book like L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ is useless and even dangerous.Less
This chapter considers the supposed Jansenist leanings of Tocqueville. For generations, scholars have been arguing that Tocqueville had deep sympathy for Pascal and perhaps for Jansenism. However, it remains to be seen what effects meditation on Pascal had on Tocqueville's writing. Furthermore, we cannot speak of “Jansenism” without examining what the public image of Jansenism (one of the most controversial schools of thought in French intellectual history) was in the 1830s and 1840s. And finally, we will need to say something about Tocqueville's stance with respect to that image. The chapter argues that Tocqueville was neither devout nor militant. He had no intention of publicly advocating a religious dogma, although he was in favor of publicly censuring materialism. For those who would like to enlist Tocqueville in the cause of religious revival, a letter to Kergorlay will set things straight. In it he explains that, from the standpoint of civic virtue, a book like L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ is useless and even dangerous.
Eugenio F. Biagini
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264317
- eISBN:
- 9780191734472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264317.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The Mazzinian movement has often been associated with radical anticlericalism, epitomized by the leader presiding over the republic that replaced papal rule in Rome in 1849. Yet, unlike many of his ...
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The Mazzinian movement has often been associated with radical anticlericalism, epitomized by the leader presiding over the republic that replaced papal rule in Rome in 1849. Yet, unlike many of his followers, Mazzini himself was less than an ‘anticlerical’ and in fact favoured a close relationship between politics and religion, provided the latter became the organic expression and spiritual mirror image of a democratic, non-hierarchical society. In contrast to much of the historiographical consensus, which stresses the influence of Saint-Simon, this chapter argues that Mazzini's vision incorporated features from a wider variety of cultural traditions, including Jansenism and Protestantism. In particular, during his long exile in England, the great eclectic became increasingly aware of the affinities between his project and Protestant Nonconformity. While the latter made a number of converts within the Italian émigré community in Britain, it was the less-orthodox views of the ‘Rational Dissenters’ that were most interesting to Mazzini as he tried to define his republican ideal of the relationship between church and state.Less
The Mazzinian movement has often been associated with radical anticlericalism, epitomized by the leader presiding over the republic that replaced papal rule in Rome in 1849. Yet, unlike many of his followers, Mazzini himself was less than an ‘anticlerical’ and in fact favoured a close relationship between politics and religion, provided the latter became the organic expression and spiritual mirror image of a democratic, non-hierarchical society. In contrast to much of the historiographical consensus, which stresses the influence of Saint-Simon, this chapter argues that Mazzini's vision incorporated features from a wider variety of cultural traditions, including Jansenism and Protestantism. In particular, during his long exile in England, the great eclectic became increasingly aware of the affinities between his project and Protestant Nonconformity. While the latter made a number of converts within the Italian émigré community in Britain, it was the less-orthodox views of the ‘Rational Dissenters’ that were most interesting to Mazzini as he tried to define his republican ideal of the relationship between church and state.
