History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution — Volume 1MacCaffrey, James
Religion
History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution — Volume 1
MacCaffrey, James
Catholic Church -- History -- Modern period, 1500-
The Jansenist party and the enemies of the Holy See took advantage of
the policy of Louis XIV. to push forward their designs. A violent
clamour was raised in 1661 against a thesis defended in the Jesuit
schools (/Thesis Claromontana/) in favour of papal infallibility, and
a still more violent clamour ensued when it was maintained in a public
defence at the Sorbonne (1663) that the Pope has supreme jurisdiction
over the Church, and that General Councils, though useful for the
suppression of heresy, are not necessary. The Jansenist party appealed
to the Parliament of Paris, which issued a prohibition against
teaching or defending the doctrine of papal infallibility, but the
majority of the doctors of the Sorbonne stood by their opinion, and
refused to register the decree of Parliament. The opponents of the
Sorbonne, hastening to avenge this first defeat, denounced the defence
of a somewhat similar thesis by a Cistercian student as a violation of
the prohibition. The syndic of the university was suspended from his
office for six months, and the university itself was threatened with
very serious reforms unless it consented to accept the Gallican
theories. As a result of the interference of intermediaries a
declaration satisfactory to the Parliament was issued by the doctors
of the faculty (1663). In this document they announced that it was not
the teaching of the university that the Pope had any authority over
the king in temporal matters, that he was superior to a General
Council, or that he was infallible in matters of faith without the
consent of a General Council. On the contrary, they asserted that it
was the teaching of the university that in temporal affairs the king
was subject only to God, that his subjects could not be dispensed from
their allegiance to him by any power on earth, and that the rights and
liberties of the Gallican Church must be respected. This decree was
signed by seventy-seven doctors, and was published by the Parliament
as the teaching of the entire theological faculty and as a guide that
should be followed in all theological schools. A violent agitation was
begun against all who attempted to uphold the rights of the Holy See
either in public disputations or in published works, an agitation that
was all the more inexplicable, owing to the fact that at this time
both the king and Parliament were endeavouring to persuade the
Jansenists to accept as infallible the decrees by which the Pope had
condemned their teaching.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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