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Handout #168 |
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The Second Jansenist Crisis |
| The bull Unigenitus of Pope Clement XI (1713)
condemned 101 propositions drawn from the Moral Reflections of the
Jansenist Oratorian Pasquir Quesnel. The bull condemned not only
theological opinions, but also the Jansenist desire for a return to the
earliest church and for all Christians to be able to read the Bible
directly. The following propositions of Quesnel were condemned:
80. The reading of holy scripture is for all. 81. The sacred obscurity of the word of God is no reason for the laity not to read the scriptures. 82. Christians must sanctify the Lord's Day by pious reading, in particular by the reading of the holy scriptures. To seek to divert them from reading these scriptures is to be condemned. 83. It is an illusion to persuade oneself that the knowledge of the mysteries of religion must not be communicated to women by the reading of the holy books. 84. The abuse of scripture and the birth of heresy does not arise out of the simplicity of women but out of the proud knowledge of men. 85. To take the new Testament out of the hands of Christians or to keep it closed by telling them how they must understand it is to close the mouth of Christ to them. We declare, condemn and censure the propositions cite above as being false, misleading, objectionable, offensive to pious ears, scandalous, pernicious ... reviving various heresies and in particular those which are contained in the famous propositions of the Jansenists... |
