Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-08-19
THE JANsENIsTs.

has given an entirely unexpected celeb
rity to small religious sect OF Holland,
the Jansenists. Organized as relig-
ious body about two hundred years ago,
they have never been numerous, but at
the beginning of the present century they
dwindled down to a population of about
six thousand souls, divided into nineteen
churches. Outside of Holland, they
were little known, and their total extinc-
ton would have taken no one by sur
prise. Now, on sudden, they are drawn
out of their obscure position. They not
only fasten the attention of the christian
world upon their small communion, but
their ecclesiastical organization puts
them at the head Of the powerful move.
ment which among the Catholics has ris-
en- against the new encroachments Of the
Roman Popes. For some time to come
the name of the Jansenist communion is
likely to appear frequently and promi-
nently in the religious press, and it is
time, therefore, that Protestant chris
tians generally should become better &C.
quainted with it than they at present are.
Like many other religious sects, the
Jansenists are known by the name which
they themselves repudiate. They claim
to be members of the Roman Catholic
church, but as the Pope does not recog-
nize them, and as the immense majority
of the Roman Catholics of Holland, heed
ing the Papal bull of accommodation,
treat them as schismatics, they call them
selves, in opposition to the partisans of
the Pope, the Old Catholic church. The
name Jansenists is derived from the
learned Bishop Jansen, who died in 1888,
and whose views on the doctrine of grace
were, after his death, censured by the
Pope. This Papal condemnation called
forth violent controversy in France and
the Netherlands, which, however, for
more than fifty years was confined to
theological writers, and did not produce
any actual separation in the Catholic
congregations. Some Of the. greatest
French theologians, including a number
of bishops, appealed from the decisions
Of the Pope to an Gcumenical Council.
and the Popes were unable to enforce
obedience until they secured the efficient
aid of the secular arm, Thus, Jansen
ism, like many religious movements il
former times, was crushed out by bruta
force, but many of its most distinguished
members, rather than submit to wha
they regarded as a corruption of the ole
Catholic faith, fled to Holland, where
under a Protestant government, the,
were sure to find protection for thei
honest religious belief. Here numbe
of priests and congregations opposed t.
the Papal bulls the solid phalanx of al
ecclesiastical organization, at the hea,
of which were the Archbishop of Utrech
and the Bishops of Harlem and Deventel
They often repeated their profession q
the Catholic faith as it had been define
by the General Councils, and, in partic
ular, by the Council of Trent, in the six
teenth century; but while regarding tn
Pope as the visible head of the church
they emphatically denied his right t
claim for his decision in matters of fait
an infallible authority. Whenever
new bishop was elected, he fastened
inform the Pope of the fact but the us,
al reply was new bull Of excommun
cation. In this anomalous position, the
continued for one and half centuries
detested for their obstinacy by the stea'
Embarrassing ultramontane party in Il
Catholic church, butihighly esteemed |
all the Protestant churches of Hollar
for the exemplary christian character
their congregations, and the theologic
learning of their priests and bishops
AS they always had been willing to a
cept the decision of an Gcumenical Cou
Gil, it was a general expectation that,
not before, the next Gcumenical Cou
Gil would effect their reunion with t
Catholic church. $3.50. asGd Dc
The awaited opportunity appear
when in 1869 new General Coun
was convoked at Rome. But soon I
only the Jansenists found it impossil
to recognize this assembly as an Gc
menical Council, but with them hr
dreds of thousands of priests and laym
revolted against the unparalleled a
unheard-of usurpations which at Il
meeting the Pope attempted and
bishops submitted to. The same {
Catholic movement which the Janseni
had inaugurated one hundred and Fl
years ago now spontaneously sprang
in every Catholic country, and gather
in particular, in Germany remarka
strength. At the first General Congre
held by the Old Catholics at Munich,
September, 1871, the new opponents
Papal arrogance and the Jansenists 4
tually recognized themselves as repres
tatives of the true Catholic faith. Sho
this movement, as may still be suppos
result finally in the consolidation of
Old Catholic church throughout
world, the Jansenists will be an insig