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Showing papers on "Jansenism published in 1993"


Book
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: Cummins as mentioned in this paper traced the origins of the China mission, and followed Navarrete's own career, his eleven years as a missionary in China, the politics of Rome and Madrid and the books he wrote, to this death as a would-be reforming archbishop of Hispaniolia in 1686.
Abstract: The "Question of Rites" - or the Chinese rites controversy - created a scandal in the 17th century that shook the Catholic Church and delighted its enemies such as Pascal and the Jansenists; it also contributed, in the end, to the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 The affair arose with the attempt to convert China to Christianity and revolved around the question of accommodation (still a live issue today) Specifically, what attitude should the missionaries adopt to the ancestor veneration that was so integral a part of Chinese culture? The Jesuits, who came first, saw it as "merely civic and social custom, tinged perhaps with superstititon, but separable from it"; the friars as "certainly superstitious and perhaps even idolatrous" Long rivals, the prize of converting China fuelled their antagonism; politics intruded too, the Jesuits being backed by Portugal, the Dominicans by Spain Professor Cummins retells the story deliberately from a "dissident" viewpoint Till now its history has been largely that of the Jesuits; his focus is the Spanish Dominican, Domingo de Navarrete, the man who emerged as the spokesman for the friars' cause Not a scholar or scientist of the calibre of Matteo Ricci or other Jesuits in Peking, Navarrete nonetheless fully merits attention His major work, the "Tratados", was widely read, admired by the likes of Quesnay and Locke, and served as a key source of European knowledge about China The first chapters of the present book set out the background to the affair: the rise of the Dominicans and the Jesuits, their differing philosophies, and their conflicts in Europe and America After tracing the origins of the China mission, Professor Cummins then follows Navarrete's own career, his eleven years as a missionary in China, the politics of Rome and Madrid and the books he wrote, to this death as a would-be reforming archbishop of Hispaniolia in 1686 At the same time he conveys with a rare sympathy all the dreams and passion of these missionaries, while remaining alive to the ironies and contraditions of the positions they adopted

34 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Caillet's catalogue of Scottish books in the collection of the Irish College in Paris is shown to confirm the close connection which existed between the Scots Codege and French Jansenism.
Abstract: Not the least interesting aspect of Maurice Caillet's catalogue of Scottish books in the collection of the Irish College in Paris1 is its confirmation of the close connection which existed between the Scots Codege and French Jansenism. Among the books which belonged to the Scots Codege itself, items 51 and 52 are of particular interest. The former, La Bible traduite en franqots avec 1'explication du sens littiral et du sens spirituel was the famous translation of the Vulgate carried out by Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy, in codaboration with Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot. Le Maistre de Sacy, brother of Antoine Le Maistre, the celebrated lawyer who renounced the world for a life of seclusion and prayer to become the first solitaire of Port-Royal, was himself a famous solitaire and teacher at the Little Schools of PortRoyal, as wed as confessor to the nuns. A penitential rigorist, he was arrested in 1666 and imprisoned in the Bastide for three years along with Nicolas Fontaine. The first edition of his Bible was published in 1667. The volumes of Le Maistre de Sacy would have been a particularly precious item for Thomas Innes, who was steeped in the PortRoyal tradition, and who, as Prefect of Studies in the Codege in the first part of the eighteenth century, modeded his own teaching on the precepts and practices to be found at Port-Royal. Item 52, Causa Quesnelliana, would also have been wed thumbed by Thomas Innes. Pasquier Quesnel (1634-1719) was much admired by Innes as the embodiment of the Oratorian spiritual tradition and the author of the Reflexions Morales (1692 and subsequent editions), the most controversial Jansenist works since the Augustinus. Quesnel became the effective head of the Jansenist movement after the death of Antoine Arnauld in 1694. Since 1684 he had lived in exde in Belgium to escape persecution in France but in 1703, while France was allied to Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession, he was arrested on the orders of the King of Spain and imprisoned in the jad of the Archbishop of Malines. He escaped after a few months, fleeing to Amsterdam, but seizure of his papers led Louis XIV to believe that he was the mastermind behind a far-flung conspiracy against him. Jesuit theologians and others, such as Fenelon, conducted a violent campaign against Quesnel, calling for his condemnation by Rome, while his admirers put the case

1 citations