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Unigenitus condemns Jansenism

1713 · Rome (Rome, Italy)

In September 1713 Clement XI's bull Unigenitus condemns one hundred and one propositions drawn from Pasquier Quesnel's Jansenist writings. The bull settles the doctrine in Rome's favor and opens a century of conflict in France, where Gallican and Jansenist resistance to its reception becomes a standing quarrel between the French church and the papacy.

Tagged: Catholic

The Event

Date
1713 (exact)
Era
The Confessional Age; Standard periodization of Catholic history
Location
Rome; today Rome, Italy
Traditions
Catholicism
Streams
Catholic
Key figures
Clement XI, Pasquier Quesnel
Key texts
Unigenitus

How the Tradition Tells It

The bull's reception split the French church for generations; the record states Rome's definition and the documented resistance without adjudicating the theology of grace.

Connections

Illustration for Council of Trent History Event Council of Trent 1545–1563 inherits the council's unsettled question of grace

Primary Sources

  • Clement XI, Unigenitus, 1713.

Secondary Sources

  • Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes, 1830-1914. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
  • Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. London: Penguin, 2009.
  • O'Malley, John W. Trent: What Happened at the Council. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Provenance: HIST-1334; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.

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