Editing Jansenism (section)

== The reception of the papal bull ''Unigenitus'' ==
[[File:Portrait of Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans in armour by Jean-Baptiste Santerre.png|upright|left|thumb|[[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]] (1674–1723), regent of France, who attempted to maintain the policy of his predecessor Louis XIV, of appeasing both the pope and the Gallican clergy in the condemnation of Jansenism]]
By condemning the one hundred and one propositions taken from Quesnel's ''Réflexions morales'', the papal bull ''Unigenitus'' marks a significant turning point in the history of Jansenism. Those Jansenists who accepted the bull became known as ''acceptants''.

The bull saw in the propositions listed a summary of Jansenism, but, in addition to questions relating to the problem of grace, traditional positions on [[Gallicanism]] and the theology of [[Edmond Richer]] are condemned, which brought even more theologians to oppose the Jansenists, who in turn felt threatened.

The atmosphere of the final years of the reign of the aging Louis XIV was characterised by opposition to the bull. To actually be applied, the bull had to be registered with the [[Parlement of Paris|''parlement'' of Paris]]. However, the ''parlement'' refused to ratify the bull until the French bishops had taken a position on it, believing that they had no authority over religious matters deriving from their political power.<ref name="Gazier-1923" />{{Rp|page=241|pages=}} Several bishops, and with them many theologians, publicly proposed the calling (''appellation'') of a [[Ecumenical council|general council]] to resolve the question; they were thus called the ''appelants''. Between 1713 and 1731, more than a thousand pamphlets were published on this subject.

In the midst of this dispute, Louis XIV died in 1715, and the government of France was taken over by [[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]], [[regent]] for the five-year-old [[Louis XV of France]]. Unlike Louis XIV, who had stood solidly behind ''Unigenitus'', Philippe II expressed ambivalence during the ''[[Régence]]'' period. With the change in political mood, three theological faculties that had previously voted to accept ''Unigenitus'' (Paris, [[University of Nantes|Nantes]] and [[University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne|Reims]]) voted to rescind their acceptance. The Duke of Orléans was not a friend of the Jesuits; he hastened to dismiss [[Michel Le Tellier]], the former confessor of Louis XIV, who he replaced with Abbot [[Claude Fleury]], a Gallican suspected of Jansenism, as confessor and tutor of the young Louis.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ibid. |pages=252}}</ref> At the demand of the bishops to refuse the bull, he wrote to Clement XI to request clarifications and rectifications for ''Unigenitus''. The pope refused, appealing to his [[Papal infallibility|infallibility]] (although papal infallibility was not a dogma until its proclamation at the [[First Vatican Council]], it was more and more often put forward and accepted during the disputes of this era). Aspiring to continuity with the reign of Louis XIV, the Regent considered himself bound to fulfill the promise of his predecessor, which was to seek a compromise that offended neither the pope nor the Gallican clergy. Augustin Gazier describes this as a fundamentally political rather than religious settlement.

<blockquote>[The] Duke of Orléans, who was not a believer, subordinated religion to politics. He was imbued with the idea that royalty never dies, and that consequently kings are destined to make the same mistakes as their predecessors; they are in continuity with each other. [... Louis XIV] had promised the pope to receive the bull ''Unigenitus'', and the pope insisted that the promise be strictly kept; Philippe d'Orléans therefore saw the need to satisfy Clement XI and consequently to bring the recalcitrant prelates to a compromise, if it were not absolutely impossible.<ref name="Gazier-1923" />{{Rp|page=|pages=253}}</blockquote>

[[File:Gravure antijanséniste.jpg|upright|thumb|Anonymous 18th-century engraving depicting [[Pasquier Quesnel]] as a monstrous beast, who is trampled upon by a personification of the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. The text reads, "Triumph of the Church over Pasquier [...] Who is the Claw of Errors, Now Tearing at the Holy Church." (This phrase is an acrostic of the name 'Quesnel' in Latin).]]

However the discussions between the different parties were a failure, and in 1717, opposition to the bull became more direct. In March, four bishops filed a notarial deed at the Sorbonne, demanding a general council to appeal ''Unigenitus''. They were joined by hundreds of French priests, monks and nuns and were supported by the [[Parlement|''parlements'']]. For this they relied on the ''[[Declaration of the Clergy of France]]'' of 1682, which was approved by the [[Assembly of the French clergy]] and by Louis XIV. This important expression of Gallicanism placed the authority of a general council over the pope. The four bishops were [[Jean Soanen]], bishop of [[Senez]], [[Charles Joachim Colbert]], bishop of [[Montpellier]], [[Pierre de La Broue]], bishop of [[Mirepoix, Ariège|Mirepoix]] and [[Pierre de Langle]], bishop of [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]]. The [[Inquisition]] condemned this appeal in 1718 and the pope [[Excommunication in the Catholic Church|excommunicated]] the bishops and the ''appelants'' through the letters ''Pastoralis officii''. Far from disarming the French clergy, many of whom were then advocating [[conciliarism]], the clergy who had appealed ''Unigenitus'' to a general council, then appealed ''Pastoralis officii'' to a general council as well. They renewed their appeal in 1719, accompanied by the archbishop of Paris [[Louis Antoine de Noailles]], then again in 1720.<ref name="Chantin-1996" />{{Rp|pages=33–34}} After examining propositions condemned by ''Unigenitus,'' Noailles determined that as set out in the bull and apart from their context in the {{lang|fr|Réflexions morales}}, some of the propositions condemned by the pope were in fact orthodox. He therefore refused to accept the bull and joined the party of the ''appelants''. In total, one cardinal, 18 bishops, and 3,000 clergy of France supported an appeal to a general council. However, the majority of clergy in France (four cardinals, 100 bishops, 100,000 clergymen) stood by the pope.

[[File:Chéreau - Raoux - Jean Soanen.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Jean Soanen]] (1647–1740), bishop of [[Senez]] and de facto leader of the Jansenist movement after the death of [[Pasquier Quesnel]]. In 1727 he was exiled and imprisoned by the future [[Cardinal de Tencin]] for his refusal to assent to ''Unigenitus''.|left]]

The Regent decided to put an end to this dispute. In 1722, he reinstated the obligation to sign the ''[[Formula of Submission for the Jansenists]]'' in order to obtain benefits or university degrees. This policy was maintained until the end of the regency and many ''appelants'' received ''[[lettres de cachet]]'' ('letters of the signet') which announced their arrest without trial on the king's authority, from 1724 to 1725. In 1727, Jean Soanen, who had been the ''de facto'' leader of Jansenism since the death of Quesnel, was condemned by the Synod of Embrun led by the future [[Cardinal de Tencin]]. He was exiled to [[La Chaise-Dieu]] by a ''lettre de cachet'', where he died in 1740.<ref name="Gazier-1923" />{{Rp|page=|pages=270–272}} In 1728, Noailles finally submitted to the Pope and assented to ''Unigenitus''.

The conviction of Soanen, which the Jansenists described in their writings as the '[[brigandage]] of Embrun', caused discontent among the ''appelants'', but Noailles' successor in Paris wanted to silence the resistance. The new archbishop [[Charles-Gaspard-Guillaume de Vintimille du Luc]] banished nearly three hundred Jansenist priests from his diocese, and closed the main sanctuaries of the movement, the Saint-Magloire seminary, the [[College of Sainte Barbe]] and the House of Sainte-Agathe, all three in Paris.<ref name="Chantin-1996" />{{Rp|page=35}} In 1730, the bull became state law. Clergy who had not signed the formula could no longer retain their ecclesiastical offices, which were considered vacant.

The ''appelants'' consisted of, between 1717 and 1728, more than seven thousand clerics and around thirty prelates (with one hundred thousand members of the laity under their authority). Not all were Jansenists, but the Gallican fringe of the clergy was still shaken by the intransigence of Clement XI. The territorial distribution of the Jansenists and Gallicans in France at the beginning of the 18th century is known.<ref name="Chantin-1996" />{{Rp|page=32}}<ref name="Michel-2000" />{{Rp|pages=430–435}} At its peak in 1718, the convocation movement affected forty-five dioceses, but it was mainly the dioceses of Paris, [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Châlons|Châlons]], [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tours|Tours]], Senez and [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Auxerre|Auxerre]] that were prominent as well as the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lyon|archdiocese of Lyon]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dinet; Dinet-Lecomte |first=Dominique; Marie-Claude |title=Les Jansénistes du xviiie siècle d'après les recueils des actes d'appel de Gabriel-Nicolas Nivelle |date=1990 |publisher=Chroniques de Port-Royal, no 39 |pages=47–56 |language=fr |trans-title=The Jansenists of the 18th century according to the collections of acts of appeal by Gabriel-Nicolas Nivelle}}</ref>
{{clear}}