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Document Details :

Title: In decreto continetur doctrina plane Molinistica
Subtitle: The Anti-Jansenist Decree of the Capuchin Minister General Bernardino of Arezzo (1691)
Author(s): PARTOENS, Gert
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 88    Issue: 4   Date: 2012   
Pages: 329-368
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.88.4.2957933

Abstract :
At the end of the General Chapter of June 1691, the newlyelected General of the Capuchin Order, Bernardino of Arezzo, issued together with his Definitors General an anti-Jansenist decree for the Flandro-Belgian Province, in which all Flemish Lectores were imposed upon to teach the praedestinatio post praeuisa merita, the Molinist doctrine of divine grace, and the sufficiency of attrition for the fruitful reception of the sacrament of penance. Censured by the Holy Office, the Minister General subsequently forbade the promulgation of his own decree and ordered the withdrawal of all of its copies. The present article, which is largely based on original archive research, offers a critical edition and content analysis of the major documents associated with this affair. In addition, a reconstruction of the events leading up to the forced withdrawal of the decree is offered through an analysis of the correspondence of Louis-Paul Du Vaucel. A final chapter studies how the affair and its outcome were put to use in polemical writings during the decades following Bernardino’s failed attempt to determine the content of theological instruction within the Flandro-Belgian Province.

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