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Jansenism and politics in the eighteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John McManners
John McManners*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Christ Church
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Extract

‘All the gold in the world and all the promises of heaven’ could not persuade Sainte-Beuve to carry on his study of jansenism into the eighteenth century. The spirit of Port-Royal was not there, ‘or at least it was only found in traces, dried up like a branch of a river that has turned aside into the sands and lost itself among the rocks...It is found even less in the entirely political Jansenism which was, or which appeared so considerable for a moment in the eighteenth century, and which allowed many to be of the party, without being of the dogma, or indeed, of religion at all’. The story of Jansenism after the death of Louis XIV is indeed a story of the war of the parlements against the crown – remonstrances, exiles. writs, denunciations, pamphlets; of the rising discontent of the lower clergy, demanding economic justice and a share in the government of the church; of the convulsionist movement, a strange spiritual underworld of masochism and miracles. Upon this barbarous scene of political and social strife and crude illiterate spirituality Sainte-Beuve turned his back, and those who have walked with him through the magic world of Port-Royal will understand his bitterness. The journée du guichet when Angélique Arnauld renounced human affections, the night of fire of 23 November when Pascal wept tears of joy, the cold ethereal beauty of the paintings of Philippe de Champaigne, the intellectual adventure of the alliance with cartesianism, the grammar, the logic, the translation of the new testament, the plays of Racine and the Pensées of Pascal – the eighteenth century can offer nothing like this.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 12: Church Society and Politics , 1975 , pp. 253 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975

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References

1 Sainte-Beuve, , Port-Royal 6 (7) (8 ed Paris 1912) 7 vols, 5 p 483 Google Scholar.

2 Ibid 6 (13), in 8 ed 6 p 242.

3 For the fusion of jansenist and classical inspiration in his work see Marin, L., ‘Philippe de Champaigne et Port-Royal’, Annales 25 (Paris 1970) pp 9 Google Scholar et seq.

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8 Mme de Sévigné, 9 June and 31 July, 1680, Lettres, 3 vols (Pléiade 1960) 2 pp 734, 805. Compare the Maréchal d’Harcourt’s observation, ‘Un Janséniste n’est souvent autre chose qu’un homme qu’on veut perdre à la cour’, Frêche, G., Un chancelier gallican: D’Aguesseau, Trav. et recherches, Fac. de droit et des sciences écon. Paris (1969) p 40 Google Scholar.

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12 A modem historian favourable to Jansenism describes Jansenius as over-systematising Augustine, as Augustine had over-systematised Paul. Thus Jansenius was wrong, but Augustine was wrong before him, which neither side could admit in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries— Thomas, J.-F., Le problème moral & Port-Royal (Paris 1963) pp 166-7Google Scholar, 175. Though a friend of Jansenius, Saint-Cyran was not enthusiastic about the Augustinus, Orcibal, J., La spiritualité de Saint-Cyran (Paris 1962) p 81 Google Scholar; and it was Saint-Cyran who gave the decisive imprint to the movement which was to be called ‘Jansenism’, Orcibal, J., Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, abbé de Saint-Cyran, 1181-1638, 2 vols (Paris 1947) p 682 Google Scholar. Arnauld in turn derived his theology from Saint-Cyran and Augustine, not from Jansenius, Laporte, J., La doctrine de Port-Royal (Paris 1927) 1 (1) p xv Google Scholar, and Arnauld’s Apologie de M. Jansenius (Paris 1644) was more read in France than the Augustinus itself, Abercrombie, N., The Origins of Jansenism (Oxford 1936) p 214 Google Scholar.

13 In Du Mysticisme à la révolte. Les Jansénistes du XVIIe sihle (Paris 1968) A. Adam heads his chapter on this point: ‘The Birth of a Party’. For the importance of the communion issue see the local example in Gallerand, J., ‘Le Jansénisme en Blésois’, RHEF 55 (1969) pp 30–45 Google Scholar; for the issue of casuistry, L. Cognet’s edition of the Provinciales (Paris 1965) pp viii-x.

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17 Clark, Ruth, Strangers and Sojourners at Port-Royal (Cambridge 1932) p 131 Google Scholar. A frondeur using the plea of religion to oppose the crown would not necessarily be insincere— for example the pious bishop of Agde became an ardent jansenist after his brother had been destroyed by the king; see Azema, X., Un prélat janséniste: Louis Foucquet (Paris 1963) pp 38–47 Google Scholar.

18 Namer, G., L’abbé Le Roy et ses amis: essai sur le Jansénisme extrémiste intramondam (Paris 1964) p 59 Google Scholar.

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20 Ibid pp 44-52.

21 An opponent of Jansenism expressed horror at the condemnation of scriptural phrases—’Qui n’en eut éTé effrayé?’. Mémoires de l’abbé Le Gendre, ed Roux, M. (Paris 1863) p 303 Google Scholar.

22 For the story of the magistrate of Grenoble who persuaded an opponent of Jansenism to use the book as a devotional manual by having it bound up with the title page of a Jesuit work, see Esmonin, E., ‘La société grenobloise au temps de Louis XV d’après les miscellanea de Letourneau’, Etudes sur la France des 17e et 18e siècles (Paris 1964) pp 484-5Google Scholar.

23 See Thomas, J.-F., La querelle de l’Unigenitus (Paris 1950)Google Scholar. He admits, however, that propositions 5, 38, 39, 59 and 61-3 deserved condemnation.

24 A later pope, Benedict XIV, conceded that this was wrong.

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26 For the global condemnation as the stumbling block, see the opinion of the benedictines of Tronchet in 1718 in Raison, L. M., Le Mouvement janséniste au diocèse de Dol (Rennes 1931) pp 59–60 Google Scholar.

27 This is the line taken by apologists for the bull (Carreyre, 2 xx pp 59, 160; 3 pp 341-4, 347-8). John Wesley was exaggerating when he spoke of‘that diabolical bull Unigenitus, which destroys the very foundation of Christianity’. It was possible to accept the bull, but by intellectual procedures that were hardly straightforward.

28 The connexion between Jansenism and the enlightenment needs a major study— ‘Ce Jansénisme des Lumières, si riche et si méconnu, mais si multiple et divergent’, Himelfarb, H., ‘Saint-Simon et le jansénisme’, Studies in Voltaire and the 18th Century 87 (Geneva 1972) pp 749-68Google Scholar. R. Shackleton discusses two philosophes with jansenist backgrounds and suggests the possibility of an alliance between philosophes and jansenists—until convulsionism made this impossible—in ‘Jansenism and the Enlightenment’, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century 57 (1967) pp 1388-96Google Scholar. The jansenist priest Gordon is one of Voltaire’s more attractive characters. But his kindness to l’Ingénu is repaid by his being converted to more sensible beliefs—he forgets efficacious grace for ever (L’Ingénu in Romans et Contes , ed Bénac, H. (Paris 1958) pp 248 Google Scholar, 262, 283).

28 Appolis, E., ‘Un prélat philojansénistc?’. La Régence (Centre Aixois d’Etudes 1970) p 243 Google Scholar.

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31 Carreyre, 2 p 102.

32 Ibid 1 p 142.

33 The parallel between Pascal’s words and the appeal to a general council is drawn by Roy, Le, La France et Rome de 1700 à 1715 (Paris 1892) p xix Google Scholar.

34 In 1688, Louis XIV had initiated such an appeal, see Orcibal, Louis XIV contre Innocent XI.

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37 Barbier, , Chronique de la Régence et du règne de Louis XIV, 1718-63 (Paris 1857) 2 p 21 Google Scholar, October 1727 (compare p 54).

38 Mousset, [A.], [L’Etrange histoire des convulsionnaires de Saint-Médard] (Paris 1953) p 55 Google Scholar.

39 Ibid p 63; Barbier 2 p 199.

40 Mousset, pp 147-76; Felice, Ph. de, Foules en délire: essai sur quelques formes inférieures de la mystique (Paris 1947) pp 247-8Google Scholar.

41 Gagnol, , [Le Jansénisme convulsionnaire et l’affaire de la Planchette] (Paris 1911)Google Scholar. A case of 1787 in Pensa, H., Sorcellerie et religion . . . au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris 1953) p 245 Google Scholar—but is this really jansenist?

42 In 1727, Paris, L., Histoire de l’abbaye d’Avenay (Reims 1879) 1 pp 491-2Google Scholar; in 1728, Dayon, [P.], [Amiens, capitale provinciale: étude sur la société urbaine du XVIIe siècle] (Paris 1967) p 423 Google Scholar; in 1729, Godart, pp 112, 117. The Saint-Médard healings began in the early thirties, Knox, R. A., Enthusiasm (Oxford 1950) p 376 Google Scholar.

43 Mousset, p 129; Gagnol, pp 120, 126. It is easy to ridicule these examples—but compare them with what Bremond accepts as genuine spirituality in L’ascension mystique d’un curé provençal, 2 vols (Fontenelle 1951).

44 Durand, p 317.

45 Fleury held that the convulsionists were imitating the protestant manifestations in the Appolis, Cévennes, E., ‘L’histoire provinciale du Jansénisme au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales 7 (1952) p 91 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Sainte-Beuve describes how, under persecution, collective hallucinations can begin, as in the mysterious singing at Port-Royal in 1706, when the abbess lay dying: ‘Le délire commence, mais sur un ton assez doux; les Convulsions, qui viendront vingt et un ans plus tard, seront moins mélodieuses’, Port Royal 6 (12), in 8 ed 6 p 188.

46 Préclin, E., Les Jansénistes au XVIIIe siècle et la Constitution civile du Clergé (Paris 1929) pp 180-97Google Scholar. Another case in Bost, Ch., ‘Documents: la conversion de Pierre de Claris’, Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français (Paris 1924) pp 33–42 Google Scholar.

47 For the rôle of women in eighteenth century popular Jansenism see the complaints of Massillon and Languet—in Blampignon, L’ Episcopat de Massillon (Paris 1884) pp 254-7Google Scholar, and Carreyre, 2 xx p 56. Seamstresses were supposed to be especially inclined to Jansenism. See the observations of a curé of Orleans in 1752 in Marcilhacy, C., Le diocèse d’Orléans au milieu du XIXe siècle (Paris 1964) p 427 Google Scholar, and the phrase ‘plus janséniste qu’un valet ou une lingère’ cited by Shaw, E. P., The Case of the Abbé de Moncrif (New York 1953) p 34 Google Scholar.

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49 Davon, p 373.

50 There is an excellent Cambridge thesis by Dr N. W. McMaster on Jean Le Noir (‘The extremist jansenists, 1660-1703, with special regard to Jean le Noir and Gabriel Gerberon’). It has become customary to refer to the arguments in favour of the curés as ‘richerist’. Edmond Richer published a gallican treatise in 1611 claiming that power in the church should reside in the hierarchy of bishops and priests—by including the priests he gave his theory a democratic nuance, an indication that, alongside episcopal gallicanism, there was room for a ‘gallicanisme parochiste’. See Préclin, E., ‘Edmond Richer’, Revue d’histoire moderne 29 (1930) pp 242-69Google Scholar.

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53 Gazier, 1 p 297, found only half a dozen all told in the jansenist necrologies.

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55 Barbier 2 pp 115-16 (April 1730).

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59 Barbier 2 p 39 (March 1738).

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61 Life by Régnault, [E.], 2 vols (Paris 1882)Google Scholar. He was a combination of the slack aristocratic prelate, the fanatically orthodox churchman and the recklessly generous man of charity.

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63 Paris 1721, Journal et mémoires de Mathieu Marais, 174-37, ed Lescure, De, 4 vols (Paris 1863) 2 pp 177-8Google Scholar; Nantes 1729, Bachelier, , Le Jansénisme à Nantes (Angers 1934)pp 223-45Google Scholar; Arles 1734—an attempt by the archbishop to deprive the aged visiting bishop of Castres of the last sacraments, Rcmacle, L., Ultramontains et Gallicans au XVIIIe siècle. Honoré de Qttiqtieran de Betuijeu et Jacques de Forbin-Janson (Marseille 1872) p 168 Google Scholar; Rennes 1738, Raison, L.-M., ‘Le Jansénisme à Rennes’, Annales de Bretagne 48 (Rennes 1941) pp 245-77Google Scholar; Saumur 1739, ibid p 243; Paris 1738, Barbier 3 p 129; Amiens 1741, Levé pp 100-1); Douai 1741, Parguez p 110; Dax 1741, A. Degert, Histoire des évêques de Dax (Dax 1903) pp 391-7; Bayonne, 1743—bishop Christophe de Beaumont in earlier days (Régnault 1 pp 93-4)Google Scholar.

64 Régnault 1 pp 159-60; Bernard, A., Le Sermon au XVIIIe siècle (Paris 1901) p 37 Google Scholar; Vallery-Radot, M., Un administrateur ecclésiastique à la fin de l’ancien régime: le cardinal de Luynes, archevêque de Sens (Paris 1966) pp 56-8Google Scholar.

65 Journal et mémoires du marquis d’Argenson, ed Rathery, E. J. B., 9 vols (Paris 1859-67) 8 p 313 Google Scholar (24 June, 1754).

66 How did archbishop Christophe differ from St Christopher? ‘Il ne veut ni porter Jésus-Christ ni souffrir qu’on le porte’, Lettres de Piron, ed Lavaquary, E. (Paris 1920) p 67 Google Scholar.

67 In enforcing respect for the bull, he accustomed people to pay no respect to the sacrament, Voltaire, Histoire du Parlement de Paris, cap 65.

68 On miracles Barbier 2 pp 44, 501, and Diderot, , Pensées philosophiques, ed Nikiaus, R. (Paris 1950) pp 38-9Google Scholar, caps 53-4. For martyrs, cap 55.

69 For the phrase, Monod, A., De Pascal à Chateaubriand (Paris 1916) p 211 Google Scholar.

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