Martin de Barcos: Grace, Predestination, and Jansenism

Abstract

Martin de Barcos’s posthumously published Exposition de la foy de l’Eglise romaine touchant la grâce et la prédestination is an important restatement of what he takes to be St Augustine’s doctrine on these matters. The first edition (1697) was condemned by the Archbishop of Paris, Louis-Antoine de Noailles, as a restatement of Jansenist doctrine, which, broken down into five key propositions, had been condemned by Innocent X in 1653. The ‘Remarques’ published with the second edition of 1700 argue that the Exposition by no means endorses the doctrines contained in the Five Propositions, and that the papal condemnation of these is thus irrelevant. This claim is assessed in a detailed analysis of the ‘Remarques’ and of the main text of the Exposition. In conclusion there is a brief discussion of the relationship of Barcos’s account of grace to Pascal’s and of the attempt to distinguish their views from those of the Calvinists.

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