Jansenism

Christian teaching of Cornelius Jansen, which divided the Roman Catholic Church in France in the mid-17th century. Emphasizing the more predestinatory approach of St Augustine of Hippo's teaching, Jansenism was supported by the philosopher Pascal and Antoine Arnauld (a theologian linked with the abbey of Port Royal). Jansenists were excommunicated in 1719.

Jansenists held that people are saved by God's grace, not by their own willpower, because all spiritual initiatives are God's. The Jesuits disagreed with this because they believed their spiritual exercises trained the will to turn towards God.

Jansenists were first declared heretics in 1653. In 1713 a Jansenist work by Pasquier Quesnel (1634-1719), the leader of the Jansenist party, was condemned by Pope Clement XI as heretical, and after Quesnel's death Jansenism disappeared as an organized movement in France. It survived in the Netherlands, where in 1723 a regular Jansenist church was established under the bishop of Utrecht.