Pasquier Quesnel

Pasquier Quesnel , 1634-1719, French Jansenist writer. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1657 and was made director of the seminary at Paris in 1662. His edition of the works of Pope Leo I was placed on the Index (1676) for its Gallicanism, and Quesnel left his congregation. In 1685 he refused to subscribe to the formulas condemning Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis ), and he escaped to Brussels. There he completed his Réflexions morales, a French New Testament with Jansenist commentary. He was imprisoned in 1703 by order of the king of Spain but escaped to Amsterdam. Quesnel's teachings were condemned by Pope Clement XI in 1708 and in 1713 (in the bull Unigenitus ).

Quesnel, Pasquier (1634–1719), French Jansenist. He became an Oratorian in 1657. In 1672 he issued the first edition of the book which became famous as Réflexions morales. As against the formalized methods of spirituality in the manuals, the work emphasized the value of close study of the Bible in increasing devotion. His edition of the works of Leo I (1675) was put on the Index because of the Gallican theories developed in the notes. In 1684 he refused to subscribe to an anti-Jansenist formula imposed by his superiors and went to Brussels; he was imprisoned but escaped to the Netherlands. His Réflexions were condemned in a brief by Clement XI in 1708 and by the bull Unigenitus (1713); among the doctrines censured were the theses that no grace is given outside the Church, that grace is irresistible, that without grace man is incapable of any good, and that all acts of a sinner, even prayer, are sins.