Jansenism – RCS

Pavel Valentinovich Krylov PhD in History, scientific researcher, Saint Petersburg Institute of History of Russian Academy of Sciences (Petrozavodskaya str., bld. 7, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197110)
pavel_kryloff@mail.ru

Крылов П.В. Фламандский эпизод борьбы папства против янсенизма в документе из архива СПбИИ РАН // Религия. Церковь. Общество. Вып. 14. СПб.: Скифия-Принт, 2025.С. 328–373.

doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2025-14-324-336

Language: Russian

The documents published in the article, which are part of the correspondence of the Apostolic Nunciature in Spain, are dedicated to the Holy See’s struggle against Jansenism, a Catholic movement within the Counter-Reformation, and its followers in the Spanish Netherlands. The first document, authored by CarloFrancesco Airoldi, the Papal Interim Nuncio in Brussels, reveals the secret restoration of the epitaph on the grave of Cornelius Jansen, the founder of a doctrine that was considered heretical. The author of the letter is alarmed by the spread of heresy and asks for instructions on how to proceed. The authors of the second and third documents, Cardinals Paluzzo Altieri and Carlo Barberini, demand that the recipient take decisive action against the court of Madrid in order to destroy the memorial. The eleven-month interval between the first and the second documents may be a testament not only to the slowness of the Spanish bureaucracy during the decline of the Habsburg Empire in the Iberian Peninsula, but also to the deliberate delay in carrying out the orders of the Holy See.

Key words: Spanish Netherlands, Holy See, Counter-Reformation, Jansenism

URL: https://rcs-almanac.ru/krylov2025-en/

pdf

Michela Catto PhD in history, assistant professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Viale Antonio Allegri 9, Palazzo Dossetti, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 42121) , michela.catto@unimore.it; michelacatto@gmail.com

Catto М. Luther’s representations and interpretations in the early Modern age. The Italian case, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2017, vol. 6, pp. 208–231.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2017-00011

Language: English

In the present article we shall focus on the early radicalization in Italy of Luther’s and the Reformed world’s stereotypical image, quite distant from an actual knowledge of the doctrine.
Luther was associated with Niccolò Machiavelli and machiavellism. The Florentine secretary was referred to, and sometimes only hinted at, for the historiographical notion which attributed Italy’s backwardness in the processs of modernization to the decadence of its religion and coincidentally of its mores and morals. At first Machiavelli and Luther, sons of Satan both of them, were indicated as the main actors of the corruption of customs and, during the 18th century, the analysis was developed with examples supplied by the economic, social and political comparison with the countries where Reformation was adopted.
In the context of the Roman Church, the «Lutheran monster» will occasionally be pointed at as the source and origin of all kinds of disasters, of decadence of customs and doctrine. In different moments and situations therefore, the figure of Luther — and Calvin — became the causes of the doctrinal corruption effected by the Society of Jesus, the origin of Jansenism, of any policy opposing the papal power and hostile to religious institutions, and at last as the germ from which the worst modern doctrines were born: from atheims to libertinism and the Enlightenment.

Key words: Calvin, Reformation, atheism, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, libertinism, Jansenism

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/catto-2017-en/