Note 586 — Chapter XI · JANSENISM.

Memorial espagnol presenté á sa Majesté Catholique contre les pretendus Jansenistes du Pays-Bas, p. 45 (s. 1. 1699).

This is a memorial drawn up by Juan de Palazol, S. J., in the name and by order of Tirso González, the Jesuit General. To it I am indebted for the details that follow.

In January 1691 a congregation of the Flemish bishops addressed to the Roman Inquisition an urgent appeal for help in their struggle with the Jansenists, whose missionary and controversial efforts were incessant and successful. It illustrates the elusory character of the theological subtilties involved that the bishops sent, as a specially successful exposure of Jansenist devices, a little book under the name of Cornelis van Cranebergh, but Rome thought differently of it and condemned it by decree of March 19, 1692. Its real author was the Jesuit Jacques de la Fontaine, who was one of the most zealous champions against Jansenism.—Collectio Synodorum Archiep. Mechliniensis, I, 575.—Reusch, Der Index, II, 645.—De Backer, IV, 230.