Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/678

 QUESNEL

602

QUESNEL

profitably employed in the direction of the young. He composed for the use of the students under his charge, and published in 1671 an "Epitome of the Morals of the Evangelists, or Christian Thoughts on the Texts of the Four EvangeHsts". By important successive developments, this work became "The New Testament in French with Moral Reflections on each verse" (Paris, 1687-92) and gave rise to lively polemics until at last, in 1708, his doctrines were con- demned by Clement XI (see Jansexius). But the edition of 1671 already contained five of the 101 prop- ositions (12, 13, 30, 60, and 65) later censured in the Bull ' ' Unigenit us " . Quesnel was profoundly imbued with the errors of Baius and the Jansenists, and he had skilfully spread these views in his "Moral Reflec- t ions " on the New Testament. Fur- thermore, he had adopted, in rela- tion to the papa- cy, the teachings of Marco Antonio de Dominis (q. v.) and of Richer. He published (Paris, 1675; Lyons, 1700) a complete edit ion of the works of Leo the Great. The not es and dissert a- tions which he added, though very learned, are spoiled by his at- tacks upon infalli- bOity, and even Roman primacy. In consequence.

Pasquier Quesnel

this work was placed under the ban of the Index, and Quesnel's only reply to the condemnation was disre- spectful recrimination. On account of his Jansenist opinions, which he emphasized more and more, he was relegated to Orleans. In 1684, having refused to sub- scribe to the formula which the General Assembly of the Oratory felt obliged to draw up against the current errors, he was compelled to quit the congregation. He then went to Belgium to join Antoine .\rnauld, at whose death (1694) he was present, and whose place he took at the head of the party.

The difficulties of a sojourn in a foreign land failed to dampen his ardour for proseljiizing or abate his literary activity. The dictionary of Moreri attributes to him some si.\ty discourses, ascetic or polemical, several of which were published under assumed names or anonymously at Brussels, where for some time he remained in hiding. But in 1703 Philip V, acting in concert with the Archbishop of Mechlin, Humbert of Precipiano, had him arrested and imprisoned in the archiepiscopal palace. Nevertheless, he succeeded in escaping and reaching Holland, finding an asylum at Amsterdam, where he continued, despite all bans and censures, to vrrhe in support of his ideas. Ob- stinate in the pursuit of his aims, he was not always delicate in his choice of means. When the royal com- missioners discovered him disguised in secular dress and crouching behind a cask, and wished to assure themselves of his identity, he declared that his name was Rebecq, one of his numerous pseudonjTns. On the part of a man who like all those of his party scorned mental restrictions and equivocations, the expedient, to say the least, was singular. Still more disloyal was his attempt to cloak his doctrines with the authority of Bo.ssuet. The latter had been re- quested to examine the text of the "Reflexions morales" and had consented to do so. He had even

drawn up an advertisement as a preface to a new edi- tion, insisting, however, on the correction of one hundred and twenty propositions which he had found reprehensible. As this condition was not accepted, he refused his co-operation and held back his proposed " Avertissement". But later on Quesnel obtained from the heirs of Bossuet the materials which the latter had prepared, and which he published as an authentic work under the title "Justification of the Moral Reflections, by the late M. Bossuet". Up to the time of his death the ardent Jansenist was incon- sistent and insincere. He requested and received the last sacraments, and in presence of two Apostolic prothonotaries and other witnesses, he made a pro- fession of faith over his own signature, in which he declared " t hat he wished t o die, as he had always lived, in the bosom of the CathoUc Church, that he believed all the truths taught by her, condemned all the errors condemned by her, that he recognized the Sovereign Pontiff as the chief Vicar of Jesus Christ, and the ApostoUc See as the centre of unity". That these formulas concealed some inadmissible restrictions is proved by their very tenor. On this point we are left in no doubt in view of Article 7 which completes them, and in which it is said the WTiter "persists in his appeal to a future General Council, regarding the constitu- tion 'Unigenitus', and regarding the grievances d pTopos of which he sought the judgment of the Church".

Among the numerous works of Quesnel besides those already mentioned we may cite especially: "Lettres contre les nudites addressees aux religieuses qui ont soin de I'education des filles"; "LTdee du Sacerdoce et du Sacrifice de Jesus Christ"; "Les trois cons^ crations: la consecration baptismale, la sacerdotale et la consecration religieuse"; "Elevation k N. S. J. C. sur sa Passion et sa Mort"; "J&us penitent"; "Du bonheur de la mort chretienne"; "Prieres chretiennes avec des pratiques de piet^"; "Office de Jesus avec des reflexions"; "Recueil de lettres spirituelles sur divers sujets de la morale et de la pi^te"; under the pseudomTn of Gerj', "Apologie historique de deux censures (contre Lessius) de rUniversite de Douai"; under the pseudonym of Germain, "Tradition de I'Eglise Romaine sur la predestination des saints et sur la grace efficace"; "La discipline de I'Eglise tiree du Nouveau Testa- ment et de quelques anciens conciles"; "Causa Ar- naldina", a work produced under another form as "La justification de M. Amauld"; "Entretiens sur le Dccret de Rome contre le Nouveau Testament de Chalons accompagnees de reflexions morales"; finally seven "Memoires" ser\-ing as a history of the con- stitution "L'nigenitus". This list, however incom- plete, comprises in its first part only the most generally useful and edifying works; as an offset the seven last numbers are either impregnated with the Jansenist principles or consecrated principally to their defence.

QuESNELLisM. — The theological errors of Quesnel found their most complete e.\-pression in his "Re- flexions morales". Although they appear there only on occasions, disjointedly, in a fragmentary way, and are moreover hidden in the expression of pious con- siderations, they really form a systematic whole; they show their author to have adopted a radically false but coherent system, which is fundamentally only a sjTithesis of the systems of Baius and Jan- senius. To make this clear, one has only to compare the hundred and one propositions condemned in the Bull "Unigenitus", and faithfully extracted from the "Reflexions morales" with the theories previously defended by the Bishop of Ypres and his predecessor in the University of Louvain. For Quesnel, like Baius, conceived human nature in its three succes- sive states: innocence, fall, and restoration. All his essential theses are based on a confusion between the natural and the supernatural order, which neces-