Editing Jansenism (section)

=== The phenomenon of the ''Convulsionnaires'' of Saint-Médard ===
{{Main|Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard}}
[[File:Convulsionnaires in the Bastille.png|thumb|Anonymous 18th-century engraving of [[Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard|Convulsionnaires]] imprisoned in the [[Bastille]]. This unusual expression of Jansenism also became associated with political resistance, at least in the eyes of the [[Absolutism (European history)|royal absolutist]] authority of 18th-century France.]]

From 1731, the dramatic popularisation of Jansenism gave rise to the phenomenon of the [[Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard|''convulsionnaires'']]. Initially a series of miracles linked to the tomb of the Jansenist deacon [[François de Pâris]] in the Saint-Médard Cemetery in Paris, including [[religious ecstasy]], the phenomenon transformed into an expression of opposition to papal and royal authority. The convulsions spread among the Parisian people including the [[bourgeoisie]] during the 1730s. The connection between the larger French Jansenist movement and the smaller, more radical {{lang|fr|convulsionnaire}} phenomenon is difficult to state with precision. Brian Strayer noted, in ''Suffering Saints'', almost all {{lang|fr|convulsionnaires}} were Jansenists, but very few Jansenists embraced the {{lang|fr|convulsionnaire}} phenomenon.<ref name="Strayer2008">{{cite book |last=Strayer |first=Brian E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=et9wwzg3YKoC&pg=PA236 |title=Suffering Saints: Jansenists and Convulsionnaires in France, 1640–1799 |date=2008 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=9781845195168 |location=Brighton, UK |pages=236}}</ref>{{rp|page=236}} Nevertheless, the phenomenon persisted until the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maire |first=Catherine-Laurence |title=Les convulsionnaires de Saint-Médard |publisher=Archives Gallimard |location=Paris |publication-date=1985 |pages=267 |language=fr |trans-title=The Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chantin |first=Jean-Pierre |title=Les Amis de l'Œuvre de la Vérité. |date=1998 |publisher=Presses Universitaires de Lyon |pages=184 |language=fr |trans-title=Friends of the Work of Truth}}</ref>

"The format of their seances changed perceptibly after 1732," according to Strayer. "Instead of emphasizing prayer, singing, and healing miracles, believers now participated in 'spiritual marriages' (which occasionally bore earthly children), encouraged violent convulsions [...] and indulged in the ''secours'' (erotic and violent forms of torture), all of which reveals how neurotic the movement was becoming." The movement descended into brutal cruelties that "clearly had sexual overtones" in their practices of penance and [[mortification of the flesh]]. In 1735, the ''parlements'' regained jurisdiction over the ''convulsionnaires'', which changed into an underground movement of clandestine sects. The next year "an alleged plot" by ''convulsionnaire'' revolutionaries to overthrow the {{lang|fr|parlements}} and assassinate [[Louis XV]] was thwarted. The "Augustinian {{lang|fr|convulsionnaires}}" were then absconded from Paris to avoid police surveillance. This "further split the Jansenist movement."<ref name="Strayer2008" />{{rp|pages=257–265}}

According to Strayer, by 1741 the leadership was "dead, exiled, or imprisoned," and the movement was divided. The police's role increased and the ''parlements''<nowiki/>' role decreased "in the social control of Jansenism" but cells continued engaging in seances, torture, and apocalyptic and treasonous rhetoric. Strayer related a case of torture documented in 1757 where a woman was "beat [...] with garden spades, iron chains, hammers, and brooms [...] jabbed [...] with swords, pelted [...] with stones, buried [...] alive, [...] crucified." In another case documented in 1757, a woman "was cut with a knife numerous times" causing gangrene. By 1755 there were fewer than eight hundred ''convulsionnaires'' in France. In 1762 the {{lang|fr|parlements}} criminalized some of their practices "as 'potentially dangerous' to human life."<ref name="Strayer2008" />{{rp|pages=266–269, 272}} The last crucifixion was documented in 1788.<ref name="Strayer2008" />{{rp|page=282}}