Jansenism

"It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Jansenism as a religious phenomenon in European life, and yet during the seventeenth century its followers denied its very existence. Jansenism, and the theology of Cornelius Jansen, powerfully infused French political life from the mid-seventeenth century to the Revolution 150 years later. It influenced the Enlightenment, the development of French constitutional thinking, the destruction of the Jesuits, and the modernisation of the Catholic Church." "Professor Doyle has written a book that is invaluable for students of European history. It…