La Paix Clementine: Defaite et victoire du premier jansenisme francais sous le pontificat de Clement IX (1667-1669) (review)

Abstract

La Paix Clementine. Defaite et victoire du premier jansenisme francais sous le pontificat de Clement IX (1667-1669). By PhOippe Dieudonne. [Bibliotheca Ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium, 167.] (Leuven: Leuven University Press, Uitgeverij Peeters. 2003. Pp. xxxix, 302. Paperback.) The Clementine was the name given at the time to the unexpected truce that put an end to the twenty-year dispute between Catholics about Jansenism. The dispute was centered five propositions, first condemned by Urban VIII (1653) on the occasion of the publication of Cornelius Jansenius's Augustinus, that were declared extracted from that book by Alexander VII (1656). Along with Antoine Arnauld, the renowned Sorbonne theologian, the Jansenist party accepted the condemnation but denied the connection with the Augustinus. This was the famed distinction between right and fact, a classical one in theology. Claiming church authority to define dogmatic facts, the French episcopate, soon followed by the Pope, imposed all the clergy a formulary or oath acknowledging this connection (1665). However, in their diocesan publication oiRegiminis apostolici, the papal pronouncement, four French bishops allowed for the distinction of fact, thus voiding the document's objective. As, at Louis XIV's request, Alexander VII had appointed an episcopal tribunal to judge the four bishops, nineteen of their colleagues offered their support. It was to resolve this perilous situation that the new pope, Clement IX, was approached. After secret negotiations, the Peace of Church was suddenly proclaimed (1668). A. Arnauld was presented to the king by Nuncio Bargellini, and the Jansenists were no longer a dangerous party. What had been negotiated and how? No explanation was given, but calculated leaks suggested a two-level agreement: officially the four bishops had given a pure and simple assent, but in a secret document they had nuanced it by maintaining the distinction. Clement IX was said to have condoned this face-saving stratagem the principle of respectful or obsequious silence, that is, that he would not prosecute the dissenters against a promise that they would not express openly their objections. The Jesuits, who had been kept out of the negotiation, cried foul, but as no formal rebuttal was ever issued, the interpretation was generally accepted and has been repeated by historians since. For the first time, a precise and complete reconstruction of this mysterious episode is given in Philippe Dieudonne's work, begun as a doctoral dissertation (1996). Short of accessing the archives of the Holy Office, which were unavailable at that time, he has found documents that support a very different interpretation. …