Augustinus and Jansenism

Timeline

1. c. 1620–1638Ypres and Louvain, Spanish Netherlands · YpresCornelius Jansen studied Augustine's teachings on original sin, grace, and the human will at Louvain, criticizing the moral theology he considered overly indulgent by the Jesuits. He became bishop of Ypres in 1636 and died of plague in 1638, leaving an unpublished lengthy treatise. Friends then edited the manuscript, preparing to publish it under the title Augustinus.
2. 1640–1641Louvain, Spanish Netherlands · LouvainAugustinus was published at Louvain in 1640, its subtitle declaring opposition to the Pelagians and the Massilians and the restoration of Augustine's doctrine of the sickness of human nature and the healing of grace. The book quickly reached Paris, where it merged with the reformist theology of Saint-Cyran, the Arnauld family, and the Port-Royal abbey, forming what became known as Jansenism. Jesuits accused its predestinarianism of approaching Calvinism, and the scholarly debate rapidly became politicized.
3. 1642–1653Rome, Papal States · Papal StatesUrban VIII banned the reading of Augustinus in 1642. The controversy did not subside. Innocent X's 1653 bull Cum occasione extracted five propositions on grace and the will from the book and condemned them as heretical. The Jansenists then distinguished between "the propositions being condemned" and "whether the propositions were actually in the book," turning censure into a prolonged factual question and a struggle over signatures.
4. 1656–1660Port-Royal and Paris · Port-RoyalAntoine Arnauld and the Port-Royal abbey became the center of French Jansenism. From 1656 Blaise Pascal used the Provincial Letters to satirize Jesuit casuistry, turning the grace controversy sparked by Augustinus into a public polemic. In the 1660s Louis XIV and certain bishops enforced the signing of the condemning formula, the abbey was besieged, and Jansenism evolved from a Louvain posthumous work into a symbol of conflict between the French church and royal power.