JANSENISM, the religious principles laid down by Cornelius Jansen in his Augustinus. This was simply a digest of the teach ing 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 "devo tions"; while robuster minds built up for themselves a natural moralistic religion, quite as close to Epictetus as to Christianity. All these three evils were attacked by Jansen. As against the theologians, he urged that in a spiritual religion experience, not reason, must be our guide. As against the stoical self-sufficiency of the moralists, he dwelt on the helplessness of man and his dependence on his maker. As against the ceremonialists, he main tained that no amount of church-going will save a man, unless the love of God is in him. But this capacity for love no one can give himself. If he is born without the religious instinct, he can only receive it by going through a process of "conversion." And whether God converts this man or that depends on his good pleas ure. Thus Jansen's theories of conversion melt into predestina tion; although, in doing so, they somewhat modify its grimness. Even for the worst miscreant there is hope—for who can say but that God may yet think fit to convert him? Such doctrines have a marked analogy to those of Calvin; but in many ways Jansen differed widely from the Protestants. He vehemently rejected their doctrine of justification by faith ; con version might be instantaneous, but it was only the beginning of a long and gradual process of justification. Secondly, 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. Nevertheless, Jansen's principles inevitably brought him into conflict with the Jesuits, whom he accused of giving absolution much too easily, without any serious inquiry into the dispositions of their penitent, and of excessive reliance on sacramental grace. His views were ex pounded at length by his disciple, Antoine Arnauld, in a book on Frequent Communion (1643). This book was the first manifesta tion of Jansenism to the general public in France, and raised a violent storm. With the support of the government, representa tions were made to Rome, and in 1653 Innocent X. declared heretical five propositions from Jansen's book. In 1656 Arnauld was deprived of his degree, in spite of Pascal's Provincial Letters (1656-1657), begun in an attempt to save him (see PASCAL; JESUITS). In 1661 a formulary, or solemn renunciation of Jansen, was imposed on all his suspected followers; those who would not sign it went into hiding, or to the Bastille.
The Jansenists had set out to reform the Church of Rome; they ended by having to fight hard for a doubtful foothold within it. Even that foothold soon gave way. Louis XIV. was a fanatic for uniformity, civil and religious. During the lifetime of his cousin, Madame de Longueville, the great protectress of the Jansenists, Louis stayed his hand ; on her death (1679) the reign of severity began. That summer Arnauld, who had spent the greater part of his life in hiding, was forced to leave France for good. Six years later he was joined in exile by Pasquier Quesnel who succeeded him as leader of the party. Long before his flight from France Quesnel had published a devotional commentary Reflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament—which had gone through many editions without exciting official suspicion. But the Jesuits determined to make an end of Jansenism. They played upon the king's superstitions, and at their instigation he wrote to the pope asking for a bull that would tear up Jansenism by the roots. This was forthcoming in 1713, in the bull Unigenitus, anathematising no less than lot propositions from Quesnel's Re flexions. Indeed, in his zeal against the Jansenists the pope con demned various practices in no way peculiar to their party ; thus, for instance, many orthodox Catholics were exasperated at the heavy blow he dealt at popular Bible reading. During the follow ing z o years, however, the opposition was slowly crushed, and in 1730 the Unigenitus was proclaimed part and parcel of the law of France. This led to a great quarrel with the judges, who were intensely Gallican in spirit (see GALLICANISM), and had always regarded the Unigenitus as a triumph of ultramontanism. The quarrel dragged indefinitely on through the 18th century, though the questions at issue were really constitutional and political rather than religious.
Meanwhile the most ardent Jansenists had followed Quesnel to Holland. Here they met with a warm welcome from the Dutch Catholic body, which had always been in close sympathy with Jansenism, although without regarding itself as formally pledged to the Augustinus. But it had broken loose from Rome in 1702, and was now organizing itself into an independent church (see UTRECHT). The Jansenists who remained in France had mean while fallen on evil days. Persecution usually begets hysteria in its victims; and the more extravagant members of the party were far advanced on the road which leads to apocalyptic prophecy and "speaking with tongues." They were eventually disowned by the more reputable Jansenists, and were severely repressed by the police. Meanwhile genuine Jansenism survived in many quiet country parsonages and convents.
an instructive survey of the whole movement see St. Cyr's art. "Jansenism" in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics; for bibliography, Cambridge Modern History, vol. v. ch. 4. Here the following titles may be mentioned: Beard, Port Royal, 1861; J. de Maistre, De l'eglise gallicane, 188i. Seche, Les derniers Jan'senistes, 1891 ; Paquier, Le Jansinisme, 1909.