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Cornelius Jansen | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Ypres | |
.png) Painting of Cornelius Jansen. | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Diocese of Ypres |
| Installed | 1635 |
| Term ended | 1638 |
| Predecessor | Georges Chamberlain |
| Successor | Josse Bouckaert |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1585-10-28)28 October 1585 |
| Died | 6 May 1638(1638-05-06) (aged 52) |
| Education | University of Leuven |
| Signature |  |
Cornelius Jansen (/ˈdʒænsən/;Dutch:[ˈjɑnsə(n)];Latinized nameCornelius Jansenius; alsoCorneille Jansen; 28 October 1585 – 6 May 1638) was the DutchCatholicbishop of Ypres inFlanders and the father of a theological movement known asJansenism.
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He was born to humble Catholic parents Jan Ottje, a smith, and Lijntje Gijsberts[1] atAcquoy (then in the province ofHolland, now inGelderland). In 1602 he entered theUniversity of Leuven, then in the throes of an ideological conflict between theJesuit – orscholastic – party and the followers ofMichael Baius, who swore bySt. Augustine. Jansen ended by attaching himself strongly to the latter "Augustinian" party, and presently made a momentous friendship with a like-minded fellow-student,Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, afterwardsAbbé de Saint-Cyran.[2]
After taking his degree he went to Paris, partly to improve his health by a change of scene, partly to study Greek. Eventually he joined du Vergier at his country home nearBayonne, and spent some years teaching at the bishop's college. All his spare time was spent in studying the earlyFathers with du Vergier, and laying plans for a reform of the Church.[2]
In 1616 he returned toLeuven, to take charge of the college of St Pulcheria, a hostel forDutch students of theology. Pupils found him a somewhat choleric and exacting master and a great recluse from academic society. However, he took an active part in the university's resistance to the Jesuits, for they had established a theological school of their own in Leuven, which was proving itself a formidable rival tothe official university faculty of divinity. In the hope of suppressing their encroachments, Jansen was sent twice toMadrid, in 1624 and 1626; the second time he narrowly escaped theInquisition. He warmly supported the Catholicmissionary archbishop (apostolic vicar) of the CatholicHolland Mission in theDutch Republic,Philippus Rovenius, in his contests with the Jesuits, who were trying to evangelize that country without regard to the archbishop's wishes. He also crossed more than once the DutchCalvinist–Presbyterian champion,Gisbertus Voetius, still remembered for his attacks onRené Descartes.[2]
Antipathy to the Jesuits brought Jansen no nearer toProtestantism; on the contrary, he yearned to beat them with their own weapons, chiefly by showing them that Catholics could interpret theBible in just as mystical and pietistic a manner. This became the great object of his lectures, when he was appointed regius professor of scriptural interpretation at Leuven in 1630. Still more was it the object of hisAugustinus, a bulky treatise on the theology of St. Augustine, barely finished at the time of his death.[2]
Its preparation was his chief occupation since his return to Leuven. He had introduced in this treaty a long development favourable tocontrition (IIIrd part,De gratia Christi salvatoris, book V, chap.XXI–XXV). In its appendix, titledErroris Massiliensium, et opinionis quorumdam recentiorum parallelon et statera, he harshly condemned theJesuits, in particularLuis de Molina,Gabriel Vasquez andLeonardus Lessius.
But Jansen, as he said, did not mean to be a school-pedant all his life; and there were moments when he entertained political ambitions. He looked forward to a time when Flanders would throw off the Spanish yoke and become an independent Catholic republic, possibly evenFlemish-ruled, according to the model of the ProtestantUnited Provinces. These ideas became known to his Spanish rulers, and to assuage them he wrote aphilippic called theMars gallicus (1635), a violent attack on French ambitions generally, and onCardinal Richelieu's indifference to international Catholic interests in particular.
TheMars gallicus did little to help Jansen's rather persecuted theological friends in France, but it reversed Madrid's wrath with Jansen; in 1636 he was appointed bishop ofYpres (Ieper) inWest Flanders by thePope and the Spanish Court. Within two years he was however cut down at age 52 by a sudden illness; theAugustinus, the book of his life, was published posthumously in 1640.[2]
Opposed to Jansenism, a little group of theological doctors from theSorbonne extracted 8 propositions of Jansenius'sAugustinus, later reduced to 5, treating of the problems concerning the relation between nature andgrace. They accused Jansenius of having misinterpreted St. Augustine, conflating Jansenists withLutherans. This ledPope Innocent X to condemn in 1653 these 5 propositions in thepapal bullCum Occasione, without attributing them to Jansenius in particular. The 5 propositions were condemned again byPope Alexander VII three years later in theapostolic constitutionAd sanctam beati Petri sedem. The Jesuits, who then enjoyed predominant political and theological power (including a personal confessor to the King of France), then persuaded the Pope to force all Jansenists to sign a formulary leading them to admit the papal bull and to confess to their errors. Theformulary controversy ledPascal to write the famousLettres provinciales (1657) in which he harshly attacked the Jesuits and their moral, in particular theircasuistry.
Following this anonymous publication, the King sent spies everywhere, condemned the librarians and successfully attempted to discover the author of theLettres provinciales. The Jansenists ofPort-Royal,Antoine Arnauld,Pierre Nicole,La Mère Angélique, Soeur Agnès, etc., were forced to sign the formulary. Although ostensibly obeying Papal authority, they added that the condemnation would only be sensible if the 5 allegedly heretical propositions were in fact found in Jansenius'Augustinus, and claimed that they did not figure there. The Jansenists' reasoning was that the Pope had of course the power to condemn heretical propositions, but not to cause that which did not figure in Jansenius'Augustinus to actually be there. This strategy would impose decades of theological disputes and debate.
On the other hand, Pascal and some other Jansenists adopted a radical strategy, alleging that condemning Jansenius was equivalent to condemning the Father of the Church, St. Augustine himself, and adamantly refused to sign the formulary, with or without reserve. This in turn led to the further radicalization of the King and of the Jesuits, and in 1661 the Convent of Port-Royal was closed and the Jansenist community dissolved – it would be ultimately razed in 1710 on orders ofLouis XIV. The controversy did not involve only Papal authority, but rather his authority concerningBiblical exegesis.
Further controversy led to the bullUnigenitus, issued byClement XI in 1713, which marked the end of Catholic toleration of Jansenist doctrine. The bullUnigenitus, dated 8 September 1713, was produced with the contribution ofGregorio Selleri [fr], a lector at the College of Saint Thomas, the futurePontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas,Angelicum,[3] fostered the condemnation ofJansenism by condemning 101 propositions from theRéflexions morales ofQuesnel asheretical, and as identical with propositions already condemned in the writings of Jansen.
Up until theFrench Revolution, Jansenism would live on as a political force in France, supported by some chairs in the parlements of Paris. Anonymous Jansenists published a magazine calledNouvelles ecclésiastiques, which frequently featured anti-Jesuit propaganda. Eventually, Jansenists would collaborate with independent-mindedGallicanists in promoting the Jesuits' expulsion from France in 1764.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Northcote, Stafford Henry (1911). "Jansen, Cornelius". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 153.
