Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

CORNELIUS JANSEN (1585-1638)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 153 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

CORNELIUS See also:JANSEN (1585-1638)  , See also:bishop of See also:Ypres, and See also:father of the religious revival known as See also:Jansenism, was See also:born of humble See also:Catholic parentage at Accoy in the See also:province of See also:Utrecht on the 28th of See also:October 1585 . In 1602 he entered the university of See also:Louvain, then in the throes of a violent conflict between the Jesuit, or scholastic, party and the followers of See also:Michael See also:Baius, who swore by St See also:Augustine . See also:Jansen ended by attaching himself strongly to the latter party, and presently made a momentous friendship with a like-minded See also:fellow-student, Du Vergier de Hauranne, afterwards See also:abbot of See also:Saint Cyran . After taking his degree he went to See also:Paris, partly to recruit his See also:health by a See also:change of See also:scene, partly to study See also:Greek . Eventually he joined Du Vergier at his See also:country See also:home near See also:Bayonne, and spent some years teaching at the bishop's See also:college . All his spare See also:time was spent in studying the See also:early Fathers with Du Vergier, and laying plans for a See also:reformation of the See also:Church . In 1616 he returned to Louvain, to take See also:charge of the college of St Pulcheria, a See also:hostel for Dutch students of See also:theology . Pupils found him a somewhat choleric and exacting See also:master and See also:academic society a See also:great recluse . However, he took an active See also:part in the university's resistance to the See also:Jesuits; for these had established a theological school of their own in Louvain, which was proving a formidable See also:rival to the See also:official See also:faculty of divinity . In the See also:hope of repressing their encroachments, Jansen was sent twice to See also:Madrid, in 1624 and 1626; the second time he narrowly escaped the See also:Inquisition . He warmly supported the Catholic missionary bishop of See also:Holland, Rovenius, in his contests with the Jesuits, who were trying to evangelize that country without regard to the bishop's wishes . He also crossed swords more than once with the Dutch Presbyterian See also:champion, Voetius, still remembered for his attacks on See also:Descartes .

Antipathy to the Jesuits brought Jansen no nearer Protestantism; on the contrary, he yearned to See also:

beat these by. their own weapons, chiefly by showing them that Catholics could interpret the See also:Bible in a manner quite as mystical and pietistic as theirs . This became the great See also:object of his lectures, when he was appointed regius See also:professor of scriptural See also:interpretation at Louvain in 163o . Still more was it the object of his Augustinus, a bulky See also:treatise on the theology of St Augustine, barely finished at the time of his See also:death . Preparing it had been his See also:chief occupation ever since he went back to Louvain . But Jansen, as he said, did not mean to be a school-See also:pedant all his See also:life; and there were moments when he dreamed See also:political dreams . He looked forward to a time when See also:Belgium should throw off the See also:Spanish yoke and become an See also:independent Catholic See also:republic on the See also:model of See also:Protestant Holland . These ideas became known to his Spanish rulers, and to assuage them he wrote a philippic called the See also:Mars gallicus (1635), a violent attack on See also:French ambitions generally, and on See also:Richelieu's indifference to inter-See also:national Catholic interests in particular . The Mars gallicus did not do much to help Jansen's See also:friends in See also:France, but it more than appeased the wrath of Madrid with Jansen himself; in 1636 he was appointed bishop of Ypres . Within two years he was cut off by a sudden illness on the 6th of May 1638; the Augustinus, the See also:book of his life, was published posthumously in 164o . Full details as to Jansen's career will be found in See also:Reuchlin's Geschichte von See also:Port Royal (See also:Hamburg, 1839), vol. i . See also Jansenius by the Abbes Callawaert and Nols (Louvain, 1893) .

End of Article: CORNELIUS JANSEN (1585-1638)
[back]
JANJIRA
[next]
JANSENISM

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.