Editing Jansenism (section)

=== Analysis of the Jansenist involvement in the Revolution ===
<blockquote>Let the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]], once it has emerged from the stormy discussions that mark its beginning and the votes of its major state laws, address the civil constitution of the clergy; Jansenist inspiration will preside over the organisation of the new Church. Camus will triumph over [[Louis XIV]]; the ecclesiastical committee will avenge the ashes of [[Port-Royal-des-Champs|Port-Royal]], and the Jansenist legislators who spoke so much about returning to the organisation of the Early Church will in fact return it to martyrdom.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abbé Sicard |title=Les évêques avant la Révolution |date=1893 |publisher=V. Lecoffre |pages=421 |language=fr |trans-title=The bishops before the Revolution}}</ref> (Abbé Sicard, ''The Old Clergy of France'', 1893)</blockquote>Jansenism is often cited, if not as one of the causes of the Revolution, at least as having shaped the state of mind necessary for its outbreak.<ref name="Van Kley-2002" />{{Rp|pages=521–522}} This accusation was first made by [[Counter-revolutionary|counter-revolutionaries]], who saw the Jansenists as allies of [[Protestantism|Protestants]] and [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]]; others supposedly responsible for the fall of the French monarchy. Even if the reasons for this accusation are erroneous, there was a strong link between Jansenism and the Revolution.

For the counter-revolutionaries and [[Ultramontanism|ultramontanists]] of the 19th century, Jansenism was accused of having prepared and accompanied the Revolution for the following reasons.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barruel |first=Augustin |title=Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du jacobinisme |language=fr |trans-title=Memoires relating to the history of Jacobinism}}</ref>

* Jansenism maintained a seditious spirit. Its revolts and resistance against popes and kings were a negative influence for the people, who could reproduce in politics the religious attitude of Jansenists.
* Jansenism discouraged the faithful. They preferred to distance themselves from religion rather than satisfy the demands of Jansenist priests. This accusation is based on the correlation between the geographical distribution of the ''appelants'' and [[Constitutional clergy|constitutional priests]] during the Revolution and the zones of [[dechristianisation]]. However this correlation is difficult to interpret.
* Through its association with Gallicanism, Jansenism was a source of [[schism]] in France under the Revolution, between the constitutional clergy, favourable to a national church, and the 'refractory clergy' who followed the condemnation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy by [[Pope Pius VI]].
* Finally, Jansenism was often associated with [[republicanism]], because it dissociated itself from court life, with the ''Solitaires'' giving an image of a 'Republic of Letters', and because leading figures during the Revolution, such as Abbé Grégoire, did not hide their attachment to Port-Royal.

[[File:Illustration humoristique des bulles du XVIIIe siècle.jpg|thumb|Anonymous 18th-century satirical engraving of [[papal bull]]s being returned to the pope by France, strengthened by the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] (1789). The historical Jansenist opposition to papal bulls coincided with Revolutionary anti-clericalism.]]

Among 19th-century republicans, who were quite favourable to Port-Royal and Jansenism as movements which fought against absolute monarchy and royal authority, there were also defenders of the theory according to which the Jansenists were largely responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution. Thus [[Jules Michelet]], [[Louis Blanc]], [[Henri Martin (historian)|Henri Martin]] and [[Charles-Louis Chassin]] argued for a partly Jansenist origin of the Revolution.

If it is possible to associate Jansenism and the Revolution outside the religious domain, it is because there was a tradition of protest among Jansenists and because socially, those who drove the Revolution (bourgeoisie of the legal and parliamentary worlds) were the same as those who embraced the ''appelant'' cause in the 18th century.

Some (mainly among the Jesuits) were convinced of the existence of a Jansenist plot aimed at overthrowing monarchical power.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sauvage |first=Henri-Michel |title=La Réalité du projet de Bourgfontaine, démontrée par l'exécution |date=1755 |location=Paris |language=fr |trans-title=The Reality of the project of Bourgfontaine, demonstrated by its execution}}</ref> At the beginning of the 20th century, historians such as [[Louis Madelin]] and [[Albert Mathiez]] refuted this Jansenist conspiracy thesis and emphasised a conjunction of forces and demands as responsible for both the outbreak of the Revolution and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.<ref name="Préclin-1929" /> The theory that the explanation of the Revolution must appeal to several causes, of which Jansenism is only one among others, is now the consensus among historians.