February 23, 2025
This week we are going to try to close out our little journey through Jansenism. We know that it pretty much condemned human nature and will as evil, and this becomes problematic for a number of reasons. While we know that human nature and will are damaged, we also know that in spite of that damage we are still created in the image and likeness of God. Concupiscence is definitely something we all struggle with, but on the other hand it alone is not determining our actions. Jansenism aligns very much with the protestant idea of the predestination of the elect, meaning those who have already been chosen for salvation and there are those who are chosen for condemnation. Free will really doesn’t matter and that is also where the protestant idea of “faith alone” really finds its body, so to speak.
The work by Dutch bishop of Ypres, Cornelius Jansen, titled “Augustinus” was supposed to be a summary of the teaching of St. Augustine on grace and free will which was published around 1638. We remember that it was a friend of his, Abbot Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, who is officially credited as starting the heresy using these works as his basis. The work by Jansen was condemned by the Holy Office in 1641 (Jansen was already dead) and again by Pope Urban VIII in 1643. After this it became a theological battle between the adherents of Jansenism and the leading Jesuit theologians. This battle would eventually bring some of the most powerful Church and civil rulers into the fray. France in particular, as it was a Catholic country at that time, found itself deeply involved as the university that Jansen had taught at – the Sorbonne – was in Paris and was one of the most prestigious universities in the world. France was also the home of Abbot Jean du Vergier. In 1649 there were presented at the Sorbonne the 5 main points of the Jansenist doctrine:
Some of God’s commandments are impossible for just men who wish and strive to obey them, considering the powers they possess; the grace by which these precepts may become possible is also wanting.
In the state of fallen nature, no one ever resists interior grace.
To merit or demerit, in the state of fallen nature, we must be free from all external constraint, but not from internal necessity.
The Semi-Pelagians admitted the necessity of interior prevenient grace for all acts, even for the beginning of faith, but they fell into heresy in holding that grace is such that man may either follow or resist it.
To say that Christ died for all men is SemiPelagianism.
(Semi-Pelagianism was a heresy that taught that while human will is mostly depraved, man makes the first move toward God and not God towards man, it taught that faith can be initiated by man’s will and furthered by man’s will.)
Pope Innocent X condemned these propositions in 1653. The main tenets of Jansenist doctrine was once again condemned by Pope Clement XI in 1713. In the interim, the Jansenists had made a number of inroads in France even possessing adherents among the advisors of the king, Louis XV, and this is one of the reasons he then pushed for the suppression of the Jesuits who were the main protagonists of the Jansenist teachings. This ended up causing great calamity in the future as that attempt to suppress the Jesuits at that time ended up by helping giving birth to the anti-Catholic Enlightenment period. One of the sidetracks that rigorous Jansenism took was this hatred for the human body and the desire to subject it to the most severe mortifications. While mortifications and things of that nature are good when done in accord with proper understanding and motivation, they must not be done simply out of hatred for the flesh and the human part of our being. The goal must always be the pursuit of holiness and the imitation of Christ - not simply the destroying of oneself. That is one of the main flaws of Jansenism, it envisions a God who has already chosen whether or not you get to heaven or hell and will in no way allow us to be active participants in either of those. It sees man as a totally depraved being, and as something that must be continually abused and destroyed. While the body must be trained and subjected to penances and sometimes rigorous practices, it is still the body - while damaged from sin - is still God’s creation. That God’s grace is near to us, and His grace enables to respond and grow in grace. I open my hand to receive His gift, He doesn’t just shove it down my throat.
God love you, Fr. Anthony
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