Jansenism

Jan·sen·ism

J0016000 (jăn′sə-nĭz′əm)n. The theological principles of Cornelis Jansen, which emphasize predestination, deny free will, and maintain that human nature is incapable of good. They were condemned as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church.

Jan′sen·ist n.

Jansenism

(ˈdʒænsəˌnɪzəm) n1. (Roman Catholic Church) RC Church the doctrine of Cornelis Jansen and his disciples, who maintained that salvation was limited to those subject to a supernatural determinism, the rest being destined to perdition2. (Roman Catholic Church) the religious movement arising from these doctrines ˈJansenist n, adj ˌJansenˈistic, ˈJansenˌistical adj

Jan•sen•ism

(ˈdʒæn səˌnɪz əm)

n. the doctrinal system of Cornelis Jansen, denying free will and maintaining that human nature is corrupt and that Christ died for the elect and not for all people: condemned as heretical by the Catholic Chruch. [1650–60; < French jansénisme] Jan′sen•ist, n. Jan`sen•is′tic, Jan`sen•is′ti•cal, adj.

Jansenism

a Christian sect founded by Cornelius Jansen, 17th-century Dutch religious reformer. See also heresy.See also: Religion

a heretical doctrine of the 17th and 18th centuries denying free-dom of the will, accepting absolute predestination for part of mankind and condemnation to hell for the others, and emphasizing puritanical moral attitudes. — Jansenist, n., adj.See also: Heresy

Jansenism

A Catholic sect, latterly centered on the Port Royal lay convent in Paris, which denied free will and promoted austerity and church reform. Condemned by Pope in 1713, the ensuing controversy split the French church.

Thesaurus

Noun

Jansenism - the Roman Catholic doctrine of Cornelis Jansen and his disciples; salvation is limited to those who are subject to supernatural determinism and the rest are assigned to perditiontheological doctrine - the doctrine of a religious group

Translations

Jansenism

Jansenism:

see under Jansen, CornelisJansen, Cornelis
, 1585–1638, Dutch Roman Catholic theologian. He studied at the Univ. of Louvain and became imbued with the idea of reforming Christian life along the lines of a return to St. Augustine.
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Jansenism

an unorthodox current in French and Dutch Catholicism; part of the wave of individualistic mysticism that spread through Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, chiefly affecting the educated townspeople.

The stimulus for the emergence of Jansenism was the publication in 1640 of a work about Augustine by the Dutch theologian C. Jansen. True faith was sharply contrasted by Jansen to the masses’ formal acceptance of church doctrine; his assertion that Christ had not shed his blood for all people was in line with the Calvinist doctrine, of predestination. In 1642, Jansen’s book was condemned by Pope Urban VIII, and in 1653 a bull by Innocent X condemned some of Jansen’s theses; nevertheless, the “disciples of St. Augustine” continued their struggle while remaining within the Catholic Church.

In France, J. Duvergier de Hauranne, known as Abbé de Saint-Cyran, made the Abbey of Port-Royal de Paris a stronghold of Jansenism; the abbey became an important center of French culture in the second half of the 17th century. The repressions against the Jansenists, their staunchness in the face of royal despotism and Jesuit church policy, and their ethical uncompromisingness attracted B. Pascal and A. Arnauld; the latter headed the Port-Rȯyal community and was coauthor, with P. Nicole, of the theory known as Port-Royal logic. J. Racine was another author who leaned toward Jansenism.

Jansenism created a type of person who was intellectually developed, with a high sense of moral responsibility but also with a fanatical sectarian narrowmindedness. In France, the movement died out after the French Revolution. In the Netherlands, by 1723 the Jansenists had succeeded in establishing their own church, which in the 19th century drew close to the German Old Catholics; the various reforms enacted by the church in the 20th century, such as the elimination of fasting and of celibacy for the clergy, brought it closer to Protestantism. Jansenism survives to this day.

REFERENCES

Gazier, A. Histoire générale du mouvement janséniste depuis ses origines jusqu’á nos Iours, 3rd ed. Paris, 1922–24.
Cognet, L. Le Jansénisme. Paris, 1961.

S. S. AVERINTSEV

Jansenism

unorthodox Roman Catholic movement of the 17th and 18th centuries led by Cornelius Jansen. [Christian Hist.: EB, V: 515]See: Apostasy

Jansenism

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Jan•sen•ism

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Jansenism

REFERENCES

Jansenism

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Words related to Jansenism

noun the Roman Catholic doctrine of Cornelis Jansen and his disciples

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