Background - The Jansenism of Pascal

25/03/2014

 

AMDG

Blaise Pascal was a genius – he made grounding breaking discoveries and inventions in maths, physics, fluid dynamics, the natural and applied sciences.  He had an intense and close relations with his father , a tax collector in Rouen.   As a child prodigy his father was to mentor him, and even as a teenager he invented the mechanical calculator. Later on he was to make a significant impact in geometry and his work on probability theory, strongly influenced the development of modern economics and the social sciences.  However, when he was 23, in the winter of 1646, his 58-year-old father broke his hip when he slipped and fell on an icy street of Rouen.  In the 17th century this was a very serious accident and would often prove fatal. Pascal chose  two of the finest doctors in France, who happened to be local to treat his father, which they did successfully over three months. During which time they became close family friends.

Both doctors were Jansenists and became very influential which lead to a sort of "first conversion"  of Pascal who began to write on theological subjects in the course of the following year.  His father was to die 5 years later and soon after that his sister Jacqueline announced that she would become a postulant in the Jansenist convent of Port-Royal. Pascal was devastated but eventually with a heavy heart was to allow her to leave. This involved him signing over half of the inheritance and meant that he viewed the convent suspiciously at first – claiming it to have a cult like control over his sister.

However all this changed when on 23 November 1654, between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, Pascal seems to have had an intense religious vision.  It had such an impact on him that he  immediately recorded the experience – opening his notes with the following words  "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars..." and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." So important was this he carefully sewed the document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes;  it was discovered only by chance after his death.  It renewed his belief and religious commitment and soon he was to make a two-week retreat at Port-Royal. He was to become a regular visitor and began writing his Provincial Letters which was effectively a systematic attack on the Jesuits from a Jansenist perspective.  They proved to be hugely popular, widely disseminated and very damaging to the Society.

Reflection - Compassion & Rigor in Religious Life

26/03/2014

 

Ignatius the Pilgrim

AMDG

At the heart of the dispute between the Jansenists and the Jesuits was the question of salvation - The theological principles of Cornelius Jansen emphasised predestination, denied free will, and maintained  that human nature is incapable of good. Jansens was influenced by a particularly strict reading of St Augustine, which emphasises God’s gratuitous predestination and efficacious grace.  This grace was dispensed to some by God, thus bringing about their salvation whilst leaving others to damnation due to the lack of this grace.   This rigorism had strange echoes of Calvinism and the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone. 

On the other hand, the Jesuits – and the Church itself – taught the importance of free will in the matter of salvation.  There was less emphasis on the effects of the ‘fall’, a view of humanity that wasn’t hopelessly corrupt but on the contrary sought for and affirmed man’s residual goodness.  Many Jesuit theologians had been tasked by Lainez, the General in 1558, to find a theology that was suited to the needs of the times.  The Spanish Jesuit, Luis Molina, did just that, rather than predestination he spoke of divine prescience, that God foresaw the merits and demerits that we freely chose to earn by our actions.  In tune with the burgeoning spirit of Renaissance Humanism, Molina and the Jesuits were much more optimistic about human nature.  This approach became known as Molinism. Thus Jesuit confessors were not insisting that their penitents showed  a radical conversion but rather a conforming of ones life to the Ten Commandments and the Church’s Precepts.

Against this background, one side was to accuse the other of moral laxity, whereas the other was to condemn an over rigorous approach.  It is interesting to note that the autobiography of St Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, had emphasised the mistakes that the young Ignatius had made by being overly rigorous in his self-imposed penances and practices.  Ignatius who had physically damaged himself by these excesses would urge a prudent moderation to his successors. He had realised that his excesses were not what God was looking for, but were rather more about himself trying to be perfect for God.  The more we relied on external signs of conversion, the more distracted we become from the heart of the matter – the healing and saving power of God’s love.  God does not want spiritually macho men and women, but simply those with a humble and contrite heart.  

Background - The abbey of Port Royal

28/03/2014

 

AMDG

Founded in 1204 by Mathilde de Garlande, seventeen miles from Paris, Port Royal was originally a Benedictine abbey.  It suffered greatly during the English invasions and the wars of religion, and as a result by the beginning of the seventeenth century its discipline was completely relaxed.  In 1608 it was reformed by Mère Angélique Arnauld, with the help of St. Francis de Sales. It became a center of reform, nuns trained at Port-Royal then spread all over France. By 1626 Port-Royal, a victim of its success was crowded and unhealthy.  It migrated to Paris, and renouncing ancient privileges granted by the popes, the new abbey placed itself under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Paris. The nuns, devoted henceforth to the worship of the Holy Eucharist, took the name of Daughters of the Blessed Sacrament.

A lifelong friend of Cornelius Jansen, Duvergier de Hauranne , the priest of Saint-Cyran, became their spiritual director.  It is due to his influence that the abbey became a centre for Jansenism.  He would eventually be arrested by Cardinal Richelieu, who saw him as a threat and imprisoned. The atmosphere of serious study and Jansenist piety attracted a number of prominent cultural figures to the movement. Various ‘solitaries’ such as Pascal, and also a brilliant barrister Lemaistre and the politician de Fosse all gave up their careers to take up lives of asceticism and contemplation around the abbey.  Perhaps even more strikingly, several important persons of the court were close to Jansenism due to the influence of Port Royal in Paris, such as the Duke of Luynes or the Duke of Liancourt and members of the influential Arnauld family, one of them a Minister of Louis XIV.

The abbey promoted the practice of refraining from the Eucharist until an interior renewal had been affected. Their schools or ‘the petites écoles’  had many impressive features.  Breaking with the traditions of the Jesuits and the University, who taught in Latin, they taught in French. The child learned the alphabet in French, and was instructed in the mother tongue before studying the dead languages. They wrote in French before writing in Latin. Not everything in their system of education is worthy of admiration, but they contributed to the progress of pedagogy against the older Scholastic methods.  In some ways the Jesuits with their hugely successful Ratio Studiorum were made to look dated for the first time. Therefore their successes only gave rise to greater competition with the Jesuits. 

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29 March 1848 - Fr General Roothans flees Rome in disguise

31/03/2014

AMDG

 Jan Roothans would become the 21st General of the Jesuits succeeding Luigi Fortis.  He is credited with preserving and strengthening the internal spirit of the Society, publishing new edition of the Spiritual Exercises and the Ratio Studiorum, restarting the work of the Bollandists and launching  La Civiltà Cattolica was started. Missionary work, particularly in Africa, flourished under him.  However in 1848 - the 19th year of his period as Fr General, was marked by the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe, beginning in France and ultimately ending in parts of Latin America. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation among the revolutionaries in different countries. The revolutions based on the  demands of the working classes demanded more participation in government and democracy.  This extraordinary year also marked an upsurge of nationalism. In Italy the revolutions spread up the country from Sicily and focused their energy on getting rid of the Austrian presence in the North.

An interesting ingredient in Italy was the popularity of Pope Pius IX. He was considered a liberal and aroused the hopes of political liberals and of the poor both in the Papal States and throughout Italy. He began numerous political and economic reforms. Most dramatically he immediately pardoned hundreds of political prisoners, creating a sensation. He raised high hopes for greater popular influence in the papal government and for Italian unification. These high hopes were to give way to severe disenchantment.   Pius IX then refused to lead an Italian war of liberation against Habsburg Austria, because it was a Catholic stronghold. A violent uprising in Rome forced Pius to flee in November 1848.

Preceding the Popes exile by seven months, the Jesuits had to flee after the Pope regrettably informed them that he could no longer guarantee their safety.  The shifting mood in Italy had been anticipated by the General.  He had received from the Dutch a passport under the name of Franciscus Flamand.  Wearing a dark wig and the cassock of a secular priest,he prayed a long time at the tomb of St Ignatius and then visited the tombs of the Generals in the vaults of the Gesu, wondering if he would ever return.  At 3pm, a carriage of Lord Clifford, an English friend, arrived to take him to St Peters.  There he boarded a papal mail-coach which took them to the port of Civitavecchia, where they arrived to late for a steamer departing for Marseille.  They waited three days to board a steamer to Sardinia.

April 1 1758 Cardinal Saldhana appointed to visit Portugese Jesuits

April 1 1758  Cardinal Saldhana appointed to visit Portugese Jesuits

01/04/2014

 

AMDG

Pope Benedict XIV was a dying man when Pombal (Carvahlo) expelled the Jesuit confessor from the Palace and ordered an investigation into the Jesuits. Pombal claimed that there was an alleged Jesuit lust for power and greed for gold and land, citing their Paraguyan adventures as evidence.  The Pope, under pressure to acquiesce, ordered a canonical investigation and appointed Cardinal Francisco Saldhana to visit.  Saldhana had only entered the College of Cardinals due to the patronage of Pombal and so , even though good natured he was considered indebted to Pombal.  He began his visitation on May 2 in the professed house of Sao Roch in Lisbon, met the community and immediately left. The next day, back in Rome, the Pope was to die.

Pombal and Saldhana made good use of the power vacuum created by the ‘Sede Vacante.  It was a considerable vacuum as the next Pope would be elected two months later.   The Pope had given Saldhana power to correct any small evils immediately and on the ground, but if anything significant was uncovered it was to be kept secret and only reported to the Pope, with all information, so that Pope may consider it at his leisure.  Ignoring these restrictions,  a fortnight later Saldhana issued an edict accusing all Jesuit communities of being centres of scandalous commercial transactions.  Pombal used this to put pressure on the Patriach of Lisbon to remove faculties of preaching and confessions from all the Jesuits working under his jurisdiction.

The papal Nuncio – Fillipo Acciaioli – was on the ground and witnessed this travesty and the lack of any serious attempt at an investigation.  In a moment of delicious satire he congratulated Saldhana on an edict that was an excellent document,  “ save for one slight omission”…….. the evidence.  Without evidence, according to Acciaioli,  the document could only be classified as a calumny.  His satirical comments couldn't protect the Jesuits .  The King felt free to declare them rebels and traitors, and Saldhana released a pastoral letter warning the faithful to have nothing to do with the Jesuits.   

April 2 1767. Charles III enraged by forged Jesuit letter

April 2 1767. Charles III enraged by forged Jesuit letter 02/04/2014   AMDG Today we remember one of the darkest tricks played on the Jesuits, with devastating consequences. In 'Etienne Francois Duc de Choisel' the Jesuits had met an enemy much more subtle that Pombal of Portugal.  He was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman, and twice he was Foreign Minister of French. He is supposed to have achieved a pact between the Bourbon monarchs against the Jesuits.   Very close to Madame de Pompadour he grew in influence and power.  He sent a secret letter to Rome asking for the Jesuits in Versailles to be instructed to be more lenient confessors.  Madame Pompadour was openly living as a mistress to the King, and resisted the call from the Jesuits to retire from the court. Choisel worked hard to bring Spain and France together again, in fact he was sent to Madrid to be the French Ambassador there and became a key figure to Charles III.  As the historian Cretinaue claims – the personality of  the King of Spain, Charles III, a fervent Christian, was very stable – he was not likely to change his opinions of a life time overnight.  He was appreciative of the Jesuits, particularly their outstanding work in the missions, in bringing so many new people underneath his flag, more than Colombus and Pizzaro combined.  He also seemed to be resistant to the philosophical arguments against the Jesuits .  So how do we understand his sudden turn against the Society? Due to the stability and depth of Charles,  crafty Choisel realised that to turn the King against the Jesuits, it needed to get personal. The Kings sudden fury against the Jesuits could only be due to one thing – that it had been proven to him that the Jesuits questioned his legitimacy.  This unlikely event happened when a letter purported to have been written by Fr General Ricci was found and presented to the King in which Ricci allegedly said that he was gathering documents proving irrefutably that Charles III was a child of adultery.  The infamous ‘Ricci Letter’ had been slipped into the luggage of two Jesuits  leaving Spain for Rome. It is claimed that is was a forgery by de Choisel.

Background on Charles III

Background on Charles III

03/04/2014

 

AMDG

Charles was the fifth son of King Phillip V of Spain. In 1734, as Duke of Parma, he conquered the kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily, and was crowned king. In 1738 he married Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, an educated, cultured woman who gave birth to 13 children, eight of whom reached adulthood. When his brother died he succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759, abdicating the Neapolitan and Sicilian thrones in favour of Ferdinand, his third surviving son, who was to become a strong advocate for the Restoration of the Society.

Perhaps the most impressive ruler of his generation in Europe, the example of his actions and works was not without effect on other Spanish nobles.  In his domestic life, King Charles was regular, and was a considerate master, though he had a somewhat caustic tongue and took a rather cynical view of humanity. He was passionately fond of hunting. He was a very sincere Roman Catholic but had a difficult relationship with Popes.  He reduced the number of reputedly idle clergy particularly of the monastic orders and emasculated the Spanish Inquisition. Many of his reforms proved short-lived and Spain relapsed after his death.

It was during Charles' reign that Spain began to be recognised, and recognise itself, as one nation rather than a collection of kingdoms and territories with a common sovereign. He oversaw iconic works such as the creation of a National Anthem, a flag, and a capital city worthy of the name, and the construction of a network of coherent roads converging on Madrid.  He chose the colours of the present flag of Spain; red and yellow.  Juan Carlos I, Spain's current monarch, is a direct male line descendant of Charles by four of his great grandparen

April 6th 1850 - First Edition of La Civilita Cattolica Appears

April 6th 1850 - First Edition of La Civilita Cattolica Appears 08/04/2014   AMDG Today in 1850 the first journal of the restored society was published - La Civilita Cattolica, by the Italian Jesuits. Fr.Carlo Maria Curci, its founder stated that its mission was to bring "The idea and the movement of civilization to that Catholic concept which it seems to have divorced from for about three centuries."  In a society which had a very fluid social and civil order this was an attempt to anchor Christian principles in the cultural and intellectual life of the country.  Curci was concerned about the influence of freemasons and liberals, which he saw as eroding catholic culture.  Interestingly Fr General Roothans was not in favour of its publication, however Curcu had the enthusiastic backing of Pope Pius IX who paid for this first issue. It was a time of a growing European aspiration towards democracy and political freedom. La Civilita Catolica was excellent in its ability to introduce Catholic teaching  into these debates.  However, unfortunately, Curci who was an effective polemicist, often gave the impression that the Christian order was identified with the old regime. There was a failure to make a distinction between the legitimate aspirations for political freedom, which many of us take for granted now and the aberrations of revolutionaries and extremists. For example universal freedom of  the press and freedom of conscience was held in suspicion, although affirmed in particular cases.  The general conservatism of the Italian Jesuits in a time of bewildering change is understandable, but from a modern standpoint looks misplaced. It is ironic that it was due to a backlash against revolutionary excess and anarchy that the old monarchs whre able to re-establish a grip on power.  Those monarchs, who had been the prime reasons for the Supression of the Society, now saw the Jesuits and the wider Church as being important stabilising factors in a time of great civil change. However there were many exceptions amongst the Jesuits to this very conservative standpoint.   An outstanding figure was Fr d'Azeglio who became an editor of La Civilta Catolica and desired to see a union between Catholics and a typre or liberalism that was freed from its anti-religious animus.  The journal continued its closeness to succesive popes, so much so that it was seen as the unofficial voice of the Holy See - with papal interventions in the sacking and appointing of editors.

April 10 1836 - Antthony Kohlmann SJ dies, giant of restored society

11/04/2014

 

AMDG

Today we remember the death of one of the outstanding figures of that first generation of the restored Society.  Anthony Kohlmann, born in France - fled to Switzerland due to the French Revolution where he was ordained a priest.  He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Russia in 1803 after the publication ofCatholicae Fidei by Pius VII allowed it. Very competent and versatile he was soon sent to Georgetown in Washington DC, after an appeal for Jesuits.  Straight away he became the assistant Novice Master.

The former Jesuit and now leader of the US Church, John Carroll, was keen for good men to help him re-establish order in the church.  The crucial city of New York, the first port of call for so many immigrants, many of them Catholics, was experiencing a financial depression and the church there was in chaos.  Carroll appointed Kohlmann to take charge as an apostolic administrator - he was to lay the foundations of the first version of the famous St Patricks Cathedral, establish a school for girls run by Irish Ursuline Nuns, and also found a successful classical school - the New York Literary Institution.  His most important legacy was to safeguard the seal of the confessional in law.  He had persuaded a penitent to return stolen goods, but refused to identify the perpetrator to the owner, even in court.  The case drew nationwide attention and led to the judge ruling in his favour.

Returning to Georgetown when a bishop for New York was found, he was to found the Washington Seminary and take charge of Georgetown College from 1817-1820.   Soon his talents were requested by Rome - where Pius VIII had restored the Gregorian University to the care of the Society.  He became Chair of Theology, teaching amongst others the future Pope Leo XIII.  Two successive Popes Leo XII and Gregory XVI  relied on his advice, making him a consultant to the College of Cardinals and appointing him to several important Congregations.  He was  sought out as a confessor at the Gesu,  and contracted pneumonia during a heavy Lenten season - perhaps a martyr to the Confessional, appropriate for the man who safeguarded the Seal throughout America.