JANSEN, CORNELIUS, a celebrated divine, b. of humble parentage in 1585, at Akkoi, near Leerdam, in. Holland, from whom the sect of Jansenists derives its name, He was nephew of the well-known biblical commentator, and bishop of Ghent, of the same name. The studies of Jansen were divided between Utrecht, Louvain, and Paris. Having obtained a professorship at Bayonne, he devoted himself with all his energy to scriptural and patristic studies, especially of the works of St. Augustine. From Bay onne. he returned to Louvain, where, in 1617, he obtained the degree of doctor, was appointedJecturer on Scripture, and took a prominent part in the affairs of the university, especially in a contest with the Jesuits, on occasion of which he was sent upon a mission to the court of Madrid. In 1630 he was appointed to the professorship of Scripture; and having distinguished himself by a pamphlet on the war with France, Mars Gallicus, he was promoted, in 1636, to the see of Ypres. In this city he died of the plague, May 6, 1638, just as he had completed his great work, the Augustinus, which proved the occasion of a theological controversy the most important, in its doctrinal, social, and even political results, which has arisen since the reformation. Its main object, in which it coincided with the scheme of doctrine already condemned iu Bajns (q.v.), was to prove, by an elaborate analysis of St. Augustine's works, that the teaching of this father against the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians (q.v.), on grace, free-will, and predestination, was directly opposed to the teaching of the modern, and especially of the Jesuit schools (see MomNa), which latter teaching he held to be identical with that of the semi-Pela glans. In the preface lie submitted the work to the judgment of the holy see; and on its publication, in 1640, being received with loud clamor, especially by the Jesuits, and at once referred to Rome for judgment, the Augustintts—together with the antagonist publications of the Jesuits—was prohibited by a decree of the inquisition in 1641; in the following year, it was condemned as heretical by Urban VIII. in the bull In Eminenti. This bull encountered much opposition in Belgium ; and in France. the Augustinus found many partisans, who were animated by a double feeling, as well of doctrinal predilection as of antipathy to the alleged laxity of moral teaching in the schools of the Jesuits, with whom the opposition to the Augustinus was identified (see JEsUIT). The most eminent of the patrons of the Augush'nus were the celebrated association of scholars and divines who formed the community of Port Royal (q.v.), Arnauld, Nicole, Paschal, etc. Never theless, the syndic of the Sorbonne extracted from the Augustinus seven propositions (subsequently reduced to five) which were condemned as heretical by Innocent X. in 1653. Hence arose the celebrated distinction of "right" and of "fact." The friends of the Augustinus, while they admitted that in point of right the five propositions were justly condemned as heretical, yet denied that in point of fact these propositions were to be found mn the Atigustinns, at least in the sense imputed to them by the bull. A further condemnation was therefore issued by Alexander VII. in 1656, which was rigidly enforced in France, and generally accepted; and in 166'3 peace was partially restored by Clement IX., at least all overt opposition was repressed by the iron rule of Louis XIV. The more rigid Jansenists, however, and at their head Antoine Arnauld, emigrated from France, and formed a kind of community in the Low Countries. On the death of .A.rnamild in 1694. the controversy remained in abeyance for some years; but it was revived with new acrimony by the well-known dispute on time so-called "case of con science," and still more angrily in the person of the celebrated Quesnel (q.v.), whose
Moral Reflections on the .Amo Testament, although published with high, cccldsiastical authority, at various intervals from 1671 till his death, 1710, was denounced to the pope, Clement XI., as a text-book of undisguised Jansenism. This pope issued in 1713, in the epeonstitution "Unigenitus," a condemnation in mass of 101 propositions extracted from the Moral Reflections, which, however, met with great resistance in France. The death of Louis XIV. caused a relaxation of the repressive measures. The regent, duke of Orleans, was urged to refer the whole controversy to a national council, and the leaders of the Jansenist party appealed to a general council. The party thus formed, which numbered four bishops and many inferior ecclesiastics, were called, from this circum stance, the appellants. The firmness of the pope, and a change in the policy of the regent, brought them into disfavor. An edict was published, June 4,1720, receiving the bull; and Oren the parliament of Paris, submitted to register it, although with a reserva tion in favor of the liberties of the Gallican church. The appellants for the most part submitted, the recusants being visited with severe penalties; and on the accession of the new king, Louis XV., the unconditional acceptance of the bull was at length formally accomplished, the parliament being compelled to register it in a lit de justice. From this time forward, the appellants were rigorously repressed, and a large number emigrated to the Netherlands, where they formed a community, with Utrecht as a center. The party still remaining in France persisted in their inveterate opposition to the bull, and many of them fell into great excesses of fanaticism. See CONVULSIONARFES.
In one locality alone, Utrecht and its dependent churches, can the sect be said to have had it regular and permanent organization, which dates partly from the forced emi gration of the French Jansenists tinder Louis XIV., partly from the controversy about Quesnel. The vicar apostolic, Peter Gothic, having been suspended by Clement XI. in 170'2, the chapter of Utrecht refused to acknowledge the new vicar named in his place, and angrily joined themselves to the appellant party in France, many of whom found a refuge in Utrecht. At length, in they elected an archbishop, Cornelias Steen hoven, for whom the form of episcopal consecration was obtained from the French bishop Vorlet (titular of Babylon), who had been suspended for Janserist opinions. A. later Jansenist archbishop of Utrecht, Meindarts, established Haarlem and Deventer as his Suffragan sees; and in 1763 a synod was held, which sent its acts to Rome, in recog nition of the primacy of that see, which! the church of Utrecht professes to acknowledge. Since that time, the formal succession has been maintained, each bishop, on being appointed, notifying his election to the pope, and craving confirmation. The popes, however, have uniforthly rejected all advances, except on the condition of the accept ance of the bull Unigenitus, and the recent act of the holy see, in defining as of Catho lic faith the dogma of the immaculate conceptioti of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been the occasion of a new protest. The Jansenists of the Utrecht church still number about 6.000 souls, and are divided over 25 parishes in the dioceses of Utrecht and Haarlem. Their clergy are about 20 in number, with is seminary at Amcrsfoort. The Jansenist archbishop of Utrecht has recently consecrated a bishop for the Old Catholic (see Dot LINGER) community in Germany.