| Vineam Domini Sabaoth Apostolic constitution of Pope Clement XI | |
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| Signature date | 16 July 1705 |
| Subject | Declared that "obediential silence" is not a satisfactory response to the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists |
Vineam Domini Sabaoth is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1705 which declared that "obediential silence" is not a satisfactory response to the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists . [1] [lower-alpha 1]
In 1701, a written decision was given by faculty of theology scholars at the College of Sorbonne in response to doctrinal questions addressed to them. The questions, from a priest, ostensibly the confessor of a dying ecclesiastic, included whether a priest can absolve a dying penitent in the Sacrament of Penance when the penitent is a priest who confessed that he while condemns the five propositions listed by Pope Innocent X in Cum occasione as heretical; but, since it was not clear to the penitent that these propositions are actually contained in Cornelius Jansen's Augustinus , the penitent thought it sufficient to observe a "respectful silence" ( French : silence respectueux) concerning this question of fact, and, with this restriction, signed the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists prescribed by Pope Alexander VII in Regiminis Apostolici .
Forty doctors of the Sorbonne, among them Louis Ellies Dupin, Nicolas Petitpied , Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Sarrasin, and Noël Alexandre, decided that absolution could not be withheld, since the case was neither new nor extraordinary, and since the penitent's opinion was not condemned by the Church. Though the decision was given secretly on 20 July 1701, Jansenists published the case in July, 1702, with the signatures of the forty doctors of the Sorbonne. Whoever may have been its author, Roulland, a doctor of the Sorbonne, edited it, and Cardinal Louis Antoine de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, knew of its existence before it was published, and is even said to have promised his own signature.
In order that, for the future, every occasion of error may be prevented, and that all sons of the Catholic Church may learn to listen to the Church herself, not in silence only (for, "even the wicked are silent in darkness" (1S 2,9)), but with an interior obedience, which is the true obedience of an orthodox man, let it be known that by this constitution of ours, to be valid forever, the obedience which is due to the aforesaid apostolic constitutions is not satisfied by any obsequious silence; but the sense of that book of Jansen which has been condemned in the five propositions (see n. 1092 ff.) mentioned above, and whose meaning the words of those propositions express clearly, must be rejected and condemned as heretical by all the faithful of Christ, not only by word of mouth but also in heart; and one may not lawfully subscribe to the above formula with any other mind, heart, or belief, so that all who hold or preach or teach or assert by word or writing anything contrary to what all these propositions mean, and to what each single one means we declare, decree, state, and ordain, with this same apostolic authority, that all, as transgressors of the aforementioned apostolic constitutions, come under each and every individual censure and penalty of those constitutions. [5]
Pope Clement XI,Vineam Domini
Its appearance caused a great stir among the Catholics of France, for the solution of the case was equivalent to the revival of one phase of Jansenism, the opinion that the pope has not the power to decide on questions on doctrinal fact, i.e. whether a certain book contains or does not contain errors against faith. The solution was condemned by Clement XI in his papal brief Cum nuper, dated 12 February 1703. The pope at the same time urged King Louis XIV of France and Noailles to take energetic measures against all recalcitrants.
Five doctors of the Sorbonne who refused to submit were banished. The controversy continued, Louis XIV, seconded by King Philip V of Spain, requested the pope to issue a document condemning the so-called respectful silence. Since Louis XIV insisted that the constitution should contain no expressions contrary to the Gallican Liberties, its issue was somewhat delayed and finally, after its contents had been communicated to the king, Vineam Domini Sabaoth was promulgated at Rome on 16 July 1705.
Vineam Domini Sabaoth begins with a confirmation of the three constitutions – Cum occasione, Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem , and Regiminis Apostolici – that were previously promulgated against Jansenism and contains their entire text. Then defends Pope Clement IX and Pope Innocent XII against calumnies and misinterpretations of the Jansenists. To this is added a severe rebuke of those who, by what they term respectful silence, pretend to obey the apostolic constitutions while in reality deceive the Church and the Holy See. Vineam Domini Sabaoth ends with a declaration that a respectful silence is not sufficient, [lower-alpha 2] and that all the faithful are obliged to reject and condemn as heretical, not only with their mouth, but also with their heart, the sense which was condemned in the previously mentioned five propositions in Augustinus and which the words of the propositions naturally have.
Vineam Domini Sabaoth arrived in France while the Assembly of the French clergy was in session. It was accepted by the Assembly on 21 August; not, however, before it had been decided to accompany the constitution with the declaration that, "the papal constitutions are binding on the whole Church when they have been accepted by the bishops", thus making it appear that Vineam Domini Sabaoth received its binding force by the acceptance of the bishops. On 31 August, it was made a state law. It was accepted by all the French bishops with the exception of Pierre-Jean-François de Percin de Montgaillard, bishop of Saint-Pons, who published a mandement defending "respectful silence". [lower-alpha 3] The Sorbonne accepted the Bull on 1 September 1705. The nuns of Port-Royal refused to accept it, except with certain restrictions, and, in consequence, the king obtained the pope's permission to suppress their monastery.
On 31 August 1706, Clement XI addressed a papal brief to Noailles and another to Louis XIV, in which he scathingly reproved the French bishops for "usurping the plenitude of power which God has given exclusively to the Chair of St. Peter", and demanded that they recant the scandalous declaration which they had appended to Vineam Domini Sabaoth. After various evasions Noailles was finally prevailed upon, as the president of the Assembly, to sign, on 29 June 1711, a document drawn up by Clement XI which expressly stated that the acceptance of the bishops is not necessary to give the papal constitutions their binding force.
Pope Clement XI, born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721.
Pope Innocent XI, born Benedetto Odescalchi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 21 September 1676 to his death, on 1689.
Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that arose in an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of free will and divine grace. Jansenists claimed to profess the true doctrine of grace as put forth by Augustine of Hippo. In 1653, Pope Innocent X promulgated the bull Cum occasione, which condemned five errors attributed to Jansenism, including the idea that Christ did not die or shed his blood for all men.
Cornelius Jansen was the Dutch Catholic bishop of Ypres in Flanders and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism.
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Pasquier Quesnel, CO was a French Jansenist theologian.
Unigenitus is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713. It opened the final phase of the Jansenist controversy in France. Unigenitus censured 101 propositions of Pasquier Quesnel as:
false, captious, ill-sounding, offensive to pious ears, scandalous, pernicious, rash, injurious to the Church and its practices, contumelious to Church and State, seditious, impious, blasphemous, suspected and savouring of heresy, favouring heretics, heresy, and schism, erroneous, bordering on heresy, often condemned, heretical, and reviving various heresies, especially those contained in the famous propositions of Jansenius.
Louis-Antoine de Noailles, second son of Anne, 1st duc de Noailles, was a French bishop and cardinal. His signing of the Unigenitus bull in 1728 would end the formal Jansenist controversy.
The Declaration of the Clergy of France was a four-article document of the 1681 assembly of the French clergy. Promulgated in 1682, it codified the principles of Gallicanism into a system for the first time into an official and definitive formula.
Augustinus seu doctrina Sancti Augustini de humanae naturae sanitate, aegritudine, medicina adversus Pelagianos et Massilianses, known by its short title Augustinus, is a theological work in Latin by Cornelius Jansen. Published posthumously in Louvain by Jacobus Zegers in 1640, it was in three parts:
Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Alexander VII in 1656 which judged the meaning and intention of Cornelius Jansen's words in Augustinus, and confirmed and renewed the condemnation in Cum occasione promulgated by Pope Innocent X in 1653 that five propositions found in Augustinus were heretical.
Paul Godet des Marais (1647–1709) was a French Bishop of Chartres, and served as spiritual director for Mme de Maintenon.
The formulary controversy was a 17th- and 18th-century Jansenist refusal to confirm the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists on the part of a group of Catholic ecclesiastical personnel and teachers who did not accept the charge that their beliefs about the nature of man and grace were heretical as the Holy See declared. In the Kingdom of France, it pitted Jansenists against Jesuits. It gave rise to French theologian Blaise Pascal's Lettres provinciales, the condemnation of casuistry by the Holy See, and the dissolution of organised Jansenism.
Zeger Bernhard van Espen (Espenius) was a Belgian canonist, who supported Gallican theories and was an ardent upholder of secular power against religious authority. Van Espen is generally classed among the ablest writers on ecclesiastical law.
Honoré Tournély was a French Catholic theologian. He was a Gallican opponent of Jansenism.
The Convulsionnairesof Saint-Médard was a group of 18th-century French religious pilgrims who exhibited convulsions and later constituted a religious sect and a political movement. This practice originated at the tomb of François de Pâris, an ascetic Jansenist deacon who was buried at the cemetery of the parish of Saint-Médard in Paris. The convulsionnaires were associated with the Jansenist movement, which became more politically active after the papal bull Unigenitus officially banned the sect.
Regiminis Apostolici is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Alexander VII in 1665 which required, according to the Enchiridion symbolorum, "all ecclesiastical personnel and teachers" to subscribe to an included formulary, the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists:
I, N., submit to the apostolic constitution of the Supreme Pontiff Innocent X dated May 31, 1653, and to the constitution of the Supreme Pontiff Alexander VII dated October 16, 1656, and, with a sincere heart, I reject and condemn the five propositions taken from the book of Cornelius Jansen entitled Augustinus and in the sense understood by that same author, just as the Apostolic See has condemned them by the two above-mentioned constitutions, and I so swear: So help me God, and these holy Gospels of God.
François Blouet de Camilly, Comte de Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, D.D.,, a French Catholic clergyman, was the 88th Bishop of Toul from 1706 to 1721 and the 117th Archbishop of Tours from 1721 to 1723.
Cum occasione is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Innocent X in 1653 which condemned five propositions said to have been found in Cornelius Jansen's Augustinus as heretical.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ott, Michael (1912). "Vineam Domini". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.